Spirit-Driven Preaching

Spirit-driven preaching is focused on the dynamic of the Spirit and the Spirit’s text. The Spirit drives the sermon along the predetermined path of the biblical text. Spirit-driven preaching culminates in Christological witness and Spirit-filled living.

Spirit-led preaching thrives on the combustible power that ignites our preaching when the Spirit, the text, and the preacher all meet together in the sermon.

Hence, Spirit-led preaching should be as narrow and as wide as the tracks of the biblical text. When we get off the tracks and go “rabbit chasing” in our sermons, then we can expect (and probably have experienced!) sluggishness in our preaching engine because our preaching has gotten off the Spirit-inspired track.

If we don’t get the sermon back on the tracks by returning to the heart of the biblical text, we will eventually come to a grinding and screeching halt because we are working against both the Word and the Spirit.

On the other hand, when we find ourselves on the solid rails of the Spirit-inspired text, empowered by the Spirit’s illuminating presence and driven by a passionate Christological motive to glorify Jesus, the train speeds along the tracks of the biblical text to its desired destination of spiritual transformation.

Greg Heisler, Spirit-Led Preaching: The Holy Spirit’s Role in Sermon Preparation and Delivery (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2007), 19–20.