What is Positive Confession?

In this installment I’ll be dealing with Positive Confession. 

Romans 10:10

For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Luke 6:45

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

“Faith begins where the Will of God is known.” --Pastor Michael D. Moore

 In other words if it’s not God’s will you have no basis for faith.
1 John 5:14-15          

14And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

15And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

Positive Confession is not the belief that we can force God to do anything nor do we have any power outside of His will. On the contrary it's just talking the way God talks.

Romans 4:17

¹⁷ (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”^[a]) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;

Let’s define ‘confession’

 “Confession in Greek means that you “agree with” or “say the same thing that God says about you/or your circumstances.” Fred Price (Name it Claim it pg 8)

What this is saying is confession means to say what God says about your situations. For example God says in Philippians 4:19

19But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

So an example of positive confession would be saying that “All of my needs are met according to the riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Confession is about finding what God says about your life and speaking in line with that. Notice how this is rooted in a promise from the scriptures. It is not denial of the circumstances. You don’t say I have no needs. That would be a lie. With positive confession you acknowledge the need but you acknowledge that God is the source that will meet that need.

Here are some examples of a non-bible based confessions.

I have no problems.

I am not sick.

The difference may seem like semantics but in the mind of a Word of Faith person they are light years apart. In biblical confessions you are saying what the bible says about your life so the truth in the bible is elevated above the truth of the circumstances. The other view is just a denial of the circumstances with no truth to lean on.

I have to mention that some do take Positive Confession too far and end up putting people into bondage. They sort of set themselves up as the Confession Police and they want to arrest you for every perceived negative word you speak. This can be troubling to a person that is young in their faith and is now afraid to share their struggles because they don’t want to speak a negative confession. I have a Negative Confession portion where I’ll deal a little more with that.

This is definitely an area where you have to hear the whole message because if you don’t you will do some crazy things in the name of Positive Confession. There are some people that are teaching it that have no idea what they are talking about. On the other side if you only hear part of the message you won’t understand it. I know when I first heard that I can have what I say. I wrote out a long list of everything that I wanted like a Christmas list and put it on my bedroom door and would read the list every night. I didn’t know any better. I also didn’t understand that my confession was for building my faith and not for God. I had the thought that there was a certain amount of times I need to confess this or that before it manifests. A bill paid takes 15 consecutive confessions of 'My needs are met' and a headache takes 32 consecutive confessions of 'I believe I'm healed'. I now know that was incorrect and that my confessions don’t move God. They are a tool to keep me in remembrance of God’s Word and continually acknowledge Him as my source.

So from my misunderstandings I can’t come down too hard on someone that may be critical of the idea of Positive Confession. 

Is the "Word of Faith Movement" a Denomination?

“A Christian denomination is an identifiable religious body under a common name, structure, and doctrine within Christianity.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_denomination

According to this definition and the idea behind denominations I have to say no “Word of Faith” is not a denomination. Adherents share certain beliefs but there is no organized structure or governing body as a whole. To preach under the Presbyterian denomination umbrella you must adhere to certain beliefs and if you don’t adhere to them you will be sat down. “Word of Faith” does not have that kind of structure as a whole. Anyone could start a Store Front ministry and call themselves “Word of Faith” or be called “Word of Faith” and teach anything that they want with no one to challenge them. This is a very important point because everyone labeled “Word of Faith” is not saying the same thing.

I’ll be addressing the subject of Positive Confession in the next blog in this series and following that with Negative Confessions.

Word of Faith Movement

This blog is an attempt to cause some of the stones raised to be thrown at Word of Faith believers to be dropped.

There are numerous websites devoted to attacking what is commonly referred to as the Word of Faith movement which is also sometimes called the Prosperity Gospel. I will primarily be addressing criticism from Calvary Chapel Aurora’s website.

http://www.calvaryaurora.org/resources/apologetics/

as well as

http://www.gospeloutreach.net/whatwordfaith.html

Calvary Chapel’s stance surprised me to be honest. I recently came into the knowledge of them around 2010 and fell in love with them. I started listening to Pastor David Guzik whom is currently Senior Pastor at Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara every day for a few months when I was struggling with aspects of the Word of Faith message and Christianity as a whole. I still listen to him and read his online commentaries today. Surprisingly for Word of Faith to be considered so unbiblical his teaching and interpretation of scriptures actually confirmed most of the things I had already learned in the Word of Faith movement. I have also read a number of Pastor Chuck Smith’s commentaries and they also support a number of core Word of Faith beliefs. I’ll be including some of those commentary notes in this essay. The straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back and sparked me to write this essay was a message on Calvary Chapel radio. The minister was talking about the Book of Acts and not far into the message he went on a Anti Word of Faith rant. He said that Word of Faith teaches that you should never have problems in life and that if you get sick or are poor it’s because of a lack of faith. I got angry and turned it off. I’ve heard similar claims from other non-Word of Faith Pastors that I thoroughly enjoy like Craig Groeschel as well. They don’t mean any harm they just don’t understand what they are criticizing. I’m hoping that with this essay that Christian’s will think before they repeat things they have heard from someone else. There are people on the receiving end of these accusations. These people love Jesus, believe that Jesus is the Second part of the Trinity; That Jesus walked the Earth and died to bring mankind back into a right relationship with God; that salvation is received by grace and not by works. The biggest difference is Word of Faith believes that Jesus died for more than just sins.

Most of the claims in the Calvary Chapel article seem to be based in a misunderstanding of the message. I’ve learned that you can’t listen to one message on Faith or Confession (or even one Word of Faith minister for that matter) and be able to accurately judge it and much of this article is based off views of people that are already against Word of Faith. They use critiques from John MacArthur and Hank Hanegraaf. John MacArthur is a wonderful minister but he is a Calvinist. This isn’t meant to be disparaging towards my Calvinist brothers and sisters but there are areas that a Calvinist and Word of Faith adherent or anyone that advocates God gave man Free Will cannot see eye to eye on God’s sovereignty. Word of Faith and anyone else that advocates Free Will believes that God has given men Free Will and that we can resist him and He won’t force us to do anything that goes against our wills. This flies directly in the T.U.L.I.P view of the God’s Sovereignty specifically the “I” which stands of Irresistible Grace and borders on heresy in the eyes of some.

Many of the views attributed to the Word of Faith movement aren’t true beliefs and the things that are somewhat true are taken out of context. The words Heresy, Heretics and False Doctrine are commonly used in reference to the Word of Faith Movement. Let’s look at the definition of Heresy and see if Word of Faith falls under that category.

Heresy is:

[d]octrine which is erroneous in such a way that Christians must divide themselves as a church from all who teach or accept it; those adhering to heresy are assumed to be lost, although Christians are unable to make definitive judgments on this matter. The opposite of orthodoxy. Adj.: "heretical."

- Source: A Biblical Guide To Orthodoxy And Heresy, Christian Research Journal, Summer 1990, byRobert M. Bowman.

Easton's Bible Dictionary says 'heresy' is derived from…

…a Greek word signifying (1) a choice, (2) the opinion chosen, and (3) the sect holding the opinion. In the Acts of the Apostles (5:17; 15:5; 24:5, 14 ; 26:5) it denotes a sect, without reference to its character.

Elsewhere, however, in the New Testament it has a different meaning attached to it. Paul ranks "heresies" with crimes and seditions (Gal. 5:20). This word also denotes divisions or schisms in the church (1 Cor. 11:19).

In Titus 3:10 a "heretical person" is one who follows his own self-willed "questions," and who is to be avoided. Heresies thus came to signify self-chosen doctrines not emanating from God (2 Pet. 2:1).

- Source: Heresy, Easton Bible Dictionary

Charges of heresy are most serious where they involve deviation from - or denial of - the central, essential doctrines of Christianity:

Certain Christian doctrines constitute the core of the faith. Central doctrines include the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the bodily resurrection, the atoning work of Christ on the cross, and salvation by grace through faith. These doctrines so comprise the essence of the Christian faith that to remove any of them is to make the belief system non-Christian.

Central doctrines should not be confused with peripheral issues, about which Christians may legitimately disagree.

Peripheral (i.e. non-essential) doctrines include such issues as the timing of the tribulation, the method of baptism, or the structure of church government. For example, one can be wrong about the identity of "the spirits in prison" (1 Peter 3:19) or about the timing of the rapture and still go to heaven, but one cannot deny salvation by grace or the deity of Christ (John 8:24) and be saved.

http://www.apologeticsindex.org/447-heresy-heretic

Now that we have a definition for Heresy we’ll continue our study to see if Word of Faith denies central doctrines of the Christian faith. In this series I’ll also be addressing issues such as is Word of Faith a denomination, are all the teachers the same, What is the force of faith? Is “little god’s” doctrine a biblical view? What is “Name it and claim it”? Did Jesus die spiritually? Did Jesus go to hell and suffer on our behalf? Is there any biblical or historical support that backs up some Word of Faith beliefs? Also I'll be covering topics like Health and Wealth. 

I hope this study can bring some understanding and unity among us believers. I pray we can help each other grow and develop understanding in our faith walks. There are things that I don't understand and hopefully we can find balance where the ship goes off course. The next post will be on Positive Confession.

Feel free to give feedback. Let's keep it productive and positive. Name calling and insults will be deleted.

Did God Really Say That???

