Stirring Up The Gift

Pick your bibles up.

Please wave them around.

Make Jesus glad, the devil mad.

Let's say this together say heavenly Father, I'm here on purpose.

A lot of places don't have church on Sunday night.

I heard about Gloria's Way.

I wouldn't miss Sunday night.

I'm hungry and thirsty for more.

I will be gorged in Jesus' name.

That's what he said.

He said you'd be filled if you gorged.

Amen.

All right, let's look at 2 Timothy tonight.

2 Timothy verse, chapter 1.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy, my dearly beloved son, grace, mercy and peace from God, the Father, and Christ Jesus, our Lord.

I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing, I have remembrance of thee in my prayers, night and day, greatly desiring to see thee being mindful of thy tears.

That I may be filled with joy when I call to remembrance the unfaith that is in thee, which dwelt first in your grandmother, lois, and your mother, eunice.

And I am persuaded that in thee also, 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, for God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

And I wanna read verse six in the Amplified I remind you to stir up, to rekindle the embers, fan the flame and keep burning the gracious gift of God, the inner fire that is in you by means of the laying on of my hands.

And so I just wanted to preach a message entitled Stirring Up the Gift.

You've got something down on the inside but it has to be stirred up.

Years ago, back, when we had to stand in line for gasoline thanks to price controls given by a Republican president, president Nixon.

And it never works.

You can't interrupt the free market, you can't control prices.

That's stupid dick.

But anyway, we stood in line for hours just to get gasoline and it was kind of a weird time.

I mean, you know, you just didn't know whether they were gonna turn the power off or whatever.

My brother and I started, you know, we bought some land outside of Houston.

We started.

I had visions of maybe building a root cellar and I piled up a bunch of junk lumber, leftover lumber.

Is gonna build myself some kind of a shack, I guess.

I don't know, my wife would never have lived there.

But anyway, yeah, we were preparing for the big one.

We weren't saved, we didn't know.

We knew Jesus was coming and we knew that we had to get ready because we knew there was gonna be chaos.

We were gonna stay here and tribulate.

We were planning for the tribulation.

I mean, we bought lots of bullets Y'all are looking at me funny.

My brother had a whole two-car garage full of wheat, five-gallon buckets.

I mean, we were the original preppers, doomsday preppers.

We were early adopters of things like that.

We were way out in front of the curve on that.

But anyway, I had a buck stove in my fireplace.

It was designed to fit inside, it was.

I had a masonry fireplace and then I went and bought this cast iron called a buck stove and it had this kind of a glass.

I don't know what it was, some kind of a see-through, heat-resistant glass, I guess you'd call it.

But it wasn't clear.

It was frosted and so it had double doors and I'd packed that thing with wood at night and built a fire and it had an automatic blower.

The blower would automatically come on and it heated my entire two-story house.

It blew right up my stairway up to the upstairs and my heater would not come on.

My central heat.

I had central heat but my central heat would.

I'd set the thermostat at 70.

And my thermostat, my heat, would not come on till 4.30 or 5 o'clock in the morning and it heated my house all night long with wood.

And of course, our carbon footprint.

We weren't thinking about carbon footprint back then, but we had to stir that fire up.

I mean, you couldn't just put wood in there and just go to sleep.

You know I'd get up about 11, I go to bed at 10, and I'd think, yeah, I better go in there and check that fire and put one more log on.

You know I was always messing with the fire and our carpet in front of the fireplace was burned because logs would fall out of there.

When I'd open the door, here's a flaming fire, it would roll out on the carpet, just burn, burn.

We had a ceramic giraffe in front of the fireplace as well.

They go along.

You know it was all painted and finished real pretty and of course it hit that one time, broke the neck off.

It was quite a disaster fooling with wood.

I recommend that you just keep natural gas heat.

My uncle had a wood burning stove on purpose.

He didn't have.

He had central heat but he never turned it on.

He'd just have a wood burning stove, like an old timey wood burning stove, and after two years you had soot everywhere in the house.

Soot, you just run your hand over anything, any surface, all the wooden trim up there.

I built their house for them, by the way, and I mean you know there, there it was just this black soot.

But stirring up, you know you've got to stir up and keep the flame burning.

It's a long story.

