The big tipoff to these churches is that you must give the "seed" money to them. Not to the local food bank or homeless shelter, or some missionary in the third world.
@@michaelmerck7576 Because they are the receivers and we're the givers. You gotta know your place. Better to give than receive, remember? 😉 No wait...better to be a receiver than a giver..! That's it.
Personally I’ve given cash to lots of people who may never have used it as I expected they would, people on the street. It’s my business to do God’s business which is to not hold on tight to worldly money and give it to those who ask when I can. If they then use it in a bad way they will be held to account. I give it and I don’t worry after that at all.
This really helped me. I have been feeling that I don't have enough faith and that is why my life is the way it is. I am not getting the healing I have heard some pastors say I should have. What a load off of my back to know that I am okay with believing God says Yes, No, or Wait about my prayers. Thank you so much Melissa.
“Enough faith”? All it comes down to is whether you have any faith or not. And you do because you believe Christ died for you! Any faith in Jesus IS enough! And even if you don’t get what you want in this life (though I certainly pray you do), you have riches beyond measure in the age to come.
I sometimes feel that too, even though I know that's not how God deals with his people's prayers. God sometimes allows us to suffer and to wait for Him. No money and also no declaration can change that. Wait means wait.
Read about the disciples and how they struggled and met their end. They walked with Jesus and went around sharing their faith. If enough faith worked as a power, why would anyone die or ever get sick? Look at martyrs... I'm glad you watched this and have found it helpful. That way of teaching doesn't make sense and actually places us in a position to have control, thus making us Gods (not God's). Maybe watch the American Gospel documentaries and Voice of the Martyrs magazine. Blessings.
We couldn't have children...... it took me some time, to know that all is "for my best". Nevermind what...... and for the glory of God. And all ( every breath I am able ) comes from the grace and love of God. Not from my trying to believe, to love, to do and say this and that.
hey brother, I really encourage you to read 2 Cor 12:8-10,3 times Paul asked God to remove a "thorn in his flesh", and each time the answer was "no, I am enough". God was saying I am leaving it there so that you will depend on Me. I have my own "stuff" and now consider it pretty amazing that God is leaving them there, I doubt I would have the relationship I have with Jesus without them.
After 2 of my sons were in a car accident, my oldest son sobbed into my shoulder and said mom I prayed I really prayed . i told him that God always answers prayer but sometimes the answer is no. This is not always an easy lesson to learn.
Sorry for your loss, but glory be to GOD almighty, May he continue to be your strength and hope and peace during this difficult time in Jesus name Amen
The prosperity gospel is so insidious and damaging. We often see in our culture money is what people worship. Thank you for helping us be watchful from people who use God's name to scam the most vulnerable.
People would rather riches over God. Many are actually saying so! Money over what’s right, groups and elitism over justice in Gods eyes. And they seek a prosperity church to justify this preference.
Yeah you cannot really receive love if that’s what they are about. It’s not loving to make someone feel horribly by forcing a financial burden on someone else.
Since when did Jesus say I will only bless you, work miracles for you , die for you. If you are wealthy. Did he not say a camel will walk through the eye of a needle before a wealthy man will see Gods kingdom.
Melissa thank you. I left my pentecostal word-of-faith-esque church this weekend past, I feel kinda vulnerable after doing it, I know some spiritual gaslighting and other attacks will come but I also feel a profound sense of peace with the Lord, prayers are better, worship more heartfelt, conviction more clear. I pray for guidance to an expository-centered church. Anyway, thank you for calling this rubbish out.
@Magical Nails Penecostal/WoF churches are hyper-charismatic churches that generally twist & warp scripture to gain worldly material/powers. There is also often manipulation and spiritual abuse in this circle of denominations. Yes... that can exist everywhere, but more often than not in these churches.
My church was deep in word of faith since it started in 2004, but over the last two years my pastor has been carefully untangling the web false teaching that he had been brought up in and was teaching. It's been hard on the church and many people feel very stagnant right now, but thankfully my pastor is pressing forward and the people are receptive and eager to learn! The Truth is powerful! This verse regarding the SMA and the furnace is one of the first he called out and dismantled. I'm so thankfuk God has been working on his heart. My wife has attended since 2007 and I since 2010 and am also ordained under this church and the youth Pastor...but if he hadn't made these changes, I don't think we would be staying since her and I both started having the same convictions against WOF theology over the last 2 years as well. Funny how God works that way. Some might criticize that he is untangling the web instead of ripping it down...but as someone in church leadership, you must understand that you still have a responsibility to protect the confidence and faith of those in your flock. Yes, Jesus went and cleansed the temple with a whip, but we aren't Jesus...and sometimes we need to understand when to untangle lies and when to rip them down.
i’m with ya! i have a disabled daughter. A couple months back her bus driver (very kind but clearly needs some guidance) prayed over my daughter and told me she would be completely healed and attending regular school soon. I had trouble putting into words why that bothered me so bad. although I appreciate his enthusiasm and caring attitude towards my daughter, to me it was almost treating our God like a genie or something? i still have trouble articulating it.
@@spmoran4703 you are what you are so you can minister to dozens and dozens of others going through the same thing !! You can speak on how God has provided you with what's necessary. What a wonderful amazing gift from God that he flows through you and your experience to minister to so many others. Glory to God for your wonderful heart and willingness to minister to others.
I came out of prosperity/wof teaching about 3 years ago and this is exactly what they did. Then they would call people who actually corrcetly interpreted the bible religious cows and say they weren't spirit filled. So damaging and hurtful. I'm so glad God opened my eyes to this teaching.
