About some weeks ago, I came across something that really fascinated me. It was a video about a hot air balloon. Watching how it worked and all the fun involved in it, sparked curiosity in me. I needed to find out more about it.
The hot air balloon is, interestingly, the first human flying invention and it is so amazing how simple the mechanism powering it is. The hot air balloon is no different from a regular balloon. It is simply bigger and tied to a basket that people or equipment can stay in.
To work, a balloon is simply filled with air that a pilot continues to heat up. The hotter the air gets, the lighter the balloon becomes. Since hot air is less dense than cold air, the balloon rises. To descend, the pilot simply cools the air. I found it to be very interesting that the entire operation is based on the introduction of heat. It is all about stirring up the air molecules to make them lighter.
As I was thinking about the simplicity of the hot air balloon, I began to identify a lot of parallels in Scripture; a few of which I will be sharing here in this article, trusting God that it will spark a faith-walk in us. Amen.
“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God (stir up the Gift-molecule), which is in you through the laying on of my hands” — 2 Tim 1 :6 NIV (emphasis mine)
Every believer has a deposit of God’s gift in them. No believer is devoid of a good thing. Every gift or deposit of God in us is potent enough, even to the transforming of nations. However, when not stirred up (or fanned into flame), such gifts remain as they are. Thus, Paul’s admonishment to Timothy was a strong one. I could imagine him screaming, “Fan into flame what you’ve received!”
Jesus had a similar cry to the Laodicean Church in Revelations 3:15. He wished that they were either hot or cold. Not because He preferred them to be cold, but because He wasn’t able to place them anywhere. They were neither hot enough to rise like an edifice nor cold enough to be ‘prepped’ up. True service to God stems from being hot. That’s when we become light enough to rise above the vicissitude of life and be valuable to the Kingdom.
“And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works” — Heb 10:24 ESV
The writer of Hebrews had a similar admonition also. True impact starts by stirring up. It starts by leaving the dormant state. The real worth of a believer is in his doings. Not in his thoughts or plans, but in what he actually begins to DO. It was in the going out (doing) that the power of the Holy Spirit was seen in the apostles. It was in the stepping out that Jordan parted at the behest of the Israelites. The Jordan would have had no respect for cowering Israelites; the respect started at the instance of the stepping on the bank by the Ark-bearing priests. We are Ark-bearing believers. We are the temple of God. We all have goodness deposited in us. Our profiting starts from the moment we step out in faith.
To bring this home, are there instructions you’ve received from God? Is there an idea in your spirit that you’ve been overly planning? Is there a soul God has placed in your heart to pray and reach out to? Is there a deposit of a specific spiritual gift in you? Are there concepts and business plans that God has laid on your heart? It is time to step out by faith. Stop ‘respecting’ the Jordan; it will part at your stepping out. Stop ‘respecting’ the Red Sea; just stretch out your hand and it will part at the sight of your faith-work.
You really don’t know how big that good thing in you can become, until you stir it up and start doing.
Take this as another charge to start something good. God loves starters, because only starters can become finishers. In fact, He reveals Himself as the “Beginning and the End.”
I pray that this week will be an action-packed one for us. It will be one in which we become doers. Amen.
God bless our hearts.
Grace and Peace!
Dami Awosanmi
LinkedIn: @Awosanmi-Damilola
Push Buttons is a weekly devotional of The PowerPoint Tribe.