Conscious

1Cor.12:¹ “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant” (KJV)

When Christians operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, they totally frustrate the enemy. Therefore, the enemy is excited when Christians are ignorant. For the enemy to succeed, the Christian has to be ignorant. For the enemy to succeed in your business, in your finances, in your health there must be ignorance somewhere. The enemy depends on the darkness that being ignorant brings. Let me say it again; for the enemy to succeed, the Christian must be ignorant. But the light of the Holy Spirit will shatter every ignorance and every darkness in your life, as it pertains to your destiny and walk with God, in the Mighty Name of Jesus.

1Cor.12:³¹ “But earnestly desire the best gifts…” (NKJV, emphasis added). The King James Version of the same scripture puts it this way, “But covet earnestly the best gifts…” (emphasis added). There are not many places in scripture that God tells us to be covetous. In fact, God does not want us to be covetous. However, God says when it comes to spiritual gifts you are free to be covetous. That is how serious it is. In other words, you can covet a gift someone else has, and get a thumbs-up from God. God says we are to “earnestly desire” spiritual gifts. It has to be a burning passion. Note that, there are different branches of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. There are the organizational gifts – the gift of leadership, the gift of giving, and so on. Then there are the spiritual gifts [which is what we are focusing on], and then the other kinds of gifts that are not spiritual gifts per say, but they are also gifts of the Holy Spirits.

2 Tim1:⁶ “This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.” What Paul was telling Timothy here is so important and deeply instructive. Particularly for those of us who have been Christians for a while. This scripture also points to how spiritual gifts are distributed. Spiritual gifts can be distributed at salvation. You can get a spiritual gift when you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You can get spiritual gifts, I would say, mostly during worship. The Holy Spirit distributes spiritual gifts during worship. You can get spiritual gifts by impartation; when your spiritual father lays his hands on you. And this is what Paul was referring to in this scripture.

However, the fact that you have a spiritual gift imparted on you or resident in you does not mean it is operational and functional. Paul was telling Timothy to, “fan to flame”. Just like with wood; the fire may be out but when the coal is still red, if you fan the coal enough, the fire rekindles. Similarly, you and I have to learn how to fan our gifts to flame. The King James Version says, “stir up the gift…” If you drop a cube of sugar into a cup of tea without stirring it, the sugar will dissolve but it will mostly remain at the bottom of the cup. When you drink that tea, it most likely will not be sweet. Sadly, this is the taste of a lot of people’s lives.  It is time to stir up, fan to flame.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, let Your light expel spiritual ignorance and cause a stirring in my life, in Jesus Name. Amen!