(Grace Baptist) Finding God's Will — Bill McLeod

Good morning all. Bob and I are glad to be here with you and we have a good friend with us, Rick Negrich and his wife Mila. He's my chauffeur, so we're glad to have them with us, they're great friends of ours.

The Believer’s Body Belongs to God

I'm going to read a few verses from 1 Corinthians chapter 6, actually the two last verses, 19 and 20. Paul is asking a question of the church at Corinth. What, he says, don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?

For you are bought for the price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. Many years ago when I was working with the Shining Men's Christian Association, I was a member of the Grand Memorial Church here in Winnipeg and they'd fallen hard times.

They had a building then seating six or seven hundred. The church was down to about seventy. They'd been fighting for years it seems and just kept going down, down, down. They didn't know what to do. And then I met a man called Gerald Splinter.

I preached in his church down in the States. I suggested they call him. They did. And here's what he said. I'll never forget. I chaired the meeting where he spoke to the church. He said, forget the past.

It has nothing to do with the future. Absolutely nothing to do with the future. Forget the past. And then he said, I want twelve months with no criticism at all. You know, he told me personally, he said, I absolutely hate gossipers.

He said, I can't stand them. He said, I'd rather have six drunkards in my church than a couple of gossipers. Anyway, what happened? Well, the first year he was there they took in a hundred and five members and for the five years he was there before he was killed in a plane crash they took in at least a hundred members a year.

They had rallies with twelve hundred people and he just, he was so concerned, forget about the past. He kept a little black book, by the way. I wouldn't suggest that to any other preacher, but he kept a little black book and if you were gossiping and he heard he wrote your name down in his book and what you had said.

If you got two entries in his book he called you into his office and it went like this. Either you quit this gossiping or you go out the door. And he got away with it. All preachers might not get away with it, but he did.

Corinth’s Mixture of Sin and Faithfulness

So, you know, the church at Corinth, I went through those two books, the first and second Corinthians and I found there were thirty things wrong. Things they were doing they should be doing or things they should be doing they were not doing.

So, people often say, well, the church at Corinth was backslidden. No, it wasn't. They had some backslidden people in it. How do I know that? Because in going through those two books I discovered there was thirty good things they were doing as well as the thirty bad things they were doing or not doing.

It was not a backslidden church, but it had some people in it that were not really walking with God. That's why Paul asked the question, what? Don't you know, have you forgotten that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who's in you and you're not your own?

You're a bottle of the price? Therefore, what? Glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. So, the Bible says, let no corrupt communication come out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers.

Resisting, Grieving, and Quenching the Holy Spirit

So, the Spirit of God lives within us believers and the Bible speaks in a number of places about sins against the Holy Spirit. I want to refer to a few of these today. Now, we know there were people who resisted the Spirit.

These were sinners who didn't want to hear the gospel and Stephen said, you uncircumcised in heart and ears, you'd always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did, so do you. So, sinners may resist the gospel and never get saved.

That's not a sin that Christians might commit in that way, but we have other things mentioned, for example, it says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God in Ephesians 4 .30. Don't grieve the Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed to the day of redemption.

The day of redemption is the second coming of Christ. The Holy Spirit who lives within you has sealed you to that very day. You can believe that and stand on it forever. Then in 1 Thessalonians 5 .19, it says, don't quench the Spirit.

The word quench, it really means, it has the idea of throwing water on a fire. Now, when John the Baptist began preaching, one of the things he said was, he, that's the Messiah, Jesus, he will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.

Fire is always connected with the Spirit of God. On the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit was poured out on the twelve, there were tongues of fire that rested on each one of those men at that time. So, quench not means don't throw water on the fire of the Spirit, which is to say, when the Spirit is leading you to do something or to make some change, whatever, or to witness to whatever, don't quench Him, don't throw water on the fire.

And many times, as Christians, we fail in this area. There's many ways of doing it. Riding in a plane recently, the lady sitting next to me was probably in her fifties, reading a book. I wanted to talk to her about the Lord, so how do you start?

It went like this. I said to her, good book? Yeah, she said, a great book, and she closed the book, and we started to talk. We got into the Gospel. She was teaching a Bible class in a church and wasn't a Christian herself.

