2 Timothy 1:6 Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.

Think of a quarterback handing off the football to a running back. The running back looks downfield at the blocking to determine which hole will open up for the play called. He does not look at the football, he feels it in his gut.

I have often wondered about the laying on of hands. We lay hands on people all the time to pray for them. It gives them support, emotional comfort, and perhaps more, depending on the individual. What I see Paul having done for Timothy is something set aside from that kind of handy work.

So often I hear men pray over another as if by the laying on of hands one man is imparting to another something like passing off the football, you didn’t have it, now you do. That is not what Paul did for Timothy. Paul, by the power that was in him, stirred up that which was already in Timothy. He gave nothing to Timothy.

Romans 12:5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

There is so much about spiritual gifts and gifts of service in Romans 12 that this little phrase gets often misplaced. We are one in Christ. What is in me is in you, I do not differ in respect to grace. Yes I have a different calling, yes I have different gifts, but I like everyone within the body answers to the head which is Christ and if we do anything for one another in this, we pass instructions in the same manner that neurons pass information from one cell to another in the body.

1 Corinthians 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.

… to instruct us in all things by stirring up that which is in us.