Another article "Is there power in positive confession?"

https://www.gotquestions.org/positive-confession.html

The Word Faith heresy, is the worst heresy of the 20 & 21st centuries.

Basic it seems gives humans the right to anything they want-power, money, or health, the sky is the limit.

Only God has the power to grant answers to prayer. He is sovereign.

We are to ask God and pray according to God's will. You can ask God got a BMW and a yacht and a jet, but if that is not God's will for your life, you will never receive them.

God is in control. He only gives us power in our words to do His will.

To me, it is such a greedy attempt to manipulate God. God is not pleased with their selfishness and arrogance. Besides, the only people I have seen get rich in the Word Faith mov't are the preachers who beg and cajole people to give away their hard earned money!

I just looked at this article titled "A Biblical Response to the Word of Faith Movement" by Dr. Steve Viars (Octorber 13, 2001)

https://www.faithlafayette.org/resources/sermons/a_biblical_response_to_the_word_of_faith_movement

These preachers preach things like Jesus was a rich man who lived in luxuries, and God did not let Job suffer. Job brought it on to himself by lack of faith (something along that line). I think they claim the Holy Spirit told them those things. They are okay with their "knowledge" contradicts some parts of the Bible. I feel their teaching is definitely off and disturbing. What I am wondering is whether they are considered saved in the Bible sense. Their understanding of who God and Jesus and themselves are is very strange. Their God does not seem to have much power.

Thanks for the links LavenderC, they were interesting.

I especially liked the part in the "gotquestions" link where they say " People who push positive confession say that the practice is merely restating God’s promises as given in the Bible. But they don’t differentiate between universal promises God made to all His followers (e.g., Philippians 4:19) and personal promises made to individuals at a certain time for a particular purpose (e.g., Jeremiah 29:11). .....

You're welcome Beryl367. Here's a clip that is anti Joel Osteen and prosperity gospel:

Heresy of Joel Osteen, Prosperity Gospel & Word of Faith

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkPfKq1r4i4

I am still trying to figure out whether Joel Osteen is "okay" or not as a Christian pastor. They say he does not preach about hell and sin. It sounds like he mixes other non Christian philosophies in with the Bible. What definitely is missing in his messages is how God is with believers both in the good times and bad times. In this kind of Word of Faith preaching Christians are supposed to have only "good times." It is Gospel for the rich.

I didn't know much about Joel Osteen except that he is one of the prosperity gospel preachers that non charismatic preachers don't agree with. I only listened to one of his sermons so far in which he talks about how God opens the closed doors. I plan to listen to a few more of his sermons before coming to any conclusion of whether he is from the "devil" as some think. At this point I feel he puts other non Christian philosophies in his sermons. Is God against him? That is what I am trying to figure out. He seems like a nice person. I don't have anything against him so far. Just think he is one of the typical charismatic preachers and focuses too much on the health and wealth rather than eternal life and salvation. I think the question is whether he is doing something harmful and wrong in spiritual way.

Joel Osteen is totally apostate. I was in a Christian forum a few years ago, and there was one woman who kept posting his insipid daily devotionals. I would rip them apart.

Then someone accused me of never having listened to his sermons, which was true! So I dug out the transcripts of his recent sermons. First, they were incredibly short. (Ok, my sermons are too long!)

He would take a topic and talk about it. Somewhere, in the middle of the sermon, he would use a word found in the Bible. Then he would recite one verse with that word in it. He never explained the verse, or what it had to do with his topic. Imagine flipping open your Bible anywhere, then closing your eyes and putting your finger on the page. That was his verse. It literally had nothing to do with his sermon. I've never seen a worse preacher than Osteen. Every day I reviewed an Osteen sermons, tearing it to shreds. Finally, the woman who put up the devotionals left, since no one was commenting on the devotionals. And lest you think I was targeting her, I wrote her message after message trying to explain the gospel using the Bible. She just kept saying she came from a legalistic background and her family had disowned her. I prayed for and with her, but she was holding onto Osteen, no matter how much I showed his mistakes. It was sad, but also like a demonic spirit holding onto her.

Was she saved? Not mine to judge. BUT, she did not know or understand who Jesus was, nor the gospel. She would not even read the Bible. Those are not the actions of a born again believer. Instead, she was like a cult follower.

The health and wealth gospel takes pieces of verses and puts them together to support their heresy. Read the verses in context, and you will see they do not go together, and they might even be unrelated. Context is so important!

