Hear these important words today from my friend, Dr. Jim Shaddix. His words are always challenging and convicting to me:
As you pray for the Spirit’s attendance to your preaching, don’t just ask Him to help you. Ask Him to help your people as well. His power does something to both preacher and people. So pray that those who listen to you preach will be gripped, moved, and convicted. Pray that the Spirit will take over as you preach so that something miraculous happens in every listener’s life. Pray every person in the room will become convinced that what they’re hearing when you preach are not the words of a man but the very voice of God (cf. 1 Cor 2:5).
Whenever I’m preparing to preach, I always pray that God will cause my listeners to experience what those disciples on the road to Emmaus experienced: “They said to each other, ‘Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?'” (Luke 24:32). I pray that God’s Spirit will cause their hearts to burn within them to the point they become convinced that He’s talking and decide to align their lives with what He’s saying.
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Jim Shaddix, Decisional Preaching (p. 56). Rainer Publishing. Kindle Edition.