HOW DOES UNCTION FUNCTION - Christianity Today

William Barclay, in his autobiography, tells about Arthur John Gossip, then minister of St. Matthew’s in Glasgow, who lived closer to God than any man Barclay had ever known. An incident occurred after a week when pressure of all kinds prevented him from preparing properly for his sermon.

“You know the stair up to the pulpit in St. Matthew’s?” Gossip said. “You know the bend on the stair? Jesus Christ met me there. I saw him as clearly as I see you. He looked at the sermon in my hand.

“‘Gossip,’ he said to me, ‘is this the best you could do for me this week?’

“Thinking back over the business of that week, I could honestly say: ‘Yes, Lord, it is my best.’ “

And then Gossip said, “Jesus Christ took that poor thing that Sunday morning and in His hands it became a trumpet.”

Through the centuries, preachers and listeners have experienced some special touch of God in the midst of the preaching event. It seems to indicate God’s special blessing, his presence, his power given in the act of preaching. We call it unction.

Have there been moments like that in your ministry? They have been far too infrequent in mine. Since I want my people to know the presence of God, I’ve often wondered how I might increase the frequency of unction. And in the handful of times it has occurred in my ministry, I’ve begun to see a pattern.

The elusive presence

I’ve found that some of my preconceptions about unction have to be tossed aside.

For example, unction is not the product of my homiletic and human efforts. Unction is not necessarily present when I’ve prepared my sermon with utmost vigor, using all the intellectual tools at my disposal. Nor is it necessarily present when I’ve preached on subjects that most interest me or on topics that most stretch me. Neither is it present when I’ve delivered the message flawlessly.

And although God deserves my best effort, he often uses my weaker times, like Gossip’s, for his glory.

Unction is not something I necessarily feel. Though there have been moments I have sensed the presence of God in ministry, I’ve known other times when it only became clear later that God had used the moment to his glory.

Where the action is

So if unction cannot be predicted by what preachers do or how preachers feel, how do we know if and when it has occurred? We look at our people. Unction, I’ve come to see, occurs as much in the listeners as in the preacher.

In the Bible, successful moments of preaching often seem to be described from the perspective of the heart and mind of the listener, not from the perspective of the one speaking.

In Acts 2, as the Holy Spirit descended, a moment of divine unction occurred. But it wasn’t what was happening in the preacher that is emphasized, but what was happening inside the hearers: “Brothers, what shall we do?”

After Jesus spoke to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and later around the table, the same sort of event took place: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

The anointing, the unction, is recognized because of its impact on the listener.

In addition, the impact always has the effect of convicting the listener of sin and inadequacy, drawing the person to the mercy and grace of God.

When Nathan spoke his parable to David and then proclaimed, “You are the man,” a moment of divine unction occurred. David heard God speaking to him, so much so he wrote, “Against you, you alone, have I sinned.” Though he had clearly sinned against Uriah and Bathsheba, at that moment only his need for God’s grace and mercy stood out.

When unction occurs, then, it occurs both in the preacher and in the listeners, convicting listeners of sin and leading them to the mercy of God.

This understanding has helped me immensely. Though I work hard to prepare my heart before God, I don’t have to humanly work myself up into an unctuous mood, nor castigate myself when I don’t feel particularly spiritual when I preach. What’s happening in my listeners often goes way beyond what I am feeling.

Also, I don’t mistake an emotional high for unction. Unction is not a good feeling. Good feelings happen during preaching, as well they should. Helping people feel thankful, joyful, and hopeful are all part of the preaching task. But unction does more than help people feel good; it also draws them penitently to a Savior.

Preparing for the unctuous moment

Though unction cannot be predicted or produced by preachers, it doesn’t mean the preacher has nothing to do with the process. I’ve noticed that unction has occurred more often when (a) God’s word is faithfully preached and (b) a particular audience is addressed at their greatest need at that particular moment. Preachers can do a few things to increase the likelihood of those two factors coming together.

Know your God. I understand the fear that Karl Barth often made mention of: Who dares speak for God? What audacity! What presumption!

Yet. I also know that speak I must. But if what I say is simply my own reading of human striving and pain, if I simply try to connect to the heart of the listener without discerning from God his message, then I have no business preaching.

So I constantly monitor my spiritual journey: Am I keeping in contact with the Father? Am I able to listen for his will for my life? If not, then I’m not likely to hear his will for those to whom I preach.

Know your people. The more I study the background of the New Testament, the more aware I am that the God-inspired writers were addressing the very real and immediate struggles of their readers. Scripture is a collection of written sermons to needy audiences. The audiences needed those writings for the situations they faced.

Because unction occurs in the heart of the listener, listeners need to see the connection between the message preached and their own situation. Preaching that is true to the Bible but unrelated to the struggles of the listeners is not likely to become a moment where people say, “God is speaking to me right now!”

Prepare your sermons. No one else’s sermons will do. I cannot let a sermon service or borrowed tapes do my preparation for me. They only offer a generic message. I must say a specific word to a particular people. I must try to speak God’s message to this audience in this situation. That’s when unction is more likely to occur.

Pre-pray your sermons. Since ultimately unction is a divine gift, it can only be facilitated by prayer. So although I’m not as consistent at prayer as I would like, I make it my aim to “pray unceasingly.”

I try to pray whenever I visit with my people, and as I read books and periodicals, that I might know better the struggles that people of this generation face. I pray as I read God’s Word, looking for its message for my people. I pray for the Holy Spirit to be at work in the lives and hearts of my listeners. And I pray that I will become a conduit of God’s penetrating message to his beloved people.

My colleague Jeff Nelson describes it as my “eye look.” He says that occasionally, in the middle of one of my sermons, a fire shows up in my eyes, and he sits back ready for a blast that could not possibly have been prepared for or even expected.

Well, I think it has as much to do with what’s going on in Jeff’s heart as in my eyes. Sometimes the fire just means I’m angry. But the fire in the hearts of my listeners-that’s the unction I’m really after!

-Randy Mayeux

Preston Road Church of Christ

Dallas, Texas