But they were inspired by the Holy Ghost as you were, so someone must be lying. Where does your Authority come from to claim someone else is not inspired by the Holy Ghost.
MANY years ago, I went to a church where they were teaching the prosperity gospel, and a woman came forward to get prayer for some physical healing. When the woman told the pastor her prayer request, he shamed her by saying she has been prayed for a number of times and it’s time she started developing her own “faith muscles”. He prayed for her and she said “praise the Lord, I have been healed”. She started crying. She was NOT healed but was too embarrassed to say that her “faith muscles” were too weak to heal her. “Faith muscles”? I have NEVER found that in Scripture. I felt so really sorry 😢 for that poor woman! I never went back and I don’t know what happened to that cult.
So I'm a weird one whose favorite books are Ecclesiastes and Job while one of my favorite passages is from Habbakuk 3:17 (to paraphrase, even if things personally suck for me, I will rejoice in the Lord). To me, one of the most important lessons in life is to understand how to fear God and grieve gracefully when we realize that our own pride may not align with truths that we personally may not like. This whole idea of "God will bless me if I have enough faith" robs people of understanding this, which is really tragic.
Job. Love it. I went through the hardest time of my life a few years back and a wise man told me to read Job. I had told him at the time I hated that book, which I did. He basically said I should read it like I am Job. It was so freeing to know that God loves me despite all the junk in my life, it wasn't my fault all the junk happened, and I can(and should) confidently bring it all to God as honestly as I can and he's not offended, surprised or hurt. HE wants it all. All my hurt, my pain, my sin, my anger, my honesty about everything. It is such an amazing book. It's so real. God gets it, gets us. That's how I read it now.
And my favorite is when Our beloved Lord Jesus said “Father, not my will, but thy will be done”. He asked for his cup of suffering to be passed, and nobody on earth had more faith than Jesus. He willingly submitted to the will of his father, even though it meant his excruciating scourging, beating, pulling out parts of his beard, verbal mockery, shaming, stripping him of his garments, a crown of thorns pushed down into his head, and the agonizing public death by crucifixion. He was innocent and perfect, yet it was the love of God towards us, that he demonstrated through his own body & blood. The lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.✝️❤️📖🙏🏻
Jab 3:17 is one of my favorites also. Sometimes, many times we find ourselves in need of health, money, shelter, or a variety of temporal needs. These are times of testing of our faith, of growing in our trust in Gods providence. Another of my favorite verses is Col 1:24 where St Paul speaks of (paraphrasing) filling up in his body the sufferings which are lacking In Christ’s sufferings. One won’t hear that verse mentioned in these Prosperity gospel so called churches.
What my Youth Pastor (I am 60+ now) repeatedly said is, "The Power of Faith is that it brings you closer to God and improves your Trust in Him. That is your only reward...and it is all you will ever need."
I have experienced this also in two different churches. It’s amazing how my spirit felt so uncomfortable when approaches were being applied and how people accepted it. One church that is from another country but found in this country and many others, preaches the same message throughout the world set by the head bishop. Fund raising ideas are given and exact dollar amounts are demanded/expected by a certain date. The sad thing is the majority of these members including this country are poor while the head bishop is a billionaire. I asked members why their blessing (financial) has not happened yet. I’m told what they are preached. They haven’t established enough faith yet. Broke my heart to watch them struggle to put food on the table and blame themselves for their lack of faith while the head bishop has a personal commercial jet and mansions.
I agree with you. I think it's teaching like that that makes people turn away from God when they experience a hardship that is not fixed. I have seen it happen. What got me through hardships was knowing that I had hope in however God decided to use the situation, not in thinking that he would send me a miracle.
Isten áldja meg. Örülök, hogy az Úrnak mindenütt vannak tanítványai, akik kincsként őrzik a megkülönböztetés ajándékát. Üdvözlet Arizonából. Olyan jó gyakorolni az anyanyelvemet.
You nailed it Melissa , God's sovereign ways and his power. ,should always be enough, Faith is never about getting your way, it is a yielding of our ways to God Almighty 🙏
Sounds just like the churches I used to attend, sadly. I'm so glad God opened my eyes and pulled me out of there. But my heart breaks for those still deceived by prosperity/WOF teachers. 💜
My sister was an avid follower of the man with the perfect teeth from Texas. I thank God that her eyes were opened. God bless you Melissa for posting this.
@@tsm7964 If God is for this church, it will be financed. I was just thinking about why churches take up offerings at all. People know they're suppose to give, do they really need to be asked? And if we only give because man is watching, then what does that say about us? If we're truly sold out believers we know everything we have belongs to the Lord. Everything. Jesus has told us that if we want to be perfect, to sell all give to the poor, take up our cross and follow him. He will build his church.
You explained it perfectly, Melissa! I spent 15 years in this WoF/Prosperity false gospel. Worked for 2 huge ministries you'd know if I named them. Thank God for his mercy and grace to open my eyes. I pray for all my friends who are so deceived. It is insidious as one commenter said and destroyed my marriage of almost 25 years! Thank you for ALL you do! I love your videos!❤️📖🕊
Yeah, when I hear these teachings about the"power" of faith, it makes me sad too, because I remember a dear friend. She was an amazing pray-er for others. But for herself, she would blame her own (as she saw it) inadequate faith for her unanswered prayers. Honestly, she was a giant of faith in the eyes of those who knew her. Anyway, she's in heaven now, praise God.
I still haven’t been healed of my cerebral palsy. It has nothing to do with the amount of faith I have, I have lots of faith. Jesus hasn’t healed me on Earth, but I will be healed in Heaven.
