"What The Lord Lays On My Heart"
The statement that forms the title of this article is one that is heard quite often in some religious circles today. Many preachers who claim to be guided in a direct manner by the Holy Spirit in their preaching often make the statement before every sermon. They get in the pulpit and announce that they are going to preach, "What the Lord lays on my heart." By this saying they seek to leave the impression that the Lord is directly furnishing the words and ideas that constitute their sermon.
I have heard the foregoing statement a number of times and while I do not question the sincerity of the ones who make it, I must frankly state that I do not believe a word of it. This unbelief does not come through my "hardness of heart" or because I like to be disagreeable, but because there is no scripture that teaches the Lord acts in such a manner today. Faith still comes by hearing, (Rom. 10:17), and the thing to be heard is the Word of God. The New Testament nowhere teaches that the Lord ever promised to give a message directly to anyone today. In the absence of scriptural proof, I must deny that He lays a message directly on men's hearts and I consider all who claim such as mistaken to say the least.
At one time, when the Word of God was in the process of being revealed to man, and before this revelation was complete, the Lord did give messages directly to men. He "laid a message on their hearts." He then enabled them to declare that message without mistake. These inspired men "spake as the Spirit gave them utterance," or as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:4; 1 Pet. 1:16-21.) These men could confirm their message with "signs and wonders and divers miracles." (Heb. 2:14.) When the New Testament was completed, the work of the inspired men was accomplished. The word of God passed from the inspired man to the inspired book. This inspired book is perfect and needs no human additions whatever. Since the close of the New Testament, no one has received a message direct from the Lord.
I Imow a preacher who claimed to preach only that "which the Lord laid on his heart." The Lord supposedly gave him the sermon, or message, and he merely delivered it, as did the prophets of old. I noticed, however, that in his library he had a set of sermon notes, and a number of helps for preparing sermons. He often prepared his sermons. memorized the outline, and got up before his church and "preached away." But before he would preach he would say — you guessed it, "I am going to preach what the Lord lays on my heart." I wanted to ask him when the Lord went into the sermon outline business, but spared him the embarrassment. And some of these very same fellows who preach on the radio and tell the audience that they are preaching what the Lord is laying or has laid on their hearts have the sermon manuscript prepared before they ever come to the studio. It seems to me that if the Lord lays the message direct on their hearts, they do not need to study, they do not need any books to lean how to deliver the sermon or to arrange it, they only need a good set of lungs to deliver the message. If the Lord gives the message, they need only deliver it. The Lord told the apostles to "be not anxious HOW or WHAT ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that hour what ye shall speak. (Matt. 10:18-21.) This is the real message to the heart. No one receives a message like that today! In view of these claims to direct guidance Paul should not have told Timothy to study, but to develope his lungs to deliver what the Lord would "lay on his heart."
It is also worthwhile to note that the Lord never laid a message on one person's heart, and commissioned him to preach that which would contradict a message he laid on another's heart. The apostles never contradicted each other as they declared the message on their hearts All will agree, I suppose, that the Lord gave the apostles a message to deliver. Thus the Lord would not give to anyone a message that would contradict what the apostles taught. Should anyone teach contrary to the "apostles doctrine," he would be teaching error, whether he claimed direct revelation or not. Now where did the apostles teach that God would continue to give men messages directly from heaven? The apostles taught that when the New Testament was completed all miraculous gifts would cease. Among these was the "word of wisdom," or the power to infallibly declare the words of God as given to men. (1 Cor. 12:8-11.) In 1 Cor. 13:8-10, the apostle Paul taught that this miraculous knowledge would be done away, and also tells us when — "when that which is perfect is come," the word of God. Since the apostles preached that messages directly from heaven to the heart would cease, and that heaven's message would be fully set forth in a perfect book, what right do men have to claim that the Lord lays a message directly on their hearts today? And why should they desire such in view of the fact that the only message God wants preached is in the completely revealed word?
The message God wants preached today is that the "gospel is the power of God unto salvation," and "though we or an angel from heaven preach any other" we shall be accursed. Is it not also strange, if the Lord directly furnishes these men with messages direct from heaven, why they contradict each other so often?
While the Lord does not lay a message directly upon men's hearts today, He has a message for the heart. He invites all men to "come to him and he will give them rest." "He is the way, the truth and the life." No one comes to the Father except through Him. Peter reveals the message the "Lord laid on his heart," to lost and dying men and women on the first pentecost following the resurrection of our Lord. When they heard Peter's message, "they were pricked in their hearts and cried out saying, men and brethren what shall we do." Peter told them heaven's message: "Repent and be baptized every one of you, in the name of. Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." (Acts 2:38.) All who truly preach the gospel today will preach this message. The Lord never laid it upon anyone's heart to contradict this! Hence, let us hear, and heed heaven's message to us today, and while we can still obey this message let us do so before it is too late.