The tragedy of this late hour is that we have too many dead men in the pulpits giving out too many dead sermons to too many dead people. Oh! the horror of it! The is a strange thing that I have seen "under the sun," even in the fundamentalist circles; it is preaching without unction. What is unction? I hardly know. But I know what it is not (or at least I know when it is not upon my own soul). Preaching without unction kills instead of giving life. The unctionless preacher is a savor of death unto death. The Word does not live unless the unction is upon the preacher. Preacher, with all thy getting - get unction.
~ Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries. (Bethany House, 1959, 1987, p.20)
I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men.
~ Richard Baxter
I am familiar with the term "unction" through the ministry of Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, his sermons, his book "Preaching and Preachers," and the book about his ministry "The Sacred Anointing" by John Sargent.
I'm not certain I know exactly what a previous generation meant by it, but I have a great sense that it is something that I need, my church needs, and that we need it greatly. I am, and have been, conscious of a lack of power, of Holy Spirit given "unction", in my own ministry. Sometimes I am able to see it in myself, more frequently I see the reflection of myself in the spiritual coolness and deadness of my church. I believe a major cause is insufficient earnest prayer - on my part and the part of my church.
For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, as you know what kind of men we were among you for your sake. ~ 1Thessalonians 1:5
Will anyone join me in seeking the Lord, and life, more earnestly?
1 comments:
Amen.
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