For many years, I felt the key to “successful” Christian ministry lay in the preparation and the passion for that ministry. If I studied, nurtured a worshipping heart, prayed, sought to be holy in all my thoughts, and obeyed my Lord in all he commands, then God would bless. Obedience on every level (in my personal life, in my marriage and family) was the key to both spiritual formation and spiritual fruit.
My years as a church-planter in Belgium taught me differently as I saw the stark contrast between my small acts of obedience and the unexpected spiritual harvest that sometimes resulted. By this, I mean that I found it difficult to believe my own obedience would bring about such wonderful spiritual fruit. In several cases, I was genuinely surprised by the conversion of an individual to the gospel, and even more surprised by that person’s spiritual fervour for Christ. I saw lives transformed. I saw miracles. Clearly, there was more to it than my own obedience (1 Cor. 3:6-7). After all, I had been obedient before, and such things did not happen. What made the difference?
Many readers will know that Carey Theological College is named after William Carey, the English cobbler‑turned‑missionary whose life reshaped global mission. What is less known is that Carey’s ministry was held up and propelled forward by his friend Andrew Fuller, the pastor-theologian whose preaching and writing helped ignite the modern missionary movement. In The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation, Fuller wrote that “all that is good is of Himself, and to Him belongs the praise of it.” My obedience mattered, but it could never account for the spiritual life that appeared before my eyes.
God asks Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones, which he does, and then, as a result of his obedience, an amazing thing happens. “And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them, and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.” What an astonishing moment for Ezekiel! God had knitted these dead bones together, and as a result of his obedience to prophesy. But his obedience was not enough. There was no life in the bones. Only God could put life in the bones. The Scriptures show us that God speaks by His Word and gives life by His Spirit, and the two are never separated in His saving work (James 1:18). Only God could send his Spirit to give life to what is dead.
My obedience to preach the Gospel is not enough. Only God can send His Spirit to bring life (2 Cor. 4:6). Fuller argued that sinners “will not come to Christ” because of the “aversion of the heart.” Ezekiel could prophesy to the bones, but he could not make them live (Acts 16:14). Only the Spirit can overcome the heart’s resistance and draw people to Christ (John 6:44). It is one task to stand before the dead and proclaim the Word of Life. It is quite another to plead with the Author of life to breathe life into the dead. So we must obey, and we must pray. We must preach, and we must beseech God to pour out his Spirit.
This is why Fuller insisted that preaching alone is never enough. The gospel is “worthy of all acceptation,” but only the Spirit enables sinners to accept it. So the preacher proclaims, and the church pleads.
Where does that leave us? It leaves those of us who are preachers with the words of Jesus in our hearts, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15.5). I can obey God’s command to preach, but I cannot breathe life into dead hearts. And it leaves all believers with a wonderful task: to stand before the Author of life and ask him to send His Spirit to bring life. And as God gives life, we walk with new believers in the long, patient work of discipleship and mission.
And so we pray, “Lord, revive your church.”
William Carey said it well, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.” Carey could ‘expect great things from God’ because Fuller showed that only God gives spiritual life. And he could ‘attempt great things for God’ because the gospel summons every hearer to turn to Christ.
Fuller taught that exhortation alone cannot awaken the spiritually dead; only the Spirit can. And so, like the early Baptists, we pray for God to breathe life where only He can.
