Unction needed for new Function

Every week in our services, we pray right before the sermon begins.  Why?  Well, while most of us are convinced at a basic level that we should do this, our reasons are a bit "sketchy"- so we don't appear prideful, because we are supposed to, etc.  Really, when it come down to it, we're not really sure why, but we know we should.

Let me suggest that we should pray because the preacher needs unction in order to see changed function in our lives.  What is "unction"?  One of the greatest preachers of the 20th century, Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones, defined it this way:

"It is the Holy Spirit falling upon the preacher in a special manner.  It is an access of power.  It is God giving power, and enabling, through the Spirit, to the preacher in order that he may do this work in a manner that lifts it up beyond the efforts and endeavors of man to a position in which the preacher is being used by the Spirit and becomes the channel through whom the Spirit works."

"Unction" refers to the powerful working of the Holy Spirit through the words of a sinful man to make them not only explain what is true in God's Word, but become the means of actually changing our hearts- not just our minds.  Every orator knows that with the right eloquence, the right mood set through controlling the environment (music, lighting, seating, people present, etc.), momentary change is achievable.  Minds or emotions can be persuaded for a moment to take an action that out of that setting we would never take.  That's not unction; that's manipulation.

Unction has been present when the effects of that moment last!  When it changes how we function in the world.  These changes may be small- more changes in direction that take time to realize in our lives.  But that is the fruit of unction- Holy Spirit power that has made lasting changes in our lives.

Frances Schaeffer, the founder of L'Abri Christian Study centers, once asked, "I wonder what would happen to most churches and Christian work if we awakened tomorrow, and everything concerning the reality and work of the Holy Spirit, and everything concerning prayer, were removed from the Bible.  I don't mean just ignored, but actually cut out- disappeared.  I wonder how much difference it would make?"

Let's pray so we never find out!  Let's pray for Holy Spirit Unction!