And she was really disturbed because a Jewish witness lady attending the studies was asking questions she couldn't answer, and she was really having a fight. So I was able to help her. But I might just have said, well, she's reading a book, let her read the book.

Flattery and Lying Before God

You have to find ways of communicating with people about the Lord, but don't quench the Spirit. Then did you know it's possible to flatter the Holy Spirit? Psalm 78, it says they flattered the Lord. How in the world can you flatter God?

Well, you could do it like this, like sometimes you might tell some person, Maya, that's a great suit you have on, and you say to them, what a horrible suit you see in your heart. So you're flattering Him.

Do we do that with God? I still think we do. We can say things like this to Him. Hey, God, you're a great God, you're a loving God, you're a kind God. Then we walk about Him and forget about Him for a month, or maybe never pray to Him.

So it's easy to flatter God. In the same context in Psalm 78, it says they lied to God. Is it possible to lie to God? Well, yes, it is, as the Bible says. Ananias and Sapphira tried it, and they both woke up dead in Acts chapter 4.

They were trying to deceive the Spirit of God by lying about a certain matter that was dealt with by God immediately. All right, flattering, lying. Can we deny God? I think we can. If you think back to the Scripture we read, you're not your own, you're bought with a price.

Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. So by denying His ownership, and many times as Christians we do that, we should not be doing that. You're not your own, you're bought with a price.

Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. Are you doing that, or are you denying His ownership? This often happens to Christian believers. They don't allow the Spirit to lead them.

Following the Will of God

Over and over, the Bible says as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they're the sons of God. Walk in the Spirit, and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh. And many times we don't allow the Spirit to lead us.

He's leading us to do something, to give something, to be something, and we say no. So we're denying the Spirit of God. We're really saying to the Spirit of God, I know better than you do. I'm wiser than you are.

He'll never lead you to do anything you can't do. You see, the will of God is called three things in Romans 11. It's good, it's acceptable, and it's perfect. If it's good, it's not bad. If it's acceptable, it's something you can do.

If it's perfect, you can improve on it. So why not go for it? The will of God. So we deny the Spirit of God sometimes. I think one of the most important sins or sin that's most committed by Christians is this.

Asking the Holy Spirit for Daily Guidance

They just simply ignore the Holy Spirit. They don't wake up in the morning and say, as Dr. Washington Carver, that famous black Christian scientist in the States used to do, he said, I would go out in the morning to the Institute.

That's where he worked. He was a famous scientist. He said, I would sit down, put the Bible on my knees, and pray this prayer. Dear God, what do you want me to do today? He was so well known that the Stalin in Russia asked him to become the top agricultural person for the whole of Russia, although they knew he was a Christian and they were a communist country.

He didn't go for that. He explained that he wanted to stay with his own people. Then some company, they asked him to come. They offered him. The initial offer, I think, was $100 ,000 a year. And he said, it's not enough.

So they got it up to $150 ,000 a year. He said, still not enough. They finally sent him a check, a blank check. He said, you fill in the amount and we'll pay it to have him work for them. So he wrote them a letter saying, listen, guys, you just don't have enough.

You know what he worked? He worked at that institute for $100 a month. That's all he would take. He said, I'm not married. That's all I need. Greatly, mightily used of God. But he wasn't ignoring. He knew what God wanted him to do.

And he was satisfied and happy with that. So don't ignore the Spirit. Every morning when you awaken, you should pray and ask God, please, lead me today. Holy Spirit, you live within me, I know. Please lead me today.

What would you have me do today? And God may lead you to some person. You know, I know of homes where they have a track rack sitting by the front door. Whoever happens to call there, if there happens to be a salesman or saleslady, they're given the gospel track after the conversation has ended.

And so there's many ways in which we can serve God. But we need to be ready. You never know when. God may call you. God may give you an opportunity. I've had people say when they finally repented, I have missed hundreds of opportunities for serving God just because of my fear.

The fear of man brings a snare. Whoso puts his trust in the Lord shall be set on high. The marginal reading says there. So don't ignore him. Take him into your life. Let him be what he wants to be. We sing it.

