“Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands” (2 Timothy 1:6, NKJV).
Every believer has been gifted with some supernatural abilities to ensure that nobody is jobless in the church. These supernatural abilities are otherwise called spiritual gifts because they are administered to individual members of the church by the Holy Spirit. Your gift is both your invitation and mandate to serve. Serving in the Body of Christ necessarily implies using the gifts God has given you to meet the needs of some people in your sphere of influence. The more the number of people that discover their gifts and deploy them effectively in the service of God through the church, the healthier the church becomes and the more effectively she fulfils the purpose of God for her. The essence of each believer being gifted with some gifts is a way of ensuring that each person is making valid contribution to the wellbeing of the church. The Apostle Paul explained the need for every member of the church to effectively use his gifts to serve: “For his “body” has been formed in his image and is closely joined together and constantly connected as one. And every member has been given divine gifts to contribute to the growth of all; and as these gifts operate effectively throughout the whole body, we are built up and made perfect in love” (Ephesians 4:16,TPT). Here then is a question for you. Have you discovered your spiritual gift? If you have, are you effectively using it to serve God in the church.
God desires that you let your spiritual gifts burn brightly in the service of His church.
Our text makes a simple but very fundamental demand from each of us, which is “to stir up the gift of God which is in us.” Paul makes no room for doubt as to whether the gifts are in us or not. He strongly acknowledges that the gifts are there waiting to be stirred up. His choice of words is remarkable. In his use of the word “stir,” he conceives of the “gift of God” as fire, which is capable of dying out through neglect. The Passion Translation brings out this point clearly. It says, “I’m writing to encourage you to fan into a flame and rekindle the fire of the spiritual gift God imparted to you when I laid my hands upon you”(2Timothy 1:6,TPT). Younger people who did not grow up in the village and may not have witnessed the use of firewood for cooking, may not appreciate the word picture Paul paints for us. In those days, handheld fans are important articles in the kitchen. When the fire smoulders, you use the handheld fan to wave over it to improve oxygen supply. Oxygen is an indispensable element in combustion, without it, fire cannot burn. To stir up the gifts of God therefore means to fan them into flame by supplying the oxygen of prayer, knowledge, and deliberate use of the gifts.
Stirring up the gifts entails ensuring that you don’t let them lie dormant and unused. This calls for intentional efforts to discover, use, and develop those gifts to build the body of Christ. God desires that you let your spiritual gifts burn brightly in the service of His church. To this end, Peter enjoins us: “God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another” (1 Peter 4:10, NLT). Each member of the Body of Christ experiences personal revival to the extent the person understands and uses his spiritual gifts to serve others. A local assembly is in revival when members are eager to know their gifts and to use them in the service of God. The more people become aware of their spiritual gifts and engage them effectively the more revived that assembly is. You are actively cultivating a personal revival by investing time in discovering, developing and deploying your spiritual gifts in the service of God. Dormant gifts neither threatens the devil nor glorifies God. The power that God has made available for us in the service of His kingdom is domiciled in the spiritual gifts He has given to us. Let us hasten our experience of personal revival by using our spiritual gifts to serve God in Jesus name.
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