I'm not into
stories and anecdotes, personally, and my ministry is instructional for
the most part, rather than inspirational. I am basically a
teacher. That is what I am gifted for.
I recall seeking to study Romans chapter 6 through 7 in one stage of my
ministry, since I was hearing nobody ever preach from those chapters
before. To this day, those chapters find their way into many of
my sermons! I came to absolutely crave clearer understanding of
the issue raised in them. I read author's works on those
chapters, and thereby gleaned much understanding. This hunger was
part of my conviction that all
of the Bible must be preached, and not just commonly known aspects of
the scripture that might make emphasize how our particular fellowship is
correct about certain elements of truth whereas others are
not. I detest the thought of preaching a sermon to support what a
particular fellowship or organization heralds as most important.
I also abhor preaching a message simply because I know certain
listeners will be present in the congregation for that meeting. I
seek God in prayer as to what to preach, and when I sense the Spirit
flowing and thoughts coming in an obvious supernatural manner, I know
it is the Lord's will for that meeting.
I recall being
asked to preach by William Bustard one Saturday, meaning I only had
that Saturday evening to seek God for a message. I recalled
something Andrew Murray said in one of his books about praying in
faith. Since God will not give one a stone if one asks for bread,
pray for something and expect what comes to you to be the answer to
prayer! I applied that to my studies. After praying for God
to give me a thought, I faithfully considered a thought I received
about Sarah and Lot's wife to be from the Lord. After having
prayed, I had a thought immediately hit me regarding how much is said
about Abraham and Lot, but rarely is it preached about their wives in
contrast to one another. So I accepted that by faith as being
from the Lord in direct answer to my prayer.
As I studied,
thoughts began coming together, and scriptures began pouring into my
soul in application to the Christian life.
The next day, after
I preached that message, Bro. Bustard remarked in closing how that he
knew I had hear from the Lord about that message. He said earlier
that morning in prayer, the very two people came to his mind!
What a confirmation for me to realize that we must indeed believe that
what we pray for will come to pass, even in regards to seeking God for
a sermon!
I've had it said to
me that we do not always need to "hear from God" about a sermon to
preach, and that we can justifiably preach something when we see a need
for it to be preached due to our observations of the people's lives in
the congregation. The only problem I have with this sort of
reasoning is that it is an excuse for some preachers to "hit" a certain
issue, and preach against it simply because they "observe" someone in
attendance that day who happens to believe what the preacher disagrees
with!
I recall one
preacher for whom I preached informing me before service about a
certain woman from a certain denomination being present. In other
words, he wanted me to preach new birth teaching simply because this
denomination which the woman belonged to did not teach nor preach new
birth in the way we believed it. I had already heard from God
about the message to preach when I studied beforehand. And when
God gave that message to me, He knew who was going to be present in
church that day and who was not. In other words, the message God
gave to me was for all the people who would be in church that
service. So I ignored the preacher's urge and preached what I
felt to preach. God had dealt with me to preach about
the need for believers everywhere to allow the Holy Spirit to have it's
way in our gatherings. Among the thoughts I present, I explained
how His presence can actually be felt
when He moves strongly.
After I was done,
seeing I had not heeded his advice to hit the new birth message, he
proceeded to close while
commenting heavily about the new birth doctrine we believed.
After that service the woman who invited her to come asked her how she
enjoyed the service. She replied saying nothing about the
pastor's remarks regarding new birth, and commented upon my words
saying how she wished her church allowed the Spirit to move as I had
described! God knew what to reach her with!
I cannot count the
times I prayerfully sought God, without regard of who I thought might
be present for that service, and received insight and thoughts I had
never preached before, and saw people come to me afterwards commenting
upon how they were wondering about that very issue lately! Others
would say they saw a television preacher that morning before service
preach from the same scriptures! It was uncanny! Others
said the message answered the very
questions they presented before the Lord that week!
I have learned that
seeking God for a message, and thereby receiving one causes a preacher
to never go wrong in affecting people's lives for that meeting.
Sometimes receiving a message and insight about some scriptures took
longer than at other times in study. I recall hours passing
without feeling any strong sense of God really speaking to me. At
other times, something would come to my heart within five
minutes! And I knew it was from God! But there is just that
special something that starts
to happen when God's Spirit starts to inspire a thought.
Scriptures come soaring into my heart. I may have been flipping
through pages of the bible and starting to write what I was reading, in
faith for God to take over and inspire some thoughts, and soon abandon
whatever I started to write, and enter into an entirely different area
of thought than what I began with!
I have found that
studying something in faith
for God to begin speaking, would always pay off in seeing God indeed
speak. In other words, starting at the bible and wondering where
in the world to start reading, and wondering what on earth God might
want me to say, can feel like finding a needle in a haystack. A
preacher can come up with any sermon about something at any time.
But I am of the persuasion that we have to genuinely hear from God
about something, and really have something to feed the saints' souls
with.
Whereas some
preachers have been known to garner an old thought preached the year
before, only changing it's title, due to the probability the church
will not remember the points brought forth anyway, I have a strong
conviction to hear a fresh word from God for every service. Now,
when I preach in another church other than my own, I often share what
God has spoken to us in our church, and the same anointing and power
and exuberance hits me and flows through me as when I first preached it
at home. So I am not saying it is wrong to preach a thought that
was already preached before in a church. However, some preachers
may simply be too lazy to study and hear from God, leaving them to pick
up something they heard from God about a year before.
