Spiritual gifts work through a person’s spirit. Our spirit within impels us, like a wind driving ships across the sea. A particular gift implants a drive within; but in order for that gift to be expressed, we must choose to act on what our spirit within impels.
If one is given a gift of teaching, he must work at teaching. The gift does not give him teaching, only the drive to teach. It takes ten years to become an expert at anything. If one is given a gift of service, he must work at what is necessary to serve. A medical degree takes years to earn. Gifts are not shortcuts; they are the drive to do what we are meant to do.
Spiritual gifts are given by God; but they can lie dormant within us because we have not acted upon them. Paul urged Timothy to stir up the spiritual gift within him. What is in our spirit may require years of work to express.
Tiger Woods is gifted; not because golf was easy for him, but because he was driven to practice more than anyone else. He is arguably the best player in the world because he has worked harder at it than anyone else.
Spiritual gifts require spiritual freedom. We cannot serve others effectively if we are slaves ourselves. We must be free to work out what He is working in us. We cannot prophesy if we do not listen to His voice. We cannot teach if we have not learned to follow. We cannot exhort if we have given in to sin.
Only disciples can find freedom.
“…If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” John 8:31-32
Only disciples can realize the spiritual gift God gave them.
The fulness of what God intended is realized when a disciple fully acts upon what his spirit within impels him to do. It is then that the spiritual gift becomes a gift to the body of Christ.
“And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ…” Ephesians 4:11-12
-Greg Whitten
