Sam Storms says that: “If the apostle Paul himself had not warned us about quenching the Spirit, who among us would have thought it was possible? To suggest that the omnipotent Spirit of God could ever be quenched, and thus restricted in what he might do otherwise in our lives, and in the life of the local church, is to tread on thin theological ice. 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. The Spirit comes to us as a fire, either to be fanned into full flame and given the freedom to accomplish his will, or to be doused and extinguished by the water of human fear, control, and flawed theology.”

Hopefully, at this point in our study, you are very much aware that we, at Rio, do NOT want to quench the Holy Spirit in any way. Rather, we want to give him the freedom to accomplish his will! As the Apostle Paul outlines in our passage above, we quench the Spirit when we despise prophetic utterances. But what are some of the other ways we can quench the Spirit among us?

We quench the Spirit when we seek to suppress the legitimate expression of heartfelt emotions or affections in worship either for ourselves or for others. Eph 5:19 tells us to “Sing and make music from our hearts to the Lord.” If we want to welcome the Holy Spirit among us in worship, then we need to offer him our wholehearted praise (and not reject that in others)! 

We quench the Spirit whenever we structure our gatherings, worship services, and small groups, in such a way as to rule out spontaneity or the special leading of the Spirit. We want to make space for him to move! We should also take advantage of the times of stillness and quietness in our services, praising him and listening for what he might want to say to you personally!

We quench the Spirit when we suppress his work of imparting spiritual gifts and then ministering to his church through them. We discussed this in week 2 of this study, where we talked about Spiritual Gifts. We need to embrace the supernatural, for our God is supernatural and his work through the Holy Spirit, irrespective of the type of gift, is entirely supernatural. But we need to believe in (and embrace) the more overtly supernatural gifts as well, for God uses them to reveal his presence, power and reality. As John Wimber said,“The answer to abuse (and that’s what we rightly fear when it comes to those gifts) is not disuse; it is right use.”

Finally, we quench the Spirit when we sense him telling us to do something, or to go in a particular direction, and simply choose not to obey or follow him. This takes discernment and practice, but we want to be open to the Spirit’s leading in our lives!

Let us seek to do all we can to fan the fire of the Holy Spirit’s presence into full flame, so that he can have his way in and through us!