Pastor’s Preaching
As a Way of Life
The process of formulating a message for
the flock is not the full responsibility of the Pastor for He has as his Helper
the precious leading of the Holy Spirit, providing the Pastor/Preacher seeks
the Holy Spirit’s guidance during his daily walk with the Lord.
Although my tenure as a Pastor was brief
occurring almost immediately after graduation from Bible school, I learned
early on that unless the Lord led me and gave me the messages necessary to
preach to the flock on four occasions during the week, I would be helplessly
void of any real Holy Spirit-led ministry to the saints.
With this background as a foundation for
my ministry, the Lord showed me that He would fill in and formulate messages by
His Spirit and provide me with outlines, illustrations and focus/themes for
each of the four messages that He wanted to give to His saints that were
simply under my authority.
Grasping this one important fact, the
Pastor/Preacher is merely the UNDER-shepherd of the flock, was and still is the
key to relying on the Lord to provide exactly what He wants for His people!
If the Pastor does not have a firm grip on this key principle, it will be hard
for him to execute the office of Pastor as the Lord intends.
Therefore, this all important principle
should drive the Pastor directly into the arms of the Holy Spirit for without
Him there is nothing! The place to begin each day is at the foot of the Cross,
which is our Altar where we give ourselves to Him afresh as living
sacrifices…moment by moment walking with the King!
Unless and until this is the Pastor’s
practice, the messages might be from the Word of God, but they will not be from
the heart of God as He step by step provides the message that He wants to be delivered
each and every time the Word is opened. Staying UNDER His authority is the key
to hearing His voice!
When I was out in the highways and hedges each
day with the express intent on witnessing/winning the lost the Lord was
faithful to give me vital living illustrations for my messages…right on
time…every day! It was that miraculous experience that kept me and my messages
‘hot’ with the fire of God because I knew He was in it! This is where
the Pastor/Preacher receives his authority…direct from the throne of God! And,
isn’t it miraculous to have the saints come up to you after you deliver the
Lord’s message and they tell you of the timing and importance of the
message how it met the needs of those who came looking to hear from God?
When the Pastor is hot, being ‘baptized
with the Holy Ghost and with fire’ by the Lord Jesus, the people will come to
literally ‘watch him burn’ and the problems of the church will be met and
handled by the Lord because men will recognize immediately that the preacher has
been with Jesus…authority with God and men is the direct result of Holy Spirit
empowered preaching and the issues and troubles will just melt away!
On the flip-side, the Pastor that is not
centered on Holy Spirit-filled preaching will be met with a barrage of
counseling needs, multitudes of people problems etc. keeping him busy night and
day in an attempt to accomplish what the Holy Spirit would take care of through
Holy Spirit-filled Bible preaching. A veteran Pastor told me that unless the person
attends the preaching service he does not spend his time attempting to give
counsel but instead tells them to be in their place when the saints meet for
the preaching!
When the ministry of the Lord Jesus is
examined it becomes obvious that His life was preaching centered:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has sent me to preach the Gospel to the poor…to preach deliverance to the
captive…to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18). “And He said unto them, I must preach the kingdom of God to
other cities also: for therefore am I
sent.”(Luke 4:43). This was the clear focus of His ministry, bold,
revolutionary, confrontational preaching of the Word of God! He was a Holy
Spirit-led herald, going from city to city proclaiming the good news of the
Gospel of the Kingdom of God!!
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