Quench Not The Spirit – Daily

Quench Not the Spirit – Daily

“Quench not the Spirit”
1 Thessalonians 5:19

Truth, to be the truth, must be so in the reality of everyday life. The substance of truth is only known as the Living Christ becomes the source and verity in my daily living. When Jesus declared “I AM the Truth” He was revealing that truth is more than words, much more than a mere belief. He gave us the essence of what it means to be on the path of becoming sons in His Father’s house.

“But as many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God…”
John 1:12

To whom is given this power? “As many as received Him”! Not the teachings, doctrines, and concepts about Him, but Christ Himself. As He moves within us, as we breathe in His Spirit, there is in an ever-growing ministration of the substance of His nature whereby we become more like Him. This dynamic of His Life brings us to vistas of trust in Him that enable us to walk above and beyond our own resources.

Quench not the Spirit – Daily

This is His word to us daily, a word that quickens us to obey the intonations of His promptings and His convictions. In these moment-by-moment transactions with Him prompting me to overcome temptations, to see His divinely appointed opportunities within the everyday activities of life, I am offered His power and ability to live free from sin and to minister unto Him. It is as I give heed to His voice and His life that I grow in the grace and power of Him. Each time I harden my heart to His promptings, or ignore His instructions, I hinder my own “becoming” by denying the power and wonder of His Life.

“Quench not the Spirit”

This is His Word to me personally. It is both a word of warning and of exhortation. In my turning to Him and opening my heart to His influence life becomes an adventure in the Way of His Life! To talk of some future event, of “someday”, apart from responding to Him daily deadens the heart to the “today” of His Will and we unknowingly exclude ourselves from the rewards of tomorrow.

1. The one who buried his talent in the earth of his own ignorance the Lord called “wicked and slothful”. His future was determined by the lack of diligence to the gift given.
2. The five foolish virgins who did not comprehend their need of oil IN THEIR VESSELS could not keep the fire of Him burning late into the night. In doing so they failed to be a part of the future event they were expecting.
3. The “called” in the Parable of the Wedding Feast, because of their preoccupation with other obligations, allowed those things to take precedence and did not respond to the invitation.

Lukewarmness

There are many such examples concerning His coming. It is as we remain intent on hearing Him and remaining responsive that we find grace to partake of His provisions. It is slothful to ignore His daily pressings in our life. The subtle enemy of slumber overtakes the lukewarm. The deception of the spiritual condition of being lukewarm is that there is enough “warmth” in our hearts to convince us that we are not cold; enough words (right words, good words) in our conversations to convince us that we are okay with God. Yet in His estimation it is a life that He “spews out of His mouth” (Revelation 3:16).

Those who are comfortable in this deadly state have an assurance that they “have need of nothing” further of Him. Their inability to comprehend their standing with God has little to do with relationship and more to do with an alienation from the “Life” of God. There is no longer a sense of His promptings, no “hearing” of His voice in the depths of their being, and no “works” of faith as a result of His life working through them.

Let us consider afresh the Word of God:

1. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God”
Romans 8:14
2. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me”
John 10:27
3. “Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice”
John 18:37

The validity of our life in God is to be defined by our being led by His Spirit, actively following Him (choosing His will above our own) and hearing His voice to the point of responding to His convictions, His exhortations and His promptings in our daily life.

Can we not hear Him calling out to us to live in the growing wonder of this relationship? The more we respond, the more we are enabled to respond, the more we become more alive in Him!

Quench not the Spirit – Daily

♥

“To day if ye will hear his voice,
harden not your hearts…”
Hebrews 3:15

Please read a related Post: The Holy Fire of God

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“As the Word of God is crucial in generating faith (Romans 10:17) it is primary in the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. When we reject scriptural truth and refuse to be directed by it, we are, in essence, quenching the Spirit. As we heed the instruction and principles of God’s Word we are being led by the Spirit. It isn’t by an indefinable force, or in the Divine manipulation of our circumstances, that we discover the substance of the Spirit’s leading; it is with the voice of God inked on the pages of our Bible. To walk in the Spirit is to make life choices based upon God’s Word. To quench the Spirit is to handle the details of our lives with our own agenda, in our own strength, and by our own wisdom.

The sad result of quenching the Spirit is to alienate ourselves from the life of God. It is to live in futility, and it is a contradiction to our identity in Christ.”
– Hal Bekemeyer

Brian Troxel