The first sermon that I preached was on 10- 25, 1981. Ironically, the last sermon I preached in the institutional church was also on October 25th, in 2008. It was from the storefront church that I had started in 1996. I have spoken or uttered since then, but not by taking a text out of its natural context and producing a message from it.
I estimate that I have preached at least 2000 sermons, perhaps more. The title of my last sermon was “What Do YOU Have To Burn?” Later that same week, God revealed to me that what I had to burn was the curious art called “preaching” because He revealed that “sermons are manmade and demonically produced and manipulated.”
I truly loved to preach. I preached as many as two sermons a week behind the pulpit for more than 25 years, sometimes more, during revival week and other special occasions. However, once God revealed to me that He does not empower the man-made art called homiletics, I have not prepared yet another sermon. Nor is there any desire left in me to preach a sermon, where a text is taken out of its natural context, and a man-made or even a demonic message is worked up from that text. So you might say that “I burned sermonizing out of my ministerial life.”
Out of thousands of sermons preached, 3 of them stand out as “getting away from me.”
I remember one in particular, preached on New Years Eve, close to midnight on 12/31/1987 at the church’s watch-night service. I was not the pastor of that church, I was merely an associate minister, chosen by my pastor to preach on his behalf.
At that time, I really wanted to shine, to get everybody shouting, dancing and rejoicing on New Years Eve, but a different spirit came upon me. Looking back, I now realize that the fallen angel assigned to me was secretly influencing my life in the romantic area. You see, on December 30th, ONE day before I preached, a supernatural incident occurred that was so powerful, that I became deceived to believe that after all of my struggles with men, that I had FINALLY found Mr. Right. So on New Years Eve, I was already emotionally charged up.
Pride goes before a fall. Deep in my spirit, I believed that God had blessed me with my special mate because I was more obedient and righteous then the rest of the sinners in that church. How wrong I was!!! SMH. Was the supernatural experience of God? No, it was from the religious fallen angel assigned to me, and I grabbed the bait, hook, line and sinker. So when I got behind that pulpit a day later, I was already in the hands of the devil, completely unawares.
I had intended that the sermon would be joyful and uplifting, when all of a sudden, similar to Kim Burrell’s style, I began to rant and pace. My tone became harsh and wild. I was walking up and down that stage like a crazy woman breathing out fire from my nostrils about the hypocritical Christians who came to church that night, only to justify their planned drinking, drugging and whoring around they intended to partake of after midnight, once they exchanged the pew for a bar stool. I called for the wrath of God to come upon all hypocrites. The irony is that when I pointed my finger to the sky, all of a sudden the building started to shake and a crack of lightning served as my background music. I found out later that the building was set in the middle of the traditional New Years Eve fireworks display at midnight. So when I called on the wrath of God, it seemed to all like He answered me from the sky with a quake and a bolt of lightning!!!! LOL
The people were absolutely un-nerved, some frightened and others outraged. This was a congregation that loved to party. They were revelers. They came to church every Sunday, and sinned 6 days a week and Sunday evenings. Truthfully, since I was not a sinner of THIS sort, I inwardly looked down on them, which in itself was my personal downfall.
Nevertheless, if one of the men had preached in this “fire and brimstone” style, they would have quietly mumbled and grumbled and then chalked it up to “Rev had a bad day.” From me, the churchfolk found my message totally un-acceptable. One of my favorite members, Ada, looked me in my face and menacingly spouted: Pam “you spoiled my New Years Eve.” She did not speak to me for 5 years.
So what happened here? Well, any time a person senses that they are not in control while they are uttering, this is NOT the anointing of God. As an example, Juanita Bynum preaches this way most of the time. So does TD Jakes. On a natural level, the characteristics of “preaching” vary considerably according to style, church affiliation, seminary training, and other variables. Generally, texts of scripture are taken out of their biblical context and are then mixed with what is going on in the preacher’s own heart, mind and personal circumstances. He or she often attempts to adapt the discourse to the wants and needs of the congregation with the use of illustrations, stories, riddles, etc. As homiletics, the art of preaching—the artistic aspects include the degree of eloquence or earthiness, flamboyance, tone and quality of the voice, showmanship, “keepin it real,” the use of images, persuasiveness, an ability to “set it off” wherein the congregation becomes emotional.
Some of the most outstanding “sermonizers” that I have known personally were “down right characters” to put it mildly. The best performers still remain closet homosexuals, and in some instances, drug addicts, adulterers, child molesters and thieves. What keeps them in the pulpit is the fact that the people love their performances. I can think of one man in particular, Rev. Kealon, who at the end of each sermon, leaped out of the pulpit like a wild lion. In mid-air, he appeared to be in suspended animation—5 ft above the ground. Within his depiction of the “art,” he could leap a slam dunk yet he died at the age of 33 of a massive stroke. A likeable guy, this man was quite “the pistol” on a moral level. He was brain-dead on a Sunday morning in October,1986.
In fact, I was always around lots of men preachers. Several services a year for 25 years, I was one of 10 even 20 ministers sitting in the pulpit area at numerous regional worship services. When I was selected as “the preacher of the hour,” various congregants facing the pulpit would inform me at the close of the service that the ministers who sat behind me either had looks of displeasure on their faces, or that they were cupping their hands around their mouths, whispering to each other while I was delivering the message. This too “made me uncomfortable.”
Yet, I became increasingly “uncomfortable” with the method itself because I could see no fruit of a Christward direction in the people, some of whom had been listening to my sermons for 5, 10, even 20 years. So I changed my style once more. No longer sitting at a distance from the congregation, I sat among the people and put the responsibility for the preparation of the sermon on them. I let them ask ME questions and I prepared my sermon from those questions, right on the spot.
Yet, I was still “uncomfortable.”
On a spiritual level, I discovered that something quite sinister has been goin on. I found out personally when it happened to me on June 25, 2008, my last day inside of the denomination’s regional meeting. I write about it in four of my books. I suggest you get one of the books because it would take too long to explain at this juncture. I will simply say that “a power came over me and it was not God.” The preacher in question, now dead, had been an associate for about 10 years and he didn’t even know that I was in the congregation because I slipped in un-noticed and sat way in the back. However, a religious demon stepped into him in order to used him to try to make me rejoin a denomination that the Lord had led me out of. I felt invisible hands in my back that pushed me forward at the invitation. So if you want to know more, I suggest you obtain either book by clicking here.
What I can reveal now is this.
There is a time in most delivery of sermons when like Kim Burrell did, the preacher gets “caught up” in the art of preaching, enters into an altered state of consciousness, and the enemy “walks in” to him or her in order to change the mood or tone of the preacher in an effort to “work the crowd.” Not Pharrell, not Ellen DeGeneres, not Shaka Kahn, not even Yolanda Adams knows a dot or a tittle of what I speak. Kim Burrell was not ranting hate speech. Everything she said is true. The issue is the tone of the message.
Nevertheless, it was either Kim’s emotions or personal circumstances that no one is aware of that put her in an altered state of consciousness, and her sermon got away from her. If the congregation she was speaking to was filled with homosexuals whom she was trying to convert, her emotions led her down the wrong path with the help of a religious demon. What we are to preach is simple: Christ crucified, dead , buried raised, ascended and coming back again. The preacher does not convict ANYONE, LGBTQ or any reprobate of sin. We preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.
God allowed it ALL as a message to Kim, probably a true woman of God, “to come out from among them.”
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