How to Stir Up Your Spiritual Gifts from God
In Short
Every Christian believer receives spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit to serve others and strengthen Christ's church. If your spiritual gifts have become neglected or dormant, the Bible teaches how to stir them up again through faith, obedience, love, prayer, and continued dependence on the Holy Spirit. God still gives and uses spiritual gifts today for His glory and for the good of His people.
Key Takeaways
- God gives every believer spiritual gifts to serve others.
- Spiritual gifts are given by God's grace, not earned.
- God's gifts and calling remain available even after years of neglect.
- Christians should eagerly desire spiritual gifts and use them in love.
- Spiritual gifts are meant to strengthen and build up Christ's church.
- We should continually stir up, exercise, and develop the gifts God has placed within us.
Key Scriptures
1 Peter 4:10; Acts 3:2–6; Romans 12:6; Romans 11:29; 1 Corinthians 12:31; 1 Corinthians 14:1, 12, 26; 1 Timothy 4:14; 2 Timothy 1:6; Revelation 1:10–11
Welcome to Original Pentecostal
Sermons and Bible Studies
by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.
Brief Bio
Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D., is a Pentecostal Bible teacher with more than 50 years of Spirit-filled ministry experience. His sermons and Bible studies are personally written and drawn from decades of service as a church planter, senior pastor, Bible college teacher and Dean, and as a trainer of ministers internationally in the Pentecostal tradition.
Introduction to Stirring up Your Spiritual Gifts
Many Christians sense that God once used them more powerfully than He does today. Others long to be used in the gifts of the Holy Spirit but wonder where to begin. The encouraging news is that God's gifts and calling are not withdrawn. Scripture teaches that believers can actively cultivate, exercise, and rekindle the spiritual gifts God has given them. In this Bible study we'll examine practical biblical principles that help believers stir up those gifts so they can minister effectively for Christ and build up His church.
God Wants to Use Every Believer Through Spiritual Gifts
- •• No one who wishes to be used by God in spiritual gifts is left out.
- • Amplified Bible — “Each of you has received a gift...”
• Be resolved to “use [it...] to serve others.”
• Let’s see how the Bible tells us we can be used.
We Have Spiritual Gifts in Order to Minister to Others
- •• [1] “What I have” — An important mindset: We do have spiritual callings, giftings, ministries.
- • A very mature man of God once said to me, in reference to being used in our spiritual gifts, “It takes realizing who we are in Christ.” Not in ourselves, of course. But we are something, and we have spiritual gifts, in Christ!
- •• [2] “I give you...” — without this proper, other-centered motive, the whole process of spiritual gifts and ministries breaks down. God gives spiritual gifts to us so that we may minister them for the benefit of others.
We Have Different Gifts As Expressions of God's Grace
- •• Remember that it is always by grace. We can never earn spiritual gifts, never deserve them, never “make them happen,” and we certainly should never boast about them.
•• And “we have different gifts...” — and even different administrations of the same gift — so that:- [1] We always remember that we need each other. My gifts are different from yours ... different from his ... different from hers...
[2] In the “corporate” body only is there completeness, is there fullness of ministry.
God's Gift and Call Are Irrevocable; He "Does Not Change His Mind"
- •• If God has used you in spiritual gifts or ministries in the past, they are still there, still valid in your life.
- • Perhaps dormant, perhaps neglected, but still there!
- •• Perhaps you sensed a “call” years ago, but life’s busyness has intervened. The call is still valid!
- • “[God] does not change His mind about those...to whom He sends His call.”
Believers Are to "Eagerly Desire" Spiritual Gifts
- •• God will never force spiritual gifts upon you. No, He is looking for willing, yielded “vessels unto honour.”
•• Your part? “Eagerly desire...covet earnestly the best gifts.”- • You are not presuming on God to do this. Rather, He commands us: “Covet ... the gifts.”
• A Christian friend of mine, who was well used by God in spiritual gifts, told me that in the preservice prayer time he would consistently pray: “Lord, use me in the gifts.”
• We need to have an insatiable desire to be used...from a heart of love towards others.
Seek to Edify, to Build Up the Church with Your Spiritual Gifts
- •• Several keys here —
- [1] a wholesome eagerness for spiritual gifts.
[2] “Try to excel” — Aim for excellence in your ministry.
[3] “gifts that build up” — the motive is to edify.
[4] “...build up the church” — love the church. Love your church, even as Christ loved it and died for it!
Do Not Let Your Spiritual Gifts Become Neglected and Unused
- •• Jesus warned that “the cares of this world...[and] the desire for other things” can divert us and make us unfruitful.
- • In the stress and pressure of 21st-century life, it is all too easy to “neglect your gift.”
• Take stock of yourself — Am I sidetracked, am I diverted by the world? Have my spiritual callings and gifts become secondary in my life?
• “Do not neglect your gift.” 100 years from now, spiritual considerations are what will have mattered.
