Hello to all. I am back to continue the lesson I received and shared in Part 1 on “Grieving the Holy Spirit.”

Before I get right to it, I want to share in our joy of receiving some much-needed rain! Not only did it rain enough to measure,😊, but it brought much cooler weather. More fall-like for our typical Northwest Arkansas weather. Just in time for my sister Karen, my niece Magan, and family friend Galen’s visit. We had much “deck” time, and appreciated it.

As I continue in Part 2, I do hope you read AI’s definition of writer’s block and my statement following: “Now I will tell you about an experience I recently had that exposed another cause for this condition from a Holy Spirit perspective.” If you haven’t listened yet and would like to, the YouTube Podcast that gave rise to this “writer’s block” blog is “The Holy Spirit is More Sensitive Than You Think,” with Dr RT Kendall and Preston Morrison on the Leader’s Cut. Dr Kendall is 91 years old at the time of this Podcast last month.

Dr. Kendall’s question was, “What if the easiest thing in the world to do is grieve the Holy Spirit- and the hardest thing in the world is to keep from it?”

Wow! Tough question, right?  The podcast revealed something I was doing that needed correction to prevent  “writer’s block,” and it had everything to do with grieving the Holy Spirit. Another question: “Do you know what grieves him?” Dr Kendall says finding that out will change everything. I say finding it out, and with His help, correction changes everything. Grieving the Holy Spirit can be very condemning, but His conviction is for correction, never condemnation. You will see this in his stories.

In Part 1 of this blog, we looked at how we grieve the Holy Spirit in the story of the missionaries’ dove in the eve of their house. And in Ephesians 4:30-31, we see the command not to grieve the Holy Spirit and the adjustments that we need to make. We choose!

In this part, we will look at Dr Kendall’s story where he talked about an incident that brought about his inability to write a sermon. But first, he began with his testimony of God, through the Holy Spirit, revealing to him that he is saved for eternity, not a “mess-up and you lose it” doctrine of men. It is good that he clarifies this before going forward. He talks about the dove, the “Holy Spirit,” flying from us. He is not talking about losing our salvation here either, so please don’t mix these up. We keep it in context by focusing on the topic at hand, “grieving” the Holy Spirit.

Then he tells his story that, in his opinion, best proves this teaching. ( I’m using it as Part 2). During his time as senior minister of Westminster Chapel, he had to preach four sermons a week, all fresh.  If he did not have the start of the sermon on Monday evening, he would worry that he wouldn’t be ready by Sunday morning. It only happened once during one week when he was so busy preaching all over England. By Saturday morning, he had nothing for Sunday morning. (Do you see “writer’s block”, as I do?) He “had the text (the Bible) but nothing more”.

I will take the liberty of quoting his process, as it is a process we don’t want to miss…

“And it was Saturday morning, and I prayed, Lord, please let there be no interruption today. No phone calls, nobody at the door. Please. No sooner had I said that I got into an argument with my wife, who’s here today. She remembers the story, and I got so angry. I say she was horrible. I slammed the door, went to my desk, opened my Bible, I had a blank sheet of paper and a pen, and I just turned to the text. I said, “Now, Lord, help me. Jesus, deal with that woman.” And I was so mad. It was now 10:00, blank sheet of paper. Lord, help me. Please help me. It was now noon. Blank sheet of paper. Nothing was coming. Nothing. It was 2:00. I remember saying, “Lord, please, you know that what I say tomorrow morning will go all over the world. You’ve got to help me.” Nothing. At 4:00, I closed my Bible, got up, went in, and I can remember Louise standing next to the refrigerator, and she was crying. I said, “Honey, I was wrong. I’m so sorry.” She said, “Well, no, it wasn’t all you.” It was partly my fault.” I said, “No, it’s totally my fault, and I’m really sorry.” We kissed and hugged. I went back. I promise you, Preston, I went back to the same desk. Within 45 minutes, I had everything I needed for Sunday morning. What normally would take several days took 45 minutes. I could not write the thoughts fast enough. It taught me the ungrieved spirit. That’s the key. Yeah. Don’t grieve him. He’s no respecter of persons. He’s a jealous God. He will not bend the rules for anybody. And when I got right with Louise, the thoughts came, and it just showed me that when we live in the realm of the ungrieved spirit, we hear from God. We’re pleasing him. And so insights are going to come from Him”.

Interestingly, I began by defining “writer’s block” by using AI, and Dr Kendall ended this segment of teaching with a warning to people who use AI  today to get sermons. As he says, “That’s just bypassing the Holy Spirit”. And I say this pertains to more than sermons, right? I’m sure he would agree. By looking closer at what grieves the Holy Spirit, we can see the most important cause of writer’s block. Then, as we stay in obedience to His Word, He reveals to us areas where we have bitterness by arguing and unforgiveness: “Let all bitterness, anger, clamor, and speaking evil be put away from you.”

He took responsibility for his actions by confessing that he was wrong. He was genuinely sorry. I see the hug and kiss as the seal of forgiveness. The offense was removed, along with the “block” to write. Let us not overlook V32 in Ephesians 4 that goes on to say, “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” NKJV.  Here I will quote myself again… “Now I will tell you about an experience I recently had that exposed another cause for this condition from a Holy Spirit perspective.”

If you are following what I’m saying, you won’t have to guess what I saw myself doing that causes the Holy Spirit to fly away. Writers’ block from a Holy Spirit perspective. Again, conviction for correction, and I thank God for it.

Dr Kendall goes on to say that “when we start to experience the beauty of encountering the Holy Spirit, we don’t just want the dove (Holy Spirit) not to leave; we want to go beyond that and adopt a lifestyle that says, ‘I want to know what pleases You most. “It’s life-altering.”

Life-altering indeed, through the working of the Holy Spirit and our obedience to… “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves”. James 1:22 NJKV

I will close by saying that now that I see what grieves the Holy Spirit, I choose to make the corrections (adjustments) needed to prevent the “dove from flying” and “writer’s block”. If this has spoken to your heart, I hope it helps you do the same and share it with others.

In my next blog, I will share what followed immediately after this YouTube podcast. As I quoted Preston in Part 1,  “God said, ‘Preston, I’m helping you understand what grieves me because I am trying to teach you that which most pleases me.”  Remember God’s way is always the better way!

Glory to God,

Reba