Respect for the Holy Spirit - by Jim Tharp

Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt.
Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.
May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

I Thes. 5:19-24, NIV.


The apostle Paul, like Jesus and John the Baptist (Luke 12:49; Matt. 3:11), used fire as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army referred to the fire of the Holy Spirit as “a source of the Christian’s power and a safeguard of his purity.” Then he went on to say that we have a tendency to let that fire go out. J. H. Jowett aptly stated, “As that holy fire goes out, the evil one will seek to come in with coldness, hardness, and blindness.”

Early in my pastoral ministry I realized the urgency of developing a discipleship course for new believers that included lessons on “How to Relate to the Holy Spirit, Our Holy Guest”—Praying in the Spirit, Worshiping in the Spirit, Walking in the Spirit, Resisting Evil in the Spirit.

But as we move more deeply into the deepening shadows of the last days, we all shall need to find times of rekindling the fires of the Holy Spirit in our lives. In fact, this has been the main theme of my preaching and teaching throughout the year of 2012. In five states—Alabama, Indiana, Montana, Maryland, and Pennsylvania—and in nearly all services, whether a Revival Meeting, School of Prayer, or Prayer Gatherings, I have