Some preachers
simply do not have faith in this regard for God to speak to them at
all. I have heard of some preachers who preach from their bible
school notebooks they received years and years beforehand while in
bible school. When talking to a fellow young preacher several
years ago, I commented about my candystick book, Romans, and asked if
he ever preaches much from it. I commented about the thoughts I
was getting from the book, and he snarled up his mouth and almost
mockingly said, "We studied all of that in bible school," as if to say
what was received in bible school was all anyone could ever get out of
Romans. Perhaps I was somewhat carnal in my response, as urged by
his manner of responding, but I then replied, "Bible school? What
you get in bible school about Romans is not even scratching the surface
of what God has for us to understand in that book!"
It just goes to
show you that some people do not have a concept of God being able to
forever lead us into truths and understandings we've never known
before. That is not to say that God will reveal some new doctrine
that is not laid out in scripture. That is ridiculous! The
Word of God contains all that we will ever know, already laid out for
us. But it does say there are nuances of spiritual insight and
depths of the same issues we find in plain foundational form in
scripture into which God can lead us further.
There are treasures
of insight in stories from the Old Testament that represent a truth in
the New Testament that perhaps nobody ever noticed before. And
one has to be careful to not simply want to see something nobody else
ever saw before, and thereby get highminded and carnal about the whole
thing, and fly off into some wild flights of fancy.
God needs all the
glory. And everytime I preach, I desire to see God impress people
with what I have said about His Word and not with me! If the
people walk away saying, "Wow, Mike Blume is some preacher," then I
have not allowed my light to shine that men might glorify my Father in
heaven! They should walk away saying, "Wow, isn't our God
awesome?!"
Sometimes I may
write notes in my study time and not get any inspiration for some
time. And so I will switch to search out another thought.
My notebooks are filled with sections of unfinished thoughts, since I
was getting nowhere with them at the time. It's as if I simply
was not on the wavelength
in which God wanted me to be.
One thing I have
learned concerning gaining insight from God while studying is that the
greater amount of time and days I spend study like this causes me to
more quickly hear from God the next time I study. In other words,
if I go for a few days without studying, it takes much longer for my
spirit to hear from God when studying, in contrast to having spent the
previous evening studying as well. It's as though you get into a
flow of the Spirit and maintain that flow when you study night after
night. If I miss too much time in studying, it takes a very long
time to study and start hearing from God.
Another thing that
has helped me keep my mind on scripture is by discussing scripture with
people over the Internet. (It's there! Use it for something
good!) While some look for long-sought-for loves by way of the
the world wide web, there are ministers and preachers who likewise wish
to share thoughts and scriptures with one another. And many times
I have been sparked into a sermon by a mere statement another
insightful minister has said while discussing scripture with me.
I must say I do not
condone looking for sermons on the Internet to avoid personal
study. We need our own personal experience in hearing from God
for a sermon to preach to our congregations. I have all my
sermons listed on my website, and know many ministers are blessed to
use them in their own churches. I believe God blesses such
endeavours, especially when a minister must work a full-time job as
well as preach to a church. One preacher blessed me so much when
he said he had used several of my sermons in his church and remarked
how his full-time job robs him of much time in personal study for
sermons. And he said God anoints him and blesses him to preach my
thoughts as though God gave them to him! So it is not wrong to
use someone else's sermons, but as I said at the start of this
paragraph, it is wrong when done to avoid
personal bible study.
I have experienced
the sensation in my spirit of knowing a mother lode of truth awaited me
and would hit me in a few minutes of studying when I saw a vein of a thought coming
together. I knew something more
was in a thought I was reading in the Bible than what I already
understood. This is in instances when , for example, I studied
the familiar story of David and Goliath. Something hit me about
the smooth stones David found in the Valley as his weapons. I
considered the contrast of how he rejected Saul's armour and sword, and
trusted instead in God's might. And then I considered what
weapons he did use! A sling and five smooth stones! We read
he took the stones from a brook.
Suddenly it
came! the moving of God's Spirit is likened to a River of Living,
moving, water. And although David was in a valley, commonly known
as a type of hard and discouraging times in our lives, the Spirit was
moving in the valley, too! And since that brook of running water
supplied David the smooth
stones, I saw a picture of God's Spirit providing us with all that we
will ever need in times of trouble in our valleys where we face
undesirable giants.
In other words, you
can sense God has something to teach you from a Bible story to give the
congregation to whom you are going to preach, and you must have faith
that He who hath begun a good work in you by inspiring you with that
sense of something more, will finish it and lead you. Take time
to study. God needs you to take time. Sometimes it may be
quicker than at others, but eventually something will come to you if you sought God
in prayer to give you a sermon! If we lack faith for Him to do
this, we will lack patience. One wise preacher told me that
patience is the undergirding for the bridge called faith. Without
patience, we cannot maintain our faith that God will speak.
Another thing I have noticed in my studies that greatly aids me in
hearing from God, is the feeling of excitement that God is going to
speak to me! When I enter into a time of study in excitement of
what awesome truths God already gave to me, and wants to continue to
give to me, my faith is flying high! You cannot be excited about
hearing from God if you do not have faith God will speak! I
simply remind myself of thoughts God gave to me that utterly astounded
and excited me, and that excitement and faith comes back again for more!
The bible is truly
an inexhaustible resource of sermons! As large as the bible is,
one might still think you can only get so many sermons from it. But
this is God's Word! It is not like any other book.
The Spirit of God inspired men to write it's contents. It is
written in such a way, due to that reason, that there will always be
truths to enter into in greater measures. It's only when a
minister loses faith and excitement of what God can speak that one
dries up and finds nothing to preach when reading the Bible.
One excited saint
of God in our congregation once asked me how long could it continue for
God to keep giving me fresh sermons every week. I confidently
replied that the Bible and God's inspiration are endless resources!
TO BE CONTINUED...