Focus: Anointed Preaching

Text: Lk.4:18,19

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has ANOINTED me to PREACH the gospel to… To PREACH deliverance to the captives… To PREACH the acceptable year of the Lord…"

The miracles of God are domiciled in the word of God. The word of God is the mechanism that produces divine effects. The word of God is creative, productive and curative.

The word for 'word' in Biblical Hebrew is dâbâr. It has three consonants - dbr. The latter 'd' is dalet, meaning 'door.' The letter 'b' is beth, meaning 'house.' Finally, the letter 'r' is resh, meaning head or mind. So 'word' in Hebrew is more than a spoken word; it is something that is tangible and visible. For an Israelite, word is a thing or substance. In the Elementary School, matter is defined as anything that has weight and occupies space. That is more or less what word means to a Biblical Jew. Word is matter - that which you can see and touch. 

The word of God is a door maker or opener. The word of God constructs a house, and the word of God unveils to us the mind of God. We do not know God basically apart from the word of God. It is in what God says that we understand His will and ways. We encounter open doors through the word. Even where there is no door, God's word creates a door. The word of God brings us into God's house. God is builder and maker. God makes doors through His word. Jesus says, "I am the door." Jesus Christ is the tabernacle of God among men. God reveals His mind through His word. You can see that the word of God is more than something abstract; it is something concrete. 

There are few places in the New Testament where the word 'logos' is translated as 'work' in the King James Version of the Bible. In Isaiah 2:1 we read, "The WORD that Isaiah the son of Amoz SAW…" Did you get that? The word Isaiah saw. The word is seeable and touchable. God's word has power to produce desired or intended effects. It is the mechanism that manufactures or produces exactly what God says. The psalmist says, "For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast" (Ps.33:9).

Now our text tells us that the preacher is anointed and empowered by the Holy Spirit to preach deliverance to the captives. The preacher has the anointing of God upon him to preach the gospel to the poor. The poor needs to hear the gospel - a word that will alter his thinking or belief system. Poverty is not so much a lack of money as it is a lack of mental readiness and strong determination to overcome the odds and force of poverty. So the poor needs a word from God that will unveil God's mind, construct a house and design a door for him.

Preaching is not eloquence or oratory. Preaching is not mastery of grammar. As a matter of fact, demons are not afraid of the preacher's grammar. Preaching is not about intellectual brilliance. Powerless preaching cannot set free the captives. It is by the anointing of the Holy Spirit that the yokes of captivity can be broken. Isaiah declares, "And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing" (Isa.10:27). 

Only anointed and Christ-centered preaching can deal with the forces of evil. Demons only bow to the power of the gospel. Spiritual shackles can only be shattered by Spirit-empowered preaching.

Let us look at what the Scripture says about Jesus Christ! Luke 4:1, 14 says, "And Jesus being FULL of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was LED by the Spirit into the wilderness… And Jesus returned in the POWER of the Spirit." Christ was full of the Spirit. Christ was led by the Spirit. Christ returned in the power of the Spirit. John says, "For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him" (Jh.3:34). Jesus Christ had the Spirit beyond measure and spoke or preached the words of God. Peter says of Christ, "How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him" (Act.10:38). Christ preached by and operated with the power of the Holy Spirit. Miracles happened in His ministry because of the anointing. Nicodemus said to Him, "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him" (Jh.3:2). Christ enjoyed the Father's company. God was with Him. The miracles He performed served as evidence of God's presence in His life and ministry. He said the words of God and did the works of God.

The pulpits today are full of sensational and sentimental preaching. Preaching that impress. Preaching for self-show. Preaching that sentimentalize. Politically correct preaching. Passionless and powerless preaching. I can go on and on. It is because of this sort of preaching that souls are not being saved, yokes are not being broken, and lives are not being radically changed.

Let us pray for a restoration of Spirit-empowered preaching and for preachers who rely solely on the anointing the Holy Spirit and the power of the gospel! God's people have needs that only the anointing can adequately, sufficiently, and effectively handle. We need preachers who will preach deliverance to the captives, preach the gospel to the power, and preach the acceptable year of the Lord - the year of jubilee. Anointed preaching is our urgent need today. Anywhere preaching is to be done, anointing of the Spirit is required, and the effect of such preaching is the deliverance of captives and the transformation of the poor. The word saves from sin, heals sick bodies, and transforms whole lives.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter