1 Peter 4:10 “As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Peter teaches us that we are to be good stewards of our gifts, for he says that we are to be good stewards of God’s manifested grace. In other words whenever a saint operates in spiritual gifts they are in fact displaying God’s grace for all to see and hear. So how are the saints meant to be good stewards of their gifts? Peter answers that question for us by telling us that we are to minister our gifts to one another, i.e. the church. We therefore see the following principle revealed in this passage, i.e. spiritual gifts are not given to the individual to bless the individual, but rather they are given to the individual to bless the church. And so from that point of view, the spiritual gift is actually given to the church, and so as a good steward of that gift, the individual is entrusted by the Holy Spirit to minister that gift to the church.
1 Timothy 4:14 “Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.”
And so we see that once we have received a spiritual gift, that there is a responsibility that goes with that gift. In the above quoted passage of scripture the apostle Paul, in speaking to Timothy about his spiritual gift, gives us some insight into the responsibilities that we have as custodians of our gifts, for in this passage Paul admonishes Timothy not to neglect the gift that he had received.
Acts 5:15 “so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them.”
So just how can the saint neglect their gift? A direct way of neglecting your gift is to simply not use it, or use it less than opportunity allows. Another way, is to lessen the anointing upon your life. As we have already mentioned, the gifts of the Holy Spirit operate by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And so the stronger the anointing on the individual, the greater the manifestation of their particular gift will be displayed. For example, we have already mentioned the above quoted passage of scripture earlier where just the shadow of Peter healed the sick. And so we see that when the church first began in Jerusalem, they operated in a tremendous degree of anointing. If you study scripture you will see that it was during this time that the disciples, and the apostles in particular, gave themselves devotedly to prayer and the study of God’s word (Acts 6:4). Later in scripture however, we no longer see Peter and the other apostles operating in this degree of anointing. And so although Peter was still used mightily by the Lord, in that he also raised the dead later in his ministry, the degree of anointing that was upon him when he walked past the sick and his shadow healed them was no longer there. Throughout Peter’s ministry he had the same spiritual gifts of healings as he did at the beginning of his ministry. So what changed? The answer is that the degree of anointing had lessened, and so the results were not nearly as spectacular as before. Our walk with the Lord affects the anointing upon our lives, which includes and the amount of time we spend in prayer and the study of His word as well as walking in love and in holiness. And so one who neglects these aspects of their walk of faith will negatively affect the anointing on their lives, and in this manner neglect the spiritual gift that they have received.
Michael E.B. Maher
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