I like the way my church takes offerings. There is a lock box at the back of the church with offering envelopes and a pen...that's it. No passing a basket, no money talk other then the occasional reminder that the offering box is there.
With wealth comes responsibility. So as a moderately prosperous guy, I must obey God's instructions to care for those less fortunate, or less capable, or however it happened for us. There is blessing and joy in doing it.
Our family was in a WOF (Word of Faith Church) for 15 years. We saw people in the church refuse medical help because they believed that they had enough faith to be healed by just 'speaking' the Word. Sadly, they died. Everything that you said is what the Pastor taught - plant "seed", speak the Word, don't waver in faith, don't allow doubt...We are now in a sound expository preaching reformed church.
I totally agree with you Melissa! I’m 65 years old, been saved since early 20 s. I have gone to these prosperity churches for many years. Thank you Lord Jesus He delivered me! I started reading the scripture for myself! I knew something wasn’t right in my spirit for years! I just thought these are men of God! What do I know?! After Jim and Tammy went down, Jimmy Swaggart went down, and Kenneth Copeland got weird and Kenneth Hagin got weird and they all started the “ laughing, drunken, dog barking” movement,literally pushing people down by the “ spirit”! I knew that was of Satan movement! I retreated to my home by myself and read the Word of God and prayed! These are very dangerous people! Wolves in sheep’s clothing!!!
Thanks for sharing this story. You took a bullet for us, and lived to tell us that this assembly needs prayer to get back on track. Blessings from Alberta Canada. ✝️
"Sowing and reaping" is a perfectly biblical concept. Read 2 Corinthians 9. Paul was taking a collection for the church at Jerusalem, and in verse 6 he said, "He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." In other words, God does indeed bless those who give to His work. Unlike the prosperity preachers, though, I add a couple of caveats: (1) The blessings are not always material, and (2) we don't always reap the blessings in this life.
@@citizenken7069 agreed! It’s just when I hear that specifically in the context of giving so you get blessings back (rather than joyfully out of loving obedience, trusting the Lord to provide for our needs) I go into hyper vigilant mode.
Well...um...actually...the Spoken Gospel is supposed to be the Seed of God. When the preacher speaks, he spreads God's seed upon the Church, who is the Bride of Christ. And that's why we can't have female preachers. It messes up the analogy. 😄
Melissa I laughed so hard throughout this video because my friend and I (willingly) went to a local church and it was a prosperity/word of faith church and this video/story sounds just like the experience my friend and I had recently lol. They are everywhere, twisting the word of God for no reason at all.
I don't believe these preachers have really studied the Word of God. They just pick out and use scripture to confirm what they want to say ..not the other way round. (What God is saying).
Hi Melissa, i discovered your channel a couple of weeks ago. You have a new fan. Grateful for the opportunity to get your insightful comments and as for today's edition, very much agree with your call on the Prosperity Church movement. Very best wishes and John 3:16.
Wow! This is excellent, Melissa. I don't know where to begin with my story from attending a Word of Faith church for 3 years. Thanks be to God He revealed the Truth to me and we left that church! I had no idea what "Word of Faith" was or even that the church was Word of Faith until we had been attending about two years. Long story....but I am still unlearning all the magic tricks of using the HOLY BIBLE as a spell book to get what I want......I am ASHAMED that I stayed so long. But I am out PRAISE the LORD I am free! Thanks for the work you are doing and for this excellent video. 🙏
If we talk about faith( in my opinion) the book of Job is better to describe how faith should be . Of course God never change only our world change. Overall, thank you for your video and I like what you doing. I must said, currently not assisting any church because I want to read the Bible and understand the word of God “on my own” but I also watch from time to time videos like yours that make sense to me. Thank you! God bless you!
I for one am happy you walked into that church, He guided you and this gave the chance for a comparitive study and exposing, bringing to light. Thank you for being an obedient watchman.
My pastor says it’s fun to watch me when the subject of the prosperity gospel comes up. He says I look like I’m ready to blow a gasket. That’s because I’ve seen people blamed for not being healed because they didn’t have enough faith. As someone who is legally blind from vision loss due to glaucoma, I prayed for YEARS for healing. And I that was before my vision loss. I eventually came to realize that it wasn’t my lack of faith, but that sometimes God had us walk through the hard things. My mother-in-law recently died and my sister-in-law said that the reason she didn’t get her healing was because she wanted to go home instead. No, that’s not it. My husband is still a part of the WOF movement, but I left several years ago. I also couldn’t take the whole thing that it wasn’t a good service unless everyone was speaking and tongues and dancing in the ailes. A kit of emotionalism.
@12:10 "That's not true" - words that need to be said way more often in many 'churches'. Discernment is not a 'gift' that is prevalent or appreciated these days. There are plenty of crowds that only want to hear what their itching ears want to hear - messages that feed into the self centered flesh - "what am I getting" hearts. Thanks for sharing your experience.
This is the time we accidentally walked into a Pentecostal church. We were living in Montana in-between pastorates (my husband is a pastor) and we needed to find a church to attend. We went to a church that was meeting in a senior center. We still had three out of our four boys living with us. We walked in and the seats were all filled so we sat along the wall by the door we had entered to get in. They did announcements and sang a song…all good so far….and then another guy got up and started talking about the demons in the town. He said, “We need to cast them out!” He was facing north so he said, “Everyone turn to the west and cast out the demons!” The congregation turned to the west and “cast them out”…hahaha. Then he said, “Everyone turn to the north and cast out the demons!” Everyone did that and my husband and I looked at each other and said, “Oh oh…..we’re to the east.” so we hightailed it out of there. We were all laughing when we got to the car knowing that when they turned to the east to cast out the demons they probably thought we were of the enemy and they cast us out…hahaha. So funny!
