Guard the Gift

Last night I spoke about guarding the message. Tonight I want to speak about guarding the giftings. I'd like you to read from the scriptures, and you can follow with me.

I have a book here that I wrote. In my traveling between 1990 and COVID, I traveled a lot. I spoke at many conferences, pastors' conferences, Youth With A Mission conferences, in many countries, and I was very often asked, do you have a book about this? Do you have any of this in writing? So I decided to write some books with the sole purpose of giving people the material I was teaching, because it's available to people. I never like advertising my books from the pulpit. To me, that feels invidious. I do not believe the pulpit is a place where I should advertise and make money.

But I've been told today my books don't cost anything, on Amazon they cost you just the cost to print them. But I've also discovered that my books are now available on a new webpage for download, Ochorus, so I can freely tell you about my book. Get my book. But I'm making no money from it, and I trust you will be blessed. It augments all I want to teach, it says so much more than what I can present to you in 45 minutes here.

Let me read to you a portion of Scripture you know well. This is what the prophet Isaiah writes in chapter 40, starting at verse 28.

Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is he weary? There is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall surely fail, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk and not faint.

That word, wait upon the Lord, by the way, has got nothing to do with time. The Hebrew word qavah literally means binding strings together, as a form of rope. What the prophet is saying is that those whose lives are entwined with the Lord, Jesus said, they who abide in me — it's the same thing. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. Wouldn't you like to fly like an eagle? I was a schoolteacher for twenty-odd years, and when I ask a question of my students I expect to get an answer, at least a nod or a shaken head. Wouldn't you like to fly like the eagle?

Let me read another portion of scripture, from Psalm 103, the words of David.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. He forgiveth all thy iniquities. He healeth all thy diseases. He redeemeth thy soul from destruction. He crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies. He satisfies thy youth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the eagles.

I've watched a squadron of Canada geese flying across the sky, and I've been amazed with wonder. I've watched a flock of pelicans rising up from a lake in Africa. I've watched vultures gorging on carrion at the foot of the ground.

Wings Like Eagles

One of the greatest days of my life was on Saturna Island, off Vancouver Island. On that island there are many eagles, and I remember being on the high point there, looking down with my friends into the valley beneath. There were about five eagles, large mature eagles, and they moved upon the breeze, barely flapping their wings, and they came right over our heads, and we went off.

As I left the island that day, we were walking along a path, and there was a tree with a branch across the road, barely a meter above my hand. There was a mother eagle standing there, watching us. A little boy with us threw a little stone and fortunately missed the mother eagle, and she just looked at him with scorn. Then she told me this story, I speak a little eagle-ese. You don't believe me? Well, it's eagle-ese, okay.

She told a story of two eagles who had built their nests a short distance apart, and they nodded acquaintance to one another. One eagle said to the other, any eggs yet? Yes, he said, three, eagles lay three eggs. Well done. Have you too? Yes, he said, three eggs. Congratulations. After a while they looked to one another again. Have the eggs hatched yet? Yes, three healthy young eagles. Wonderful. We too, three healthy young ones. Good.

So the eagles kept flying out to get food for the young. Both came back, and every so often they nodded acquaintance to one another. They were very busy feeding these young eagles in the nest. One said to the other, boy, this is a hard job, I'm getting tired. Me too, but it's worth it to see our eagles growing so healthy. Great, wonderful. And they kept going back and forth for food for the young.

Then one day the one eagle looked across and saw his neighbor looking very tired, exhausted, on the edge of the nest. He said, you look tired. Yes, he said, this is hard work getting food, but we're happy with that. Not only that, he said, my young ones are growing so big I've now got to build a bigger nest for them. Oh, he said, why are you doing that? Well, he said, I've got to keep them in the nest and keep them safe. Are you not doing the same? Oh no, he said, we're breaking up our nest.

What are you breaking your nest up for? Well, he said, I want to encourage our eagles to fall out of the nest. Why do you want them to fall out of the nest? He said, well, that's the only way they learn to fly. Why are you building yours bigger? Well, we want to keep them safe in the nest. And do you know, that tells me a story of so many churches who are so eager to keep their people in the nest that they build bigger programs and bigger churches to keep them — whereas our calling as pastors is to equip the saints that they might learn how to fly. Amen. I want to see people fly.

Learning to Fly

I've had the joy of seeing many people flying. Tonight I'm going to tell you a couple of stories of people who've learned to fly like eagles. I remember my wife and I were in New Zealand, and we saw a sign that said, Elim Church meets here on Sunday. Now, we belong to the Elim denomination in Britain, and we said, oh, it's an Elim church, let's go on Sunday.

So the Sunday we went to this church, it was in the school room. As we walked through the door there were about thirty or forty people there, and they were moving the desks and someone was cleaning the blackboard, because it was an active school. A young man came up to us and said, welcome. We said, well, thank you. He said, are you from here? I said, we're visiting from Canada. Oh, wonderful, he said. I'm sorry, the pastor's not here, so you're going to have to put up with me. Well, that's fine, I said, because I led a youth work in Wales, and I have many young people who are very competent at preaching.