King of my life, I crown thee now. Thine shall the glory be. Make him king of your life. He wants to be that. He can use you. He's looking. It says in the Old Testament that the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is perfect towards him.

Believing God for Revival

That is, God is looking for people through whom he can pour his power. Be one of those people. You'll be surprised at what God does. Have you ever heard of Sammy Tippett? Maybe not. He wrote a book called Fire in Your Heart.

Wonderful book. I mention him because here's what happened on one occasion. A pastor asked him to come and hold meetings in his church. Now, Sammy Tippett, he's been in the biggest auditoriums in the world.

In Brazil, a place seating 120 ,000. Packed to the doors. They went for a whole month, I believe. Been greatly used of God. But he didn't start that way. He started by obeying God. Anyway, this pastor, since it wasn't far away, went to see him.

So he asked him, How many people do you have? He said, We have 60 people. And how big is your prayer meeting? Well, we've got about 20. Well, Sammy said, I don't think you're ready for revival. I think we'd better wait a while until you have more people attending your prayer meeting.

And the pastor said, But Sammy, we are believing God for revival. Well, he said, Yeah, that's fine. That's a good thing to do. But you don't have, you have 60 people and only 20 attending prayer meeting?

And he kept saying, Sammy, listen, we're believing God for revival. And finally, Sammy went. They ended up, after four weeks, in the largest auditorium in the city, seating 10 ,000. Hundreds were saved.

The city gave them this building free of rent when they saw what God was doing. But that's how it started. It started because the pastor was believing. And you have to do the same, believing for the future.

Believe God. He's a great God. He gives us sometimes trials to test our faith. When Jesus said to the woman who asked him to heal her daughter, He said, It isn't right to take your children's bread and to cast it to dogs.

How did she handle that? How would you handle that if God said something like that to you? She handled it this way. Truth, Lord, what you're saying is true. I'm just a dog. But even the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the master's table.

Neglecting God’s Word

And he said, Woman, great is your faith. Be it unto you, even as you will. And her daughter was healed the same hour. So we don't want to make the sin of ignoring or neglecting. Perhaps we can neglect sometimes the Lord by neglecting his word.

So we read of George Mueller, one of the busiest men in his day. 2 ,000 orphans, a staff of 300 or 400. At the same time, he had to look after this. And then he was co-pastor of a church with 1 ,200 people.

And he said he had to pray three hours a day in order to get the work done. Oh, yes, he said, I have to pray an hour with my wife, too. That's four hours a day to get the work done. Somehow, he managed to read the Bible through 200 times.

If you read the Bible, if you read 16 chapters a day, you'll read the Bible through in one year. I'm not suggesting you take 16 chapters, but we should be doing a lot more with it than we are. I was in a church, in a gospel-preaching church, supposedly.

I was in the area holding meetings, and they didn't have any Sunday mornings or spoke in the big rallies in the evening. And so I went to one of the churches that were cooperating in the crusade. The preacher brought a message.

He somehow managed to not even use one single Bible verse, not even one. I sat there. I couldn't believe it. I thought, well, maybe before he finishes, he's going to get a Bible verse hidden in even one.

I suppose he would call it preaching the gospel. We need to follow the Bible here, too. You know, on the day of Pentecost, when Peter preached, have you ever noticed half of his preaching was quotations from the Old Testament Bible?

Half of it. And over in Acts 13, Paul preached a sermon, and just about half of that was quotations from the Old Testament. The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God. It's the only sword we have. And he blesses that, as he did in the day of Pentecost with 3 ,000 converts.

And Paul saw converts wherever he went as he preached the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. So don't neglect that sword. Get to know it. Sharpen it up. That is, get to memorize as much of it as you possibly can and be ready to talk to people.

Oftentimes, Christians have said something like this to me. I never witnessed anybody because I'm afraid they might ask me a question that I can't answer. That's not a good reason for not witnessing. So if you don't know the Bible, well, get to know it well.

Muslim children, by the time they're 10, they know the Koran off by heart. Have you ever read the Koran? It's about the same length as the New Testament is. I don't know how they manage it. They have such a concern and interest.