"By golly, the demons in the East RAN in fear before we could cast them out!" Secretly this is what they do to turn aside those not seated. Building occupancy codes you know. 😉 Thanks for sharing. 😄
My father was saved when he had cancer. We live in a sin filled world and death became part of that. While God can heal physically, He also uses illness (like with my father) to bring some people to salvation where they will be healthy and perfect for eternity. Praise God for the truth and your videos and others who teach the truth in love.
I had just made a post about this sort of thing and then this pops up in my subscriptions 😮 My home church had a "guest speaker" pastor who was saying that instead of people having to fly to Redding for a touch of God and he praised God for what was happening in Redding, that they would flock to our church for that touch of God. Id love to get your take on his sermon if I could send to you privately. The same with your experience, not all he says is wrong but oh man- is a mess! Thank you for your teachings, we have an even greater hunger to read the Bible PROPERLY IN CONTEXT and your channel along with a few others are fueling that hunger. God bless you Melissa ❤
Amen! On the note of "Even if God doesn't deliver us from this" I agree, because God doesn't answer to us. Whatever is God's will is what's going to happen.
Came to faith in a Pentecostal church, which after a few years, turned charismatic/prosperity. I knew something was wrong because I actually read my Bible. All of it. Confessional Lutheran now. Love it.
I think you got it right on. I've been watching your videos, and you have opened my eyes to what's creeping into the church. I have a ficical disability and was in a church that said I was not being healed because I had too much sin in my life. Thank you for shining light on the truth.
One of these churches even puts it this way: we want to give you the opportunity to give. It literally repels me, when I think of hungry and homeless people and even children.. but I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to give to that church...
Thank you so much for your videos. I learn so much from you. You are wise beyond your years with your gift of discernment. Sadly, so many of churches have become so diluted and don’t even begin to teach the true gospel.
I just had this experience recently and it affected my faith because it sounded SO good. They gave me a pamphlet with different verses out of context about how Jesus wants me to be rich and how Jesus himself wasn't poor on earth because he had an accountant (Matthew) and "poor people don't need accountants" like what.
Ha! Had an accountant! I’ve never heard that one. John Hagee said he was rich (Jesus) because the Word says He had seamless garments, and only rich people in those days had seamless garments. They can spin a tale, can’t they?
I just recently found your channel and am loving what I am watching so far. Thank you for speaking the plain truth found in the Word without sugar coating it to fit into today's society norms.
Also be sure you're at a full gospel church, one that includes the message of sin and repentance in every sermon. I repeat...in every sermon. God bless
You were Spot on sister in identifying false teachings and the masterful use of scripture twisting to manipulate and mislead. It is easy to do because few believers have studied the word of God to find themselves approved. Thank you for your ministry of truth. God bless you 💕
Wow I just left my childhood church and it was just like this! I had no idea but now everything is so clear 😳 The pastor always used scripture to emphasize how we shouldn’t touch what’s God’s (money) or we would get punished and how we should sacrifice and give our biggest donation because God would give it back & there were a lot of money campaigns where you would give to save your family, free yourself, miracles, etc. The pastor always spoke about giving high amounts like 1k, $500 and would ask for a tithing, 10%, campaign envelopes and for newspapers, all in ONE SERVICE!. I did learn a lot from this church and I am grateful for it until I couldn’t ignore the emphasis on the $$ throughout the entire service. Thanks for sharing! 🙏
Love this chicklet !!! Truthbombs abound !!! My understanding is that God will deliver us either by life or by death because heaven is the perfect rescue… I completely agree with yes, no or wait
Excellent! I live in Woodland Park,CO, home of Andrew Wommack Ministries. And it is terribly hard to discern on the surface if a church is truly scripture-based, or infiltrated with Word of Faith heresy. So many Christians are proud to have Andrew Wommack and his Charis Bible College in our community, with no idea most of what he teaches is heresy. I have developed a two-part presentation in hopes of helping our local community understand we live in a mission field and have much work to do. Regarding your comments on faith…AWM actually goes one step further….they believe when they were born again they actually were given God’s own faith…they don’t have ‘faith IN God,’ they have ‘the faith OF God. Ei yi yi. My presentation doesn’t explain how they twist scripture to validate their doctrine…rather it simply compares what Wommack says directly to scripture. It’s a comparative study. I’m praying for venues to invite me to present it, what God has in mind is still unclear. Anyway, blessings to you!
