“Look you, sir, you may study your sermon; you may examine the original of your text; you may critically follow it out in all its bearings; you may go and preach it with great correctness of expression; but you cannot quicken a soul by that sermon. You may go up into your pulpit; you may illustrate, explain, and enforce the truth; with mighty rhetoric you may charm your hearers; you may hold them spellbound; but no eloquence of yours can raise the dead. Demosthenes might stand for a century between the jaws of death; but the monster would not be moved by anything he or all human orators might say. Another voice than ours must be heard; other power than that of thought or suasion must be brought into the work, or it will not be done. You may organize your societies, you may have excellent methods, you may diligently pursue this course and that; but when you have done all, nothing can come of it if the effort stands by itself. Only as the Spirit of God shall bless men by you, shall they receive a blessing through you. Whatever your ability or experience, it is the Spirit of God who must bless your labour. Therefore, never go to this service with a boast upon your lip of what you can do, or with the slightest trace of self-confidence; else will you go in a spirit which will prevent the Holy Ghost from working with or through you.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon, “Come from the Four Winds, O Breath!” (1890)
Bare Forests 
This has been the exact topic of several conversations lately – in Music Team meetings, in Sunday School, in Staff Meeting, etc. – that we want God to work through us, to give His Holy Spirit the freedom to do what only He can do. Our efforts will not accomplish much, but if we give it all over to our Father and let Him work through us in an unhindered fashion, He will do great things in our hearts and lives. That’s what we want!
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I came across this when studying for last Sunday’s sermon on Ezekiel 37. So, so good!
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