GOD SPEAKS THROUGH US!

Jeremiah 1:9 (ESV) Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

There are times when preaching that I have felt profound and anointed, but when I gauge that profoundness and “anointedness” by the response of the congregation I get another story. What is an explosion inside of me barely gets a nod from my listeners. It’s disheartening to pour your heart out in a sermon, thinking you are delivering life altering truth to hungry listeners, only to get shoulder nods and maybe a slight yawn, as if your content was something they learned in the fourth grade Sunday School class. Forget, getting a “Wow!” or an “I’ve never heart it put so clearly.” A simple “Amen!” every now and then would suffice. The poor preacher begins to wonder, “Has the Lord’s hand really touched my mouth? Has He really put his words in me?” I remember when I first felt called to preach, I cried out to the Lord, “Please don’t let me be a boring one. You have plenty of those.” I guess the verdict is still out on God’s answer to that prayer. Yet moving the crowds and being an engaging speaker actually misses the point. The real question is, “Do I have and deliver words God has put in my mouth?”

I was raised and saved a Baptist, yet I had a dynamic encounter with the Holy Spirit in my early 20’s that made me a Charismatic/Pentecostal of sorts. I was no longer Baptist enough to be a good Baptist, and yet not Charismatic/Pentecostal enough to be good one of those. I became very discouraged, wondering if there was a place in ministry for me, if anyone cared about what I had to say. I distinctly remember the Lord speaking so clearly to me in one of my prayer times, “The body of Christ needs to hear your voice.” That was it! God was involved in my life, and what He was telling me He wanted others to hear. The body of Christ needs to hear my voice because He has touched my mouth and put His words there. Do I have the gall to actually believe that? I still hold to that promise and remind myself of it when I get discouraged. I do have something worth saying, and worth hearing, because I am His and He gives me His words. I don’t do it for the “wows” and “amens.” I do it for Him. The preacher has to settle this issue in his heart. It is good to work on public speaking skills, but being a dynamic speaker does not translate into anointing. In fact, a preacher can be very dynamic at speaking, yet lack anointing, or even worse, be a false teacher. As listeners, we do not gauge anointing by the skill of the communicator, but by whether or not the message lines up with the truth of scripture and by how it impacts our lives, which, by the way, not only requires an anointing on the speaker’s part, but on the listener’s as well. I think Jesus calls that anointing hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

Beloved, God has a purpose for you. It may or may not include preaching, but it does require speaking. The Great Commission requires some level of verbal communication from all of us (Matt 28:19-20). As you become an anointed listener and a student of the scriptures, you will have a voice for the kingdom because His words will begin to build inside of you, and though it may not feel like it, you will be able to deliver profound and anointed words of God to those He puts in your path. Second Timothy 2:2 basically says, “As God teaches you, teach others.”