Why a Shaking 16-Year-Old May Preach Better Than a 30-Year Veteran – 5 keys to anointed preaching

There is nothing like good old Pentecostal preaching, someone who has a Word from the Lord, someone with fire in their bones. I love it, I love to preach it, I love to hear it, it challenges me, energizes me and gets me fired up. One of my favourites being Leonard Ravenhill. And when I read about the Apostle Paul I am reminded of this, he says in 1 Corinthians 2:1-5: “And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.^[a] 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. ³ I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling. ⁴ My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, ⁵ so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.”

And when I break this down I see some key elements to what the Apostle Paul spoke about. Notice a couple of points, simple, yet keys to what He is saying:

1.     “I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed the testimony of God.” Notice, He kept it about the testimony of God, what was God doing. God was central to what He was preaching, not human wisdom (there is oplace for biblical wisdom but Paul is talking about human wisdom), not eloquence. Seminaries can teach you about eloquence, but they cant give you the anointing! We don’t need more Ted talks on human wisdom, we need more anointed preachers, who know how to preach with the anointing that breaks the bondages.

2.     “² For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” To be resolved means he was determined, he had a focus and that was Jesus and the sacrifice He made. Let's not stray in our preaching away from the cross. Do people get born again when they hear us preach. Whilst not every sermon doesn’t have to be about the cross, it should point back to the centrality of Jesus and His sacrifice.

3.     “³ I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling” I have been preaching since I was 16, I am now 46, 30 years. I have preached in tin shacks and in mega churches. I count it a privilege to preach. But one thing I have learnt, I remember when I was 16, I would be shaking before I got up on a stage and I would pray prayers like, “God, I cannot do this, without you I will look like a fool, I need your anointing, be with me today.” Unfortunately 30 years later I have become confident in my ability and I don’t shake like I used too , before I go on stage (most of the time), but what scares me is that 16 year old boy can have more dependance on God than this 30 year experienced preacher unless I still recognize my absolute need for His anointing. So when I read Paul’s statement and see his dependance on God, it encourages me, to go low, to not be overconfident. This is a key to staying in a place of preaching with anointing.

4.     “⁴ My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power” Boy, do we need some demonstration of the Spirits power! Let's not just give people a good talk. Let's not give people an education. We live in an academic world and the church in some instances has slipped into this, whereby we come to church to be taught something, but we not here to give you head knowledge, we are here to see peoples lives transformed. Don’t get me wrong, teaching the word does transform, so lets teach the Word, but the purpose is transformation.

5.     “⁴ My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power” Paul did not use persuasive words, why? Because if I can persuade you in the someone can persuade you out. I had a pastor friend of mine who went through a season of deconstruction of the faith and he shared with me that the only thing that saved him from backsliding completely was he had seen miracles with his own eyes. You cant deconstruct that!

These are the keys that Paul shares to anointed preaching. These are the keys he shares “so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.” I believe that the more people focus on these principles in preaching, the more we will have peoples faith resting on God’s power.

So until next time, keep preaching the Word with Power!