If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law- Galatians 5:18 NKJV
In Acts chapter six the newborn church was flourishing, people were being redeemed, lives were changed and Jews from all over were living together in unity. Jesus was being glorified and it was awesome (Acts 2:44-47, Acts 4:32-36).
At the same time the church was suffering some intense growing pains. The Greek widows were being overlooked in the daily food distribution. Because this situation smacked of partiality and even racism (Galatians 3:28) it had the potential to derail the unity of the early church and undo all the evangelistic good being done. Six men were chosen to right these wrongs and oversee the needs of the growing community. Stephen was one of those six. He quickly proved he had more than just a gift for solving problems. Stephen was a skillful preacher, fearless truth-teller and a prophetic voice. His giftedness landed him in hot water with Jewish leaders. When brought before the council and questioned about his message, he did not defend himself. Instead, he recounted the entirety of Jewish history beginning with Abraham and ending with the Jewish leaders master-minding the crucifixion of Jesus. Very little of what he had to say was flattering. He definitely focused in on the negative and ugly. Then at the very end (just before they stoned him) he delivers this zinger:
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.”
Okay, so, I won’t lie.
I found Stephen’s words deeply convicting. Because I (like most Christians) resist the Holy Spirit from time-to-time. Resisting the Holy Spirit never ends well for anyone. At best it results in a loss of blessing. At worst it leads to a hardening of the heart, that leads to sin. After, dealing with my own junk I asked God to show me what “resisting the Holy Spirit” looks like in everyday life. The following is what God gave me:
We ignore known facts about living the Christian life-
This truth is fairly obvious: if we know to do something and refuse to do it, that’s sin (James 4:17). The thing that’s less obvious is the end result of this behavior. Here’s how it works: Joe Christian decides to willfully ignore a known truth about God or sin. It does not take long guilt for guilt to set in. In an effort to avoid more guilt Joe (or Jane) looks for a Christian teacher who will tell them their sin is okay or at least not that big a deal (2nd Timothy 4:3). Because we live in stupid times it is never hard to find a “Christian” teacher looking for a following who will tell people something they want to hear, regardless of whether or not it’s biblical. Once Joe Christian is under the instruction of a false teacher, he begins to adopt more and more beliefs that are false. One way or another choosing to ignore or willfully disregard one truth easily leads individuals down a rat hole of wrong thinking. It just makes more sense to obey the Holy Spirit in the first place.
We refuse to honor those we are told to honor-
There are still places on this planet where giving “honor to whom honor is due” (Romans 13:7, Romans 12:10) is still a thing. This is becoming less common all the time. Most people are incredibly judgmental towards those in authority and deeply individualistic. Many believe leaders (parents, teachers, pastors, politicians) should only be honored for perfection, not simply for the position they hold. God thinks otherwise (Romans 13:1, Ephesians 6:2, 1st Peter 2:17, Titus 3:1, Hebrews 13:17). When a person refuses to honor those to whom honor is due, they walk in disobedience to God and resist the Holy Spirit’s will for their lives. This does not mean an adult child has to obey their parents. Adults are responsible before God for their choices. As adults we don’t have to like every authority in our lives, nor do we have to obey an authority who is asking us to sin (Exodus 1:15-20). That said, all human authority should be respected, if we refuse, we are resisting the Holy Spirit.
We ignore the still small voice calling us to hard things-
It’s never easy to do the hard things God calls us to do, even Jesus struggled sometimes (Mark 14:32-37, John 11:35, Hebrews 2:10, Hebrews 5:8). Therefore, it makes sense that fallible, sinful humans would be tempted to take short cuts when it comes to obeying the hard stuff. However, anytime we choose the easy route over the biblical route we are resisting the Holy Spirit (1st Samual 15:22).
And finally, we refuse the Holy Spirit when we:
Refuse to examine and reject the wisdom of the world-
There’s a lot of worldly wisdom floating around Christian circles. Most of it sounds amazing. Worldly wisdom sounds great because it’s easy and it appeals to our flesh. Worldly wisdom says we can do anything we want with our bodies. It tells us we never have to forgive anyone we don’t want to or tolerate the presence of someone who doesn’t “meet our emotional needs” or “fill our tank”. Sadly, the end result of worldly wisdom is jealousy, selfishness, division and every evil thing (Jude 19, James 3:16). Following worldly wisdom always results in a loss of spiritual power and godly wisdom because we lose the spiritual truth we refuse to use (Hebrews 5:11-13). The only way to get free from worldly wisdom is to make a practice of comparing our attitudes and ideas to the Bible. Initially, this practice results in conviction (which is unpleasant) but, if we lean into the conviction ultimately it leads to life, joy, peace and deeper connection to the Holy Spirit (James 3:17-18).
