1 Thess. 5:12-19 (NKJV)
It’s amazing how as Christians, we sometimes do the exact opposite of what we know to do and should do. In the scriptures today, it talks about not quenching the Spirit. This is an area that we should be kindling and yet we end up quenching.
The Bible reveals some specific areas of either kindling or quenching fires. In 2 Tim. 1:6, Paul told Timothy to fan into flame the gift of God that he received. In James 3:5-6 we are told that the tongue is set on fire from Hell. In these two examples, we see that there are spiritual fires that need to be kindled and some that need to be quenched and we must make sure that we are doing the right thing to the right fires.
Let’s look at the scriptures today and see how we can quench the Spirit of God, which we actually should be kindling. How do we sometimes quench the Spirit?
- We quench the Spirit by extinguishing it.
To extinguish the Spirit is to put out the Spirit’s fire by doing the opposite of what God would desire for us to do.
Eph. 4:30-32 talks about bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor and evil speaking that grieve the Spirit and in essence, put out the fire of God’s Spirit. - We quench the Spirit by ignoring it.
To ignore or neglect the Spirit is to let the fire to go out by not keeping it fueled.
1Tim. 4:14 Paul told Timothy not to neglect the gift of God that is in him. To neglect using our gifts for God’s glory is to put us where the fire burns out.
Acts 7:51 talks about resisting the Spirit because we are stiff-necked. We resist or ignore what God desires to do in and through our lives and we eventually allow the fire of God to burn out in our lives.
Are you kindling the fires of God or are you quenching the fires of God?
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