SPEAKING THE LIFE YOU WANT?

There is a popular teaching that’s been around for many years saying we as Christians have the power to speak health, wealth & happiness into our lives. The most notable movement that promotes such teaching is called The Word of Faith movement. If by chance you have never heard of this movement I’d like to offer a short history. The Word of Faith movement grew out of the Pentecostal movement in the late 20th century. Its founder was E. W. Kenyon, who studied the metaphysical New Thought teachings of Phineas Quimby. Mind science (where "name it and claim it" originated) was combined with Pentecostalism, resulting in a peculiar mix of orthodox Christianity and mysticism. Kenneth Hagin, in turn, studied under E. W. Kenyon and made the Word of Faith movement what it is today.

At its best this teaching comes from the misinterpretation & misunderstanding of some scriptures & at its worst, it is a complexity of heretical teaching that has the characteristics of a cult. The central heart of this teaching exalts man & his faith above God. For example, I have heard so-called preachers like the late Dr. Myles Monroe say heretical things like “God can’t move in the earth realm unless you give him permission.” That statement is frightening because he has elevated man to God status & reduced God to man status in essence it makes God subject to man. So instead of recognizing the absolute sovereign power of God as revealed in the bible, the word of faith movement adherents embrace a false god who cannot operate apart from their faith. Other notable teachers such as Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn, Dr. Leroy Thompson, The late Paul Crouch–founder of TBN, Kenneth Copeland, Joel Olsteen, Joyce Meyer, etc. central teachings are rooted in this type of doctrine.

Somehow this doctrine teaches the notion that we are little gods & to activate blessings in your life you have to speak that thing into existence. Hence that’s why it’s called The Word of Faith movement; supposedly your words activate the hand of God & permit him to move on your behalf. But the major question to ask regarding all of this is what does the bible have to say about this type of faith doctrine? For starters, I’d like to first mention the problem I see with preachers & people who teach this stuff is they take one verse from the bible & make it say whatever they want it to say. Being an avid reader/student of God’s word I have come to realize I can’t have a truly biblical understanding of God’s word treating it in that way. When you remove a verse from the bible & do not properly fit it contextually around the other sentences in that verse, it’s very easy to manipulate the scriptures. For example word of faith, teachers teach that the power of life & death is in the tongue. They take that quote/scripture directly from Proverbs 18:21 in the bible. To them, this verse is saying our faith speech contains the power to control your reality, to speak whatever you want into existence.

To give better clarity you may have heard them espouse certain sayings as “in the name of Jesus speak to your wallet! Or speak to that sickness! or speak to that struggling marriage! etc. Now remember according to them you have this ability because you are just like God with the same attributes as Him. Because God spoke life into existence we are little gods so therefore we have this same ability. So back to Proverbs 18:20-21 lets read the whole portion of scripture to gain the context this verse states” A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city, & contentions are like the bars of a citadel With the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach will be satisfied: He will be satisfied with the product of his lips. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, & those who love it will eat its fruit.” So this verse is referring to a person gossiping & from what they speak will come consequences good or bad because what one says can affect others – words can hurt emotions or build them up. But see if you just remove one verse from that scripture a person can make it say whatever they please.

I’m going to stop here for now for the sake of time. I know many people believe naming names & talking publicly about this issue is being divisive. If you want to read a more in depth biblical explanation on this , Check out my blog post from last week. I go into more detail about The Word of Faith movement explaining from the scriptures how not only are we as Christians our to publicly expose false teachers/doctrine but how God commands us to do it.