I guess this may be forced on them by their parents. I don't know. But the average believer in Christ probably could not quote 50 verses from the Bible from memory. If we neglect the sword of the Spirit, we're grieving the Spirit of God.

Simon the Sorcerer and Misusing the Spirit

Make time, take time. Get along with the Bible. Make time, I say, any way you can to get to know it well if you're a believer in Christ. We have a case in the Bible where a certain man was trying to use the Spirit, to use the Holy Spirit to get attention to himself.

Simon the sorcerer in Acts chapter 8. Before Philip showed up as an evangelist, this guy, Simon, he was a big shot in the community. It says that. People say he was a great power of God. People thought he was involved in witchcraft, very deeply in witchcraft, and he deceived the people.

Then Philip shows up, begins preaching the gospel, and apparently hundreds of people found Christ and gave up on Simon. Nobody was listening to Simon anymore, and he was really put out. And suddenly he thought of a scheme.

Because when two of the apostles came down to Jerusalem, to this place, they came to make sure that these Samaritan believers had received the Holy Spirit. They were laying hands on them, and as they laid hands on these new converts, they received the Spirit.

And Simon thought to himself, man, if I could do that, I could be a big shot again. So he offered Peter money. Give me also this power that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost. He was trying to use the Spirit of God for his own personal use.

You can't do that. What did Peter say? To destruction, you and your money. I mean, he spoke pretty plainly, and finally, Simon, I think we could say, he repented, and he asked for prayer. You can't use the Holy Spirit.

There's a group of Christians in a certain movement. Somebody had a prophecy that there was going to be a great revival in England that was back in 1988. And this spread through that movement all around the world, and thousands of people gathered in England to watch this great event, when the Spirit of God would be poured on them from heaven, and a great revival would ensue.

The prophecy somebody gave, you know, thus saith the Holy Ghost, it obviously wasn't from God, but here's what happened. They gathered on the great day, and thousands, they waited breathlessly for the Spirit to come, and he never came.

You know what the leader did? He finally commanded the Holy Ghost to come down from heaven, and still nothing happened. He kept commanding the Spirit to come. The Spirit never came, because the Spirit wasn't in the prophecy to begin with.

Opposing the Work of the Spirit

You can't command the Spirit. You can find out what he wants you to do, but you can't command him. Then you remember in Acts chapter 13, one of us, they met a man. He was a politician, a top-standing man.

He began preaching the gospel to him, but there was a sorcerer there, a witchcraft man, like Simon, called Elemas. And he tried to turn the deputy away from the faith. He was opposing what Paul was saying.

Then it says this, Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, said, When will you cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? And he laid it on him, and then he told him, You're going to be blind for a while, and he was struck with blindness.

The deputy believed when he saw the power of God in that particular incident. This guy was trying to stop God's work. Don't get in God's way. Don't let that happen. Walk with God. There are those who, at times, oppose what God is doing.

We have to be very, very careful. Think twice before you speak once, right? One tongue, two ears, you know what that means? So, perverting the Spirit, trying to overturn what he is doing. In Phineas' day, he had tremendous power, you know.

He was filled with the Spirit one day, and the next day, everybody he spoke to accepted Christ as their personal Savior. He was one area, I think two months, 3 ,000 converts. He was back three or four years later.

They didn't know of a single backslider among all those converts. His power was great, but there were people sometimes that opposed him. He totally ignored it, never said anything, just committed it to God.

But in his days, there's a number of cases where people who opposed him, perverting the work of God's Spirit, were struck dead, walking down the street or just lying in bed or whatever. It's a dangerous thing to stand in the way of what God is doing.

The Spirit Glorifies Christ Through Believers

In other words, we need to be very humble, humble ourselves in the mighty hand of God. Don't gossip, don't get involved in that. Ignore it, God will bless you. We noted in 1 Corinthians 6, I hope you did, that the Spirit lives in us, and we are to glorify God.

Christ said in John's Gospel that when the Spirit has come, he'll glorify me. And the Spirit of God living in you is attempting to glorify Christ through you. Are you allowing him to do this? We can only do this by living a godly life, giving our life totally to God, never mind the kind of criticism we may get.

