Quench not the Spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5:19
As the blacksmith worked with the white hot steel plate, he held it with the tongs and placed it on the anvil to hammer it into the shape he required, and then returned it to the flame to increase its heat again. When he was satisfied with the shape and the colour, he grasped it again with the tongs, and plunged it into a pail of oil beside the forge, and held it there for a few seconds. Drawing it out of the oil, he placed again on the anvil. Holding it firmly, he took a file and ran it across the edge of the steel. The file skated across the metal without biting into it. With a grin of satisfaction, he declared, ‘That’s a good quench!’ Quenching the hot steel in the oil created a condition known as martensite, much stronger and harder than before. Quenching is great for steel, but not for the Holy Spirit’s impact on our lives.
Quenching produces hardness, both in steel, and in our hearts. Just as quenched steel is almost impossible to reshape, so a heart in which the Spirit is quenched is difficult to mold into the image of Christ. If the Spirit is quenched, He is unable to take away our bad habits, help us to develop good habits, or enable us to submit our wills to the will of God. Not a good condition for a Christian.
So how do we quench the Spirit? To start with, it’s not something we have to be taught, because our old nature loves to quench the Spirit, and naturally knows how to do it. It’s learning not to quench the spirit that we have to work at. We need to study the life of Christ, and imitate Him. We need to read the Epistles, and put their teaching into practice. We need to put on the whole armour of God. We need to keep asking, like Saul of Tarsus did, ‘Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?’
The Spirit would keep our hearts hot with a passion to worship and serve our Lord. We must not quench Him.
Here is the link to the video of this message: https://youtu.be/weZW9dSkOnI