We Reflect God’s Creativity

The things we have been preaching about these past Sundays concerning the gifts of the Holy Spirit, life filled with the Holy Spirit, and moving in the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit—I believe God has wanted to give us a graphic illustration of that through this moment.

We have a God whose intention has been to bless His church with all the nutrients, all the skills, and all the resources the church needs to enrich its life and undertake the different tasks the Lord has entrusted to it until He comes.

While we were sitting here for a moment, my wife told me that when the musical group was playing the first number, she—if I am interpreting her words correctly—had a kind of vision of the Lord moving over the waters and saying, “Let there be light; let there be fish in the sea, birds in the sky, and trees on the earth.” And it is no coincidence that this music prompted that kind of vision, because we have an eminently creative God; that is the essence of God’s nature.

God is a creative God. He is the universe’s first creator. God is a writer of novels, and each one of us is the protagonist of one of God’s novels. God is a writer of poems, and our lives are living poems lived out in the presence of the Lord. God is a writer of songs and melodies.

The philosophers of the Middle Ages thought that as the planets revolved in their orbits and around the suns that held them in their gravitational pull, they evoked music, and they called it “the music of the spheres,” the humming of the planets.

If we could hear with supernatural ears those planets revolving around the sun at thousands of miles per hour, they would emit a sound that glorifies the Lord. God is an eminently musical being. If we can conceive melodies, perform them, and compose them, it is because God placed that melody in our hearts and spirits, because He wanted us, made in His image and likeness, to reflect His creativity.

And God is a God who creates life, and that is why He has also placed within us the capacity to procreate life in a lesser way, obviously, but it is nevertheless an imitation of His ability to create life. God has placed scientific gifts within us so that we may bring order to the world He has granted us; He has placed scientific ability within us so that we may search out the secrets He has encoded in nature. And He delights when His children decipher the riddles He has placed within nature, especially when His children give the Lord glory for those discoveries.

Recently, in the past few days, science has been celebrating one of the great triumphs of twenty-first-century scientific progress. New ways have been discovered to create cells—stem cells—that can assume certain forms and that, in the not-too-distant future, in about five, seven, or eight years—and wonderful things are already being done—will be able to recreate tissue, heal damaged organs, and create new skin, new nerves, new muscles, parts of the human brain, I imagine, and other things; and diseases will be able to be healed through the grafting of healthy cells that will then regenerate and restore damaged and destroyed tissue. This promises to revolutionize humanity.

Human beings are eminently creative because they have within them the essence of a creative God. We reflect God’s creativity. And God’s creativity moves within each one of us. What often happens is that many of us, because of circumstances in life and so many other things that kill our creativity, either are not allowed to come into contact with our creativity or are prevented from developing our creativity to the level at which God wants it to be expressed. But every human being, I believe, is born with an endowment from God, with a touch, with an imprint of the divine Spirit, and every human being can potentially become something great and powerful.

What matters is that we believe in the spark of God within each one of us. Now, what I have just said applies to all humanity, but it applies above all to the church of Jesus Christ. If you are a member of the people of God, I want you to know that, in a very special way, you carry the endowment of God’s power within you. You have the gift of God within you. You have the ability to do things that are not possible for the natural man, and everything depends on your believing this, receiving it in your heart, and then living at the level of the creativity God has placed within you.

In the Epistle to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul says the following: “...blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ...”

Notice that Paul is speaking in the past tense, saying that God blessed us with every spiritual blessing. When God called forth the creation of His church, together with the creation of His church He declared gifts and blessings that would begin to circulate wherever His church went. And every time a person enters the realm of the Kingdom of God, God’s blessing—divine energy—flows through that person, and that person receives the power and potential to do great things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How many believe that? At least say amen even if you do not believe it. God has blessed us with every—everyone say “every”—every spiritual blessing. That means, brothers and sisters, that here among us there are musical gifts, literary gifts, scientific gifts, educational gifts, organizational gifts, leadership gifts, and supernatural gifts, such as gifts of healing, prophecy, deliverance from spirits, discernment, faith, miracles, and healings. Those gifts are present because God blessed us with every spiritual blessing.

