SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/20/2014 9:46 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Do Not
Quench the Spirit
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 1
Thessalonians 5:19
Message of the
verses: “19 Do not quench the
Spirit;”
John MacArthur entitles the 17th chapter of
his commentary on 1 & 2 Thessalonians, which covers 5:19-22 “The Sheep’s Responsibilities to
the Great Shepherd Part 2: Do
not quench the Spirit; Respond to God’s
Word; Be Discerning.” As we go through
these final verses in this last chapter of 1 Thessalonians Paul is instructing the church
about their responsibilities to the Lord Jesus Christ, and as they fulfill
these responsibilities their church will grow and be more effective for the
cause of Christ.
In one of the commentaries that Warren Wiersbe wrote on
an OT book, the book escapes my memory, he asked and answered the question, but
I think it was one of the OT books in which he combined “Ruth and Ester.” “If
the Holy Spirit were removed from the hearts of the believers today how much of
a difference would it make?” He answered
with these words “Not much.” Now that
does not mean that the Holy Spirit is at fault, for He is God and can do
nothing wrong, but it does mean that believers are not in tuned with the Spirit
of God, and perhaps as this verse describes believers are quenching the
Spirit. Now perhaps there are a couple
of reasons for this, and the first one could be that because of the
“Charismatic” movement that people are afraid to speak or learn about the Holy
Spirit. John MacArthur has written a
book about this movement to which he entitle it “Strange Fire.” The other reason is that many people in the
church today are not content in the right way, and what I mean by this is that
they are content with their jobs, houses, hobbies, and things like that, and
not content with the Word of God, Bible Study, Church activities, Memorizing
the Word, Meditating the Word and things like this.
As we begin to look at this verse and the following
verses some believe, and might I add, some good Bible Commentators, believe
that this has to do with Spiritual Gifts, for the early NT church did not have
the entire Bible and so there were certain “sign” gifts that early church
members had such as tongues, and prophecy, that are not available today and
they taught the Word of God to others through the work of the Holy Spirit as He
gave truths to them. There was a chance
that Satan or the flesh could be involved in causing their messages to be
wrong. However there are also good Bible
Commentators who believe that this verse has nothing to do with Spiritual gifts
and should stand on its own and John MacArthur is one of them and so we will
look at this verse from the perspective that he gives as a part of this
Spiritual Diary. The verse surely has to
do with the Spirit’s work in the lives of believers and from reading it we can
understand that we can quench the power of the Spirit in our lives, so we are
looking at this verse from the individuals life, and also the effect that this
has on the local church, for if many of the believers have quenched the Spirit
in their lives then the local church will not be effective and this will be a
big problem.
The Holy Spirit is involved in the sanctification of
believers in many different ways and it is this process that Paul writes about
that is not to be quenched. I will name
these processes without giving the Spiritual references. (1) His sovereign power; (2) His regeneration
of sinners; (3) His complete transformation of believers spiritual affections;
(4) He frees them from slavery to habitual sin; (5) He takes up permanent
residence within each believer; (6) He gifts believers for spiritual service;
(7) He pours the love of God in their hearts; (8) He seals believers them for
eternity; (9) And He sanctifies them.
(This list was provided from John MacArthur’s commentary.
There are times when the Spirit of God is seen as fire in
the Scriptures and so when Paul uses the word “quench” he is saying that
believers can pour water on the fire and thus have the fire ineffective. When we quench the Spirit of God we are stopping
the sanctification process in believers, and thus in the church.
We will look further into this subject in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I would never
want to quench the power of the Holy Spirit in my life, and I am so thankful
that He live within my heart in my heart, and will cause me to grow up in the
Lord along with sealing me all the way to take me to heaven.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust that the Spirit of God will cause me to
grow each day that I am on planet earth.
Memory verses for the
week: Colossians 3:1-6.
1 Therefore if you have
been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is,
seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set
you mind on things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you died and you life is hidden with Christ
in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life,
is revealed, you also will be revealed with Him in gory. 5 Therefore consider the members of your
earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed,
which amount to idolatry. 6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of
God will come upon the sons of disobedience,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Fornication” (1 Corinthians 10:8).
Today’s Bible
question: “What were the disciples doing
when Jesus prayed shortly before his death?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/20/2014 11:00 AM
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