1 Thes. 5:19 Quench not the Spirit.
Grieving the Spirit or Quenching the Spirit, both are sins that can keep us from walking hand-in-hand with the Father in deep worship.
We are continuing with the discipline of true worship. We said in the first few studies that “we need to deal with sin correctly”. What are the two main ways in which we as believers sin? We can grieve the Holy Spirit or we can quench the Holy Spirit.
To “Grieve” the Holy Spirit means to commit sins of commission. This basically means that we are DOING WHAT WE ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO DO. To “Quench” the Holy Spirit means to commit the sins of omission. This basically means that we are NOT DOING WHAT WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE DOING.
An example of grieving the Holy Spirit would be getting drunk. An example of quenching the Holy Spirit would be to neglect prayer or Bible reading. This is why we ask the Lord to search our hearts and our thoughts to see if there is any sinful way in us. Because we know from Jer.17:9 that our hearts are wicked and will lie to us. In asking God to search our hearts He will show us our method and motive in worship and if it is pleasing and acceptable to Him or not.
Let us remember what worship is. It is not emotional, although emotions can be involved. It is not a song or music or a music team, although these can be used. It is not a certain activity, although activities can be involved.
The reason I say this is that I hear all the time that we have a worship team or a worship time and it is always tied to music and a song. Worship is this. It is bowing our head, or our body in a place of reverence and communion with the Father. It is kneeling or laying on the floor in obedient reverence before the Lord. These are the Biblical accounts of worship.
Like most words or Biblical activities we tend to departmentalized Biblical disciplines into a religious structure involving only certain people. Like we say, “they are the intercessors”. We are all intercessors by calling, just not all intercessors by deed.
CHALLENGE: I challenge you to find one place in the Bible where people were called to worship or were in the act of worship when music was involved. Let us not grieve or quench the Holy Spirit so that true Biblical worship is achieved and maintained.