Oh, if only the people of God dared to believe that and live in that faith and conviction! But unfortunately, as I was trying to bring together what has happened here with the message I wanted to preach—which I completely changed—the Lord said to me, “Speak to them about the importance of developing the gifts I have placed within them.”

And in fact, the key passage for this process is found in Second Timothy, chapter 1, verse 6, where the Apostle Paul says to Timothy:

“...for this reason I advise you to fan into flame the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands, because God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, love, and self-control...”

The Apostle Paul is writing to Timothy, a young pastor, a servant of the Lord. Timothy is already walking in the ways of God. Timothy is already being used by the Lord, but the Apostle Paul writes to this pastor, this minister, and says to him, “Timothy, I advise you to fan into flame the gift of God that is in you.”

Look at the first thing there: Timothy had the gift of God within him, just as you have the gift of God within you. And yet Timothy needed to fan into flame that gift within him. Timothy needed to focus that gift and develop it to a higher level.

God has placed a gift in your life. God has placed an endowment of power in your life, and many of us never manage to develop those gifts, as I said before, because either no one ever led us to think that we had anything important within us, or, unfortunately, perhaps our parents were so consumed by their work and experiencing such lack in their own lives that they never had the time or wisdom to make us believe there was something within us worth developing.

I am glad that these brothers and sisters—Delmi Martínez is a woman who believes in the gifts of God, and her two children are in that group that went down there—and she and her husband have always wanted to cultivate the gift of music in their children because she believes God has given them that gift, and they have a great curiosity about music.

And how wonderful that those parents invest in their children and are diligent enough to say to me, “Pastor, can we bring the children down here and pray for them?” That can engrave something on those children’s hearts. That can be a prophetic act through which God’s blessing is released within them.

Adlan said that someone gave him a little piano when he was three years old. How would that person feel, if still alive, seeing Adlan play like that? Could that person have imagined that one day that little piano would turn into a great big piano and that he would travel through the nations of the world, enriching and blessing the church and edifying the people of God? But that person was moved to give him that.

Brother, never miss an opportunity to bless someone with a word of affirmation, an investment in their life, or a gift. Brothers and sisters, instead of giving children toy guns and monsters and such, let us give them books in the name of the Lord, amen; let us give them musical instruments in the name of the Lord, amen. Instead of giving them little games that hypnotize them and kill their creativity because they do not use their brains, let us give them computer programs; let us buy them a computer.

Brothers and sisters, many of us are there saving money for someday, for this thing or that, while our children are often languishing, and we are not giving them the things they can receive to develop their intellects, their spirits, and their emotions. We must invest in those things, brothers and sisters. At any time, I would rather invest a dollar in my daughters’ education than in anything else on this earth, because I am not going to wait until the day I die to leave them an inheritance; who knows what will have become of that inheritance by then. If I can bless them now by educating them, taking them to a museum, teaching them how to eat in a restaurant, or how to attend a symphonic concert hall or some other place—even if they get bored—I want to expose them to those energies and help them become accustomed to them, because you never know how the gift of God may be activated through that, how, in that place, the gift Adlan had came into contact with that little piano and a giant awakened.

And many times God can use us in that way: to give someone something, to offer them a word of affirmation, to pray for them, and to develop the gift of God within them. If you see a young person walking around with head bowed and feeling discouraged, do not see a failure; see something from God that is going to waste, and go over, place your hand on that young person, spur them on, encourage them, bless them, and, if possible, pray for them and prophetically declare the development of God’s gift in their life. Believe in the power of God within you to develop those gifts, brothers and sisters.

God endows His people. When God calls a people and makes a covenant with that people, it is because God wants to bless them. It is impossible to have an intimate relationship with God and not be enriched and permeated with the life and power of God.

