READ: Luke 9:1-6
But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Acts 1:8
The missions that Jesus sent His disciples on were actually private practice sessions, as they rehearsed their preaching ministry. Later on, the disciples were sent out into the world to preach the gospel. Jesus had afforded them the opportunity to rehearse their preaching. Preaching is an art! You will need private drills to perfect your skills! God is going to give you larger platforms from which to minister the word of God. Every small church and small group I have ever ministered to, has been a preparation for a larger one.
You will rehearse how to start a message and you will rehearse how to stop preaching. You will rehearse how to preach for a long time and also how to preach for a short time. You will rehearse how to preach to those who “know it all” and you will rehearse how to preach to innocent hungry souls. You will learn how to preach with an interpreter and you will learn how to preach without an interpreter.
You will learn how to preach to people who have no expression on their faces whatsoever, and you will learn how to preach to those who shout “Amen” and “Yes, Lord”. You will learn how to preach in the dry season and this will be a rehearsal for preaching in the rain.
One day I found myself in a stadium with a hundred thousand people. It was time to preach the word of God and pray for the sick. I had been rehearsing this very thing with much smaller groups. All I had to do was to do what I had been doing in the smaller groups. Preaching to a hundred people became preaching to a hundred thousand people! Do not forget to take every opportunity to minister the word of God.