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Grieving or Quenching the Holy Spirit
When the word “quench” is used in Scripture, it is speaking of suppressing fire. When
believers put on the shield of faith, as part of their armor of God (Eph. 6:16), they are
extinguishing the power of the fiery darts from Satan. Christ described hell as a place
where the fire would not be “quenched” (Mark 9:44, 46, 48). Likewise, the Holy Spirit is a
fire dwelling in each believer. He wants to express Himself in our actions and attitudes.
When believers do not allow the Spirit to be seen in our actions, when we do what we know is wrong,
we suppress or quench the Spirit (1 Thess. 5:19). We do not allow the Spirit to reveal Himself the way
that He wants to.

To understand what it means to grieve the Spirit; we must first understand that this indicates the Spirit
possesses personality. Only a person can be grieved; therefore, the Spirit must be a divine person in
order to have this emotion (Eph. 4:30). We grieve the Spirit by living like the pagans (Eph. 4:17-19), lying
(Eph. 4:25), being angry (Eph. 4:26-27), stealing (Eph. 4:28), cursing (Eph. 4:29), being bitter (Eph. 4:31),
being unforgiving (Eph. 4:32), and being sexually immoral (Eph. 5:3-5).

Both quenching and grieving the Spirit are similar in their effects. Both hinder a godly lifestyle, and
happen when a believer sins against God and follows his or her own worldly desires. Both break the
intimate fellowship available between God and the believer. The only correct road to follow is the road
that leads the believer closer to God and purity, and farther away from the world and sin. Just as we do
not like to be grieved, and just as we do not seek to quench what is good—so we should not grieve or
quench the Holy Spirit by refusing to follow His leading. 152 If you have grieved the Holy Spirit by an act of
sin in your life, your solution to renewing fellowship with God is found in I John 1:9. The word confess in
this verse means “to agree with God.” It means that we admit that we have sinned before God and
agree with Him that continued repetition of that sin is not the correct direction to pursue. It involves
bringing your mind in agreement with God’s mind about the destructive nature of your sin and a
willingness to turn away from it in the future. It involves repentance. God’s promise is that if you will do
this, he will restore fellowship with you and cleanse your life from the sin.

Walking in the Spirit Daily
Believers have the indwelling Spirit of Christ, the Comforter who proceeds from the
Father (John 15:26). The Holy Spirit assists believers in prayer (Jude 1:20) and
“intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God” (Rom. 8:27). He also
leads the believer into righteousness (Gal. 5:16–18) and produces His fruit in those
yielded to Him (Gal. 5:22–23). Believers are to submit to the will of God and walk in
the Spirit. A “walk” in the Bible is often a metaphor for practical daily living. The Christian life is a
journey, and we are to walk it—we are to make consistent forward progress. The biblical norm for all
believers is that they walk in the Spirit: “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25,
KJV; cf. Rom. 8:14). In other words, the Spirit gave us life in the new birth (John 3:6), and we must
continue to live, day by day, in the Spirit. Paul tells us to “walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:25). Paul agrees with
Jesus that new life is given by the work of the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:5, 10; Col. 2:13; 2 Cor. 4:6).

Definition: “Walk by the Spirit” means do what you do each day by the Spirit; live your life in all its
details from waking up in the morning until going to sleep at night by the enabling power of the Spirit.

But what does that mean, practically speaking? How do we “walk by the Spirit?” Let’s observe a few
things in the immediate context of Galatians 5 and then bring in some other Scriptures in order to get a
fuller answer to this question. I’ll conclude by describing five things involved in walking by the Spirit.

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