So we were quite content. I'd been with Youth With A Mission, so I was quite content to listen to a young man. He spoke, and we sat there in amazement as he said, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. This young man hadn't been to a Bible college, he wasn't trained, barely twenty years of age. When he finished I turned to my wife and said, what do you think of that? The most anointed preacher I've heard in years. I hope she's wrong, because she's heard me preach many times, but I agreed it was an outstanding word from a young man who was moving in the Spirit of God and doing all that God had called him to do, with anointing.

I met a young lady in Hong Kong whose name some of you may know, and one of you at least has spent quite some time with her. Her name was Jackie Pullinger. Have you heard of Jackie Pullinger? Some of you have. Jackie came from Britain to Hong Kong. She was not well educated. She was working on the streets of Hong Kong with two friends, giving out tracts to men from Vietnam, American servicemen coming into Hong Kong.

But in Hong Kong at that time there was an area called the Walled City. It had not been ceded to the British, because it was an old police garrison under the Chinese, so they kept it as a police garrison. The British police of Hong Kong would not go into that garrison place, and it became built up and up and up as the prostitutes, the gang leaders, the criminals all fled there to get away from the Hong Kong police. It became a filthy, evil place of drugs and crime and gang leaders. Jackie, my friend, wanted to go in there to witness to them. She was told by many, many missionaries, there were many missionaries in Hong Kong — you can't go in there, it's too dangerous.

But she wanted to go, and she came to my home and cried many times in prayer for this place. Then one day she went into the Walled City with a Mrs. Donathon, an old lady who used to hold a school in there. When Jackie went in, Mrs. Donathon was so happy that somebody had followed her in that she retired, and Jackie became the woman going in. I went in with her on two occasions. Jackie was threatened many times, confronted by Tong leaders many times, and today there are thousands of young men in Hong Kong who've been delivered from a life of drugs and crime through the testimony and witness of Jackie Pullinger.

If you are interested, there's a program on the internet called The Interview, with Jackie Pullinger, look it up, and you'll see my face appears in it too. It's about an hour long. The interviewer says to Jackie, but Jackie, you never went to Hong Kong in the normal way. Jackie said, what do you mean, the normal way? Well, you didn't go to seminary, and you didn't go through a missionary society. No, she said, I went the Bible way. What do you mean? If you watch the video you'll see the interviewer is quite taken aback. She said, what do you mean, the Bible way? Well, she said, God called me and I obeyed, isn't that the Bible way? And God put his anointing on her.

Today in Hong Kong, where that Walled City was, there is a beautiful park. In the middle of the park is a plaque with a presentation of the Walled City and the ugliness it had. Right beside it is a stone about eight feet high, and at the foot of the stone is a plaque: dedicated to Jackie Pullinger, for the many lives that she delivered from drugs. She was still, at that time, living, she's now retired in Britain. A young woman who trusted God, and she learned to fly like the eagle with his anointing.

Yori Richards. I knew Yori as a young thug in Wales. He was illiterate — he could not read or write. His mother was a believer, a very simple lady, and many times I'd go to Maesteg, his hometown, to get Yori out of the pubs for his mother's sake. And Yori would go back to his life. He was arrested for the crime of burgling liquor from a store.

One month before his conversion, he was gloriously saved. At his trial, the judge, a woman, said, has anybody got a good word to speak for this man? And the pastor stood up and told the judge what had happened to Yori a month before, in his church. The wise judge, knowing what God can do, because she knew the stories of the Welsh Revival forty years before, and the impact of that season, released Yori to the pastor's care.

Later, Yori married and moved to the town where I was teaching, and he and I became very close friends. One day he says to me, Gareth, I want to go back to Maesteg, I want to tell people what Jesus has done for me. Will you arrange some meetings in the town hall there? I said, no, because Yori stammered so badly it would be impossible for him to speak with enough clarity. He said, Gareth, I'm not exaggerating, please, could you? So he went ahead and booked the town hall himself. I was not prepared to arrange for him to be made a fool of in front of people, but he did it anyway.

The first night we were there, about two hundred people came. When it was time for Yori to get up to speak, he started to speak and he started to stammer, and he started to cry. He ran off the stage, embarrassed. I was there — he was about twenty-two at this time. The next day he was walking in his village and he passed Uncle Dai working in his garden. Uncle Dai said, how did it go last night, Yori? I'll come back, he said. And Uncle Dai took him into his house, fell on the floor, and cried out to God.

God, this is you, child, he wants to give testimony about you. God, your name is at stake here. Yori hasn't got a name, but your name's at stake here, God. God, you've got to do something for this young man. And Uncle Dai got up and said, Yori, you've got to go back tonight, or you'll miss what God wants to do. So Yori went back, and I was there with him. Two hundred people again. It was time for Yori to speak, and he stood up and said, thank you for coming. I so much want to tell you what Jesus, and he began to speak without stuttering, for the first time in his life. I was there.

He spoke the ABC of the gospel: all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; but God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us; come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden. He spoke for fifteen minutes. There was an odd silence in that room. There was a schoolteacher there, I brought a whole class of grade eleven students, the whole row of them. It was her birthday, the teacher's, and she had asked the students as a birthday gift to come to her church, to the town hall, that night.

