The Spirit Works On The Preacher

In this post we are going to explore how the Spirit works on the preacher to accomplish God’s plans. The beginning of this series of posts can be found here.

Can You Tell When The Spirit Works?

Here’s a broad explanation of how most preachers prepare for their preaching.

You choose a passage or subject on which to preach.
You study the passage, considering what it meant to the original readers/hearers.
Then, with prayer, you reflect on what that message means for your congregation.
You begin to write, or create notes.
You practice your message.
On the appointed day you present what you believe God has given you for your congregation.

Where and when does the Holy Spirit enter this process? On the basis of what we’ve considered so far in this series, we can say that the Spirit is involved in every step. In this post, however, I want to focus on how the Spirit works on the preacher during the presentation.

The Spirit Enlarges the Heart As He Works On The Preacher

There are those wonderful moments when you preach that you sense the Spirit’s work. This is the way a writer puts in in the blog, The Banner of Truth, describing how the Spirit works on the preacher for an evangelistic message.

We can go further also and say that the Holy Spirit often enlarges the preacher’s heart. Let’s face it, sometimes in his preparation your preacher is just not ‘feeling’ it. It is also possible that he is exhausted. Perhaps he slept poorly the night before; maybe his young child kept him awake all night, and his heart is cold. The passage which so moved him in his study a few days before seems lifeless as he stands now to preach it. But in his physical weakness and coldness of heart he seems to catch fire. As he looks into the eyes of those walking by on the street, or the students at the university, or the teens in his church who seem to be so disinterested in biblical themes, something amazing begins to happen. Your preacher’s heart begins to overflow with love for his auditors. Perhaps even his voice trembles with grief as he explains the horrors of hell for those who reject the overtures of grace.

Have you felt it? There are those moments when we can sense the heart of God for our hearers. If not, pray that God will fill you heart with love for your hearers.

The Spirit Gives Insight Into the Results Of Your Preaching

Every once in a while God gives you a glimpse of the results of your preaching. Then your heart can truly swell with joy. I’ve had a couple of those moments. In one, I was invited to an open house for a man in my first church. He was dying of cancer, and wanted to talk to all the people who impacted his life. I was this man’s pastor some thirty years earlier. But he remembered some things that had impacted his faith. More than that, I met his daughter-in-law. When she was introduced to me, she broke down in tears. Her story came out. While I was preaching in that little church, she moved in with her future in-laws. She was pregnant prior to marriage, and her future in-laws welcomed her in, but required that she come to church with them. She went reluctantly. However, she said through her tears, through my preaching she came to know Jesus. I hadn’t known anything about it at the time. In fact, at the time, I was in a depression and overwhelmed with my own needs.

I left that reception with a heart swelling that God would see fit to use me.

Conclusion

Listen for those moments when the Spirit works on the preacher while he works on the people to whom you preach.

December 11, 2024/by Bruce Ballast