What an incredible thought, that we could stifle God.
“Do not stifle the Holy Spirit”
1 Thessalonians 5:19 (New Living Translation)
The Greek verb for stifle here is often used in the sense of putting out a fire. Although it is also used in the sense of a dried up river, water that stops flowing, and both apply here.
Now something else that is interesting here is that it is not so much a reference to our own personal lives, but actually to the work of the Spirit in the community. Some where saying, this is not the work of God, some were judging, instead of testing, Paul says here test all things, don’t be ignorant, match up the experience with Scripture, but he is also saying, don’t stifle the breeze, the breath of God, who sometimes comes in and messes up our agendas, and replaces them with His own.
And you know if Paul makes this statement it sort of says to me, that we can encourage the Spirit to be involved in Gods work in our midst, or we an discourage Him.
How can we encourage God to be involved, the Spirit to be involved?
How can we discourage God to be involved?
Now something else that is interesting here is that it is not so much a reference to our own personal lives, but actually to the work of the Spirit in the community. Some where saying, this is not the work of God, some were judging, instead of testing, Paul says here test all things, don’t be ignorant, match up the experience with Scripture, but he is also saying, don’t stifle the breeze, the breath of God, who sometimes comes in and messes up our agendas, and replaces them with His own.
And you know if Paul makes this statement it sort of says to me, that we can encourage the Spirit to be involved in Gods work in our midst, or we an discourage Him.
How can we encourage God to be involved, the Spirit to be involved?
How can we discourage God to be involved?
