What Does ‘Stir Up the Gift’ Mean?

Question 4176.

When Paul tells Timothy to stir up the gift that is in him, what exactly is he asking his young colleague to do? The phrase has a vivid picture behind it, and once you see the image the meaning opens up. Paul is not telling Timothy to acquire something he lacks; he is telling him to do something with what he already has. The command to stir up the gift assumes the gift is present and warns against letting it grow cold through neglect.

This is a wonderfully practical word for any believer who suspects that their gifting has gone quiet, or who has slipped into a kind of spiritual drift. Let me unpack the image, the context, and what it means for us, because Paul’s charge to Timothy is one of the most useful things the New Testament says about the ongoing care of the gifts the Spirit has given us.

The Picture Behind the Phrase

The Greek word Paul uses carries the sense of rekindling a fire, fanning embers back into flame. Picture a hearth that has burned low overnight. The fire is not out; there are live coals under the ash. But left alone it will die, and what it needs is to be stirred, to have the embers raked together and air breathed across them until the flame leaps up again. That is the image behind the command to stir up the gift. The fire is real but in danger of dwindling, and Timothy is responsible for keeping it burning.

Notice what this tells us. A spiritual gift is not a static possession that takes care of itself. It is more like a fire that must be tended, that flourishes with use and fades with neglect. Paul is not questioning whether Timothy has the gift; he is urging him not to let it smoulder into uselessness. The responsibility to stir up the gift rests, under God, with the one who has received it, and that responsibility does not lapse with age or experience.

Why Timothy Needed to Stir Up the Gift

Why did Timothy need this charge? The letter gives us clues. He was young, he was facing opposition, and he seems to have been prone to timidity, since Paul goes straight on to say that God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. It looks as though discouragement and intimidation were causing Timothy to hold back, to let his gift lie dormant rather than exercise it boldly. The command to stir up the gift is therefore tied to courage. Fear was tempting him to bury his gift, and Paul calls him to fan it into flame instead.

That rings true to life. Most of us do not lose our gifts through dramatic failure; we let them go quiet through fear, fatigue or distraction. We stop teaching because of one harsh comment, stop serving because we feel taken for granted, stop using the gift because using it costs something. Paul’s word cuts across all of that. Whatever your gift, do not let it die down for want of tending. I have written more on whether gifts can fade and revive in the article on whether spiritual gifts change over time.

How to Stir Up the Gift in Practice

So how does a believer actually stir up the gift? The clearest answer is by using it. A gift of teaching is rekindled by teaching, a gift of mercy by showing mercy, a gift of encouragement by encouraging someone this week. The fire is fanned by exercise, not by waiting for a feeling. If you wait until you feel like serving before you serve, the embers will only grow colder; it is in the doing that the flame revives. There is no shortcut around faithful use.

Prayer is the other great means. We stir up the gift by bringing it back to the Giver, asking him to renew our love for the work and our boldness in it, and confessing the fear or laziness that let it grow cold. Worship, the Word and the fellowship of the church all feed the fire too, because a gift exercised in a healthy spiritual life burns far more steadily than one starved of its proper fuel. If you are unsure what your gift even is, begin with the article on identifying spiritual gifts and then return here to keep it burning. The broader practical path is set out in discovering and using your gifts.

The Gift Came Through the Laying On of Hands

Paul adds that the gift is in Timothy through the laying on of my hands, which links this charge to Timothy’s commissioning for ministry. The gift was associated with that solemn occasion when the elders prayed and laid hands on him. Yet even a gift connected with so significant a moment still needed to be stirred up and not neglected, which is a healthy corrective to the idea that a powerful spiritual experience settles things once and for all. The most striking commissioning in the world does not exempt us from the daily duty of tending the fire. I deal with that connection more fully in the article on spiritual gifts and the laying on of hands.

There is real comfort here as well as challenge. If you need to stir up the gift, Paul’s word assumes the embers are still there. You are not being told to go and find a gift you have lost, but to rake together what God has already given and let it blaze again. That is a far more hopeful task. The fire of God in a believer is not so easily extinguished that a season of neglect ends it; it can be stirred up, and the Giver delights to see it burn once more.

Stir Up the Gift Before the Fire Goes Out

There is an urgency in Paul’s charge that we should feel. He does not tell Timothy to stir up the gift at some convenient point in the future; the verb has the force of a continual, present duty. The reason is simple. A neglected fire does not stay at a steady glow waiting for us to return; it dies. So the call to stir up the gift is a call to attend to it now, before another season of drift lets the embers go cold altogether. Many a useful gift has been lost not through a single great failure but through a long, gentle neglect that no one noticed until it was gone.

I have watched this happen, and it is one of the quiet tragedies of church life. A believer once active in teaching, or mercy, or hospitality, slowly steps back, always meaning to return when life settles down, and one day realises that years have passed and the fire is barely warm. The remedy, even then, is the same. Stir up the gift. Rake the embers together, breathe on them through prayer and use, and trust the Spirit to bring the flame back. It is rarely too late, because the God who gave the gift is patient and the embers, by his grace, are slow to die out entirely.

So treat this as a present and personal charge. Whatever the Spirit has given you, do not let it smoulder under the ash of busyness and discouragement. Find the small opportunity this week to use it, bring it to the Lord in prayer, and let the exercise of it fan the flame. A gift kept burning through faithful use is a steady light to the whole church, and the Giver is honoured every time we refuse to let his gift go cold.

And do not wait to feel gifted before you begin. The order in Paul’s charge runs the other way: the using rekindles the gift, not the other way round. So the believer who feels his gift has gone cold should not sit waiting for warmth to return before he acts, but should step out in the small opportunity in front of him and trust the fire to catch as he obeys. Feelings follow faithful action far more reliably than action follows feelings, and the gift is fanned to flame in the doing of the thing.

So, now what?

If you sense a gift in you that has grown cold, take Paul’s charge personally this week. Do not wait for enthusiasm to return on its own. Use the gift, however small the opportunity, and let the exercise of it fan the embers. Bring it to the Lord in prayer, confess whatever fear or laziness let it dwindle, and ask him to renew the flame.

And if fear is the thing holding you back, hear the verse that follows. God did not give you a spirit of timidity but of power and love and self-control. The gift is yours, given by the Spirit and meant to be used. So why leave it smouldering under the ash when it was given to burn?

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

2 Timothy 1:6-7, ESV