HOW TO PREACH EFFECTIVELY

HOW TO PREACH EFFECTIVELY- JUNE 4TH, 2025

A Teaching Done at the Oasis Life Network Theological Seminary

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever been on the pulpit and you instantly got so scared? 

Or you were told to minister in a meeting or at church, you've prepared, done lots of study, prayed but when you arrived the venue, you got on the pulpit and went blank?

Do you often get your hands shaking when about to minister or preach or evangelize and then you feel empty when you start?

These are rhetorical questions

Do you know there are pastors who before mounting the pulpit on Sundays take substances to get high? 

They get themselves high on weed, some on wee-wee and some Hausa substances so they can see their congregants as trees or tiny entities?.

It gives them boldness & confidence

There are things I would have said in an indoor meeting about some persons (names withheld) unfiltered, but will reserve it for now cos it's an open group here.

Now we must understand something about ministration.

To minister means to serve.

To serve what you have.

And that's Life.. 

So when we minister, we are actually serving or giving out Life.

This Life is not the biological one we learnt in secondary school. It's not life as in breathing..

This Life is the God-Kind, a supernatural life.

And when we do, we must do so with an understanding; that God has empowered us for this kingdom service

With HIS Spirit, Word, Power & Blood.

When you are fully aware of your inward empowerment (the Holy Spirit) and you take full advantage of the Power HE distributes & supply to your mind & body, then timidity and fear will flee 

The reason why we lack self confidence before ministering is because we do not know we are empowered in the first place.

As you are reading this right now, I want you to know you are not alone and you are not ordinary.. 

I knew this since 2016. 

A believer is fully equipped with angels at his beck and call.

Even David, a man of the old covenant order had this revelation about himself; that the Lord will give his angels charge over him, to keep him in all his ways- Psalm 91:11

Elisha knew he had a legion of angels with him when Gehazi didn't know. 

These were men of the old covenant order.

Now you are more powerful, graced, blessed than them because you have what they never had; God in you.

How much more you? You have them around you.

Even Jesus on the cross could have unleashed 6 legions of angels to the Romans.

And he said, you'll do greater works.

Even if you don't want to invoke the ministry of angels, the Holy spirit is enough to strengthen you.

He is your strength, your confidence, your helper.

With this mindset comes boldness and courage.

SECONDLY, we must understand that our preparedness and the quality of knowledge and the understanding of God's word we have gives confidence.

When you prepare well for something, you tend to do better when the opportunity presents itself to perform.

Also when you have sufficient knowledge about a subject matter, you have lot of things to say about it

This also gives confidence and boldness.

One time while we were young, my younger sis was told she'll preach on a Sunday during children's week in RCCG.. 

She was to teach on faith.

When she was preparing for the meeting, I knew she lacked proper understanding of what Faith was.

While she mounted the pulpit, after giving a prayer, she started with the definition of faith and three minutes into her sermon, she just stood on the podium, looking lost... totally off from the meeting

Our parish pastor had to come collect the microphone from her and she felt so sad afterwards. This experience gave her PTSDs even till this day.

It was all because she had insufficient knowledge.

Now here is what's quite funny these days.

Most people now cover their inadequacy in knowledge with big spiritual grammars

They come on pulpit and add words like portals, gates, realms, dimensions, altars, ascend, descend, travel in the spirit to their preachings.

They preach on using capital letter tongues and pray with loud tongues so people can see them as scholars.. 

Truth is, those who actually understand scriptures and God's Word and are confident often teach the basics and speak plainly

It's those who lack that grace that use big grammars like the ones i mentioned up there to deceive their audience.

If you lack what to say in meetings, when you start saying words like this, believe me it's only a matter of time before people start calling you Prophet or Apostle.

It's the deception the Roman Catholic Church and many Cessationist churches used to infiltrate the Church.

Big words like transubstantiation, immaculacy, and many -isms were used by them to formulate their doctrine, but truth is, they have no understanding of who the Father is.

TO establish the second fact,

ALWAYS STAY WITH THE BASICS. This will give you confidence

While serving at the nccf State House, I had a brother who we stayed together in the same room.

The order of things in the state House was that every night, there would always be a prayer altar. There was no time when prayers weren't offered so we shuffled shifts

It was that time when a particular preacher who often used the words I gave earlier, rose in the Christian community. His messages were online, but his use of english was very ambiguous

So this my brother then started listening to a whole lot of his clips and I observed this strategy wasn't helping him.. 

One night when we were to take night prayers (we were always 10 in a group), the lot fell on him to lead the prayer, it was his turn

When he started, he sounded like the preacher and it got to a point where he got stucked on the next grammar to use. He went blank.

The group went silent. I closed my eyes cos I felt pity for him. It was an embarrassing sight.

If he had stayed with the basics, such wouldn't have happened

When it was his turn to minister in the family house, he had to take an excuse and then told the leaders of the house I should minister on his behalf.

The mistakes we young ministers make is we often times want to sound like Apostle Selman and other great men of God while ministering.

We want people to see us as deep but truth is all these shows a sign of lack of grace.. It's a pointer to show there's an underlying sign of low esteem and confidence.

Some folks stand on pulpit and while preaching, people can tell who they are mimicking.

The first point I highlighted when you want to build pulpit confidence is To understand what you carry, your empowerment; the ministry of angels & the power of the Holy Spirit at work in you

The second is to stay with the basics

THE THIRD IS TO WORK ON YOURSELF

Your command of vocabulary should be intact

Your personal hygiene must be well

If you are a preacher who notices there's always clumsters of saliva around the corners of your mouth while preaching, always have a handkerchief in your pocket

If you observe you give out saliva while preaching, to the point where you could even baptise those at the front seat, train yourself to avoid such.

There are certain books, online clips (like TedEx) and some podcasts you can listen to where they emphasized on how to build your public speaking... 

This will help.

And finally, if you've tried all you can but you still find it so difficult ministering without fear, pray fervently in the spirit before Going for any ministration. IT'S THE FIRST THING YOU OUGHT DO

When you pray in the spirit before you studied & prepared well, what's natural to follow is boldness, audacity and Holy Ghost confidence.

Without praying, you will be left alone on the pulpit, helpless and lost

Additional:

Try volunteer teaching in a secondary school for a year.

If you do so, that class room experience will usher you into a realm and portal of boldness 

God bless you friends as you read this. 

Your brother

Daniel Ezeokeke (Lead Instructor at the Oasis Life Network Theological Seminary)