Stir Up and Fan into Flame the Gifts of God in You
- •• There is a “gift of God ... in you ... fan [it] into flame”!
- • As I do with my woodstove when it starts burning low. I need to revive and reignite the barely glowing coals.
• There may be “fire” there, but it won't heat my house unless I keep it alive.
• So I have to get down on my knees and stir up the gift(s) God has placed in me, rekindle them, and fan them to life! Similarly, we need to deliberately, consciously revive and keep alive the gifts of the Spirit in our lives, keep using them for the Lord's purposes, and not let them go dormant.
• God graciously equips us with gifts of the Holy Spirit. As a result, there's fire there. But if it’s coals only, it’s not heating the house of the Lord! So stir up the gifts of God that He has placed in your life and ministry. The Church needs them!
Seek to Be Often "In the Spirit"
- •• John was “in the Spirit” when he received this revelation.
•• We, too, need to be often “in the Spirit” — in prayer, in praise, in the Word, in quiet reflection — in order to prepare ourselves to hear the Holy Spirit's voice and to see the great things He wishes to show to us.
•• Those who are frequently “in the Spirit” will find themselves often being used by God in the gifts of the Spirit.
SUMMARY of How to Stir Up the Gifts of God in You
• Remember that "each one" of us receives spiritual gifts from God.
• These gifts are given to us to minister for the benefit of others. "Other-centeredness" is the motive.
• Spiritual gifts differ from one Christian to another. Seek to be used in those that God has given you. Don't try to copy someone else's areas of giftedness.
• God's gifts to His people are irrevocable. If God has used you in the past, those gifts are still available to you and in you. They may be dormant, but they are still there for your use.
• We must "eagerly desire ... [and] covet earnestly" the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
• The motive of our desiring spiritual gifts is love towards others in need of ministry from God.
• "Try to excel in gifts that build up the church."
• Take care that you don't neglect the spiritual gifts God has given you.
• Stir up the gifts of God in your life. Are your spiritual gifts dormant? Blow on those flickering coals! Fan them into flame! Relight the Holy Ghost fire you once had.
• Seek to be often "in the Spirit" through prayer, worship, and meditation on God's Word, making yourself continually available for the Holy Spirit to minister through you.
Pastor Jim's Perspective
Our capacity to serve the Lord by our expression of His spiritual gifts seems to increase as we fill our mind and heart with the Word of God. I have watched this truth blossom fruitfully in a good friend of mine.
The Lord has given him a strong desire to study the Bible daily. I've noticed more and more lately that his spiritual gift of edifying exhortation (Romans 12:8) has grown dramatically as he has dug into God's Word. When I see him he often has a very uplifting, encouraging exhortation from what the Lord has been showing Him in the Word. He is living proof that believers who continually fill their hearts with God's Word often see their spiritual gifts become stronger, more fruitful, and more effective in ministering to others.
Study This Topic More Deeply:
- The Supernatural Gifts of the Holy Spirit Are For You Today (our featured spiritual gifts sermon) - The gifts of the Spirit did not cease long ago. The same Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 13:8) who gave the spiritual gifts by His Spirit 2,000 years ago still does so today.
Increasing in Spiritual Gifts - If God has gifted you spiritually, don't get content. Rather, seek God diligently for further expression of your God-given spiritual gifts, for His glory.- Speaking in Tongues: Is It of God? Is It For Today? - Discover 15 Scriptural reasons tongues are still a blessing from God today.
- Divine Healing | Spiritual Healing - Jesus is a Healer! Believers are encouraged to "eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit" (1 Corinthians 14:1), including gifts of healing (1 Cor. 12:9).
- Supernatural Signs Will Follow Those Who Believe - Jesus Himself said that various supernatural signs will accompany believers' ministries.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does it mean to stir up your spiritual gifts?
To stir up your spiritual gifts means to rekindle and actively exercise the gifts God has given you through the Holy Spirit. Rather than allowing them to become neglected or dormant, believers are encouraged to seek God, obey His leading, serve others in love, and faithfully use the gifts He has entrusted to them.
Can Christians lose their spiritual gifts?
Romans 11:29 teaches that "God's gifts and His call are irrevocable." Christians may neglect or fail to exercise their spiritual gifts, but Scripture indicates that God does not simply withdraw His gifts. Through renewed faith, prayer, and obedience, believers can once again become fruitful in the ministries God has given them.
Does God still give spiritual gifts today?
Yes. The Bible clearly teaches that the gifts of the Holy Spirit remain active today. Scripture encourages believers to "eagerly desire spiritual gifts" (1 Corinthians 14:1), and Christians around the world continue to experience God's supernatural working through the Holy Spirit.
How can I grow in the gifts of the Holy Spirit?
Believers grow spiritually by spending time in God's Word, praying, worshiping, yielding to the Holy Spirit, serving others in love, and faithfully exercising the gifts God has already given them. Like a fire that must be tended, spiritual gifts become stronger through faithful use and dependence upon God.
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Pentecostal Sermons and Bible Studies
by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.