Stir Up the Gifts - Part 1

2 Timothy 1:6 - Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

I’m convinced that if each disciple of Christ kept their gift stirred up we would see the supernatural power of God flowing in and out of the church all of the time. Imagine your church operating like this. Every time you get together you could regularly expect prophecy, words of knowledge and wisdom, discerning of spirits, tongues and interpretation, miracles, etc. Family Life Church is growing in this, but we have a ways to go.

I think we would all enjoy our gatherings more if they were filled with Holy Spirit activity. Why doesn’t this happen more? Either God meant for the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be active today or He didn’t. I think we are often waiting on God to move when He is waiting on us to stir up our gift. It’s an interesting thought – that the gifts of God become active when we choose to stir them up. Or conversely, the gifts lie dormant because we choose not to stir them up.

As a worship leader, I think sometimes I can hide behind the “flow of the Spirit” card. You know – “The worship goes with the flow of the Spirit. Sometimes He moves, sometimes not”. Truth be told, our most prophetic and anointed worship times occur when we as a worship leaders and team members choose to stir up our gift. We don’t like to admit it because it brings accountability. But I’d say it’s true. Sometimes God surprises us and moves in spite of us, but I think most often He’s waiting for us to use the gifts that He gave us.

I’m all for waiting on the Lord – but I think that it’s the difference between actively waiting on Him and passively waiting on Him. When we “wait” biblically, we actively listen and expect Him to give instruction for how to function in our gifts. I’ve found that God is leading and speaking all the time in the context of my gift – He’s just waiting for me to stir it up and exercise it.

When is the last time you stirred up the gift of God and functioned during a gathering? When’s the last time you stirred up the gift of prophecy? Faith? Discerning of Spirits? Miracles? Sundays, Wednesdays, small groups, outreach, at work, at school, etc? I think we could make life a lot more interesting if we’d keep the gifts stirred up. I also believe that many more people would come to Christ and get planted in our local churches.

Stay tuned for part two…