104 GOOD MORNING, HOLY SPIRIT
Try to stand against wind and it will pass right by you. Yet
you can oppose the Holy Ghost. You can actually stop Him
from working. Stephen, in his speech to the Sanhedrin,
quoted Moses saying: "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised
in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; As
your fathers did, so do you" (Acts 7:51).
They opposed Him and, unfortunately, they were
successful. Remember this: you cannot resist wind, oil, or
even a dove that will just fly away, but you can resist a
person—and that is what the Holy Spirit is.
Then I traced the words grief and grieved in the original
Greek. The root word is loopa. And here is what it means:
to feel pain in body and mind. It means to suffer mental and
physical anguish.
The Holy Ghost is a person, or Paul would not have
said, "Do not grieve the Holy Spirit" (Eph. 4:30). The Holy
Ghost doesn't just hurt. Hurt operates at the level of the
emotions. He grieves, and that goes much deeper.
Not only that, but the Holy Spirit can be quenched. The
word means to put out. Paul warned the church at
Thessalonica, "Do not quench the Spirit" (1 Thess. 5:19).
You cannot quench the wind or other symbols. But you can
stop a person. And that is what the Holy Spirit is.
So Easily Wounded
You also need to realize that the Holy Spirit can be
afflicted and tormented. He can be vexed. Isaiah talked
about the lovingkindness of the Lord and his mercy toward
Israel: "But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit:
therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought
against them" (Isa. 63:10 KJV). It's difficult to imagine, but it's
true. The Holy Ghost can be tormented by human beings.
In the original language, to vex carries the meaning of