Consecrated Power — E.A. Johnston

The Missing Ingredient in Modern Preaching

I want to address an aspect of preaching which is often neglected in our day. We have many preachers today, but few real conversions occurring under our preaching. There seems to be a missing ingredient in much of our preaching today, friends, and that's what I wish to dwell on before we go to a time of prayer this evening.

I can best illustrate this with the example of Dr. Stephen Oldford when he preached. I would sit and listen to Stephen Oldford preach, and he had a fire attending his preaching, a mantle of authority from on high rested upon him.

He could command the attention of a large group of pastors, keep them on the edge of their seats, and when he was done preaching, they'd be off their seats and on their knees and faces in confession and prayer.

He had a commanding presence about him because he was a consecrated man of God who knew he needed a touch from heaven to get anything done spiritually. When he ministered to others, I would hear him pray the following prayer.

Anoint me with your spirit, Lord, for this strategic hour, that I may preach your holy word with consecrated power. And that's the title of my message this evening, friends, consecrated power. And my text is found in the book of Acts chapter 1 and verse 8.

The Promise of Power for Worldwide Witness

Let me read it to you now. But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

Basically, Jesus was telling his followers that they would have a promise of spiritual equipment for a worldwide preaching campaign. And these men went out anointed with the spirit of God, and they literally turned the world upside down in third day.

But in our day, we're not turning the world upside down because our meager preaching lacks power. We lack consecrated power. That's why we're seeing so few conversions in our day in the West, because when somebody gets saved, it's when the Holy Spirit applies the gospel to a person's heart.

Christ’s Pattern of Prayer and Spiritual Discipline

In Mark chapter 1 and verse 35, we read,. And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. It was a habit with Jesus to rise early and spend time with the Father.

If this was the pattern for Christ during his earthly ministry, why do we fail here so miserably? We lack power because we lack discipline, the discipline of a regular daily quiet time in a close walk with God to get that power.

The disciples asked Jesus, Lord, teach us to pray. They had witnessed him pray on a regular basis, and they saw his power, and they wanted it. Before he ascended, he told them to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come upon them with power.

The main reason we lack power in the pulpit is our lack of prayer on our knees in a vital relationship with God. Stephen Offord used to tell me that he knew it to be a fact that the average pastor only spent ten minutes a day in prayer.

That's why so many sermons lack influence, because the man preaching them has no authority. The saintly F .B. Meyer had this to say regarding the subject of anointing. If Christ waited to be anointed before he went to preach, no young man ought to preach until he too has been anointed by the Holy Ghost.

Holiness as the Cost of Spiritual Anointing

Now listen, friends, to what E .M. Bounds had to say about this matter of the anointing. He said, Church strength does not consist in its numbers and in its money, but in the holiness of its members. Church strength is not found in these worldly attachments or endowments, but in the endowment of the Holy Spirit.

But there is a cost for this, friends. Stephen Offord used to tell me that God can only bless with the anointing of His Spirit those who pursue a life of holiness, and I believe that's the key. I believe that's the main reason we lack power in our pulpits today, because we've got men who are unholy out of them.

What cost counts, and what counts costs, but too few are willing to make the sacrifice to pursue a holy life. Listen, dear brother pastor, it may mean you have to get rid of your television and spend the time you used to waste in front of that one-eyed monster, instead spend that time on your knees and in your Bible.

If you want to be saturated with God, then you must stay in the presence of the Almighty. Listen to what the great Donald Gray Barnhouse had to say about this very thing. The man who is the thunder in the court of Pharaoh, with an imperious, thus saith the Lord, must first stand barefooted before the burning bush.

I believe that, friends, don't you? But today, we're afraid to even talk about the Holy Spirit, because we don't want to be labeled Pentecostals, so we ignore Him and get by on money and manpower to get the job done, and that's why the church lacks power, and why the country's in the mess she's in.

Seeking the Lord Through Repentance

But in the book of Hosea, we find, so to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He come and reign righteousness upon you. The Chinese evangelist, Watchman Nee, said, if a believer fails in prayer, he in fact fails in everything.

When I study men in former times whom God has seen pleased to use in revival, I find that they were holy men with consecrated power. Evan Roberts, for example, of the Welsh Revival, he had this to say.

He said, is there any sin in your past that you have not confessed to God? Is there anything in your life that is doubtful? How about you, friend? Is there anything in your life that is doubtful before God?

Can Jesus sit beside you in your home and watch that television program with you? Do you have a bitter and grumbling spirit? Do you have an unforgiving heart? Take it to God and break up the fallow ground of your heart through repentance and seek the Lord of glory until He reign righteousness upon you.

The Church’s Substitutes for the Presence of God

Please take a moment and listen to these wise words from the former pastor of Moody Church in Chicago, Dr. Allen Redpath, who said, today the Christian church is helpless behind the scenes and away from the public arena.

