If you believe you are called to preach, then knowing how to prepare yourself and your sermon well is a skill you’ll need to develop. Here are some things that I have learnt over the years that help me get ready to deliver a “weighty now word from God” that impacts and transforms people’s lives:

  1. Pray for yourself, your sermon and the atmosphere.

I have found that prayer, without a doubt, is the most important part of preparing yourself, your sermon and the atmosphere you’re about to preach into. If you want heaven’s weight on your sermon which shifts the atmosphere and opens people up to supernatural revelation and impartation then you must pray. If I had to choose between preparing notes or preparing myself through prayer I would always choose prayer. Sermon notes without prayer will not effectively transform people’s lives. I can literally tell when a preacher has not prayed enough for their sermon, themselves or for the atmosphere because I can feel there’s no momentum in the spirit but rather a drag. Take the time to pray. This is where you’ll receive a “now word” from God. It’s where your inner person becomes sensitive to God. It’s where you pray for your audience and the spiritual atmosphere to be open, full of heaven and receptive. It’s also where you get full of the Holy Spirit and where the weight of what God wants to say and do comes upon you. Even if your sermon is not that good, people will catch an impartation from God because you are carrying something in the Spirit and your prayer has helped prepare them to receive it.

  1. Figure out your process.

Everyone has a different process for preparing themselves and their sermon. You have to find what works best for you and not be under pressure to do it someone else’s way. I’m a prophetic teacher, meaning that I teach what I feel God is bringing up in my spirit to teach. This usually only comes up in my spirit closer to the time when I’m scheduled to preach. If I get a sermon too early in the week, then by the time it’s Sunday it doesn’t feel like there’s any life left on it. So usually I only pick up the theme by Friday, have my notes finished by Saturday afternoon, and then meditate on it until Sunday. The worst thing you could do is ask me for my notes by Wednesday or Thursday. This interrupts my process and my sermon is usually never as good because I’m more concerned about my notes than about hearing and moving with God.

Sometimes my process is different where I’ll work on a teaching over a longer period of time, or teach a sermon I’ve taught before, but I’ll still fine tune it Friday and Saturday similar to my usual process. Your process may be totally different and that is absolutely fine. Just go with what works for you.

There may be the situation where you are given a topic to preach on and that is fine. You can still apply your process for preparing. I’ll simply let the theme marinate and distill in my spirit until around Friday so I can own it and make it mine, and then start to form it into a sermon to preach by Sunday.

  1. Decide on your theme.

At some point you need to decide on your theme. It’s best to know exactly what your theme is when trying to prepare your notes. If it’s not clear at the start you’ll get lost in endless thoughts and scriptures while preparing your notes. Sometimes I start out in a puddle and end up drowning in an ocean of too many thoughts. So how to avoid this? Always ask yourself, what is my dominant thought? Don’t try to say too much. That is where you get into trouble.

The best advice I can give to any preacher about their message is keep it simple and keep it short. I’m going to say it again because most people don’t think this relates to them, “KEEP IT SIMPLE AND KEEP IT SHORT, PLEASE!” This is a skill and a discipline that bad preachers don’t have, and often the reason why people don’t like their preaching. It’s too confusing as they criss-cross and circle back and forth while trying to be profound and cover every angle and thought related to their topic. Even that sentence is laborious!

I once heard that a good sermon is like a short airplane flight.

  • The plane takes off (short introduction).
  • It flies straight to the destination (one dominant thought, get to the point).
  • Then it lands (short application at the end).

How to do this? Here are some tips:

  • DON’T BE SELF INDULGENT!!! Nobody really wants to hear every detail about how this topic relates to you.
  • Don’t be confused. Know what the dominant thought of your sermon is and stick to it with discipline.
  • Practise your sermon. When you do this you’ll get a good feel for how long it will be and what you need to edit.
  • Read your notes to someone else. This can reveal where you have dead spots, or confusing thoughts, or unnecessary things that distract and interrupt the flow of thought.

People will appreciate a clear, simple and short sermon. A good restaurant never over feeds people, they always leave them wanting just a little bit more! If you step out of the pulpit and people are wanting more, you’ll definitely get other opportunities to preach.

