Fire Extinguishers
DO NOT QUENCH THE SPIRIT FIRE
"1THESS 5:19 Do not quench (suppress or subdue) the [Holy] Spirit;"
Do not allow the enemy to quench the fire in you, he uses his fiery darts, discouragement, weakness, challenges, oppositions.... OVERRIDE them through effectual fervent prayers..
The apostle Paul warned us not to "quench" the Spirit in 1 Thessalonians 5:19. "Quench" means to extinguish a fire.
If the apostle Paul himself had not warned us about quenching the Spirit, who among us would have thought it was possible (1 Thessalonians 5:19–22)? To suggest that the omnipotent Spirit of God could ever be quenched, and thus restricted in what he might do otherwise in our lives, and in the life of the local church, is to tread on thin theological ice.
I fear that today our trendy churches have been equipped with state-of-the-art fire extinguishers that do a professional job of eliminating any risk of a holy outbreak. Let's be mindful of the most common ways that we quench the Holy Spirit.
SIX WAYS WE QUENCH THE HOLY SPIRIT FIRE.
1. We quench the Holy Spirit when we rely decisively on any resource other than the Holy Spirit for anything we do in life and ministry.
Any attempt to conjure up “hope” apart from that power which is the Spirit (Romans 15:13) is to quench him, as well as any attempt to resolve to carry out some good work of faith through a “power” other than the Spirit is to quench him (2 Thessalonians 1:11).
2. We quench the Spirit whenever we diminish his personality and speak of him as if he were only an abstract power or source of divine energy.
Some envision the Spirit as if he were no more than an ethereal energy, the divine equivalent to an electric current: stick your finger of faith into the socket of his “anointing presence” and you’ll experience a spiritual shock of biblical proportions! The result is that any talk of experiencing the Spirit is summarily dismissed as dishonoring to his exalted status as God and a failure to embrace his sovereignty over us rather than ours over him.
3. We quench the Spirit whenever we suppress or legislate against his work of imparting spiritual gifts and ministering to the church through them.
Every gift of the Spirit is in its own way a “manifestation” of the Holy Spirit himself (1 Corinthians 12:7). The Spirit is made manifest or visibly evident in our midst whenever the gifts are in use. Spiritual gifts are the presence of the Spirit himself coming to relatively clear, even dramatic, expression in the way we do ministry.
“Spiritual gifts are the presence of the Spirit himself coming to relatively clear, even dramatic, expression.”
4. We quench the Spirit whenever we create an inviolable and sanctimonious structure in our corporate gatherings and worship services, and in our small groups, that does not permit spontaneity or the special leading of the Spirit.
5. We quench the Spirit whenever we despise prophetic utterances (1 Thessalonians 5:20).
No matter how badly people may have abused the gift of prophecy, it is disobedient to Scripture — in other words, a sin — to despise prophetic utterances. God commands us not to treat prophecy with contempt, as if it were unimportant.
“We quench the Holy Spirit when we rely on any resource other than him for anything we do in life and ministry.”
“No matter how badly some have abused prophecy, it is disobedient to Scripture to despise prophetic utterances.”
6. We quench the fire when we live in secret sin, habitual sin, spiritual weakness, prayerlessness (lack of effectual fervent prayers), lack of bible studies, ungodly relationship, disobedience to the truth, out of God's will, self, lies and hypocrisy, following false prophets and prophecies, falsehold, unforgiveness, malice, discouragement, anger and wrath, negetive confessions, doubt, Lack of faith, ( not walk by faith). And many more, all these are fire extinguishers.. They quench the fire of God in us.
Let's throw away our fire extinguishers and invite a fresh heavenly flame to engulf our lives.
May I urge you to carefully search your own heart and assess the possible ways in which you may have quenched the Spirit in your own life and in the experience of your local church? Yielding to and making room for the Spirit’s work in our midst is not to be feared but fostered. May God grant us both the wisdom and confidence in his goodness to facilitate a greater and more life-changing experience of the Spirit’s transforming fire. #AustinChinedu
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