Too many people do not think of the Spirit as they should.  We need to understand that the Spirit is a member of the Godhead, meaning that He is a divine being.  In other words, the Spirit is God (Acts 5:3-4).

The work of the Spirit is to convict sinners.

John 16:7-8 (ESV)
⁷  Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. ⁸  And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment:

He did this by the Word of God which He revealed to the apostles and prophets of the New Testament (Ephesians 3:1-5).  The inspired preaching of Peter on the day of Pentecost is an example of this (Acts 2:14-40).

The Spirit also works in the area of sanctification.  Peter referred to the sanctification of the Spirit in 1 Peter 1:2.  Once again, the Spirit does this through the medium of God’s Word.  This is why Jesus prayed that His disciples would be sanctified in the truth, which is the Word of God (John 17:17).

Knowing these facts about the Spirit, we can better understand Paul’s exhortation to not quench Him.  When we refuse to live by God’s Word, we are repressing the Spirit’s effort to sanctify us and make us better Christians.  We can avoid this by diligently obeying God in all areas of our lives.

Solomon said, “Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).  When we fulfill this duty, we are being led by the Spirit and glorifying God by our lives.  Let us all refrain from quenching the Spirit by willful disobedience to God’s Word, and, instead, please Him by obedient living.

One way to quench the Spirit is to forsake the assembling of the saints.  One thing that all of our assemblings have in common is the study of God’s Word.  Remember, it is by that Word that the Spirit does His work of sanctification.  The more we hear the revelation of the Spirit, the stronger our faith grows.  As Paul said, “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the Word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). 

The Spirit is quenched by us when we purposefully do things that limit the hearing of God’s Word in our lives.  Not only should we not neglect the assemblings of the saint, but we should also be careful not to limit the hearing of God’s Word by our own lack of personal Bible study.  When we allow ourselves to become too busy to study the Bible regularly, we are quenching the Spirit.  No one knows this better than the devil.  He tries his hardest to take the Word out of our lives.

Luke 8:11-12 (ESV)
¹¹  Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. ¹²  The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.          

Let’s not let the devil influence us to quench the Spirit.  Instead, let’s study God’s Word, obey its precepts, allowing the Spirit to build us up in the faith.

As you wind down for the night, think about these things.