There are many Spiritual gifts God may give you. Each gift is a stream. But there will be one stream that becomes your river. But you must first walk in the stream that the river could begin to flow. Do not hold an infinite God to the timetables of your making, but rest in His perfect timing.
Never seek the calling more than the One who is calling you. He will not give you a bigger calling until you first walk in the smaller one. The Lord Jesus taught, “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much…” (Luke 16:10 NKJV).
The river flows through the lowest and weakest parts of the valleys. Jesus said, “…My strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NKJV).
You can flow in many streams but there will be one stream that becomes a river. Find your river. Your river is where the most power will flow. The river doesn’t begin in you, but it begins in the Holy Spirit. The river only goes through you. Worldly gifts are for you whereas spiritual gifts are to be through you.
The title you live matters more than the title you have. “As each one has received some spiritual gift, he should use it to serve others…” (1 Peter 4:10 CJB).
A river’s strength is not in the size of its banks, but in the source of its waters. “God is my strength and power, and He makes my way perfect” (2 Samuel 22:33 NKJV).
From my book The Promise of the Holy Spirit, I included a chapter called Activating Spiritual Gifts. God has spiritual gifts for you. It is my desire to encourage people to reach for them that by them they can use them to reach a dark and dying world. Here is a short excerpt from that chapter:
We can have all the various spiritual gifts pour through us from time to time as the Lord sees fit. These temporary gifts we may walk in are to meet a specific need at a specific point in time. For example, the Lord gave me the “word of knowledge” gift when I was preaching in prison ministry. The Holy Spirit would show me in advance exactly who would receive salvation at a service, so that I would keep pressing into the altar call until that person came up. God never got it wrong, and this bolstered my faith and my preaching. But when God called me out of the prison ministry and I stopped preaching, I no longer needed that gift for what He had me doing in the next season.
He gives the right gift at the right time. Let Him be in charge; you aren’t qualified, and neither am I. Don’t ever chase the gift, since it isn’t yours to take but only to receive. The Lord will guide us into the gift in which we’ll flow the strongest. Once you’ve received a gift, if you ever feel like your gift isn’t flowing as much as it used to, it’s because you aren’t yielding.
A river flows only when the ground has given way.
Whenever we’re not strong in a spiritual gift, it’s because we’re not weak before God. “As you yield freely and fully to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self-life” (Galatians 5:16 TPT).
Growing in your faith is not like swimming upstream in the river, but letting go and trusting the river knows the right way to go. It is in the river where we prove we are relying upon our strength or His. “Then he said to me, ‘This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies’” (Zechariah 4:6 NLT).
Child of God, it is my prayer that you would be blessed with many spiritual streams and even more so that you would find your river. God has a purpose and a plan for you, but it is up to you to yield to His plans. You must stop the worldly idea that your plans are somehow better than His. You must let Him lead you and then you must follow Him where He would have you go.
The proof of the Holy Spirit in you is the Holy Spirit through you. The waters are not still, but flowing. The Lord Jesus said, “‘He who believes in Me…out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. ‘…He spoke concerning the [Holy] Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive…’” (John 7:38-39 NKJV).
You must believe to receive, for there is no other way. It is not hard to believe, so believe. Stop struggling to believe and pray that He would help you. There are people on this planet who will blessed by your diligence to seek the gifts that God has for you. Find your streams, then find your river, and this will be a blessing for the kingdom.
Blessings to you,
Paul Balius
Once again God has used you to speak to my heart. Thank you!
Thank you for this wonderful word, it truly blessed me.