The following "Question" was asked by an attendee at the 2005 Shepherds' Conference (a ministry of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California), and was "Answered" by John MacArthur Jr. It was transcribed from "General Session #10 John MacArthur - Q&A." A copy of the CD, cassette tape, or MP3 can be obtained by going to: www.shepherdsconference.org ©2005. All Rights Reserved. Grace Community Church.
Questioner
Dr. MacArthur, I would respect your opinion greatly about this… Talk to me about the role of the Holy Spirit in preaching.
John MacArthur's Answer
The Holy Spirit (John 3) “blows where He will.” I cannot say that I have ever
felt the Holy Spirit. I don’t have a red light on my head that goes on when
He’s operating. There is no physical phenomena; there are no tingles down my
spine. I only know this: the Holy Spirit illuminates the Word. He illuminates
the Word to my mind. And I also know that the Holy Spirit—I guess I could use
the word—“empowers” my passion.
I mean, there are a lot of things in life that I’m interested in, but most people who know me would say I tend to be fairly laidback. I’m not a really intense, kind of high-wired person. In fact, one time my son Mark said to me—he sat on the bed when he was in high school (I think he was a senior)—and he looked at me and he said one day, “Hey, dad,” he said, “I can’t figure you out.” I said, “What do you mean, Mark?” “You know, when you’re in the pulpit, you are really something, but the rest of the time, you’re really nothing special.” That’s exactly what he said! I just put my arm around him and said, “Hey, I don’t know. I just know this, that when I’m armed with the Word of God, something’s turned loose. Something happens.”
I can’t measure it, I can’t quantify it, I can’t feel it. I don’t know what it is the Holy Spirit is doing; I don’t know when He’s doing it and when He’s not. In fact, I’ve said this, but there are times when you feel…you know this, there’s a great freedom when you preach and you feel like something’s kind of carrying you along and you’re better than you should be, right? And you just feel like it was cohesive and it came together and it worked, and you go home for lunch and your wife says, “You just really weren’t up to your normal stuff today.” “What? Are you kidding me? What were you doing while I was preaching?” And there are other times when you battle and you labor and you struggle, and you’re trying to get it clear in your own mind—which is the first challenge, you know—it’s very easy to be profound so no one can understand you. All it takes is, if you don’t know what you’re saying, they won’t either. You can just hope they think it’s because you’re so smart, you know.
But, I don’t know, I don’t want to get mystical. It was Martin Lloyd Jones who said he felt he only had the anointing twice in his whole life. My friend, that’s ridiculous. What are you looking for? Just make sure you know this: the Spirit illuminates the Word, which He authored, the Spirit empowers the pure mind and the pure heart—just make sure the vessel’s clean when you go in there—and what happens, happens. I don’t know where I begin or where He starts, but you know what? I live my whole life like that. I mean, look at the whole issue of the Christian life: who lives my Christian life? Do I? Or does the Holy Spirit? I don’t know when it’s me and when it’s Him. I can’t—there’s no line there and there’s no phenomena there! That’s why Paul said, “For me to live is Christ”—well, what do you mean by that, Paul? And he says, “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless, I live, yet not I.” He didn’t know either. I mean, he didn’t! He didn’t have any light on his head either.
I don’t ever say, “The Lord told me this” or “The Lord directed me here.” I can say in retrospect; I can look at providence. I can look at providence in retrospect and I can go, “Wow, what an incredible thing!” I was talking to somebody recently—I sat on an airplane next to a guy (who was a Tight End at the University of Kentucky, I found out later), he sat down next to the airplane and we were flying across the country… I had my New Testament out and I was reading and writing some notes, and he looked over at me. He had gotten on the plane because the plane had mechanical problems, it landed in St. Louis, so we picked up some extra passengers who were trying to get to L.A. This guy sits next to me and about a half an hour into the flight he looks at me and he says, “You’re reading the Bible there. You wouldn’t know how I could have a personal relationship with Christ, would you?” I mean, you can look back and you can say, “Well, that is—that’s ordained by God,” you know? So, I think in retrospect, you can look back, but in the long haul of ministry, guys, don’t be waiting for some magic to happen. I mean, this is basically hard work. I mean, this is basically just slug it out, stay faithful week after week after week after week. You don’t even perceive your own sanctification. You can’t perceive your own sanctification. So, I think you don’t want to look for too much here. All I try to do is make sure that I know the Word and I’ve done my best to understand it, and then I just do what I do and I don’t know why it comes out the way it does. I really don’t. If it has power, it’s because it’s the truth, not because something is happening to my mouth or my brain.
What I’m working for is clarity. That’s all I care about, is clarity. It happens that I’m just, kind of, average in terms of my own understanding. I think the reason that I make things clear is because all I’m trying to do when I study the Bible is make them clear to me. That’s all I ever do. I just want to understand this clearly, and once I’ve come to understand it clearly, I just get up and I tell you what I’ve come to understand clearly. And it just so happens that my demand for clarity isn’t in the stratosphere; it’s kind of where people live, you know what I’m saying? I don’t need to unscramble the doctrine of the immusio (?), you know what I mean? I just need to understand what this text means and how it connects with life.
Added to Bible Bulletin Board's "MacArthur's Questions and
Answers" by:
Tony Capoccia
Bible Bulletin Board
Box 119
Columbus, New Jersey, USA, 08022
Our websites: www.biblebb.com and www.gospelgems.com
Email: tony@biblebb.com
Online since 1986