The Lord spoke to Yori as he stood there in awe of what God had just done, and said, look at the young girl at the end of the row. The young girl got off her chair and knelt in the aisle. That night, and the next night, two hundred people came to faith in Christ. I was there. I later got involved with a man called Greg Gordon, who arranged the SermonIndex web pages, and we arranged conferences in Canton, Ohio, and Florida, and Atlanta, Georgia, and in Glasgow, Scotland, on revival, with great names coming. Yori Richards was one of the speakers at our conference in Glasgow — a mighty, powerful preacher for God who had nothing to offer, yet he learned to fly like the eagle, in the anointing of God.

Why Many Never Learn to Fly

Don't you want the anointing of God in your church, on your life? I hope that what I teach you tonight will give you encouragement in that. Let me tell you some of the reasons why many never learn to fly.

Many are born wounded. They come to Christ, their spirits, which are dead, are made alive to God. Hallelujah, they're a new creation in Christ Jesus, and I trust all of you here know that truth. You've come to the cross, you know your sins are forgiven, you're a new creation in Christ Jesus. When I was sixteen I lay on my bed in Wales and asked him to come into my life. Three days later I knew that he had entered me. But my body was not a new creation, I still had a scar on my knee from when I was eight and knelt on a broken bottle, I still had gaps in my teeth, my eyesight was still not wonderful. My body was not a new creation. My spirit was, but my body wasn't.

But I'm not just a body and a spirit, I'm also a soul, and my soul carried wounds into my Christian life. Scars from abuse, verbal abuse, maybe when I was a child. Scars from sins that I'd committed that scarred my soul. Much of my life as a pastor has been dealing with the inner wounds that people carry on their souls. There are wounds like scrapes that heal up after a time. There are wounds like cuts that leave a scar and a tenderness — for example, a child who's been sexually assaulted. You can say to the child, now you're a Christian, a new creation, but that child is still scarred by the wound, and may never trust a man as she grows into adulthood. That's a major scar, and we all carry some kind of scars.

But there are scars like broken legs, which, unless they're set properly with good counseling, a good pastor or biblical counseling, that leg never sets properly. Don't tell that Christian to run the race; they cannot. And there are people who've got broken wings from abuse they found in the church. My own daughter is a strong Christian, but she doesn't go to church because of the abuse she felt from a pastor. The wings are broken, how can you fly when your wings are broken? One of the major reasons young Christians never learn to fly is because they're carrying wounds that have not yet been healed. I've written another book, called The Key in My Hand, about healing from wounds of brokenness.

The second reason many never learn to fly is that they never know they should. Maybe this is the first time you've been taught that you should learn to fly. We come to the church, we enjoy its programs, we go through its roles forever, but we've never been challenged to soar like the eagle — we never realized that we could. Maybe we've made decisions contrary to God's will. For example, if you're in debt, you cannot serve God and be in debt to mammon at the same time. I'm talking about debt, I'm not talking about a mortgage, or a proper, necessary financial commitment, I'm talking about something you didn't need and went and spent money on anyway, and now you're in debt. God can't liberate you there. Or you're married to an unbeliever, you can't learn to fly into all the fullness of God's purpose for you when you're married to an unbeliever; you've got a commitment and a yoke.

The third reason — many have had their wings clipped. I know many young Christians go to their pastor and say, Pastor, I've got a wonderful idea, why don't we do this? Oh no, not in my church. Whose church? Surely, Pastor, you're going to receive this, Ephesians tells us Christ gave gifts to equip the saints for the work of ministry, which means equipping them to learn how to fly. Amen? You see, Jesus says, you know the way the world governs, president, senate, cabinet, lawmakers, public officials; in Britain, where I come from, prime minister, government, see, a pyramid, power at the top, common people at the bottom. You know the way the world governs, says Jesus to his disciples. I do not want you to be like that. You are not to be like that. You are to govern this way: my calling is not to sit at the top of the pyramid. My calling is to sit at the bottom of the pyramid, helping people to fly, equipping them for the work of ministry.

I could tell you many more stories like those of Jackie and Yori. There's a story told in the Bible of one — let me find the reference for you. In 1 Samuel, the children of Israel are fighting the Philistines.

Do It God's Way

They were sure they were going to win the battle, very eager to fight, but it came to the place where they suddenly realized it was not going as well as they'd hoped, the Philistines were prevailing. Somebody got a bright idea and said, if God were here we wouldn't have this problem. But God, you see, was back in a box in the tabernacle, the tent, that's where God resided, in the Holy Place. So they sent back to Shiloh and said, bring God here. Phinehas and Hophni, the corrupt sons of Eli the high priest, took the Ark of the Covenant and carried it up to the battlefield, because God had abided in the Ark. And to their horror, the Philistines captured the Ark and conquered the children of Israel.

When the news came back to Shiloh, Hophni's wife, who was expectant, delivered a child and called him Ichabod, for God has departed — and she died. The Ark, God's presence, was out of Israel for the next hundred years, right through the entire reign of Saul and half the reign of King David. Where was it? Well, the Philistines took it to their city and set it up in their temple before their god, Dagon. In the morning when they came they found that Dagon had fallen. They thought, well, this is strange, and put him back up. The next morning he had fallen again, and broken his arms. They said, this ark shouldn't be here, this Jewish god shouldn't be here, let's send it back to Israel.

