Do you view sermon preparation as simply an academic exercise that is in a long list of ministerial responsibilities? The sermon should be viewed as a message from God to His people which flows out of His Word through His servant. Sermon preparation is a joint expedition between heaven, head and heart.

The great need of today is divinely-appointed, and Spirit-anointed preachers! The appointed and anointed preacher seeks the face of God, hears the voice of God, witnesses the hand of God using the Word of God to manifest the presence of God to the people of God! Only a praying preacher can effectively connect the hearts of his hearers with the heart of God. To powerfully herald God’s truth you must persistently heed God’s voice. Anointed preaching is the overflow of agonizing prayer.

Do your messages originate in the head of a man, or in the heart of God? Do you spend more time reading the words of men than you do reading the Word of God? Messages from God’s heart are birthed from the Word in the closet! Commentaries are for buttressing messages, but not for birthing messages. Anointed messages result from intimacy with the Father, not internet fodder! Second-hand sermons have sinful second-rate success! Consider the following words that God spoke through Jeremiah:

“The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?” says the LORD. “Is not My word like a fire?” says the LORD, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who steal My words every one from his neighbor” (Jeremiah 23:28-30 NKJV).

It appears to be much easier to get the permission of a preacher to plagiarize his sermon for your setting, than it is to get God’s permission to by-pass intimacy with Him to do so! Sermons must be born in heaven in order to burn in the heart. The call to preach the Word of God is a call to listen for the voice of God. The preacher must personally hear, heed and then herald the Word of God. There is a vast difference between having to preach a sermon, and having a message to deliver! 

©2012 Prayerdigm Publishing. Adapted from "In Season and Out of Season" by Keeney Dickenson. To order a copy of "In Season and Out of Season" go to http://prayeridigm.com/.