Just talk about stirring up.

How many of you know it takes some effort.

I mean the fire is gonna burn out, it's gonna go down.

Now, it doesn't go completely out, it just goes down, it's in there.

You might not know that you've got anything on the inside of you because you hadn't stirred it, but if you will stir it I said, if you will stir it, glory to God that fire starts flowering.

I mean it comes up, buddy, I'd go in there and open those doors and it kinda, you know it'd be, and all I'd do is just poke it a little bit.

Boy, it'd come right back up.

Then I'd adjust the damper.

You know dress the little air inlets and boy it was humming when I'd go to bed again.

I wouldn't get up again till five o'clock in the morning.

I mean, if you stir your fire up, god gave you.

Are you with me now?

So Paul is writing to his son in the faith, and he had to remind him.

He said I put you in remembrance that you stir up the gift of God.

And the things that happens is that we forget that the Holy Ghost, and the greater one, is living on the inside of it.

We forget that we're anointed, we're tempted to face every problem in every situation in the natural.

That's why you've got to remember, you've got to remember who's living on the inside.

He's not just hitchhiking, he's just not living in there to go from point A to point B, he's not.

You know, you're not the Uber driver to the Holy Ghost.

I mean, he is in there and he can be stirred.

That gift, that flame, that fire, that inner fire can be stirred up and we've got to remember to do that.

That's part of stirring is remembering.

He said I remind you to stir it up.

He said I've been praying for you constantly.

I've been mindful of your tears.

So evidently when you read between the lines Timothy now, timothy's a young preacher but he is actually a full-scale apostle.

He's the bishop of the church at Ephesus.

Remember Ephesus?

He's the bishop of Ephesus.

He's got a number of churches under him and so he's crying.

So if you keep reading that chapter, paul talks about another person, that's.

You know that he congratulates, he said because he's not ashamed of my shame.

So you know, you start, you start really putting two and two together and you kind of realize that what's going on here as part of this burden that Timothy is feeling is number one.

He's young and people are discriminating against him because of his youth, not giving him credit for who he really is in God and in Christ, not really giving him credit for the anointing that he legitimately carries.

And he's got an element of burden on him because Paul is a jailbird.

His father in the faith is locked up and he's feeling a little bit ashamed because it's adding to his persecution.

Oh, yeah, yeah, you're hooked up with that Paul.

Yeah, he's in jail.

So I mean, you know you've had as they.

Paul didn't hold it against him.

He said look, what you need to do is stir up the gift.

I know the gift, I know the listen, I know the faith that's in your family.

I'm acquainted with your grandmother and your mother and now you too.

So look at the look, at the look at the relationship between a father and his son in the faith.

He didn't just get hooked up with a derelict.

He didn't go pick up a stray cat and say, yeah, I'm your father and you're my son.

No, this guy has got something to bring to the table.

He's got a family heritage.

He said I know your grandma and I know your mama and I know the faith they've got and I know it's in you.

You just need to stir it up.

Y'all with me now talking about stirring up.

Now you got something in YouTube, don't you?

We all do, cause we're standing on the shoulders.

We're standing on the shoulders of these great men and women of God that are in this Bible.

And then all of this, 2000 years since, we got something significant on the inside of us.

All we need to do is remember to keep it stirred up, amen.

So he reminded him of his heritage of faith and he said look, god didn't give you spirit of fear.

I like to amplify this is a little bit more, I think, fear.

I mean, was he afraid?

I think the amplifiers got a better word for this but fear.

It's a form of fear.

In the amplified, verse seven, god did not give us the spirit of timidity.

Timidity See, I had to learn this a long time ago.

When I stand up for people, if I am not stirred up, you know, then I'll come across as timid and people are not going to listen to me, do they're not going to listen to me at all.

Why am I like this up on the path?

I'm not like this necessarily in person, but when I get up here I mean I'm stirred up, I'm, it's coming out of me.

No, I didn't get me.

Get me timidity.

What did he give me?

He gave me.

He didn't give me cowardice of craven, cringing, fawning, fear.

I love the amplified, but what did he give me?

The spirit of power and love and of a calm and well-disciplined mind and discipline, or well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.

In my open heart surgery it's been four years ago last month had a tough time in ICU.

