So, You're Preaching This Sunday...

The Holy Spirit is a necessity if I'm going to tell anyone anything that they actually need to hear. However, I personally don't usually interact with Him in such a way that I go to the blackboard without notes.
On a recent mission I taught a daily class and went through Romans. Every night I sat down and read the chapter in e-sword and really dug into the text, asking God to speak to me through it. Every time He did, and the result was a steady flow of notes pouring into MS Word. The next day I had a prepared sermon and was able to speak for a full hour, relating Paul's reasoning, illustrations from life and history and exhortations on how to apply these things to the daily Christian walk.
You don't have to live on the seat of your pants with the Holy Spirit. God has given you great talents that He will use by the Spirit's leading to accomplish great things for His purpose. There are seat-of-the-pants times, of course, but don't forget that God gives us talents for His purposes. ;)

I see this as a helpful article to remind us preachers to get with it and not procrastinate. It seems that if we wait until we have time to do important things like prepare our message it may never get done. We have to make time.

I was concerned that the article never mentions the Holy Spirit. I am not speaking in a 2nd chapter of acts way, just that I can not preach without His guidance. I can study and seek Him and then let Him do the rest. Most often when I preach I don’t know where it’s coming from because I spend more time seeking God than studying. That’s what works for me how about others?

Dr. Jim Brass
Pastor
Counselor
Teacher

www.helpnorthwest.com