Isaiah 1:19

¹⁹ If you are willing and obedient,
      You shall eat the good of the land;

We as Christians sometimes have a habit of allowing the experiences of others to invalidate God’s promises. God has a lot of promises in the bible that are conditional. If you do this then He promises to do that. What we often do is see a person that in our mind is doing their part in the promise but don’t seem to be experiencing the promised result. Why did this person struggle their whole lives if that promise means what it says? To that question I’d answer I don’t know but that’s not going to make me throw away the promise.

2 Corinthians 1:20

²⁰ For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.

Numbers 23:19
“God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

From these scriptures it seems that A. God cannot lie and B. He is faithful to bring to pass that which he promised. We don’t like things that cause self-reflection and/or can put a question mark over the heads of some that we considered perfection. But if God is real and his promises are real and we are Willing and Obedient then there is no reason we shouldn’t eat the Good of the Land. Here are a few things that can cause a person not to eat the good of the land. This will by no means be an exhaustive list.

Unbelief

1.       If you don’t believe that God’s promises are for you then you won’t experience everything he has for you.

Mark 6:4-6
⁴ But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.” ⁵Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. ⁶ And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.

The power to heal was available but wasn’t received because of their unbelief.

Romans 3:3
For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect?

Ingratitude and Pride

2.       Sometimes we just want things done our way. God has a way but we don’t want it that way. One thing I believe falls under this is when we chase after signs and wonders and only accept those as moves of God. One of the best quotes I heard on this was from Pastor Shawn Bumpers at Calvary Chapel Birmingham.

“When we only look for God in the impossible we miss Him in the possible.” Pastor Shawn Bumpers

This was an area that I was struggling in. God was blessing me left and right but since it wasn’t accompanied by trumpets, flashing lights and dancing angels I didn’t respect it as I should. Here is a scripture example of pride almost costing someone their healing.

2 Kings 5:10-14
¹⁰ And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.” ¹¹ But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’ ¹² Are not the Abanah^[a] and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage. ¹³ And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” ¹⁴ So he went down and dipped seven times in the Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God; and his flesh was restored like the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

We see in this passage that Naaman already had a set way that he desired to receive his healing and when that set way wasn’t met he was angry and was willing to walk away. Thank God for a bold servant to speak some sense into him. Some of us don’t have that bold friend to break that prideful mindset so we don’t respect the simple things that God does for us every day.

Time

3.       Sometimes there are no problems or adjustments needed. In some cases it just takes time. There may be things that are being worked out that you aren’t aware of that just take you being patient. There are things in God’s timing that could be deferring your return. There could be some spiritual warfare going on that you just have to continue to stand and believe in those promises. Here are some examples of both from scripture. In example one David was anointed King by Samuel but there were a few boundaries in place. Boundary #1 Saul was still King over Israel. Boundary #2 the throne went to the King’s son so Jonathan was the next in line for the throne. There was a period of time where this promise didn’t look like it would come to pass. David lost everything and was sent into exile while Saul tried to kill him over and over. Eventually the promise was brought to pass and David became King.

1 Samuel 16:13
Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah.

2 Samuel 2:4
⁴ Then the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah.

There was years of struggle and growth for David between his being anointed and him taking the throne. But God was working the whole time bringing it to pass.

Here is an example of Spiritual Warfare that is going on behind the scenes. In this instance Daniel had been praying for an interpretation for a dream and an angel appeared and told him that from the first day that he prayed God had heard and sent the angel to him but he was hindered by other spiritual forces.

Daniel 10:10-14
¹⁰ Suddenly, a hand touched me, which made me tremble on my knees and on the palms of my hands. ¹¹ And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for I have now been sent to you.” While he was speaking this word to me, I stood trembling. 
¹² Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.¹³ But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. ¹⁴ Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come.”

This delay had nothing to do with Daniel but he had to stay focused on what he was praying for.

Bottom line God is faithful to His promises. We don’t have to explain them away by saying they are only for Israel or other commonly used excuses.

"But in many respects, God's people fail to possess their possessions and enjoy those privileges and blessings to which the blood of Christ entitles them."

However distasteful to the flesh, whatever sneers it may produce from carnal professors, the Christian must rigidly and perpetually act by the rule that God has given him to walk by. In so doing, he will be immeasurably the gainer; for the path of obedience—is the path of prosperity! Conformity unto the revealed will of God may indeed entail trial; nevertheless, it will be richly compensated in this life, both in spiritual and temporal bounties.

Nor is there any justification to insist that such statements pertained only to the Mosaic economy. If we unhesitatingly apply to our own day that precious word in Isaiah 1:18, "Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet—they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson—they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18), is it honest to refuse taking unto ourselves the very next verse, "If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land" (Isaiah 1:19)? The principles which regulate God's providential dealings with His people are in no way altered by any change made in the outward form of His kingdom upon earth.

