Positive Confession article

I just ran across this article on another blog, and thought it gave a balanced view of some things I've been pondering lately. On the one hand (exteme) you have those who say that everything that happens in your life is your doing, as in the 'law of attraction' teaching. On the other hand (extreme) there are those who say God has foreordained all things. This article is about the Christian use of 'positive confession' which would fall more along the lines of the 'law of attraction' end of the spectrum. It's a position paper by the Assemblies of God. It's somewhat lengthy -- I'll highlight a few paragraphs below:

While there are variations of interpretation and emphasis concerning this teaching, a conclusion seems to be that the unpleasant can be avoided by refraining from negative confessions. The pleasant can be enjoyed by making positive confessions.

According to this view, as expressed in various publications, the believer who refrains from acknowledging the negative and continues to affirm the positive will assure for himself pleasant circumstances. He will be able to rule over poverty, disease, and sickness. He will be sick only if he confesses he is sick. Some make a distinction between acknowledging the symptoms of an illness and the illness itself.

This view advocates that God wants believers to wear the best clothing, drive the best cars, and have the best of everything. Believers need not suffer financial setbacks. All they need to do is to tell Satan to take his hands off their money. The believer can have whatever he says whether the need is spiritual, physical, or financial. It is taught that faith compels God's action.

According to this position, what a person says determines what he will receive and what he will become. Thus people are instructed to start confessing even though what they want may not have been realized. If a person wants money, he is to confess he has it even if it is not true. If a person wants healing, he is to confess it even though it is obviously not the case. People are told they can have whatever they say, and for this reason great significance is attached to the spoken word. It is claimed the spoken word, if repeated often enough, will eventually result in faith which procures the desired blessing.

It is understandable that some people would like to accept the positive confession teaching. It promises a life free from problems, and its advocates seem to support it with passages of Scripture. Problems develop, however, when Bible statements are isolated from their context and from what the rest of Scripture has to say concerning the subject. Extremes result which distort truth and eventually hurt believers as individuals and the cause of Christ in general. [...]

When the positive confession doctrine indicates a person can have whatever he says, it fails to emphasize adequately that God's will must be considered. David had the best intentions when he indicated his desire to build a temple for the Lord, but it was not God's will (1 Chronicles 17:4). David was permitted to gather materials, but Solomon was to build the temple.

The positive confession teaching advocates reigning as kings in this life. It teaches that believers are to dominate and not be dominated by circumstances. Poverty and sickness are usually mentioned among the circumstances over which believers are to have dominion.

If believers choose the kings of this world as models, it is true they will seek the trouble-free life (although even kings of this world are not free from problems). They will be more concerned with physical and material prosperity than with spiritual growth. [i.e. the 'deceitfulness of riches' which promises what it can't deliver.] [...]

In this view there is very little consideration given to communion with God in order to discover His will. There is very little appeal to search the Scriptures for the framework of the will of God. There is little emphasis on the kind of discussion with fellow believers which results in two or three agreeing what the will of God might be. Instead, the desire of the heart is viewed as a binding mandate on God. It is seen as constituting the authority of the believer.

It is true that Jesus said, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son" (John 14:13). But Scripture also teaches that the asking must be in harmony with the will of God. "This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us: and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him" (1 John 5:14, 15). [...]

God's Word does teach great truths such as healing, provision for need, faith, and the authority of believers. The Bible does teach that a disciplined mind is an important factor in victorious living. But these truths must always be considered in the framework of the total teaching of Scripture.

When abuses occur, there is sometimes a temptation to draw back from these great truths of God's Word. In some cases people even lose out with God altogether when they discover that exaggerated emphases do not always meet their expectations or result in freedom from problems.

The fact that doctrinal aberrations develop, however, is not a reason for rejecting or remaining silent concerning them. The existence of differences of opinion is all the more reason why believers should continue diligently to search the Scriptures. It is why servants of God must faithfully declare the whole counsel of God.

Some 'word faith' comments

I'm reading an article about Joyce Meyer and the 'word faith movement'. I watched and enjoyed some of these preachers, and quoted from a couple of Joyce Meyers' books in my booklet. But I didn't know then that some of their basic beliefs or doctrines were so unscriptural, so I'll probably have to change a small bit of my booklet in that regard. (Particularly the section about what you speak.)

So here are some of the troublesome beliefs or doctrine in a nutshell, from the article linked above:

1. God creates by using His faith through the power of spoken words.
2. Man is a “little god” capable of creating in the same fashion as did God.
3. Man,
   through faith-filled words, creates or causes to come to pass that
   which is spoken. Thus by one’s spoken words health/healing and
   wealth/prosperity are created.
4. Jesus earned our redemption, not on the cross, but in hell.

My response to these is as follows.

1. I don't know how God creates, He's God and I'm not. I know the Genesis account says that 'God said, let there be light' and there was light and he saw that it was good, etc. But I'm pretty sure it is more than just spoken words, as we know it, that He uses in creation.

2. While it's obvious man has some creative ability, I think it might be more proper to say we have some focusing ability, and the ability to push things around that have already been created; but in the end God is the Creator.

3. My current opinion is that you can't have 'faith-filled words' if there's emotional turmoil or conflict. More on this in another post, probably, and when I update the booklet. I think there's more 'power' in the emotion than in the actual spoken words. Something said in anger can have quite a different impact than something spoken in a neutral emotional state. But it still ties into focus AND that God is the Creator.

(In the Law of Attraction arena, it's generally referred to as 'the Universe' -- but 'the Universe' is basically neutral and uncaring and generally impersonal, whereas the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is both caring and personal.)

4. This one I hadn't heard any of the 'word faith' preachers preach, or I'd have turned them off immediately. One could only preach and/or believe that if they hadn't read the Bible and/or didn't believe it is the Word of God.

So I want to go on the record as saying (typing) that I believe that the Holy Bible is the Word of God, and I believe that Jesus / Yeshua is His only begotten Son, born in the flesh and rose again from the grave on the 3rd day. I believe all of the 'essential doctrines of the Christian faith'.

I believe that the Holy Spirit is for today and didn't leave believers high & dry after the Apostles died. But I've never spoken in tongues and have never seen or heard anyone (really) speak in tongues, but that doesn't mean there aren't those who do.

More in another message.

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