We fear that we are living anemic Christian lives because we are unable to
exercise the “creative power” of our tongues. This is the claim of the
Prosperity Ministers. From her TBN show, Senior Pastor, Paula White claimed:
- “There is creative power in your mouth right now. God spoke and created the universe; you have creative power to speak life and death! If you believe God, you can create anything in your life.”
There are two verses to which these pastors appeal in support of this
blasphemous assertion:
- From the fruit of a man's mouth his stomach is satisfied; he is satisfied by the yield of his lips. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. (Proverbs 18:20-21)
Certainly, the tongue is a powerful instrument. We can build others up with
it when we teach the truth, or we can tear them down when we teach against the
truth. It is also personally rewarding to teach the truth.
But this isn’t White’s point. Instead, she claims that this verse teaches
that we have creative supernatural God-like power in our tongues. However, there
is nothing in this context that suggests that we have such power. Besides, there
is nothing in the entire Book of Proverbs that suggests this.
Instead, the entirety of the Scriptures informs us that we are children,
bereft of our own power and entirely dependent on the mercies of our Savior
(James 1:17; John 15:5; 2 Corinthians 3:5).
Prosperity Ministers even use this verse, which only pertains to God’s
power in creation, to support their unsupportable doctrine:
- ...as it is written, "I have made you [Abraham] the father of many nations"—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. (Romans 4:17)
This verse does not refer to Abraham’s power to give life to the dead but
to God’s power. In doing so, these ministers appropriate for themselves the
power that belongs only to God and pervert the Word of God. Likewise, they teach
the ignorant to pervert the truth, telling them to claim that they are healthy
even when they are terminally ill.
In contrast, Scripture never encourages us to claim that we have the power
to speak things into existence. Instead, as James had cautioned the Church,
success and healing depend upon the will of God:
- Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:13-16)
We are not even to claim that we have the power to become successful. We
are only a vapor. Instead, our lives and their outcome belong to our Lord.
Consequently, it is arrogant and sinful to make such claims.
Instead of creating truth, our mouths are meant to serve the truth.
Therefore, James instructs us to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do
this or that.” To go beyond this is an offense to God along with those who teach
such perversions. Consequently, Jesus also warned us against claiming what we
don’t have the ability to accomplish:
- “And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil.” (Matthew 5:36-37)
Prosperity teachings come from evil and produce evil. They even boastfully
claim that we have authority over Satan. However, even the Archangel Michael
understood that he lacked the authority to rebuke him (Jude 8-10).
Prosperity Ministers also teach us to have wrong desires and hopes:
- But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. (1 Timothy 6:6-10)
To teach the love of money and success is to depart from the faith and to
mislead many, leading them in the way of evil.
Besides, the more we believe in our own powers, the less we will believe in
God’s.
Too often, we honor those teachers who are preaching against the Word of
God. To honor them is to dishonor our Lord.
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