WHEN THE FIRE IS DYING OUT

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1 WHEN THE FIRE IS DYING OUT (STIFLING THE HOLY SPIRIT) 1 Thess 5:19 Dr Alan Gordon # My father and the bushfire when he almost lost his life. Fires can be destructive, but they are also used to provide change and power. Both aspects of fire are present in Scripture. In Isaiah 4:4, the Holy Spirit is called, The Spirit of fire. Mt 3:11: John the baptiser said, He (Jesus) will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Acts 1:5: The Lord Jesus said, For John baptised with water, but in a few days you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit. The Day of Pentecost came. Acts 2:3: They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit. 1 Thess 5:19, NIV: Do not put out the Spirit s fire. 1. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO STIFLE THE SPIRIT S FLAME? We speak of a flame being stifled, quenched, put out. 1 Thess 5:19, the King James Version states: Do not quench the Holy Spirit., NIV: Do not put out the Spirit s fire. The New Living Bible: Do not stifle the Holy Spirit. In the Bible, when the word for put out or quenched is used literally, it means to extinguish the flame. Eph 6:16 describes the shield of faith by which we can put out Satan s flaming arrows. Hell is called the place where the fire is not put out. When the same word is used figuratively in the Bible, it stifled or suppressed. The flame of the Holy Spirit does not go out, but it burns with a very small flame. As a Christian, you possess the Holy Spirit. e.g., Rom 8:9: If any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. To stifle the Holy Spirit means to suppress the effect of the Holy Spirit s operation in your life.

2 2 Notice the context of this verse about stifling the Holy Spirit. In 1 Thess 5:14-22, there is a necklace of beautiful gems. It begins with three positive encouragements: Be a happy church (v16). Be a praying church (v17). Be a joyful church (v 18). Then there are three negative encouragements: The first is: Do not put out the Spirit s fire (v19). Note that this encouragement is particularly for the church as a whole. 2. HOW CAN WE STIFLE A FLAME? Stamping on a bushfire often spreads it rather than puts it out. Persecution may put out the fire of Christian witness, as was seen in the Muslim advance through Christian strongholds of Turkey and Egypt immediately after the time of Mohammed. However, seeking to stamp it out often spreads it. This is seen in China, which has been called by Dr Noel Vose, the greatest movement of God since the days of the Book of Acts. Similar happened to the church in Uganda under Idi Amin. Flame can be stifled two ways: take away the fuel and suffocate it with water which takes away the air Take away the fire How is the fuel intake for your flame? We fuel our spirits with Bible reading and prayer. Worship and fellowship also fuel our spirits. How is your quiet time going? If it is going poorly, then you are quenching the Holy Spirit. Remember the second soil of Jesus parable? It was shallow so that there was little moisture to keep it fresh when the tough times came to the plant. So too if you are quenching the Holy Spirit, how can you expect to stand when times are difficult? 2.2. Take away the air The other way to quench a flame is deny it air. The Scriptures call the Holy Spirit the breath of God. The Holy Spirit is God s power for Christian living. # A pastor was inwardly urged to visit a dangerous, notorious criminal. He delayed. The Holy Spirit, however, seemed to say, Visit that man. Finally he went with fear and trembling. The criminal greeted him cordially: I m glad you ve come. I ve been trying for weeks to get up courage to send for you. In recently weeks I ve been so depressed. I can t go on any longer. Pray for me.

3 3 Stifling the Holy Spirit implies failure to obey His instructions. # Dr Len Boughton, the pastor of a large American church, asked a tram driver how trams work. The driver explained that trams fast acceleration was explained by the full touch that the connector had with the powerline. Then all the power station s power that the tram could possibly use is available for the tram to use. However, trams can also move at the slowest crawl. This happens when the connector was barely touching the powerline. It was called skimming the line. Boughton responded that there were 2,000 people who attended his church who were skimming the line! Many of the Christians who are skimming the line in Australian churches are on the fringes of the church. Some have grown up in Christian homes. They are disciplined and self-controlled, which is excellent. But some don t need to rely on the Holy Spirit. Why should they? They can do it all in their own strength. That is skimming the line. 3. HOW CAN WE STIFLE THE HOLY SPIRIT? 3.1. Lack of fellowship with God We stifle the Holy Spirit when our Bible reading and prayer life suffers. It s withholding the fuel from the flame, as we ve just seen. A car engine needs fuel and air in the right proportions An obsession for certain doctrines. Some Christians are premillennial or amillennial bigots. They constantly bring their minds around the subject of the second coming and allow no consideration for people who hold the other viewpoint. Some Christians are Hypercalvinistic and others extreme Arminian. Both extremes are intolerant of others to the extent of doubting that those who don t hold their views are Christians. Extreme Pentecostal and extreme Anti-Pentecostal can move over an unfortunate line from conviction to intolerance. We need our convictions, but we can stifle the work of the Holy Spirit when we don t accept as Christians our brothers and sisters who differ with us on unessential doctrines. We can major on minors. We can magnify one truth out of proportion, until it becomes a caricature of the truth Formalism in worship It s easy to drift into formality. It s one thing to sing our Christian songs and hymns; it s another thing to mean what we are singing. It s insincerity and that stifles the work of the Holy Spirit.

