Your Daily Slice

Elul 18

Grieving the Ruach

“And do not grieve the Set-apart Spirit of Elohim ...” (Eph 4:30 ISR)

There is nothing that grieves the heart of a parent more than when their child misbehaves and disobeys, especially when that child knows better, and is well aware of the consequences for their transgression.  To openly disregard and disobey rules and instructions is nothing more than rebellion, and it is heart breaking to realize that our children have so little respect for our authority.  And yet, most of us at some point during our youth, have all done similar things, whether it was sneaking out at night, smoking cigarettes with the neighbor kid, or even stealing candy from the local Woolworth’s store.  Does that justify the wrongdoing?  Of course not.  However, when our children do similar acts of disobedience, we can now understand the emotional turmoil we put our parents through.

Our Creator is also our Father, and He has laid out for us through the pages of Scripture His rules, regulations and instructions in moral and righteous living.  His Word is His will.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to recognize that when we are diligent to obey His Word, His Torah, we are walking in His will.  Neither does it take a 160 IQ to figure out that when we break off on a rabbit trail that is completely in opposition to what Torah teaches us, we are no longer in His will.  We have, in essence, ‘snuck out at night, and we are meeting the neighbor kids to engage in nefarious activity’.

Where do we get the idea that our insubordination and rebellion does not grieve our Father, and His Ruach, His Holy Spirit?  The Ruach is the Spirit of life, He is the breath that we draw every minute of every day (Gen 7:22).  Elohim fills us with His Spirit, enabling us to learn all that we must know, in order to walk this Torah walk (Acts 2:4).  The Ruach is our teacher (Luke 12:12), our guide (John 16:13), our memory bank (John 14:26), always leading us and pointing us in the direction of Torah. 

The opposite of kadosh – holy – is common, casual, and trivial.  When we make the decision to treat the kadosh Torah of our Elohim, the divine instructions in moral and righteous living, as something common and casual, and not worth adhering to, we have successfully mounted an insurrection against our Creator, and brought pain and grief to our Father.

As we rapidly approach the fall feast days of our Elohim, can we turn our eyes inward in self-examination, looking honestly and realistically at areas where we may have caused grief to our Abba?  And let us repent, do teshuvah, turning away with the resolve to never, ever, do this again.

Amein …

“In His love and in His compassion He redeemed them, and He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. But they REBELLED AND GRIEVED HIS SET-APART SPIRIT, so He turned against them as an enemy, and He fought against them.” (Isa 63:9-10 ISR, emphasis mine)

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