[Announcer] (0:00 - 0:16) Think about the Bible like you never have before. You're listening to Christian Questions. Access more audio, videos, and Bible study resources at ChristianQuestions.com.
Our topic is: "What Does It Mean if I Quench the Spirit?" Here's Rick and Julie.
[Rick] (0:18 - 0:25) Welcome, everyone. I'm Rick. I'm joined by Julie, a longtime contributor.
Julie, what's our theme scripture for this episode?
[Julie] (0:25 - 0:29) 1 Thessalonians 5:19: "Do not quench the spirit."
[Rick] (0:29 - 1:18) Well, that's a short one; short and to the point. God's spirit, His power and influence, is a power that we cannot even begin to comprehend.
His spirit was introduced to us as the mighty power of His will in the second verse of Genesis <Editor's Note: Correction--Genesis 1:3>, as His creative process began with, "Let there be light!" This same power and influence is described as taking root in us in Ephesians 4:13 <Editor's Note: Correction--Ephesians 1:13>, where it says we were sealed with God's spirit through the salvation of Jesus. With all the marvel of this mighty power of God working in us, how is it that we can quench it?
Matter of fact, why would we ever even think of doing such a thing, and most importantly, what do the scriptures tell us about handling this awesome privilege with reverence and humility?
[Julie] (1:19 - 1:48) A quick recap: We've been systematically going through the admonitions of the Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5, so you can listen in chronological order as we look closer at each text, but they stand alone as individual lessons, too.
This is the fourth of six briefly stated and yet powerfully connected "inside out" Christian Conduct lessons in 1 Thessalonians 5. We say "inside out" because the guidance Paul gives will help develop our inner character that reflects our outward selves.
[Rick] (1:48 - 2:08) When you develop the inner character, it is far more powerful than just trying to do something. It comes from the inside out. The first three parts of these connected "inside out" Christian Conduct lessons present a foundation for us to stand upon, and they were given to us in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:
[Julie] (2:09 - 2:16) "Rejoice always," "pray without ceasing," "in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
[Rick] (2:16 - 2:35) Three things. Paul provided these three powerful internal admonitions for us as a basis for coping with whatever may come our way. They are a basis.
That's why we call them "inside out". Rejoicing; a rejoicing, thriving state of being creates a solid environment for growth.
[Julie] (2:36 - 2:40) A prayerful state of mind keeps us tapped into our truest source of strength.
[Rick] (2:40 - 2:57) Then a thankful state of perception opens and reopens our ability to receive and apply God's direction. These are ALL God's will for us! These three pieces are what puts things in place so we can move forward.
[Julie] (2:57 - 3:00) Together they will build a spiritual resilience for us.
[Rick] (3:01 - 3:38) Yeah, and that's a really good way to describe it. There's a spiritual resilience through rejoicing, a prayerful state of mind, and thankful state of perception. Notice how this foundation is built upon three things that we need to ever and always apply in our daily lives.
The Apostle's next three teachings can be appropriately handled through these things working in our lives-- these three things that we just mentioned-- because the next three things are not "dos." They're not things we're supposed to do, but they're things we're NOT supposed to do.
They're "don'ts." Listen to the next scriptures. 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22:
[Julie] (3:38 - 4:07) "Do not quench the spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good;
abstain from every form of evil." Let's look at that first one: "Do not quench the spirit."
In the more familiar, perhaps, King James Version, it says "quench not the spirit." "Quench" means "to extinguish; to stifle." If I quench my thirst by drinking a big glass of water, I'm no longer thirsty.
A firefighter tries to quench the flames, meaning put out the fire.
[Rick] (4:08 - 4:50) "Quench not the spirit." Extinguish not the spirit. One of the first and foremost important points to consider here in this learning how to avoid the quenching of the spirit is that the Apostle is warning us to intentionally avoid extinguishing God's spirit within us.
He's saying you have to make that a clear stated priority in your own heart and mind. This means that once we have come into God's favor, through His spirit, we can, by our own thinking and our own actions, remove ourselves from the power of His favor working in our lives. We can be given this great big amazing glorious privilege, and we can actually remove ourselves from that privilege.
[Julie] (4:50 - 5:06) That's the warning that ties these previous three together. When we neglect what's really the "fuel" of joy, prayer, and gratitude, that's when we risk extinguishing the spirit's fire in us. To quench the spirit is like turning down, or even turning off, our power source.
[Rick] (5:06 - 5:14) Again, a really, really good example is you turn off your power source, and then eventually what's going to happen? Nothing.
[Julie] (5:14 - 5:16) You're run down. Yeah, nothing.
[Rick] (5:16 - 5:27) You're going to have nothing left. Let's look at where we are, where we're supposed to be, and then what can go wrong.
Let's set the baseline here with 2 Corinthians 5:17:
[Julie] (5:28 - 5:35) "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come."
[Rick] (5:35 - 6:54) We've got this beautiful picture. We are a new creation. Old things are behind us.
New things have come, and those are the things we're supposed to base our lives upon. Here's the problem, Julie. When we go about quenching the spirit, what it implies is that we're replacing the new things with the old.
Wait a minute! Weren't we supposed to put those things away? Isn't that right?
We've actually turned around on the road, and we're going back to what was old. That's not something we want to do. That's not a place we want to be.
The Apostle Paul understood the importance of making this a clear, intentional teaching. We need to dig into this, and we're going to suggest that there are two basic things to watch out for here. First, quenching the spirit implies we would be putting it aside and essentially ignoring its influence in our daily lives.
This might be amply described as we look at a portion of the Sermon on the Mount. Folks, you all know the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, and 7. Jesus gives profound teachings there.
He touches on principles that help us understand what quenching the spirit may in fact look like. Let's look at Matthew 5:14-16.
[Julie] (6:55 - 7:15) This is Jesus speaking: "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.
Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven."
[Rick] (7:16 - 8:18) He starts out with a city on a hill. When a city is up on a hill, you can't hide it. It's there.
It's out in the open. Then he says you have to let your light shine, and you've got this lamp that is such a powerful, powerful example of God's spirit in us. Well, let's think about this.
A lamp. What do you have a lamp for? It's meant to bring light where there's darkness.
If we take the light of God's influence within us and we cover it over (remember he said cover it with a bushel basket) we're going to do two things. First, we remove the lamp's very reason for being. If you're going to remove the lamp's very reason for being, why is it even there if you're going to cover it over?
Second, we eventually may extinguish its flame by depriving it of the oxygen that it needs to be fueled with, because if you cover it over with a bushel basket, there's no way for it to breathe. There's two parts that we have to watch out for. While this is a dramatic example, it warns us of living up to our commitment to following Jesus' footsteps.
[Julie] (8:18 - 9:08) Right. When you read "lamp," you have to think about the oil lamp. You're looking at a flame that's sitting under a bushel.
Now in scripture, God is described as light. Just one example; in the Tabernacle, His presence was symbolized by a brilliant glow above the Ark of the Covenant. At Pentecost, His power and influence was revealed through tongues of fire resting on each of the followers.
God's "word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Jesus, when he's filled with the holy spirit, was called "the true light." Then here in Matthew, his followers are "light."
"You are the light of the world." We've got God, Jesus, the faithful followers, all identified as "light," but that flame is fragile. It could be snuffed out by perhaps the winds of worldly influence or dimmed when we hide it, like you've been describing, Rick.
We cut ourselves off from that necessary spiritual fuel.
[Rick] (9:08 - 10:41) Remember, we started this episode by referencing the second verse <Editor's Note: Correction--Genesis 1:3> of the Bible. The power of the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, and you know what God said?
"Let there be light!" You've got this whole picture of light being so important. Jesus is saying, you're a frail human being, so your light is in this little lamp.
Don't cover it over so it doesn't go out. Remember, "a city set on a hill cannot be hidden." That's what the true church was supposed to be,
it's supposed to look like. It's supposed to be this example that others can look to. Let us not cover or hide the glorious light that we have been given.
Now look, Julie, we don't have the great, great, great light that Jesus had. We don't have it to that degree, or the way that God has it, or the way it was described in the Tabernacle. But what we have is a precious gift of light that needs to be fed, not quenched. That's the key here.
We've got to be careful that we don't ignore, we don't hide its influence, okay? Secondly--let's go a little further-- we can do things that set us on a spirit-minimizing path,
or we can NOT do things to keep us on the right path. This comes down to actions. Those actions, those inactions or actions depending, can minimize the power of God's spirit in our experiences.