I couldn't sleep then had a hard time sleeping.

You got sleep at me.

I said, no, I don't.

We're saying that I never had it and never gonna have it.

But they were trying to attach this to me and all it was was that I was still in AFIib, I had atrial fibrillation and my heart was not beating correctly and I was short of breath.

When they cut your chest open, you tend to get short of breath and so, and when I'd fall asleep I'd wake up in a start, and so again I had that sleep deprivation thing going and I got so miserable, you just misery, I mean you just you know, and you have such a dread of the whole thing.

It'd get start getting dark and dread would come on me and I'm thinking I'm not gonna be able to sleep.

You know, I'm thinking that.

I'm not saying I'm thinking it, I'm not gonna be able to sleep and dread would come on me and something similar to the ceiling moving.

Like I mentioned a while ago, just last summer, ain't my first rodeo with sleep deprivation, I know all about it.

I'm never gonna have it again.

I'm never having it, never gonna have it.

I've defeated it forever.

But then, weak, hooked up to tubes, pain, all of that, laid there all night long quoting these verses.

God didn't give me a spirit of fear, but power and love.

And I got my amplifier on my phone and I, because I don't have it memorized, but I got it memorized.

For that he didn't give me.

He gave me the spirit of power and love and a calm and well-balanced mind and disciplined self-control.

Quote that all night long, all night long.

Come on, let's lift our heads, thank God.

We know what we have.

We thank God.

The Word of God works when you can't trust your brain, when you can't trust your feelings and you can't, I said you can't You're gonna get to the place where you cannot trust your carnal mind or your flesh.

You've got to lean on that greater one.

You've got to stir up the gift that's been giving you.

Hallelujah, everybody say I keep it stirred up, I keep it stirred up.

So 2 Timothy 4, 14.

That's wrong verse.

Let's see, timothy had been neglecting the gift.

Where is that?

14, get it here.

Well, I've got the wrong verse anyway.

But he had been neglecting the gift, he'd been neglecting the fire, and so let's not neglect the gift, let's stir it up.

Let's keep it stirred up, keep mindful of it.

So stir up.

When you look up the word stir up in Thayer's Bible dictionary, it means to rekindle, to inflame one's mind.

See, that's where the battleground is.

Is your mind?

My mind was giving me fits.

My mind was full of drugs, my mind, I didn't know which end was up.

You're an IC.

You don't even know whether it's day or night, you don't even know what you can't.

So my mind see, I knew I had to grab hold of the Word of God.

Thank God for the Word and my family.

That hospital stay.

We had a freezing night where it froze, it was freezing, and that's when I had to call my family and say get up here, I can't stand this anymore.

Y'all get up here.

And I've gotta have you lay hands on me, I gotta have you touch me, get me through this night.

I'm at the end of my strength.

And I had to call on James and Jay and Claire.

They drove up there in the middle of the night, grabbed to hold on my feet, grabbed to hold my hands, prayed over me and then they started checking the medication which they had screwed the medication up.

Gave me stuff.

It didn't agree with me, which is why I was in such distress.

Boy, it's good to have an advocate, but we have an advocate.

Hallelujah.

I said we have an advocate.

Pastor, you're just confessing.

Yeah, I'm letting you know that I've lived a real life.

I've gone through real things.

I know where you're coming from when you're going through things, because I've been through those things and I'm telling you, when you stir up the gift, the devil's time is over.

Amen, everybody say.

I keep stirring up the gift, so it means to rekindle, to inflame one's mind, one's strength and our zeal.

Psalm 78, 38,.

It says God did not stir up all his wrath.

How many of you know that you can stir yourself up to get mad?

You know God didn't stir up all his wrath.

I mean he said, oh, I better stop here now.

If I keep going I'm gonna destroy everything.

He did not stir up all his wrath.

I mean the children of Israel drove him nuts, so to speak.

I mean they just did the opposite of everything he told them to do, told them not to do that, and they did it.

And they told you know, just ah, the Bible said he didn't stir up all of his wrath.

Proverbs 15, 1,.

Grievous words stir up anger.

An atmosphere in a house is created and if you're not careful you can stir up the worst atmosphere.

Wonder why your kids are not doing well.

