I'll Speak to Their Ears, You Speak to Their Hearts

I was doing my weekly prep for my message last week and a prayer suddenly popped into my head: "I'll speak to their ears, YOU speak to their hearts." Maybe it was God speaking to me, and maybe it wasn't, but either way it made me realize that I can do my diligence of preparing a message each week, but without the Holy Spirit convicting their hearts and speaking to their souls, I'm just noise. Ultimately the goal is to see students become doers of the word, not hearers only, but the only person who can stir up desire in a student's heart to act upon spiritual things and change them on the inside is Him. We can stir up their emotions, but true and lasting change is really out of our hands. We all obviously know we are supposed to rely on the Holy Spirit to speak deeply to someones heart, but us relying on our own gifts of communicating and influence usually takes a front seat. Every time I prepare a message now, my prep will include the prayer, "I'll speak to their ears, please speak to their hearts." The heart is where change happens, I'm just a tool. There is supernatural power in God's Word and I need to remind myself to let it speak for itself. My gifts as a youth pastor don't hold a candle to the life changing power of the Word of God and revelations of the Holy Spirit. Once again, His Word says it better...
"As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth:  It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:10-11