“SQUENCHING” THE SPIRIT
Quench not the Spirit.
I Thessalonians 5:19
A Negro friend used to say to me, “Don’t ‘squench’ the Spirit.” He coined his own word, but “squench,” being a combination of “squelch” and “quench,” really should be in the dictionary.
We quench the Spirit in more ways than we suspect. When we stifle the inner impression to speak or act for the Lord we do it. And we can quench the Spirit in others when we criticize or discourage or by any attitude “throw cold water” on their fire. The brother in prayer meeting who mixed his metaphors and said, “Lord, if there should be a spark of fire in this meeting, please water that spark,” unwittingly suggested another way to smother the Spirit’s freedom. How we do conspire to limit God in our meetings! We have an Honored Guest in every Christian gathering, and He can be grieved very easily. A frivolous spirit, a critical or rebellious frame of mind, a fed-up complacency – that will do it. The very way we arrange physical details, the way we scatter all over the church, two to a pew; the way we hear and hear not – surely “squench” says it, for we squelch and quench the Spirit.