Wonder why your marriage is falling apart because you've allowed yourself and your spouse, or maybe not even married, maybe it's just you.

I mean, you know, sometimes kids can just drive you to your wits end.

Or don't stir up all your wrath, stir up the gift of God.

If you can stir up wrath, you can stir up the gift of God.

We have the ability to stir our zeal, to stir up our strength, to stir up that inward fire, to inflame our mind with the Word of God, hallelujah.

So your mind is the battle.

You're in charge of your mind.

You see, you are a spirit, you live in a body and you have a mind, a will, an intellect.

So your mind is subject to your spirit.

You can rule your mind and most of the time when people are going through big battles, it's because they're undisciplined.

See, did God give you an undisciplined?

No, he gave you a disciplined mind and self-control.

Well, you know, pastor, I just need to die out to self.

No, that's wrong, that's the wrong thing to say.

There's.

You hear that all the time in churches, but that's not what I teach, because who is self?

Your self is your spirit.

You can't die to your spirit.

You'd be lost.

What you need to do is mortify the deeds of the flesh and you need to be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

You need to get God's thinking.

You can have the mind of Christ, but it takes what Discipline and self-control.

You have to tell your mind what to think about.

You have to make your mind stop thinking the thoughts that it's thinking, causing you to forget your inward fire.

See again, it's a matter of you forgetting to stir up the gift.

So in Ephesians 4, 23, let's go there real quick.

You get anything out of this Kind of basic.

It says here be renewed in the spirit of your mind.

Be renewed or refreshed in the spirit of your mind.

In other words, be spiritually minded rather than carnally minded.

Spiritually minded, what does that mean?

It means that your mind has stayed on God.

He'll give you perfect peace.

He gives him perfect peace.

Whose mind has stayed on him?

When you stay your mind, when you've got your mind resting on him, are you with me now?

So Paul is writing to his son in the faith, hebrews 13,.

Let's look at that.

Remember them, verse seven.

Remember them which have the rule over you or who are your spiritual guides.

Remember.

So you know, paul was gently, sweetly, reminding his son in the faith, to think about his father in the faith in the right way.

Instead of being ashamed, he never did confront him and say now look, I know what it is.

You're ashamed of my being in jail?

You know you need to cut that out.

No, he was very gentle, very sweet and kind of just nibbled around the edges.

And what he didn't say, you know, he let this young man.

He let this young man get the benefit of the doubt and not knock the wind out of his sails.

Instead of hitting him with a fire hose, he just kind of sprinkled.

You ever have a sprinkler in your yard?

Of course most of us nowadays have automatic sprinklers.

I mean, I don't know, all those years ago I didn't have that.

When I really needed it, when it was 150 degrees outside and it was my job to water the grass, I had to go out there and pull that 100 foot hose and put the sprinkler on.

Then I had to move it, and then I had to move it again times six houses Because I would plant trees.

They trees had to be watered.

Who was gonna water?

Well, I had to water the trees.

I had to plug the hose bib into the water meter on the lot, run the water out.

It's hot.

And then I'd forget all night long and I'd be watering the street.

I would assume you've done the same thing.

He's shaking his head back there the things we do for our businesses.

But you know, let's sprinkle, let's not hit him with a fire hose.

Hebrews 13, seven.

Remember your spiritual leaders, those who have, who are spiritual guides, who have spoken unto you the Word of God, whose faith follow.

Considering the end of their conversation, one says remember your spirit leaders and imitate their faith in their lives.

So he's reminding him of his grandmother and his mother, his spiritual heritage.

But in a he said remember what you got when I laid my hands on you.

Oh, that's arrogant, that's he's bragging.

No, he's not bragging on him, he's bragging on the anointing.

Paul knows what he has and he knows how to give it away.

See, that's where I'm at after all these years.

I know I have total confidence in what I have and I never got to give it away.

I was in the wrong place and I never got to give it away.

I don't want to give it away because I didn't create it.

God gave it to me.

It's not generated by anything of me, it's simply something that I got given to me and then I've got to stir it up, I've got to keep it.

Carol, I just saw myself doing that with Carol.

I don't know what it's about, nobody's business.

So that's why I said what I said.

I just put my hands on her head and let the Holy Ghost deal with her mind and her brain, and I don't care what it's about because I know the whole.

