To Encourage You

1 Thessalonians 5:19 “Do not quench the Spirit.”

2 Timothy 1:6 “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.”

Ephesians 6:16 “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.”

It’s interesting how often fire is used as a metaphor for spiritual things. Sometimes the idea has a positive connotation; sometimes a negative.  For example, in the first two verses above we are told to not “quench the Spirit,” but rather to “stir (literally – rekindle) the gift of God” which is in us.  Throughout the Scriptures the Holy Spirit is likened to a fire.  In Acts 2, as the Holy Spirit was first given to believers, He settled on them in “divided tongues as of fire.”  As God put this fire in their hearts, the very next thing they did was to begin to speak about “the wonderful works of God.” You see, God’s Word became like a fire in their hearts. They were passionate about the God Who had saved them, and “it is from the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks” (Luke 6:45).  A similar idea is found in Luke 24 where, shortly after the resurrection, Jesus appeared to two disciples on the Road to Emmaus where He revealed Himself to them and explained all that the Scriptures had said about Him.  After Jesus departed, the disciples said this: “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”  In various places and in various ways we see this picture of the Spirit of God coming upon believers with a passion like a fire that burned in their hearts. 

But just as a fire can burn bright, it can also be quenched – dampened, neglected, and made to wane.  Isn’t that so often the case – and danger – for believers. When they first come to know Christ, they are passionate about Him. They can’t stop talking about what God has done in their lives. They are “on fire” for Christ.  But over time, other things can creep into our lives. These things can start to impede the work of God in our hearts. We can become occupied with much lesser things. We can get caught up in sinful habits. We can neglect the Word of God and prayer.  We can become lazy and negligent in sharing God’s Word with others and we can become insensitive to the promptings of God’s Spirit as He speaks to us with His “still small voice.”  The fire that once burned bright can dim.  To this the Bible tells us to rekindle that flame. To get back into God’s Word. To repent of lesser things that may be taking preeminence over the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives. To be filled with the Spirit by prayerfully studying and meditating on God’s Word.  We are to be careful not to quench the Spirit, but to do just the opposite, and rekindle His flame that dwells within us. 

On the opposite end of the spectrum we find that the “evil one” has his own fire that he works with. He’s a deceiver and a counterfeiter. Like the Egyptian magicians who had their snakes to counter the snakes that appeared miraculously when Moses cast down his staff at God’s command, the devil has his own fire with which to do his evil work. In the passage from Ephesians 6 above this is likened to “fiery darts.” This fire, in contrast to the fire of the Truth of God, is comprised of lies that are meant to cause all kinds of inner turmoil in our lives. These darts may be accusations, fearful thoughts, doubts, false teaching – you name it. It is anything that is designed to counter the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. However, this fire we ARE to quench.  And how do we do that?  We use the “shield of faith.” The shield of faith is nothing more than believing the Word of God. To every lie, to every temptation, to every accusation that comes from the enemy, we are to “fight fire with fire,” i.e., by way of the fire of the Holy Spirit as He illumines His Holy Word and equips us to speak truth to lies. 

May God help us to not quench the wonderful fire of the Holy Spirit as He works in our lives. May we be “on fire” for Christ, passionate, with hearts aflame for the glory of God. And may God give us the faith to believe what He has told us, and thereby quench the flames of the counterfeiter whenever he sends his fiery darts our way.