How to Quench the Holy Spirit

Hello Church Family: Consider for a moment a few of the powerful works of the Holy Spirit in your life today.
-All moral transformation in your life is the work of the Holy Spirit.
-Every victory over sin is the work of the Holy Spirit.
-Everything that you know about God is the work of the Holy Spirit.
-Everything you know about Jesus is by the work of the Holy Spirit.
-All your understanding of God’s Word is the work of the Holy Spirit.
-All the strength you receive when you are weak is the work of the Holy Spirit.
-All encouragement when you are in despair is the work of the Holy Spirit.
 
Do you often forget that the eternal Holy Spirit of the Godhead lives in you today working and cleansing and purifying you? You have the Holy Spirit, who is God, infinite, holy, omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. That power is within you to bring forth all the fruits of the victory won by Jesus Christ in His life, death and resurrection. But on the other side, here we are, finite, weak, unholy, fleshly, humans who can actually deter, hinder and resist the power of the Holy Spirit of the Godhead. Who would have ever thought that humans could suppress the Spirit of God? Just writing that makes me feel very uneasy but it is true. The Holy Spirit tells us in Paul’s writing, “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thes. 5:19).
 
One of the metaphors that Scripture uses to help us understand the Holy Spirit is that the He is like a fire. Not a physical fire but metaphorically LIKE a fire. His work is like the effect that fire has on dry pine straw. Fire plus pine straw equals fuel for the raging fire. The Holy Spirit wants to intensify the heat of His presence among us through a mind that is set on the Spirit (Romans 8:5-11). He wants to inflame our hearts with His increasing power and purification within us and Paul says don’t quench that work.
 
The quenching of a fire happens when the fuel is decreased or turned off. The point of this quenching metaphor is that the power, purity, and cleansing work of the Holy Spirit can be diminished, preventing God’s work in our lives because of our heart's desires for the world. This means that you can be a follower of Christ with the Holy Spirit living in you and still be living a life absent of the powerful work of the Holy Spirit.
 
Let us look at four of the most common ways we quench the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the life of the Church. We quench the Spirit:
- When we actively resist the gracious behavioral fruit that the Holy Spirit wants to produce in our life (Gal. 5:22) - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
-When we despise the supernatural work of the Spirit in us and others (1 Thes. 5:19-21).
-When we reject emotions of joy, peace, love, hope, zeal and unity when the Spirit is urging them in us at that moment (Eph. 5:18-19).
-When we neglect the gifts that the Spirit has given us to build up the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12).

Let us search our hearts for where we are quenching the Holy Spirit in our lives and in GCT. We are not sovereign, God is. And He alone empowers us to escape lives of quenching to lives that fan the flame of the Holy Spirit together (2 Tim. 1:6).

See you Sunday to fan the flame together, Steve