The idea that if God does not come through for you in a situation means that you do not have enough faith, is debilitating. It can create an extremes where "if you go through trials" then you are lacking faith - this is how far I believed it before having come out of WOF. I did not know or hear James 1 ever, that trials are needed. Trials were always portrayed as a negative unchristian - like thing. Looking at my trials thinking my faithlessness has put me here caused me to start speaking things out wildly. Believing that my words have some super power that will move my mountain out of my life, but that never worked. I also believed in the little gods ideology so of course my words have power to create. It is an exhaust self effort type of faith that carried disappointment. Anyway what changed things in the end was simple prayer, standing firmly on scripture (once i read it for real) and repentance. Letting go and stop trying to do it myself, simply trusting His Promises as true and that He is faithful even when I am faithless. 2 Timothy 2:13
I have chronic illness and pain, and several Pentacostal brothers and sisters said if I had enough faith, God would heal me. Now, I got saved at age 21, praise God, by listening to a well-known Pentacostal tv preacher, so no offense to any sister or brother in Christ of that persuasion. I’m 66 now, so my faith has grown, and my life has been led by our Lord through trials, tribulations and amazing blessings. I’m mature enough to know our Lord sometimes says no, yes or wait, and I don’t need to know why, as I trust He knows what He’s doing and doesn’t need my help. I know He can heal me anytime He wants to, and if not here, then when I arrive in Heaven. It’s not my business what He chooses for me. It’s my business to love, honor, worship, witness His Gospel and obey Him. Now, I’m not angry with the ignorance of those who said that to me; although it’s very arrogant ( in my opinion) of them to take credit for any faith they may have, as even that is s gift from God and absolutely NO credit to them/us. But, I take issue with those who say this because they are not being Scriptural and are doing harm to people who are already suffering. Now, it did hurt me, caused me to doubt my faith (for a minute) and could have-had I not known better-to doubt God and His love for me. That’s dangerous! I know this is a long post, and I hope for your indulgence, as I thought it very important to mention. Too much of that lie is being taught. Faith is not to our credit or power, it’s a gift of God, and He gives a measure to each one according to His plan. Thank you for allowing my story. I hope you forgive it’s length. God bless you.
Hey Melissa! I also have friends who are going to two churches that I don’t think are quite safe. They don’t teach prosperity gospel-in fact, they’re churches in our synod (so they claims to align with the doctrine of our denomination), but they have been using tactics from the Church Growth Movement, including raffles for mere church attendance, “hip” shallow sermons that sometimes have biblical errors (one claimed some righteous people died in the flood, another started a sermon with “Does Jesus have swag?”), and of course, music from Bethel and Elevation. We aren’t charismatic; we’re confessional Lutheran! Yet so many young people go to one of these two churches. I don’t know how the pastors get away with it since our synod sometimes seems to nitpick about biblical accuracy on the other end of the spectrum (getting upset over someone casually using the wrong phrase). I’d like to warn my friends but it’s hard because these two churches are “approved” by our highest church leaders, and I’m a PK so I don’t want to seem judgmental. I go to a more traditional style church within the same denomination-where old people and families go and where few young people attend. The doctrines taught at the two churches aren’t totally damaging, but they are borderline self-help and so different from our “normal” churches. Point being, it would be great if you someday shared your journey of warning your friends.
Thank you, Melissa! Another great video……I totally agree with everything you said. So basically these type of churches are teaching that our faith is a power above God’s power. That WE have the power to make God do what we want. The world’s God is money……but it sounds like I’m these type of churches money is their God as well……no difference. How sick if that??? And I would dare say that these people put the power of money above the power of God… Wow. We need to be praying for these people.
I've visited churches like that and fully agree with you. Times when I closed my note book and my Bible and put it under my seat and just waited for it to finish.
On point. Can't stress enough the truth that God is a sovereign. You cannot arm-twist God. You see it again and again in Jesus like when He almost walked by the disciples on water not even acknowledging them till they cried out to him. No it does not make Him uncaring. It stresses His sovereignty and the fact that He will have mercy, on whom He will have mercy. Very well explained. God bless.
I went to a meeting in the downtown Buffalo area several years ago just because I heard about it on the radio. The speaker, a woman, got up to speak a said she would be coming from... and then proceeded to rattle off 15-20 scripture references but just the books and the numbers of the verses, quoting not one. Quickly she had the emotions of the crowd whipped up to a good frenzy as I stood quietly in the back with praise and worship for Jesus. The transition to money from Jesus was calculated and imperceptible, seamless. It sounded like Jesus Jesus Jesus $ Jesus Jesus $$ Jesus $$$!!! Sadly no gospel was offered at the end only offerings taken, hollow promises given to people who were desperate and hurting.
Love the example of the burning furnace. Great question. If you are facing persecution right up to imminent death, will you still be willing to worship the Lord? Such a great example of great faith. I never looked at it as worship. That is so beautiful. To sum it all up... Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. Habakkuk 3:17-18 This is my desire to pray this prayer, in faith, and yet as an act of worship to my Heavenly Father. Thank you for your excellent, insightful video. God bless.
Excellent assessment of the prosperity preaching church! Also LOVE the Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego Scripture that you quoted! (Daniel 3:16-18). My hubby & I just inadvertently went to a prosperity Gospel as well. We attended an out of town mega church which 'hosts' a speaker's conference series which we really like. We ended up hearing about the 'seed faith' $ and affiliation with Joyce Meyer(red flag) and other tell tale 'prosperity gospel' signs within the sermon. Thank you for pointing all of this out in your video. We need to stand firm on correct hermeneutics in this day & age, when up is down, left is right and sadly the church is affected! Please keep up the great work for our LORD & Savior in these End Times.
