How The Holy Spirit Works In Preaching

I am currently working on a thesis for my masters program. My emphasis is on preaching and how the preacher develops spiritually. But one thing I have become aware of lately in preaching really blows my mind. God uses mere men to allow His Holy Spirit to move among His people.

I'm willing to guess that many of us have heard sermons that left us feeling... well dry. Part of that is our own attitude in coming to hear the word, but most of that stems from the preachers ability to have engaged God that week through the text. Hebrews 13:15 tells us that a sacrifice of praise to God is "the fruit of lips." Fruit is interesting stuff. It only grows out of whatever is planted. So if the preacher has spent time with God, rather has been planted in His word and God has moved him, then the people will benefit from that fruit. Or as Calvin Miller says it, "great preaching grows only from the soil of great lives." Unless the preacher has lived it, he can't communicate it.

So where does that leave us? Pray that your preachers will have the attitude of John the baptizer. He said in John 3:30, "He must increase, but I must decrease." We will know the Holy Spirit is at work when we can say, "God spoke today." Not "Jason gave a good sermon today," or "my pastor is really motivational." But when we walk away saying, "God was at work," then we know that we have been moved by the Holy Spirit of God. Here is the unbelievable spiritual reality about preaching, God transforms the preacher through His Holy Spirit. The preacher then unleashes that transformation on a group of people. God then connects the Holy Spirit's work in the preacher with the work He is doing among the people. It is the side of preaching that we rarely want to admit, it is Supernatural!

The next time you hear a sermon, pray for that preacher. Pray that they might experience God and be transformed. Pray that the Holy Spirit might work in them and move among His people. Ask God to stir up His Spirit in His people through His words.