Gift of God

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 2 Tim 1:6


I suppose that Timothy was a somewhat retiring youth, and that from the gentleness of his nature he needed to be exhorted to the exercise of the bolder virtues. His was a choice spirit, and therefore it was desirable to see it strong, brave and energetic. No one would wish to arouse a bad man, for, like a viper, he is all the worse for being awake; but in proportion to the excellence of the character is the desirability of its being full of force. There are many kinds of gifts. All Christians have some gift. Some have gifts without them rather than within them — gifts, for instance, of worldly position, estate, and substance. These ought to be well used. But we must go at once to the point in hand; — "the gift that is in you," we have now to speak of.
I. First, then, WHAT GIFT IS THERE IN US? In some there are gifts of mind, which are accompanied with gifts of utterance. The stones in the street might surely cry out against some religious professors who make the Houses of Parliament, the council-chamber, the courts of justice, the Athenaeum, or the Mechanics' hall ring with their voices, and yet preach not Jesus — who can argue points of politics and the like, but not speak a word for Christ — eloquent for the world, but dumb for Jesus. If you have the gift of the pen, are you using it for Christ as you ought? I want to stir up the gift that is in you. Letters have often been blessed to conversions; are you accustomed to write with that view? Another form of gift that belongs to us is influence. What an influence the parent has. Many of the elder members of the Church have another gift — namely, experience. Certainly, experience cannot be purchased, nor taught; it is given us of the Lord who teacheth us to profit. It is a peculiar treasure each man wins for himself as he is led through the wilderness. May you be of such a sort as a certain clergyman I heard of the other day. I asked a poor woman "What sort of man is he?" She said, "He is such a sort of man, sir, that if he comes to see you you know he has been there." I understood what she meant: he left behind him some godly saying, weighty advice, holy consolation, or devout reflection, which she could remember after he had left her cottage door. Another gift which many have is the gift of prayer — of prayer with power, in private for the Church and with sinners. There is another gift which is a very admirable one. It is the gift of conversation, not a readiness for chit-chat and gossip — (he who has that wretched propensity may bury it in the earth and never dig it up again) — but the gift of leading conversation, of being what George Herbert called the "master-gunner"; when we have that, we should most conscientiously use it for God.

II. And this brings us, secondly to the consideration of — HOW WE ARE TO STIR UP OUR GIFTS.
1. First, we should do it by examination to see what gifts we really have. There should be an overhauling of all our stores to see what we have of capital entrusted to our stewardship.
2. The next mode of stirring up our gift is to consider to what use we could put the talents we possess. To what use could I put my talents in my family?
3. But, next, stir it up not merely by consideration and examination, but by actually using it.
4. And then, in addition to using our gift, every one of us should try to improve it.
5. And then pray over your gifts: that is a blessed way of stirring them up — to go before God, and spread out your responsibilities before Him.

III. WHY IS IT THAT WE SHOULD STIR UP THE GIFT THAT IS IN US?
1. We should stir up the gift that is in us, because all we shall do when we have stirred ourselves to the utmost, and when the Spirit of God has strengthened us to the highest degree, will still fall far short of what our dear Lord and Master deserves at our hands.
2. Another reason is that these are stirring times. If we are not stirring everybody else is.
3. And then, again, we must stir up our gift because it needs stirring. The gifts and graces of Christian men are like a coal fire which frequently requires stirring as well as feeding with fuel.
4. If we will but stir our selves, or rather, if God's Holy Spirit will but stir us, we, as a church, may expect very great things.

(C. H. Spurgeon.)


What is the course of the development of this spiritual gift, or, better, this gift of the Spirit? What is the manifestation and unfolding of this new energy of God in the highest branch of man's nature? It is quiet and gentle as all God's operations are in the hearts that yield to Him; only an earthquake does it become when opposed by rocky natures, a desolating whirlwind among the stubborn oaks and cedars. It unfolds in willing hearts as seed in congenial soil, always with a promise of more and more; the blade, the ear, the full corn in the ear; the full corn in the ear multiplied thirty, sixty, an hundredfold, and each corn the promise and potency by a similar method of a hundred more. See how it increases. A young convert begins in an unobtrusive way to speak to a few wild boys whom he gathers together, one and another of whom become Christians; the number grows, and with growth of responsibility the convert receives increase of power. The class becomes a congregation; the few trembling, kind words he managed to speak at first become the powerful address; the boys are joined by men and women; the address becomes a sermon. That may be one way in which the gift of God may be developed and displayed. It is only one. For I hold the gift of the Spirit, which comes at conversion, to be also a gift for service. It is the same grace working through us to produce in other hearts precisely the fruits He has produced in us — repentance through our repentance, faith through our faith, love through our love, hope through our hope. The regenerated soul brings forth graces after their kind, just as the earth grass, and herb, and tree, yielding fruit whose seed is in itself, after its kind. But if all require His presence and help, none so manifestly require them as the minister who has to feed the flock of God. His nature ought to lie open to Divine influence at every point, and every call of his ministry should be a call to try and prove what the Spirit of Christ which is in him can accomplish for him and through him. He sometimes finds out the vastness of his supernatural resources through being made painfully conscious of the inadequacy of his natural powers for the work to be done. He sees the truth dimly, and therefore seeks for the light of the Spirit to be shed upon it and irradiate it. And here I would say that I am free to admit, as has been always held by those who intelligently believe that the God who created our natural powers is the same as He who sanctifies them and works through them, "that the greater the gifts by nature and cultivation, the greater the number of points at which the Holy Spirit may move us, and that Divine power is conditioned by human receptivity." The gift of the Spirit to Timothy was the same as to Paul; and yet since Timothy's measure was not as capacious as Paul's, and, perhaps, because he did not so diligently stir up his gift as Paul, his lifo, beautiful and useful though it was, lacked the luxuriant fruitfulness of Paul's. The condition of our doing our best is that we allow God to do the best He can through us. And be our other gifts few or many, brilliant or humble, the reason for stirring up the flame of the great gift is just the same in all cases. For you would not have your poor gift without the fire that can make even it glow with fervour, as I have often seen the lips of poor, illiterate, feeble-minded men burn with rapture which gave beauty and charm to all they said. And you would not have your finer gifts, if you possess such, bereft of that energy which is a touch of omnipotence, nor left without that inspiration which is a pulse of the heart of infinite love. No one can tell the wealth of his gift in the possession of the Spirit of God. Let us put ourselves in remembrance that we may stir up the gift of God. Let us remember the day of our first submission, and how it ought to have implied a life-long submission, a continual yielding up of self and self-will. Let us remember the day of our consecration, the hopes which then gleamed in our heaven, the vows which then trembled on our lips. If the promise of these times has been blasted or dimmed, let us seek the renewing of our hearts by the Spirit which dwelleth in us. If the promise has been fulfilled, or even more than fulfilled, still let us honour the Spirit by whom we have been kept, sanctified, and used.
(J. P. Gledstone.)