That doesn't mean anything as long as God is pleased and we're walking in his ways. So don't. In a sense, you know, I think sometimes we actually smother the Spirit. He's pushing us in a certain direction, and we're not going that way.

We're saying, no, we're smothering him. You know, it's a lot harder, as somebody said, it's a lot harder to disobey the Word of God, the will of God, than to obey. It takes a lot more energy to disobey God than to obey God.

Answering God’s Call to Preach

We think it's the other way around. It isn't, really, because if you do what God is asking you to do, you'll have the power of God with you. He'll bless you. You know, when God first called me to preach, I was horrified, absolutely horrified, because I was a very shy person.

I said, how in the world can I stand in front of people, you know, all those eyes looking at me? But he insisted. I remember one night talking with God, and I actually accused God of just joking. I said, God, you've got to be joking, asking me to preach?

That's crazy. He didn't say anything. He just gave me one verse. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And he killed me with that verse. By the time the sun went up that morning, I told God, okay, God, I'll do it.

But I knew nobody had ever asked me to preach. Two weeks later, someone asked me to preach, and I was horrified. I felt like running to the North Pole, getting away somewhere high. Maybe I could get sick or something, you know.

But I had to do it. And I'll never forget that first meeting. There was 30 people sitting there, all those eyes on me. I got through it. I did it by the grace of God. I'll never forget walking home that night.

And I was literally jumping as I walked, and I kept saying to God, hey, God, we did it, we did it, we did it. I didn't say I did it. I said we did it. On our occasion, we have to talk to church with 1 ,000 or 2 ,000 people.

That's not a problem because God is with us. We can do, if God is asking you to do something, remember, as we mentioned before, the will of God is acceptable. He'll never ask you to do something you can't do.

Waiting on God in Prayer

It's always acceptable. We need to wait on the Spirit. You know, Jacob prayed all night. He had to pray because he was facing death. You know, if you're facing death, whatever the source may be, we really know how to pray then.

He wronged his brother many years before and found out his brother was coming to meet him with 400 men. And, of course, this meant his brother Esau, who was a real tough guy, was going to cut him off.

So he had to pray. And he had to get an answer. There was no choice. When the angel said, Let me go. No, no, he said, I can't let you go. And he wouldn't let him go. He held on to him, wrestling in prayer, until finally the angel said, Okay, your name is Jacob, which means deceiver or supplanter.

We'll change your name to Israel, which means prince of God. You have power with God and with men. You prevailed. When his brother showed up a day later, suddenly when he saw Jacob, he ran to him and threw his arms around him, and they wept together.

And God answered his prayer. His life was saved. Why is it that we wait until we face something we can't handle before we really pray? We need to be praying constantly. Hosea speaks about this happening in Genesis 32.

And after making reference to what Jacob did, he says, Therefore wait thou upon your God. Wait on your God. So he's saying to us, Do as he did. Follow his godly example. Wait on God. A great problem? Listen.

Wait on God. Wait on God. Wait on God. In Ephesians 6 .18, there's a verse on prayer. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto. Listen. With all perseverance for all saints.

All perseverance. People, we need to learn how to persevere in prayer. George Mueller, that famous man of faith I mentioned before, somebody asked him, Do you ever give up after asking God to do something?

And he said, George Mueller never, ever gives up. So he prayed for two men to be saved. He prayed once a day for 40 years for two men. One fellow was saved a year before Mueller died. The other was saved a year after Mueller died.

George Mueller never gives up. Sometimes he'll pray a few days and then give up. Remember Ephesians 6 .18. Pray in the spirit as the spirit leads. We're coming back to that again. As he leads us, pray.

Zechariah 12, it speaks about God pouring out his spirit on his people so that they might supplicate or pray. And from that has come the saying there is a gift of prayer. Finney used that thought often because he found that to be so true.

Here's one of the things he said. If I ever lose the gift of prayer, I can't converse effectively with individuals or with groups of people. I can't do it. I must have the spirit of prayer. So pray in the spirit as the spirit leads.