I continue to appreciate your very succinct, very understandable, and very true representation of those who perpetrate word of faith theology. I’m so glad you went to the church. Would like to know the man to avoid, especially if he is fluid from church to church. I very much enjoyed your notes, and your rightly dividing the word of truth ! Lora
Thank you Melissa for telling the truth, my family got cut in this word of faith teaching very toxic now out of this but several of my children and grandchildren don't want to go back to church, 10 years of this teaching did loss damages, they are following bill jonhson very sad ,blessings to you and family love in christ
Thank you for sharing this experience and breaking it down. This guest speaker seems to be stepping into gnosticism (spelling?), having some "special knowledge". i agree with you calling BS on his "special interpretation". Scripture says what it means, and means what it says! Oh, and the idea that when Jesus quoted scripture to the tempter "didn't work" for the first and second temptation is completely ludicrous. The tempter tired his first approach (Matt 4:3 - ESV) ..."If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." Jesus does NOT concede and counters with recorded scripture and shuts the temptation down. The fact that there is a second and third temptation does not mean that Jesus failed in any way or that the scripture He used was ineffective; it simply shows that the enemy is not going to give up easily. I also appreciate your mention that Jesus is The Word made flesh. Because He Is Devine, He could have said anything and been perfectly right and justified. However, He did set the standard for us to pattern our behavior (showing us how to act) by quoting established scripture. I really enjoy your work - thanks for all you do.
I went to one once, where I felt a strong *localized* presence in the front - which seemed really "off" and, quickly found myself at odds with it. Then they start talking about casting visions and such and I was trying to find a discreet moment to leave during the 'service.' A couple of people followed after me and asked me what was wrong. I was shocked that they think that what they perceive to be G-d's Spirit trumps G-d's word, so you can't really use it to argue with them and they were shockingly nonplussed when I called their teaching out as witchcraft.
Melissa is spot on. With 100% faith, God may not deliver you from illness or poverty. The message from the scriptures is to trust in God no matter what happens and use scripture as a weapon against evil.
It's all about money. These "churches" have been around for quite a while now. In Australia and UK also. The whole "prosperity teaching" and "prosperity gospel" thing is evil.
Sounds like that preacher didn't read on in James to the part where the poor are in the glory of a high position in the Kingdom of Heaven. Maybe he forgot that Job is one of the 3 righteous given as an example of righteousness in Ezekiel and Job's attitude was "I will call on you even if you wound me." as a prophecy about The Christ ...
Job 13:15 "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him: but I will maintain mine own ways before Him." (The first part of that verse is precious to me. However, Word of Faith folks effectively cling to the self-justifying second part of the verse, forgetting that Job later said, after being confronted by the living God, "Wherefore I abhor [myself], and repent in dust and ashes.")
The big tipoff to these churches is that you must give the "seed" money to them. Not to the local food bank or homeless shelter, or some missionary in the third world.
I didn't know that. I was sending it to homeless shelters and International aid. No wonder I'm not getting my payback. 😉
David Wilkerson called it a ponzi scheme, or pyramid scheme. He was in tears over it.
What makes these prosperity preachers access to God any more special than the person tossing the seed money into their pockets
@@michaelmerck7576 Because they are the receivers and we're the givers. You gotta know your place. Better to give than receive, remember? 😉 No wait...better to be a receiver than a giver..! That's it.
Personally I’ve given cash to lots of people who may never have used it as I expected they would, people on the street. It’s my business to do God’s business which is to not hold on tight to worldly money and give it to those who ask when I can. If they then use it in a bad way they will be held to account. I give it and I don’t worry after that at all.
This really helped me. I have been feeling that I don't have enough faith and that is why my life is the way it is. I am not getting the healing I have heard some pastors say I should have. What a load off of my back to know that I am okay with believing God says Yes, No, or Wait about my prayers. Thank you so much Melissa.
“Enough faith”? All it comes down to is whether you have any faith or not. And you do because you believe Christ died for you! Any faith in Jesus IS enough! And even if you don’t get what you want in this life (though I certainly pray you do), you have riches beyond measure in the age to come.
I sometimes feel that too, even though I know that's not how God deals with his people's prayers. God sometimes allows us to suffer and to wait for Him. No money and also no declaration can change that. Wait means wait.
Read about the disciples and how they struggled and met their end. They walked with Jesus and went around sharing their faith. If enough faith worked as a power, why would anyone die or ever get sick? Look at martyrs... I'm glad you watched this and have found it helpful. That way of teaching doesn't make sense and actually places us in a position to have control, thus making us Gods (not God's). Maybe watch the American Gospel documentaries and Voice of the Martyrs magazine. Blessings.
We couldn't have children...... it took me some time, to know that all is "for my best". Nevermind what...... and for the glory of God. And all ( every breath I am able ) comes from the grace and love of God.
Not from my trying to believe, to love, to do and say this and that.
hey brother, I really encourage you to read 2 Cor 12:8-10,3 times Paul asked God to remove a "thorn in his flesh", and each time the answer was "no, I am enough". God was saying I am leaving it there so that you will depend on Me. I have my own "stuff" and now consider it pretty amazing that God is leaving them there, I doubt I would have the relationship I have with Jesus without them.
This is why the congregation MUST go home and study for themselves what is right. We must be critical thinkers. Not stagnant attendees😢
After 2 of my sons were in a car accident, my oldest son sobbed into my shoulder and said mom I prayed I really prayed . i told him that God always answers prayer but sometimes the answer is no. This is not always an easy lesson to learn.
RIP. Sorry for your loss. 😢
the Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blesssed be the name of the Lord.
He comforts me.
Sorry for your loss, but glory be to GOD almighty, May he continue to be your strength and hope and peace during this difficult time in Jesus name Amen
It’s so important to pray the will of God. We have faith but God has the final word.
I’m so sorry for your loss of both your sons.
The prosperity gospel is so insidious and damaging. We often see in our culture money is what people worship. Thank you for helping us be watchful from people who use God's name to scam the most vulnerable.
Every gospel is a prosperity gospel. You are only being good so you can live large after you die.
People would rather riches over God. Many are actually saying so! Money over what’s right, groups and elitism over justice in Gods eyes. And they seek a prosperity church to justify this preference.
