“Neglect not THE gift that IS in thee, which was given thee by prophecy.with the laying on the hands of the presbytery (elders). 

MEDITATE upon these things; GIVE THYSELF wholly (ENTIRELY) to them; that thy profiting may appear (be evident) to all.

TAKE HEED unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; CONTINUE in them; for in doing THIS thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee. ” 1 Timothy 4:14-16

I hope that the bold and underline type really hits what I want to get at with this, it is hard to preach without a “voice” but thankfully bold type can be quite loud.

I am first and foremost a “messenger” and this particular message is that most ignored message anyone can ever give and I know that, because once I delivered it live, went home and another person told me about the message at the church they had attended that  same night, it was essentially the same message, different delivery person and you know we should be paying attention to other churches and other ministries also because I do believe that it is seven times Jesus tells us in the Book of Revelation,“He that hath an ear, LET HIM HEAR WHAT THE SPIRIT SAITH UNTO THE CHURCHES…” 

That has been a very long time and despite all the messengers God sends, those gifts, NOT to mention the CALLINGS are still being neglected and if you doubt that look at this world.

Where are the miracles? Miracles, mention of which we need to be reminded of the fact that miracles are NOT for believers , but are for those who DO NOT believe, to prove the existence of God. Miracles are not for our benefit but to bring those who do not believe to Christ Where is the healing? Healing, the gift that is given from God along with the working of miracles. These two gifts are actually one and are given together, so where are they?

Where is the deliverance? Where are those who are supposed to make up that hedge between the world and those who have not yet surrendered to God? Where are  words of wisdom and the prophecies to help believers stand in times of trouble? 

Where is the gift of faith? Not the measure of faith given to all believers, but the gift of faith, that pulls down strong holds, released chains and does battle against the absolute forces of hell through the POWER of the Holy Ghost and there it is, we can do nothing, and no matter how much we speak, think, or hope without the power of God and the effectual working of those gifts in our actual callings, nothing in this world is going to change, if the “church” as a whole doesn’t wake up soon and put God and his work before their personal work, personal lives and comfort, thoughts and opinions it is only going to get worse.

God has bestowed these gifts on individuals for the work of the kingdom, so where are they?

Are they held captive inside an unwilling vessel?

Are they tucked away inside someone who sits at home inside of attending church because they have been hurt and offended that no one has tried to reach out to?

Are they wasting away inside of a believer sitting on a church pew that has no idea what is even inside of them, much less how to nurture and use that gift.

And again this is not even getting into all of it or the callings that are not being fulfilled.

Why? Because the neglect is not always intentional, sometimes it comes from the lack of being stirred and to nothing can stir itself, I do realize we can encourage ourselves in the Lord, through His word and that we are to “stir up” our faith, but this kind of stirring requires a “stick” and we can’t stir this in ourselves, we can help feed it, help nurture it, but you can read from these scriptures that it requires an elder, a prophet, or some other trusted individual of God to do the “stirring”.

2 Timothy 1:6: “” Wherefore I put thee in remembrance (want to remind you) that thou stir up the gift, which is in thee by the putting (laying) on of my hands.”

Paul had the “stick” he prayed for counted people, God granted him miracles and marvelous displays of the power of God, which through many, many were saved.

He wrote most of the New Testament and he wrote these things to Timothy to “stir” him because was his spiritual son, and we are all siblings in the Lord and should want to see those callings fulfilled on other’s lives and we all need those gifts working.

So we know that God has those who do have “sticks” and it is part of their job to STIR OTHERS.

Teaching is also a calling, we don’t just wake up one morning knowing all these things and when we come into Christ we have to learn, and to learn we need teachers.

I have always felt that why so many “go back out” they are treated like they should already know these things when truly how on earth could they?

They get discouraged and think that there is something just wrong with them and end up back out.

Of course the Bible tells us that we have no need that a man teach us, because God teaches us, but I don’t think He means every little thing, I think He is referring to the more personal things and “one on one” situations.

Lord’s will, there will be several more posts dealing in more detail about the gifts and callings, but for now let’s REALLY think about “stirring”.

Many definitions of “stir”: To affect strongly, to excite, to BECOME active, to rouse from INDIFFERENCE, to provoke deliberately, to MOVE, especially RISING FROM SLEEP, to move AWAY from USUAL POSITION. To HAPPEN, To BEGIN.

Stirring stick: Is used to mix ingredients and if you think in terms of God living in us and as scripture says “to make in himself of twain (two) one new man” and that hearing the Word of God must be mixed  with faith, as we are told of those that we NOT profited because the word was NOT mixed with that faith. Just as we are saved by faith through grace, there are combinations and those combinations must be right. Which brings us to “stirring rod” which is used to mix gently and slowly and carefully as to not cause adverse reactions when dealing with dangerous chemicals. 

Think of this in terms of a cake that is half-baked, not that cake has anything to do with danger, but a calling that is not fulfilled or a person burned out or certain callings that left in the “natural” will actually destroy the vessel.

I’ll give this, if a person had a calling that dealt in certain realms of the supernatural and the battle against that calling came full force and made them a feel like a Gazingstock  or if they had felt that they had been running an impossible gauntlet it would be very easy for them to just give up if no one ever told them that this is just part of the deal.

With billions addicted to drugs, people committing suicide every single day, people hurt, lonely, and feeling that they have nowhere to turn and turning to all the wrong things. The church growing smaller rather than earth yielding her promised increase, wickedness running amok rather than that promised righteousness spring forth.

And every single second counting more precious for the eleventh hour watchmen knowing that God left us to do this work and we will be held accountable for all we do and yet all we fail to do, shouldn’t we finally figure out who has that stick and who supposed to be doing the stirring?

Φλογιζω NBJ 2019