In Search Of A Better Tomorrow

Daily devotion: The Place of Power in Preaching

The Place of Power in Preaching

Message by Wil Pounds
I have had the privilege of preaching God’s word and seeing His presence move over and audience and hundreds of listeners respond to His word. I have also preached and in humility, emptied the house. I have watched people stand in the rain and listen to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and refuse to leave until the last word was said and the last prayer was prayed. I have also to my dismay waited for people to come to church while it was raining and hardly anyone arrived.

When God takes a man who makes himself available to Him and says, “Go and preach in the power with which I have endowed you,” he wil see great and mighty things happen.

God says, “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

“So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).

I am convinced after forty years of ministry that the power is not in the messages, or the messenger, but in the Lord Jesus Christ. The power is in the Lord. The true power lies in Christ. “Out of His mouth goes the sharp two-edged sword” (Rev. 1:16).

God does not deposit a certain amount of power in man; He retains the power in Himself. Infinite resources are found in Him alone. It is only as we make ourselves available to Him and allow Him to work in and through us that we see Him do great and mighty things.

“All power is in Jesus, and Jesus is with His people,” said Spurgeon. Jesus said, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20). He is here right now.

The power that brings a person to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ is the Word of God. It is not our performance, or imagination, personality, illustrations, or our creativity. God’s Word is the source of all power in creation and redemption. Every sermon and every Bible study are a waste of words if they are not filled with Christ’s word. We must have God’s Word and nothing else. It is not your word; it is God’s Word that changes the world and raises the dead.

The Holy Spirit takes the preached word and applies it to the heart. He melts the soul in repentance and brings a person to faith in Christ.

C. H. Spurgeon said, “People are disturbed and troubled by the real gospel: under the false gospel they can sleep into destruction. Bring out the sword: it is made to wound; let it exercise its salutary sharpness.”

The sword of God’s word cuts at sin to the very depths of the soul. “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:12-13).

Selah!

Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006