Fresh Anointing

I have preached my fare share of dead sermons born in the head rather than in the heart. I have to admit there have been times preaching and teaching when I stood behind the pulpit with little expectation for God to move. I have known the vanity of preaching when I did not feel I had God's fresh anointing.

When I use the phrase fresh anointing many may have a different definition but what I mean is that supernatural enabling and empowering that comes from God. As one author put it, this kind of anointing cannot be learned but must be earned in the prayer closet. I am referring to an anointing that comes with fire in the heart and soul.

The late revival preacher and author Leonard Ravenhill once wrote, "We have too many dead preachers preaching too many dead sermons to too many dead people in the pews." Fresh anointing comes from time spent in the presence of God. It comes from prayerfully wrestling with the text and fearlessly standing in the public to proclaim, "Thus says the Lord!"

Paul had fresh anointing to preach. He wrote, My speech and my proclamation were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and power, so that your faith may not be based on men's wisdom but on God's power. [I Cor 2:4-5] How many intellectuals stand in the pulpit and proclaim their latest discoveries in the church with beautiful eloquence but no power and no fire. They preach with a cold heart to frozen hearts in the pew. We need preachers with fire. God's fire. We need preachers who preach with a demonstration of power. God's power. Not the power to manipulate people emotionally to get them to walk the aisle and bend the knee. We must have God's power to convict of sin, to regenerate the lost, and to bring people to sorrowful repentance. We need God's power to revive lifeless churches and those barely clinging to life on life support of programs.

I was recently in a meeting when I heard a minister say to the rest of the group that they did not have quiet time with God. This minister confessed to not having personal devotions. My heart sunk. How many in leadership do not spend time in the prayer closet and all their ministry is a sham. How many do ministry without a demonstration of God's power and are content to do so?

O how we need fresh anointing preachers. We need messages born from God to preachers whose hearts are aflame and lips are ready to spew the molten lava of God's word. I read yesterday of a pastor whose sermons were characterized as being like fire and the people who heard him preach were like grass. When this man preached hearts were ignited with fire in the soul. I wish I could say that was true of me. Sadly it is not. I have preached for decades and seen many Sundays of barren altars.

I have preached with all my heart and fallen to my knees at the altar to do business with God personally. Many times when I arose I found no one else had moved one inch from their pew. Preaching with God's fresh anointing means preaching with God's power. Hearts are moved. Souls are saved. The church is revived.

I must become one of these anointed preachers. Brenda often chides me for being so impatient when it does not appear God is working in the hearts of the people. How can I be otherwise. I believe the message of God's word from my head to my feet. She often says that when I am preaching my whole body is in it. How can I ever deliver messages from God and be content when there is no life change, no acceptance of the truth, and souls are not saved and revived. How I can ever be content to preach with anything less in mind than a demonstration of God's power.

I want God's fresh anointing. I want God's power on my preaching. I want to preach like thunder used of God to rattle the souls of a church, community, and nation. This kind of fresh anointing will not be learned or earned in a seminary classroom. It cannot be handed down from reading books. It comes from the presence of God in the prayer closet. To the prayer closet I must devote myself.

O God, we need you. We have tried to preach, program and do church without You. We have used our intellect more than our faith. We have preached the icy messages of eloquence more than the fire breathed messages cloaked in Your power. We have put our confidence in our education and ability putting Your church to sleep in apathy. We have preached to tickle the ears rather than to fearlessly declare the whole counsel of God. I pray You would start in my heart bringing a fresh anointing. I ask You to rekindle the revival fire in my soul. I ask You to deepen my desire for time alone with You! I ask You to open my hears and eyes to hear from You and to see truth. May I like Paul not preach with persuasive words of human wisdom but in a demonstration of Your power. Nothing less will help this sinful sick age. So I ask You for the fire of Your presence to flood every fiber of my soul and every chamber of my heart. May I be shut out from the world that I may ever remain shut up alone with You in life giving prayer. I ask You for fresh anointing not just for this week and for the next message but for every day of my remaining life. Nothing less will do. In Jesus name, amen.