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One view of preaching sees the congregation as dead people and they need to be raised on Sunday. No amount of rhetorical power can raise them except spiritual power (the power that raised Jesus from the dead) which can only come from the Holy Spirit. “If the Spirit of God is absent, all that the church does will be as lifeless as the rustle of leaves above a tomb, like the congregation of the dead turning over in the graves” (Charles Haddon Spurgeon).
Only the Holy Spirit has the power to raise the dead. He has the power to impart life to who are morally and spiritually dead. We have heard many testimonies of how hard-hearted sinners repented under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Of course we can never tell when the Holy Spirit will strike and do His mighty work. Without this regenerating work of the Holy Spirit what is the point of preaching? It is foolishness and waste of time. We can use enticing words; oratorical and beautiful words and they won’t change human nature. (R. A. Torrey)
Let the Spirit be lacking, and there may be wisdom of words but not the wisdom of God; the powers of oratory but not the power of God; the demonstration of argument and the logic of the schools, but not the demonstration of the Holy Spirit. (Arthur T. Pierson)
It is the extraordinary power from God, not talent, that wins the day. It is the extraordinary spiritual unction, not extraordinary mental power, that we need. Mental power may fill a chapel but spiritual power fills the church with soul anguish. Mental power may gather a large congregation, but only spiritual power will save souls. What we need is spiritual power. (Charles Haddon Spurgeon)
Another view of preaching sees preaching as seed sowing. The human heart is like a soil and when we preach we are like a sower planting seed which is the Word of God (Luke 8:11; cf. 1 Cor. 4:15; Jas. 1:8; 1 Pet. 1:23). However, the one who gives growth is the Spirit. There will be no harvest without the Spirit’s work. Every sower needs to realize his or her dependence on the Holy Spirit.
Without unction preachers are like barren rock. But with unction and a touch from God, the rock bursts forth water that quenches the thirsty souls of men and women in the desert. Unction primarily has to do with service to believers and pre-believers. It is a definite experience apart from the work of regeneration.
With unction there is a fire that lies not in words or in tones, but which comes from the heart and is inflamed from above; a mysterious, irresistible fire which turns sinners into saints and compels saints to claim sanctification. (Unknown Christian)
We cannot function without unction. If we try to do it, we have commotion but no action. Without unction people will not be moved. We can preach with the voice of a god and yet be devoid of power. We can preach like Cicero with logic, Socrates with rhetoric, and Chrysostom with eloquence and stir people’s hearts and minds but it won’t last without unction. Ravenhill lamented, “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!” (emphasis his).
You can preach with faultless diction, beautiful style, unimpeachable logic right orthodoxy but without unction it is only an intellectual stimulation of the head no effect on the heart! Without unction, no tears of contrition, no repentant heart. (Unknown)
Without the power of the Holy Spirit in your preaching, however solid your exegesis may be, however sound your hermeneutics may be, however brilliant your sermon may be, however eloquent your preaching may be, you may touch lives but not transform lives. To put it in another way, you may preach a 30-minute wonder sermon on Sunday and people may be spellbound. After the service is over, all is forgotten. What is needed today is God empowered preaching. Spurgeon once said, “If a learned brother fires over the heads of his congregation with a grand oration, he may trace his elocution, if he likes, to Cicero and Demosthenes, but do not let him ascribe it to the Holy Spirit.”
With unction a preacher is swept like the wind and experiences the awesome presence of God. Boldness, authority, and liberty are always present when there is anointing. Unction is that smile of God upon the preacher. When God smiles on a preacher, it means he is approved and the message has God’s signature, like Moses coming down Mt. Sinai with his face shining (Exod. 34:29–35). With reference to the preacher’s preaching, Lloyd-Jones says,
It gives clarity of thought, clarity of speech, ease of utterance, a great sense of authority and confidence as you are preaching, an awareness of a power not your own thrilling through the whole of your being, an indescribable sense of joy.
Unction enables a preacher to be a conduit of blessings to others. With unction, the ordinary becomes extraordinary and the preacher becomes a spiritual dynamo. Without unction, we are like the disciples toiling but catching nothing (cf. Luke 5:5). Without unction, we become ineffectual. Without unction, our preaching will be like throwing a stone into the stream creating ripples but without any lasting impression. Without unction, our preaching is like the waves splashing against the rock without making any deep impression. “Preaching without unction kills instead of giving life. The unctionless preacher is a savour unto death. The Word does not live unless the unction is upon the preacher” (Ravenhill). Without unction, hearts cannot be set ablaze. The dynamite of divine unction can only break the hardness of human hearts.
A man may have the learning of the wisest, and the eloquence of Desmosthenes or Cicero. He will draw the crowds, but his message cannot be blessed without the Holy Spirit’s unction. Many preachers are orthodox, but not Spirit-filled. And there is nothing more deadly than the Gospel without the Spirit’s power. (Unknown Christian)
No matter how great a preacher is, if his preaching is not accompanied by unction, it cannot accomplish anything lasting. Without unction, we are nothing and accomplish nothing. It has been said light-heartedly that in preaching a preacher has about twenty minutes to raise the dead. To do this, we need power from above and not from elsewhere. Preachers that are ablaze become invincible and hell trembles when preachers are kindled with fire. (Samuel Chadwick)
The concept of unction is a very important aspect of the preaching ministry. Having unction in our preaching is not optional but mandatory. Because of our strong emphasis on high-tech, I am afraid that preaching has simply become a human enterprise rather than a divine-human endeavour. You can become such a proficient practitioner in preaching and yet you are completely devoid of spiritual power.
The result of preaching demands it. Unless there is divine empowerment, there can be no results. The preacher is powerless without the fire of the Holy Spirit. Without the Spirit’s fire, our preaching will simply be mundane, pedestrian, lackadaisical, boring, and ineffective in transforming lives. What preachers need today is the Spirit’s fire.
There is one church I know that has a fire extinguisher beside the pulpit. Of all the places to put a fire extinguisher, it is by the side of the pulpit. I laughed, but minutes later I began to sober up when I realised that if fire does not start from the pulpit, it will not start anywhere else!
We as preachers need unction if we want to see our preaching produce results—lives transformed, lost souls reclaimed, backsliders repented, apathetic congregations revitalized, and on some occasions, the glory of the Lord descend on our worship service.
Without his divine empowerment, we cannot accomplish great things for God. In delivery, only the Holy Spirit can empower us to preach boldly and confidently leading to the regeneration of sinners and sanctification of the saints. Therefore, we cannot ignore the work of the Holy Spirit in our preaching lest we become ineffective.
It has been said that Spurgeon when he walked towards the pulpit on Sunday would pray, “I believe in the Holy Ghost. I believe in the Holy Ghost. I believe in the Holy Ghost.” Is it any wonder he is called Prince of Preachers? His preaching impacted many lives and exercised a mighty pulpit ministry in London. In sum, preaching that transforms lives always without any exception involves the work of the Holy Spirit.
It is one thing to learn the techniques and mechanics of preaching. It is another to preach “a sermon which will draw back the veil and make the barriers that hide the face of God fall. If that is not achieved the most careful craftsmanship is worthless” (James Stewart).
Even great preaching can flow from an inadequately prepared sermon or from a mediocre preacher because it is the unction of the Spirit that ultimately counts. Only when we deliver the sermon in the demonstration of the Spirit and power, can we give a sense of the glory of God to the people.