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There is something mysterious about unction. Many times unction is dependent on prayers and at other times (rare occasions) it may not appear to be. However, it is fair to say that most of the time prayer is the gateway to receiving unction. The old adage is still ringing true: “Pray as though everything depended on God and preach as through everything depended on you.” But that is an exception to the rule rather than the norm.
Another thing about unction is that it seems to come and go like the tides. The message you preach that is accompanied by unction in one particular place achieves certain results, but it does not guarantee the same results elsewhere. In other words, unction cannot be taken for granted. It is not easy to get a handle on the concept of unction.
What if we have done everything we know how and there is no unction? We should continue to do and give our best. Who knows perhaps God will surprise us.
When all is said and done, we still need unction in our preaching. Therefore, in all our getting, get the unction that comes from above. If we want to effect changes in the listeners’ lives, we need unction. Without unction our preaching will fail. The rise and fall of our preaching is dependent on the empowerment of the Holy Spirit.
Divine unction for preaching is available to all. It is not reserved for some chosen people. There is some truth to the statement that whom God appoints, he anoints. But we still need to seek for it. The impoverishment of preaching is not due to the lack of skilful preachers but the lack of unction.
Divine unction is freely given by God. It cannot be learned, earned, or manufactured but only given through yearning. There are two sides to it: human and divine. It has something to do with prayer but everything to do with God. “Other things precious to a preacher come of prayer and something else. Unction comes only of praying.” (William Sangster) Unction is the supreme thing. Therefore, “seek it until you have it; be content with nothing less.”
In the end, it doesn’t matter how polished our sermon is and how eloquent our delivery is. If our preaching does not have power to touch and transform lives, it means nothing. Perhaps, nothing is more tragic in the life of a preacher than when he fails to realise that the power of the Spirit is gone. One of the saddest statements recorded in the Bible concerning Samson is, “He did not know that the lord had left him” (Judges 16:20; cf. 1 Sam. 16:14; 18:12).
Needed Today: Preachers with Unction in Their Preaching
The need for today is preachers on fire—preachers with burning hearts and flaming tongues. We need powerful and power-filled preachers in today’s world. “This is an hour in need of burning hearts, bursting lips, and brimming eyes” (Ravenhill). We need to see preaching that is by “the power of the Holy Spirit and with strong conviction” (1 Thess. 1:5; cf. Rom. 15:18–19 and 1 Pet. 1:12) because “the kingdom of God is not a matter of words, but of power” (1 Cor. 4:20). Moreover, through our preaching which is in demonstration of the Spirit’s power, the faith of the listeners “might be built not on human wisdom but on the power of God” (1 Cor. 2:5). A sermon without the Spirit can be inspiring but only a sermon empowered by the Spirit is transforming. We need powerful and faithful preaching to send people away renewed, refreshed, and ready to serve.
All great preachers (e.g., Moody and Whitefield) studied and prepared their messages and then relied on the Holy Spirit to give power to it and apply to the congregation. Unction is not impeded by the weakness of the preacher. Although we see in Paul there was feebleness in his speech and appearance (2 Cor. 10:10) as well as lack of eloquence, his preaching was a demonstration of the Spirit’s power (1 Cor. 2:4).
Instead of unction-less ministers, let us be unction-full ministers because unction-less preachers are powerless. When we are infused with God’s unction, only then can we be enthused in our preaching.
We need fire in our preaching. If we are devoid of fire, nothing else matters. If we possess the fire, everything matters. No fuel no fire. Without fire there is no spiritual fervour. Without fire there is no overpowering sense of urgency. Without fire, scholarship and style will replace passion and power. Without fire how can we preach with passion and conviction? Without fire, how can we set the hearts of people aflame? The prayer of Charles Wesley should be our prayer, too.
O Thou who camest from above
The pure, celestial fire to impart,
Kindle a flame of sacred love
On the mean altar of my heart
There let it for Thy glory burn
(Charles Wesley)
Do you know anything about this unction? Is there unction in your preaching? Never is there a time than now to preach the gospel with authority and power. O friends, if you leave no space for the Holy Spirit in your preaching all your reliance on techniques, institutions, decorum, pomp, and dignified Christianity will amount to nothing. “The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working] (James 3:16 AMP).
Ultimately, we need to recognize that the secret of obtaining unction is a mystery and is dependent on God’s divine sovereignty. Nonetheless, we need to work hard in fulfilling the conditions of obtaining the unction, yet at the same time pray hard and trust him to pour his blessings on our preaching. Our preaching has no warmth, no life, no fire because we neglect the person of the Holy Spirit. John Stott was right when he said that “our sermons will never catch fire unless the fire of the Holy Spirit burns in our hearts and we ourselves ‘aglow with the Spirit’” (Rom. 12:11).
If the anointing which we bear come not from the Lord of hosts we are deceivers, and since only in prayer can we obtain, let us continue instant, constant and fervent in supplication. Let your fleece lie on the threshing-floor of supplication till it is wet with the dew of heaven. (Charles Haddon Spurgeon)
Oratory, eloquent sermons, beautiful words, imagery, and metaphors important as they are, can’t change a person without spiritual power. Any preaching however eloquent or brilliant may impress and even inspire others but it will not will not touch or change lives.
At the end of it all we ask ourselves, “Who is equal to such a calling?” (2 Cor. 2:16). None of us dare say we are. We feel inadequate yet we are “earthenware jars to hold this treasure, and this proves that such transcendent power does not come from us; it is God’s alone” (2 Cor. 4:7). We are overwhelmed with a sense of inadequacy. When we hold a high view of preaching, we will say with David, “I will not offer any burnt offerings that cost me nothing” (2 Sam. 24:24).
The gospel is preached in the ears of all; it only comes with power to some. The power that is in the gospel does not lie in the eloquence of the preacher; otherwise, men would be converters of souls. Nor does it lie in the preacher’s learning; otherwise, it would consist in the wisdom of men. We might preach till our tongues rotted, till we should exhaust our lungs and die, but never a soul would be converted unless there were mysterious power going with it—the Holy Ghost changing the will of men. O Sirs! We might as well preach to stone walls as preach to humanity unless the Holy Ghost be with the word, to give it power to convert the soul. (Charles Haddon Spurgeon)
How do you blast a building without detonating the dynamite? Analogically, how do we minister, let alone live a victorious Christian life without the person and presence of the Holy Spirit? Remember, the Holy Spirit is God’s dynamite (or TNT).
The bottom line is, all of us who are ministering (i.e., preaching, pastoring, leading, serving) without the power of the Holy Spirit, we are like a person using a shovel to blast the granite quarry! It is not only futile but foolish. What is needed is dynamite to blast the quarry. Scripture teaches the Holy Spirit is the dynamite that is needed for effective and life-transforming ministry—blasting the granite of human hearts of the pre-believers (becoming believers), and many carnal/spiritually immature Christians living self-directed lives (not bowing to the lordship of Christ).
The words of the Prince of Preachers (Charles Haddon Spurgeon 1834–1892) are still as relevant today as they were back then. Let all who preach and especially those who desire to preach in the power of the pneuma engrave these powerful, pregnant, and pertinent words into their homiletical hearts.