CAN WE DO ANYTHING OF VALUE WITHOUT OUR LORD?

Can we command the blessings of God? Do we have this kind of authority? Many Word-of-Faith (WOF) preachers claim that we do. For example, Pat Robertson had once stated:

• Most people ask God for a miracle but many omit a key requirement—the spoken word. God has given us authority over disease, over demons, over sickness, over storms, over finances. We are to declare that authority in Jesus’ name…We are to command the money to come to us” (Michael Horton, The Agony of Deceit, 128).

Actually, I respect Robertson and his ministry in many ways. So please regard this as just a very limited criticism.

Actually, the Bible clearly teaches us that everything God gives us is by His unmerited favor. God will never be in a position to owe us anything because of our good deeds or supposed authority, as the WOF preachers claim:

• Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! (Romans 11:35-36) 

Since all good things come from God (James 1:17), we are always beholden to Him. Jesus instructed that even if we do everything that we are supposed to do, we must consider ourselves unworthy servants (Luke 17:10). Instead, the prosperity preachers (WOF) suggest that we are so worthy that we have the right and power to “command the money to come to us.”

Commanding God is something that we never find in Scripture. Perhaps the closest thing to this was the hubris of Simon the magician, who wanted to pay God to receive a supernatural gift. The Apostle Peter was horrified by such an arrogant suggestion:

• "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin" (Acts 8:20-23). 

To think that we can merit something from God with either our money or good deeds shows that our minds are “captive to sin” and still tainted with darkness.

However, WOF preachers do have a point. On two occasions, Jesus did grant His Apostles (Matthew 10:1; Luke 9:1) and the 70 He had sent out to minister (Luke 10:19) authority to heal and to cast out demons. However, it seems as if this commission was just temporary. Before His crucifixion, Jesus modified its terms:

• And he said to them, "When I sent you out with no moneybag or knapsack or sandals, did you lack anything?" They said, "Nothing." He said to them, "But now let the one who has a moneybag take it, and likewise a knapsack. And let the one who has no sword sell his cloak and buy one.” (Luke 22:35-36)

Although His reference to the “sword” was only figurative, it symbolized the fact that things would now be different. Before, Jesus had promised His disciples that no one would harm them (Luke 10:19), now it would be different. Before, they had the authority to instantaneously to heal and to cast out demons, this authority later seemed to be limited to the Apostles.

Even the archangel Michael lacked the authority to rebuke Satan (Jude 8-9). Instead, as it has always been, we can now only receive from God if it agrees with the will of God (1 John 5:14-15). Even Jesus prayed that the Father would only grant Him His request if it accorded with the Father’s will (Matthew 26:39). This attitude should also serve as a model for us.

We have to remember that we depend upon God for all things (2 Corinthians 3:5). After all, who are we apart from our Savior! We are no more than a speck of dust in this grand creation, containing ten times as many stars as grains of sand on all the beaches of our planet. Therefore, the Psalmist proclaimed:

• When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? (Psalms 8:3-4)