Getting to Know the Holy Spirit Part 19: Fanning Into Flame The Gifts of God

Welcome to the line of fire.

Michael Brown here. Class is in session. We are here to infuse you with faith and truth and courage to help you stand strong on the front lines. We are continuing our series four weeks now on getting to know the Holy Spirit. Obviously, we could go on weeks, months, years with anything having to do with getting to know God, getting to know Father, Son, Spirit.

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That is The Line of Fire on YouTube. Second Timothy chapter one. Today we talk about fanning into flame the gifts of God. And tomorrow we are going to talk about our relationship with the Holy Spirit. Fanning into flame the gifts of God. What does this mean?

How do we do it? Maybe the Lord used you in a certain way in the past and it has gone dormant. Maybe you are just taking baby steps and being used by God in certain ways.

How do we fan these things into flame? Second Timothy one, three through seven. Second Timothy one, three through seven. I thank God whom I serve as my ancestors did. This is Paul with a clear conscience. As night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice.

And I am persuaded now lives in you also. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For the spirit God gave us does not make us timid but gives us power, love, and self-discipline.

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. Paul mentions in First Timothy four when Timothy was set apart from ministry and the elders laid hands on him. He was set apart from ministry and the elders laid hands on him that there was an impartation of spiritual gifts or a spiritual gift. Paul could be speaking of the same event or a separate time.

Paul wrote to the Romans. He was eager to visit with them and be with them so he could impart some spiritual gift to them. So spiritual gifts are imparted as God wills by the laying on of hands. It is a symbolic transfer.

The end of Deuteronomy 34 tells us that Joshua was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses has laid his hands on him. That is why an ordination in Hebrew is called smichah. It is the laying on of hands.

It is an ordination for short called smichah which is laying on. You lay hands on someone setting them apart and it is symbolic of impartation and authority. The high priest would confess the sins of Israel and the head of the scapegoat would lay hands on it and would symbolically carry those things away.

Jesus laid hands on the sick and they were healed. So it is a symbolic transfer of God's power, of God's authority. And Paul says to Timothy, fan into flame the gift you received. Fan into flame. So fan into flame could be defined as to stir up smoldering embers into a living flame, to keep at white heat, to kindle afresh, to keep a full flame. Let me say it again. The Greek fan into flame could be defined as to stir up smoldering embers into a living flame.

So picture that image. To keep at white heat, to kindle afresh, or to keep a full flame. You would keep the charcoals hot and then when you needed the fire you would fan them into flame. But you wouldn't keep the fire going at full intensity all the time. So it is not natural for humans to operate at 100% intensity constantly at every moment of the day or to operate in a state of revival at every moment of the day.

It is the ideal that we are always fully on fire for God, always passionate for God, always zealous for the lost, always pursuing holiness, always walking in love, always hitting on all cylinders, 10 out of 10. Always, always. But human nature we go up and down. You get strong in one area, you get weak in another area. You devote yourself to one thing, you neglect another thing. It is human life, it is human nature and sometimes things that God has gifted us with grow dormant.

Is that the case in any area of your life? God used to use you in a particular way years ago and it has gone dormant. You used to be a tremendous soul winner, you used to be a tremendous prayer warrior, you used to just have supernatural faith. God used you in healing the sick. There were other ministries and ways he gave you and it has kind of gone dormant. Well, Paul is saying stir it up again, fan it into flame.

Here is the obvious question, how do we do it? That is why I am here to help. That is why I am here to help. Paul is challenging Timothy at the present state of life to fan into flame the gift of God. Get the gift of God white hot so it is at its full potential. Remember this glorifies Jesus and blesses others. But what does Paul mean by the gift of God? Is he referring to a motivational gift as in Romans 12?

It is unlikely. The motivational gifts of Romans 12 are more a quality of someone's life, who they are in God. Their spiritual personality so to seek, a giver, a generous person, a helper, a merciful compassionate person.

Seems he is speaking of something else here. Paul is talking about a gift that was imparted to Timothy through the laying on of hands for ministry. 1 Timothy 4.14, do not neglect your gift which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you. There is some particular gift, some particular grace that Timothy had and Paul said stir it up, stir it up. It is not up to us to impart gifts to one another. The gifts are given as the spirit wills. And every believer has been given some kind of spiritual gift or another.

As we walk with the Lord he makes that more manifest through us. So how do we do it? Alright, I am going to stir this gift up. Come on, get going. I am going to have a motivational talk with myself. Come on, Mike Brown, you can do it.

Come on, Mike Brown, you are better than. No, no, that is not how we stir up a spiritual gift. That is not what he is saying. I am just going to go into meditation and empty my mind and just whatever.

No, no, no. We do not empty our minds, we renew our minds. Paul is not saying fan into frenzy the gift of God, get all worked up and shake until you fall to the ground, riding on the ground and that is how you stir it up.

