I need your prayer! It seems that the cool weather has brought out and about a good number of men and women who have decided that their major calling in life is to quench the Spirit of God with their negative, critical and often mean spirited attitudes. It seems like every year – as we get closer to the big holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas, they just seem to show up. It’s not that they are not around at other times during the year. They just seem to be around more and up to doing more harm than good during this time of year.
I love everybody, but I have to be really honest and tell you that I have to pray a lot more than usaul to find and share love with the Spirit Quenchers! They drain the life out of me! I can be happy, excited and ready to go for God and then after a run in with a Spirit Quencher, I am sad, drained and in need of a nap! The Bible tells us to not quench the Spirit! In fact it has some rather strong advice for those that would allow themselves to become quenchers of the Spirit, so be careful!
I am not sure what we can do about Spirit Quenchers – they have a mind, heart and spirit of their own and they get to decide for themselves! I do know however, that I don’t have to let a Spirit Quencher turn me into a Spirit Quencher! So I will keep talking to my God who loves me and has an amazing plan for my life. And I will keep listening to my God through the love letter of His Word. And I will ask you my family and friends to pray for me and with me – that I will stay strong and yielded not to man, but to God! By they way, I will be praying the same thing for you!
Michael Joe Harvell 
I am proceeding with caution today because I can catch myself quenching the spirit inside me much less someone else’s. It seems here lately that there have been several things happening at Northwood; some good and some not so good. I view spirit quenchers as those who get on their “soap boxes” about something or someone, spirit quenchers are those who don’t want to look for the positive in anything, and then there are those spirit quenchers that wants everyone to suffer as they have for some reason or another instead of sharing their story on what God is taking them through. Yeah, I am probably talking about myself (then again is this you??). God has brought me a long way through my “Egypt” and now I have to be careful to share in a positive way. Sometimes I ask questions and people seem to think I am gethering information to be negative – give me a break! I ask because I want to know more. There have been a couple of issues within Northwood that I (and my family) have been involved in where I believe a lot of one- sided stories, gossip and misplaced judgement has quenched our spirits and yet we still have faith in the church family that God had lead us to. Let me publicly (and privatly if brought to my attention) apologize to anyone if I have quenched your spirit. I know I have not been the best example of someone living for Christ but please know that I do work hard each & everyday to be a good example. Listen to the Spirit of God and allow something beautiful to happen today. Thanks for staying positive MJ as I know many look to you for advice. We CAN LOVE those spirit quenchers to the Lord and help to grow their spirit to a right relationship with the Lord. I truely love all of you and wish everyone a blessed Holiday season. By the way if you need a family for the holidays (or anytime) – join ours if you want to.
I think the best thing you can do about spirit quenchers is find out what they are missing at that particular moment, and see what we, the church body, can do to ammend the issue. What makes this hard, is that many times people don’t realize that they are missing or are in need of anything, they are just down right frustrated. It seems to me that the best cure for a spirit quenching mindset is fellowship. I know that I can be in a terrible mood, but when I get to Northwood, and get to interact with everyone there, that it seems to all go away. If for no other reason, you seem to leave all your troubles at the door, and focus on God, friendships, and good times…. and food! I guess we need to start having nightly services, so that everyday we can get together with the people we love, and have this time of freeing for our hearts. You up for that MJ? That’s only 8 messages a week? I’m sure you could handle it. 🙂
Fear Not Dear Brother,
I am a lot older than THEE, and I can tell you that the type of ‘persons’ you describe have been here ‘a long while.’ I am not so old that I can’t remember when I asked Jesus to come into my young life..
I can still recall the feeling of “cleanness” and ‘the tears of Joy’ and the knowledge that all was well with my soul. Didn’t take too long until I discovered “Sunday Christians” and I thought maybe a different Church would be what it was designed to be… well, it finally dawned some of us get it and some don’t.. thank God for those who inhabit every ‘Church’ and do what they were called to do and their faith combined with yours and mine will ‘OVERCOME.’ Unfortunately “The purveyors of ‘Ice Water’ will continue until the day WE ALL stand before HIM who stood for us. Therefore Brother we stand remembering that some can injure our name, our body, our things, BUT in The name of Our Lord they have no control over our soul.
I like the fact that you admit that these “Spiritual quenchers” can also bring you down. I think a lot of times we forget that even you as our pastor are real. I have to admit I feel that I am already drained by these people. Your words of encouragement come at a good time. Nora, I have been at this church for 27 years and I’ve seen a lot of things even with my young eyes and I can tell you we have all been in your shoes and I congratulate you for being open with us and helping us all realize that we are a family. I ask all who read this to please pray for our church and myself so that we can regain strength.