We are facing powers of darkness too strong for us because somewhere in our personal lives we have forfeited all right to the Spirit's anointing, His authority and power in His absence. All we can do is to substitute planning and organization schemes and techniques.

And that's true, friends. Today in our churches we have a lot of substitutes for the missing presence of God. We have loud booming music, hand clapping and dancing, flashing lights and media shows, but no felt presence of the Almighty.

There was a time in our land years ago where you could walk into a church and be bowed under the awful presence of Almighty God. Back then you couldn't drag the teenagers away from church because God was there.

Now you can't drag the teenagers to church. If I was a teenager today, I wouldn't want to go to church either. Why should I? We have mainly personalities and entertainers in our pulpits today rather than men who were saturated with the presence of God through auction by the Spirit of God.

Prayer as the Church’s Engine

J. Sidlow Baxter used to rise at 5 a .m. every morning to spend time with God. When he was in his 90s, he rose at 6 a .m. every day to spend time in prayer. His wife, Iza, used to tell me that she could hear him down the hall early in the morning while he was in his study.

She could hear him moan and groan and cry out to the great God of heaven. Sidlow Baxter used to say, the habit of regular, lingering prayer more than anything else makes any Christian a dangerous holy weapon in the hand of God.

Listen friends, the worst day in America was when the church did away with the weekly prayer meeting and replaced it with divorce recovery groups and yoga classes. The only engine of the church is prayer.

But instead of being a house of prayer, we're a house of entertainment today, and that's why so many of us are out of gas. I can listen to a man in the pulpit for 10 minutes and tell you all about his prayer life.

We've placed an emphasis on education and personality in our pulpits today rather than a holy life immersed in prayer. We need consecrated power today in our churches, consecrated power to transform the lives of our hearers.

Holy Men Who Model the Presence of Christ

The men I have known who've had power in the pulpit were men who lived on their knees and walked with God in a holy life of consecration to him. When I would spend time with Adrian Rogers, he always reminded me of Jesus.

I'll never forget one evening in particular. It was a cold, dark night, and it was raining hard outside. When I dropped my family off at the door of a local restaurant, I went and parked the car and made my way in the rain beneath my umbrella.

I barely made it inside the lobby of the restaurant, and a man stood there with his arms outstretched, and he threw his arms around me and hugged me and said, Ernesto, it was Adrian Rogers. But to me, it was like I had stepped out of the darkness into heaven, and Jesus was standing there and hugging me.

It's because Adrian modeled Jesus so well in his life of holiness and prayer. And Adrian Rogers told me, we need God-called men who will take the book of God and preach the Son of God with the anointing of the Spirit of God and his true friends.

That's our greatest lack today in our churches, men on fire with God and anointed by the Spirit of God. I want to give you a quote from Charles Finney. Finney was used mightily during the Second Great Awakening.

The Need for Unction in Preaching

Listen to his words in his advice to preachers. I am afraid, I must say, to the great majority of the ministers, even of the present day, I think that their practical views of preaching the gospel, whatever their theological views may be, are very defective indeed, and that their want of unction and of the power of the Holy Ghost is a radical defect in their preparation for the ministry.

That's so true, friends. That's the great defect in our pulpits today. We lack consecrated power. A seminary won't teach it to you. In fact, many seminaries will talk you out of having an anointing for a ministry.

I'll never forget sitting in a preaching class in seminary, and the preaching professor spoke all through his lecture on the need for us preachers to project our voice and be enthusiastic. And when he was done, one of the seminary boys approached him, and I was close enough to hear their conversation, and this is how it went.

The seminary boy said, Professor, I listened to your lecture on preaching, and you never mentioned the need of the Holy Spirit. But when I read the sermons of Jonathan Edwards, I sense a great power upon them.

And when Jonathan Edwards preached, there were mighty moves of grace and revival. The seminary professor cut the boy off, and with a look of disdain, remarked, Son, you can forget all that for you are no Jonathan Edwards.

That's what the man said. And I believe that young seminary student knew a great deal more about preaching than that old puffed-up seminary professor, and that's why we're in the shape we're in today, friends.

Dependence on God Rather Than Human Resources

We can get so much done in our churches with money and manpower. We don't need to rely on holy ghost power, but where, oh, where are the men who are willing to lay on their faces in sackcloth and ashes before the great ancient of days until they are endued with power from on high?

We need consecrated power in our preaching today, friends. I will close this message with a quote from A .W. Tozer regarding the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Tozer was a man who would spend hours laying on his face in his study in the presence of God.

His writings still have a touch of heaven upon them. Listen to what he had to say. So we believe such revival wonders can take place only as the Holy Spirit energizes the word of God as it is preached.

Genuine blessings cannot come unless the Holy Spirit energizes and convinces and stirs the people of God. I agree with that, friends. I surely do. Let us all go to our knees now and ask God for this power.

Oh, how desperately we need this consecrated power in these dark, dark days.