April 9
“Do not quench the Spirit;” (1 Thessalonians 4:19)
Once the fire of the Holy Spirit gets started and burning in our lives, we need to keep feeding it material to burn. I think we do this by ongoing obedience to the Spirit’s leading, the still small voice within us guiding us which is never in contradiction to His Word. We do this by asking God what we should do and doing it. Obedience fuels the fire. Ministering to others and allowing others to minister to us also helps spread the fire and increase it. This may have been in mind when Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians because the very next verse is “do not despise prophetic utterances,” which perhaps we could expand to include any gifts of the Spirit don’t hinder.
When I was serving as an elder in a church, when I felt that some of the decisions that were being made in leadership were quenching the Spirit by telling people “no” who were excited about serving. They wanted to use their gifts, and the church wasn’t willing to accommodate what they wanted to do or even offer a course correction to benefit from their enthusiasm and still see something move forward in a critically needed ministry. I thought that those making those decisions were quenching the Spirit, and people ultimately left the church as a result. So also when we refuse the leading of the Holy Spirit or refuse to use our gifts, I believe that we are sinning by omission, and we are quenching the Holy Spirit. We are denying Him the materials to burn more brightly in our lives.
I think most of us struggle with quenching the Spirit by both sins of commission and sins of omission. We pour water on the fire and fail to feed it so it can grow. And many of us don’t even realize we are doing this. Think about the ways that you grieve and quench the Spirit, ways that your sins pour water on what the Spirit wants to do in your life. Think through the “wood” that you need to get dried out by confession and repentance so that the Holy Spirit can burn in you again.
What are the top two or three things can you do to stop pouring water on the fire that the Spirit wants to see burning in your heart for God? What would you eliminate? What would you stop doing? What sins would you stop committing?
What are the top two or three things can you do to stop depriving the Holy Spirit of more materials to burn, that is in what ways are you saying “no” to His voice when you should be saying “yes, Lord” and obeying Him?
Make a plan of what you will do about these sins, and cry out to God for the ability to carry out the plan with success. Ask Him urgently and daily to show you all the ways that you quench and grieve Him, and ask Him for a great sensitivity to Him and His leading in your life. Ask Him to burn brightly in you, consuming your dross, refining you, perfecting you, increasing your light and effectiveness for Him.