It is interesting to note that Jesus spent thirty years

of His life preparing for three and a half years of

ministry. Today people go to Bible seminaries and

prepare three years for thirty years of ministry. There

must come preparation.

 

You are always in continuous preparation for the

next phase of what God has for your life. I know in my

own life that even after the encounter I had with the Lord

in July of 1979 until the present, I am still in preparation

for what God has for my life and ministry. I am not

satisfied with what we are doing and I know that there is

more that is available. I want to push higher and deeper

into the things of God.

 

Smith Wigglesworth said that the only thing that

he was satisfied about was the fact that he was

dissatisfied. We don’t ever want to get to the place of

lethargy and complacency, satisfied with where we are.

Otherwise we will never press in to what God has for our

life and ministry.

 

Dissatisfaction with where you are now will cause

you to arise and press in to what God has told you to do.

It is time to get off your blessed assurance and start acting

upon the Word of God. Start doing whatever your hands

find to do and then the anointing will increase.

 

Different Kinds of Anointings

 

We see that in the Word of God there are different

kinds or types of anointings given to man. Ephesians 4:7

says, “But unto every one of us is given grace according

to the measure of the gift of Christ.” The word grace

means enablement, ability, or anointing. We have already

seen in chapter one that the anointing is the supernatural

equipment to get the job done.

 

In Luke 4:18, 19 Jesus said, “The Spirit of the

Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach

the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,

to preach deliverance to the captives, and

recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that

are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

 

There Is an Anointing to Preach

 

Any preacher will tell you that the anointing to

preach is like a fire shut up in your bones. You can’t get

rid of it. When the message burns deep in your heart, it

has to come out and it does so with great power.

I think the greatest characteristic about preaching

is the unction by which the message is delivered. Some

think that shouting is preaching. Well, you might get

excited and shout when God’s power fails on you ¾ I

know that I do ¾ but it really has to do with the unction

to preach. God anoints your tongue and makes it as “the

pen of a ready writer” (Psalm 45:1). You begin to speak

as an oracle of God.

 

The scripture also says, “Is not my word like as a

fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the

rock into pieces?” (Jeremiah 23:29). God’s Word, when

preached under an anointing, will bring conviction and

bring a change in the lives of the hearers. Sermons are not

meant to be enjoyed; they am meant to be adhered to.

 

Reprove, Rebuke, and Exhort

 

The Apostle Paul, in speaking to Timothy, said,

“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season;

reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and

doctrine” (Second Timothy 4:2). I want you to notice he

says, reprove – which means to admonish or to advise.

Then he says, rebuke – which means to reprimand; and

then, exhort ( which means to encourage, to urge.

 

Two-thirds of preaching is reproving and

rebuking and one-third is exhorting. One of the problems

we have in the Church today is that many preachers

would rather preach around an issue than address the

issue. The Bible says in the last days, men would “heap to

themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall

turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned

unto fables” (Second Timothy 4:3, 4).

 

The Art of Persuasion

 

If we study the ministry of Charles Grandison

Finney, we find that he was not only criticized because of

the manifestations in his meetings, but also because of his

method of preaching. When he spoke about sinners,

instead of saying, “they,” he would say, “you.” He would

speak about hell in such a way that people would be

shaken in their seats. In every message he forced a

decision.

 

The art of preaching is not so much homiletics

(three points and a poem), but rather the ability to bring

people to the point of a decision. King Agrippa said to

Paul, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian”

(Acts 26:28).

 

Charles Finney was a lawyer prior to entering the

ministry. When he entered the ministry, he used his

ability to take a subject and present it as a legal case. He

would preach as though he were standing in front of a

jury and needed to convince them. At the end, he would

demand a decision from them.

 

This was his success in the ministry during an age

when there was no radio, television, or amplifiers and

microphones. He won about five hundred thousand

people to Jesus. It is said of his converts that about 85

percent stayed true in their faith. In comparison to

modern-day evangelism, we find this figure is extremely

high.