There is something very dangerous in the “Positive Confession” movement. This new type of faith states that “words have creative power”. Charles Capps says that words can “control both the spirit’s world and the physical world because words themselves have power”. He teaches that the words of a Christian are god over circumstances, that “you have what you say” and that our circumstances are “changed and controlled by the words of our mouths” also that “the word of your mouth will cause you to possess what you want”.
There is something extremely dangerous in this popular theology: we can find God nowhere here. The overemphasis on words wipe God out of the map of faith. I addressed this issue in another entry titled “New Age, Positive Thinking, The Word of Faith and Christianity”. But what I really want to talk about in this post is about the danger of deceiving Christian brothers and sisters because of this false doctrine.
I am in the process of writing down my testimony. Many have read about my trials and tests of faith. I have shared everything without any fear to look bad and/or weak. But now I want to talk about my interaction with “positive thinkers”. Needless to say, many followers of this “peaches and cream” Christianity have expressed their despair with my long trial.
In their minds God is so good that He would never allow His children to suffer - perhaps ignoring that suffering is the one thing that Jesus did the most. And indeed God is good, so good that He shapes us to be everyday more like Jesus so we can go to heaven, and this means suffering will be almost our daily bread. The Bible says: “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22)
But this new doctrine and its overemphasis on words teaches us that we can virtually have anything we want if we declare it with a strong faith. And this is where many stumble and fall. When my trial began more than 4 years ago I started asking people to pray for me so I could find a job. I remember many telling me: “It is done! Celebrate it! Give thanks for it! That job you applied for is yours!!!”.
I followed their prescription: I celebrated it, I gave thanks for it and I declared it was mine...and NOTHING happened. And this is exactly where “positive thinkers” start blaming you for not receiving what you want: “You did not believe it wholeheartedly, you doubted, you did not thank God enough for it, you are anxious and God does not like anxious people.”
I repeated this whole thing dozens of times, and curious enough, every time I asked for prayer because I had applied for some job, I would receive the same words over and over again: “Give thanks for it! It is yours! Claim it for you for it is yours! Celebrate in advance!” And I would repeat the same ritual for days - celebrating, claiming it, giving thanks for it - until I received the notification email letting me know that I did not get the job.
But, as time passed by and I did not find a job, I started going deeper in the Word of God. Actually, NOW, I give thanks to God because I never found that job all people told me, in the name of Jesus, I would get. God’s plan is better than all the positivism of the new Christian doctrine. His plans are so wonderful and so beautiful that today I can say that I am a true Christian because of this period of unemployment and hardships. And this is exactly what I want to examine in this article.
First, there is no way in which I can change God’s plan. God is Almighty God, God is omnipotent and God is omniscient...there are no surprises for Him and there is no way in which He ignores our present, past, and future condition. On the other hand, we are not omnipotent and we are not omniscient. So, those who rely on the “word of faith” are usually deceiving brothers and sisters in need, telling them what they would like to hear - a positive thought, - and not what they need to hear - the truth.
Many times I took these words of faith as the absolute truth, as prophecies...many times I even made my luggage and prepared to start in jobs just because someone told me “This is it, this is God’s job for you! Give thanks for it and get ready!”. Later on, I would find myself disappointed, deceived, depressed, and questioning even God Himself for what some brother or sister in Christ told me as a result of his/her desire to stick to the positive thinking.
But every answer we need, we can find it in the Word of God. The Bible says: “There will come a time when people will not tolerate sound teaching. They will collect teachers who say what they want to hear because they are self-centered.” (2 Timothy 4:3 CEB).
There are a few things to examine in this verse: What is sound teaching? Why would people reject sound teaching? What are the topics these people will want to talk about?
Sound teaching is the whole Gospel. Not part of it. Not just the “you are sons and daughter of the Almighty God” but the “take your cross and follow Jesus” too. Sound doctrine is the one that teaches us to say: “He [Jesus] must increase and I must decrease.” (John 3:30 CEB)
Sound doctrine tells us that without Jesus we can do nothing (John 15:5), that we are not greater than our Lord (John 13:16), that there is no one righteous, not even one (Romans 3:11) and that only through Jesus we can go to the Father (John 14:6).
Sound teaching tells us that if Jesus suffered, we will too (John 15:20), it teaches us to be content with what we have (1 Timothy 6:6-10), it teaches us not to love the world (1 John 2:15), and it teaches us that our reward is in heaven (Matthew 5:12). Sound doctrine prepares us to say to God: “...yet not my will, but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)
So, why would people reject this doctrine? Because this doctrine leaves no space for us to be the masters of our lives. This doctrine means total submission to the will of God. It is more appealing to hear: “Claim it and have it!” than “Pray to the Father and ask Him to do His will on you”. It is more appealing to hear: “Yes, God wants you to be a millionaire!” than “Be content with what God has already given you”.
It is better to hear: “Yes, that job will be yours!” than “You will have it if that is God’s will”. It sounds better to say: “Dream big! God wants to make all your dreams come true!” than “God wants you to fulfill His plan for you”. It sounds better to say that “You have control over your circumstances” than to admit the Biblical truth that says that without Jesus, we are helpless. It sounds so great to hear that “we will receive what we declare”, but it doesn’t sound so great the fact that we will receive only what God wants us to receive.
The only reason why people reject the sound doctrine is called selfishness. The Bible verse says it all: “They will collect teachers who say what they want to hear because they are self-centered.” Contemporary Christianity is all about us: about what we want, about our dreams, about our aspirations, about our happiness, about the power of our words, the power of our confession, the power of our tithes, the power of our mind...God is absent.
The need to please God, to submit to Him, to want what He wants for us, to expect only what He wants to give us, to give up on our dreams and goals to follow His plan is nowhere in this new kind of Christianity. And this is why there are so many who have lost their hope in the midst of trial. They are more concerned on the "here and now" than in the reward in heaven.
I thank God for His mercy because I could, by His grace, stand up when I felt deceived by brothers and sisters who, maybe well-intentioned, deceived me telling me what sounded better and not the truth. I thank God for them because I have come closer to God seeking the right answers to my prayers in the Word of God. He does not lie and He keeps His promises; thanks to these "claim it and have it" failures I came to understand that the only words that have creative power are His for He said:
“What I have said, that I will bring about; what I have planned, that I will do.” (Isaiah 46:11)
I write this to raise awareness of the serious implications of not considering the whole message of the Gospel before we speak. I do this because I was victim of these new doctrines that have infiltrated the Church. There are so many brothers and sisters struggling who need to hear the truth and not some made up positive statement. The only thing that will set us free is the truth, not wishful thinking:
“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32)