Yeah you cannot really receive love if that’s what they are about. It’s not loving to make someone feel horribly by forcing a financial burden on someone else.
Since when did Jesus say I will only bless you, work miracles for you , die for you. If you are wealthy. Did he not say a camel will walk through the eye of a needle before a wealthy man will see Gods kingdom.
You are correct, but for the most part, they CANNOT see, because they are blinded by the god of this World.
Melissa thank you. I left my pentecostal word-of-faith-esque church this weekend past, I feel kinda vulnerable after doing it, I know some spiritual gaslighting and other attacks will come but I also feel a profound sense of peace with the Lord, prayers are better, worship more heartfelt, conviction more clear. I pray for guidance to an expository-centered church. Anyway, thank you for calling this rubbish out.
God bless you. I went through that too, and sensed the same things afterward. It's so liberating and stablizing. God will guide you to a good church.
I don’t really understand why you left your church. Like, what was wrong with it. Could you explain? O:
@Magical Nails Penecostal/WoF churches are hyper-charismatic churches that generally twist & warp scripture to gain worldly material/powers. There is also often manipulation and spiritual abuse in this circle of denominations. Yes... that can exist everywhere, but more often than not in these churches.
Good for you. I have been thinking about leaving my church of 11 yrs for more expository teaching.
I am a pentecostal, what's word of faith esque?
My church was deep in word of faith since it started in 2004, but over the last two years my pastor has been carefully untangling the web false teaching that he had been brought up in and was teaching. It's been hard on the church and many people feel very stagnant right now, but thankfully my pastor is pressing forward and the people are receptive and eager to learn! The Truth is powerful! This verse regarding the SMA and the furnace is one of the first he called out and dismantled.
I'm so thankfuk God has been working on his heart. My wife has attended since 2007 and I since 2010 and am also ordained under this church and the youth Pastor...but if he hadn't made these changes, I don't think we would be staying since her and I both started having the same convictions against WOF theology over the last 2 years as well. Funny how God works that way.
Some might criticize that he is untangling the web instead of ripping it down...but as someone in church leadership, you must understand that you still have a responsibility to protect the confidence and faith of those in your flock. Yes, Jesus went and cleansed the temple with a whip, but we aren't Jesus...and sometimes we need to understand when to untangle lies and when to rip them down.
i’m with ya! i have a disabled daughter. A couple months back her bus driver (very kind but clearly needs some guidance) prayed over my daughter and told me she would be completely healed and attending regular school soon. I had trouble putting into words why that bothered me so bad. although I appreciate his enthusiasm and caring attitude towards my daughter, to me it was almost treating our God like a genie or something? i still have trouble articulating it.
That os EXACTLY how these NAR/ WOF charlatans treat Abba Father. If they don't repent...........
"Treating our God like a genie" is an EXCELLENT way to articulate it.
I am disabled . If any one wants to pray my disability away I would say thanks for your prayers , but, I am what I am.
@@spmoran4703 you are what you are so you can minister to dozens and dozens of others going through the same thing !!
You can speak on how God has provided you with what's necessary. What a wonderful amazing gift from God that he flows through you and your experience to minister to so many others. Glory to God for your wonderful heart and willingness to minister to others.
@@garyg7549 I do already
I came out of prosperity/wof teaching about 3 years ago and this is exactly what they did. Then they would call people who actually corrcetly interpreted the bible religious cows and say they weren't spirit filled. So damaging and hurtful. I'm so glad God opened my eyes to this teaching.
just like JW's they love bomb you and when they realize they can not manipulate you they attack you verbally.
Yep sounds about right. Sorry you went through that
Hugs. Hope you have found a more biblically teaching church
But they were inspired by the Holy Ghost as you were, so someone must be lying. Where does your Authority come from to claim someone else is not inspired by the Holy Ghost.
I say moo to them. We are to be solid in the word and being spirit filled and having correct doctrine go hand in hand.
MANY years ago, I went to a church where they were teaching the prosperity gospel, and a woman came forward to get prayer for some physical healing. When the woman told the pastor her prayer request, he shamed her by saying she has been prayed for a number of times and it’s time she started developing her own “faith muscles”. He prayed for her and she said “praise the Lord, I have been healed”. She started crying. She was NOT healed but was too embarrassed to say that her “faith muscles” were too weak to heal her. “Faith muscles”? I have NEVER found that in Scripture. I felt so really sorry 😢 for that poor woman! I never went back and I don’t know what happened to that cult.
So sad😢
It isn't in the scriptures
@@michaelmerck7576 But praying for one another is in Scripture so the pastor needs to flex his “faith muscles”.
So I'm a weird one whose favorite books are Ecclesiastes and Job while one of my favorite passages is from Habbakuk 3:17 (to paraphrase, even if things personally suck for me, I will rejoice in the Lord). To me, one of the most important lessons in life is to understand how to fear God and grieve gracefully when we realize that our own pride may not align with truths that we personally may not like. This whole idea of "God will bless me if I have enough faith" robs people of understanding this, which is really tragic.
Job. Love it. I went through the hardest time of my life a few years back and a wise man told me to read Job. I had told him at the time I hated that book, which I did. He basically said I should read it like I am Job. It was so freeing to know that God loves me despite all the junk in my life, it wasn't my fault all the junk happened, and I can(and should) confidently bring it all to God as honestly as I can and he's not offended, surprised or hurt. HE wants it all. All my hurt, my pain, my sin, my anger, my honesty about everything. It is such an amazing book. It's so real. God gets it, gets us. That's how I read it now.
