Was God having a bad day when He brought forth the Word of Faith movement?
After all, couldn’t He foresee the leaders would end up unleashing ridiculous prosperity teachings, “seed faith” phony baloney and “name it and claim it” professions which would smack sound biblical doctrine in the face?
And what about the TV and radio Word of Faith evangelists? Couldn’t God foresee these slick-talking hype mongers would end up wearing Rolexes, driving Mercedes, dressing in Armani suits and living in mansions? Why didn’t He squash them before they even arrived on the scene?
Without a doubt, the Word of Faith is the most criticized and most maligned movement by other Christians and the media over the last half century. Even now, the senate is checking over many of the ministries’ books, looking for misappropriated funds.
What was God thinking about when He brought forth the Word of Faith movement?
So, what do you think? What’s your thoughts on this?
Swimming Upstream appears at this blog site on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It’s a little of this and a little of that, all written to encourage and exhort believers in their Christian journeys.
Larry Who 
Faith movement? Sounds more to me like money movement, my brother knows a dear friend who left his church due to faith movement minister. They agreed to buy communal properties in England, all the money was put in one place, then minister decided that God was calling him to move to America. He then purchased latest Jaguar and took significant chunk of that money and disappeared leaving most of them out of pocket.
However I would argue that this is not God’s fault but our own we are after all warned to be on the look out for the wolfs. God did his job correctly its our negligence, refusal to use discernment and gullibility and happiness with first things that comes out of the mouths of those whom we may perceive “anointed”.
God allows these things to happen as he appreciates our free will, we however need to use it to start being obedient to his word by using that which he give us. We should stop being focused on others tickling our ears and focus on Gods word. Discernment is after all one of the Spiritual Gifts, and we should not neglect it.
Thank you for your post.
Kind regards
Defend the word
defendtheword,
Thanks for your comments.
Without a doubt, the Word of Faith has had a few glitches in its movement, one of them being the prosperity teachings. And I agree, we Christians have lacked discernment, but more than that, we have not been like the Bereans and searched the word, checking out the teachings for ourselves.
Now, this is my personal opinion on the Word of Faith movement. It’s not something I can prove for sure until I arrive in heaven, but it’s my inner impressions, okay?
How many Christians do you know can cast out demons? Probably not very many…if any. And yet, Jesus said to his disciples who could not cast out a demon in a young boy, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you?”
What do you think Jesus would say to us today? After all, we have Bibles galore, teaching tapes, seminars and whatever and most Christians could not cast out a demon if we had to.
So, I firmly believe the Lord was willing to put up with what He foresaw would be teaching excesses in the Word of Faith movement just so He could emphasize faith to us believers.
Why?
In Luke 18:8, Jesus said,”…However, when the Son of Man comes will He find faith on the earth?”
I believe that times are going to get extremely tough. And tough times wear people down so that they fall prey to depression and losing hope.
So, I believe the Word of Faith teachings – excluding the prosperity teachings, the seed-faith ones and some of the healing legalism – are important for us believers to study so that we have a deep revelation of faith for the future.
Once again, this is my impression, and what you do with it is up to you.
Our words have power but they are neither a trick nor a system. Our friends’ daughter has been thick into Word of Faith. Even after her husband lost a leg to diabetes which didn’t go away after “talking” to it, she still insists that God will grow him a new leg.
Yes, He can. But will He do it because we say so?
The Word of Faith movement focuses on the blessings, on the things that God gives us. If we pray and cast out demons, have faith as to heal paralytics, etc, then God will “bless” our faith with worldly riches, which we will then use to further His kingdom (theoretically).
But the only trouble with this, is that it’s just another form of idolatry. We’re like kids who can’t wait to see their favorite relative, only because of the gifts she brings.
Why do we love God? Why do we want to serve Him? Because of WHO He is (the great I AM, the alpha and omega) or because of what He does for us?
And you don’t have to be in the Word of Faith movement to get this mixed up.
It’s my opinion that the Word of Faith movement is another one of His tests, to find out whose hearts are completely His.
jane and anna,
Good comments, but both of you are mostly talking about the extremes and the excesses of the Word of Faith movement.
