By Greg W. Heisler
Biblically,
Jesus foretells the Spirit’s illuminating ministry in John 16:13-14: “But when
he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will
not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you
what is yet to come. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine
and making it known to you.” Paul speaks of the need for “spiritual discernment”
for understanding the “things that come from the Spirit of God” in I Corinthians
2:14. Perhaps the best illustration of illumination is when Jesus opens the
eyes and hearts of the disciples on the road to Emmaus in Luke 24. Notice the
opening of the Scriptures coincided with the opening of their hearts! Their
illumination results in hearts set ablaze and burning within them! Preachers
who expect their listeners’ hearts to burn must “open the Scriptures” from their
own burning hearts, set on fire by the Spirit’s illumination (Luke 24:32).
Think of it this way: What the Spirit illumines in the study, He will empower
in the pulpit. Passionate, Spirit-empowered preaching is the Spirit’s illuminating
work in the study overflowing into the pulpit!
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THE
WORD AND SPIRIT TOGETHER: THE CATALYST OF SPIRIT-DRIVEN EXPOSITORY PREACHING
The
preacher following the Spirit-driven methodology must embrace the biblical theology
of Word and Spirit as the foundation of the preaching endeavor. A correct biblical
theology of pneumatology and bibliology must drive and under-gird any methodology
of homiletics. Yet confusion and controversy regarding the Word and the Spirit
has resulted in the following standoff:
The
contemporary failure to understand the intimate relationship between the Word
and the Spirit of God is particularly evident in the modern controversy among
‘evangelicals’ and ‘charismatics’. Each side of this deeply felt debate seems
to have an emphasis on an important theological reality which it believes the
other is neglecting. The evangelical emphasis (by definition) is on the Word
of God, in the form of the Scriptures. The charismatic emphasis is on the Spirit
of God. The charismatic caricature of the evangelical is that he or she has
intellectualized the faith into understanding propositions. The corresponding
evangelical estimate of the charismatic is that he or she is living in a world
of make-believe, making too much of relatively unimportant experiences. (Woodhouse,
1995, 46).
Woodhouse
states that the solution to the standoff is not balancing the two extremes,
but rather understanding the relationship between the two theological
realities. Woodhouse describes the relationship between Word and Spirit as
one of complementary interdependence: