Five toxic behaviors that push the Holy Spirit away without you realizing it. Now, I want to assure you that as a born again believer, you have the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit doesn’t abandon you just because you make a mistake. So, when I talk about pushing the Holy Spirit away, I’m talking about minimizing his influence, weakening his influence, and becoming unresponsive to his voice.

I want to show you something in Galatians 5:1 17. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the spirit wants. And the spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. This is why sometimes you can sense that conflict. You want to do something for God, but then there’s another side of you that doesn’t.

Maybe you feel pulled toward temptation, but then there’s the spirit within you resisting that temptation. So you may sometimes feel like you’re being pulled in between two places and you don’t want to behave in a way that pushes the Holy Spirit away. And it’s especially scary because the influence of the Holy Spirit shrinks as we disobey.

It shrinks as we ignore him. And often we don’t even realize that we’re pushing away that influence in our lives. So your daily decisions, whether they be big or small, those daily decisions will determine your destiny. They determine who you become. They determine your habits. And so, you have to be careful about how you go about living everyday life.

Not in fear, but in reverence toward the Holy Spirit. Here’s that first behavior, that first toxic behavior. Number one, being lazy. Yes, laziness minimizes the influence of the Holy Spirit. And it’s time we do away with the excuses. Matthew chapter 25 beginning at verse 24 popular parable. Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, “Master, I knew you were a harsh man harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate.

I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.” But the master replied, “You wicked and lazy servant. If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? At least I could have gotten some interest on it.

Then he ordered, “Take the money from this servant and give it to the one with the 10 bags of silver. To those who use well what they are given, even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. So then we see that God takes very seriously stewardship.

What you do with your time, what you do with your resources, what you do with your energy and the influence that God has given to you, you have to consider, am I being lazy? Am I really living to the fullest potential that God has called me to live or do I waste time? Do I let the hours just slip by? Maybe you’re not using your spiritual gifts.

Maybe you know you should be teaching or encouraging others or serving at your local church or mentoring those who God is bringing your way and you say, “I’m just I’m just not ready right now. Maybe next year. Maybe in this next season, maybe when things become simpler and we’re pushing off the use of our spiritual gifts out of laziness.

Or maybe you’re avoiding responsibility in your calling. Maybe you sense that God has called you to start a ministry. Maybe he called you to start a small group or maybe even a media ministry and you’re saying, “I’m too busy. I don’t have the resources. I don’t have the right connections.” And again, you’re giving into laziness.

Or you might say, “Someone else is more qualified.” Or maybe you might be spiritually passive and you’re choosing entertainment over the things of God. You’re choosing scrolling through reals instead of looking at the scripture. You’re choosing social media and different series that you watch on different streaming platforms and you’re just entertaining your life away.