Walking in the Power of the Spirit

I preached on living in the power of the Spirit on Sunday. I said, as I have often said, that sin short-circuits God's power in our life - the Spirit is quenched or grieved when we sin.

Yet I am puzzled why many Christians who are not overtly sinning are not experiencing God's power either. It dawned on me that perhaps when we say "sin quenches the power of the Spirit in our lives", we think of big sins like sexual immorality, drug abuse, drunkenness, and the like. But perhaps what's quenching the Spirit's power in our lives are the more subtle sins that can't be detected as easily as the "big ones".

These subtle sins can include worry, lack of patience (which is a lack of love), not forgiving others, criticising (judging) others, etc... Perhaps we have become like the Pharisees, clean on the outside (the big sins), but full of crap on the inside.

If we are not committing the big sins and yet are not experiencing the power of the Spirit in our lives, maybe we should check to see if the little sins have taken over our heart and are quenching the Spirit in us.

Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards
Songs of Solomon 2:15

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