Quenching and Maturing
Quenching and Maturing
We don’t need to spend time groveling or punishing ourselves for our failures. There may well be earthly consequences and pain, but as far as Father is concerned the failures never happened.
We are 100% fully and completely secure in Him. Jesus said He would lose none of those who are His and that no one could snatch us out of His hand. He said He would never leave us, and nothing can separate us from His love. We are one spirit with Him, and we are sealed and kept in God with Christ by the Holy Spirit of God who lives in us.
That’s pretty secure!
Holy Spirit is with us in the middle of those pitch-black times. He isn’t ever leaving us.
Quenching the Holy Spirit occurs when we are prompted by Him toward godly attitudes and actions, but we do not yield to that prompting. Rather than letting His guidance determine our responses or actions, we do what seems desirable to the flesh.
This often looks like manipulation of circumstances to ensure a particular outcome, to avoid pain, or to assuage our fear. Because it is not of faith, that is certainly not conducive to growth. Even so, Father often sees to it that we grow through it.
Over time we see more clearly the futility of what the flesh calls satisfying and desirable and we see the great value and blessing to be found in what Holy Spirit within us urges us toward. In this way we come to learn that Father’s way is best and we can trust Him with our pain, our fear, and with what we love most.
We are never disqualified from learning. Whether we are obeying by letting Holy Spirit drive the bus of our lives or giving in to the fleshly earthy temptations of the world, we will be learning. Father is much bigger than any of that and He is able to teach us through it all. The question is how much pain do we cause ourselves in the learning?
That’s why we are called to good works, called to train ourselves in godliness. It’s the reason we are urged to renew our minds, and to set our minds on things above. That’s the road that’s best for us and it is far smoother than the alternative.
