“Do not quench the Spirit.” —1 Thessalonians 5:19
“The voice of the Spirit of God is as gentle as a summer
breeze— so gentle that unless you are living in complete fellowship and oneness
with God, you will never hear it. The sense of warning and restraint that the
Spirit gives comes to us in the most amazingly gentle ways. And if you are not
sensitive enough to detect His voice, you will quench it, and your spiritual
life will be impaired. This sense of restraint will always come as a “still
small voice” (1 Kings 19:12), so faint that no one except a saint of God will
notice it. Beware if […] you continually have to look back, saying, “Once, a
number of years ago, I was saved.” If you have put your “hand to the plow” and
are walking in the light, there is no “looking back”— the past is instilled
into the present wonder of fellowship and oneness with God (Luke 9:62 ; also
see 1 John 1:6-7). […] Beware of trying to cover up your present refusal to
“walk in the light” by recalling your past experiences when you did “walk in
the light” (1 John 1:7). […] Never become attached to anything that continues
to hurt God. For you to be free of it, God must be allowed to hurt whatever it
may be.” CHAMBERS
(1 Kings 19:11-12)
“The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord,
for the Lord is about to pass by.” Then a great and powerful wind tore the
mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not
in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in
the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the
fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.”
If you are dependent upon self-effort, you will quench the
Spirit of God. You got yourself into
this mess and you are going to get yourself out of it. Often times, the reason we find ourselves in
a “mess” is because we have wandered away from the Lord. We have shut Him out of our lives. We might still think about Him. Say I need some milk. I think about going to the store to buy some.
Do I have milk? No. I must actually go to the store and buy
it. The same way with God. We can quote verses. Tell people how great God is. But, if we do not actually place our trust in
Him. Forsake the world and follow Him, we
should not expect to see any benefit. It is not our good intentions but actually
following God that makes the difference.
When I encourage people who are living in difficult times, I
watch their body language more than listen to their words. I can see the spiritual struggle … they must
open themselves up to the Spirit, but they resist. Self-effort is bondage to self-will. Even though they hear the still small voice
of the Spirit, they resist Him and continue to go their own way. They don’t really trust God, just themselves.
They are in bondage to themselves and feel they have no choice. The solution is surrender .. but they refuse.
I heard an example once about a man who was walking down a
sidewalk and fell into a deep hole. He
cried out for help and eventually got it.
For the next several days he walked down the same sidewalk and the same
thing happened. Then one day, he decided
to take a different sidewalk. Perhaps you
are that man. You are continually
falling into the hole and imagine that the next time you won’t fall. But that is never the case. You need to find another sidewalk. ELGIN
“Trust and Obey”
“When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, What a
glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still, And with
all who will trust and obey.
Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share, But our toil He
doth richly repay;
Not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross, but is
blessed if we trust and obey.”
Bondye Beni Ou (God Bless You)
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