Growing in the Gifts of the Spirit - Earnestly Desire (Daily Devotional)

Hello and welcome to Living Supernaturally, the daily devotion of All People’s church. We're so glad that you could be here today even as we study God's word together. We've been studying about growing in the gifts of the Spirit and today we are looking at this instruction- stir up the gifts of the Spirit, don't neglect the gifts of the Spirit. We're looking at 1 Timothy chapter 4 and verse 14 and Paul writes and he says, "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.’ Paul is writing to Timothy, a young man who's there and he has commissioned him and appointed him as a pastor of the church in Ephesus and Timothy is there and Paul is writing to him, to instruct him, to encourage him and in doing so he says, "Do not neglect the gift." Now he doesn't specify what gift, but obviously it was a gift of the Spirit which was imparted by the laying on of hands and by prophetic utterance and so he says, "Don't neglect that gift." In the same epistle, an earlier chapter he says, "Some having strayed have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm." He's saying, they have strayed away and he's giving reasons of why they strayed away, it was because of idle talk and so on. So, when we look at the gifts of the Spirit, it is very possible that one can actually stray away from the gifts of the Spirit, one can neglect the gifts of the Spirit, one can ignore the gift of the Spirit and so, the instruction or the exhortation given to us is to stir up. Stir up, which means to fan into flame. If the embers and fire seem to be dying out, to stir up the gifts of the Spirit. So, this is what we see here, we are to stir up and there could be many reasons for us requiring to stir up. The reasons could be because of laziness. Well, to move in the gifts of the Spirit, it requires a certain effort, it requires earnestness, it requires us to get up and do something about it in faith. And so, if we are being slothful, if we are being lazy, then obviously, we would not move and so, the second thing that we see is fear. It could be because of fear because faith involves taking a risk and maybe because of fear of people or what will they say or what will they do, because of fear over overtaking us more than the fear of God. Or it could be doubt, did God really say that? Or was it my own thinking or my own imagination or my own thoughts? It could be a doubt that's come up in our mind or doubt that is planted in our mind. Or it could be just neglect. Like how we would neglect a garden and weeds come up and spoil the way the garden is. What is the antidote? Paul writes and he says, "Stir up the gifts of God.” The picture that we have is that of a fire being stirred up into a roaring flame, so, we are to stir up the gifts of God. And how do we do that? We can ask God for the manifestation in all of life’s situations. Maybe we are traveling and we're saying, "God, give me a word for this person." Or maybe we are with some friends and the person says, "this is a need." And so, we pray and say, "God, you express yourself." So, we ask God for a manifestation of Himself, His presence and power in life’s situations. Secondly, how do we stir up? We stir up by maybe when we encounter certain needs in people, certain needs in life situations where we stir ourselves up and make a demand and say, "God, you are the God who promised," and so, "Lord, may you express yourself, release your power, release your healing, God." And we put ourselves in those situations and we make a demand. Thirdly, we stir ourselves up by staying strong in our spiritual life. Now, we know that this is an expression of the Holy Spirit and we need to be strong in the Spirit and be sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit and so, we need to stress stay strong in our spiritual life. How do we do that? By maintaining a life of communion and intimacy with the Holy Spirit, by making sure that we don't neglect the word of God in our lives, that we read the word of God, spend time in His word, meditate on the word of God, and confess and declare the word of God over our life situations. So, we continue all those spiritual disciplines. Also very importantly, we stir ourselves up in the Spirit and in the gifts when we pray more and we pray specifically in tongues, when we pray in the Spirit. So, these are some things that we do in order to stir ourselves up and stir up the gift of God in us. So, we need to stir up and not neglect if we want to grow and in the gifts of the Spirit and God's desire is for us to grow. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you that this is your will, this is your desire for us not to maintain status quo but to grow spiritually, but to grow in the expression of the Holy Spirit. Lord, we thank you for this exhortation in scripture that you have laid down that we will stir us stir ourselves up and not neglect the gift that you put in us, we thank you, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
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