On a certain day in Jesus busy ministry, He was on His way to heal a certain child. While on the journey a woman with an issue of blood reached out to Him and through faith touched Him and received her miraculous healing. Jesus felt the virtue (or anointing) leave Him as she received this healing. He asked, "Who touched me?"
In your ministry, many people are going to pull strength from you. Though Jesus was simply walking along the road on the way to heal a child, someone found a way to press through the crowd and pull it out of Him.
They will call you nearly any time of day. They'll show up at your house when you least expect it. They will tell you their problems at the grocery store. If you show up early for church, there will often be someone there who feels it is their chance to "have your attention".
By the time you get up to preach you may find yourself without virtue from time to time. Preaching itself will drain you of your virtue when you preach under the anointing. I have worked hard in the construction field most of my life, and seldom felt as tired and exhausted as I do after preaching an anointed sermon.
Jesus Himself experienced times when He had to retreat from the crowd and even His close followers to get alone with the Father. This is where He found His virtue (anointing). There is no replacement for personal prayer and time alone with the Source of virtue. Prayer, fasting and constant communion are of absolute necessity if you desire to maintain your virtue.
A Preacher without virtue is like a mechanic without tools. He can tell you what is wrong, but he can't help you very much. Virtue is needed to minister to someone who has been attacked by Satan. Anointing is needed to lift them up and heal them of their physical and spiritual wounds.
Preaching without virtue is just oratory. It might be interesting to listen to, but if it does not heal, it is of little use. It takes virtue to deliver souls from sin. It takes anointing to break the yoke of bondage in people's lives. Without a saturation of the Spirit on a message, it is little more than a lecture.
While a well thought out and prepared message is of absolute necessity, it alone cannot break the yoke. It takes virtue. It takes anointing. It takes prayer. A preacher can accept no substitute for having power with God.
If all Peter had was a good message to preach the day he came across the lame man at the gate Beautiful, there would have been no healing. Peter had something more that day. Peter had anointing/virtue. He had the goods to get the job done.
What is the response after you preach? Do people receive the Holy Ghost? Do they get delivered or healed? Is there virtue in your preaching or is it just good oratory.
Recently a mentor of mine was speaking about evangelists who seem to have a hard time getting their message across. He told me that he stopped second guessing these evangelists as the result from the congregation in the altar was often very powerful. "Many would be be saved " he said "even though the message was not all that compelling."
Preaching under the anointing of the Holy Spirit will break yokes of bondage in people's lives. It will deliver the lost. While you find time to study this week, don't forget to seek God for the anointing. Neither Mathew Henry, Strong, nor a thousand hours of study can take the place of your time in prayer before the Lord.
When we first started MPMMI, our hope was that we could help ministers who's time was so burdened to reduce their study time by utilizing the resources from the site. This reduction in study time would then be better used as time seeking God in prayer for the service.
Many people do not understand the enormous pressure and constraint of time on the average pastor who may be working a full time job as well as Pastoring a church. I understand it all too well. My prayer for you is that the Lord will provide you a way to have more time to get into His word and prepare your heart for that next move of His Spirit.

Birth and death of a Vision

"I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." - John 12:24
Almost every significant thing God births He allows to die before the vision is fulfilled in His own way.
-Abraham had a vision of being the father of a great nation (birth). Sarah was barren and became too old to have children (death). God gave Abraham and Sarah a son in their old age. He became the father of a great nation (fulfillment).
-Joseph had a vision that he would be a great leader and that many would bow down to him (birth). Joseph's brothers sold him to some merchants and he became a slave. Later he was falsely condemned to spend his years in prison (death). God allowed Joseph to interpret the dreams of the butler and baker and later the king, whereupon, he was made a ruler in the land (fulfillment).
-Moses had a vision of leading his people out of the bondage of Egypt (birth). Pharaoh as well as his own people drove Moses out of Egypt after Moses' first attempt to relieve their bondage (death). God gave Moses signs and wonders to convince Pharaoh to free the people and bring them out of Egypt and into the Promised Land (fulfillment).
-The disciples had a vision of establishing the Kingdom of God with Jesus (birth). The very ones He came to save killed Jesus, and the disciples saw Him buried in a tomb (death). God raised Jesus from the dead, and the disciples performed great miracles until the gospel had spread through all the world (fulfillment).
-A grain of wheat has a "vision" of reproducing itself and many more grains of wheat (birth). The grain dies in the ground (death). A harvest springs up out of the very process of "death" in the ground (fulfillment).
Has God given you a vision that is yet unfulfilled? If that vision is born of God, He will raise it up in His own way. Do not try to raise the vision in your own strength. Like Moses, who tried to fulfill the vision of freeing the Hebrews by killing the Egyptian, it will only fail. But wait on your heavenly Father to fulfill the vision. Then you will know that it was His vision when He fulfills it in the way only He can do.

Prayer to the Holy Spirit for his gifts

Holy Spirit, divine Consoler, I adore You as my true God, with God the Father and God the Son. I adore You and unite myself to the adoration You receive from the angels and saints.

I give You my heart and I offer my ardent thanksgiving for all the grace which You never cease to bestow on me.

O Giver of all supernatural gifts, who filled the soul of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, with such immense favors, I beg You to visit me with Your grace and Your love and to grant me the gift of holy fear, so that it may act on me as a check to prevent me from falling back into my past sins, for which I beg pardon.

Grant me the gift of piety, so that I may serve You for the future with increased fervor, follow with more promptness Your holy inspirations, and observe your divine precepts with greater fidelity.

Grant me the gift of knowledge, so that I may know the things of God and, enlightened by Your holy teaching, may walk, without deviation, in the path of eternal salvation.

Grant me the gift of fortitude, so that I may overcome courageously all the assaults of the devil, and all the dangers of this world which threaten the salvation of my soul.

Grant me the gift of counsel, so that I may choose what is more conducive to my spiritual advancement and may discover the wiles and snares of the tempter.

Grant me the gift of understanding, so that I may apprehend the divine mysteries and by contemplation of heavenly things detach my thoughts and affections from the vain things of this miserable world.

Grant me the gift of wisdom, so that I may rightly direct all my actions, referring them to God as my last end; so that, having loved Him and served Him in this life, I may have the happiness of possessing Him eternally in the next. Amen.

Dear Holy Spirit fill the heart of the faithful, and rekindle in them the fire of your love