1 Thessalonians 5:19 Quench not the Spirit.
Quench not-the Spirit being a holy fire: "where the Spirit is, He burns" [Bengel]
To quench is to extinguish or put out a fire.
God implies the Holy Spirit in us is as a fire and should not be dampened.
Matthew 3:11:
I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that
cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear:
he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
Hebrews 12:29:
For our God is a consuming fire.
It
is interesting to note that on the day of Pentecost the apostles saw a
vision of
"tongues as of fire."
They then manifested forth the new
spirit within by speaking in tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance
(
Acts 2:4).
We have been given so much ability to exercise the
power of God.
Our freedom of will determines how much of that power we
will bring forth.
We have the powerful Word of God at our
disposal as well as the spirit of God within us.
People hear a lot of
words spoken but rarely do they see the genuine power of God unless a
believer is manifesting it.
God wants us to use it not quench it.
I Corinthians 2:4 and 5:
And my speech and my preaching was not with
enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and
of power:That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in
the power of God.
The connection in which the exhortation,
"Quench not the Spirit" occurs, shows to what it refers.
The next
sentence is, "Despise not prophesying."
It has to do with the gifts of
the Spirit and their exercise in the holy liberty and power of the
Spirit.
"Quench not the Spirit" would go further, and warns us
against any attempt to shut out, or impose limits on the free action of
the Holy Spirit in the gifts He has entrusted to the saints.
The word
quench means to suppress or stifle.
"Quench not"--as if it were a candle
flame,--a fire, which might be extinguished.
.
Don’t throw cold water on someone else who is operating under the power and fire of God!
Do not throw water on yourself from doing the same thing by resisting the move of the Spirit and smothering it out.
.
The
Pharisees restrict the flow of spiritual experiences until religion
becomes a purely intellectual and theological exercise, and the Spirit
is quenched.
Pharisaism was heretical in spite of its theological
correctness.
The Pharisee's real problem was that they drastically
overvalued the role of theology in spiritual life and made theological
correctness the chief religious virtue.
(I know of webblogs where people are doing that today!)
They had a man~given confidence
in their theology.
Their faith became intellectualized.
Their center of
faith moved from the heart to the head.
A sign of this was the way that
they bombarded Jesus with theological questions.
.
The Pharisee's
self~evaluation was that they were on the forefront of what God was
doing for Israel.
Jesus judgement of them was different:
Matthew 23:29-33 (King James Version)
29Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs
of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,
30And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.
31Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.
32Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.
33Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
.
Although
they believed themselves to be the protectors of orthodoxy, the
Pharisees were really the opponents of the Holy Spirit.
All Pharisaism
contains tragic elements of missed opportunities.
They stood in the way
of the person of the Holy Spirit at work.
They are "witch hunters" who like to point out errors and win their case.
.
On
the other hand, well meaning workers in ministry want to help
individuals from being
presumptuous.
When Christians begin to
appropriate specific promises in Scripture as being applicable to
themselves and nothing happens they can become very confused and
disillusioned.
Yes the Holy Spirit can and does speak to individuals,
and it is often through Scripture.
But one must use discernment, is it
really the voice of God or is it presumption?
.
We want to
encourage and to inspire others to move out in the power of the Holy
Spirit while helping them to avoid presumption.
A very fine line, if we
are not careful we could 'throw the baby out with the bath water.'
.
Many
people were upset with Jesus because He claimed to know the mind and
heart of God, to speak directly for God, to reveal God's mind and heart
towards an individual or group of individuals.
Therefore they threw Him
out with the bathwater!
They missed Jesus Christ, Almighty God the
Master Creator because of their resistance to what He was and what He
was saying.
They clung tightly to their orthodoxy and their drastically
overvalued theology and therefore they missed Jesus for who He truly is.
.
Are we upset at those who attempt to have an active faith idealism?
.
Ephesians 3:20 (New King James Version)
20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.
.
I like that, "ask or think."
What are the implications of this scripture?
Can we have faith with a
vision?
Can we think while using our minds eye to see our thoughts
realized.
Can we see ourselves ministering to others before it happens?
Lonnie Frisbee did and look what he accomplished in his short life time.
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
.
God
does call us to serve Him. He does give us a hope for a future.
If you
know that you know, that He has called you to a task.
And you hold that
vision dear, what will be the result?
There will be opposition from
those who hold to rigid legalistic rules with tight boundaries.
"You
can't do that!
Your a dreamer!"
.
Genesis 37:5And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.
.
And yet Joseph was the deliverance for all of his brothers and their kin.
Do
you have a vision a dream?
Are you willing to suffer the contempt of
others as you pursue your dream, your vision?
Will you hold true to your
vision and your dream through the years knowing that our God cannot
lie?
.
Titus 1:2In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;
.
You
know that you know, that God has planted a vision and a dream within
you.
A passion!
Circumstances matter nothing whatsoever in the light of
what God has placed within you.
You know your God.
You know what He has
done and what He is capable of doing.
.
Sight is a function of the
eyes; vision is a function of the heart.
You don't see anything
happening at all and yet you know that you know that God will perform
that which He has promised.
You see what will be.
.
You know what will be!
.
"Where there is no vision, the people perish."
King Solomon
Proverbs 29:18
.
Do you have a vision?
Jesus had a vision and He knew it.
"For this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth."
John 18:37
.
It is important for you to know your vision.
To know what you are meant to do.
What has God prepared you for?
Don't bury your dreams.
Don't give up on your God given vision.
You have a reason and a purpose for your life and you know it.
.
"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might."
Ecclesiastes 9:10
.
Your
purpose is your passion.
It gives you hope and keeps you going because
you know that what God has given to you to accomplish cannot be stopped
by anyone!
You are immortal here on earth until God's will in your life
has been accomplished.
.
But you have to fight for it, you have to
believe in it, you have to put your whole might behind it.
You have to
stay in the race and see it to completion.
You have to believe in the
gift or gifts that God has placed within you.
"A man's gift...brings
him before great men." Proverbs 18:16.
.
"For this reason I remind you to fan to a flame the gift of God, which is in you." 2 Timothy 1:6
You
have a human responsibility to fan to a flame your gift.
Stir up the
gift of God.
No one can activate your gift but you.
You have to do it
yourself.
.
You do this by reason of usage, just as a bodybuilder
does with weight resistance to accomplish growth.
Stir up your own gift
and don't seek other people's gifting.
You are created uniquely to be
what you are to better to do God's will.
You are an original, not an
imitator.
Be who you are and God's.
.
i believe that the Lord would say to you:
"Today
there are few, among the millions our Father has sent to the
earth~world, who give themselves and their lives with total dedication
to Me.
There are many dedicated ones who say, "Take my whole life", and
then proceed to live it according to their own idea of My will.
Thank
you, My workers, for wanting above all other things to work with Me for
My will.
.
Do nothing that is not My will.
This is the secret of
not hurrying.
Do what is My will in My time, leaving the weight of
responsibility to be carried by Me."
***
As the days start growing darker and good is called evil and evil called good the Holy Spirit will empower those who have availability and are yielded to Him.
The time of the latter rain has come and those who were promised that the latter rain would be greater than the former are about to experience the explosive power of the Holy Spirit moving through them in ministering to others and displaying the power of God.
Be not intimidated.
You have seen others promoted to position while it were as if you had been left on the bench and not called forth.
Look not to the right nor to the left, keep a steadfast focus upon the Lord Jesus Christ.
Embrace the vision and the calling that He has given you so long ago.
Believe in what you have been told and shown by Christ.
For the first shall be last and the last shall be first.
Greater darkness calls for greater light!
Those who have gone on before you had light but the light will increase in these dark days ahead for those who are still here serving.
Dare to allow yourself to dream the dream to entertain the vision and the call placed upon you by the Holy Spirit like warm oil flowing down and anointing you for service.
Stark Reality will impact you as you seek to fulfill your destiny in Christ.
For God Almighty is calling for His sons and daughters to leave their caves.
To get out upon the hill and to let their light so shine that the world may know that Jesus lives!
The Holy Spirit awaits you!
He desires to move in might and power through you as you represent Christ to a broken world.
Quench not the Spirit.
Fan to a flame that which is within you.
John 15:5 "I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."
