Toxic Faith, Arterburn & Felton

[countmeworthy]

Igzy,
You are correct that the likes of Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin, Benny Hinn and others, speak of believers being 'little gods', 'little Jesus'' or ready for this one?...... GOD-MEN!!! Yes indeedie! I have heard Benny myself refer to the church and himself as being GOD-MEN!! Miracle healings are HUGE right now in the WOF church. While I have no problem with seeing miraculous healings and miraculous deliverances take place, I am troubled that the emphasis placed is on the healings and miracles.

It's NOT enough for people to be miraculously cured and healed if they are not turning their lives around, living unto the LORD, getting to know HIM through His Word & living sanctified lives. In other words if a person is healed but no one disciples him/her and doesn't tell them that being a born again 'healed' believer does not mean you are now free from trials and tribulations, those poor 'healed' people are in for a rude awakening!

That is why the WOF movement is under soo much attack by many Christian conservatives. The WOF movement emphasizes the miracles and healings but does not emphasize how to live a true Godly life.

Now some charasmatic WOF churches are worst than others...and some are actually 'good'. I learned to speak & pray 'positiviely'. But I apply the Word of God appropriately. In other words, I may want to be competely healthy and debt free but I am not focused on those desires. What good is it to have healthy bodies, debt free living if people are not STRONG in the LORD..whose lives don't reflect a transformation?

I want to see the church including myself set free from strongholds..to live a pure, and sanctified life set apart unto the LORD all the while standing on the authority and power of the Holy Spirit drawing people to HIM & the Word of God.

Rarely do I hear 2 Corinthians 3:18 emphasized: But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

WOF is more focused on the signs/wonders/miracles.

That said, I consider myself a WORD-FAITH person because I SPEAK the WORD of GOD into my life and into the lives of others. That is why you 'hear' me say time and time again, we ARE BLESSED and HIGHLY FAVORED! For we ARE! Are we not co-heirs with Christ? Heirs of GOD? Do we not have the promises of Abraham? Are we not washed and cleansed by the BLOOD of the LAMB? Were we not created in the image and likeness of GOD? Does GOD not love us?

So of COURSE we are BLESSED and HIGHLY FAVORED!! We got to walk and talk and believe we are Blessed and Highly FAVORED by the Most High GOD!

For the last 3 1/2 plus years I have been speaking this Word of FAITH into me and believe me...I AM blessed and Highly FAVORED! Even my friends tell each other and me that all the time.

They SEE the FAVOR of God on me! That's why I keep telling them to declare the WORD of GOD so they can experience the BLESSINGS and FAVOR on them..

I'm no pitiful, defeated Believer and Follower of our Lord Jesus Christ! I AM more than a CONQUEROR IN Christ Jesus...(not in my own strength.)
(Romans 8:37 in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.)

Originally Posted by Igzy

Well, just go to "word faith" on Wikipedia for their definition, as KSA points out. I always thought word-faith was "name it and claim it in the power of Jeeeeeesus' name!" Basically, naming what you want from God and claiming it by faith.

Osteen, as the article says, is influenced by it. But word-faith people generally tend to be charismatic and focused on miracles and other tangible evidences of God's working in people's lives.

It's also interesting the article says that word-faith types tend to believe in something resembling deification.

An increasing number of Word of Faith Ministers are propagating the teaching that believers are "little gods". Kenneth Hagin wrote that God "made us in the same class of being that he is himself," and that the believer is "called Christ" because "that's who we are, we're Christ!"[23] According to Hagin, by being "born again", the believer becomes "as much an incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth".[24] Kenneth Copeland says Adam was "not a little like God ... not almost like God ... not subordinate to God even",[25] and has told believers that "You don't have a God in you. You are one." Based primarily on the book of Psalms 82:6, which says "I have said, Ye are gods and all of you, children of the Most High"; this was also corroborated by Jesus making reference to this scripture in John 10:34. [26] A common theme in Word-Faith preaching is that God created man as "an exact duplication of God's kind." (Hebrews 1:3, John 14:12, etc) [27]