Ask God to give you a burden to pray. Ask him to do that. And then listen. He'll lead you gently, clearly, for his glory. He knows what the need is here. Why don't we call on him? Ask him to show us what must be done.

Forget the past. That's history. Forget the past. It's got nothing to do with the future. Call on your God. Wait on the Lord. It says wait on the Lord. I don't know how many places in the Bible, but many places we're simply told to wait on the Lord.

Be of good courage, and he'll strengthen your heart. That's one of the promises given us. So Ephesians 6, 18 and Jude 20, they both speak about praying in the Holy Spirit, that is, as he leads and as he burdens our heart.

Trusting the Spirit Under Pressure

So let's do that. Then, you know, when Jesus told the apostles, if you're ever brought before magistrates or, you know, powers, political powers, and you're on the spot, don't premeditate. Don't premeditate as to what you should say.

Don't think about how you're going to defend yourself. That's not your business, because it will be given you in that very hour what you should say. It won't be you speaking. It will be the Spirit of God speaking in you.

So this is important to understand, God's Spirit. You know, people try to defend themselves. It may not be a court case. Maybe just something, somebody said something about you. Do you know when Spurgeon went to London, England, the first four or five years, every newspaper in the city was against him.

Everybody was criticizing him. They were saying things like this, oh, he'll go up like a rocket and come down a dead stick. How did he handle it? He said, I don't care what they say about me as long as they talk about me, because the more they talk about me, the bigger the crowds get.

That's exactly how it went. It wasn't too long before they realized he was a genius sent from God, and then they supported him. But he had to run that for several years. He didn't let it worry him in the slightest.

And so sometimes people do that. They lie, they tell, they gossip about you perhaps. Don't let it get you down. Forget about it. Christ said, Woe unto you when all men will speak well of you. It's not a good sign when everybody's saying nice things about you, because all that will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

Thanksgiving and Hope in the Holy Spirit

So you can expect that kind of thing if you're walking with God. So don't premeditate, it says. Now, thanksgiving, Colossians 2, 7 says, abounding with thanksgiving. Are we doing that? Forget about the problems.

Abounding with thanksgiving. I think I could list at least 25 things right now that I could be thankful for. I have a pulpit to hold on to. That's an advantage. Anyway, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

That's a great thought. In Romans 15, there's a verse, The God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. God wants to fill us with joy and peace and take our bad thoughts away and fill us with his love, his grace, his power and remind us of things he's done for us in the past.

He wants us to be a channel for him. Are you willing to be that? Please remember this. I said before, but I need to say it again. He will never ask you to do something that you cannot do. But ask him to guide you, and he'll do that.

He won't lead you into big things overnight. It'll be smaller things, and it gets a little larger as time goes on, and you'll be challenged perhaps to do something great. I know the first time I left the North American continent, my wife and I, and we landed in Buenos Aires, a city of 10 or 12 million.

We didn't know any Spanish except C, one word, and nobody met the plane. So what do we do? We didn't panic. I found a bank of phones, and there was a guy who didn't talk any English, but I got a phone book.

He wasn't listed. I didn't know he had an unlisted phone. I phoned Latin American Mission, a couple of other missions. They'd never heard of the guy. He had just moved from Chile. He'd been in Chile 25 years, just been in Buenos Aires for a couple of months, so nobody knew him, so we couldn't find him.

So what do you do then? Panic, buy a ticket, go home. We just got to praying, asking God for guidance, and finally this fellow walked up and gave us a piece of paper with my contact's name, address, and phone number on it.

A total stranger. Now remember there's thousands of people in that terminal going back and forth. Why in the world should he come to us? Where did he get this knowledge that we were looking for this particular address?

God Moves When Believers Act

Listen, God will never forsake you. Don't you forsake him. Believe God. The last thing I'd like to say is this, beyond the fact I want to emphasize, try and be a channel for God, for his grace, his love, his truth, his gospel, but believe God that he's going to lead you through this time of stress.

He's going to take care of things, and the blessing of God will come. But people, you've got to believe God for that. Don't doubt him. Believe him. And maybe you need to pray and ask God, am I in any way grieving your spirit, quenching your spirit, subverting him?