We need to be careful about what we do. Let's look at another scripture that helps us to put this in perspective. Ephesians 4:29-32:
[Julie] (10:42 - 11:18) "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear." Once we receive the holy spirit, we've got the responsibility to maintain it. We can "quench" it, but we can also "grieve" it.
Listen to this, verse 30: "Do not grieve (meaning distress or make sorry) the holy spirit of God, by which you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice."
[Rick] (11:18 - 11:55) Pause there for a moment, because what the Apostle is saying in Ephesians is, look, God's spirit can be distressed. His power and influence can be distressed by what we do, by what we say and by what we think. That's why he says "let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you."
Don't go backwards. That's what you were, that's not what you are.
When we go back to that, we are distressing the power and influence of God working in our lives. We've got to work on putting those things aside and then replacing it with something. Let's continue with verse 32:
[Julie] (11:56 - 12:03) "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you."
[Rick] (12:03 - 12:20) You have the capacity to replace that which was with that which can bring you to a whole different level of spiritual maturity and a whole different kind of life. The Apostle is saying, go that direction. Don't be going backwards.
[Julie] (12:21 - 12:32) One thing that I noticed is, if we're going to grieve the spirit, not only are we doing that poorly, but we are going to stomp out our own joy. We can't calmly thrive in that kind of environment.
[Rick] (12:33 - 13:44) That's a really important point. Our calm thriving--the "rejoice always" really is that calm thriving in our experiences--is really dependent on our feeding God's spirit the permission to guide us. Once we stop giving it permission, that calm thriving is going to stop as well.
Grieving God's spirit, while different than extinguishing it, is still a really serious departure from our discipleship path. Now make no mistake, grieving God's spirit opens the door for the extinguishing process to potentially begin and to take place, because we're minimizing and we're replacing. The Apostle, in the simple words of our theme scripture "quench not the spirit," is giving a clear focused warning: Don't go down this road! Let's look at an example of grieving the spirit that can lead to quenching the spirit.
This really comes down to not acting on what we see and know to be true. That's a simple statement. Let's look at how it unfolds in scripture.
Let's look at James 1:22-24:
[Julie] (13:45 - 15:21) "But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was." Rick, you said, this is not acting on what we see and know to be true.
I can think of at least two ways that this could happen. One, through indifference; we neglect our spiritual priorities like prayer, Christian fellowship, and study because we're bored or lazy that day, or we know that God will be there tomorrow. We're disengaged,
so there's no real or lasting character transformation that's going to happen. But another way it might happen is through distraction; we let worldly concerns drown out our spiritual sensitivity.
Everything is competing for our attention these days. We become so busy with life and leisure that God slips lower and lower down our list of priorities. Perhaps we turn on a "spiritual autopilot" and we do just the bare minimum, like maybe zooming into church on Sunday while we're doing other things. Checking a box.
I think of taking weekly piano lessons as a young girl. I would open my music book at the lesson, knowing that the last time I'd opened it was at the last week's lesson. The entire week flew by, I had never once practiced, and there was no faking it with the teacher. I couldn't play the piano.
Ask yourself, is the last time I opened my Bible last Sunday? Was it last holiday? Was it last year?
Spiritual knowledge and development require time, practice, and discipline. I still can't play the piano!
[Rick] (15:22 - 17:02) That's a great story, though. That's a keeper, because that is such a clear description of what human nature brings us to. We come--and I forget exactly how you said it in some of your comments before--we become so busy with leisure.
Our leisure just takes up all of our time. We forget those things which are the most important. That's what the Scripture is saying.
Once you've looked at yourself in the mirror and you see, then you go away, and you forget. What good was looking?? What we have here is this is a lack of attentiveness to the reality of our lives as disciples of Christ. What's my job as a disciple of Christ?
It's really, really simple when you think about it. It is to walk where Jesus walked and how he did it. That's my job.
If we are forgetting what we see, we're not going to be attentive to this. Lack of attentiveness to our own condition easily leads to a lack of response. When we have a lack of response, we get trouble.
This grievous state of mind can be the beginning of a spirit-quenching pattern. Let's not avoid what we see! Like you said, let's see it.
Let's open the book in between and do the practicing that we're supposed to do so we can move forward. Because if we don't, here's what happens-- James, in the very next verse, reveals a deeper issue that goes beyond this lack of attentiveness and onto something called "self-deception."
