1Thessalonians 5: 12 – 19 contains Apostle Paul’s instructions to Christians on how to live Spirit Filled lives. The verse 19 inclusive, talks about “Quench not the Holy Spirit.” *Many preachers and Bible teachers usually join Eph. 4: 30 with this verse which says “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit.” This devotional chose to deal with “Quench not the Holy Spirit” only for a specific reason and interest. Quenching the Holy Spirit and grieving the Holy Spirit have slight differences. The word” quench” is derived from a Greek word “Sbennymi” which means “to extinguish”, “to put out”, “to go out”. It is the same Greek word which Jesus used in *Matthew 25: 8* where the five foolish virgins said *“Give us of your oil, for our lamps are going out”.* Quenching here can be illustrated as throwing a wet blanket over a burning fire that slowly puts out the fire. As seen, quenching the Holy Spirit involves putting out the presence of the Holy Spirit as well as extinguishing His power gradually out of our lives.
By distinction, quenching the Holy Spirit is more of gradually stopping the power of the Holy Spirit in us. Grieving the Holy Spirit is more on doing things which cause the Holy Spirit to be sorrowful, hurt, angry, sad etc., by our actions and utterances. As Christians, we can quench the Holy Spirit when we do things in our own ways, restraining the force of the Holy Spirit to work along with us. We must know that the Holy Spirit operates like fire-like phenomenon. The Apostles on the Pentecost Day received Him in form of tongues of the fire *(Acts 2: 1 – 2)*. After He descended on them, Spiritual Power overwhelmed them. They rushed out preaching and talking in same languages of the different nationals who gathered. If the Apostles have refused to rush out, the power of God brought to them by the Holy Spirit would have stopped. In this doing, they have quenched the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit of God still tells us what to do, what to say, and distributing gifts to us according to how He sees us capable of working with. When we as Christians suppress the power or any of the gifts given, we have directly or indirectly quenched the Holy Spirit. I hope the description of “quenching the Holy Spirit is plain and carries no contradiction. The main reason behind this devotional is putting the phrase “quenching the Holy Spirit” very clear and understandable. By this introduction, can we find any area in our lives that corresponds with quenching the Holy Spirit? If discovered, do not worry. There is a good news. The last part of this devotional will be useful to all of us!
*PRAYERS:*
1. Father, open my spiritual eyes to see what I am doing that is putting out the presence of the Holy Spirit in me.
2. Holy Spirit of God, you are our great teacher after Jesus Christ. Show me where I have put you out of my life. Enable me to retrace my ways back to you in Jesus name.
STATEMENT OF CONFESSION
I got the Spirit of God in me, praise God. Hallelujah.
bishopubaudenyi@hopealivechurch