But how should we send it back? Well, let's get a cart, and two cows with calves, and put the Ark in the back of the cart, and send the cows toward Israel. If they try to turn around to go back to their calves, we'll know the Ark has got no power at all. But if they go, we'll know it's God. Good plan. So they put the Ark in the back of the cart, put the cows in front, and the cows headed straight for Israel, right across the border. The Jews at that place saw the Ark coming and celebrated. They brought it in and wanted to send it down to Shiloh, but somebody touched the Ark, and he was slain.

The heathen Philistines could manhandle the Ark, where God's presence was, and escape with it, but once a man of Israel touched God's presence, he was slain. So the Ark was put away in a barn. Finally, the news comes to David that the Ark of the Covenant is back in northern Israel, and David said, we need the Ark back here in Shiloh, let's get it back. How should we manage it? His council said, well, the Philistines brought it back on a cart with oxen, so we can do the same thing. So he got trained oxen and a cart, and sent it up to get the Ark of the Covenant. They put the Ark on the trained oxen, heading south to Shiloh, and the oxen stumbled. The man put out his hand, and he was instantly slain.

David was angry with God, fuming back home, I'm trying to bring God into his right place, what's wrong with God, don't you understand I'm trying my best for him? Then the next week he's reading in the writings of Moses, where God describes the Ark and the temple that is to be built, and David comes across these words: the sons of Kohath, the Levites, shall bear the Ark. He calls the sons of Kohath to come. He finds them, prays over them and anoints them, and says, go and carry the Ark. Those men go back to the north of the country, and they've been instructed to carry the Ark not on an ox cart, but on their shoulders. Can you imagine those men putting the staves through the sides of the Ark? I'm sure they were perspiring with fear. They put the staves through, put the Ark up on their shoulders, and walked all the way back to Shiloh.

If you're going to do God's work, do it God's way. He's not interested in ox carts carrying it — he has decreed that it be carried on the shoulders of the Kohathites. If you're going to do God's work, carry it on the shoulders of the Kohathites. Do it God's way. And church, I challenge you: do it God's way.

What Do You Have in Your Hand?

So then, how do I fly like the eagle? What is God's way? I'd like to take you into 2 Kings chapter 4, follow with me, please. 2 Kings chapter 4, verses 1 to 7. There was a certain woman, of the wives of the sons of the prophets, and she cried out to Elisha: your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. But the creditor has come to take my two children to be his slaves. Elisha said to her, what shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house? And she said, your maidservant has nothing in the house except a jar of oil.

Then he said, go, borrow vessels, large ones, for yourself, from all your neighbors, even empty vessels; do not get just a few. Go in and shut the door behind you and your sons, and pour out into all those vessels, and set aside what is full. So she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the vessels to her, and she poured. When the vessels were full she said to her son, bring me another vessel. And he said, there is no other vessel — and the oil stopped. She came and told the man of God, and he said, go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons shall live on the rest. Of this little story, I want to present to you five steps toward soaring like the eagle.

The woman's vision was dark. She saw no way out. Her burden was heavy. The prophet says to her, what do you have in your hand? Just a pot of oil. And he gave her a ministry: go and pour it out into all the vessels you can obtain. Now think about it, how foolish, how utterly foolish. She could have listened to the prophet and said, don't be so crazy, I've got a little pot of oil, but I believe this is God's way to fly like the eagle.

I want to ask you tonight, what is your vision? Two men in a prison cell looked through the bars, one only saw the darkness, but the other saw the stars. What do you see, when you look at yourself? I was talking to a brother over lunch today, and he said to me, well, I haven't got much education, my background, I'm not sure if God can use me. I said, don't you dare say that — you're a rich man with a very poor background. He couldn't even read or write when he married, and God used him. So what's your vision, what do you envision of yourself? Why am I nobody? I'll tell you why I am, I'm a child of the King. I'm seated in heavenly places in Jesus. I'm a forgiven saint. I'm a child of God. That's who I am. Who are you? I'm a nobody. No, you're not, it's almost blasphemy to say that, you're denying the work that God has done.

Who are you? I could spend all evening speaking about who you are in Christ. Look at the book of Ephesians — in him, in him, in him, I've been adopted as a son of the most holy God. He didn't save me to make me a slave; he saved me to make me his son. That's who I am in him. That's my vision, I see the stars. Who are you? What's your vision? The woman's vision was very bleak, no hope, no way out.

The second question I'll ask you is this: what's your burden? What's your vision of the world? When you look out at this lost world, what's your vision? I told you last night about meeting Jimmy and Megan on the streets — I went to Jimmy, this thug, everything I'm not, hearings, hearings, hearings, tattoos. I said, Jimmy, I have some pastor friends who are praying for the street people here in Victoria, and we really don't know how to pray, because we believe only Jesus is the answer. The government has got no answer to the street problem. It builds wet houses, it buys hotels so that the drug addicts can get off the streets and commit suicide inside the drug houses, and they are doing it, dying at least one or two a week in Victoria. This world is lost, like sheep gone astray.

