The presence of the Holy Spirit brings peace and rest in our heart, and brings joy in our life; so anything that disturbs your peace, anything disturbs your joy, is a cause for alarm bells going off: hello, hello, hello, something's happening! I need to look at what is going on.
The Bible says: “the flesh ‘wars’ against the spirit”. When you are flowing with the Holy Spirit, the fruit is peace, joy within; but when there's something has grieved the Holy Spirit, you're in turmoil, you'll lose the peace, lose the joy - and it's always your flesh fighting against that, in various ways, which you may not recognise.
Let me just give you four examples in the Bible of people who grieved the Holy Spirit, or who lost the presence of God - and didn't know it.
1) Judges 16:20 - “Samson did not know the spirit of God had left him”.
He got very familiar with God's presence around his life; God would come on him, and help him at major times; and he didn't realise the spirit of God had left him. Why, what had happened?
There had been a dulling of his spiritual sensitivity through sexual sin - lust that he allowed to rage in his mind and thoughts. Because of the sexual sin that he was involved in, he gradually became desensitised to the Holy Spirit.
There came a point where the Holy Spirit drew back - grieved; and at that point, if you follow what happened, he goes into terrible bondage, loses vision, loses his whole perspective in life. We see this again repeated in the New Testament.
2) Psalm 95:10. “Israel grieved the Holy Spirit”.
Israel is an example for us. This is a whole congregation of people that grieved the spirit of God: “For 40 years, I was grieved with that generation”.
Look at that: God is grieved with a whole generation; and He said: “It's a people who go astray in their hearts, and don't know My ways”.
God says what caused Him to be aggrieved: they did not learn about Faith.
They'd had years in slavery, and were embittered by the bondage and problems they had. God drew them through a path - to change them and prepare them.
He wanted them to learn Faith, to learn to trust Him to meet their needs. Instead, they complained, constantly!
Complaining grieves the Holy Spirit; yet people do it like it's nothing - complaining about all sorts of things; not realising that when we complain, we are manifesting: we do not trust God.
We are manifesting our unbelief; and without faith, you can't please God. What it cost them was: they lost inheritance. The things that God wanted to give to them, they couldn't enter, because they grieved Him through their unbelief.
3) Luke 2:41, Mary and Joseph. His parents went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of Passover, and when He was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem, according to the custom of the feast. When they had finished the days, as they returned, the Boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem.
Joseph and His mother did not know it; and supposing Him to have been in the company, they went a day's journey, and then when they sought Him among their relatives and acquaintances, they could not find Him. They returned to Jerusalem - seeking Him.
It says: after three days, they found Him.
They walked away for a whole day. This is their child, you know - the saviour of the world! They got so used to Him being there, for 12 years. Every year they've gone up to the feast at the temple, at the same time. Every year they come back, they're in a pattern of familiarity. It's okay, He's in the crowd - He's there somewhere.