Return to your gift Proverbs 18:10-24

Proverbs 18:16 nkjv; A man’s gift makes room for him, And brings him before great men.

With all that life throws up at us some times we can loose sight of the fact that God has given each one of us a unique gift and this gift not only brings fulfillment to our lives but great blessing to others. We all have this gift and when used as they are designed these gifts presents or demonstrates some of the wealth of the nature of the living God.

Romans 12:6-8 nkjv; Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

We all have some thing to offer to help and to demonstrate the wonder and the nature of God through the gift he has given us. Every thing about us even the very breath that gives us life is given to us as a gift from the lord, our life flow as Christians comes from His presence and there is a deep need or there is a trigger in our DNA that seeks the place of rest and of course that rest has to be in Him. The bible says that Godliness with contentment is great gain.

The truth of the matter is that most of us live our lives not in that place of rest and in this area of gifting we often run ahead or try to exercise our selves in an area that we are not graced in, as good as our desires are or our intention are, if we are trying to exercise what we are not gifted in then we will leave people damaged or at the very least disillusioned. Should we then not try because we could get it wrong? Absolutely not, what we should be looking at is what motivates us, moves us, what grips our heart, and then, develop that desire. Paul says stir up the gift that is within you.

There is another reason that we can be side tracked away from using or continuing to use the grace or the gift on our life and that is we may be in a season of the cut backs of God or for want of a better word we are in a time of pruning at the hand of the Lord. There are two major reasons for the cut backs we may be feeling. God wants to remove the dead wood that has appeared in our lives that hinders the gift the grace on our lives, or he is trying to bring increase to the gift or grace on our life.

Don’t run in a time of cut back or from the pruning. I know it is hard to just stand still and see the loss, see the changes and to just stand there with seemingly nothing to show for all that you have put your energies into. You feel like the merchants in the book of Revelations.

Rev 18:14 nkjv; The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you, and all the things, which are rich and splendid, have gone from you.

That is how you feel some times. God’s intention for us has never changed His intentions for our life is that we would live in that place of rest and that our life then would be fruitful.
God’s desire for us is that the gift he has given to us would bring us into the presence of the great. Some times we have to loose things to gain things.
We may even feel like we are running out of time or it is too late to come before the presence of the great but we must keep in mind that Jesus said He is the vine we are the branches, there is always life in the vine.
Now we do understand the principal that vines do not produce fruit all the time, but what we may not understand is that the Farmer will dig around the vines, will do all that is possible to see the branches bring forth the fruit in the seasons they are designed for.
Don’t count your self out for God has not counted you out, people may count you out but God is just starting with you. There are many set backs in this life but God is always gracing us to go to the next level. His grace is sufficient and these set back are just opportunities for a come back.

Luke 13:7-9 nkjv; Then he said to the keeper of his vineyard, “Look, for three years I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree and find none. Cut it down; why does it use up the ground? But he answered and said to him, “Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. And if it bears fruit, well. But if not, after that you can cut it down

.
The farmer’s intention is to see that the vines make a come back. He may cut off what we think looks good but to him it is dead wood. If you are standing here in church today bear and naked with nothing to show for all your gifting and don’t give up for the principal of the bible is that old things pass away and all things become new.
With gifting and with every other area of our lives God wants us to come to that place of rest, that place of Godliness with contentment that we would have great gain and to a place of understanding of the process and the purpose of the process.

Deut 29:29 nkjv; The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Psalm 25:14 nkjv; the secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.

Now we know that the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable and God will always provide no matter how bear or naked we feel, we may not like or even understand that the cut backs will bring forth new life and fruitfulness.
God wants to take us from the place of provision to the place of blessing. Israel understood the place of provision they lived at that level for 40 years it was not until they entered into what God had for them that is the promise land that they lived in the blessing of God. That is the place we all have to come to that is the place of blessing.
We have to trust in his grace his gift on our lives and rest in it. We have to trust in his provision that place of rest before we can experience His blessing. Rest will prepare us to discover the abundance life that Jesus said he had come to give us. We have to trust that better will come even though we are standing there stripped back to the bear minimum.
We have to trust the gift, we have to trust Him and His word and that he is committed to seeing us conformed to the image of Jesus. When we are standing there stripped and not really desiring to be a gift it is at these times we find it hard or we don’t wont to hear the way that God wants us to hear.
God speaks about fruit in the midst of pruning, He talks about plenty in the midst of lack, He talks about goals when we are blind to vision, He talks about joy in the midst of mourning, about beauty when all we see about our lives is ashes, He talks about overcoming in the midst of our biggest failure. His focus is not on the provision for our life but the blessing for our life.

Romans 4:17b God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. God sees what we do not see he knows the difference between the process and the purpose.

There is a place in gifting and every area of our lives which fulfills the purpose for which we were born and that place is to rule and reign over all things that come our way, that place is to sit with Jesus on his throne as over-comers that place is see those things that do not exist as if they do.

Note Amos 9:13 nkjv; Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “When the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him who sows seed; the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it.

This is a place where God wants us to get to, before we have the time to place the thought about a situation the answer as already arrived. We look at the process He looks at the purpose.
The reality of what is happening to many of us in regards to life and grace or gifting is we are in the place of process where we are learning to trust or rest so we can come to our purpose, we are being conformed to the image of Jesus.
Jesus went through this process, he despised the shame that was part of the process but the scripture continues and says but for the joy that was set before him he endured the cross; that was the purpose.

Hebrews 12:2 nkjv looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Our gift is being continually put into a pressure cooker to bring us to that place God wants and that is in the presence of the great and to see the kingdom of God extended. If we do away with the circumstances of life the problems that never seem to end and look at the gift in and on our life we will see that the flame is still there, be it a little small, all that it needs is the fanning of rest to see it burst again into full flame.
Don’t let frustration or lack of expression stop you from using what you have for god will lift you up if you honour what he has already honoured and that is the gift on your life. Hidden within you, you have one of the most powerful tools unknown to mankind. One that has the capability to change the course of history for you your family and those who live in our lifetime and those tools are the gifts that God has given to us.
The gift is in us, but we have the responsibility to stir it up. The apostle Paul wrote to Timothy, "For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you" (2 Timothy 1:6). In the New King James Version of the Bible, the verse is translated, "Stir up the gift of God." 
The gift is not something we learn it is some thing we stir up. It is something God gave us. It is something we need to discover and then stir up. No one else can activate your gift for you. You have to do it yourself. You stir up your gift by developing, refining, enhancing, and using it.

Prov. 17:8nkjv; a present is a precious stone in the eyes of its possessor; wherever he turns, he prospers.

In other words, a gift is like a precious stone to the one who has it, and whenever he stirs it up, it turns into fruitfulness or prospers.