Test and hold on to the good...

Week 11:

I Thessalonians 5:19-22 ¹⁹ Do not quench the Spirit. ²⁰ Do not treat prophecies with contempt ²¹ but test them all; hold on to what is good, ²² reject every kind of evil.

Two weeks ago I talked about loving the good.  I have since run across this passage.  Holding on to the good can be a part of loving the good.  All good comes from above.  To hold onto the good, I make steps toward loving and applying good in my life.

So, where else does the good come from?  As I read this, I notice some thoughts come up for me.  “Do not quench the Spirit.”  We take the Spirit of God into our heart when we accept Jesus.  The Spirit begins to work in our lives.  The Spirit speaks to us through God’s Word.  However, the Spirit works in other ways as well.  At times, my conservative Church background has limited me.  There have been times where I have missed the Spirit’s call (quenched) just because I did not read it in the Bible.  The Bible is very important to be our guide into our Christian life.  However, God is bigger than the Bible.  His Spirit is working all throughout creation.  God can use whatever means necessary to accomplish His purposes, He is God and His Spirit fallows Him.  Therefore, I must remember that prophesies can come from other areas in my life besides Church and the Bible.  A step further for me is when I have heard these charges or prophesies and have gone back to what I know in the Bible and about God; these prophesies have lined up with the character of God.  This is the testing that this verse speaks of. 

A second thought is in the area of rejecting evil.  Test the message.  Use what is truth and good.  Reject untruth and evil.  In my blog article Books, studies, sermons, and/or other avenues, I wrote about discerning what is truth from what is being presented.  Used to, I would hear or read something that didn’t match up with Biblical truth and would instantly reject everything.  It is later that I realized that some of what was being presented is through the Spirit of God and the rest is from humankind (which what is from humankind may or may not be true).  I even found this to be true of me.  Some of what I write and speak on is Spirit led and some of it is from me.  I think that most of what is from me is based on truth, but there are times that my own opinion does not match up with truth.  However, I still want what God is speaking through me to be heard.  So, a key word around this passage is “Discernment”.


This brings me to the phrase, “Do not treat prophesies with contempt.”  When I have rejected whole messages because I have run across something I disagree with or something that makes me uncomfortable, I quite possible just missed something God wanted me to hear or learn.  Why do I normally treat some prophesies with contempt?  1.  Conviction:  I am convicted by the message and I do not want to admit that I may be in the wrong.  So I reject the message.  2.  Disagreement:  I disagree with the message or at least part of it.  Or, I may disagree with the messenger.  He/she may have exhibited something character-wise that hit me in an uncomfortable way.  3.  Evil:  The message being sent does not line up with God’s truth or His goodness.  Again, the key to following this verse in my life around the messages/prophesies is my ability to exercise discernment. 

My challenge is to have an open mind.  Within that open mindset, I am to test what I am receiving against the character of God.  The Spirit will show me what lands on my heart.

Questions/challenges:

1.      How do you interpret quenching the Spirit?

2.      Where have you held a message or prophesy in contempt lately?

3.      What was the block for you?

4.      Recalling back to the above message from #3; was there some truth or good God may have wanted you to hear despite the block?

5.      This week, pay attention to how you receive messages and prophesies.  Notice where God is speaking and where humankind is speaking.  Ask God to reveal Himself to you.

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