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40 Days of Faith – Day 32 | Quenching the Spirit

“…God loves these people… but I can’t see the forest for the trees, and it’s hard to watch them…”

TenayBenes.com

The Status

On Day 32 of our #40daysoffaith adventure moving from MD to CO on the word of God, I told God that I’m struggling with church. Specifically, being sent back to the type of church from which the Holy Spirit set me free ten years ago has been… hard.

It’s because of control.

Human control, human rules, human regulations, human expectations, and human church culture—these are the things that extinguish the fire of the Holy Spirit in a body of believers. When a service or a sermon or a worship set or a Bible study is so structured as to become an experience of “excellence” (with no room for the leading of the Holy Spirit), it may be well-done, but it’s also spiritually dry. It also keeps people on milk, not solid food.

I’ve been watching this unfold for two weeks, now, and it hurts my heart. These believers are trying so hard and they’re so committed to giving God their best, but they are inadvertently having the opposite effect of what they want. I know God loves these people, and he/she has a plan to set them free from control, but I can’t see the forest for the trees, and it’s hard to watch them do what they do.

The Takeaway

Why is it hard to watch? Because of this—

“Do not extinguish the spirit.” 1 Thessalonians 5:19 (from the Interlinear)

It’s hard to explain this scripture to anyone who hasn’t really tasted the goodness of a Holy Spirit-led church—-a church in which the spirit is not extinguished by timelines, regulations, plans, and church culture. But I will try.

Imagine you go to a church and sit in the pews. Even though the worship band practiced a specific worship set earlier that week, the Holy Spirit tells them to change all the songs that are going to be played right before service. They haven’t practiced the other songs, but they are able to play them well in faith. Then, the Holy Spirit tells the worship leader to extend one song for ten minutes because it’s particularly impacting the congregation today. People start crying out to the Lord during that song, they begin to dance in praise, and raise their voices to the sky in spontaneous adoration. It’s infectious, and it spreads throughout the people because it’s being led by the Holy Spirit. At the end of the worship set, after the crying and dancing have died down on their own (and it takes a little time because God is transforming people’s hearts), the preacher comes up. He (or she!) hears the Holy Spirit tell him to throw out the planned sermon and, instead, share a testimony of God’s faithfulness at helping him overcome a huge struggle recently. As he is sharing, people in the audience start being touched by the Holy Spirit again and are set free of the same struggle that the preacher was describing—except they get set free instantly! They don’t have to do the arduous work the preacher did because his obedience and victory gave spiritual power to his testimony, power to help those around him overcome the works of the enemy. Then, people start spontaneously praying for one another in the crowd—they don’t need to be directed to do so from the stage because the Holy Spirit is directing them. Some people start getting set free of other struggles, too, because those who are praying are hearing from the Holy Spirit how they should pray, and their prayers become powerful (as in, have immediate or near-immediate effect) because of it.

That is a service without the spirit being quenched.

Worship services like that do exist, but they are very rare. I have seen them, I have led a few, but they take God’s discipleship to learn how to do well. Honestly, the order of the events, or which events are done doesn’t matter. One service may end up being pure worship music (or pure worship silence!) Another service may be all testimonies. A third may be all prayer. A fourth, all communion. The format doesn’t matter: the presence of the Holy Spirit in the event matters!

That is what I want in the body of Christ: I want the Holy Spirit in charge of directing worship.

The Prayer

God, you tell me to show these people my heart, but when I do, they tell me to stop being who you made me to be. Please help me understand what you want me to do here. Help me see these believers with your eyes. Amen.

The Challenge

What is your #40daysoffaith adventure and how did Day 32 go? What does Holy Spirit leading look like in your life?

One response to “40 Days of Faith – Day 32 | Quenching the Spirit”

  1. […] I heard God say, “Will you dance for me? There is freedom here.” I was a little gun-shy after being told to stop dancing at a previous church, but I relented to God’s request. Although there were not other dancers in the audience, there […]

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