“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.” Acts 7:51
June 2, 2022
Because the Holy Spirit is a person, He can be sinned against. We become the wiser for it when we become aware of ways in which the Holy Spirit can be sinned against. When non-Christians hear the gospel message, they can repeatedly reject God’s revealed will. Stephen’s address to the Sanhedrin reveals how stubborn and hard the human heart can be when faced with the truth about who Jesus Christ is and what He did on the cross. Biblical thinking and witness exposes the root of the human problem. It is a God-defying, Christ-rejecting, self-exalting, sinful human heart. Tragically, Israel had a generational resistance to the unfolding story of God’s redemptive purposes. This reminds us of the fact that unbelief does not improve with age, personally or nationally. Imagine one standing in the presence of God’s message and sticking his or her fingers in their ears and making sounds that drown out what is being said. This sin is not limited to Stephen’s religious audience. We need boldness and a willingness to bear witness to the gospel even when it is despised and dismissed. We must not give up in praying for those we know who are without Christ. It seems that even our nation has collectively stiffened its neck to the Savior and God’s revealed truth. H
A time to pray: “O Sovereign God, I ask that I will not give up praying, speaking, and living out the truth about Jesus Christ to any and all who are deaf to the truth.”