DO NOT QUENCH THE SPIRIT
“In the flow of the Spirit, it actually requires more mental gymnastics to walk down the wrong path than to walk down the right one. We disguise most of these gymnastics from ourselves, but they are there all the same. The first thing we must do if we are going to give in to temptation is wrapped up in the single word quench.
“God will never lead us to manage a desire in a sinful way. If I want to walk down the wrong road, I must begin by silencing God's divine voice within me. I must be careful not to pray about this desire with a submitted spirit. I must make sure I don't talk about this desire with wise friends who will hold me accountable. I must make sure I don't look carefully at passages of Scripture on the subject and reflect on them. I must do all these things without recognizing I am doing them. I must keep myself in a state of spiritual and mental vagueness where God is concerned.
“Do not quench the Spirit,” Paul says. Any time I have a desire, the Spirit will prompt me to set it before God and ask the question, ‘Lord, what do you want me to do with this?’ Or I can simply ask regarding any course of behavior, ‘If I walk down this road, where will it lead in the long run -- toward or away from the me I want to be?’
- John Ortberg, The Me I Want To Be
“In the flow of the Spirit, it actually requires more mental gymnastics to walk down the wrong path than to walk down the right one. We disguise most of these gymnastics from ourselves, but they are there all the same. The first thing we must do if we are going to give in to temptation is wrapped up in the single word quench.
“God will never lead us to manage a desire in a sinful way. If I want to walk down the wrong road, I must begin by silencing God's divine voice within me. I must be careful not to pray about this desire with a submitted spirit. I must make sure I don't talk about this desire with wise friends who will hold me accountable. I must make sure I don't look carefully at passages of Scripture on the subject and reflect on them. I must do all these things without recognizing I am doing them. I must keep myself in a state of spiritual and mental vagueness where God is concerned.
“Do not quench the Spirit,” Paul says. Any time I have a desire, the Spirit will prompt me to set it before God and ask the question, ‘Lord, what do you want me to do with this?’ Or I can simply ask regarding any course of behavior, ‘If I walk down this road, where will it lead in the long run -- toward or away from the me I want to be?’
- John Ortberg, The Me I Want To Be
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