  1. Figure out your style and structure.

Everyone is different and there are so many varying styles and personalities. Some people are storytellers, others are line upon line teachers. Some prefer topical preaching while others expository teaching. Some are prophetic who use visions and pictures or unctions, others are clinical who lay out compelling arguments and proofs. Others blast through with the fire of God and very little content while others don’t say a lot but each word they do say is weighty. You just have to find out who you are and go with your style. Who are your favourite preachers? What kind of preaching do you like the most? These could be indicators that you have a similar style of preaching.

If you’re a storyteller, be a storyteller in the pulpit. Don’t think you have to be a line upon line teacher. If you are really funny, be really funny in the pulpit. God gave you that gift as a channel to communicate truth. I’ve been shocked a number of times when someone I knew who is very funny or a great storyteller gets up to preach and suddenly they are very serious or try to teach line upon line, and it doesn’t work because it’s not who they are. I’ve thought, why didn’t they just tell stories or get us laughing with their incredible comedic humour and use that to communicate what God has put on their heart? Use the gifting and personality that God has given you and enjoy doing it that way!

If you want to get good at developing the right structure for your sermons I would suggest studying the preachers you really like, who you feel you share a similar style with, and figure out why their sermons are so good. Analyse them. Break them down and then hone your own skills with what you learn.

  1. Get inspired, full of faith and revelation.

There’s nothing worse than enduring a boring sermon from a dull preacher! Don’t be that person. There’s no way you can deliver a bad sermon if you are inspired, full of faith and full of revelation! Don’t always wait for it to come to you, go and get it. Feed your spirit, listen to preachers who are inspired and full of faith. Get in God’s presence and let Him speak to you and give you revelation. Read a book, watch a video, get around inspired people.

Jesus said to Peter, “Feed my sheep”. Don’t give God’s people dry crackers, give them rich and nutritious well prepared meals that are full of God.

  1. Rely on God, not your talent.

A novice preacher once confidently strutted up to the pulpit where, to his horrific surprise, delivered a poorly received sermon. He left the pulpit broken and humbled. When he later asked his mentor Charles H. Spurgeon, the prince of preachers, what went wrong, Mr. Spurgeon said, “If you had entered the pulpit the way you left it, you would have left the pulpit the way you entered it.” Moral of the story, be humble and rely on God.

Preaching is not performing. You are not there to entertain or impress people. Don’t come under that pressure. You are there to deliver something God has put on your heart for them. Yes it comes through your personality and the gifting and anointing that is on your life, but we must always remember that we are not giving people “us”, we are giving them God! We are not drawing people to ourself, but always pointing them to Christ. If you can connect people to God, He will do the work in them. We are simply the message carriers – the ambassadors of the King.

  1. Preach to change the atmosphere.

I believe there are eternal truths in heaven that when uttered on the earth below change the atmosphere and open people up to the influence of heaven. I don’t preach to impress people, I preach to change the atmosphere and open up channels into their heart where God can minister His presence and His Word to them. This is what transforms lives. Those times when people come up to me after I’ve preached with tears in their eyes, I know somehow I’ve done my job and they have been touched by heaven.

  1. Get into the zone before you preach.

Before I preach I like to be quiet and still. I try to calm my mind and my inner being right down. Nervousness is a good thing because it means you are aware that there is a weight on you and that you want to deliver it effectively. But in order to not let anxiety and excessive nervousness runaway on me, I will go into a zone of peace and calm. This is like a godly meditative state where I’m focusing on God and what is about to happen. Sometimes I will lie on my bed being still and calm, sometimes listening to soaking or instrumental music. Other times I may pray in tongues for quite awhile, or worship, but always inviting the peace of the Holy Spirit into me and over the atmosphere. In these times I’m trying to get the natural me to bow down, and the spiritual me to rise up and move with God.

  1. Relax, breathe, be confident and preach like you mean it!

Literally, relax. Breathe. Be Confident and preach like you mean it. This isn’t a game, the world needs people to stand up and declare the truths of God to help shift their thinking and priorities to align with the Kingdom of God. Take the responsibility seriously. Your voice is important so preach like you mean it. And when you do, relax, breathe and be confident.

God bless you in all your endeavours to preach – Ryan Rufus.

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