Are We Guilty of "Quenching the Spirit"?

The Holy Spirit has been all but forgotten in the churches of America. At least, this is the bold statement that Brother Francis Chan makes in his book, Forgotten God. Not to say that there is no one in America who walks by the Spirit. I think there certainly are some who do. But I think it is safe to say that we have not always given Him the credit He is due. That we have been guilty of “quenching the Spirit,” which is actually a sin. 1 Thessalonians 5:19 says, “Do not quench the Spirit.” If you’re looking for a direct command, there it is. Have we been guilty? I think we have.

There are probably several reasons we have “quenched the Spirit.” I think one would have to be that we are afraid to say much on the subject because of how debated it has been in the past. Another reason would have to be because of the human tendency to go the extreme opposite. When people begin to kill their babies in microwaves and claim “the Spirit led me,” there is definitely something terribly wrong. And we don't want to be accused of being crazy like those people. So we ignore the existence of the Spirit. While we certainly don’t want to be that extreme, we are not to deny the existence and the power and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus told His apostles that it would be better to have the Holy Spirit than to have Him there in the flesh. John 16:7, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper (Holy Spirit) will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you.” The passage goes on to tell what the Helper will do. He will: 1) Convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment, 2) Guide the apostles into all truth.

I do not claim to know much about the working of the Holy Spirit. And I want to be so careful about what I do say. And I don’t claim that what I do say the Holy Spirit does are the ONLY things He does, because I don’t have a comprehensive knowledge of the Spirit. I only write now to share a few thoughts that I have. I think it is absolutely Scriptural to say that the Holy Spirit dwells in Christians, that he pricks hearts about things regarding sin, righteousness, and judgment, and that he guides us into living out the will of the Lord in our lives. Exactly how He does all of these things, I cannot explain. But somehow, I know that He does. Sometimes, when I am making an important decision, I will pray a lot about it. And there are times when I feel like my heart is tugged or nudged toward a certain decision. Whether this is the Spirit or not, I like to believe that is has to be. And when this happens, I have to follow it, because I have to trust that I am walking by the Spirit and that God is in control.

When considering these things, I began to think about the generation before me. The generation who was all about the Scientific Method, forms, formulas, patterns, lists, etc. That generation liked to wrap everything up in a nice, neat package. While this is useful at times, I think that it has, at least in some ways, been destructive. Maybe this is why so many today do not give credit to the Spirit, much less walk by the Spirit. Because the Spirit cannot be reduced to a simple formula.

Think about it. We have “5 Acts of Worship”. If we check each one off of our list, we have officially “worshiped.” We have “5 Steps to Salvation.” If we check each one off of our list, we are officially “saved.” (Personally, I don’t care to use these teaching methods. But I was certainly taught them growing up.) With formulas, a + b = c. And nothing changes it. No exceptions. You always know that if you do this and this, you get this. You always know what your outcome will be.

While cute little formulas and lists can be helpful for head-knowledge, I think it is wrong to try and reduce Christianity and faith as a whole down to a simple formula. It is dangerous to think we can take God-things and make simple formulas and packages and boxes. God is too vast to be approached in such a manner.

A big part of having faith is not always being able to see the outcome, but trusting that God is in control of it. There is no formula for walking by the Spirit. Not one that we could ever figure out, anyway. Only God knows the outcome! But I think in our attempts to simplify everything into a little package have caused people to fear walking by the Spirit, in faith. Because we can’t put our finger on the outcome. And we like our comfort zones more than we like to admit. It’s not comfortable to make a move without knowing for sure that it will turn out the way we hope. But real, hard-core faith will REQUIRE us to get out of our comfort zones.

When it comes to walking by the Spirit, there isn’t a certain way to do it. There is no a + b = c. But that doesn’t mean we can’t trust God and do it. That’s just a part of faith.

So be real in your faith. Walk by the Spirit, even if it isn’t comfortable. It’s too dangerous to reduce God to the easy, simple things.