“Do Not Quench the Spirit”

August 13th, 2013 by Dave Leave a reply »

Do not quench the Spirit —1 Thessalonians 5:19

The voice of the Spirit of God is as gentle as a summer breeze— so gentle that unless you are living in complete fellowship and oneness with God, you will never hear it. The sense of warning and restraint that the Spirit gives comes to us in the most amazingly gentle ways. And if you are not sensitive enough to detect His voice, you will quench it, and your spiritual life will be impaired. This sense of restraint will always come as a “still small voice” (1 Kings 19:12), so faint that no one except a saint of God will notice it.

Beware if in sharing your personal testimony you continually have to look back, saying, “Once, a number of years ago, I was saved.” If you have put your “hand to the plow” and are walking in the light, there is no “looking back”— the past is instilled into the present wonder of fellowship and oneness with God (Luke 9:62 ; also see 1 John 1:6-7). If you get out of the light, you become a sentimental Christian, and live only on your memories, and your testimony will have a hard metallic ring to it. Beware of trying to cover up your present refusal to “walk in the light” by recalling your past experiences when you did “walk in the light” (1 John 1:7). When-ever the Spirit gives you that sense of restraint, call a halt and make things right, or else you will go on quenching and grieving Him without even knowing it.

Suppose God brings you to a crisis and you almost endure it, but not completely. He will engineer the crisis again, but this time some of the intensity will be lost. You will have less discernment and more humiliation at having disobeyed. If you continue to grieve His Spirit, there will come a time when that crisis cannot be repeated, because you have totally quenched Him. But if you will go on through the crisis, your life will become a hymn of praise to God. Never become attached to anything that continues to hurt God. For you to be free of it, God must be allowed to hurt whatever it may be.

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August 13, 2013

Today’s Journal Entry-JDV

Lord, I did not really understand the idea that the Spirit of God could be quenched. This is like….God losing patience with me and I know from the lessons about grace and mercy that your grace and love have no boundaries or limit; and certainly no boundaries that can be created by a believer. The only boundary I know about is the boundary of knowing or not knowing Jesus. If I am your child, through my identification with Christ then I understand that your grace, patience and mercy is unending; that I cannot possibly disobey or sin beyond your grace and forgiveness. If this is the case, then how can I quench the Spirit?

And God says…”The Holy Spirit deals with you on issues and opportunities all the day long. And as long as you listen closely you will hear the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is always trying to engage you, I never stop reaching out to you and speaking to you. However, you can and often do stop listening to Me. In certain areas of your life, where you do not want My involvement, where you want to have your own way, you stop hearing Me. And because you quit hearing me you cannot avail yourself of my direction, guidance and resulting blessings and growth; you in effect quench the Spirit by failing to listen and respond. Seek first the Kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and everything you need will be provided. Acknowledge Me in all your ways and I will make your paths straight. Delight yourself in the Lord and I will give you the desires of your heart.”

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