In order to be an overcomer the twice-born must USE their Holy Spirit provided gift(s). The believer MUST obey and boldly step out in love and humility, and SERVE. Not for themselves, but in obedience to the Lord. (Zero self-aggrandizement.)
Have you identified your Holy Spirit gifts?
I can only speak for me and a few of my mentors, but my gifts were unexpected—NOT AT ALL comfortable, at first—opposite my core understanding of myself. Which makes it difficult to be bold. Difficult to obey, because, well, they were way beyond my capabilities—I didn’t know how to do what I was being asked to do!
And that’s the whole idea! God grants us gifts that force us to rely solely and completely on Him to render the gifts useful!
He’s looking for obedience, trustworthiness, unconditional responses.
He’s looking for future Millennial Kingdom servants who offer no excuses and who will reign with Him.
He’s looking for those who drop to their knees in fervent prayer to understand His commands and obey.
I can’t do this new and outside-my-capabilities gift by myself. But if I surrender to Him, then through Him, I can! This committment makes me a trusted and useable servant.
JAP is one of my mentors. She writes powerful daily devotionals. Her writing is read by people around the globe. One day I questioned what she wrote, because I needed help understanding the topic. She gave me a blank look, blinked, and said, “I don’t know what I wrote about.”
Confusion clouded my brain and I asked her, what do you mean? Are you saying you don’t remember or you actually don’t know? And she answered, “both. He gives me the topic, I write, and He removes all knowledge of it when it’s done.”
Why? She replied, “to keep me humble. The message is about Him, not me, and I could become prideful. But tell me what was said, and I’ll help you understand.”
I explained as best I could the topic of her devotional and she immediately helped me understand. She took me to the biblical references, taught me, and I had greater understanding of God’s purpose for me.
How cool is that?
Then she laughed and said, “Oh, I get it. You’re the one who needed today’s message! He usually doesn’t tell me who it is for.”
Blew me away. All those people reading around the world and the Lord had her write just for me!
That’s serving Him boldly and unconditionally.
Below, ICR scripturally explains this concept. Fantastic, time worthy stuff…entitled Power, Love, and a Sound Mind.
“For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)
This little verse is full of information. In the previous verse, Paul insisted that Timothy “stir up” the gift that he had received and use it as it was intended because God did not give us a “spirit of fear.”
The Greek word deilia, translated as “fear,” stresses timidity or cowardice as opposed to terror. God’s gift does not function well if we are too timid to use it. His gift has power, love, and a “sound mind.”
The gift is not power. Whatever God’s gift may be, it comes with dunamis—the innate ability to carry out the gift. All the twice-born are given “the power that worketh in us” (Ephesians 3:20). Whatever the Holy Spirit has gifted us with upon our entrance into His kingdom (1 Corinthians 12:11), He has also given the necessary power to implement and use that gift.
Your gift also comes with love. Again, “love” is not the gift but part of the character of our Lord Jesus and the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Were it not for the reflection in us of the unilateral and sacrificial love of our Redeemer, these supernatural gifts could be misused, distorted, and abused for personal glory. The man Diotrephes misused his gift, failing to use the spirit of love (3 John 1:9).
Sophronismos is the unique Greek word used to describe the spirit of a “sound mind” that is given to us with our gift. It’s a combination of the Greek verbs translated as “to save” and “to control.” Its basic meaning would be “safe control” or “wholesome control”—perhaps even “control that saves.”
With our spiritual gifts comes the perfect combination of abilities that empower the gift, the love that keeps the gifts focused on others, and the “safety controls” that keep it from doing damage unwittingly.
Amen!