A.W Pink – Enjoying God’s Best

http://www.gracegems.org/Pink/gods_best.htm

God is faithful to His promises. Don't let people guilt you into feeling like He isn't or that you're not worthy.

Claim them today and don’t let go.

What I Like about Word of Faith

It doesn’t take much searching to find a website that is anti-Word of Faith. The claims go all the way to it being destructive to the church as a whole. This is an interesting viewpoint in my opinion. If the Church belongs to God then how can it be destroyed? Especially since a lot of the loudest screamers believe that nothing happens that God doesn’t ordain to happen. But I digress. There are things that I am grateful to God for connecting me with Word of Faith. Here are the main things.

Who Am I

1.       I learned that I am righteous. There is nothing that I can do to earn God’s love. Salvation is by grace and Faith in Jesus’ work on the Cross and not by my dead works. This was something I’d never learned in church. The churches that I had been a part of prior subtly taught a Works based system where whenever I messed up I thought I was at risk of losing my salvation. Humorously this caused me to think I had missed the rapture on a number of occasions growing up. I now don’t live in fear of God throwing me away because I’m not perfect. The pressure is off and I just rest in His grace to do what needs to be done out of love for Jesus.

Why Am I Here

2.       Not only did I learn that I was righteous but I learned that God has a unique plan for every person’s life here on earth. I’d grown up with the view of just trying to get to heaven. That earth was just something to endure until you make it to heaven. I now have a sense of purpose here on earth. I don’t fully understand what that purpose is but I no longer feel like I’m just a mist floating in the wind.

What is this book

3.       My Word of Faith church was the first church I was a part of that actually taught me about the bible. My prior churches talked about politics, news, current events and bringing your bible wasn’t necessary. My Word of Faith church required bringing your bible because we were going to be using it heavily. I was taught about Faith, Prayer, How to Study the Bible and a number of other things that had never been presented to me. Word of Faith emphasizes the importance of the bible and the reading of the bible more than any other church I’d ever been a part of.

These are just a few things that I like about Word of Faith. There are some things that I don’t like but the good outweighs the bad in most cases. In later posts I’ll be addressing some of the common criticisms tossed at Word of Faith to see if they are valid in light of scripture. If these blogs can cause one person to at least hesitate and research before tossing a stone at a fellow Christian it will have done its job.  

Seeker Sensitive... Wrong?

Philippians 1:15-18
New King James Version (NKJV)

¹⁵ Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: ¹⁶ The former^[a] preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; ¹⁷ but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. ¹⁸ What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.

I was thinking about this scripture this morning. There are so many types of churches out there today. I wanted to deal with the so called “Seeker Sensitive’ churches in this blog. We see the band and casually dressed Pastor and pick up the stones immediately.

I read this description of what “Seeker Sensitive’ means on ChristianExaminer.com.

A “seeker-sensitive” church is a church whose main purpose is to try to make the church look more attractive to unbelievers. Many churches use technology and media to drive outreach to the communities. Most say this is a powerful outreach tool, but the affects of it can, and will, be very unhealthy for the church as a whole.

I may be simple but why is this unhealthy? Paul says that we rejoice if Christ is preached. Why should we be afraid of churches that want to provide a safe non-judgmental environment for unbelievers? Everyone doesn’t respond to Fire and Brimstone messages. Paul says in Romans 2:4 that the goodness of God leads to repentance.

 One church can’t meet the needs of every person but can we have enough faith in God that He can get people where they need to be? Why can’t God use the “Seeker Sensitive” church to bring about true repentance and then lead that person to a place that offers real discipleship? Personally I go to a church that some would consider “Seeker Sensitive” and I love it. I love the uplifting messages, the practical sermons and the focus on just loving and worshiping Jesus. I’ll let you in on a little secret. No matter how you dress a church up when the exclusiveness of Jesus being the only way is presented in the so called “Seeker Sensitive” church (and it is) things tend to not be as attractive to the unbeliever.  

I came across this post on another blog and it perfectly sums it up. There are three types of “Seeker Sensitive” churches and it is wrong to lump them all in together.

A good seeker-sensitive church will have the following characteristics: (1) a heart for the lost, (2) a contemporary 'style', (3) meets people where their at by dealing with felt-needs, and (4) purposefully and effectively guides people towards God-centeredness.

A pathetic seeker-sensitive church does the first three well, but completely blows the last one. They do try, just not very hard and not very effectively.

A sinful seeker-sensitive church acts as if #3 is the ultimate and final goal in life.

http://www.joshgelatt.com/2011/08/is-seeker-sensitive-church-sinful.html#comment-form

Can we please stop labeling people we don’t understand for doing things differently than us? At least take the time to find out if the person or church is doing anything wrong biblically instead of judging them off first impressions.