Inspired to Preach

Inspired to Preach
When the Word Is Preached with Authority and Received with Expectancy

There is a clear biblical importance to standing and declaring the Word of God with authority that this generation has largely forgotten. I learned that importance early—and it marked me for life.

A Sobering Beginning

I still remember the deep concern that weighed on me as a young Amish man. I had married my wife Lydia when I was only nineteen. A few years later, our Amish church district was preparing to ordain another church leader. In the Amish religious tradition, a man does not freely choose this responsibility. If the lot falls on him, it becomes his solemn obligation to fulfill the role.

I was very troubled at the thought. If I were selected, I would be expected to preach in German. Though we spoke the Pennsylvania Dutch dialect daily, I did not know High German well enough to stand and speak the Word of God with confidence. The possibility unsettled me deeply.

To my great relief, I was not chosen. That possibility was one of the ways God began to place a soberness upon my heart. It drove me to search for Him more sincerely than I ever had before.

Later that same year—1986—I had a very personal and dramatic encounter with the Spirit of God that transformed my life. On that morning, the Lord clearly revealed that He was calling me to preach… but beyond the Amish culture.

Anointed Preaching That Marked Me

About seven months after that encounter with Jesus Christ, my wife Lydia and I, along with our three small children, stepped out of the Amish religion. We began attending Charity Christian Fellowship. Within three weeks of our arrival, revival broke out. Evangelist Wayne Weaver had been scheduled to preach a series of meetings. His anointed, straightforward, and very challenging preaching touched people’s hearts in a powerful way. It set me on a path of aggressively pressing into God.

I was greatly inspired by his courageous, anointed preaching. Even now, nearly forty years later, I still treasure that early experience. It showed me firsthand how impactful anointed, convicting preaching can be in transforming lives. That observation marked me for life.

Approximately one year after my encounter with Christ, I preached my first sermon, titled “Love for the Truth.” In the months that followed, through the fatherly pastoral oversight of Dennis Kenaston, I was nourished and given opportunities to preach—even though I had not yet been ordained as a minister of the gospel. His preaching was also a very great inspiration to me and further stirred my desire to handle the Word with reverence and power.

That was the beginning.

In the years since, the Lord has continued to deepen this conviction. I had the privilege of sitting under three days of preaching by the well-known revivalist Leonard Ravenhill. There were only about seventy men at that conference, yet it remains some of the most impactful preaching I have ever heard. In more recent times, the preaching of my close pastoral friend Carlos Angulo has continued to inspire me. I have watched the Lord use his ministry to set people free from deep bondage and to bring lasting transformations. These and other faithful voices have deepened my conviction that God still anoints and uses the preached Word with power.

When the Word Effectually Works

What I witnessed in those early days is exactly what the apostle Paul rejoiced over in the Thessalonian believers:

“For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

They did not receive the preaching as merely the word of men. They received it as the very word of God. And because of that posture of faith, the Word “effectually worked” in them. This is the difference between hearing a sermon and being changed by one. When we approach the preached Word with open hearts and genuine belief that God Himself is speaking, something supernatural begins to take place inside us.

The Greek word translated “effectually worketh” is energeitai—from which we get our English word “energy.” It means to work inwardly, to be operative, to energize, to put forth effective power.

When the preached Word is received with faith as God’s own message, it does not merely inform the mind.

It energizes the heart and life.

It works.

It transforms.

The same pattern appears again and again. When Lydia “attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul,” the Lord opened her heart. When the multitude heard Peter on the day of Pentecost, they were “pricked in their heart,” and three thousand souls were added . While Peter was still speaking at Cornelius’s house, “the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word”.

Attentive, believing reception of the preached Word releases the life-changing power of God. This is an invitation to every hearer: come expecting. Come ready. Come believing that the God who spoke then still speaks now—and still works effectually in those who believe.

Jesus: The Model of Authoritative Preaching

This same divine power is seen most clearly in the ministry of Jesus Himself. The people were astonished at His teaching, “for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes”.

Jesus did not teach by citing external authorities or stacking the opinions of other rabbis. He taught as Someone who inherently owns the right and the power to speak these things. Even the demons recognized it. The people in the synagogue exclaimed, “What new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him”.

The apostle Paul walked in the same reality. He reminded the Corinthians that his preaching was “not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power”. The scribes taught with borrowed authority. Jesus and Paul ministered with original, Spirit-empowered authority. Even the demons acknowledged it, crying out, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?

When a man today faithfully proclaims the Scripture, he is not offering human opinions. He is proclaiming truth that carries the authority of the One who originally taught “as one having authority.”

A Call to This Generation

We need anointed men who will preach with anointing and authority—men who stand under the same Holy Spirit anointing that rested upon Jesus, who handle the Word with reverence, and who expect that Word to “effectually work” in the hearers.

For several decades the primary expectation of encountering God has often been placed on the praise and worship portion of the service. While sincere, Spirit-led worship is a precious gift, God has never revoked His chosen method of transforming lives through the proclamation of His truth. Preaching still remains what God has ordained to change hearts, confront sin, build faith, and conform us to the image of Christ.

An Invitation to Preach and to Hearken

If God has called you to preach, pursue the anointing. Seek the courage and clarity that come only from the Holy Spirit. Stand and declare the Word as one under authority.

And when the Word is opened, come hungry. Do not treat the preached Word as secondary or merely informational. Receive it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth—the word of God. Expect it to work effectually in you that believe.

May the Lord restore to His church a expectancy around the preached Word. May He raise up men who will preach as those under authority, and a people who will receive it as the very word of God—until once again we see the Word effectually working in those who believe.

The question is not whether God still anoints preaching.
The question is whether we will still seek it—and receive it.