What's your vision of the world? Does the world have any answers for the needs you have? No, it does not, Jesus is the answer. Your vision of yourself, your vision of this world around you, the governments of this world, what about your vision of God, your upward look? Is he able? Are you convinced he's able? When you lift your eyes to the hill, from whence cometh your strength — do you know that strength? Second question: what's your burden? This woman had a burden, she was about to lose her two children. That's a heavy burden.

What's your burden? My burden, I remember when I was a schoolteacher in Germany, I was in a prayer meeting, just three of us, and I prayed for God to give me a burden for youth. I was not an evangelist, I was not glib with my tongue in speaking the gospel to my students. They knew I was a Christian, but I was not able to do the work of an evangelist. I thought if I had a burden for youth I would have a passion to drive me. I didn't find that happen, I did witness a bit more boldly. But five years later I was one of the biggest youth workers in Wales, because God, through my wife, had just started this work and blew it wide open, and I suddenly realized God had given me exactly what I'd prayed for. I had a burden for young people, and I still have it.

James could tell you some of my closest friends are university students. I said to you last night, appearance is deceptive — I look like an eighty-seven-year-old man, but my heart is thirty-five. I don't know what I said last night, forty-five. My brain is fifty-five. I love being with young people, and young people apparently love being with me. My burden is young people. My burden is to pastor and shepherd young believers, you will lead them to Christ, bring them to me to shepherd them. That's my burden. That's my gift, if you like.

So what's your burden? One lady here last night has a burden for the prisons, visits the prisons. Shane has a burden for Haiti and missions and serving people. What's your burden? God gives burdens to people. Do you have a burden that you think is from God? I have a burden for the homeless, the drug addicts, for people on the streets, for local politics, you name it, whatever God gives to you. If you haven't got a burden, ask for one. Jackie had a burden for the Walled City. What's your burden? Jesus had a burden, Jesus had a burden for you and me. His burden took him to the cross, because of the pain upon his heart for the lostness of mankind. What's your burden? Seek one from God.

Then the prophet says to the woman, what do you have in your hand? She said, I just have a pot of oil. Good. What do you have in your hand, Peter? I just have my fish and my rod. Good — I'm going to make you a fisher of men. What do you have in your hand, Paul? Oh, I just have my Roman citizenship. Good, I'm going to send you to Rome as my ambassador. Every one of God's children is given a gift. If you don't believe me, let me take you into the Scriptures, turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4.

He ascended into heaven, what does it mean? He also descended into the lower parts of the earth. Then verse 10: he who descended is himself also he who ascended far above the heavens, that he might fill all things. Please listen to these words: and he gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers. Jesus gave gifts to his bride. Apostles, evangelists, prophets, pastors, teachers, elders — elders are not appointed by the church, pastors are not appointed by the church, they are recognized, because Jesus gave them. If your pastor was truly called by God, it is Jesus who sent him here, and I believe that is true.

Amen. Jesus, because he loved his bride so much, gave gifts of ministries to the church. How tragic when we appoint men into eldership whom Jesus did not give to be elders, oh, they've got business acumen, a good degree, they're very prominent, so we make them elders. Or they go through theological college, they've got all the degrees, so we make them pastors. Or they graduate top of their class, we make them a youth pastor, and from there he graduates to associate pastor, and from there senior pastor, when Jesus never, ever called him to be a pastor. And you wonder why our churches are so impotent. Jesus gave gifts, because they're precious gifts, the gift that Jesus gave.

What do you have in your hand, woman? I have just a pot of oil. Good — I'm going to use that pot of oil for my glory, I'm going to give it to you. Peter, what do you have? James, what do you have? Paul, what do you have? Brothers and sisters, what do you have in your hand? You have the gift that Christ gave you. And as a church he gave you pastors, elders, turn with me to Romans chapter 12. I get a bit loud, I know, because I'm passionate about this. I wish the church would read the Bible on this. God has allotted to every man a measure of faith.

For just as we have many members in one body, and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Who is he talking about? You and me. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise that gift accordingly. Do you believe the Bible? Let me tell you what the Bible says: to each of us has been given a gift, let us exercise it accordingly. If it's prophecy, prophesy. If it's service, serve. If it's teaching, teach. If it's exhorting, exhort. If it's giving, give with liberality. If it's leading, lead with diligence. If it's showing mercy, do so with cheerfulness. Let love be without hypocrisy. Let your gift be seen and used.

Keep your thumb in that page, please, and turn to 1 Corinthians 12. There are varieties of gifts, verse 4, but the same Spirit. There are varieties of ministries, but the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. To each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good: to one is given a word of wisdom, to another a word of knowledge, to another a word of faith, to another gifts of healing, to another the working of miracles, and so on. To every one of us, every one of us — if he's a child of God, he's given gifts for the common good, for the blessing of the body. It wasn't for you alone, he gave it to you for the blessing of the body.

God, through Christ, has already given the gifts of leadership; he has now called every single one of us in the body of Christ to exercise the gift he has given us. Your gift may be very different to mine, exercise your gift, and I'll exercise mine, why? For the building up of the body of Christ. So, pastor, what do you have in your church? Well, I have this gift, and I have that gift, and we have that gift. Good. What do you have, woman? I have a pot of oil. Good — I'm now going to give you a ministry. And this is where it so often falls down, because I know so many people who have a burden on their hearts, a vision for what God can do, and a gift that is not recognized, sometimes not even by themselves, and often certainly not by the leadership.