When God called Abraham, He told him, “Abraham, in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” And when God read out His inheritance and covenant to the Jewish people as they were just entering the land of Canaan, He told them, “I will make you the head and not the tail; you will lend and will not borrow. None of the diseases of Egypt will come upon you. There will be no barren womb among you; there will be material abundance in your lives, and I will bless you as long as you remain close to Me; I will bless you...”

And brothers and sisters, I want to tell you that, as your pastor, every time I look out over you and preach to you, I see the great potential this community has to do great things for the glory of the Lord, to break the devil’s chains over our city, to bless the city, and to raise up young people filled with the Holy Spirit.

I see those young people up there, and I see the potential. I see the great potential of God in your lives, young people. I see the goodness of God in your lives. I see winners. I see young men and women who have the potential to do mighty, wonderful, powerful things for the glory of God. I see doctors; I see lawyers; I see musicians. I see all kinds of different things: doctors of philosophy, academics, governors of cities and states, and politicians who have a positive influence on the life of society. I see that in you; I see the potential of God in you. It all depends on whether you can believe God and undertake the journey of seeking the full manifestation of God’s gifting in your life.

When I see the gift of God reflected in the people of God, I see an embryo; I see something God has placed there—His life, His potential—and then that person is expected to believe that God’s potential is within him or her and to launch out to develop that gift within.

Do not ask yourself whether you have a gift; instead, ask yourself, “How can I develop the gift of God within me?” Since childhood, I have been possessed by a sense of God’s gift in my life, and it is a shadow that has followed me through the years, and I have wanted, in every way possible, to develop God’s gift within me. If I had not believed that, I do not think God would have brought me out of poverty in the Dominican Republic and allowed me to study at the finest universities. And I say that for the glory of the Lord, but God placed within me that burden to develop the gift.

I always saw myself studying; I always saw myself developing my academic gift, my intellectual gift, and for the glory of the Lord, God has taken me to the best universities: Harvard, Princeton, Andover, without paying a cent. Why? Because God delights in taking what is small, fragile, weak, and insignificant in the world and placing it in high places for the glory of his name. I give glory to the Lord for that.

And when I see these musicians developing their gift here, they are Latinos who could be doing drugs on some street corner, getting some young girl pregnant, hurting someone, or killing someone with a bullet to the head, but instead they are glorifying the name of the Lord, worshiping the name of the Lord. That is what God wants, brothers and sisters, and that is what God wants for your life. That is what God wants for your family.

When God called the Hebrew people, he endowed them with every spiritual blessing; and although the Hebrew people have turned away from God by rejecting the Messiah whom God sent, nevertheless, the blessing God pronounced upon their father Abraham pursues them and has pursued them throughout history. And although that people has been trampled, vilified, persecuted, and mercilessly killed, wherever they go, God always puts them at the head. Immediately, bankers, university professors, literary figures, intellectuals, and musicians emerge.

Israel has produced more renowned men and women than any other country in the history of the world. That tiny little people, persecuted and harassed wherever they have gone—why? Because God’s blessing is upon them.

Now, brothers and sisters, I have something better to tell you: you too are God’s chosen people, the church of Jesus Christ, and the new covenant of God is much more excellent than the first covenant, says the word of the Lord. So you too have every right in the universe to expect the blessing of God, the creativity of God, the excellence, glory, beauty, harmony, intelligence, and wisdom of God to be manifested in your lives, in your generations, and in your youth.

But many times what happened to Timothy happens to us: we are like those affectionate little children, those babies who are so attached to their mother that they do not develop the ability to move. You see that their muscles are kind of chubby; they are like that because they do not like to move. Sometimes the mother has to push them so that they will begin to walk, because they are so attached, so cuddled up against their mother, that they do not want to make an effort.

And many of us are like that. We enter the ways of the Lord, we love the Lord, and we are joyful to be in the family of God, but we are not developing our gifts; we are not making an effort to fan into flame the gift of God that is already within us. That is why I rejoice when I walk through the church classrooms on weeknights and see brothers and sisters learning English. Glory, amen! That is why there are one or two people there studying English—or at least appreciating what they are studying.

