For the first article, click here. "How To Become A Preacher – Step 1 Reality Check"
 
This is probably the most crucial part because to become a preacher you must have something worthy to preach.  Luckily, Jesus told us exactly what to preach.

Let me remind you, my idea of a preacher is not the hired person that preaches behind a pulpit to a crowd of believers every Sunday and Wednesday.  My idea of a preacher is someone who takes the gospel to it’s intended audience, the world.  Someone who preaches the gospel.

In my experience, most people really do have a desire to communicate the gospel on some level.  They want to feel confident in explaining their testimony and the message of Christ to the world.  It just seems that the problem is, how?

First of all, your message is simple.  Jesus told us exactly what to preach and do.  He said, “Go, preach, the Kingdom of Heaven(God) is at hand.  As you preach, heal the sick, cast out devils, raise the dead and cleanse the lepers.” (Matthew 10:7,8).  That’s it!!  If we want to be preachers, this is exactly what we preach. This is the gospel, the good news to the world.  It’s a proclamation that the Kingdom of God is here now, and it’s a demonstration of that fact with signs and wonders following.  If it’s really that simple, why has it become so complex??

Let me ask you an honest question, do you know how to preach the Kingdom of God is at hand?  I’ve glossed over that statement countless times before I took an honest look at it.  I remember the day when I realized I didn’t know how to preach the “Kingdom of God is at hand”, I was ashamed, and confused.  I realized that I took a simple command and utterly complicated it with deep doctrines and the wisdom of this world.

I’ve heard of a lot of evangelism methods, but I don’t really recall many that tell you to just preach the Kingdom of God is here.  Most are some flavor of “Your sinners and your going to hell if you don’t believe in Jesus.”  Most of the styles I’ve been exposed to are focused around the law in some form or fashion.  Honestly, it’s easier to preach the law than it is grace.  (For that matter, it’s easier to try and live under the law than grace too!  But that’s another article.) 

I remember when I first started to get into evangelism I saw the series with Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron, “The Way Of The Master…doing evangelism, the way Jesus did”.  I was so excited, it made so much sense to me!  I finally had some real, practical steps I could follow to effectively preach the gospel and witness for Jesus.
 
If you aren’t familiar with the teaching series, the basic construction of the method is to use the law (10 Commandments) to help a person realize they aren’t good enough to get into heaven on their own.  When they realize this you can tell them that they don’t need to worry because if they trust in Jesus and repent they will not have the law counted against them because Jesus paid the price for their sins.

The way they teach this method is awesome and it helped me, and countless others, to actually get out there and actually witness to people.  It’s very good in give you a method that is easy to follow and effective.  I’m into whatever gets people out there at least trying to preach the gospel.  God doesn’t need us to be perfect or have the best method, He just want’s us to “go”, He’ll sort us out as we go on our way.

However, while holding to this method of using the law, I found a snag when I started to assimilate the gospels.  I saw that Jesus really didn’t preach the gospel like that.  But it really started to confuse me when I read John 1:17: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

This was near the end of my assimilation and I was already on my way to walk after Luke 14:25-35 and I had a pretty clear picture of how Jesus did ministry.  So I asked myself, if Moses preached the law and Jesus preached grace and truth, and I’m supposed to be following after Jesus, why am I preaching the law?

The answer for me was because it was easy.  It was (and is) very simple to preach a message with the law.  But what did Jesus tell us to preach, “the Kingdom of God is at hand.”  Anytime He sent out His disciples, He told them to preach the Kingdom, when Jesus preached, He preached the Kingdom.  So if I’m a disciple and follower of Jesus, why am I not preaching the Kingdom?? I’ll tell you, BECAUSE I DIDN’T KNOW HOW!! 

I would picture myself in front of a group of people and imagine what it would look like if I preached the Kingdom.  I had no idea.  Really, how do you preach the Kingdom of God is here, and what does that even mean?  First you have to know what the Kingdom is, then you have to know how to explain it to people.  Which I think is where the real issue is, it doesn’t seem that people have a good revelation of the Kingdom of God.  If it was what Jesus preached, and if it was what He commissioned His disciples to preach then don’t you think it should be a top priority to us?

So, you may be asking…”Well, what is the Kingdom of God then?”  This is the next problem.  Most people want to know it with their minds alone, but what they (and we) need is a genuine revelation of it, an understanding that pierces our hearts, not just another man’s opinion of it.  So, I won’t tell you what the Kingdom of God is and how to preach it…(if you really want to know, feel free to come and listen when I preach it on the streets ).
 
Also, everybody is a different part of the body of Christ, and everybody has a different spectrum of the Kingdom.  If you borrow another man’s revelation of the Kingdom you may not be operating in the particular spectrum the Lord wants you working in.  The Kingdom is the Kingdom, don’t get me wrong, but a flower is a flower too (there are just different types of flowers).  We’re all uniquely made and created to fulfill a certain destiny and assignment the Lord has us on.  So we have to tap into the Lord, and our spirit to receive that assignment and destiny.  The only way to do that is by spending time with Him.  You can’t find it in a book, you can only find it at the feet of Jesus.

A few pointers on how to position yourself to receive this from Him is to proactively set your heart towards it, fast, pray, assimilate the gospels and then simply just wait on Him and trust that He will teach you, because He will!!  It’s His good pleasure to give it to you.

So ask yourself, do you feel confident in your ability to specifically “Go, preach, the Kingdom of God is here.”?  If not, seek Him and His Kingdom and you’ll experience it in a way that will give you courage and confidence.  You may not preach it open air on a street corner, but recently the Lord told me, “You should be able to preach the Kingdom in a shout, and in a whisper.”  And that is only possible when you have a real revelation of it, and that can only come from the King Himself!

It’s simple, it’s effective and it’s exciting…go for it!!