The gift of exhortation means to motivate. The exhorter is a motivator. I love the motivating words of David in I Samuel 17:29, “Is there not a cause?”
The motivator’s goal is to get people going without killing the spirit to go.
There is a story of a father who takes his son to the circus. The clowns were particularly good and the last one of them was a little fellow wearing a very wonderful high hat. While he was bowing elaborately to a dignified woman, his hat fell off and an elephant sat on it.
The clown gestured wildly at the elephant, but the beast sat still. He waved and shouted again and again, but the elephant never budged. Angrily, the clown stepped behind the elephant and kicked with all his strength and hopped away with a sore foot in his hands.
Then, frantic with anger, the little clown turned back to the elephant and tried to lift him off the hat. Defeated and in complete despair, the clown sat down and started to eat peanuts. The elephant was interested in peanuts and got up, ambled over, and begged for one!
That is a powerful illustration of exhortation. Realize that we have just witnessed a spiritual object lesson: You can't accomplish anything for God by crabbing and kicking at the world (or your spouse, child, neighbor or co-worker!).
The gift of exhortation is not just in encouraging others but knowing how to get them moving.
Dr. Mike Rouse
What to do:
✞ Call all exhorters! The Church of the Living God needs some motivating!!
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