Thank you Marlene for your reply to this Joel Osteen subject. I looked up some more of his sermons and saw his March 12, 2021 devotional titled "Your Appointed Time" and another of his old sermons titled "I Declare." I noticed that his main message in the sermons is about expecting God's times of favor (giving success and good things).

In his devotional "Your Appointed Time" he quoted Habakkuk 2:3 and gave the following encouragement:
:
"The times had been ordained by God and couldn't be changed. These were special times that God had already established to show His people favor. Just as it was with them, there are appointed times God has already ordained to show out His favor in your life."

He often says things like "Year of God's favor," "Supernatural empowerment," "Divine connection," "God takes you where you cannot go on your own," "You keep doing the right thing, honoring God, and He will give you ......"

In "Believe in the Power of Prayer" He wrote

"The Bible says the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective, yet something extraordinary happens when two or more agree together in prayer. In Matt. 18:19, Jesus said, “If any two of you agree touching any matter on this earth, it shall be done.” Post your prayer request below and believe that God is going to move mightily in your life as others from around the world pray in agreement with your request! You can also contact one of our telephone prayer partners directly at ...... (phone numbers)." https://www.joelosteen.com/community

Joel Osteen's sermons, like ones preached by other Word of Faith preachers, teach that God's purpose (for human beings) is to bless them (giving them good things and making them happy). There are Bible verses that support that (Romans 8:28, Jeremiah 29:11). My conclusion at this point is some people including Christians benefit from this type of sermons, people who need "faith" in order to move forward in times of doubts and discouragement. It becomes problem when the preachers added stuff like "Jesus was a wealthy man when he was human" or "Believers (who are born again) possess the same divine (supernatural) power that Jesus and God, the Father Himself have" while living on earth. I don't know whether Joel Osteen preaches that.

Christians need the "positive mindset" in their walk with God which can be attain through reading the Bible and prayer. Listening to Joel Osteen kind of sermons gives such positive mindset. I hope I am not extremely incorrect to say that preachers like Joel Osteen teach that once a believer is born again he will know what pleases God and what not through the Holy Spirit in them and does not have to depend much on reading the Bible to know God's will. Their definition of God's will is He wants to bless the believers. They don't teach much about Christian moral ethics. They believe in the power of the Holy Spirit and emphasize that part so much that they don't give importance to God's words (the Bible).

I don't know enough about Joel Osteen to say whether he is led by God in his sermons. My impression is when someone goes to him for spiritual advice he may mainly tell them to "have faith" rather than following the Bible's instructions of how to behave. I could be wrong in that. I agree with him about the importance of having positive thinking in our walk with God. People who feel the Bible (Old Testament in particular) is full of negative things (such as God was angry and destroyed sinners, etc.) don't understand the meaning of "holiness" and "love." and "God's love." I have problem with prosperity believers who reject the Ten Commandments.. Some of them do. I don't see how a Christian can please God without respecting His moral instructions. Not that I am perfect in following them. But you need to have some moral rules as a standard.

I hope you all have a good day today.

This sermon "Invite God Into Your Difficulty" sounds fine to me.

Invite God Into Your Difficulties | Joel Osteen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEQGDJNPIbE

I watched this a few minutes ago. It actually helped me in my present situation (problem).

I read that John Osteen, Joel Osteen's father was a Baptist who turned into a charismatic believer. While looking for articles on Word of Faith and prosperity gospel, I ran into information on Joel Osteen which got me into looking into his sermons. After checking out some of his sermons I noticed he is different from the typical Word of Faith preachers even though he is friend with many of them.

Initially my intention in posting anti prosperity articles in this post is to point out the down falls (flaws) of this doctrine and its danger and harm that can be done to people, believers in particular. I still think there is a very bad side in this prosperity doctrine that should be pointed out, for instance how it can turn some believers away from God when they experience the opposite of prosperity that is promised in the doctrine.

I don't have problem with anyone who is against Joel Osteen's teaching. I agree he does not cover important things in the Bible but I personally won't throw out his teaching completely. I don't have problem with anyone who does. But as to the Word of Faith, I do have a lot of problem with it. (Joel Osteen is considered one of the Word of Faith preachers but as I said he seems to be different in the fact that he talks about Jesus and does use the word "repent" when he invited people to accept Jesus in this sermon). As the title of my post says "You decide (what it is)." You choose who and what you want to listen to and help guide others the best you can as they may be looking for the right direction to follow.