Jesus told a story about a man who went on a journey and entrusted his property to three of his servants. Not gave. Entrusted. The word matters, because it means the property was still the master's, and the servants were trusted to handle it well while he was gone (Matthew 25:14-30).
Two of them traded with what they were given and doubled it. The third dug a hole and buried his, and when the master came back, he had a reason ready. "I was afraid." He had decided the master was hard, so he played it safe and kept the one thing he had exactly as it was. The master did not call that caution. He called it wicked and lazy.
What You Are Trusted With, You Are Meant to Trade
I have come to read that parable as a description of how a lot of believers handle the gifts of the Spirit. We are entrusted with something real. A gift of encouragement, of faith, of wisdom, of healing, a prophetic sense, a way of seeing people. And then, quietly, we bury it.
Paul is plain about why the gifts are given. "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all" (1 Corinthians 12:7). Not for display. Not to be admired and then put away. For profit, for the common good, to be traded with until it multiplies into something that helps real people. A buried gift profits no one, no matter how carefully it is preserved.
"The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all."
1 Corinthians 12:7
Burying Can Look Like Humility
Here is what makes this hard to spot. Burying the gift does not look like rebellion. It looks like humility. "Who am I to think God would speak through me." "I don't want to presume." "I'll leave that to people who really have the gift." It sounds modest. But underneath it is the same thing that paralysed the third servant: a wrong picture of the Master, and the fear that comes with it.
False humility and unbelief often wear the same coat. The servant who buried his talent thought he was being safe with something precious. He was actually insulting the one who trusted him. God did not entrust the Spirit's gifts to you so you could protect them from yourself. He trusted you to use them.
The Acts Believers Traded in the Open
Watch what the early church actually did. They did not reserve the gifts for a back room. Peter spoke a word of healing to a beggar at a public gate (Acts 3). Stephen carried a wisdom his opponents could not resist (Acts 6:10). Agabus saw a famine coming and the church acted on it (Acts 11:28). These were not polished performances. They were ordinary people deploying what they had been trusted with, out where it cost something and helped someone.
And notice none of it was confined to a religious setting. The gifts showed up at gates, in arguments, in planning for a crisis. Which means they were never meant to switch off when you walk into your workplace.
Use It Where You Are
If you build or lead anything, you carry gifts into rooms most people would call secular. The discernment to read a situation. The word that lands at the right moment and changes a meeting. The faith to move when everyone else is frozen. Those are not just personality. They can be the Spirit, trusted to you, for the profit of the people in front of you.
The master in the story never asked, "Did you keep it safe?" He asked, "What did you do with what I trusted you?" That is still the question. You were not given the gift to guard it. You were given it to trade.
Sitting on something you were meant to use?
If you sense you have been burying something God entrusted to you, let's talk about it. Book a call. No agenda, just an honest conversation.
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