Gifts are talents developed by the Spirit

The great Italian sculptor and painter, Michelangelo, was once working on a very ugly block of granite—a horrible‑looking big piece of rock—and someone said to him, Michelangelo, why are you spending so much time on that ugly, big stone? He answered, Because there is an angel in that rock that wants to come out. He looked at it and with the eye of an artist, he said, I can chip and remove and shape. When I am finished a beautiful statue is going to come out of that unprepossessing block of granite. Dear readers, you and I are like that block of granite. There is a lot in us and only God can see it. Only God knows what is there. Other people look at us and they see the ugly block of granite. They say, There is nothing much or special about that person. But God looks at us and he sees there are gifts there. There is a person there. That is part of the work of the Holy Spirit: to chip away the redundant stone, to take away the disguise, to unlock the potential so that something will come out that is fresh and beautiful to be admired.

I learned this lesson early in my ministry. There were two young men in my first congregation. I saw them before they were converted and after they were converted. One of them is now in heaven, but I saw the change. They were young fellows on a farm who never read a book, sat in Church Youth night after night, never spoke, never participated in the discussions, never led in prayer. They were unacademic, shy, quiet, and inarticulate. Then God worked in them; God changed them. They started meeting with me for studies. They started reading, thinking, and talking. It was as if they became different men, as if God had miraculously quadrupled their brain power. And if you would have heard them and seen them a year or two after that, you would have asked, Is this the same fellow? Is this the shy fellow who sat in the back row of the Church Youth and never opened his mouth and never read a book? Unbelievable! My wife and I watched them throughout their lives and they got on advancing and advancing. They became leaders in the church men of stature.

It was all in there. I did not put it in there. It was in them. It was in there! But it took the Spirit of God to bring it out and develop it. That is what he does in every Christian. That my dear readers, is a most thrilling idea: that there is potential in you that never came out.

I remember hearing William Kennedy when I was a little boy. He was one of the two presenters in our congregation. Once somebody asked Mr. Kennedy if he could play the violin. He was a very humorous man, and he answered, Well, I do not know. I have never tried. He was making a joke, but he was saying something true. There is a hidden, undeveloped potential in all of us. There are gifts in you that have not yet emerged. Those are talents and abilities that God the Spirit can bring out. The Spirit not only reveals our gifts, he strengthens, intensifies, purifies, and widens them.

You get this again and again in the New Testament. Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:6, fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you. Fan it into flame! 1 Timothy 4:14 says, Do not neglect the gift you have, and again in 1 Timothy 4:15, Practice these things, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress.

My dear reader, there is a mighty power in your heart. It is able to change you, and to bring out the abilities and gifts that you nor anybody else knew you had, so that by God’s grace you can do things.

As for the young people and children—God is able to help you to be someone and to do something far more than you can presently imagine. Gifts are talents not only redirected by the Spirit, but developed by the Spirit. We need to pray for his help in equipping us.¹

Edward Donnelly