Preaching:
What is the role of the Holy Spirit in passion and preaching?
Smith:
The Spirit is the catalyst, the energizer. He is the one who gives unction.
This is how I picture it. I think of preaching and passion in terms of the role
of the Spirit in Genesis 2, Ezekiel 37. Adam had everything he needed to be
considered a human being except breath. He had all the bones he needed, he had
skin, organs. The only thing God did was to breathe into his nostrils that breath
of life.
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The
same think in Ezekiel. There are dry bones, then they take on flesh — there's
everything but they're still lying down. They need the breath. I think preaching
can't really stand until the Holy Spirit takes our message and breathes upon
it, because He knows — He's omniscient. He knows what Robert Smith needs. He
can take something that I've prepared — I have no idea what you need or what
the congregation needs — and He takes that and distributes it in diversified
ways. And that's exciting.
Sometimes
we're not aware of it until after the service is over and people come up to
us and ask, "How did you know?" with tears in their eyes, and the
Holy Spirit has been moving. Sometimes what we've said has not necessarily been
said well in terms of articulation and presentation but the Spirit takes what
we consider an aside and applies it to the people. I see the Holy Spirit as
the omniscient one who is fitting us for being in the pulpit. He's with us in
the study preparing. He is the preacher doing the sermon and He's the after-preacher,
because after the sermon is over the Spirit is still preaching all week long
applying the message to people. Most of the time we never see our product and
we won't know how our preaching hits some people until we get to Heaven.
Preaching:
Tell me what you see is the place of prayer in all of this.
Smith:
Prayer is my recognition that everything I've done by way of preparation is
in vain in my own strength. It brings me to the point that I know I'm inadequate,
I'm insufficient. When I open myself up to God to use my weakness and my wayward
thoughts and disorganized ideas — and sometimes to watch Him do that in the
pulpit is almost like having an out-of-body experience and saying, "This
is not me." So prayer, for me, is opening the door so that God can come
in and take what I've done and use it beyond my fondest dreams. Its like Fred
Craddock saying, after he's prepared his message and is on his way to the pulpit
from the study, "God, I have nothing. Let's see what you're going to do
with nothing today." Just opening yourself up to be used.