Quench not the Holy Spirit.

I've always thought that verse was only talking about an individual resisting the Holy Spirit in his/her own life. It still does have that application, and it makes for good preaching, but there's another lesson I've learned about that verse last week at camp. (and no one even preached on it)

Did you know that if just 1 or 2 people have a pride or rebellion problem, that it could quench the Holy Spirit in a church or even a church service (like a camp meeting)? Have you ever been in a church service where there was REALLY good preaching and singing, but the Holy Spirit never showed up and wondered why?

During the first couple days at camp, I really could feel the Holy Spirit moving in the services. I could tell that if the week kept going the way it was, then there was a possibility of some kind of revival at the end of the week. Well, that didn't happen. Starting at the beginning of the week, we had to deal with a little bit of rebellion from a couple teenagers. It wasn't anything major, but in the middle of the week, another teen started showing a HUGE attitude (not caused by anyone else), and even when one teen got right about the attitude problem, the other two teens still had it pretty bad. I don't know the teens from other churches, and what kind of issues other counselors may have been dealing with, but I do know that there was "sin in the camp", so to speak. I believe the rebellion of at least two teenagers is what quenched the Holy Spirit and kept something major from happening at camp this year.

I believe what happened is very similar to the Old Testament story of Achan. He got a little rebellious and decided to take some spoils that God told Israel not to take. His one little sin affected the whole camp. You all know the story. I believe that there are only 2 ways to deal with something like this. Either those that are rebellious to authority need to repent and get right, or they need to leave. Of course, you can't really send a teenager home from church camp right in the middle of the week, but I'm talking about churches.

Since my blog is for women, this isn't really going to affect any preachers... but I just think sometimes us women can see and observe spiritual matters, and we can know what needs to be done even though we can't actually do anything but pray about it. Sometimes I have to admit, I have wondered why God made me a woman instead of a man, because women aren't supposed to preach or teach men. I love to study the Bible and deep doctrinal subjects, and I believe the Lord has given me some spiritual discernment about some things (I still have plenty of room to grow, so I'm not bragging on myself at all). Now I believe that God has made me a woman with a certain amount of intelligence so that I can be an encouragement to my husband, and so I can teach our children in the future.