How Do We Sustain the Holy Spirit?

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In my previous posts, I wrote about how to receive the Holy Spirit and who is the Holy Spirit? One of the questions I got from my readers is how do we sustain the Holy Spirit in our lives? The purpose of this post is to answer this question in clear and simple terms from biblical viewpoint.

The word “sustain” means to maintain. So maintenance can be defined as the process of preserving something to be in its best working condition or state. You need efforts and sensible activities to preserve and keep something in a good and working condition.

I have observed with keen interest that maintenance culture is an inborn trait in everyone born of a woman. People maintain anything they consider valuable and useful to their lives. That’s why you maintain your shoes, clothes, house, car, looks, health and even your mobile phone. When you don’t maintain something that is valuable to your life, you will find yourself losing that thing too early than necessary.

In the same way, it is essential for us as Christians to maintain the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is not enough to receive the Holy Spirit, you must know how to sustain the Holy Spirit in your life. Otherwise you will lose His presence when you need Him most.

No one is more frustrated than the man who had once tasted the presence of the Holy Spirit and lost it. If you want to know the pains of losing the presence of the Holy Spirit, ask Sampson when you see him. When he lost the Presence of the Holy Spirit, it cost him everything he had, including his own life. When you lose the Holy Spirit, you pay dearly for it.

I will rather give up everything that I have now than to lose the Holy Spirit. When you take away the presence of the Holy Spirit from a man, what remains of him is only chaff and debris. It will surprise you to know that the only reason many people honor and celebrate you is because of the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. If you take away the Holy Spirit in your life, you will look like a menstrual rag in their eyes.  Some of them won’t even greet you again when they see you on the road. This thing is as serious as that.

Don’t sit in your corner and argue, “Is it possible for a Believer to lose the Holy Spirit? I thought the Holy Spirit is given to be with us forever.”

For the purpose of theology and doctrinal values, you need to understand that there is no eternal security of salvation. One can lose his salvation when he backslides into habitual sinful life (Ezekiel 18:24). In the same way a believer can lose the Holy Spirit. The Bible says,

“I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early” Hosea 5:15

9 Ways one can lose the Holy Spirit

1. Immorality

“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” 1 Cor 3:16-17

One way anyone can lose the Holy Spirit is through sexual immorality. When you begin to indulge in fornication, adultery, lesbianism, homosexuality and other immoral acts, the Holy Spirit will just leave you. He is holy and won’t take part in your sins. He will leave you and return to His place. That was exactly what happened to Sampson. When he began to live in immorality with Delilah, the Holy Spirit left him quietly. He didn’t know that the Holy Spirit had left him until it was too late. Sometimes the Holy Spirit will leave someone and the person may still be manifesting some talents and spiritual gifts but it won’t take long nemesis will catch up with that person.

2.  Disobedience to the Holy Spirit

“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry” 1 Sam 15:23

Disobedience to God can make you to lose the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God is a gentle Spirit and does not strive with any mortal. So when you disobey and rebel against His instructions and commandments, He will just leave you and walk away.

3. Unforgiving Heart
Another way one can lose the Holy Spirit is through unforgiveness. When you can’t forgive people who offended you, the Holy Spirit cannot walk with you (Matt 6:15). The Holy Spirit is a loving, kind and compassionate person, He does not walk with mean and wicked people. You need a soft and forgiving heart if you don’t want to lose the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life.

4. Bitterness
Bitterness is yet another way people can lose the Holy Spirit (Heb 12:15). Bitterness is a defiler. It makes your life unwholesome for the Holy Spirit to live. Get rid of bitterness if you don’t want to lose the presence of the Holy Spirit.

5. Lying and falsehood
One can lose the Holy Spirit through lying and falsehood (John 8:44, Acts 5:1-10). The Holy Spirit hates telling lies and living a life of falsehood. Once you become a lier, the Holy Spirit cannot cooperate with you again. When Ananias and his wife Sapphira lied to Holy Spirit, He didn’t just leave them, He killed them instantly right in the church. The Spirit of God detects lying and falsehood.

6. Idolatry
Another way people lose the presence of the Holy Spirit is through idolatry (Exodus 20:4-5). You can’t worship other gods and still retain the Holy Spirit. Once a man dabbles into cultism, occult, diabolism, fetishism and Satanism, he will automatically lose the Holy Spirit. No one can serve two masters at the same time. When you serve the devil, you will lose the Holy Spirit.

