Time To Engage: "Stir Up The Gifts”

Time to Engage

“Stir Up The Gifts”

2 Timothy 1:5-7

Watch on YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgYVQ5xF_44

There’s a call God gives to His people signaling He’s about ready to move. The call is so they can be ready, so they can prepare their hearts and minds to fulfill the call.

God wants to begin a spiritual fire in the hearts of His people and in the heart of His church. This goes way back to the first church and Jesus’s call for them to wait in Jerusalem until they were endued with the power of the Holy Spirit.

And through their obedience on the day of Pentecost, the power of the Holy Spirit descended. And let me give to you the synopsis. A) The call was given, B) the people obeyed, and C) God moved.

The Scriptures are full of such calls by God in the restoration of His people, and it has been through these calls that God has been restoring and reviving the church throughout the centuries.

As we passionately pursue the presence of God, we need to prepare our hearts so God can breathe within us the Holy Spirit and bring revival in our time.

One of those calls is what the Apostle Paul gives to Timothy, a call to stir up the gifts God has given.

This call involves those inner promptings of the Holy Spirit to serve Him through either a change of direction or vocation, or using our God given gifts within the different ministries within the church, or volunteering outside the church in order to make a difference within our community for Christ.

And what the Lord is calling is for us to stir up and bring into flame His calling, His gifts and talents, so that we can be a part of His work and start making a difference.

Look at this call with me.

“When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also. 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 1:5-7 NKJV)

To fully understand this calling, we need to get a little background on Paul and Timothy.

Paul met Timothy on his first missionary trip as he went through the city of Lystra. His mother and grandmother were Jewish and Timothy grew up in the Jewish faith knowing the Scriptures. It was on this trip that Timothy most likely came into the faith along with his mother and grandmother.

When Paul returned on his second missionary journey he took Timothy with him. Now, along the way prophetic words were spoken over Timothy when Paul, along with some of the elders laid their hands on him ratifying and commissioning him for the work of the ministry.

Although we are never told exactly what this gift was that he was given, it probably was a gift related to ministry like the office of pastor and teacher.

Paul talks about this in his first letter to Timothy.

“Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.” (1 Timothy 4:14 NKJV)

What are the gifts?

The word that is used, along with the general description given by the Paul in his letters to church in Corinth and Rome (1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12), indicate they are a special endowment, an anointing upon a believer’s life by the Holy Spirit to equip them for service in the ministry God has called them to. 

Now, these gifts are not for the selected few, like those who hold offices within the church, but rather they are given to every believer in Jesus Christ. Every believer has been given these gifts to fulfill God’s kingdom purposes.

The Holy Spirit has given every believer these supernatural resources to complete His plans and purposes, so that His kingdom will come, and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Paul describes this in his letter to the Corinthian church.

“But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all … But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.” (1 Corinthians 12:7,11 NKJV)

So, every believer in Jesus Christ has been given a gift, often times more than one, or what is known as a gift mix. Mine is the gift of faith, prophesy (forth telling God’s word), and administration, coupled with the ministry gifts of teaching and pastoring. The purpose is to use these within the local church and God’s ministry.