There is little doubt in my mind that one of the most powerful weapons that we Christians possess is the preached Word of God. (Hebrews 4:12) gives us a glimpse into just how powerful the Word of God is when it says: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” And in (Ephesians 6:17) we are told to take up “…the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
We see the classic example of the power of the Word of God demonstrated by Jesus when He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness in (Matthew 4). The devil hurled three of his most powerful temptations at our Lord and three times Jesus simply said, “it is written,” and quoted a portion of Scripture from the book of Deuteronomy – and the devil had to leave!
I love how Winkie Pratney helps amplify the power of the Word when he states: “You know, many of the Eastern thought forms use Scripture. That’s because the book is so powerful – you can’t ignore it. If you don’t use it, you can’t capture people’s hearts. God has built life into His Word, and all the strong cults rip it off – steal bites out of the Bible and use it…Just the fact that pieces taken out of context are powerful enough to draw men’s hearts should tell you what the whole Word, used under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit can do!”1
John Newton also gives us insight into what anointed preaching can do when he stated: “My grand point in preaching is to break the hard heart, and to heal the broken one.”2 The Word of God often is designed to do two things at the same time. In this case sometimes the only thing that can break a hard heart is prayer and the Word of God. For you see a hard heart needs spiritual surgery since it is spiritually dead. And a skilled preacher is like a surgeon and his scalpel is the Word of God. In addition, the preached Word can be like the balm of Gilead and bring soothing medicine to a broken heart and literally restore the joy of the Lord to a hurting Christian.
One other comment, which I pray often for many of the pastors on my daily prayer list, is that when they are sharing the Word from the pulpit that it would both convict and encourage the believer. I firmly believe that when the Word of God is preached that it should be able to minister to every believer, both conviction when they are sinning, and encouragement when they are walking in the will of God and going through various trials.
My friends there is nothing so powerful than a pastor who has spent time in his prayer closet, and delivers the anointed Word of God. And that is why it is so important to pray for your pastor that he will be able to share, each time he preaches, fresh manna for every situation!