Don't Quench the Spirit

eDevotion

Encouragement for your daily walk with God

My former pastor and mentor, Dr. Richard Strauss, offered the best working definition of God’s sovereignty that I have heard to date. He said, “God is the highest and best, and does whatever He pleases in heaven and earth.” Theologically and experientially that is true. No one can thwart the will of God.

Do you find it interesting, as I do, that while no one can prevent God from doing what He wants in heaven and earth, the Bible declares that we can prevent (quench) the Spirit of God’s work in our lives! We do this by ignoring, disobeying, or rejecting His activity in our lives. There are consequences for this. The prophet Isaiah described it like this, “Hearing you will hear and not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them” (Isaiah 6:9 cf. Matthew 13:14–15).

Here are some ways we quench the Spirit’s work in our lives.

• We ignore Him when He convicts us of sin
• We disregard His bidding to repent
• We stifle His application of the Word of God in our lives
• We refuse to take action at His prompting
• We resist His interaction in our lives

I’ll be the first to admit that the Spirit of God does not always make your life comfortable. That being said, when you listen to, and follow Him, He guides you to abundant life!

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