There's a difference between not paying attention and deceiving oneself. James describes that in the next verses, James 1:25-26:
[Julie] (17:02 - 18:03) "But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does." The Greek word here for "doer" is not someone who just performs, but someone who creates or produces. The word "effectual" here implies fruitfulness.
Not just effort, but impact. This is an active faith being described. Continuing with verse 26: "If anyone thinks himself to be religious, and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is worthless."
The Greek word here for "worthless" means no purpose or spiritual value. It's the same word that's used elsewhere to describe idols and vain pursuits, things that look impressive, but they're empty. In context, James is saying that if someone claims to be religious but they can't even control their own tongue, they're deceiving themselves, and their religion is empty.
This is serious.
[Rick] (18:03 - 18:41) Yeah, and this self-deception is a classic tool of spirit quenching. When we get ourselves thinking about, we're okay, it's okay, this is good, this is the way I want to be...thinking of ourselves one way and acting another, thinking that I'm in God's grace, but acting out of God's grace, displays a spirit quenching mentality. It's a way of thinking.
We put ourselves in this position, and then we make it okay. That is out-and-out self-deception. Let's not rationalize our behavior in any way.
Call it as it is, and then step up and step forward.
[Julie] (18:42 - 19:21) This self-deception starts leading into areas of pride, because maybe we're clinging to bitterness or sin that we've grown really comfortable lugging around. Maybe we're dismissive of others whose opinions are different from ours. Maybe we read in our Bible "love your enemies," "avoid sexual immorality," "forgive as the Lord forgave you," and we pretend that it doesn't apply to us.
Maybe we aren't responding to obvious direction that the Lord wants us to walk. We suppress our convictions, that inner prompting, when we know deep down what we're supposed to be doing or not doing. I think of Jonah who ran as far as he could in the other direction to get away from the Lord, knowing what he was supposed to do.
[Rick] (19:21 - 21:32) That example there of not just Jonah, but knowing what you're supposed to do and rebelling against it. Okay, time for a Rick confession story, because that happens to me. All right, that happens to me, and recently it happened to me in a very big way, just a week and a half ago.
What happened was a dear friend of ours passed away, a fellow student of the Bible who I've known--I've known her since I was like ten years old, and she's about fifteen years older than me. She passed away and she lives in a city that's far away, too far to drive. They're going to be doing a memorial service for her, and we're thinking, what a wonderful life.
Then her children call me and ask, Rick, we'd like you to do the service. There's about nine days before this memorial service is supposed to be, and I am in the midst of a lot of moving parts. After I got the message, Trish called me and said, hey, you got this message, and here's what it said. After I got off the phone, I'm at my office, I'm by myself, and as soon as I got off the phone, I said out loud, I said, "I can't do this!
This is beyond my capacity. I can't do it." It was emotional. I'm starting to cry because I felt like I should, but I can't. I just can't do it. I kept saying, "I can't do this.
I can't do this." Then after, I don't know, thirty seconds or forty, whatever it was, I thought, "Or can I?" Why would the Lord put this tremendous privilege in front of me if He wasn't going to give me the strength? I had to backtrack through all the "I can't, I can't, I can't, it's too much, I can't do it..." to "thank you for this beautiful privilege!" Now, we flew out there on Friday and flew back home Saturday night, because that's the only way to fit it in, but what a blessed experience, I am telling you!
What a wonderful thing! It was thoroughly exhausting, and afterwards, it was thoroughly blessed. Julie, that's part of the rationalizing. We all have that trouble.
I guess that's what I'm saying. We all can get into that situation. We want to focus and say, okay, but what is the Lord guiding me towards?
[Julie] (21:32 - 22:10) That's a really sweet example. I'm glad to know that you have these issues as well. Ignoring our convictions--perhaps another example would be you rationalize a bad habit, like saying "It's not that bad, I'm not hurting anyone." You sense God telling you--what about this one--to forgive someone, but instead, you keep rehearsing what they did to you, and worse, you start telling anyone who will listen how wronged you were. Suppressing says, "Not now, Lord--maybe later," like you did initially. Responding says, "Yes, Lord," even when it's difficult, like you did afterward.
[Rick] (22:10 - 22:20) It comes down to working through the process. Just because we may have the wrong reaction doesn't mean we have to keep that wrong reaction. We can change our response.
