How to Quench the Holy Spirit
1 Thessalonians 5:16-19 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil. (NRSV)
Every morning when we get up out of bed, the biggest determinant of the sort of day that we’re going to have is the attitude in our hearts. And it turns out that our heart-attitude is extremely important to God too.
Quench – it’s an interesting word, isn’t it? Somehow, just the way it sounds – quench – tells you what it’s all about. Quench!!
Think about all the things in life that you can quench. A fire is something we quench. Enthusiasm, faith, hope, love, joy; they’re all things that we can quench.
There’s something else that we can quench too, and as things turn out, it’s closely related to all those. Well, it’s not so much a something, but a someone:
1 Thessalonians 5:16-19 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good; abstain from every form of evil. (NRSV)
How about that: do not quench the Spirit, because when you think about it, faith, hope, love and joy are all gifts that He brings into our lives. And why wouldn’t He? He’s God living inside every man, woman and child who believes in Jesus.
Do you want to know how to quench the Holy Spirit? Be grumpy, complain, grumble, be ungrateful, instead of rejoicing always and praying without ceasing and giving thanks in all circumstances, which, after all is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.
I think sometimes that we over-spiritualise our relationship with God. We have a choice in the attitude that we deploy each day. We can be humble and grateful, or grumpy and complaining. It’s our choice, yours and mine.
Don’t quench the Spirit.
That’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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Tina
I don’t think we can over-spiritualise our relationship with God. In fact, the problem with many Christians is ...
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I don’t think we can over-spiritualise our relationship with God. In fact, the problem with many Christians is they under-spiritualise their relationship with God. God is continually calling us into a deeper relationship with Him to walk out our salvation for the perfecting of our faith. In this, there can be no overspiritualisation.