We read, " Quench not the Spirit " (1 Thess. 5: 29). To quench the Spirit is to refuse to follow the leading of the Spirit, or to refuse to accept what the Spirit might give through others. For instance if the Apostle Paul had refused the urge of the Spirit of God to preach the gospel among the Gentiles, the Spirit would have been quenched, and the greater part of the Acts of the Apostles would never have been written. The quenching of the Spirit might be, if the Spirit of God urged a saint to minister to the temporal needs of a poor saint, or even of an unbeliever, and he does not do so. In such a case the Spirit would be quenched.
Grieving the Spirit is through fleshly activity on my part; quenching the Spirit, through refusing the activity of the Spirit of God. Or it might be by a believer refusing to accept ministry, because the one ministering is not approved of.
Surely the Spirit of God was both grieved and quenched when the Corinthian saints were ranging themselves round party leaders, and refusing the ministry of the Spirit, because the channel used was not one favored by them. In the confusion of Christendom to-day how much is the Spirit grieved, quenched, and set aside by man's organization.