I'm going to give you a ministry: get your boys to pick up all the bottles and pots and pans from all your neighbors. Oh, come on, I've only got a pot of oil. Go and get them, lock the door behind them, and then pour out the oil. Oh, come on, man. But the woman, in faith, not understanding what she was asked to do, did exactly what the prophet said, she went and got all the pots and pans from her neighbors and brought them in, and they closed the door, and she began to pour. What if she'd said, I don't believe this, take them all back? She'd have missed the greatest miracle she'd ever seen in her life. Instead, she began to pour. Another one. That's called anointing, that's when God steps in. She had what she had, she took the gift that she had, small as it was, and stepped out in the call of God. And God stepped in, and she began to pour until all the vessels were full, and she and her sons began to soar like eagles.

Releasing Others Into Their Gift

It has been my privilege to work with people who have had a burden, and because I understood this principle, we walked through it together, and I came to a place of seeing God do mighty things through them. Let me tell you some stories. A man came into my church in Kitchener — big, dirty, uncouth. His father and brother were in prison, and Roger probably should have been there too. Roger comes up to me and gives me a bear hug. Pastor Gareth, good to see you, Ron Smith led me to the Lord last night in the street, he told me to come here and get disciplined. I think he meant disciple, but disciplined is what he said.

Now, I knew Ron Smith. He attended the local ministerium once a month, was always there, but was rather strange in that he wasn't a pastor, in fact he didn't even attend a church in Kitchener. But all the pastors in the ministerium liked him being there, because he was praying on Friday and Saturday nights with two of his friends, and then all day Saturday they'd be on the streets of Kitchener-Waterloo leading people to Christ. Those people were coming to the churches, and the pastors were very grateful for what Ron Smith was doing, even though he wasn't attending any church.

So the following week I went to the ministerium, and I met Ron Smith, and I said, hi Ron, I see you're in the business now of producing illegitimate children. He said, what do you mean? I said, well, you fathered this guy on the street, Roger, but you sent him to me to father him, you fathered him, but you want me to bring him up. Well, obviously I got under Ron's skin, because the following Sunday he's in my church, sitting at the back. The church at this time was about fifty or sixty people, and Ron's sitting at the back. He's there the next week, and the next, five weeks running.

On the fifth week I went to have coffee with him downtown in Waterloo. I said, hi Ron, what's the burden on your heart? He said, prayer and intercession, pastor. Is anybody doing that in Kitchener? No, he said, they're all playing games, he's a bit of a cynic. All the churches are playing games, they don't know how to pray and hear the voice of God. I said, well, I know a guy in our church who's got the same burden as you. He said, who? I said, well, he sits at the back, about six foot two, thin on hair — I'm describing him. I said, he's been coming about five weeks. Well, he said, his mind was clearly turning over, I've got a business downtown, I'm a commercial artist. Well, he said, you're talking about me.

I said, that's right, Ron, you're the guy with a burden for prayer and intercession, aren't you? Now he thinks I'm a bit too clever by half. I said, well, Ron, tell me this, why did God give you that burden, but you want me to carry it? I can't carry that burden, Ron, I've got a different burden that God has called me to carry. He said, well, what should I do? I'm not exaggerating this story, it's exactly what he said. I said, well, you tell me what is going to happen. He said, well, people need to be taught how to hear the voice of God. I said, when are you going to do it? What, me? I said, of course you — God gave you the burden, you're supposed to carry it. He said, well, any time. I said, how about next Wednesday? Yeah, sure, he said. I said, right, next Wednesday, seven o'clock, teach my people how to hear the voice of God.

Next Wednesday I went to my church. There were thirty people there, fifteen from my congregation and fifteen from the university, because they'd put a big poster up about these meetings, hearing the voice of God. We sat in a circle, and Ron said to me, pastor, should we start? I said, Ron, it's your meeting, I'm an attendee here. So he said to his friend Keith, who was keeping a journal of prayers and answered prayers, okay, why don't you read a scripture. Then he said, I want you to close your eyes for twenty minutes and just wait upon God. Peter, why don't you take half the group downstairs with you. So half the group went down with Peter, and we closed the circle. Twenty minutes, he said, is a long time of silence, for a Welshman who loves talking, it's almost an eternity.

He kept his twenty minutes. Okay, sit up, he said, what did the Lord say to you? Well, I don't know, Ron, I'm thinking about this — this is actually what happened, I'm thinking about those kids who threw stones at the church door last Sunday during the service. I was looking out the window at the woman across the street, the single mom with three kids. He went halfway around the little room, and I could tell a pattern was emerging: mothers and children in our area. Peter came up from downstairs, and Ron said, what did the Lord say downstairs, Peter? Mothers and children in our area. That's all we prayed for that night. Next week it was something different, and my church took off. There were forty there when I went to the church; there were a hundred and forty, three years later.

