John Piper says it best: “the vibrant fullness of the Spirit overflows in appropriate expressions like singing and making melody from the heart to the Lord (Ephesians 5:18–19). QUENCHING THE SPIRIT. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you” (Ephesians 4:29–31). Thus, the unintended, practical effect of cessationism is to quench the Spirit. This does not mean the Holy Spirit will leave you. And Paul’s exhortation is a warning to all of us lest we become part of the contemporary bucket brigade that stands ready to douse his activity with the water of legalism, fear, and a flawed theology that, without biblical warrant, claims that his gifts have ceased and been withdrawn. By Dr. Ken Matto . They were not to stop doing the … Sam Storms is lead pastor for preaching and vision at Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and also serves on the Board of Directors for Desiring God. How many of us pause to consider the ways in which we inadvertently quench the Spirit’s work in our lives individually and in our churches corporately? The idea was that of stopping or ending the ability of a fire to continue. Some envision the Spirit as if he were no more than an ethereal energy, the divine equivalent to an electric current: stick your finger of faith into the socket of his “anointing presence” and you’ll experience a spiritual shock of biblical proportions! To grieve means to make sad or sorrowful. We don’t. They criticized every miracle, rebuffed every healing, scorned every deliverance and ultimately they rejected God’s gift to them and their nation. He is author of. He is sovereign. No matter how badly people may have abused the gift of prophecy, it is disobedient to Scripture — in other words, a sin — to despise prophetic utterances. It does not mean that we have final or decisive control over the omnipotent Spirit of God. Do we church leaders instill fear or courage in the hearts of people by the way we speak and preach and lead? Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5 that God has granted to Christians the ability either to restrict or release what the Spirit does in the life of the local church. Without the Spirit's leading, you have no joy or inner peace. In the context of Paul’s letter, he was encouraging believers to live a holy life according to God’s Spirit. And then it means four things: 1. despising some gift of the Holy Spirit, 2. neglecting some gift that we have, 3. shutting down our emotions and refusing to give expression to them, and 4. resisting the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. We limit the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says, "Do not put out the Spirit's fire" (1 Thessalonians 5:19). In both of these texts, the experiential, felt assurance of our adoption as the children of God is the direct result of the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Any attempt to conjure up “hope” apart from that power which is the Spirit (Romans 15:13) is to quench him, as well as any effort to persevere in ministry and remain patient with joy by any other means than the Spirit (Colossians 1:11). The word ‘quench’ means: to suppress, to stifle, or to extinguish. The Preacher’s Outline and Sermon Bible lists four ways we can quench the Spirit in our lives. Here is 1 Thessalonians 5:16–22. All of our resources exist to guide you toward everlasting joy in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit does not force us to do God's will but it gives us Spiritual insight to know right from wrong. Do not quench the Spirit; 1 Thessalonians 5:19(NASB) ... baptised into the body of Christ and permanently in-dwelt by the Holy Spirit Himself, and He calls us to walk in spirit and truth and to live godly in Christ Jesus. Paul admonishes the believers to live a Holy life according to God ’ s Outline and Bible. 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