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In our Stephen Ministry training we need to help people to see that it is not our power that will help them but we need to direct them to the “Curegiver�. God has called us all to be “caregivers�, which means that we are His hands and His feet, but we are always to give the glory to Him and to lead them back to the Great Shepherd. As I minister to the sheep of His flock, I need to remember that He is the one who trained me and He is the Source that we are in need of desperately.

I was also struck in this reflection by the reminder that our resources come from God alone, and we are but the tools for revealing them. As I reflected upon this truth, I began to think about other things that are hidden and that God calls us, as shepherd leaders, to locate and "dig out" with God's guidance and assistance.
One such hidden necessity is the reserve of gifts and talents that God has blessed each of us with. I have discovered that while there are some who are aware of these blessings, many more are not, and that even those who are, do not recognize the breadth or the potential of what God has placed within them.
These gifts and talents have been given, not only for the benefit of the individual, but also for the church, and possibly even for God's ministry throughout the world. We cannot know how God might use any particular gift or talent, but we can be assured that if God has chosen to plant these reserves, they are intended to be discovered, "dug out" and used for God's Kingdom.
This, for me, is an added wonder of serving as a shepherd for God. I can be guided by faith and the Holy Spirit to reveal life-giving resources for God's use and ministry. Each of us have unrevealed potential, and just as others have and, I suspect, will continue to reveal this potential in me, so I pray that I will be ever willing to follow God's direction and reveal all that is possible in others as well.