Use Your Gift!

Remember when you were a kid and couldn’t wait to see if your parents got you the Christmas presents you wanted? You went searching because all kids know where their parents hide the Christmas gifts.

You knew how to carefully peel back the wrapping and tape without ripping anything. Then, you would peek inside. Afterward you cautiously put it all back again. You could hardly wait until Christmas day to open your gift.

As Christians, that should be our attitude toward the gifts of the Spirit. In fact, the Bible tells us to “desire spiritual gifts” (1 Corinthians 14:1 NKJV), which means to especially want and cultivate them.

However, if we do not want these gifts, discover these gifts, and use these gifts, we could be quenching the Holy Spirit.

The Bible warns, “Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies” (1 Thessalonians 5:19–20 NKJV). Or literally, don’t depreciate prophetic utterance or spurn the gifts.

To quench something means to extinguish it like putting out a campfire. When you break camp, for example, you extinguish the fire by pouring water on it and shoveling dirt over it. You quench the fire.

In the same way, if the Holy Spirit is working in your life and has gifts He wants you to discover and use, you can quench the Spirit by saying, “I don’t want any of that.”

In fact, this could even be a sin because James 4:17 says, “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (NKJV).

Also, the Bible specifically tells us that we should “come short in no gift, eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 1:7 NKJV).

So, let’s desire spiritual gifts and pray that God will send them.