According to the Faith teachers, there are two main aspects of faith. One is that they promise believers that they can always be guaranteed positive answers to all their prayers. The things that Christians used to regard as blessing that are waiting for us in heaven, are now supposed to be available to every Christian in this life without any limitations.
The other aspect is about how to practise methods of prayer and methods of faith. You are taught that you must set certain spiritual laws in motion. By this practice, faith is turned into an impersonal force that every Christian is supposed to be able to make use of. In Copeland’s words, “It is this force of faith which makes the laws of the spirit world function.” 53
According to this teaching, you have to be thinking and talking the right way in order to practise faith. Your spirit has a divine nature and divine abilities, and it should take authority and rule over your soul (that is, thoughts, emotions, and will), and it must also rule over your body. The teaching says that man’s spirit has the ability to create in the same way that God creates.
Creating things by your own spirit is supposed to be accomplished by what is called positive confession. Copeland says: “Man had total authority to rule as a god over every living creature on earth, and he was to rule by speaking words.” 54 According to Hagin, the right example to follow is someone who, “believes in his words. Another way to say this is: He has faith in his own faith.” 55
Positive confession involves making statements about something you want to happen as if it had already happened. By doing this, you are expecting the inherent power in your words to change circumstances and create realities. Therefore, you are taught to avoid any negative thinking or talking. Consequently, if you were to admit that you are sick, it will make things worse. “If you confess sickness, it will develop sickness in your system.” 56 You should not say that you are afraid that you may die, as those very words will cause your death if it is not counteracted by faith; because, it is supposed to be a spiritual law that you get whatever you say!
The first aspect of the doctrine of faith can be regarded as an exaggeration of Biblical truth because it promises too much for us in this life. There are some Scriptures that seem to promise answers to the prayers of believers without any restrictions, and perhaps Christians have not been bold enough in proclaiming what God can do when we pray. This failure may have provoked some of the exaggerations and one-sidedness of the Faith teachings.
However, in a system like the Faith teaching, believers are said to have rights, and with the exception of persecutions for the Gospel’s sake, the idea of suffering is ruled out completely by the Faith teachers. Christians are encouraged to demand or command God, or the devil, in order to get what supposedly belongs to them. The believer is said to be able to decide what the will of God is, and all he needs to do is to find a Scripture and then claim that what it says is his possession.
It creates a lot of problems when people are given the guarantee that all the things that are kept for us in heaven can be ours in this life if we will only believe. Christians who do not receive what they hoped for are likely to become insecure, and they will easily come to the conclusion that something is wrong with their faith, and then they will blame themselves.
It is not uncommon for medical students to imagine that they themselves may be suffering from some of the diseases they are studying. At one particular time, I was imagining that I had a fatal illness. Then it dawned on me that, according to what I had been taught, I could not expect a compassionate attitude either from God or from fellow Christians if I should die from such an illness, because it would have been my own fault. If this were to happen, it would be because I had not acted as I ought to have done in order to resist the illness and claim my right to perfect health.
In contrast to the pressure of these unscriptural ideas, you can find real comfort in the Biblical promise that nothing can separate a believer from the love of God, whether we go through suffering or not. Finally, in the life to come, He will take away all suffering and wipe away our tears. 57
The other aspect of the teaching on faith is that “you get what you say,” and that is a belief that will hinder any honest and deep contact with other people and with God. If you follow this so-called spiritual law very strictly, you will never tell anyone how you really feel, not ever God. Your prayer life will get either dishonest or paralysed, because you think you will open a door to the devil if you pray honestly and sincerely concerning the problems in life.
It was a great relief to me when I discovered that I could be completely honest with God about all my uncertainties, my weaknesses, and my sin. At this stage, I no longer had the strength to practise the so-called faith of the Faith teachings. In the Psalms I read that David approached God like a child approaches his father, telling him everything honestly just the way it is (Psalm 25:16-18, 38:10). Realising that I could do the same was a welcome relief to me. Furthermore, I found that so-called negative confessions were not at all discouraged in the Bible. 58
When you try to set these impersonal, so-called spiritual laws in motion, it leads to the practice of magic rather than Biblical faith. (See chapter on healing.) While I was looking through a book on modern magic, New Age-style, I was struck by the obvious similarities to the techniques of faith I had learnt. 59 This kind of faith is not faith in the God of the Bible, whatever else it is.
Footnotes
53. Kenneth Copeland, The Power of the Tongue, p 6. Quote from Horton, The Agony of Deceit.
54. Kenneth Copeland, The Power of the Tongue, p 6. Quote from Horton, The Agony of Deceit.
55. Kenneth E. Hagin, Having Faith in Your Faith, p 4. Quote from Hanegraff, p 74. Italics in original.
56. Kenneth E. Hagin, How to Write Your Own Ticket with God, p 10.
57. Romans 8:38-39, II Corinthians 4:16-18, Colossians 1:5, Hebrews 6:18-20, 11:13-16.
58. Psalm 13:2-3, Matthew 8:20, 16:21, Luke 9:13, 18:13, John 21:5, I Corinthians 2:3, 4:9-13, II Corinthians 11:30, 12:20-21, Galatians 4:11, II Timothy 4:20.
59. Gawain, Shakti: Kreativ visualisering. (Creative Visualisation).
