The Holy Spirit is only here to help us. In fulfilling that role, He tirelessly works to draw all to the cross to behold the only One who can save us from sin, Christ Jesus. To achieve that goal, He does three things as He covers the world with His presence: He works to convict all of the nature of sin, the righteousness of Jesus, and God’s judgment based on the gospel.
He does this because He loves us, not wanting any to perish. So it hurts Him when souls reject His efforts and they are lost. It hurts Him, tearfully, right inside of His heart.
But He doesn’t give up. He has been successful in bringing many to Christ, and He knows there are many more to come. And the amazing thing is that He pushes on knowing that even those He converts will sometimes bring Him grief and pain.
We converts do that to Him when we ignore His teachings and promptings to live righteous and godly lives. When we disregard His encouragements to put away the activities of the old man – stealing, lying, bitterness, repaying evil for evil, etc. – we grieve Him.
When we fail to comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, show patience, pray without ceasing, and in everything give thanks, we dismiss the will of God. That’s tantamount to pouring spiritually cold water on the Holy Spirit’s power; thereby extinguishing it. (1 Thess. 5: 14-19).
That’s got to hurt Him, being snubbed like that by a loved one. However, the good news is that the Spirit understands our frailties. He remembers that our frames are but dust, and therefore He has pity on us.
He’ll forgive us if we ask for it, while confessing our sins. And that’s exactly what we should do upon realizing that we’ve grieved our dear friend.
He’ll forget the hurt we’ve caused Him. It will be replaced with joy. And He’ll be more than happy to reignite His quenched power within us, upon our asking for it in faith (Luke 11: 13).
However, we don’t want to abuse His faithfulness by continuing to hurt Him over and over, do we? Of course not! We love Him and want to comfort Him as He, our Comforter, comforts us
Perhaps it’ll be helpful if we remember that when we cause hurt to the Holy Spirit, we’re causing pain to a real person; one who is both our best friend and closest relative.