Spirit-Led Preaching
Overview
In the words of author Greg Heisler, “Spirit-led preaching is a call issued to preachers, pastors, and teachers of homiletics to recover the Holy Spirit for expository preaching in the same way we have recovered the biblical text. . . . My plan for doing this is to recover the doctrine of pneumatology (the study of spiritual beings/phenomena) for our theology of preaching, resulting in a renewed emphasis on the powerful combination of Word and Spirit working together as the catalyst for powerful expository preaching.”
Heisler thoroughly examines how the Holy Spirit illuminates and empowers the preacher, opens the hearts of the hearers, and applies the message to their lives. Indeed, to ignore the Holy Spirit’s role in sermon preparation and delivery would be a considerable oversight.
Top Highlights
“Preachers must decide early in their preaching ministries that they have to be continually filled with the Spirit of God before they can powerfully preach the Word of God. Anointed lives give birth to anointed preaching.” (Page 28)
“Preaching has lost its theological mandate. Consequently, we have replaced preachers with speakers because we are told people want dialogue without doctrine and talks without truth. Theology is out, storytellers are in, and as a result we are seeing an entire generation of preachers who are more driven to be effective communicators than to be Spirit-empowered preachers. Methodology trumps theology, and sensitivity to the audience has replaced sensitivity to the Spirit.” (Pages 8–9)
“Moody said, ‘Catch on fire for Jesus, and the world will come and watch you burn.’” (Page 10)
“Preaching is an act of surrender. In our humble brokenness before God, we are compelled to carry out our preaching ministry under the unceasing inner compulsion of the Holy Spirit. The most powerful preaching on earth comes out of a preacher who must say what he has to say. Spirit-led preaching does not result from our own strength or power but from God’s power as the Holy Spirit energizes and ignites the preaching of his Word.” (Page 5)
“My conviction is that we have failed to connect the discipline of homiletics with the doctrine of pneumatology, and as a result we find ourselves ‘surprised by the Spirit’ when he does move. Spirit-Led Preaching seeks to establish a positive theology of the Spirit’s role in preaching by building upon the theological fusion of Word and Spirit.” (Page 3)
Greg Heisler has written an important book that will help to educate a new generation of evangelicals about the power of preaching through the Holy Spirit and the Word.
—R. Albert Mohler, Jr., president, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky
- Title: Spirit-Led Preaching
- Author: Greg Heisler
- Publisher: B&H Publishing Group
- Publication Date: 2007
- Pages: 156
Reviews
2 ratings
John Goodman
3/4/2014
Richard E Powell
5/19/2012
Heisler is to be commended for addressing this most important topic. By doing so he disabuses preachers of the notion that crafting sermons is a merely mechanical exercise. While most preachers would deny that they approach sermon preparation as simply an academic exercise, our actions often say otherwise. Preachers can become so focused on the methods of expository sermon development that we fail to utterly cast ourselves upon the Spirit for His power and anointing. Whether it is in sermon preparation or delivery the Spirit plays a vital role in true Christ-honoring preaching. Heisler writes with a winsome style. He captures the reader's attention through compelling arguments, biblical evidence, and appropriate illustrations. The most beneficial contribution of Heisler's work is chapter six on "The Spirit and the Preacher's Sanctification." Here the author reminds us that God is not only concerned with the message, He is also concerned with the messenger. God requires that His preachers be holy and a fit vessel for the task to which He has called them. In a day in which many preachers are flirting with worldliness in the name of cultural relevance, Heisler issues a convicting warning that "Spirit-empowered preaching is preaching out of the overflow of the heart" (p. 81).