David Murray shares “the secret to powerful preaching” — here’s his lead paragraph:
There is no secret behind powerful preaching – apart from secret prayer. The biggest mistake we can make as preachers is to think that we can learn to preach powerfully from books, from seminars, or from lectures on preaching. No, for preaching to be powerful it must be preceded by, accompanied with, and followed by prayer.
He goes on to say that we preachers ought to pray before we preach and suggests several ways we ought to pray for our preparation and preaching. He also encourages we pray during the preaching and after the preaching. I need this encouragement and he’s right.
Now, I know his article was primarily for preachers, but I’d add that another facet of what makes for great preaching lies in the prayer life of the hearer.
Here’s how I’d suggest that you prepare yourself with prayer to hear the preaching:
- Pray during the week for the preacher as he prepares
- Pray during the week for yourself that you’ll be prepared to hear God’s message to you through the preached Word
- Pray on the way to church for your own soul to be fed and for the souls of others who will hear the same sermon
- Pray during the preaching that you’ll hear the preaching and be undistracted by what’s going on around you or what’s going on in your life
- Pray after the sermon for God’s Word to do it’s work in your own heart and life
Along these lines there are three books I’d recommend for preachers and those who listen to them:
And go read the rest of David’s article: the secret to powerful preaching.