What message should preachers preach? Many of our denominational friends would say, "Just preach whatever the Lord lays on your heart." Is that what the Bible says?

If one claims that he preaches "what the Lord lays" on his heart, how does he know that it is the Lord "that lays it on his heart," and not Satan? How does he go about proving that it was more than his own personal gut feeling? There is no way that a person living today could ever prove that his decision to preach on a certain topic, or to deliver a lesson in a certain way, came directly from the Lord! One man that called himself a former youth pastor emphasized to me that a preacher just needs to preach whatever the Lord lays on his heart. Then, in the next breathe he spoke of his support for a number of unbiblical practices. This is, as we say, "par for the course." Why? Because those that advocate preaching "what the Lord lays on your heart," sooner or later always get around to propagating unscriptural messages, showing that, alas, their message was not something that the Lord laid on their heart after all. Folks, if the message that they speak is not scriptural, then guess what? It did not come from the Lord, and people ought to stop accusing Him of being the source of their self-imagined doctrines!

Have you ever read in your Bible that the Lord told Christians that they should teach or preach "whatever He would lay on their heart?" Someone might say, "No, not in those exact words, but surely you would agree that there were inspired preachers." Yes, and the key word here is "were," not "are." There WERE inspired preachers, but there ARE NONE alive today. Inspired preachers were those that received God’s revelation in a miraculous way, being directly led by the Holy Spirit to speak forth God’s message. For instance, we read in Matthew 10:18-20 that Jesus told His apostles, "And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." That was a promise that Jesus made to His apostles, not to people living in the 21^st century. Later Jesus promised the apostles that the Holy Spirit would guide them into all truth and would cause them to remember all that Jesus had spoken to them (John 16:13; 14:26). Again, those were special promises for the apostles, not you and me.

We further read in the New Testament that the mystery of God, which is the salvation of Jews and Gentiles through Jesus, through the gospel, and in the church, was "revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit" (Ephesians 3:4,5). The Holy Spirit miraculously revealed it to the apostles and first century prophets, and they preached it to others. Those men were, indeed, inspired preachers.

Observe this about inspired preachers. In the first century, inspired preachers also received from God the power to perform signs or miracles. What was the purpose of such signs? To confirm the message that they preached (Mark 16:20; Hebrews 2:3,4). In other words, inspired men preached the gospel of God, and as they did so, by the Holy Spirit’s power they performed miracles to prove that what they were saying was from God, and thus it was true and should be accepted as authentic and authoritative.

Miracles were a temporary phenomena that ended in the first century. Thus, today there are no preachers that are performing genuine miracles. The Holy Spirit’s direct guiding of preachers was also a temporary phenomena that came to an end in the first century. The Spirit now leads men through His truth, the word of God (John 16:13). Instead of having inspired preachers, we now have uninspired men that are obligated to preach the Holy Spirit-inspired gospel.

What is it that preachers are supposed to preach? Not their own feelings, not their personal hunches, not their private preferences, and certainly not what they surmise to be "the Lord laying it on their heart." No, friends, true gospel preachers "preach the word" (2 Timothy 4:2), or as Jesus said, they "preach the gospel" (Mark 16:15).

"So, you don’t think that preachers should preach with emotion?" Preachers ought to energetically and enthusiastically proclaim the Lord’s gospel. They, like the apostle Paul, should feel, "Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!" (1 Corinthians 9:16). But that is a far cry from saying that they ought to claim that "the Lord laid it on their heart." Preaching with feeling is not the same as preaching which is totally based on feelings or pure emotionalism. For one to claim that he preaches "what the Lord lays on his heart" simply means that he is basing his message on his own personal speculation and what he feels is right. Jesus did not say, "Go and preach whatever you feel in your heart." The Master said to preach "the gospel." That should settle the matter for those that want to please Him.