[Julie] (22:20 - 22:21) Right.
[Rick] (22:21 - 22:22) "Quench not the spirit."
[Julie] (22:22 - 22:29) How do we keep far away from this "grieving" business or quenching God's spirit in our life? How do we get away from that?
[Rick] (22:30 - 22:49) Let's look at that. Now, remember, for this warning, before the Apostle Paul says in Thessalonians "quench not the spirit," Paul provided three powerful internal admonitions for us as a basis for coping with whatever might come our way. These three things are the things that we "do." How do we keep from it?
We do what we're supposed to do!
[Julie] (22:49 - 22:53) Right-- our spiritual resilience. We "rejoice always."
[Rick] (22:53 - 23:00) A rejoicing/thriving state of being creates a solid environment for growth. That's the baseline.
[Julie] (23:00 - 23:02) Yes. We "pray without ceasing."
[Rick] (23:02 - 23:16) A prayerful state of mind keeps us tapped into our truest source of strength. You set the state of being to say, this is rejoicing, looking to God's providence, and then you pray and pray and pray.
[Julie] (23:16 - 23:18) And of course, "in everything give thanks."
[Rick] (23:18 - 23:35) A thankful state of perception opens and reopens our ability to receive and apply God's direction. This is ALL God's will for us! The state of being, the state of mind, and the state of perception are ways to avoid quenching the spirit.
[Julie] (23:35 - 23:43) I picture a triangle, like at each tip, you've got "rejoice always," "pray without ceasing," "in everything give thanks." In the center, you've got "fueling the holy spirit."
[Rick] (23:43 - 24:40) Right. Exactly the opposite. Let's go to the opposite.
Instead of quenching the spirit, let's learn to be armed with ALL of God's armor. That's in Ephesians 6. We're not going to go into all the armor, but we are going to go into one piece specifically.
Now, when we look at God's armor, it says to use "the sword of the spirit." Interesting, if you're quenching the power of the spirit, the sword's useless. Okay.
Use the sword of the spirit. That's the only offensive weapon in the armor that we're given in Ephesians 6. Standing armed as one of God's people amongst other of God's people affords us a unique protection against all enemies because we're supposed to stand together. In the context, in this context of the armor, attentive use of our shield of faith keeps us protected.
Here's what it does: It turns the tables on what gets quenched, what gets extinguished. Let's read Ephesians 6:16 (KJV):
[Julie] (24:41 - 24:49) "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked."
[Rick] (24:49 - 25:29) Think about this. Paul says, don't quench the spirit. Paul in Ephesians says, here's how to quench the attacks of Satan.
If you're going to do any quenching, if you're going to do any extinguishing, let your shield of faith be in front of you so that it can take the quenching influences of Satan and put them away, put them aside, let them fall harmless before us. That's what happens. That's why putting all of these things in order is such a powerful tool.
We can turn the tables of quenching so that we quench those things which are evil and don't belong.
[Julie] (25:29 - 25:56) Satan can't quench our spirit unless we in some way allow it. We have to guard that flame in our hearts and among our church fellowship, which brings in what Paul was saying before about having a healthy church being together. There's another kind of armor I found in Romans 13:12.
It talks about "putting on the armor of light." There's a metaphor for living in Christ and away from that pull of evil, which is very strong.
[Rick] (25:56 - 26:24) We need to be aware. Again, standing behind the shield of faith, shoulder to shoulder with the other soldiers, be working together in this. This is how we avoid the quenching of the spirit.
Feeding the power of God's spirit in our lives is part of our fundamental growth in Christ. Look at another scripture from Ephesians. Let's go to Ephesians 3:14-19.
Julie, I'm going to ask you to stop in several places on this one.
[Julie] (26:24 - 26:38) "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His spirit in the inner man..."
[Rick] (26:38 - 27:01) Okay, pause right there. To be through--"according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power" through His spirit. The spirit is not, hey kid, I've got you--little nod and a wink from God.
This is a gift of tremendous power and influence through the strength and power of God Himself. That's what we're working with. What happens with that?
Let's pick up with Ephesians 3:17:
[Julie] (27:02 - 27:05) "...so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith..."
[Rick] (27:05 - 27:19) Pause right there. So that Christ can actually dwell in your hearts... It's not about a feeling.
