The other day I started scrolling through my Facebook feed - Facebook is sort of like network T.V. in reverse. Instead of sitting through a couple minutes of commercials every fifteen or twenty minutes in order to watch an interesting show, you sift through fifteen or twenty minutes of nonsense to get to a couple minutes of interesting content. Anyway, I came across a promotion for a “Christian” documentary attacking the “Word of Faith” movement. The promotion showed a video clip of a well-known “Word of Faith” preacher giving a blessing to his congregation and his television audience. He was encouraging them to confess that they were blessed and would live a long life. While he was speaking this blessing, the documentary cut to a famous picture of a number of Christian men in orange jump suits about to be martyred for their faith. I know that the contradiction must have seemed obvious to the producers of the documentary. I see no contradiction at all, and I confess to being discouraged over the video for a few days now. You see, I would call myself a “Word of Faith” preacher. The average Christian doesn’t really know a lot about the theological arguments that religious egg-heads have, but they do know that they don’t like Word of Faith preachers. I have heard so many people tell me that they don’t like [the same word of faith preacher], I think, “They cannot have actually listened to him. The man is so full of hope and encouragement, it rubs off on me every time I hear him.” I don’t think I have ever heard him say an unkind word about anyone. Anyway, he doesn’t need me to defend him. He’s doing fine. I want to come out and tell you that I was a Word of Faith preacher before I even knew what that was. When I was young, my dad told me a story about his grandpa, my great-grandpa Frank. Grandpa Frank lived to be 101 and went to be with the Lord, I think around 1985. He was the most full-of-life person I have ever known. Loved to win (not just play) at board games, got a speeding ticket at 95. I could spend the whole blog post just telling stories about him. O.K., the story. Grandpa Frank was a young Mennonite tobacco farmer in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, when he received a vision (or it could have been a dream, I’m not sure). In the vision, the Lord told him to move and plant a church near the Harrisburg area. The Lord also told him that he would live a long life and that he and his family would be greatly blessed. This vision took place over a hundred years ago. That church became the Steelton Mennonite Church. He started a dairy farm in Dauphin County. Of course you already know that he lived a long life, and I can attest to the fact that he and his family were greatly blessed. You know how God told Abraham to count the stars, and that would be the number of his offspring? I think there is a Hertzler galaxy, now. My grandpa Frank received a word of faith directly from the Lord, and he believed it. I have been exposed to theology that says dreams and visions stopped happening after the apostles, but I never believed any of that. I know it happened to my great grandpa. You say, “Hold on, DJ. That’s not what I don’t like. I don’t like the ‘Name it and claim it’ business, like you can have what you want just by saying it.” Look, I’m not here to defend every crazy thing some preacher did or said, but have you read Jesus recently:
“Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him. “Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you.” (Mark 11:23, 24)
Don’t miss the gift of faith that Jesus wants to give you, because you are offended by what some people ask for.
“All things are possible to him who believes.” (Mark 9:23)
I graduated from Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. Many of you know that it was the school that was founded by Jerry Falwell, and he was alive and well when I was there. People remember him for different things, but I see him as my first example of faith (after my great-grandpa, of course). Jerry was constantly speaking out the things he saw for the future of our school. He saw a Christian University that went beyond degrees in Bible and education to become a leader in science and medicine, engineering, law, and the arts (not to mention athletics!). At the time we were a little Bible school that started up in a church. He would stand in front of us and declare that Liberty would be a school of 50,000 students. He went on to be with the Lord, but all those things have come to pass, except that Liberty now has a little closer to 100,000 students.
But, you say, “No. DJ, it’s the materialism, it’s the ‘health and wealth’ gospel that I am concerned about. People are being taught that God is just a candy store.” Here’s the thing, Mr. hypothetical naysayer. If you heard they were giving out $1,000 bills down the street, you would run down there and get in line. And if you got one, you would walk away thanking God. We all just have a hard time seeing God as a giver. Even when we talk about tithing we put the emphasis on God as a taker and not as a giver.
I have a friend who told me this experience about his first “tithe.” Mike was a young single guy with very little money. In fact he had all of $20 and no food, but he was struggling with the idea that God might want him to give that $20 as a tithe. Somehow, he ended up in the emergency room for some minor injury he had. He wasn’t so much hurt as he was angry that he would now have to pay an emergency room bill. Thinking this was some kind of punishment from God for not tithing, he went into the hospital chapel and stuffed the $20 bill in the offering box, as if to say, “Here, you got what you wanted.”
