Day 274

Powerful Preaching

Read: Micah 1-4

The prophets were powerful preachers speaking with conviction, “Thus says the Lord.” The key to that power is found in Micah 3:8, “I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.” A preacher must be filled with the Spirit to preach effectively. How can this happen? Filling with the Spirit is a result of wanting to be filled and praying earnestly for such filling. It is a result of desiring more than anything else to be a channel through whom the Spirit will work. If you are a pastor, make this your heartfelt prayer, and God will use you effectively. Lay people ought to be constantly praying that their pastors may be filled with the Spirit so that there will be powerful preaching, convicting people of sin and causing them to turn wholeheartedly to Christ.

But all of God’s people need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, for every Christian is called to be a witness for Christ. Pray constantly that God will empty you of self and fill you with his Holy Spirit so that your life will be a powerful sermon accompanied by the courage to speak humbly about Christ. We realize the urgency of this task in the light of God’s Word to Micah, which said that sin would lead to destruction. The lost are in great peril. “Only one life, ’twill soon be past, / Only what’s done for Christ will last.”

PRAYER
Father, fill us with your Spirit so that our witness may have power and fill our preachers also. In Jesus’ name. Amen.