“…But His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not.” Jeremiah 20:9
In Paul’s second letter to his son in the faith, Timothy, he was writing not only to a servant of Christ but to a preacher of the Gospel. Paul instructed him, as being a charge before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, that he should, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.” (2 Timothy 4:1,2) Timothy’s calling as a preacher, like that of the Apostle Paul, though not to the level of being an apostle, was the same in that it was by the “commandment of God,” according to the will of God, “not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead.” (Gal.1:1) With that calling to preach came the power of the Spirit to minister the words of God to its hearers. Such was the case with John the Baptist, who was a voice “crying in the wilderness,” the result of which would be multitudes going out into the wilderness, and next to the Jordan River, to hear him, and be baptized by him. There was power in John’s preaching, because of the anointing by the Spirit that he had received before he was born.
The greatest of all preachers that appeared on the stage of history was the Lord Jesus Christ. He it was who was not only the Son of the Father, but His Servant, chosen by the Father upon whom the Spirit came in a special way on the day of His baptism by John. Christ had been always filled with the Spirit, but on the day of His baptism, not only did the Spirit of God come like a dove upon Him to confirm to John that this was indeed the Messiah, but it was the beginning of His preaching. The sufficient, abounding measure of God’s power by the Spirit was given to Christ that day to accomplish His mission of obtaining redemption for all men. The perfect Preacher had come to proclaim in the power of the Spirit, the eternal truths of the Gospel, so that many, upon hearing Christ’s words (for no other man spoke like Him), would be pricked in their hearts, convicted of their sins, and come to repentance and faith in Christ as Savior and Lord. This perfect Preacher always preached that which the Father gave Him, whether words of consolation, restoration, and salvation. There were times, beyond the authoritative, powerful teaching of Christ, that He, like John, would cry out to the needy multitudes: “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (Jn. 7:38)
Where does the calling of the preacher begin, and what is the nature of that calling? We see it perfectly revealed in the Lord Jesus, then demonstrated in Christ’s disciples like the Apostle Paul, and Timothy, men so different in their temperaments and upbringing, and yet, so similar in that their ministry was maintained and accomplished by the common bond and thread of the Person of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps, in grasping something of Jeremiah’s calling, we can also get a glimpse of the uniqueness, responsibility, and Divine provision of the true preacher.
In the book of Jeremiah, we come to Jeremiah’s testimony concerning the mighty working of the Spirit, when said: “His word (that of God) was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones.” Here is a man, filled with the Spirit of the eternal God. God gives to him a word of truth, in power, and the burden and necessity of declaring it. It burns in his heart, and by compulsion, he must declare it. This is the true preacher of God. He has a heavenly calling, a life-giving message, and he must deliver it by the Spirit.
Dear Father, Grant us Thy fire. In Jesus’ name, Amen.