09/09/2026
Preachers of the Word of God must prepare themselves for their calling as Christian ministers, and seminary can indeed provide many useful advantages in that preparation. But the greatest preparation cannot be gained from a seminary, because the preacher’s greatest need is the Holy Spirit. Ventura shows the Holy Spirit as both a divine person, possessing all of God’s attributes and leading and working salvation and sanctification, as well as a vital presence, without Whom our best efforts are unprofitable. The Holy Spirit’s ministry for the preacher of God involves three parts: illumination (the opening of the heart and mind to receive scriptural truth), filling (giving the Spirit control of the faculties and powers to enable the accomplishment of a task for God), and power (the God-given unction that lifts his efforts beyond a fleshly exertion and enabling the preacher to become a channel through whom the Spirit works). Ventura shows that ministers may experience more of the Holy Spirit’s ministry by not grieving or quenching the Spirit, and by prayer.
https://www.chapellibrary.org/book/hsat/holy-spirit-and-the-preacher-the-venturarob