4 Over-emphasis on the human vehicle at the expense of God We can boastfully promote a person. When Church of Christ pastor, Hadyn Sergeant was preaching in the USA, he was struck by a lack of the usual response to his nightly sermons. Then he saw on the noticeboard, Australian speaker. Revival: one week only Being smothered by worldliness Jesus parable of the sower described weeds choking the good seed. This represented the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches. # In England, some of the bridges have a red diamond-shaped symbol at either side. It s a warning to that the bridge is limited in the weight it can carry. For example, a truck with a 10 ton load had to take a detour to find another bridge that could take the load. Some Christians have that diamond-shaped symbol on them. They can have had a strong Christian background but they believe that Christians should enjoy a problem-free life. They can t cope when trials come. Is there a reason why God has to put you aside? Are you quenching the Holy Spirit? 3.6. Stifling the work of the Holy Spirit in others After a young man had shared his story in street witnessing, an old man challenged him, Young man, you should be ashamed of yourself. The young man replied, Yes, but I m not ashamed of my Lord. One influential and unspiritual church member can stifle the work of the Holy Spirit in a whole church Lack of witnessing # Dr R. A. Torrey described a mother, a Sunday School teacher, and a Sunday School superintendent, each of whom went to him unknown to the others. They were broken up and confessed that they had the impulse to speak to the mother s daughter. None of the three did. When the daughter died suddenly, they were shaken. Torrey commented: The Holy Spirit was trying to get the use of three people to save one soul, and couldn t. # A lipoma accepts food but gives nothing back. So it becomes a blob of fat that nothing can remove other than a surgeon s knife. It generally doesn t cause

5 5 trouble, but is useless in the body. We can be lipoma Christians constantly taking in but giving nothing back. 4. HOW CAN WE PREVENT THE STIFLING OF THE SPIRIT A yielded life Whenever we are aware of God s will for our lives, we obey. That is the ideal. However we live in a real world. Although we can never even approach sinless perfection, there is a life that yields to God s will for their lives. Stifling the Holy Spirit is saying, No, to God. It is rank disobedience to Him to Whom we owe our salvation. To be yielded to God is to allow Him to design the path of our lives. Of all of the numberless paths we can take, He alone knows which is best. He alone has the power to place our feet in that path and to keep them there. He alone has love for us that will never cease to prompt Him to do for us all that is in His wisdom, power and love to do so. Whoever chooses to yield his or her life fully to God is choosing the wisest and safest alternative. Nothing can be more frustrating than a self-directed life. To go this way is the way of Adam s fall. He chose independence from God. That is the implication of a self-directed life. We need to follow the example of the Master, Not my will, but yours be done. Paul held us the Lord Jesus as our ultimate example of yieldedness. Paul urged, Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. in Phil 2:5-11, we see that Jesus Christ was willing: To BE what God chose: a servant, being made in human likeness To GO where God chose: into a sinful world To DO what God chose: obedient to death even death on a cross. # Mendelssohn, commonly regarded as the greatest musical child prodigy since Mozart, once visited a European cathedral and asked the organist for permission to play the pipe organ. The organist replied: We don t allow any chance stranger to play on this organ. Eventually Mendelssohn persuaded him that he regularly played organs and reluctantly the organist permitted the notable musician to have a few minutes. As the Jewish Mendelssohn played the great cathedral was filled with music more beautiful than he had ever heard. With tears in his eyes, the organist asked, Who are you? Felix Mendelssohn, came the answer. The old organist commented, To think an old fool like me nearly stopped Mendelssohn from playing on my organ!

6 If we only knew what wonderful harmonies the Holy Spirit can draw out from our lives, we would not be content until He had complete possession of us. 6