“I’ll take, ‘Things That Show The Church Is Going Crazy’ for $1000 Alex.” The material to bring up and discuss is ever growing. I personally like the ease and accessibility we have to everything that is going on around the world and the rapid way in which we can learn it. There is always the temptation to be addicted to all the social media and news outlets to the point of neglecting people and literally everything else. However, knowing information and what is being taught and preached allows us to be informed, so that we can respond quickly with truth and answers.
Bethel (probably a whole series could be spent talking about this church) has a new product out they call The Declarations Clicker. They sell this product on their website (probably at their church building as well). It resembles a pitch counter that you use to track the number of pitches that pitchers have in a game. The difference with this, though, is that they want to encourage you to track your daily prayer…declarations. Now here’s where there will probably be a division and debate that will inevitably happen with church people. “I see nothing wrong with this. We should do this. We need to declare more things and claim things in the name of Jesus! We don’t do this enough. This is why so many Christians are living in weakness and defeat.” Then the other side chimes in. “The Declarations Clicker? What in the world? This is one of the many problems with this ‘Name it Claim it’ movement treating God like a Genie. Remember the whole ‘Holy Spirit activate, Holy Spirit activate!’ thing on Family Feud? That’s from that. We don’t declare things as if God is obligated to grant us spiritual wishes.”
The real question is, if these people have such abilities, why aren’t they changing the world? Why doesn’t Benny Hinn live at the Cancer Center, or Children’s Hospital? Kenneth Copeland, I thought he declared and decreed (by blowing) Covid away two years ago? He also said to put your hands on your head and your hair would grow back. It seems he needs to declare it in a few more spots, because it’s pretty thin. How about Joyce Meyers? It appears she needs to go to her doctors and “declare” she gets her money back for face job. This seems inconsistent and outside of what they teach and say they can do. The inconsistencies are unending. They hold scheduled revivals and only choose particular people to be healed. They will claim that we are to live in complete physical healing now, because of Jesus and Him taking the stripes (Isaiah 53:5). Yet, we still die, because, “C’mon, no one can stop that.” I’ve been told that every believer is supposed to live a sick and disease free life now…but we will die a natural death, because that’s what happens.
I know this may come across harsh and like I’m making fun. It’s a serious matter and these people and many with them are dangerous. They are literally false teachers that the Bible tells us to watch out for and to ignore. We must warn people about them. And countless others are fed this lie from Satan that if they have decreed something to happen or someone has decreed something to happen over them and it doesn’t take place, then it’s their fault. The recipients of this treatment walk away, sad, confused, angry, or depressed. And even worse, there is a rising number every day of people who have “declared” that they no longer believe in a God. And when you dig into their story, their reasons, the churches they went to, or the pastors they sat under, it’s no surprise that a common thread is this false teaching.
So where does this teaching come from? There are numerous passages that are taken out of context or “cherry picked” for the purpose of fulfilling their wish. Theologically we call this eisegesis (reading your meaning into a text). Jesus told His guys that if they didn’t doubt, that they could tell a mountain to throw itself in the sea (Mark 11:23-24). Many of them will say things like, “We’re created in the image of God. That necessarily means that we can do what He can. We have that authority.” But is that what the Bible teaches? Is that what God has said?
The writers at gotquestions.org stated this: “The problem is, our statements can be declarative, but not causative, no matter how true they are; plus, when we go around “decreeing” things, we are in danger of putting our will over God’s will.” There are numerous places where it is clear that our approach to God in prayer is to be done in humility and submitting towards His will, not ours. Consider the model prayer that Jesus shared in Matthew 6. “Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” God’s will is the goal. What about when Jesus was in extreme anguish right before He was to face the pain and rejection at his beatings and then crucifixion? Surely if there was a time for Him to model the “decree and declare no pain and suffering” this would be it. Nope. He submitted to the Father and prayed for His will to be done.
Perhaps there is a place for some device to track how much time we are spending with God? Monitoring our worship and prayer time with God isn’t bad in itself. 2 Corinthians 13:5 teaches us that examining our walk and faith is good and healthy. We should do it. But we should also check our doctrine and what we believe. John said in 1 John 2, “ We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.”
So are we following Jesus, or are we following the way that seems right to us (Pro. 14:12)? It’s not a small matter.
texaschallenge.net 