All the denomination talked about the miracle that happened at Hazel Green Fellowship in Kitchener. I went back there many years later, and they had a big reception for my wife and I at one of the homes. The phone rang, and the hostess came and said, Ron Smith's on the line for you, pastor. I picked up the phone, Ron now lives in Otter with his wife. I said, hi Ron, so good to hear you. Yes, pastor, I heard you were there. I said, Ron, all the world knows your name. He said, what do you mean? I said, everywhere I go, I tell people how you taught us to hear the voice of God and how you built Kitchener Alliance Church. The person who gets all the acclaim for building the church is me, but I know who built it, it was Ron Smith, because he taught us to hear the voice of God. Because I released him into his burden. I gave him a ministry that I could not perform, and God anointed that ministry.

Let me add a little addendum to that. I came to my church in Victoria on the strength of the stories about Kitchener, and I started a school there called Mission Bridge. People paid to come to the school — about fourteen people. Every Wednesday I'd get a local pastor to come in and teach on some biblical topic. There were reading assignments and a video to follow through each week, and we'd go down for two weeks to Mexico on outreach. It ran from September to May, the whole school. One night I went into my school and talked to my students around the table, and I said, tonight we're going to talk about prayer. How many of you have ever had an answer to prayer? Oh yes, I prayed for a car parking space once when I was in a hurry. You've heard that kind of prayer.

I said, well, tonight we're going to give God the opportunity to talk to us. So I read them a scripture, and I was much more gentle with them than Ron Smith had been, I only asked them to be silent for ten minutes. Then they opened their eyes, and I said, I'm only interested in what God said to you in the last ten minutes, I'm not at all interested in what you came in here with tonight. For example, I said, I saw myself on top of Mount Tolmie, looking down upon Victoria, and it's all dark. What did you hear from God? I think we should pray for the provincial government. I think we should pray for the national, federal government. I think we should pray for First Nations. Yeah, First Nations. Well, I think the government too.

It went around the circle and came to my wife, Anne, who was sitting by me. She said, well, I had a picture come to my mind, I also saw Victoria, and the blackness over Victoria, and there was a sea, and it was black, and there was a white ship on the sea. I said, well, that's interesting, I'll tell you why — as I sat on Mount Tolmie looking down, my vision broadened, and I also saw a white ship on the sea. If, capital I, if God has spoken to us tonight, it's to do with the federal government, the provincial government, First Nations, and the white ship. I have no idea what the connection is.

At that moment, Captain Robin Jones of the ferries and his wife were sitting over on the side of the room, they'd come to visit me that evening. I wasn't very close to him, so I don't quite know why they'd come. When I said I had to leave to come to the school for seven o'clock, they said, can we come? I said, well, you can, but it's a school, people pay to be there, but you can come and sit and watch. They said, we have to be in town till nine o'clock tonight.

At this juncture Anne Jones got up and said, Pastor Gareth, I think Robin needs to speak. Now, these are very mature Christians, I can trust them, they're not flaky people. Robin stood up and said, you have no idea why I'm here tonight. I said, no. He said, at nine o'clock tonight, Dr. Philip Ney and I will be with two provincial politicians at Sidney Airport, to greet two federal politicians flying in to discuss the purchase of a ship, yes, a white one — to minister to first-time offenders among Aboriginal young men. Robin will send them to it instead of to prison; they'll be committed to this ship for a two-week period. I saw fourteen months go, because we had heard from God. Hallelujah. God was so gracious to my people, that we had learned how to hear the voice of God, because Ron Smith was freed to exercise his gift in my church.

Pour out the oil. Pour it all out. And let God put his anointing upon what you pour.

Let me draw to a close, no, I've got a couple more stories, do you like stories? I'm in Australia, in Queensland, talking to a woman, and she said, you need to go and see Jim and Kathy. Jim and Kathy were a young couple. Pastor, you'll like this one. I introduced myself, and he said, oh, I'm with such-and-such a company, my business is to encourage and inform and give wisdom to companies who are hoping to expand. His training was in business management of some kind, so if there's a small company that has to go through different routes with lawyers, he said, I move in and help them do the arranging to expand. He said, we live quite frugally, because many small companies come to me, so I just get small commissions, and because I will not grease the palms of people, I have to do it legally, so I don't get that many jobs.

But about a year ago I went to Papua New Guinea with my pastor — a church of about forty people, and I was amazed to see God's anointing on my pastor in Papua New Guinea, just off the coast of Australia. Jim said, I came back and I said to Kathy, Kathy, you should have seen our pastor when he was in Papua, there was an anointing of God, we saw healings, we saw miracles, we saw souls being saved. We'd never seen that in our church. Our pastor needs to go back. But I know he can't afford it, so can we put aside a little savings every week to build up a fund to send our pastor back to Papua New Guinea? So our pastor has now been back a couple of times, because we built the fund up. And during this past year, since we started that, my business has increased, I'm now getting twice as much commission as I got before. Though I'm spending this money, I've earned twice as much this year. God is so good.

Three years later I went to Australia, and I went to see Jim and Kathy — same house, same place. I said, how are things going? He said, Gareth, you'll never believe it, my income has doubled every year since you were here, I'm now earning eight times the salary I got four or five years ago. But I still live in the same house, I still have the same car. In the last four years we have sent every member of our church to Papua New Guinea on a missions outreach. Why should I have another house and another car, when I've had so much fun flying like the eagle? Pastor, don't you want people in your church to fly like the eagle, to send you?, he was smiling.

