The Holy Spirit Illuminates Our Preaching

The Holy Spirit Illuminates Our Preaching

We are in a series of posts on how the Holy Spirit is involved in our preaching.  In the last post we considered how the Holy Spirit anoints us for preaching.  In this post we will explore how the Holy Spirit illuminates what we say to make it hit home in the hearts and minds of our hearers.

An Example of How The Holy Spirit Illuminates Our Preaching

His name was Jim.  He began attending the first church that I served as pastor because his wife wanted him to come.  His wife was experiencing a renewal of her relationship with Jesus, and she wanted him to share that with her.  As the sole pastor in a small church, I took note of his presence, and asked if we could meet to get to know each other better.

Learning the Basics of the Gospel

That meeting took place later that week.  As we talked, I found that Jim was brutally honest.  When I asked him about his church background, he indicated that he had left church many years ago, because he thought all the “Christian” stuff was much like Mother Goose and fairy tales.  Okay!  Imagine my surprise.  Yet, when I invited him to enter a six week study with me to explore what the Bible really says, he indicated he was willing.

In the next six weeks we covered the basics of the gospel: God created the world good; Adam and Eve sinned; all of us have been impacted by that, and that reality explains much of the pain and trouble in the world; so God sent Jesus to die for our sins, and offers us eternal life as a gift of his grace that comes through faith.

I was encouraged by his participation.  However, in lesson six there was an opportunity to pray and invite Jesus Christ into your life.   I asked him if he had done that, or if he wanted to now.  His response?

“I still think that people that believe this stuff could also believe in Mother Goose and Fairy Tales.”

He was willing to continue studying together, but I was an overly busy pastor in a growing church, so I declined.   Jim stopped coming to church.

The Holy Spirit Goes To Work

About three months later, Jim showed up in church again.  As he was exiting, he said, “We really have to get together sometime again.  I became a Christian.”

To say I was flabbergasted is an understatement.  So, we met later that week and I asked him, “What happened?”

His reply?  “I was at the funeral of one of my aunts.  At one moment I knew that everything the pastor was talking about was fairy tale stuff.  The next moment, I knew it was all true.  It must have been that Spirit that we talked about.”

The Holy Spirit illuminates our preaching and teaching of the Word.

Illumination Is What the Spirit Does

This is what the Holy Spirit does.  He takes the Word, as we speak it, and makes it come alive to our hearers.  Our job is to prepare.  The Spirit’s job is to illuminate, to bring light, to make our preaching come alive.  The Holy Spirit illuminates our preaching and teaching.

The Surprise of the Illumination

As a young pastor, I used to think that this would only happen if I got the message right.  So I worked very hard on the subject, on the illustrations, on the wording, etc.  However, it didn’t take too long before I realized that sometimes the Spirit used my words to take people in an entirely different direction.  I can’t tell you how often someone would come to me after a service and say something like, “When you said _______, I was really touched (or convicted, or comforted, or challenged).  The problem was, I had never said what they heard.  After thinking about that for a long time, I have come to the conclusion that the Spirit will sometimes use what I say to take someone in the audience to where they needed to go that day.  And I’m fine with that.

Conclusion

Add to the prayers you pray for your message the request that the Spirit come and illuminate what you say.

If you want to explore this subject more, check out this Bible study.

We’ll explore this more in the next post.