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The Improper Use of Faith
Written by: Deacon Tim Butler
The word “faith” has been misused among so-called believers and, to some extent, has caused many to stray from the faith. What do I mean by this? Many of today’s false prophets are in some way or another affiliated with “The Word Of Faith Movement”. For those of you who are not familiar with the “The Word Of Faith Movement”, it is a denomination that teaches we, as believers in Jesus Christ, can simply speak things into existence and cause things to happen by simply commanding it to be. In other words, they claim to be able to speak things into existence by just speaking it into the atmosphere. The Bible clearly gives us a definition of what faith is. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Faith is not simply believing that God will do whatever we request from Him, but rather faith is believing that God could do whatever we request of Him, and trusting Him for whatever He decides to do. Many of the “Word Of Faith” believers will command healing in someone’s life and ultimately get discouraged and upset with God if He doesn’t bring that healing to pass.
Have you ever fasted and prayed for something and believed God with all of your heart, but the very thing that you prayed for didn’t come to pass? We’ve all been there one time or another because we all have been mis-taught about the doctrine of faith at some point. What if God did everything we asked of Him?– we would walk around commanding this and commanding that and would be looked upon as “genies”! True faith is believing that God can do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or even think, but trusting Him to do whatever He sees fit. I believe God will still perform miracles and answer our prayers depending on who gets the glory from the miracle. Many times the very thing that we request more often then not, brings glory to ourselves. If everything that we “decreed” or “commanded to be” would come to pass, then we would likely receive honor and glory among men—God forbid! I believe in the power of prayer because I’ve been miraculously healed through the power of faith and prayer. However, I didn’t receive any credit for it, but rather God received ALL of the glory.
Many believers have this false sense of what faith is because they’ve been misguided by false teachers who take scriptures out of context. Look at Matthew 17:20 “And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of a mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence yonder; and it shall be removed; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” The misuse of this scripture has caused many people to claim houses, cars, even lotto winnings, and everything else that their carnal minds could think of. And many have turned from the faith because they didn’t get what they thought the scriptures promised them. Note how Jesus specifically told His disciples how they could have said to “this mountain” be thou removed. This leads me to believe that He was speaking about the removing of a specific mountain at a specific time, for the glory of God. I believe that we as “believers” could speak to a mountain and cast it into the sea, but it has to be for the glory God, at a God appointed time, and lead and orchestrated by the Spirit of God. The “Word of Faith” teaches that you could just speak and command anything you want, whenever you want, for whatever reason you want, and it shall come to pass.
We need to get to the point where we trust God in the seemingly impossible things but do like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did. They said, “O king, Nebuchadnezzar, if it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fire, but even if He doesn’t deliver us, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve your gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up (Daniel 3:16-18). We have to learn to trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and know that His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts. In Hebrews 11:32-34, the Bible gives an account of the faithfulness of King David. As faithful as King David was, he still fasted and prayed for his sick son and he uttered the words, “Who can tell whether GOD will be gracious or not?” (2 Samuel 12:15-22) The Apostle Paul also said that he didn’t know whether God would grant him the opportunity to minister in certain cities from time to time. And instead of commanding that he would teach or decreeing that he would go, Paul and other apostles taught that we ought to say, “If God’s willing” then it shall be (James 4:15, Acts 18:21, 2 Tim 2:25, Hebrews 6:3, 1 Cor. 4:19, 1 Cor. 16:7).
The “Word of Faith” teachings often misguide people by telling them that they could “call those things which are not as though they were.” This is a fraction of a scripture quoted out of context that has nothing at all to do with the power of man. This particular scripture is found in Romans 4:17, and it is explaining how God created the world and everything therein. This has absolutely nothing at all to do with man’s abilities. (Romans 4:17), “As it is written, ‘I have made thee, Abraham a father of many nations, before the God whom you believed, who quickens the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were’.” Man cannot create anything or call anything which is not as though it was. And this is a clear example of deceptive teaching by heretical “Word of Faith” preachers.
Man needs to recognize that we cannot just simply command whatever we want, whenever we want, for whatever reason we want but if we are lead by the Spirit of God, then we could command whatever He wants, whenever He wants. It seems as if “Word of Faith” believers spend about 90% of their time walking around decreeing and speaking something into existence, and commanding something to obey their voice, while at the same time boasting about how much power they have in doing so. Then they spend the other 10% of their time living any kind of way their wicked and deceptive hearts desire.
Many of the world’s famous, renowned televangelists are “Word Of Faith” preachers. They often teach that “believers” could have whatever they claim and believe, and usually it is money. This is probably why they are so popular and have so many followers. Faith to me is simply believing that God is able do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask of Him, and believing that He will give us our heart’s desires as long as we don’t ask amiss, or ask with the wrong motives. I believe we need to do more praying and less commanding, and have more humility and less arrogance. We need to be more depending on God’s ability and less depending on our ability.
Be wise, be bold, and until next time, … “Stand Up”
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