May 21

1 Thessalonians 5:19 (NIV)
19 Do not quench the Spirit.

Another way this verse is put is “don’t put out the Spirit’s fire”. Obvious right? NOT! We do it all the time and the church is a pro at it! To “quench” is to cause a fervent activity to cease. The picture is that the Spirit of God has a passionate activity going and we through a blanket over it.

When a Pentecostal like myself thinks about this verse, he thinks about the Spirit of God moving in a church setting or small group and someone “poo-pooing” that activity by any number of means. (Not the least of which is that it is somehow “out of order” – whose order?) That should not be dismissed too quickly. It is easy to not understand or to not experience it yourself and then criticize it and therefore spread doubt which will extinguish the fire of God. Yet, this goes far beyond the church setting into our personal lives. God is doing a great work in us and then we quench it by going back to the pig pen or by counteracting it some way, thus we quench the fire. It is easy to do – all we have to do is walk in the flesh and we will not walk in the way of the Spirit. When God is doing something, let it go – in fact – fan it, agree with it, get in the fire!

Sometimes I think if Jesus came himself and started a fire that included things that we don’t “normally” do, we would ask Him to leave. It is time that we are open to the Spirit’s leading and to break out of our “normal” living, churching, and any other “ing”. When we see just a spark, let’s fan it into flame. We will certainly use discernment, but let’s not use that as an excuse to question everything. It would be a tragedy to kill a move of God in our lives or corporately under the guise of discernment which really equates to uncomfortability. Say with me today – come with your fire Holy Spirit! Catch me on fire so the world can watch me burn for you!