At that moment his friend walked in the chapel with his mail. “You’ve got a letter from the government.”
“Great. What do they want from me?”
“They want to give you some money.” It was a check for something he had completely forgotten about.
After they left the hospital, they spotted a lady who needed help with her car. They stopped to change her tire, and she took them out for lunch. Mike said that things like that happened all day; people were just giving him things. When he finally got back to his apartment. He found that his roommate had hosted a party the night before and his entire refrigerator was now stocked with food!
The Bible says God is “able to do far more abundantly above all we can ask or think” (Eph. 3:20). He can do big things or little things. Which do you need? We bought a house this past summer. In the fall I remarked to my wife that we needed a lawn treatment. The next day I came home and there was a little lawn treatment sign in my yard. I thought it was a mistake or a leftover from the previous owner that I hadn’t seen before. My wife told me there was a receipt for lawn treatment in our front door addressed to the neighbor. I still didn’t get it, until I noticed the weeds in my lawn were starting to die. The neighbor’s lawn care guy had mistakenly treated my lawn! But I realized it was no mistake.
God’s grace is a vast ocean of supply, and it is always flowing to us. We are the ones who restrict the supply. You say, “I know, DJ. It is because I am not a good enough person.” No. It is when we see God as a taker and not a giver, that we cut off the flow of grace.
I told you I was discouraged, and it was because I saw the truth of the gospel that can set people free, hidden from those who need it most by the people who are supposed to believe it. Then I remembered what Jesus said:
At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. (Matt. 11:25)
So how is it that we can have what we say? OK, here goes. In the Bible, speaking is contrasted with working, just as faith is contrasted with keeping the commandments.
For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. (Romans 10:5)
In other words, if you are going to base your righteousness on the commandments, you are going to have to live (and die) by the commandments. And we know that if you fail in one point of the law, you might as well have failed in them all, because the punishment is the same. That is what the Bible means by works. It means trying to do good to get good from God.
But the righteousness based on faith speaks . . .that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. (Romans 10:6,9).
So the word of faith (that Paul preached) is simply that Jesus is your Savior. The righteousness of faith means you are saved, not by your own good works but by believing in Jesus as your Savior. Therefore, just as works are the instrument of keeping the law, speaking with your mouth is the instrument of faith.
So far, we are only talking about faith to go to heaven when we die. Or are we? Read the next verse.
For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. (Romans 10:10).
I used to wonder about this verse. Why did Paul separate righteousness and salvation as if they are two different things? They both mean you are going to heaven, right? Why does belief result in righteousness, but the mouth bring about salvation? The answer lies in understanding what “salvation” actually means. The modern reader thinks it means going to heaven some day. To Paul’s readers, it meant healing, wholeness, safety, deliverance from bondage. Here are the words that Strong’s Concordance uses to describe the Greek word for salvation:
“Welfare, prosperity, deliverance, preservation, salvation, safety”
And this:
And a woman who had been suffering from a hemorrhage for twelve years, came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak; for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch His garment, I will get well.”
The translators used the phrase, “get well,” but they could have just as easily translated it, “be saved,” for it is the same Greek word.
So, here is the summary. The righteousness of Christ is the reason we are assured of the grace of God. Salvation in its many forms is how that grace is manifest in your life. I wish I could tell you of the many times we have experienced this. What you need to know is that this is a word of faith for you, and you, too, can be a “word of faith” preacher. Let me tell you one more little story to help you understand.
A couple weeks ago I met a lady who told me about the trouble she was having with her child. I could see the heartache, the pain on her face as she told me the story, and I could see the stress it had caused in her family. I knew of the child, and I tried to encourage her by telling her of the good things I saw for her child in the future. She listened to me and said, “That would be a good goal for her.” We continued to talk for a while. Later, I thought about what she said, and I realized that this precious lady was weighed down by the things she thought she had done wrong in raising her child. She could only see the things that she might do better to fix her, and all of those things had already failed. A goal is something you work toward. Faith is when everything you see tells you it is hopeless, and even your own thoughts are against you, but you speak out the things that only God can do, “My child has a bright future, and she will be a leader, some day, in Jesus name!” That’s what I would have liked to encourage her to speak. “My baby will live and be healthy!” God can save my marriage!” “Lord, You can give me a better job!” Even when those statements seem to mock you as you are saying them, all I can tell you is that “saying” trumps “thinking.” Keep on speaking what only God can do, until faith takes hold in your heart. Remember that your Savior wants to keep on saving you.