I have given much thought to my journey and exposure to preaching. I have to admit that most of the preaching exposure I had growing up is quite different from my current theological and personal understanding of what preaching is or ought to be, if it is going to be effective. Growing up in a legalistic environment, most of the preaching I heard depicted God as some type of warden ready to punish people at the first sign of misbehavior. Most of the preaching revolved around the do’s and don’ts of Christianity. Whether the preacher or pastor was intentional about this or not, his preaching influenced people to share the same message and tactics within their sphere of influence. In hindsight, I realize that these pastors were not uneducated
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It is this power, or indwelling, that then helps the believer in Jesus Christ live out a more excellent life in any of the other areas aforementioned that come as a by-product of the central message of the kingdom of God.
The question then is how do we do this effectively? Well, it can’t not happen if and when preaching becomes a task to be administered, rather than a calling to be lived out. Because we live in a fallen world, and the pressures of life, ministry in general, family, politics and the like can be overwhelming, the effort of someone greater then, is needed to accomplish this calling. Hence, the indwelling and constant presence of the Holy Spirit.
The presence of the Holy Spirit is not limited to an external manifestation of exuberance or glossolalia as I experienced in the religious environments I grew up in (though I won’t dismiss the experience all-together as it embedded a healthy understanding of depending on the Holy Spirit which is still active in my life today). For me, one of the best ways to describe this is in the words of Forbes, “I believe the anointing of the Holy Spirit helps the preacher to understand the living spiritual encounters that Paul describes in Romans 8: ‘If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you’ (v.11)…the presence of the Spirit will make the difference between our failure and our
It is this power, or indwelling, that then helps the believer in Jesus Christ live out a more excellent life in any of the other areas aforementioned that come as a by-product of the central message of the kingdom of God.
The question then is how do we do this effectively? Well, it can’t not happen if and when preaching becomes a task to be administered, rather than a calling to be lived out. Because we live in a fallen world, and the pressures of life, ministry in general, family, politics and the like can be overwhelming, the effort of someone greater then, is needed to accomplish this calling. Hence, the indwelling and constant presence of the Holy Spirit.
The presence of the Holy Spirit is not limited to an external manifestation of exuberance or glossolalia as I experienced in the religious environments I grew up in (though I won’t dismiss the experience all-together as it embedded a healthy understanding of depending on the Holy Spirit which is still active in my life today). For me, one of the best ways to describe this is in the words of Forbes, “I believe the anointing of the Holy Spirit helps the preacher to understand the living spiritual encounters that Paul describes in Romans 8: ‘If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you’ (v.11)…the presence of the Spirit will make the difference between our failure and our