7. Pride and arrogance
Pride and arrogance is another way people lose the Holy Spirit (James 4:6). The Holy Spirit always leaves the proud and stays with humble people. Lucifer lost his place in heaven due to pride. Absalom lost his life to his pride. You can’t have pride and won’t lose the Holy Spirit.

8. Greed and Covetousness
Another way one can lose the Holy Spirit is through greed and covetousness (Luke 12:15). Gehazi lost his place in ministry and got leprosy for himself and his entire generation due to his greed and covetousness. The Holy Spirit does not walk with greedy and covetous people. Get rid of greed and covetousness if you don’t want to lose the Holy Spirit.

9. Attachment to material things
Attachment to material things is yet another way people can lose the Holy Spirit (Rom 9:13). The Holy Spirit hates people who are attached to mundane things. Esau is a good example of one who loves material things more than spiritual things. When you love and value material things above spiritual things which have eternal values, you and the Holy Spirit cannot walk together.

10 Ways we can sustain the Holy Spirit are:

i) Walk in righteousness and Holiness- Heb 12:14
The dominant character of the Holy Spirit is holiness. If you want to get along very well with somebody, you have to know the character of the person and behave like him. If you live a holy life, you and the Holy Spirit will become the best of friends.

ii) Be Obedient to the Holy Spirit- John 2:5
If you want to sustain the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, whatever the Spirit tells you, do it. Don’t disobey his orders and instructions which are to your own benefit.

iii)   Have a Heart of forgiveness- Matt 6:14
If you want to sustain the Holy Spirit, be ready to forgive people. Make up your mind in advance to tolerate nonsense from people. Your heart must become a merciful and forgiving heart, only then will the Holy Spirit be pleased to dwell with you forever.

iv)  Live in an atmosphere of joy- Isaiah 12:3
The cure for bitterness and depression is the spirit of joy. The Holy Spirit does not stay where there is bitterness and depression. Joy is the magnet that draws the Holy Spirit. Anywhere there is joy, that’s where the Holy Spirit delights to live.

v)  Be humble- James 4:6
It takes humility to sustain the Holy Spirit. A meek and humble heart will never lack the presence of the Holy Spirit. Humility is not rolling on the ground whenever you see someone. It is coming to a point where you can’t do anything without seeking His opinion. Humility is total dependence on the Holy Spirit. It is absolute abandonment to the Holy Spirit.

vi)  Be a truthful and honest person- John 8:32
Only truthful and honest people sustain the presence of the Holy Spirit for a lifetime. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. He likes truth more than anything. If you become not just a truthful and honest person but also a genuine lover of truth, you and the Holy Spirit will become friends forever.

vii)  Have contentment- 1 Tim 6:6
You need contentment to be able to sustain the Holy Spirit. If you are the type that wants to have everything in this world, you can’t keep the Holy Spirit. There are many things you can’t have if you want to have Him. There are many places you can’t go, if you want to go with Him. One of the prices you will need to pay to keep the presence of the Holy Spirit is that you will have to die to some of your own personal ambitions and desires.

viii)  Love God above all- Mark 12:30
It takes a heart for God to win the love and respect of the Holy Spirit. If you don’t love God, the Holy Spirit won’t love you. If you hate the things of God, He will also hate anything that has to do with you. Loving God above all sustains the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer.

ix)  Be Prayerful- James 5:16

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You need a lifestyle of prayer to sustain the presence of the Holy Spirit. Every relationship is built and maintained by effective communication. The same applies to your relationship with the Holy Spirit. If you really want to sustain the presence of the Holy Spirit, you have to become effective in the place of prayer.

 x)   Serve God diligently- Proverbs 22:29
If you want to sustain the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life, you need to serve God diligently. The Holy Spirit is not looking for supervisors, He is looking for servants. Any time the Spirit of God sees a man who is diligent in God’s business, He makes His abode with that man. Rendering quality and acceptable kingdom service is a sure way to sustain the Holy Spirit. You can’t serve God and lose Him. He is a rewarder of them that diligently serve Him.

Conclusion
You will be the happiest person on the earth if you receive and sustain the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. The journey of life can be an endless struggle without  the Holy Spirit. You need the Holy Spirit everyday. May the insight and knowledge you have acquired in this post inspire you to maintain an unbreakable fellowship and intimacy with the Holy all the days of your life. Remain blessed.

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