Mike Bickle states in his book, “Growing in the Prophetic” that God offends our minds to reveal our hearts.
And if anything offends our minds, it is the Word of Faith and their preachers. Yipes! And some of their followers. Yipes! Double yipes!
But no matter what our minds say, the Lord sent the Word of Faith movement for us to get a revelation of extreme faith. Why? Because we are called to heal the sick, raise the dead and cast out demons. And guess what? Most of us can not do this.
Scripture states: “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for He who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Heb. 11:6)
Now, you can say to yourself that you are going to worship and sing Hillsong music to Jesus all day long. But if your mate, child or neighbor is near death because of terrorist activities, singing and worshipping may not be the answer. (Though it was for Mary in John 12)
Most of the miracles revealed in the Gospels occured for one reason: faith.
When I was a new Christian, I attended a small independent congregation where the pastor had a powerful teaching anointing. He said–and this was well before the Word of Faith movement–if Satan can’t keep you from receiving a truth, he’ll try to push you until you’re unbalanced. He went on to explain that most heresy is truth taken to the extreme so it no longer agrees with the gospel as a whole. Keeping that teaching in mind, regarding the Word of Faith movement, I feel we need to receive the kernel or core truth–but stop before we lose our balance. We need to focus on Jesus. But, that being said, I agree with you. They’ve taught faith–even if it’s been misplaced faith. I think God wanted His Body to reach out in faith.
Solveig,
Thanks for your comment. I agree that we need to focus on Jesus.
I feel sad when I see the controversy over this Word of Faith Movement.
The real problem lies directly with the sheep who are so desperate to mindlessly remain sheep, led by their particular hero. This is a fact whether in the Word of Faith Movement or ordinary church.
For all the condemnation of the word of faith group, does anyone apply the same parameters of judgement against the rest of the churches, most of which keep their sheep safely within their “going nowhere” four walls. These saints are quite safely untainted by such “faith” heresy nor tainted by anything other than their own pastor’s passive protective management over them.
They are both just variations on the demand to be led by some Paul or Apollos. One of them is comfortable and the other is plain risky. Personally I would prefer risky!
HOW CAN ANY CHRISTIAN BE ANYTHING BUT A WORD OF FAITH MAN.
Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. NOT BY THE WORD OF THE PASTOR. or for that matter a WORD OF FAITH TEACHER. However the latter hopes that the saints will at least get off their butts and go somewhere in God, beyond church Sundays.
If we are not interested in the “Word of Faith” itself, then we are not interested in what God is saying..
“Man shall not live by bread alone but by every WORD that proceeds from the mouth of God.”
The problem in the Body of Christ was never the “Word of Faith” movement, but in the idolatry which people have towards their teachers, pastors, television ministers etc.-all idolatrous heroes!
The above is true in any Christian Movement and critics should apply the same measure to their own churches where the correct use of the “Word of Faith” rarely occurs.
Before anyone responds defensively about the wonderful services or teaching ministry at their church, that is just not the same thing.
These Word of Faith critics are the same ones who would watch Peter sink in the Sea of Gallilee. From the boat they safely discuss the merits/mishaps of Peter’s “word of faith”, and its bad effect on the whole body.
Of course in the boat or your pastor’s skirts you don’t sink in the water or even get your feet wet.
It is surely the most critical thing that the saints learn to hear the voice of God, for without being aware of His voice all we can become is mindless sheep for some other christian leader to gather, rather than God’s own sheep.
I therefore believe that flawed or not, the word of faith movement has served to demonstrate that there are better things for christians to do than just attend church, and the body of Christ is a better place because of it.
I personally have never been involved with any of the “Faith” movements, I have however read enough of their stuff and have enough discernment to get the meat out of it and go away and walk with what I learn. I find it works as long as you dump the personality hype.
I did the same with church, and finding much of it again just idolatrous personality hype, gave up on that too. Its just much easier to walk in the presence of God and hear His voice without all the distractions of organised Christianity.
Frank,
What a great comment which is filled with answers and meat for all of us. Thanks.