Anointed Gospel Preaching

I agree that regardless of the theological camp a man belongs to, there is an absence of divine unction in much of today's preaching.  The evidence from Jonathan Edwards and DML-J is as clear as could be that these men experienced the divine unction on their ministries and numerous conversions followed.  Sadly, the same cannot be said of Dr John Owen, who had no known conversions, though, of course, that does not mean there were none.  He did say, mind you, that he would give up all his learning to be able to preach like John Bunyan, the tinker and evangelist.  Wouldn't we all!

I also think we are fooling ourselves when we convince ourselves that no conversions equate to faithfulness to the Gospel.  Spiritual pride and arrogance drives us when we think like that.  McCheyne used to preach and pray with his face buried in his hands and the tears running down his cheeks.  My biggest fault as a preacher is that I cannot preach in that attitude, so hard is my poor heart.  Perhaps we need to read McCheyne's sermons and study them closely to see how to preach the Gospel with power sent down from heaven.  We need that sense of God in our services, and not "glorified Bible studies," as DML-J so rightly described them.  Orthodoxy is important, but if a preacher studies more to be orthodox than he does to know the Spirit's power upon him, he has no right to ascend any pulpit.