What Can it Mean to “Fan Into Flame the Gift of God"?

 1/30     Paul

That empty chair down the row at church on Sunday, the one that has been empty for weeks stretching into months, belonged to Paul, 32. He hasn’t consistently occupied that chair since the days leading up to his baptism about three years ago, days that were filled with the anticipation and wonder of new life found in Christ as he soaked in every sermon and lesson in preparation for baptism.

His baptism was a joyous affair, a day filled with encouragement and backslaps and man hugs. But the excitement of the day soon died down, the chair sat empty on various Sundays, concerned phone calls were met with excuses, and text messages were gradually met with nothing but the sound of crickets.

The tyranny of the urgent commanded the attention of his former teachers and mentors and friends at church, and the stretches of time that his chair sat empty lasted longer and longer, until they no longer clearly saw his image as they glanced at his empty seat. “Out of sight, out of mind” is a truism, especially for men, and the excitement of those early days of discipleship and baptism were gradually forgotten.

Where did he go? “I go sit down by the Des Plaines river and get away from it all, and I see God’s creation and I think and get closer to God” Paul told me in the aisles of a Home Depot. He described how he has since learned to develop a relationship with God that didn’t include church or time in His Word, how he felt “just fine”. What he could no longer describe was how the foundation for that relationship had begun at the foot of the cross of Calvary. I asked about it in several ways, and he talked about how he had changed his life around, but not once did he mention Jesus. He had forgotten his first love. Out of sight, out of mind.

In 2 Timothy 1, the Apostle Paul reminds young Timothy to “fan into flame the gift of God’, referring to the Spirit God had given him in his call to ministry. It is an image of a once roaring fire that has died down to mere embers due to a lack of oxygen for various reasons. The Paul I met at “random” at Home Depot was likewise oxygen starved in his faith relationship with Jesus.

But unlike a more mature believer like Timothy, this Paul couldn’t fan his own flame through the “power, love and self-discipline” (vs.7) he had developed. He wasn’t that mature yet. He had been deceived into believing he could stand on his own without constant exposure to the Bible and church fellowship. He was suffocating from lack of oxygen and didn’t even recognize it.

So what should we do about those empty seats in our churches, once occupied by excited young believers who no longer respond to our efforts to restore fellowship? We should keep trying to reach them of course, but we will likely be waiting until they reach a crisis point in life before they darken the church door once again, and there will be a lot of mess to try to clean up.


If we make a habit of reaching out into the streets and marketplaces we will find alarming numbers of unbelievers who have never clearly heard the Gospel, but we will also find equally alarming numbers of young believers like Paul who have drifted away from various churches and need a jolt of fresh oxygen to fan into flame the gift of the Holy Spirit that has long since died down to an ember.

“Then Jesus told them this parable: “Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” - Luke 15

Paul kindly agreed to allow me to record our conversation. It can be viewed at https://youtu.be/2tYSiq0GddQ on my YouTube channel.