I just did what I say myself.

Do I have confidence and I know when I do those things, that that's God.

That's not bragging, that's just.

I've got my listen.

I've inflamed my mind.

Are you with me now?

Y'all are looking at me kind of funny.

I mean you said don't forget who laid hands on you.

Son, don't forget, I laid hands on you.

It's in there.

It was in your mama, it was in your grandma, it's in you.

I laid my hands on you.

Stir it up, oh, brother, I've stayed laid hands on me.

Yeah, tl Osborne didn't lay hands on me for years, but one time went to because of Lonnie.

We went up for something to Tulsa and Lonnie took me by his apartment, introduced me and TL Osborne laid hands on Gladys 9.

We knelt before him and he laid hands on and then he came to our church, tl Osborne, that Sunday night I don't know if it was 2009, I don't know if you a couple of years before he passed I don't know if any of you remember, but we had 100, this place was packed out with Indians.

There was an Indian church on the southwest side of town that heard he was in town.

They came to come and kneel at his feet and just pay homage to him.

Some of them were in his crusades 30 and 40 years ago, gotten saved in his crusades his whole family.

Oh, come on, somebody like that lays hands on you.

It's like it's greater than gold.

I just think, wow, how could I, how could I have ever gotten in that position?

Of course, you know we had RAW Shambach come to our church.

You know, every morning, five days a week, I'd leave my house.

I had a ritual.

I'd do my prayer, bible reading, and then I'd leave my house, get in my truck and I'd drive to spring.

I lived in the Cantaloupe Hill subdivision and I'd drive to Old Town, spring, where the post office was, and pick up the mail every day, every morning, and while I'm driving I take about, you know, 30 minutes by the time I go to spring and I'd linger, you know, and all that.

And I lingered in time to hear these men on the radio and so I listened on KJOJ107 FM, raw Shambach, charles Caps, brother Hagin, kenneth E Hagin, derek Prince, you couldn't get more different with Cambridge English.

I mean, he got that Cambridge accent after listening to Charles Caps from England, arkansas Hilarious, four in a row man.

Every day you talk about stirring up the gift.

You talk about a crashed course in the Word of Faith, which I, you know.

I had no squat.

But listen to those men and over the course of years, each one of them laid their hands on me.

How could that ever be?

How could I ever get in position for Derek Prince to lay hands on me?

Lives in Jerusalem, about.

I interviewed him at Channel 14, knelt at his feet, glad to see that he laid his hands on us Right before he went to home.

Be with the Lord.

And he's 90 years old.

Come on, lift your hands right now.

Glory to God, brother Hagin, how would you ever get in?

I mean, how could I?

How could he come to Lakewood the way he lay hands on me?

He didn't do that.

He was there to teach.

I don't remember him ever even doing it.

I don't even remember him going out in the crowd laying hands on anybody and he did.

But Pastor Osteen passed in January 23rd 1999, went to his home going, and I just knew in my spirit that Brother Hagin wasn't along with us and I had to get there to Winter Bible, which is February, and Brother Osteen has just gone to heaven and now Gladys and I we go to the Winter Bible two weeks later and I said we're there the whole week.

I said God, I'm not leaving here until he lays hands on me.

I don't know how he's going to do it.

I'm not a Ramagrad, I'm not anything.

He don't know me from Adam, but somehow some way.

So we got there because I did service Sunday.

So we didn't get there until Monday night was our first time to come in the service and he went through the crowd, ramaday the next day, ramaday Ramaday means all your Ramaxes come from everywhere and they're in the service Somehow some way.

I'll tell you who it was.

It was Frank and Trudy Hester.

Brother Frank went to the.

They weren't even coming to the church in those years.

They were just you know, they just knew us because they would come to visiting preachers, you know.

So he said would you like me to get you seats?

I'm going to go early.

I said, would you do that front?

Yeah, so he got a seat right down on the floor you know about six rows from the front and Brother Hagin taught for a little while on prayer and then he came off the platform and he laid hands on about a half a dozen people, and Gladys and I were two of the six, and Frank and Trudy were the other two and there were two more and that was it and I said, god, can I go home now?

I got a mission accomplished and I said how are you doing this?

Because I have something that's been given to me by the laying old of hands.

