Unction

Over the next few months I will be devoting my space on this blog to writing ideas that come to me concerning my thesis. My thesis, in its current format, states that the influence of a preacher during the sermon over an audience is directly related to the preacher's spiritual authority which is cultivated by their spiritual formation. A shorter way of saying it is that a preacher will only be able to move people as far as they themselves have been moved by God's Holy Spirit.

In my studying on these subjects, I have discovered this really interesting word. Unction. We don't use it much today, if ever. Older english translations used this word rather than anointing in the New Testament texts, (like I John 2:20.) The dictionary defines this word literally as a religious anointing with oil. However, it is the figurative use of this word that particularly caught my eye. The oxford english dictionary defines it figuratively as, "a spiritual influence acting upon a person." What do preachers lack today? They lack unction.

I have heard many well crafted sermons, I may have even spoken one or two. I have read books upon books about the construction of a sermon. I have observed congregations listen to many sermons week after week. What amazes is me is the amount of devotion given to the actual sermon and yet people can sit there unmoved by the ponderings of the preachers. Or they can laugh at jokes and be enamoured with stories, but at the end of the day they have not been transformed into the glory of God. How does this happen? No unction!

Unction comes when preachers have been silent for long periods of time before God. Unction comes when we have been obedient in the secret things. Unction comes when we have loved our wives well, raised our children properly, confessed our sins truthfully, repented of our lies, and prayed for the power of God to move in our lives. Unction, unlike writing a sermon, can not be conjured up. Unction is supplied from on High. Unction is what causes a tiny little flame like the preacher to spark the hearts of the body of Christ to be exposed to the true Light. Unction makes God really, really BIG and the preacher really, really small.

Oh lord give me unction. Give us all this unction, this anointing. Move our preachers to spend less time crafting clever ideas and more time seeking out your power. Help us to be the kind of men that Paul describes in I Thessalonians 1:5, "for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake." Give us the holy anointing that we might preach in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction!