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.

Luke 24:16 But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.

Perhaps for the sake of this devotional perhaps the CEV would be better than the KJV.

But they did not know who he was. CEV

These two men, on their walk to Emmaus, encountered Jesus. They were disciples of Christ. They had met Him, they had talked with Him, they had seen Him die. But they had not until this moment seen Him resurrected.

All that they had seen and heard and believed was great and miraculous, but nothing in all of scripture is  as telling as this moment with these two men. While they knew, followed and loved Jesus Christ, they met and came to know the Risen Christ.

Philippians 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

For all the miracles, healings, truth, wisdom and examples which Jesus did in His three year ministry, were meaningless and powerless to change anyone’s life without His death and resurrection. If Jesus was not resurrected we are all lost. Thank God He was and thank God that these two men, on their walk to Emmaus, showed us that it is not the life of Christ that makes the difference, but the Risen Lord which has power to conform us into His present condition and not His past condition.

Which Jesus do you want to be, the one who walked in perfection, or the one who sits upon the throne?

Here is a hint, we already blew the opportunity to walk in perfection.