Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil. 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22
What does quenching the Spirit look like? The inclination is like the putting out of a fire by water. How does that relate to the Body when it comes together? Whether Paul was referring to the human Spirit led on by inspiration by the Holy Spirit or explicitly the Holy Spirit Himself the result is basically the same, a lessoning of the fire in the Body for Jesus. Obviously the Holy Spirit cannot be done away with as He is GOD. But since God gave Man a will and choice He allows Man to choose what way he wants to go and do. So God may step aside to allow us to fall flat on our faces because of our pride, stubbornness, sin, and stupidity … because we won’t listen to Him.
We get a clue from the next sentence, “Do not despise prophecies, but test everything;”, and that being the move of the Holy Spirit through an individual with His supernatural gifts. (See 1 Corinthians 12 & 14) The key is, “..test everything;”, and that should be by two or three prophets within the Body / group of the ekklesia that is meeting together. So now the issue becomes that most Churches today don’t even recognize that five-fold gift / call in the Body, or even identified anyone like that in their group / Church. So who is there to confirm and test the specific ‘word’, prophecy, tongue and interpretation? Most academics say that this was instruction only for that ‘first century’ Church because they didn’t have the ‘complete’ Word / Bible. So what gifts of the Holy Spirit remain if that is the case? Did the Holy Spirit change His ways? Did the Holy Spirit leave? Did the Holy Spirit withdraw from the earth because the Bible was printed and distributed? Obviously I’m not a fan of that ridiculous line of thinking.
Have you ever quenched the Holy Spirit? Have you ever pushed His prompting to the side, saying to yourself, “That thought is NOT God!”, because of your fear? Have you refused to move forward when the Holy Spirit was asking you to step out in faith to pray for someone that was right in front of you? Have you ever thought, “I don’t have time for You (Holy Spirit) right now?” Have you seen any religious leadership stop a move of God in its tracks? I have …and it severely grieved me. They were more concerned about their agenda than God’s. And I am sure it is still going on in many churches today.
Am I for a ‘free for all’ of emotionally charged craziness? No. I’m for a company of prophets who call out what is the Spirit and what is not, not just a single pastor ruling over everyone. I’m for following what the Apostle Paul laid out in his epistles / letters. I’m for the Spirit of God / Holy Spirit leading the ekklesia in the meetings together, where the fullness of the Body of Christ is expressed through MANY members in one Spirit. Where is that happening today? Most are led to believe that is happening in your current Church of hundreds or thousands, that the move through the ‘many members’ are the worship team, or person leading the announcements. But then I ask, “Where are the gifts of the Holy Spirit being utilized in that group or meeting? Just outside of the morning ‘worship hour’? The ‘worship hour’ is too holy for the Holy Spirit? See.. we have literally quenched the Spirit in SO many members in the institutional Church meetings… as they are never allowed to express what He is doing in their lives. Definitely big church meetings are VERY regimented as they could NEVER allow every member to express what the Spirit is doing in them… because of the … time frame. That’s why I’m a fan of the small group meeting / ekklesia. Those meetings are just as valid and most of the time are actually a better example of the Body of Christ than the big institutional Sunday Morning Church services. A meeting where people can actually ask questions and have conversations, and actually share their hearts for Jesus, and what the Holy Spirit has been doing in their lives.
That’s really where quenching of the Spirit happens … when you stop allowing .. questions. The quenching of the Spirit happens when you are unable to recognize those with prophetic gifts within your group — so nothing then is allowed from the supernatural gifts. Do you know anyone who is prophetically gifted by the Holy Spirit? Are they mature believers who know the Word well and how the Holy Spirit moves within His Body? If you really want to know Jesus deeper — find those who have a very intimate walk with the Holy Spirit, and befriend them. Ask those mature Holy Spirit filled disciples of Jesus a LOT of questions. Reawaken the fire of the Holy Spirit within you. We need the prophets back in the ekklesia… now!