These are spiritual guides, spiritual people that I looked up to, that I fed at their trough, I fed at their hand and God allowed me to have hands laying.

It's just amazing when I think about it.

Norval Hayes or Roberts, his own home, laid hands on us.

He didn't come to Lakewood much, he only came to the meetings at the Coliseum.

I think it was a couple of meetings down at the Coliseum, but I ain't laying hands on anybody that I remember.

But instead I got to interview him in his own home and he just, you know, laid hands on Gladys and I and our whole family Praise God.

And I said I'm going to lay hands on him.

Gladys and I and our whole family Praise God.

Why am I saying all this?

Because of the rich spiritual heritage that we all have.

When I stir up the gift on me, I know it's multifaceted, I know that these deposits and you know it's not just about laying on of hands, it's also about the honor that you have to give the offerings that were given.

And of course you know besides that I mean there's all kinds of wonderful ministries, of course the Hankins and goes without saying, and other really fantastic ministries.

These are just like the grandparents of the word of faith movement right here.

So stir up the gift and remember God and his power.

Don't forget, don't forget it.

You have to remember to stir up the gift.

It's easy to forget.

We're humans.

We get under pressure and we try to face things in our own brain.

We try to figure it out.

Don't figure it out.

Lean not under your head, but trust in the Lord and trust in the Lord inside you.

That's what I really want to get to tonight.

I mean, it's not God way up there, it's the Holy Ghost right here.

See, israel forgot God's miracles and they limited the Holy One of Israel.

Don't forget, don't limit God by forgetting.

Stir yourself up by remembering.

Number two stir up the name of Jesus.

We got that name.

Look what happened earlier tonight.

Look at those prayer cloths.

We put those prayer cloths out.

I don't know how many hundreds we put out two weeks ago.

They're everywhere.

They're moving.

Why?

Why has things happened?

Because of the name of Jesus?

Name of Jesus, what a powerful name it is.

Lord of God, wonderful counselor, mighty God, prince of peace, everlasting father, king of glory, lord of the armies of heaven.

Now we could go on and on about the name of Jesus.

Number three stir up the Word of God.

You've heard me talk about that.

Find the place where it's written.

What does the Bible say about my situation?

I know that sounds so basic, but we forget.

I know we forget.

We get under pressure and before we know it, we hadn't even prayed and we're already trying to figure out a way to fix it.

No, don't get in a hurry to pray, don't even.

Don't even get in a hurry to answer the situation until you've had time to pray in the Holy Ghost and get fear off of you that that hurried up, panic, stricken, emergency tongues doesn't work.

I'm not talking about a car, rick, you know, we all, you know you're just going to say Jesus.

You know that's, that's effective.

But I'm talking about, though, in typical situations, let's not get I heard Brother Copeland say this years ago most Christians just they're too much in a hurry to pray.

They don't even know what to pray and they just leap out there with just any old thing that comes in their head.

No, spend some time, consult the Word of God, pray in the Holy Spirit, get yourself built up, get the gift of God stirred up, and then you're going to know how to answer this situation and finally stir up, build yourself up by praying in the Holy Ghost, verse 20, and also 1 Corinthians, 14, 4,.

He that prayeth in an unknown tongue edifies himself.

You have to be edified, built up, praying much in other tongues.

You know I find that when, when I let that slip and quit, I'm pressing.

You know you have to make yourself do it.

It's a discipline.

Well, I just, I just only pray when I have the unction.

Well, you're wrong, because Paul said I thank my God, I pray in tongues more than you all.

He didn't wait for an unction.

He intended to pray in tongues and he did it all the time.

And he wasn't bragging, he was just letting them know.

That's not the way to approach building yourself up by waiting on see.

That's what Pentecostals teach that you have to have some kind of unction before you pray in tongues.

No, you don't.

No, you pray in tongues, and pray in tongues much, and stir yourself up.

Build yourself up on your most holy faith, being God inside minded.

How many of us lift our hands and receive the night Glory to God, hallelujah?

How many of you feel like getting stirred up?

Have you gotten stirred up yet?

Huh, david, have you seen it?

Have you seen any revival in Jesus?

Do you have a word?

Hallelujah, hallelujah, Goodnight.