Listen to crazy music until you are running all over the room. No. He does not say fan into frenzy the gift of God. We are not talking about natural emotions or will power. Many believers are unable to differentiate between being worked up in a soulish way and being worked up in the Spirit. Did you hear me?

Let me say it again. Many believers are unable to differentiate between being worked up in a soulish way, just our natural mind and emotions and being worked up or stirred in the Spirit. If they could differentiate, they would stop doing it in a soulish way.

The natural effort does not do any spiritual good. For example, demons are not afraid of the loudness of our voices or the intensity of our faces or a sentimentality or a softness and whispering. Demons are not.

Demons are not afraid. I am going to rebuke the devil even louder. He did not listen. I am going to rebuke him. He is not. Satan, demons are not influenced by the sound of our voice. I am going to look really mean. He is not influenced by that.

I am going to be really. No, no. Demons are not influenced by any of that. That does not affect the spiritual realm.

The outward form is neither right nor wrong. You might pray quietly. You might pray loudly. That in itself is not right or wrong. It is the gifts of the Spirit operation that counts.

Being loud, quiet, still, energetic is not the issue in and of itself. The Psalms say, Shout to the Lord in triumph, Psalm 47.1. And be still and know that he is God, Psalm 46.10. Those are verses very close to each other. Right? There is time to shout.

There is time to be still. Fanning into flame is not done by human emotion. I remember one time, early in my ministry, I made the foolish mistake of putting pressure on myself to see the sick heal. I thought, well, I am a traveling minister. In those days, I was called an evangelist, which is not my primary calling. We are all called to do the work of evangelists in terms of sharing the gospel. And I am an evangelist to my Jewish people with the gospel, but my primary ministry to the body is not the ministry of evangelists. So, but early on, traveling and my pastor said, well, if you are not a pastor, you are an evangelist. So I thought, okay, I am an evangelist. That means I am supposed to preach the gospel and then pray for the sick. That was kind of the circles I traveled in.

And I remember kind of thinking, okay, it is my responsibility to see sick people, which is a stupid way to do things. And it is not up to us. Maybe you are raising your hand like I have done the same thing. It is not up to us. It is up to us to pray and ask God to work.

It is up to him to do the work. So I remember just seeing someone sick. It is like, you cannot get yourself psyched up into faith. It does not work like that.

I made so many idiotic mistakes like that. In fact, I will tell you this story quick. I get filled with the spirit of being to speak in tongues January 24, 1972. Now I read in the Bible, okay, the next thing is I pray that I should interpret. But how does the gift of interpretation work? How do you get the interpretation? So the pastor's brother, brother Al, everyone's brother's sister, brother Al, I was told he had the gift of interpretation.

So I asked one of his nieces, how does the Lord give him the interpretation? They said that he sees the interpretation in letters of gold. He sees the interpretation in letters of gold. So I thought, I want to see the gold letters. So the worship would get quiet. Someone would speak in tongues.

Time for the interpretation. I closed my eyes. I didn't see the gold letters. Now remember, not that long ago I was hallucinating with LSD.

I didn't see the gold letters. You know, I was a brand new believer. I didn't know much.

Someone spoke in tongues. I look up at the lights. We didn't have bright, bright lights in the building. I look up at the lights. You know when you look long enough, you close your eyes. So I thought, maybe that will help me see the gold letters.

I never saw the gold letters. No, we don't fan the gifts into flame or make gifts happen through these silly, manipulative ways. There are other things we can do.

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Thanks again, our great co-sponsor, TriVita. All right, how do we fan the gift into flame? We're not talking about exalting people who operate the gifts. We're not talking about exalting the recipient of the gifts. We exalt Jesus, the giver.

Numbers don't matter alone. We must not put our dependence on human effort, ingenuity, or gifting. 1 Samuel 14, 6, Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving, whether by many or by few. Psalm 20, verse 7, Some trust in chariots, some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. Psalm 27, verse 3, Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear. Though war break out against me, even then I will be confident. Psalm 33, verse 16, No king is saved by the size of his army.

No warrior escapes by his great strength. We're not putting our trust in people. Look at me, look at putting our trust in God.

Now here's how we do it. Number one, in terms of fanning the flame, nothing can take the place of an ongoing, steady, consistent walk with God. Nothing can take the place of an ongoing, steady, consistent walk with God. That must be the foundation of everything we do.

A little daily is better than a lot sporadically. And then build on that little quality time with God in the word and prayer, worship, separating yourself from things that are unclean. Now we must recognize what God is wanting to work in and through us.

If we don't know, as we continue to see God be used by him, we'll learn how he's wanting to use us. You say, okay, I want to fan the gift into flame. I don't know what the gift is. I don't know what the special calling is, the special grace is.

I don't know what it is. All right then, just keep making yourself available to God. Keep giving yourself right over God and do what your hand finds to do. Some folks ask me to go on outreach. I think I'm going to do it. You know, I got an invitation to pray with me.

I'm going to do it. Just do what you can do and then you start to see, oh, okay, God's using me like this a lot. Why there seems to be this thing happening to me. Now you can say, all right, this is the thing he wants to stir up. This is how he's made me. This is how he's wired me.

And the thing that's amazing is it's a joy. He's like, yes, this is why he put me on this earth, to be used to touch people that now it's making sense. So it starts to come alive in you. Now, practical steps to fan into flame the gifts. One thing is to meditate on the scriptures related to our gifting. Look for examples in the word about God using other people like that. Look to examples in the word of people, of God speaking about that subject or using people in certain ways. And then, those of you who believe in praying in tongues, praying in the spirit, otherwise just communing with God, praying as the Holy Spirit leads you, this builds up your inner being.

We talked about that in the previous class, about building up the inner being, how we do it, steps to doing that. So we pray in the spirit, we meditate on relevant scripture, scripture that speaks of that gift. If God's really using you in healing, just meditate on all the verses about Jesus healing and healing and acts. God's revelation of healing in the Old Testament and teaching on healing in the New Testament. Meditate on it, get that in your heart and your mind.

This is how we fan this into flame. Next, we count and rehearse the prophetic words you've received regarding your gifting. In other words, if someone laid hands on you, prophetic words were spoken over you, or if there are other things that have been spoken in affirmation, but I really see God using you in this way. Boy, the Lord used you to touch me in this way. Prophetic words like that, recount those. 1 Timothy 1.18, Paul was told to fight the good fight by means of the prophecies that he had received. Then, recount and rehearse what the Spirit has done through you. Remembering what God has done will build our faith. This should be done privately and when appropriate publicly.

What do I mean? Do you have journals where you've written things down? Or times when you've shared what God's done in the past? Go back over them.

Go back over them. When I was writing my autobiography, A Fault to Glorify the Lord for the First Seventy Years, called Living in the Line of Fire, due out when I turned 70 in March of 2025. Living in the Line of Fire, how God changes rebels into revivalists and broken people into world changers. As I was writing it, my life was heavily impacted because I remembered what he did. I remembered the works from the past.

I remembered the divine intervention, the divine leading. So you rehearse that privately. And sometimes, for edification, you declare it publicly. Then, interact and receive from those with similar gifts and calling, especially those with more experience.

We need to be well-rounded and balanced, but we also want to focus on the areas that God is wanting to move through us. So maybe someone's really been used in a particular gifting that you're in. Other people, get around them as you can. Learn from them.

Ask them questions. And this further encourages you and builds your faith. Then, read books and listen to content from those who operate in similar areas of gifts and calling and read biographies of those who've served in those ways.

Expose yourself to those giftings. One of my missionary colleagues in Europe, been there now 50 years, he used to have his missions team, missionaries from around the world join them, mainly from America, from around the world. And he would have his team read this book. It was written by, I believe it was Ruth Tucker.

And I believe I have the name correct. But it was vignettes of the lives of missionaries. Powerful stories, beautiful stories, but often speaking of their weakness, their shortcomings, their failings.

And that really encouraged him. I had the missionary team read it to say, we're all just weak human beings. That's all we are and it's God working through us. There are no giants.

I told them, I take that for granted. I take we're all weak, we all fail in ourselves. Without him, we're a mess. But, but he is working supernaturally through us. I want to read about the supernatural things. I want to read about the people that he used in impossible ways, because if he could use them, he could use me.

I mean the man, arguably, with the most supernatural life in the Bible, fully human being, Elijah, it says about him in James, Jacob, the fifth chapter, he was a man just like us. Then, allow God's motivating compassion to arise within you, considering the great needs of humanity. You fan the gift into flame by thinking about the great needs and say, Lord, use me to help alleviate that pain.

Use me to help meet these needs. Use me, God, in this way. And then, be hungry for God's honor and glory. Be hungry for the reputation of Jesus. In other words, I want to see Jesus lifted high. I want to see the Son of God exalted.

I want to see people drawn to him. That's why I want to be used in these gifts. So, you go back to promises God made. You go back to the times he's used you. You rehearse it. You recount it. You see how he's used others.

You read what the word says about these things. And it does. Faith builds. Our confidence builds. And suddenly, there's a muscle that we've been working. You know, the other night, I did some heavy tricep lifting, heavier weights than I normally use. I can feel it in my triceps. I can feel it. You can feel the muscle more because you've been using it. It's the same spiritually.

You become more and more used to it. And then, it becomes a beautiful lifestyle. And all praise and all honor goes to King Jesus. Hey, friends, if you listen regularly, you know we don't talk much about money. But we are listener-sponsored. We are coming to you with all the expense that that takes because of your generosity. And if you want to join our support team, ideally it's by becoming a torchbearer, a monthly supporter, that would be absolutely wonderful. And we pour back into you in so many ways. But above all, you help us reach more people. You help us expand the work. You help us expand the platforms. You help us increase the output and even the quality of everything we're doing.

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