The Prophetic Encounter: Stir Up the Gift in You

When the Teaching Is Not Enough Without the Encounter

You can speak about the Holy Spirit for twelve months and the Spirit never shows up to confirm what you said. You can talk about Jesus for a month and see nothing shift in your life. You can teach on prophecy for four weeks and have nothing prophetic happen. If the word you are preaching is not backed up by something happening in your actual life - there is an error somewhere.

God honours His word more than He honours anything else. When the teaching is true and the heart is right, something should break open. That is what this message is about. Not more theory. An encounter - the kind that comes when the gift inside you is finally stirred up and activated.

2 Timothy 1:6 - The Gift Is Already in You

2 Timothy 1:6 - "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands."

Paul is not telling Timothy to go and acquire something new. He is reminding him of something that is already there. The gift is already in you. The word "stir up" carries the image of a fire - specifically, stirring the coals so the flame can come back. The gift has not gone out. It has gone from a roaring flame to a glowing ember under weeks of fear, pressure, comparison, and discouragement.

1 Corinthians 14:1 says, "Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts." The word is desire. Not observe. Not admire in others from a distance. Desire means you actively want it for yourself. The reason so many believers see gifts operating in others but never in their own lives is that they stopped desiring what God put in them - because somewhere along the way they became convinced that their gift was not worth much.

Stop Trying to Be Somebody Else's Gift

You see the pastor preach and you want to preach like him. You see your mother pray in tongues and you think that is what your gift should look like. You hear somebody with the gift of music and you feel like your quiet gift of service or craftsmanship or mercy is somehow less. That is not the gift of God operating in you - that is comparison shutting the gift of God down.

Spiritual gifts include artistic creativity, craftsmanship, giving, service, mercy, music, organization, knowledge, and more. The person who sets the church up with excellence so the stage is beautiful before anyone walks in - that is a gift. The person who serves quietly and makes sure nothing is missing - that is a gift. The person who understands systems and makes things run well behind the scenes - that is a gift. God gave every one of these gifts intentionally.

The gift He put in you is not the gift He put in the person next to you. Your assignment to find it is not to copy what you have seen elsewhere. It is to ask God what He specifically placed in you - and then to stir it up until it burns again.

Isaiah 42:3 - You Are Bruised, Not Broken

Isaiah 42:3 - "A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth."

There is a difference between bruised and broken. A bruise heals in days. A break can take months. Many believers in hard seasons have decided they are broken - finished, unable to recover, permanently disqualified by what happened to them. But God's word says He will not break what is already bruised. He is not in the business of finishing off what is wounded.

What you went through felt like it was going to end you. The relationship that ended, the season that collapsed, the door that closed without explanation. You cried in ways you did not expect. You thought you would never recover. But you were bruised - not broken. And the gift that was buried under that season is still there. God did not remove it when things went wrong. He preserved it. Now is the time to stir it up.

The Fear That Is Keeping You in the Prison

2 Timothy 1:7 - "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

Fear has a specific texture when it comes to the gift. It is not usually the fear of failure - it is the fear of what people will say when you succeed. If you get the management position, will they say you used connections? If you build the business, will they say you used something darker to get there? If you step into the prophetic and speak, will they laugh? That fear of jealousy, of being seen and judged for thriving - that is the fear that keeps the most gifted people from ever activating what God put in them.

God did not give you that spirit. Walk out of the prison of fear. The door is already open - the same open door the Spirit showed in Revelation 3:8. Your little strength is not a disqualifier. It is the exact condition God uses to open doors that no man can shut. Stop letting fear decide what your ceiling is.

"You are not broken. You are bruised. There is a difference. Bruised things heal. And the gift that was buried under the bruise is still in you. Stir it up. God preserved it for a reason - and the reason is now."

- Pastor Ricardo Zaal

Three Things to Do With What Is Already in You

1. Stop comparing your gift to someone else's. Your gift will not look like the pastor's. It will not look like your mother's prayer life or your friend's worship. Ask God specifically what He put in you - and be willing to accept that it might look quieter, more practical, or less visible than what you have been admiring. The gift of service runs the church. The gift of organization builds what the platform stands on. Every gift matters.
2. Stir it up deliberately. An ember does not reignite by watching the fire from a distance. You have to get close to it and do something. Put yourself in environments where the gift can be exercised. Serve. Create. Organize. Speak. Do the thing you have been feeling drawn toward but avoiding. The stirring happens in the doing - not in the waiting.
3. Walk out of the prison of fear. Name the fear that is actually keeping you from activating your gift. Is it the fear of what people will say? The fear of being exposed? The fear of succeeding and not knowing what to do with it? Name it - because 2 Timothy 1:7 says that spirit did not come from God. Identify it, refuse it, and take the step. God's power, love, and sound mind are already in you. Use them.

If you are in Pretoria North, come on a Sunday - these messages are preached live every week at Fountain of Grace International, 323 B Danie Theron Street.