5.9.2016 Finney on PASTORS

found in his 'experiencing the presence of God'

32..I have often been surprised at the judgment men form in regard to the prospective usefulness of young men preparing for the
33  ministry. even professors (note: in seminaries) are very apt , i see to deceive themselves on this subject. if a young man is a good scholar, a fine writer and makes good progress in biblical interpretation, they have strong hopes for him. these professors must know in many cases that these young men cannot pray - that they have no fervency, no power in prayer, no spirit of wrestling, of agonizing and prevailing with God. yet they are expecting them, because of their intellects, to make their marks in the ministry and to be highly useful.
for my part, i expect no such thing of this class of men. i have infinitely more hope for the usefulness of a man who, AT ANY COST, will keep up daily fellowship with God, who is yearning for and struggling after the highest possible spiritual attainment, who will not live without daily persistence in prayer and being clothed with power from on high.
churches, presbyteries, associations and whoever licenses young men for the ministry are often very faulty in this respect. they will spend hours in informing themselves of the intellectual culture of the candidates, but scarcely as many minutes in ascertaining their heart culture - what they know of the power of Christ to save from sin, what they know of the power of prayer and whether and to what extent they are clothed with power from on high to win souls to Christ. the whole proceedings on such occasions leave the impression that human learning is preferred to spiritual fervency. Oh, that it were different and that we were all agreed, practically, now and forever, to hold fast to the promise of Christ and never to think of ourselves or anybody else as fit for the great work of the church until we have received a rich outpouring of power from on high!
i beg of my brothers in Christ and especially my younger brothers in Christ, not to think these things were written in the spirit of reproach. i beg the churches, i beg the seminaries,  to receive a word of exhortation from an old man who has had some experience in these things and one whose heart mourns and is weighed down because of the shortcomings of the church, the ministers and the seminaries on this subject. fellow believers, i implore you to consider this matter more thoroughly, to wake up and take it to heart. DO
34  NOT REST until this subject of the outpouring of power from on high is brought forward into its proper place. do not rest until it takes the prominent and practical position in the view of the whole church that Christ intended it should.

note: EVERY PASTOR, beyond continual, private, begging/prevailing prayer for all men should be continually PRAYing WITH each sheep to whom he has been sent by the Good/Great Shepherd, Jesus, to care for spiritually.  this shepherding includes ministering the word and modeling Christ continually to all men, but primarily to the people under his care. until he sees people as Jesus sees them he will not have begun to minister.
the apostles said, 'it is not reason that we should leave the word of god and serve tables...but we will give ourselves CONTINUALLY TO PRAYER AND TO THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD'. acts 6.2,4
'but when (Jesus) saw the multitudes, He was MOVED WITH COMPASSION ON them,
because they were DISTRESSED (ie. like a sheep caught by her wool, who the more she tried to tear free became held fast and torn by the thorns) and CAST DOWN (ie. when a sheep falls down they are helpless, they cannot get up unless someone helps them), as sheep having no shepherd. pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth LABOURers into His harvest. matthew 9.36
...if you don't have such, YOU become such (man or woman, boy or girl who knows and obeys Jesus)  to those all around you crying out..or just stunnedandhopeless, in great spiritual/physical need because they have no jesus-in-the-flesh to care for them.