26 For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, 27 But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. 28 He that despised Moses’ law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: 29 Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?
Listen to this sermonThe Benefits of Divine Restraint
2/24/2006
Andre Pelser

Combating the Spirit of Anarchy or Lawlessness that is fast spreading in our world today we need the restraint of the Holy Spirit to increase in our lives. If we ask in faith, we can believe that the Spirit’s wonderful restraining power will increase in our lives as from today.

Proverbs 29:18
18 Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

VISION. (2 Chr. 32:32) chazon (cha-zohn); Strong’s #2377: A prophetic vision, dream, oracle, revelation; especially the kind of revelation that comes through sight, namely a vision from God. This noun occurs thirty-five times and is from the root chazah, “to see, behold, and perceive.” Chazon is especially used for the revelation which the prophets received. (See Is. 1:1; Ezek. 12:27-28; Dan. 8:1-2; Obad. 1; Hab. 2:2-3.) The prophets understood God’s counsels so clearly because He revealed matters to them by visible means. Proverbs 29:18 shows that when a society lacks any revelation from God (divine insight), such a society heads in the direction of anarchy.

Vision is ‘chazah’ in Hebrew and refers to a prophet or a seer in an ecstatic state. It also refers to seeing by experience.
The word for perish is ‘para’ and it means to uncover or go naked.
To keep the law is to ‘shamar’ or to preserve, restrain and protect one’s life, to watch out for, to beware and the law is ‘torah’ a volume of priestly instruction and direction given for that pupose.

The Message Bible describes the same verse as follows:
If people can’t see what God is doing,
they stumble all over themselves;
But when they attend to what he reveals,
they are most blessed.

The New Living Translation states it this way”
When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is happy.

Without restraint people perish. It is vital to know the areas that are off limits to us as children of the most High God. When we overstep the boundaries we open ourselves up to the enemy who would think nothing of dcstroying our lives in an instant. Even though we have the liberty of sons of God, we need to abide by the restraining influence of the Holy Spirit.
The Spirit can be grieved by our unwillingness to listen to Him. He may also be quenched eventually if we persist in our stubbornness. Let us as for mercy today and for forgiveness of grieving the spirit and let us once again welcome the restraining influence of the Spirit in our lives.
Days are becoming more evil than ever before because the enemy knows his time on earth is short. He has come to steal and kill and destroy as many souls as possible; but Jesus has come that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

Be under divine restraint of the Holy Spirit guarding your heart, mind and actions
Exercise restraint in eating and drinking, responses to others
Place restraint on expenditure, on how time is spent and where you go
Without restraint people perish: no limits, no boundaries leads to destruction

The Benefits of the restraining power of God in our lives is clear: He will keep us from resisting, grieving or quenching His Holy Spirit in our lives if we submit to His divine guidance and follow His instructions. This is the way we will escape the corruption that is in the world today.

Defining the word ‘Restraint’:
1. katapauo (2664); See REST B, No. 2.
2. katecho (2722), “to hold fast or down,” is translated “restraineth” in 2 Thess. 2:6 and 7. In v. 6 lawlessness is spoken of as being “restrained” in its development: in v. 7 “one that restraineth” is, lit., “the restrainer” (the article with the present participle, “the restraining one”); this may refer to an individual, as in the similar construction in 1 Thess. 3:5, “the tempter” (cf. 1:10, lit., “the Deliverer”); or to a number of persons presenting the same characteristics, just as “the believer” stands for all believers, e.g., Rom. 9:33; 1 John 5:10. V. 6 speaks of a principle, v. 7 of the principle as embodied in a person or series of persons; cf. what is said of “the power” in Rom. 13:3, 4, a phrase representing all such rulers. Probably such powers, i.e., “constituted governments,” are the “restraining” influence here intimated (specifications being designedly withheld). For an extended exposition see Notes on Thessalonians, by Hogg and Vine, pp. 254-261.

Akataschetos in 2 Thessalonians is unrestrainable
Katecho is to hold down
Echo is to hold and continue holding like an echo in a cave

Under God’s restraining influence we will be prevented from resisting the Holy Spirit

Antipipto: to fight against, to fall against, like alighting from a bus: getting out of a vehicle that takes you to your destination, getting out before you arrive there.

Acts 7:51
51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy
Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

Ephesians 4:31
31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

Hebrews 3:10-15
10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. 11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.) 12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. 13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; 15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

Under God’s divine guidance we will be prevented from grieving the Holy Spirit

1. aganakteo (23), from agan, “much,” and achomai, “to grieve,” primarily meant “to feel a violent irritation, physically”; it was used, too, of the fermenting of wine hence, metaphorically, “to show signs of grief, to be displeased, to be grieved, vexed”; it is translated “sore displeased” in Matt. 21:15, KJV; “much displeased,” in Mark 10:14, 41; the RV always renders it “to be moved with, or to have, indignation,” as the KJV elsewhere, Matt. 20:24; 26:8; Mark 14:4; Luke 13:14. See INDIGNATION.
2. . prosochthizo (4360), “to be wroth or displeased with” (pros, “toward,” or “with,” ochtheo, “to be sorely vexed”), is used in Heb. 3:10, 17 (KJV, “grieved”; RV, “displeased”). “Grieved” does not adequately express the righteous anger of God intimated in the passage. See GRIEVE.
3. epul, loo-peh´-o; from ; to distress; refl. or pass. to be sad:— cause grief, grieve, be in heaviness, (be) sorrow (-ful), be (make) sorry.

Under God’s divine gui