It's about a change of being. Christ dwells within your hearts, and I am now in a state of being more Christlike.
[Julie] (27:20 - 27:28) "...and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth..."
[Rick] (27:28 - 27:44) Now you have this spirit--this power that brings Christ to dwell in your heart--and you're rooted and grounded in love, and now you're able to comprehend things. You're feeding the spirit by doing all of these things. How do these verses end?
[Julie] (27:44 - 27:50) "...and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God."
[Rick] (27:51 - 28:23) Know the love of Christ which is beyond being able to explain. That's really what it comes down to, so that you can "be filled with the fullness of God."
This is feeding the spirit. This isn't quenching the spirit. We can see the shield of faith protects us so we can work through the process of learning to feed the spirit.
Let's go a little bit further. Building on the three "dos" helps us to continually work at putting away any spirit-extinguishing habits. Philippians 2:3-4:
[Julie] (28:23 - 28:53) "Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also the interests of others." Rick, don't quench someone else's spirit.
We can do that if we're critical instead of encouraging. Do we make them second-guess their service in the Lord, or the Lord's dealings with them? It reminds me of how Judas was chastising the Apostles, saying that this money could have been better spent on the poor.
They probably second-guessed themselves.
[Rick] (28:54 - 29:51) That's a really important point. Don't be an influence on others that takes God's capacity to work with them and reduces it or minimizes it. Let us always be working at building one another up.
Julie, what this is telling us is, we're all fragile. That's what this is telling us. We're all very fragile, and working with God's spirit for those who have been given God's spirit because they've answered the call and God has granted them that tremendous privilege, we have to understand that this is a daily growth process.
We need to always remember that God's mercy and love will not quench our feeble efforts to rise above our challenges. This is the beauty. Remember, the spirit can be quenched.
We can do that. Satan's fiery darts can come and do the quenching, OR we can take the shield of faith and say, no, not here, not now. God's perspective of us is one of nurturing and upbuilding.
Listen to Matthew 12:20:
[Julie] (29:51 - 30:26) "A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory." This "quench" lesson is really important! We do NOT quench the spirit, but we do quench or extinguish Satan's attacks by putting on the full armor of God.
We have that shield of faith ready. In turn, I love this scripture, because God and Jesus will be merciful and generous with us, kind of fanning our pathetic little ember with a warming, light-producing fire. Even those who are barely hanging on with just a flicker aren't discarded.
[Rick] (30:27 - 31:00) Because when you have the potency of God's spirit, even if it's just a flicker, and the desire to honor God with that, He'll take care of the rest. He can take that little, pathetic little-looking thing and say, this is precious to Me. That's where we want to be.
This is how we avoid quenching the spirit, by understanding God's mercy, God's grace, His power, His providence, and His strength working in us and through us. Putting this all together, feeding, and not quenching the spirit:
[Julie] (31:00 - 31:13) To quench God's spirit is to make His power and influence upon our lives have no guiding effect on our daily decisions. As disciples of Christ, this is a spiritually unsound and broken place to be.
[Rick] (31:13 - 32:23) Absolutely is. Let us be sure to daily--those three things--apply rejoicing, pray without ceasing, and maintain perpetual gratitude as ways of clearly avoiding such brokenness. Let us also take courage in God's willingness to apply His mercy and His grace to our lives in every single time of need.
Folks, quenching the spirit is a very important lesson for us to learn. It's something for us to be aware of. It's the first "DON'T" on this list that Paul is giving us of Christian Conduct.
He's telling us, build up on these things and then watch out for this. It's the first one in line because it's such a remarkably important part of our lives. Be aware, be attentive, see what's there, call it for what it is, and take steps in the right direction.
Think about it. Folks, we love hearing from our listeners. We welcome your feedback and questions on this episode and other episodes at ChristianQuestions.com.
Coming up in our next episode: "How Do We Know What Teachings and Prophecies to Believe?"
Final Notes: copyright @2025 Christian Questions. In addition to this transcript, we provide comprehensive CQ Rewind Show Notes for every episode. They include every scripture quoted during the podcast, as well as graphics, illustrations and bonus material. Click the "CQ Rewind Show Notes" button near the audio player or sign up to receive these weekly at ChristianQuestions.com. This transcript was created using artificial intelligence. While we believe it to be accurate, we apologize for any errors that may exist.