Kindle afresh your spiritual gifts

In 2 Timothy 1:6, Paul reminded the young pastor to kindle afresh his spiritual gift. While teaching this passage last week, I thought about how it has been a long time since I have heard about spiritual gifts in the church. If we don’t talk or teach about spiritual gifts, how can we “kindle afresh” (NASB) our gifts.

In 1 Corinthians 12:31, Paul said, “But earnestly desire the higher gifts,” indicating that some gifts are higher or greater than others, and also that we can desire or seek after gifts of the Spirit from God. He again tells the Corinthian church and us today that we should “earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy,” in 1 Corinthians 14:1.

Every believer is gifted with at least one spiritual gift, or a supernatural grace to build up other believers. Every BELIEVER! If you are a Christian, God has endowed you with a spiritual grace for you to help other believers. Not just a natural talent or an ability or a learned passion. A spiritual gift is supernatural and to be used especially for the edification within the church or such as in the case of the giftedness of an evangelist, to bring people into the family of God.

You likely know what your natural talents are or even what you have learned to do through experience or education. Those are natural and normal and useful in everyday living. But do you know what your spiritual giftedness is? The main differences between natural gifts and spiritual gifts are 1) Spiritual gifts are supernatural and 2) Used primarily if not exclusively for the edification of the church body.

Here is an example: You may not have any desire to teach vocationally in a career and may hate learning, studying, and research in the secular, worldly realm. But regarding Christianity, you cannot wait to read, study and prepare to share with others what you have learned from God’s Word. And what’s more, people eagerly seek you out to tell them about God’s truths.

On the other hand, God may give the supernatural gift of teaching to those who are by their profession teachers, but when they teach with their spiritual giftedness in the context of the church, their lessons and effectiveness will be on a different level. It is will be empowered by the Holy Spirit of God.

There are several lists of gifts in the Scripture, but no two are alike and I do not believe the lists are exhaustive. You can find them in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4. There are other places where spiritual gifts are mentioned. That’s another reason why I don’t believe that the gifts are fully listed or limited to solely in the Scriptures. But certainly, the gifts in the Bible are worthy to be studied and sought after.

One final thought on your spiritual gifts: If you notice, I referred to 1 Corinthians 12:31 and 1 Corinthians 14:1. In between is a well-known passage of chapter 13, also known as the love chapter. As we pursue gifts of the Holy Spirit, it should always be used in the context of the greatest of all virtues and spiritual fruit: Love. If you gift does not lead to love of God, the love of others, and the love of yourself (yes, the Bible says you are to love yourself so that you can love others), the gifts are not being used in the way that God desired.