Pastor’s Blog 1.9.19
2 Timothy 1:6-8 TPT:
“I’m writing to encourage you to fan into a flame and rekindle the fire of the spiritual gift God imparted to you when I laid my hands upon you. For God will never give you the spirit of fear, but the Holy Spirit who gives you mighty power, love, and self-control. So never be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor be embarrassed over my imprisonment, but overcome every evil by the revelation of the power of God!”
There is a mindset in some believers that puts all responsibility for spiritual realities on God. I for one, have learned over a lifetime of working with the Holy Spirit, that His gifts and endowments are working in response to our faith and works in love. When we move in faith, He will move in us; likewise, if I take no step of faith He will do little through me. The church is not supposed to be the weekend sports arena where you come to “watch the stars perform”, there has been too much spectating and too little participating in the church as a whole.
I have had so many people say to me over the years, “well if God wanted me to have something, He would just give it to me.” He probably does and He probably did. I have a gift of prophesy, but I can just not do it and the gift will go dormant. I have to stir up my gifts just like you do. I had to stir my gift to write this blog right now. God didn’t take control of my faculties and computer and do this, I had to stir it up! Until I purposed to write this today and actually begin, I didn’t have a thing to say!
It’s simple really. I sat down and prayed for a few minutes at my desk and asked for inspiration from the Holy Spirit. Then I began to hear in my inner being, “Stir up the gifts within the body”. So I pulled up the scripture and started a monologue with you, “which is a dialogue with the gift inside me”, to teach the practical way to stir up your gifts!
Tonight we will be teaching and practicing this in the service, so if you can’t be in service, watch online.
Hebrews 10:23-25
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,
25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. NKJV
To be spiritual isn’t always that mystical, it’s really very practical. Many times we miss the spiritual looking for the mystical. A word of knowledge isn’t mystical, neither is a word of wisdom. It’s practical, it’s spiritual insight for practical application. Learning to hear the voice of God is more than just experiencing open visions and visits from angels and the like. It’s learning when that inner knowing is the voice of God or not and that comes from knowing His ways. As we study the history of God’s ways, we then have something with which to judge what we are hearing.
I judge all I hear by God’s word and ways. He has given us His will by His word and we judge all by that word. Here is the scriptural principle for what I am saying:
2 Peter 1:19-21
19 And we have the prophetic word [made] firmer still. You will do well to pay close attention to it as to a lamp shining in a dismal (squalid and dark) place, until the day breaks through [the gloom] and the Morning Star rises ( comes into being) in your hearts.
20[Yet] first [you must] understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is [a matter] of any personal or private or special interpretation (loosening, solving).
21 For no prophecy ever originated because some man willed it [to do so — it never came by human impulse], but men spoke from God who were borne along (moved and impelled) by the Holy Spirit. AMP
The KJV says, “We have a more sure word of prophecy”. We test all voices by the voice of the word of God and nothing should be in conflict with the Bible we have. Even the word must be taken in context with the original intent of the writer.
2 Timothy 2:15-19
15 Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth.
16 But avoid all empty (vain, useless, idle) talk, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness.
17 And their teaching [will devour; it] will eat its way like cancer or spread like gangrene. So it is with Hymenaeus and Philetus,
18 Who have missed the mark and swerved from the truth by arguing that the resurrection has already taken place. They are undermining the faith of some.
19 But the firm foundation of (laid by) God stands, sure and unshaken, bearing this seal (inscription): The Lord knows those who are His, and, Let everyone who names [himself by] the name of the Lord give up all iniquity and stand aloof from it. [Numbers 16:5; Isaiah 26:13.] AMP
Remember, everything in our lives as a believer goes by the pattern of the word of God!
Be blessed!
- Date - January 9, 2019
- Author - David Chisholm
