God USES DIFFERENT PREACHER PERSONALITIES

           You can find armchair quarterbacks in our day who bemoan the fact that not every preacher on the planet is a doomsday prophet or that not every preacher dwells on positive-only feel-good preaching.  In the Bible, God called and used a variety of different personalities to speak to His people, and it should not surprise us that He does the same today.  Popularly, Jeremiah is called the Weeping Prophet.  On the other hand, Jesus named James and John the Sons of Thunder.  When Jesus asked Peter, “Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am?” the responses reflect the many different sides of Jesus’ personality and different ways in which His ministry had touched different people.
          Nineteenth Century preaching legend Phillips Brooks spoke of “truth through personality.”  Stephen Olford and others emphasized the need for “incarnational preaching” - the life lived out by the preacher supports and continues declaring his message.  Erik Rees’ S.H.A.P.E. helpfully noted that God doesn’t just use a person’s spiritual gives (S.) but also his Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experience - all of which God gives to or allows for the individual.
          To sum it up, we should not be surprised to find variety among the voices God calls to proclaim His truth.  What tied all of the Scriptural examples together and validated their preaching was that all of them declared only the message that God had given to them.  They were His mouthpieces.  They did not invent their messages or monkey with God’s revelation.  They declared, best they knew how, what He had insisted they proclaim using the minds, personalities, and resources available to them.  The result was a broad variety of emotions - a similar reality in our day also.

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