Oh, to see young men and women anointed by God, filled with the Spirit of God. I've had the joy of seeing people operating in the anointing of God. I've mentioned Jackie Pullinger and Yori Richards, I could mention so many others. But the secret is doing it God's way. The secret is finding out what your burden is. The secret is having a right vision of yourself, as a child of God, of the King of kings, your Lord and Savior, and of the desperate need of this world. Have the right vision. Know that God has given you a gift, and if you do not know what it is, ask your elders, ask your pastor — please, pastor, help me find my gift. And then, pastor, elders, help that person to know that gift, and to be released into a ministry, like the young eagle pushed out of the nest. Please, pastor, never build a church just to keep your eagles in, they were never meant to stay there. They were meant to fly.

God, God, God, the precious gift that is in every one of you, that he might receive glory. Amen.

I'm teaching a men's retreat in Kelowna, about seventy men there from a very large Baptist church, and I'm teaching about releasing your spiritual gifts in the secular marketplace. I need to go one step further. I'm back in the National Westminster Bank in London, England, they'd asked me to come over to speak to the bank employees. What had happened was that on one floor of the bank there were two hundred employees, very busy at their computers — this was the beehive of the National Westminster Bank, a big bank in London. There was a man there called Peter, and Peter went to Martin, whom I knew, one of the leaders in the bank, and he was grumbling a bit because his church would not allow him to preach, they did not believe in lay preachers, they had an ordained minister preaching, and Peter felt the need to preach, as a pastor.

So Martin said to him, Peter, you see that woman over there? She just lost her child, five years old. You see that man up there? He's just been made redundant after twenty years. You see that other man over there? He just got divorced a couple of weeks ago. Don't you think they need a pastor? And Peter went to the woman and said, I'm so sorry, dear, about your child. Within one year, everybody on that floor, three hundred employees, knew Peter as their pastor. He didn't need to be in a church to be a pastor, he was a pastor there. Where do we get the idea that a pastor's place is in church? A pastor's place is leading the flock, whether it's in a bank or in a church. Peter was so fulfilled. So I teach a lot about releasing your spiritual gifts in a secular marketplace.

So I'm doing this at this men's retreat, and as I'm teaching, a man stands up at the back, we'll call him John, I don't remember his name now. He said, may I say something? I said, sure. He said, I've been a car mechanic all my life. I've been in the church, a Christian from boyhood, but I've never had any ministry, never been involved in church ministries at all — but I've been a mechanic, not well educated, but I know how to deal with cars. Some months ago I noticed there was a young lady who was usually in church a few pews in front of me. She wasn't there one Sunday, but the following Sunday she happened to be standing right by me as we were leaving church.

So I said, hi, I missed you last Sunday. Oh yes, she said, my car had broken down and I couldn't get it repaired. Oh, he said, what's the matter? She said, there's something wrong with the brakes and I can't afford to have them repaired right now. Oh, he says, look, I know about car brakes, why don't I pick it up and see what I can do. She got the car to him, and he took it to the garage. He said, John, can I borrow the hoist for a couple of hours? Sure, why? Well, there's this woman in church, okay, I'll help you. What's more, he said, you can have the parts at cost. So John fixed the car and took it back to the woman. She was so pleased she started crying.

John was foolish enough then to say, if any of your friends need help, tell them about me, and of course a couple of other young women came needing help, and John happily kept doing this. Then he got a call from the pastor of the church, a big church, into the thousands. He went to see the pastor, he'd never talked to the pastor before — and the pastor said, John, I've been hearing that you've been doing these jobs for young women in the church. Yes, pastor. Well, he said, the board and I have been talking about it, and we're not very happy about it. Oh, why, pastor? Well, he said, there are lots of people in the church who need help like this, and there are many men like you in the church who are retired, with plenty of time on their hands. Why are you getting all the blessings? Get a group of men together, and they can do this work. There are people right now, he said, it's spring coming, all our seniors need their lawnmowers serviced. Why don't you get some men to service the lawnmowers?

So John said, I'm so excited, because I got a ministry, the pastor's giving me a ministry. He was so excited. A year later, a friend of mine came out from Wales, and I decided to take him to the Rocky Mountains. On the way back we stopped off in Kelowna and stayed with my friend overnight, and we went to church on Sunday. During the announcements, the announcement man spoke up and said, thank you to all the men who turned out yesterday for our lawn-mowing day, we serviced eighty machines. I nudged my wife and said, that was John, the one I talked about last year at the men's retreat.

Then the pastor got up to preach, and he said, before I preach I need to explain something in our announcements. About a year ago, one of my men started a ministry to service things in the church, and got a group of men together — those men serviced eighty machines yesterday. But I want you to know this, he said: in the past year, over a hundred people have come to Christ because of that ministry. Did you hear what I just said? A lawn-mowing ministry in the church, Lord forbid that we should do that. But John had a burden for it, and the wise pastor nurtured him, equipped him, lifted him up, and God did the rest. Over a hundred people came to Christ through that ministry. Hallelujah.

And I long to see men and women in this church, wouldn't it be lovely? James, I hope by next year I want you to tell me some stories about what God has done through people in this church. God bless you. God, God, God, the gift that Christ has given you. Amen.