Stir up the gift

You know that when you were saved, God gave you an amazing capacity to perform certain tasks according to the level of faith you were given.

How we respond to this and learn how to activate and cultivate that gifting is crucial to our personal development as disciples of Christ.

Don’t bury the talent

You remember the parable Jesus told where a man’s servants were given certain talents when he was about to go on a long journey. He gave instruction that they were to utilise and advance those talents, making a profit by his return (Luke 19:15).

They were expected to develop those talents according to their ability. Two of the servants were successful and multiplied their talents, but one buried their talent out of fear and it produced nothing. Those who gave a return on their investment were given greater responsibility in the man’s household, but the one who rejected the offer was cast out.

Believers have been given gifts (Rom.12:6-7). They are accompanied by a measure of faith (Rom.12:3). We are to think soberly about this, and act according to the measure of faith and the type of gift we have been given.

For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Romans 12:3-8

Opportunity

Our gift is our opportunity. It is accompanied by the anointing and the grace to carry it through. There’s a story in Exodus of the anointing and ability God gave to a man called Bezaleel, who was set apart to build the tabernacle in the wilderness, the very Presence of God with His people.

And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah: And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, To devise cunning works, to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, And in cutting of stones, to set them, and in carving of timber, to work in all manner of workmanship.

Exodus 31:1-5

God also gifted Bezaleel’s team of artisans to accomplish His plans for the tabernacle, which was the tent of worship, and included the Ark of the Covenant.

In the same way God appoints and anoints believers with ability, grace and skills which help build His kingdom and His Church. That is why Paul was able to say, even to the immature and sometimes wayward Corinthians, that believers, through the Holy Spirit, have come behind in no gift (1 Cor.1:7).

We have everything we need

They had all utterance, all gifting and all ability to accomplish great things for the kingdom. Paul’s task as Apostle was to shape them up and knock off the rough edges so that they could function according to God’s design and authorship. We are no less in need of reminding and repair, but we too have to take some responsibility for the gifting God adds to our own earthly talents.

Later, it is Paul who says to his prodigy, Timothy, as he left for Ephesus to oversee the Church there, that he should stir up the gift that was given him by the laying on of hands.

Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:6-7

So it is with each of us. We are endowed with gifts from on high. We have been given talents, abilities and anointing which empower us in the Holy Spirit to be effective for the kingdom of God.

Now is not the time to bury our abilities in the sand, but to seek God and learn how to apply those gifts and abilities to His will and direction for our lives and of those we come into contact with.

The whole Body of Christ has multiple gifting, grace and empowerment to make the Church the great instrument of God in the earth, but we all have to play our part by dedicating ourselves to God’s purposes and instruction in the Word, and by the Spirit, in Jesus’ name.

This article was written for those who have already been saved, who are born again. If you have not yet been saved, or if you are not certain of your heavenly destiny, I have a free ebook you can read which will tell you exactly how to be born again.