I don’t remember the specifics of my childhood experience, but I remember the feeling — which speaks of the deep impact the experience must have had on me. And I remember the experience was not an isolated one. It happened more than once although the specifics were different each time. Sadly, I fear my experience was not unique to me. My experience was an all-too-common childhood experience for many of my generation — especially those children who just couldn’t sit still or who couldn’t be quiet or whose mind was always jumping from one thought to the next or who were not naturally compliant rule followers who bent over backwards to please.
The experience has been described as “having cold water poured on you.” Cold water shocks you. It takes your breath, getting your attention and pulling you out of whatever you were doing. Too often, what we were doing as children was experiencing the joy of being alive … the unfettered freedom (read: lack of inhibition) of being a child … the excitement of engaging … the delight of discovering … the enthusiasm of creating … the fun that is the heart of playing. The cold water came in the form of another’s — generally a parent’s or some other adult’s — response. Our joy, freedom, excitement, delight, enthusiasm (did you know the word enthusiasm is based on two Greek words meaning “God in us”), fun were met with criticism and reprimand. Perhaps we were being too loud or we didn’t raise our hand to be called on before speaking or we were too active and rambunctious in the house. The adult’s intent was to pull us out of what we were doing. It was to get us to stop what we were doing so our behavior conformed to the adult’s expectations. But the impact went far beyond what we were doing. It quenched the spirit. It squelched the joy, displaced freedom with fear, dampened the excitement, extinguished the delight, took the air out of the enthusiasm, killed the fun. It was like pouring water on a fire, extinguishing it. It was death dealing and spirit breaking.
This kind of childhood experience is what comes to mind when I read Paul’s admonition: “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19). What did Paul mean?
Paul’s exhortation comes in midst of his final admonitions in his first letter to the Thessalonians: “respect those who labor among you (i.e., your spiritual leaders) … be at peace among yourselves … admonish the idlers, encourage the faint hearted, help the weak, be patience with all of them … do not repay evil for evil but always seek to do good … rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances … do not despise the words of prophets … abstain from every form of evil” (1 Thessalonians 5:12-22). These admonitions were instructions about how to live as the people of God, as the followers of Jesus. Notice how challenging these things were. Review the list, identifying which ones you do naturally or easily. The key to doing any of them was/is the Spirit.
The Spirit teaches us the ways of God that Jesus taught — the renewing of the mind (Romans 12:2). The Spirit guides us to put those ways into practice in the specifics of our lives. The Spirit deals with those things within us in — in our hearts — that keep us from living the ways of God. The Spirit provides the wisdom of “how to.” The Spirit empowers us to live them. In short, the Spirit is the key to living the exhortations Paul made … which is why he, in the midst of the exhortations, added “Do not quench the Spirit.” Don’t pour cold water on what the Spirit is doing in you.
Which raises the question: how do we quench the Spirit? How do we pour cold water on what the Spirit is doing? We quench the Spirit whenever we resist what the Spirit is seeking to do in our lives … whenever we resist the truth the Spirit is presenting to us … whenever we refuse to follow the Spirit’s nudging … whenever we refuse to examine our thinking or what is in our hearts … whenever we cling to old ways rather than follow the Spirit’s leading … whenever we live out of fear rather than the boldness of faith. We quench the Spirit whenever we say “NO!” to the Spirit’s work in our lives.
A second question needs to be asked: what happens when we quench the Spirit? The image answers our question. Something is put out … but that “something” is not the Spirit. The Spirit does not quit working. God never gives up on us or abandons us. The “something” that is put out is something in us. Our resistance to the Spirit impacts our sensitivity to the Spirit, our awareness of the Spirit, our openness to the Spirit, our responsiveness to the Spirit, our willingness to respond to the Spirit’s work. Bottom line: we miss out on the Spirit’s transforming work in our lives. We fail to grow spiritually. We get stuck in a condition of spiritual immaturity (Hebrews 5:11-6:1).
But quenching the Spirit is not the full story. Quenching the Spirit does not just impact us. It impacts the heart of God.
The writer of Ephesians exhorted his readers, “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God” (Ephesians 4:30).
This exhortation in Ephesians is part of the writer’s teaching about putting off the old nature and putting on the new nature, patterned after the likeness of Christ (Ephesians 4:22-24). This transformation happens as we are “renewed in the spirit of your minds” (Ephesians 4:23), that is, as the character of God and the ways of God begin to shape our thinking — part of the Spirit’s work. This transformation leads to changes in our behavior. Verses 24-32 provide five specific examples of this putting off of old behavior, replacing it with Christ-shaped living. This transformation of nature, expressed in a change in how we live, is the work of the Spirit. When we cling to old behaviors, habits, and patterns, we resist the Spirit’s transforming work. We quench the Spirit. We grieve the Spirit.
Our resistance to the Spirit’s work in our lives, i.e., quenching the Spirit, grieves the Spirit. It creates pain in the heart of God. God longs for us to grow up spiritually into the likeness of Christ (Ephesians 4:13-14). The Spirit works to bring us to that maturity. The Spirit works to transform our hearts and minds, conforming us to the image of Christ. Our resistance to that transforming work grieves the Spirit. It breaks the heart of God. And it leaves us stuck in spiritual immaturity.
Do
not quench the Spirit. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.
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