The Power of the Holy Spirit in Preaching

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Proverbs 1:23 Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you,
I will make known my words unto you.

 

Bryan,

God knows a heart that is fully His. If (and I use that word very carefully) you have been called to preach, and if God has burdened your heart with His message, and if you are a willing vessel, the Holy Spirit will be there. I use "if" very carefully because for a long time I took offense to it, because I felt that people were questioning my calling (Do you feel that you are called to preach? If you have been called...).

Preaching is a spiritual exercise, and it is a test of your convictions. Without prayer, and I mean a lot of prayer, you can't preach. Whenyou do preach, unless what you are preaching reaches into your soul and stirs the fire within, it's dead on arrival. Yes, that is the voice of experience.

Saturate your preperation in prayer. Pray before you stand to preach. Pray while you preach (can be tricky when passion runs high...). And be totally convinced in your own heart that this is the word of God for this hour. Let yourself become the instrument, and let God play His solo. If it is His word, and His words, He will be in it.

In Christ,
Trotter

 

Preaching is from the overflow. Know God and others will know God through you and your preaching.

E.M. Bounds writes in his book Power Through Prayer, "What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use--men of prayer, men mighty in prayer."

 

I think the more someone knows whom they are preaching to and their needs, the better they should be able to preach.

Dave

 

I believe that Holy Spirit empowered preaching comes with much study, preparation, prayer, and sitting in God's Presence.
I don't think too often it would happen that someone can prepare for fifteen minutes and have much to offer.
Also, I believe that given enough time, the preacher will know what direction the Lord wants him/her to go in and will follow.
Furthermore, I have been in Bible Studies where the teacher/preacher would have quite a sermon/teaching prepared, and someone would ask a question, and the direction sort of changed. The teacher/preacher aimed to get back on track, and was told by someone in a seat "to just go with the flow". This teacher/preacher very politely said, "No, the Lord gave me this all week. The Lord is not the author of confusion. Why would HE give me this if I am not to share it?"
And it changed the way I thought about this completely. For I have known people who felt this way...just go with the flow.
I no longer agree.
Therefore, I do believe that one who spends much time with the Lord prior to preaching will do well. And I always pray that the Lord would put His Words in my mouth, not my words.

 

Dear Dr. Bob Griffin,
I greatly enjoy reading your messages. And thank you very much for the replies you have given me on the other topics. You have helped me greatly in my understanding. Thanks a bunch.

I also agree with your mention of crowd manipulation. We have seen it too, probably too many times in various congregations.

I have seen preachers moving in what the Lord had given them, but apparently abandoning it when they were not pleased with the crowds response. So, they start beating on the devil (and such things) and get the crowd stirred up.
Unfortunately, the crowd does not go home with more than having gotten stirred up and excited.

I have also seen preachers use the pulpit for blasting people and other misuses such as fleecing the sheep.

And yes I have been in services where the floor is even shaking in the entry way because of the loud music, microphones turned up so high one cannot hear what is being preached, and sadly so much going on that booms "legalism" that if one is caught in it, it takes a lot of undoing before it is undone. My heart aches for some of these people.
There is the world of the elite bunch, and I believe there are many of these churches around even if they don't have the loud noise. They believe that they are the only ones saved, and everyone else is wrong, lost, and undone.
A lot of the preaching centers around works (to be saved).

 

I cannot speak from experience but only observation. My pastor has to send the title of his sermons to the newspaper on Tuesday. On Thursday the title of his sermon is printed in our order of service for Sunday. Sometimes, his sermon is different from what he has planned on Tuesday.

Things happen during the week to his congregation, to the community, to the world and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he changes his sermon. In fact, he did that just two weeks ago.

As organist, I choose the music for preludes and silent prayer times. Many times my choice of hymns corresponds with his sermon, even when I do not know what he will be preaching. Coincidence, I don't think so.

 

I have found that the times that the Holy Spirit rested most heavily on me has been the times that I have leaned most heavily on Him.

When I am unsettled in my spirit, afraid of the task before me, these are the times that the Lord has taken this earthen vessel and turned it into a vessel of honor. When I step behind the sacred desk full of myself, that is what the people get...myself.

I do not like to step behind the pulpit unprepared. I know that the Spirit will fill my mouth, but when I have studied and let the Lord fill my own soul with Himself, and have let Him guide me through His word to His message, it is then that He works on the speaker, and through the speaker on the hearers.

I have often said that when I preach, it is being preached for the third time to me: first when God showed it to me, second when the Lord guided me through the preperation of the message, and third when I deliver the sermon. It can get pretty rough on an old country boy like me to have to live through the Spirit stomping on my toes multiple times.

In Christ,
Trotter

 

IMHO, having the correct word of God is the number one step.

 

Pertaining to the question at hand, I will give you part of my personal life. I am 17 now and have been preaching for around 9 months. The Holy Spirit is my preaching.

Being only a boy, I don't know enough to preach about what I know. But God allways gives me the words. All I have to do is study, pray, and open my mouth.

My pastor told me once to study like God won't help you, but preach like it's only God speaking.

 

I feel that the Holy Spirit moves in me as I preach, especially when I have bathed His sermon in much study and prayer.

My personal delivery is best when I have a passion about what I'm saying from the pulpit. The Holy Spirit brings that to me. When the preacher begins to really care about the Word of God and its relevance to God's people today, the Holy Spirit moves not only in the preacher, but also the congregation. But it's my responsibility to allow the Spirit's work in me first. I can't expect God's people to respond if their under-shepherd won't.