Why, brothers and sisters? Because I see those people developing the gift of God that is within them. Do not think that just because God placed a gift in you, that gift will simply develop as if by magic. When God places his gift in your life, there is a part that you have to do. The gift of God is a potential, but if God developed gifts independently of us, he would create parasites; he would create useless people. The gift of God is developed by cooperating with the Holy Spirit.

The first thing you have to do when you believe that God has placed a gift in you—and you have to believe it if you are a child of God—is say, ‘Father, ...I have it, and now I am going to add fuel so that this fire may become great and powerful; I am going to study.’

Do you think Billy Graham became a great evangelist overnight? I have told you what he said in his autobiography: ‘The first time he went to preach, they invited him to preach, and he took about five sermons with him, just in case he had a little time left and could at least have another one available. He says that in twenty minutes he preached all five sermons he had, and he still had time left over.’ But Billy Graham persisted. Billy Graham went to study. He studied at Whitton College, he studied in seminary, and wherever he could preach, he preached. He even preached in the woods, all by himself there, preaching to the trees and the birds in order to develop his gift. And little by little that gift developed until one day everything fell into place, and a very famous and very wealthy man, Hearst, the owner of many of the major newspapers here in the United States at that time, said, ‘Let’s push Billy Graham.’ And overnight he became a great evangelistic force, and the rest is history. Billy Graham’s ministry was launched, a ministry that covered and has covered the nations, because God has his time for everything.

When God endows a person, he then sets that person to developing his gift, and God expects you to fan into flame the gift of God that is already within you. That is why many of us have not reached the place where we need to be. Sometimes we think that God unilaterally develops the gift in a person. No, gifts have to be worked on through study, through meditation, through fasting, through prayer, and through exercising them in faith.

Many people, for example, have a prophetic gift within them, but many times God speaks to them and they feel something, a strong impression, yet they shrink back and do not declare it because they are shy, because they are lazy, or because they have other situations in their lives. And do you know what happens? When you do not develop the gift of God that is within you, you grieve the Holy Spirit; the gift dries up, the gift goes out. And God says, ‘Well, you stubborn one, I am going to wait until daylight dawns and you begin to believe that what I give is real in your life.’

To whom much is given, much is required, brothers and sisters. God expects us to work on our gifts and to take steps of faith. No one learns to walk overnight. You begin hesitating, staggering, bumping into things, and making a fool of yourself. People laugh at babies—they are very cute and all that—but we adults do not like to do that. So we shrink back; we do not dare.

How many men do I often see in church who do not open their mouths to sing? Unfortunately, they do not dare to sing. It is not because they do not have a voice; it is because when they were children, they were taught, ‘Men do not sing; that is for women.’ Do you understand? It has to be closed off, it has to be rough, it has to be manly, et cetera, et cetera. So there are many men who grew up not singing. That is interesting, just as they were not taught that they could cry either, because crying was something women did. Their artistic ability to appreciate a good poem or a love song, to express tenderness, to feel fear, to feel pain, and to express what they felt was killed. They were not brought into harmony with that dimension of their emotional life. So all that potential to enrich their children, to bless their children with a word of blessing, or a kiss, or a word of affirmation, or to express fear when they felt it, or admit doubt when they felt it—all of that gradually went out in their lives. And when they come to church, enter the church, and are asked to sing, they think, ‘If I start singing, my wife will laugh at me—she has never seen me sing—or my children will.’ And so they remain silent, closed off.

And the life of God wants to spring forth from them. Who knows how many tenors and how many rich baritones there are in the congregation, while we do not dare, in the name of the Lord, to release that song that for forty or thirty years has wanted to come out of our spirit. Dare to do it in the name of Jesus.

Perhaps at first only a thin thread of a voice will come out; perhaps your voice will even crack from time to time. But little by little your voice will grow steadier, your ear will develop, your soul will open up, and you too will be able to sing melodies to the Lord. And that will heal you of many things and put you in touch with a part of your spirit that needs to be set free. But you have to develop the gift of God that is within you.

