Preaching Like a Volcano Preaching Class — E.A. Johnston

I was taking my Ph .D. oral exam in front of two of my seminary professors and I made this comment to them. I said, when I look at the church today and compare it to the one found in my Bible in the book of Acts, I see a vast dissimilarity between the two, for the early church had power when they preached.

One of my professors got mad and told me that the book of Acts was for a former time and not for today. Well, I shut my mouth. I didn't want to argue with him because I wanted to graduate with my Ph .D., but I strongly disagreed with him then and I disagree with him now.

Revival Preachers and the Power of the Spirit

And as a research scholar, as I study the sermons of the Great Awakening and the Second Great Awakening, I see that the human instruments that God used in those revivals of religion, they had the same power as those early Christians from the book of Acts.

When I read about men whom God has used like Edwards or Whitefield or Moody, I see this same power displayed in their ministries. They were men of God, animated and activated by the Spirit of God. They had power and that same power is available to us today, friends, if we want it, if we just don't believe, but we just don't believe in that kind of power for today.

The Church’s Pursuit of Numbers Over Revival

For in our day, the church isn't interested in power, it's interested in numbers. As long as we're running 3 ,000 on Sunday, then we're happy, we feel we're a success in ministry, even if we are addressing a largely unconverted congregation.

I was standing in line for my seminary graduation and I asked the pastor next to me a question. I said, how often do you meet with fellow pastors in your community to pray for revival? And this man looked at me strangely and replied, we don't need revival, we are on the grow.

So long as the brick and mortar of your campus expansion is occurring, then that's all you need. Why bother God? Why bother him with sin and revival? That's where the church is today, friends. Many are content with an ordinary ministry and that's fine.

Longing for an Extraordinary Ministry

There's a crown awaiting a faithful ministry, but I never wanted an ordinary ministry. I wanted power, a power that was outside me, beyond me. I wanted a power that could transform the lives of men. Duncan Campbell was a man so mightily used to God in revival on the Isle of Lewis in 1949, and he was a man who preached in the demonstration of the spirit and of power.

I once asked a minister friend on the Isle of Lewis who knew Duncan Campbell well, I asked him to explain Duncan Campbell to me in one sentence, and this is what he said. Duncan Campbell was an ordinary man who had had an extraordinary experience of God.

That's what I longed for. I've known men with this power. They had an anointing, a special authority when they preached, an anointing from on high. I was with Stephen Ofer, my homiletical mentor, and he had this power, and I was waiting for him in his office one morning, and as he entered his office, he sunk in a chair, exhausted, and he said to me, excuse me, brother, excuse me for a few minutes.

I must regather myself. I must regather myself. I just preached and virtue has left me. My mind went immediately to the passage of Jesus in the crowd, and the woman with an issue of blood that no doctor could cure, she reaches out in faith and touches the hem of his garment and was healed, and Jesus whirls around and said, somebody hath touched me, for I perceive that virtue has gone out of me.

Dunamis Power and the Holy Spirit’s Anointing

That word virtue in the Greek is the word dunamis, where we get our English word dynamite from. Dunamis is power from God, a divine energy, and Dr. Ofer was so full of the Holy Ghost when he preached, he exuded this virtue.

It just left him. Well, let me ask you, brother pastor, when you preach, does virtue leave you or are you just an intermediary between your Bible and your people? The Spirit of God is like a fire that melts the heart, separates and burns up the dross, brings conviction to sin, but what does a fire do?

Preaching That Awakens Conscience and Reveals Judgment

It awakens and alarms. When a sinner is brought under conviction of sin, under the Holy Spirit, he is awakened to his lost condition and alarmed over his perilous position. For the Holy Spirit is given to enable us to understand and apply the Scriptures.

For when you preach in the power of the Holy Ghost, men will come under deep concern over their spiritual condition. For preaching in the power of the Holy Ghost will draw back the curtains on eternity to where men and women are standing on the very verge of hell, alarmed of their imminent danger.

For when we preach in the power of the Holy Ghost, it will awaken men's consciences, pierce their hearts with the guilt of sin, and show them their only remedy for sin is in the person of Christ Jesus, and give them a penitent heart and a bit of remorse and sorrow for sin.

Men in their natural condition are wed to sin and marked for ruin. I wanted power in the pulpit. I longed to see a demonstration of the Spirit in power in a meeting. I was preaching in a church where I saw that right in the middle of my sermon.

I looked out on the congregation and it was as if a cannonball had been shot right down the middle aisle of that church. The people all had looks of alarm on their faces, and a young man came running down the aisle, jumping up and down and hollering, I just got saved, I just got saved, oh great God grant us this power.

Leonard Ravenhill and the Volcano of Divine Power

I asked my friend, Al Whittinghill, to describe Leonard Ravenhill to me because Al was Ravenhill's traveling aide with him for two years, taking him to his meetings. I said to him, tell me about Leonard Ravenhill, tell me about him as a man and a preacher, and he said when Ravenhill was elderly, he needed help getting in and out of a car, and Al Whittinghill had to hold on to his arm as they entered the church, and Al told me that holding on to Leonard Ravenhill's arm was like holding on to a volcano.

That's it friends, that's the dunamis power, the divine energy I'm talking about. It's a dynamite power and an almighty force that runs when the word of God is preached. It flows down like lava, like a volcano.

The word of God falls like a hammer with weight and authority where the spirit of God flows down with a force of conviction of sin and a fire that exposes sin for where the word of God runs and burns like a fire and cuts like a sword, a preaching that flows down with a divine force and commands your attention like a volcano, like Sinai all together on a smoke, and when you encounter that kind of preaching, you know it, brother pastor.

Seeking Power From on High Through Prayer

If you're tired of the status quo of doing church each Sunday like business as usual, and you long for more, you long for power from on high, it's available to you, but I must add this disclosure, what counts costs and what cost counts.

Seek God in earnest desperation, seek him, ask him for this power from on high through his spirit, let us pray, oh great God, we are completely bankrupt without you, Lord. Give us a touch of your dunamis power, your word declares, be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the spirit, oh heavenly king, empower us to preach with authority and proclaim a crucified Christ to this godless generation without fear of man, for your great glory, we pray this in the name of thy dear son, Jesus, amen.