Fan the Flame

2 Timothy 1:5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. 6 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, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

Practice makes perfect right? I don't know about perfect, but it definitely yields improvement if done with right motives and a right mind. Take my son Cal for instance, his 3rd grade fottball team practices four days a week for about 2 hours a day. While there are many times when I may think that is too much practice, there is no doubt in my mind that both Cal and his team have improved dramatically. If you watch a game from last year and comapre it to this year, you would think it was a different team altogether. Good coaching, hard work and a desire to improve is yielding fruit on the gridiron.

While Paul is not speaking of football, but rather of the more important topic of Faith, He has a similar charge to Timothy. He tells Him to fan the flames of the Gift Of God that were entrusted to Him to preach the Gospel. What is Paul talking about? Well He is speaking generally about the gift of Christ, salvation and the Holy Spirit in Timothy and specifically about His gift of preaching the Word. Paul's charge to fan the flames must be understood in a spiritual sense though, not in a checklist fashion. I belive that Paul is challenging Timothy to intensify His reliance on God through praise, prayer and a yielding to Preach the Word of God (2 Tim. 3:16). Paul is keenly aware of the challenges and opposition that will arise against Timothy, and he is also aware of the obvious purpose and Gifting of Timothy as a preacher. His advice to Timothy about intensifying His worship of Christ and therefore His love for Christ further empowers both Timothy's walk with God, and his role and mission for God's Kingdom. The power for this lies solely with God and required Timothy to grow in intimacy with Christ so as to be able to accomplish the mission of Christ more intently.

While not all of us are preachers in a church setting. If we are saved, we are all lovingly posessed by Jesus and therefore should be communicators of the Gospel. God prepares each one of us with different giftings and roles as He has a plan to make His grace known to teh world through his Church.

Are you aware of your role? Are you aware of your giftings?

Those questions will be no if you have no intimacy with God and no passion for Him. If you approach bible reading as a checklist as opposed to sifting through a treasure chest of riches, your motives and mindset will limit your improved intimacy with Christ. When praying, if you approach God as a routine with a memorized script of words that is not from deep within a heart of praise, you should not expect that the flames of the Holy Spirit will be flamed within you.

If we truly want to Honor Christ, it starts and ends for us with passionate praise and pursuit of Him. Only after this happens will we be walk in His Power and not our own. When we walk in His power, the world changes as teh Glory of the Lord is revealed.

How will you fan the flames of what God has entrusted in You today?