Unquench Your Thirst
5 min read
19 Do not quench the Spirit.
— 1 Thessalonians 5:19
The idea that we could even quench the Spirit of God is amazing in itself. Some people may want to believe that when the Spirit of God gets a hold of us, nothing could quench the Spirit, but that’s not true.
When I was being saved, I resisted the Holy Spirit on several occasions. The Spirit of God is not One to force Himself upon us. The Spirit of God is more like an expert dance instructor training us to dance the dance of faithfulness with Him.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that the Holy Spirit will ever give up on us. The Holy Spirit will not force Himself upon us, but He will never give up on us either.
Paul is giving the Thessalonians a series of instructions about life in the church—our attitude towards leaders (verses 12-13), toward one another (verses 14-15), the attitudes we carry in ourselves (verses 16-18), and our attitude towards God and His word (verses 19-22). The heart of these instructions seems to be this one to not quench the Spirit.
Ultimately, the quenching of the Spirit is a personal matter. Each of us has a responsibility to not quench the Spirit of God in ourselves but to allow Him to do the work of salvation and sanctification and glorification in us and to not resist that work.
Sometimes I may be tempted to quench the Spirit when I want to “turn off” my religious life. The devil tricks us into thinking that our religious lives are not our true selves. And that lie is easy to believe because in a sense it is true. A life of being sanctified by the Holy Spirit is not our natural state. Our natural state is to live according to the flesh. And so being “religious” may feel unnatural, but the Holy Spirit will turn our “religiousness” into faithfulness if we do not resist Him.
At the same time, as followers of Jesus Christ, we also have a responsibility to help and to encourage others to not quench the Spirit of God in themselves. And this too is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. We have a responsibility to not create and to not promote unhealthy, unnecessary drama that will distract anyone from the work of God being glorified in and through our community.
We must hold on for dear life to what is true. We must hold on to the truth that is God’s word, the testimony of Christ and Him crucified, resurrected, and returning.
Father, You are the the Giver of life. You have given us Your Holy Spirit to live a life that glorifies You. Forgive me whenever I quench the Spirit. Holy Spirit, thank You for never giving up on me but always inviting me into Your presence daily. In Jesus’s name. Amen.