Do something with your talent

A writing course which I have been taking stated that creativity is hard work - 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

I would like to stop here and have a closer look at this statement.

In fact, I caught myself thinking earlier today how a certain preacher was SO gifted....and immediately remembered these words that it was NOT about the gift only, but a gift and what we decide to do with it. With the latter meaning some hard work.

We all remember the parable of the talents in the Bible (Matthew 25:14-30) where the Master gave his servants the talents, and told them to put these to some good use. Or at least he expected it to happen. And we know how some did accordingly, while the man with one talent chose to hide it.

This parable could have talked about the talents in the natural sense, talents as money. But a talent means also a gift, and we are all gifted in our various ways. Interestingly, the same writing course I referred to at the beginning, said also about creativity that we are all creative. It talked about the beginner writers who felt that discipline came across as stifling and hence they often decided to do without and let their creative juices flow.... (and in order to finish the thought, it stated that creativity can not be stifled by any discipline, as it is an attitude of mind that develops with practice and we should not make a negative mistake of thinking that we are not creative, for everyone is creative - simply their faculties have remained dormant for a long time!)

Now, coming to a spiritual dimension of the same. When we started off in fulltime ministry, work was underrated. In fact, many of us held a view that only gospel preaching was the "right kind of a preaching" and so a lot of it was done also inside the church. While it is healthy not to restrict our gospel preaching only to the outside of the four walls of the church, expecting the Spirit of God draw the unsaved and the ones with the questions to our meetings, the church is mainly an assembly of the saved ones already. And they need stronger spiritual food, on top of the gospel message which is the message to the unsaved.

So, some of us, and I am sure that some time also myself, held a view that "the only right kind of a preaching" was done without the notes. In fact notes were seen as almost of the devil (in a half-joking sense - as a potential hindrance to the flow of anointing, quite like the beginner writers tend to see the discipline of outlining their writings as something stifling of their creative flow). And while I descended from this lofty view rather quickly into some serious seeking of God, spending quality time at His feet, in the fellowhip of His Spirit and the Word, many never made it there. And so their time at the orbit was rather temporary. They burned bright, and the flame was extinguished then. For it takes the firewood to keep the fire burning.

So, speaking under anointing is marvellous. And it is definitely "the thing". And it is something that we should learn to do, relying on the Spirit and learning to flow with Him. But it should never mean as if we do not need to spend time in the Word. Since reliance on Spirit is good, but the Spirit and the Word, they agree, and work together.

We have learned to prophesy, and we have learned about the supernatural, and it has made us appreciate and yearn for the spiritual. And at times it may also make us a little less appreciative of the teaching of the Word, and it may come across even as a little boring, maybe. But - when done with the inspiration of the Spirit, it can never be boring!

And by the end of the day, even our prophesying, it takes the basis of the Word. For if we are not strongly established in the Word of God, we may become a little fluffy. All talk and no substance. Or even a little ephemeral, burning bright for a brief stay at our orbit, and dying soon afterwards. Since we have really nothing much to say.

It is namely the Word which gives us what to say.

Our revelations come from the Word.

Some years ago I attended a church which was wonderfully prophetic. But the Word was not often preached there. At times it happened. And then there was a lot of prophesying. All wonderful. People had learned wonderful art of soaking. Not sure whether it was just a habit for some, or meant more in their private times of fellowshiping with the Lord, but it was an important discipline, based on major revelation. And they had come to understand that God is good. Again, a major revelation. But by the end when things escalated, I felt a need for the preaching of the Word. I was a foreigner, and I had come from a background of strong teaching of the Word. And so I went to their leader and stated that, that I needed more of a Word. She quite misunderstood me, and told me that no, you do not need any Word. I told, I do! (Holy Spirit had already told me to go elsewhere, and there was a lot of teaching, strong teaching of the Word. Since the Word in me was in another language, I felt a need to sit some under the teaching of the others, to get as much as I could into myself).

So, we departed our ways, both thinking a different thing.
Clearly, for her the Word meant only the word of prophesying.
For me it meant the Word of God.

Now, both are vital, absolutely!

But the Word of God is still something God uses, and something that our life is built upon.
It takes both, the Word and the Spirit, which agree.

But coming back to my original thought. A gift alone is not enough. It is a worthy beginning. A talent entrusted into our hands. But unless we choose to do something with it, it lies dormant, and is of not much use.

And that "doing part" often means....work.

So, remember, it is never just about the gift. Whether it has to do with any talented person, talent is never just enough. There is a lot of hard work behind the screen which we do not necessarily see or know about. And the same applies to our spiritual use of the gift we have received from the Lord. We may have gifts, but it is up to us to do something with them, and add some hard work upon the gift God has given us. And eventually, when it comes to a ministry gift, or anyone in full-time ministry, who has been called by God to do a certain thing, and fulfill a certain role with the responsibility entrusted into his or her hand, it is never enough to just have a gift. It takes more. And here is where sitting at the feet of Jesus comes along. And while what we today know and call as soaking is definitely an important part of it, it is never just enough to sit in the presence of God and expect the downloads to happen, if we do not go into His Word and add that to it. It takes some serious study. We would like for the things to happen via some shortcut route, like we maybe did while facing the exams in our youth, by placing an exercise book under our pillow, in hopes of some magical transfer of knowledge. But it was just an emotional trick to calm the nerves, for by the end of the day it was hard work that paid off.

2 Timothy 2:15 King James Version (KJV)
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.