Young people, you want to achieve things in life; you want to attain great things. Do not think it is going to happen automatically. You have to invest, you have to work hard, you have to study until your eyes are strained, you have to study several hours a day. Very few people can simply study for half an hour, go to school the next day, and know everything. You have to work hard. You have to be systematic. You have to be persistent. You have to be disciplined; you have to specialize in the little things. You have to believe that a small habit, developed persistently day after day after day, creates great things over time.

But it is all a matter of making an effort. The Lord said to Joshua, ‘See, I command you to be strong and courageous; do not fear or be dismayed, because I will be with you wherever you go.....’

Wherever I look in the Word, I see God telling his people, ‘Make an effort.’ One of my favorite passages is in the book of Ecclesiastes, where God tells the people of God, I would say, ‘Cast your bread upon the waters, because after many days it will return to you. Give portions to seven and to eight; do not be stingy.’

God invites us to dare to do great things. Recently, I gave each of my two daughters a subscription to Time Magazine. I had to invest about thirty or forty dollars in each of those subscriptions, but what I am doing at that moment is sowing into their future and making a prophetic gesture. I believe that it can do something in their lives and can enrich them. I know they get annoyed with me because I am often very insistent that they do their assignments and other things. But that is my calling, because I know that this is how the gifts of God are developed.

God wants to create warriors. God wants to create diligent and courageous men and women who believe and say, ‘I have the gift of God within me, and now I am going to launch out to develop it fully and bring glory to the Lord.’

Brothers and sisters, if God has placed within you any curiosity to study anything at all, any intellectual hunger, any artistic hunger, get to work on it. Many people want to play the piano, but that requires you to sit there every day for half an hour or an hour, striking the keys with your fingers, getting frustrated, and overcoming all of that, until finally the melodies God wants to come out of you begin to emerge. But you have to believe in it; you have to say, ‘I have the blessing of God within me, and now I am launching out to seek it in the name of Jesus, and God will develop it in my life.’

So I leave you with these words of the Apostle Paul: ‘....Therefore I advise you to fan into flame the gift of God that is within you, because God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, love, and self-control....’

May the Lord bless us, brothers and sisters. Let us be a diligent people. Let us stand and give glory to the Lord. I want you to believe right now and tell yourself: God has placed a gift in my life. God has placed an endowment of power within me. I believe it, I receive it, I have it. Confess it in the name of the Lord, and get to work on it; begin developing it; begin pursuing what God has declared over your life. Believe, in the name of Jesus, that what you have comes from him; what you have is not from man.

That stirring within you is not carnal; it is divine, it is spiritual. God wants to bless you. God wants to use you to bless the nations. God wants this community to be a community filled with the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit. God wants us to be enriched and prospered, and to believe that the same power that raised Christ from the dead is moving within us this day.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we reject every doubt, all inertia, and all laziness that may be within us, Lord, and we believe that you have called us to scale great heights and do great things for the glory and honor of your name. And Father, we cast aside the spirit of cowardice, timidity, and conservatism; we put on the garb of the warrior and launch out to seek our blessing in life.

I ask you to raise up exemplary men and women in our church, Lord, people who bless the community. And Father, I declare your anointing and your prosperity over this people in every area of life—your shalom, Lord, which enriches and does not impoverish. Thank you, Father, for this word, Lord, for this challenge from your Holy Spirit, who advises us to fan into flame the gift of God, because you have placed fire within us, Father. It is a blazing fire, a fire that gives warmth, a fire that gives life, a fire that melts everything cold and dead within us, a fire that puts passion in the voice and faith in the mind and heart to do great things.

We receive that fire, Lord. Father, I commit myself, together with this church, to developing your gift until it shines and covers this entire region, Lord. I bless this people. Thank you for what we have received today. Thank you for what we have celebrated, Lord. And we leave here to live victorious lives, Father, to be your chosen people, Lord, to be a people of power, an admirable people, for the glory of the name of Jesus, whose name is wonderful. In his name we pray these things, and the people of God say: Amen and amen.

I bless you in the name of Jesus, my brothers and sisters. Go with the peace of God. Be blessed.