Unction

For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.  Hebrews 4:12.....Unction...The anointing of the Holy Spirit upon a sermon so that something holy and powerful is added to the message that no preacher can generate no matter how great his skills.

A pastor I have long known and have the greatest respect for, recently told me of a sermon he'd heard the previous Sunday. This man is an encourager of all pastors, not a critic. So, what he said carried great weight. He said the preacher of the church delivered a thorough message on holiness of life. Everything he stated was doctrinally correct and he found no fault with anything he said. But he was deeply saddened by the fact that "there was no unction" in his preaching. Scriptures were read, truth was spoken, but the wonderful power and anointing of the Holy Spirit was not upon them. He felt like he had attended a lecture about holiness, not a message from the heart of God and His calling us to a holy life. I don't think his experience is an isolated one. I think unction, as defined above, is a missing element in much of what passes for preaching in the modern church.

I'm not making a judgement on that pastor, or any pastor's spiritual state, but I think there is a serious lack of biblical unction in the western church. Power is released in a message when the heart of God, who gives the message, melds with the heart of the preacher who proclaims it. The message is not empowered by the preacher's emotions or intellect, but both his emotions and intellect can be anointed and empowered by the Holy Spirit of God. It is a mystical thing that no man or woman can create or produce. It comes only by His Spirit, and when once someone has heard such a message, proclaimed in such power, there will never be any doubt as to whether a message has had His anointing and presence upon it or not.

If you read Hebrews 4:12 and highlight what it says, that it's sharper than any two-edged sword, that it cuts between our soul and spirit, reaching the very innermost of our being, and then agree that this is true, shouldn't a sermon message, based in His Word do the same? How many of the sermons you've heard of late have really done that? How many really took hold of your innermost being?

There are a wide range of reasons why this is so. Lack of preachers soaking themselves in the presence of God. Lack of fervent desire to be such a messenger of God, as well as a desire to be saturated in His Spirit. There's also the reality that preaching is no longer seen by many in the church as a primary, actually the primary role of the pastor. Preaching in many places has assumed a secondary role. Add on the fact that in much of the church, we've settled for mediocrity in spiritual things while emphasizing secondary ones. We seem more concerned with the impression we make on the people than we are the impression His Holy Spirit does. Most of all, we have watered down the Word itself, and stayed away from subjects that could be labeled unpopular or controversial. Leonard Ravenhill said that if Jesus Christ had proclaimed the message coming from most American pulpits these days, He'd have never been crucified. Are we, am I, are our churches, proclaiming the kind of message sure to get us in trouble with an unredeemed culture and a lukewarm church? Jesus confronted the religious culture as well as the secular one, and both joined together to put Him to death. They wanted to silence Him, but they didn't, because the risen Christ continues to speak 2000 years later. Is there anyone that wants to silence what we're preaching, what our church is proclaiming?

These are some things I'm thinking this day. I invite you to consider them as well. May the Word we say we believe not only pierce and cut the hearts and inner beings of others, but ourselves as well. May it do so with unction.

Blessings,

Pastor O