The dove that remained
John 1: 29 – 34
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 He is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘A man is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’ 31 I did not recognize him as the Messiah, but I have been baptizing with water so that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 Then John testified, “I saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and resting upon him. 33 I didn’t know he was the one, but when God sent me to baptize with water, he told me, ‘The one on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I saw this happen to Jesus, so I testify that he is the Chosen One of God.”
We had talked about last week how the Old Testament prophets longed for the Kingdom of God and prophesied of its coming…Jesus launched it by beginning His ministry, and He launched it through the power of the Holy Spirit
Matthew 10: 7
Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near. 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cure those with leprosy, and cast out demons. Give as freely as you have received!
Matthew 12:28
But if I am casting out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has arrived among you.
Matthew 18:4
So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The kingdom of God was established in many ways by Jesus through healing, deliverance, of course, love and faith as these scriptures show, and many other ways there are at least 82 other places in the Gospels where this is mentioned.
As we read earlier, John was told to look for the one on whom the dove rested and remained. The dove comes on everyone who comes to Christ, but it doesn’t always stay.
The Holy Spirit is often represented by a dove Matthew 3:16, Mark 1:10, Luke 3:22, John 1:32. He is also depicted as fire, water, wind, oil. The dove is gentle, but it is wild and cannot be domesticated.
A couple was sent to be missionaries. When they had set up their home, a dove came to roost in the eves of their house. They took this as a sign of the Holy Spirit’s confirmation of them being in the right place following the Lord’s call on their lives. Most of the time the dove would be roosted in the eves however they noticed whenever they slammed a door or began to argue the dove would leave. They realized if they wanted the dove to stay they needed to adapt to the dove because the dove would not adapt to them…the Holy Spirit is exactly that sensitive in our lives we must learn to understand how sensitive He is and adapt to Him!
The Holy Spirit never leaves us, but it is the anointing of God that leaves us…we don’t lose our salvation it is just His anointing lifts
The Holy Spirit is extremely sensitive…like the dove he will not adjust to you, you must adjust to Him, the Holy Spirit gets His sensibilities hurt easily because He is the Spirit of truth and guiding. He is pure and holy.
Ephesians 4:30,31
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Let me touch on one example, so you understand what I mean
Bitterness – resentment, anger, annoyance, impatience and irritation…
When we grieve the Holy Spirit, you lose the anointing. However, with the Holy Spirit ungrieved the Word of God come alive, your prayer time is exciting, you gain insight and understanding quickly and easily, joy, love, peace, patience, gentleness, meekness, kindness, faithfulness, and self-control flow easily through you and in you. You will feel God nearer and you will be easier to live with.
When the Holy Spirit lifts, because of being grieved you will get little to no insight into the Word of God, you will not be so easy to live with, you will be miserable inside
The reason why the word comes alive is the Holy Spirit wrote the Bible it is his word (2 Peter 1: 20,21)….the Holy Spirit is in you as a Christian
Romans 8:9
“But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)”
But it is not that he is always in you ungrieved. He remains but the anointing that breaks bondages, gives wisdom, insight, understanding allows the fullness of the character of God to be manifest in us through love joy, peace, etc. is suppressed…the scariest part is that you can grieve the Holy Spirit and the gifts will still function.
Romans 11:29
For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
But the Holy Spirit can pull away the anointing if we grieve him, this is not a salvation issue but an anointing one
We can easily grieve Him and not know it because like Israel we do not really know Him.
Hebrews 3:10 people did not know His ways
Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’
Hosea 4:6 people destroyed for lack of knowledge his word and his ways are what is needed to understand how not to grieve Him
Time in prayer…more time getting to know God’s ways and growing in a greater sensitivity to the Holy Spirit so we will know when we grieve him.
For now, one of our greatest problems is we grieve the Holy Spirit, and we don’t know that we have because we don’t know him as we should because we have not spent time with Him to know His ways.
His presence can be easily counterfeited if we don’t know Him.
Pigeons and doves in the same family
Pigeons – trained, domesticated, belligerent boisterous, pigeons are disloyal at any opportunity.
Doves- can’t be trained, wild, loving, gentle, loyal always.
Once again the difference between the moving of the Spirit and a counterfeit can be the grieving of the Spirit.
If the Gospel is not preached, chances are you are in a counterfeit service
Can you imagine what the church corporate would look like if all of us were to walk in the fullness of the real Spirit of God free from the counterfeit and free from grieving Him, loving Him and each other and walking in the freedom that comes with that first the dove comes and then the fire
We also need to look at how many times we pray for revival, asking God for a fresh outpouring but don’t take a good look at our personal lives, the grudges we bear, the resentment or unforgiveness we carry, the gossip.
The devil wants to flourish when we grieve the Spirit.
Let’s briefly look again at what grieves Him so we might live free from grieving him in all the love, joy, and so much more of the Spirit.
Ephesians 4:30,31
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Bitterness – seems right justified because we have been mistreated, maligned, hurt or betrayed especially when we feel like we are upholding what is true but there is one other ingredient in bitterness is self-righteousness…this is often the cause we feel we are so right we may feel no conviction of sin…bitterness is the result of unforgiveness.
Always pray the for conviction of sin because Jeremiah 17:9 tells us that our hearts are desperately wicked and it is easy for a sin like bitterness to sneak up on us, and we would grieve the Holy Spirit 1 John 1:9 he is faithful to forgive us when we come to confess and ask.
Wrath, rage, anger – show a lack of control in your life…if these things are alive in you then the fruit of the Spirit is not there, and the Holy Spirit is grieved
Clamor and slander – shouting, the wisdom that comes from below are fleshly James 3:13-15 a shouting match shows the devil has gotten in. Slander is making false and damaging statements about someone
Malice – ill will, it is wanting to see someone punished, caught, exposed or hurt, wanting to see them get their “come upin’s.” This does not have any root in love. Vengence belongs to God even if someone is intrinsically evil, allow God to do what He does best
Romans 12:19
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”
or you may find yourself wishing ill will on someone and having it come back to you whatever a man sows that he shall also reap Galatians 6:7
The Kingdom of God was announced by Jesus and proclaimed through a release of the Holy Spirit.
However, if we aren’t daily in the word and prayer, it is easy not to know the ways of God and even easier to grieve the Holy Spirit.
It is easy to walk out of the anointing and not even know it…it would be just as easy to find ourselves in a pigeon situation rather than a dove because we are operating out of pain, rejection, fear, anger, wrath, malice and think that we are there but the love joy, peace, patience, meekness, kindness, and self-control lack in our lives prove otherwise.
BUT….we overcome this by the next verse in Ephesians 4:32
32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
As we choose to do this walking free of grieving the Holy Spirit becomes easier and easier…the Kingdom is reflected in our hearts and lives…people see the difference in you and their lives are forever changed
If we are not grieving the Holy Spirit, then the character of God shines in us and through us…we change, and we change the people around us. We are not resisted by God. Instead, we are empowered by Him
These points of grieving the spirit are not only about what we do to each other as brothers and sisters, I believe that to be few and far between in this church but think about the way you have talked about your boss, neighbor, children, parents, president, congress, mayor…yes, we can stand against evil and point it out, but we need to be very careful by knowing the Lord that we are not grieving the Spirit.
I bring this all up today to advance the Kingdom, to get you to where to where you need to be…to help you discover why you are struggling and to end all of that and bring you back into the anointing and fellowship with the Holy Spirit.
If we want the Holy Spirit to stay with us to remain with us we have to change to suit Him he will not change to suit us.