HOW DOES UNCTION FUNCTION
Randy Mayeux
July 1, 1991
William Barclay, in his autobiography, tells about Arthur John Gossip, then minister of St. Matthew's in Glasgow, who lived closer to God than any man Barclay had ever known. An incident occurred after a week when pressure of all kinds prevented him from preparing properly for his sermon.
"You know the stair up to the pulpit in St. Matthew's?" Gossip said. "You know the bend on the stair? Jesus Christ met me there. I saw him as clearly as I see you. He looked at the sermon in my hand.
"'Gossip,' he said to me, 'is this the best you could do for me this week?'
"Thinking back over the business of that week, I could honestly say: 'Yes, Lord, it is my best.' "
And then Gossip said, "Jesus Christ took that poor thing that Sunday morning and in His hands it became a trumpet."
Through the centuries, preachers and listeners have experienced some special touch of God in the midst of the preaching event. It seems to indicate God's special blessing, his presence, his power given in the act of preaching. We call it unction.
Have there been moments like that in your ministry? They have been far too infrequent in mine. Since I want my people to know the presence of God, I've often wondered how I might increase the frequency of unction. And in the handful of times it has occurred in my ministry, I've begun to see a pattern.
The elusive presence
I've found that some of my preconceptions about unction have to be tossed aside.
For example, unction is not the product of my homiletic and human efforts. Unction is not necessarily present when I've prepared my sermon with utmost vigor, using all the intellectual tools at my disposal. Nor is it necessarily present when I've preached on subjects that most interest me or on topics that most stretch me. Neither ...
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