And my favorite is when Our beloved Lord Jesus said “Father, not my will, but thy will be done”. He asked for his cup of suffering to be passed, and nobody on earth had more faith than Jesus. He willingly submitted to the will of his father, even though it meant his excruciating scourging, beating, pulling out parts of his beard, verbal mockery, shaming, stripping him of his garments, a crown of thorns pushed down into his head, and the agonizing public death by crucifixion. He was innocent and perfect, yet it was the love of God towards us, that he demonstrated through his own body & blood. The lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.✝️❤️📖🙏🏻
Meaningless meaningless!
Says the teacher
Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless!
NIV
I love it. My favourite too. 🙌🏼
very well said
Jab 3:17 is one of my favorites also. Sometimes, many times we find ourselves in need of health, money, shelter, or a variety of temporal needs. These are times of testing of our faith, of growing in our trust in Gods providence. Another of my favorite verses is Col 1:24 where St Paul speaks of (paraphrasing) filling up in his body the sufferings which are lacking In Christ’s sufferings. One won’t hear that verse mentioned in these Prosperity gospel so called churches.
What my Youth Pastor (I am 60+ now) repeatedly said is, "The Power of Faith is that it brings you closer to God and improves your Trust in Him. That is your only reward...and it is all you will ever need."
I have experienced this also in two different churches. It’s amazing how my spirit felt so uncomfortable when approaches were being applied and how people accepted it. One church that is from another country but found in this country and many others, preaches the same message throughout the world set by the head bishop. Fund raising ideas are given and exact dollar amounts are demanded/expected by a certain date. The sad thing is the majority of these members including this country are poor while the head bishop is a billionaire. I asked members why their blessing (financial) has not happened yet. I’m told what they are preached. They haven’t established enough faith yet. Broke my heart to watch them struggle to put food on the table and blame themselves for their lack of faith while the head bishop has a personal commercial jet and mansions.
I know a church just like this in Ghana!
I agree with you. I think it's teaching like that that makes people turn away from God when they experience a hardship that is not fixed. I have seen it happen. What got me through hardships was knowing that I had hope in however God decided to use the situation, not in thinking that he would send me a miracle.
Blessings from Hungary,
I learned so much from you, Melissa!
About the Enneagram, about WOF...
Very needed topics!
Hello from South Carolina.
Isten áldja meg. Örülök, hogy az Úrnak mindenütt vannak tanítványai, akik kincsként őrzik a megkülönböztetés ajándékát. Üdvözlet Arizonából. Olyan jó gyakorolni az anyanyelvemet.
Thru profound suffering we draw closer to God. For it rains on the just and unjust, thank God for the good and bad .
You nailed it Melissa , God's sovereign ways and his power. ,should always be enough, Faith is never about getting your way, it is a yielding of our ways to God Almighty 🙏
Amen!!!!🙏🏻📖✝️❤️
Faith in God is not trusting Him to do my will. It's trusting Him whatever the outcome.
“Tubes of You!” 😂
Love IT! 🥰 Ingenious, and love your channel even more!! 🤩
Sounds just like the churches I used to attend, sadly. I'm so glad God opened my eyes and pulled me out of there. But my heart breaks for those still deceived by prosperity/WOF teachers. 💜
My sister was an avid follower of the man with the perfect teeth from Texas. I thank God that her eyes were opened. God bless you Melissa for posting this.
Thank you, praise God my church does not ask for offerings but once a month for missions. We are a mission minded group of Jesus Christ 🙏
How does your church survive? No church can sustain itself without money for the church building/rent, pastor's salary, etc.
@@tsm7964 If God is for this church, it will be financed. I was just thinking about why churches take up offerings at all. People know they're suppose to give, do they really need to be asked? And if we only give because man is watching, then what does that say about us?
If we're truly sold out believers we know everything we have belongs to the Lord. Everything. Jesus has told us that if we want to be perfect, to sell all give to the poor, take up our cross and follow him.
He will build his church.
You explained it perfectly, Melissa! I spent 15 years in this WoF/Prosperity false gospel. Worked for 2 huge ministries you'd know if I named them. Thank God for his mercy and grace to open my eyes. I pray for all my friends who are so deceived. It is insidious as one commenter said and destroyed my marriage of almost 25 years! Thank you for ALL you do! I love your videos!❤️📖🕊
Yeah, when I hear these teachings about the"power" of faith, it makes me sad too, because I remember a dear friend. She was an amazing pray-er for others. But for herself, she would blame her own (as she saw it) inadequate faith for her unanswered prayers. Honestly, she was a giant of faith in the eyes of those who knew her. Anyway, she's in heaven now, praise God.
I still haven’t been healed of my cerebral palsy. It has nothing to do with the amount of faith I have, I have lots of faith. Jesus hasn’t healed me on Earth, but I will be healed in Heaven.
I like the way my church takes offerings. There is a lock box at the back of the church with offering envelopes and a pen...that's it. No passing a basket, no money talk other then the occasional reminder that the offering box is there.
With wealth comes responsibility. So as a moderately prosperous guy, I must obey God's instructions to care for those less fortunate, or less capable, or however it happened for us. There is blessing and joy in doing it.
Our family was in a WOF (Word of Faith Church) for 15 years. We saw people in the church refuse medical help because they believed that they had enough faith to be healed by just 'speaking' the Word. Sadly, they died. Everything that you said is what the Pastor taught - plant "seed", speak the Word, don't waver in faith, don't allow doubt...We are now in a sound expository preaching reformed church.
I totally agree with you Melissa! I’m 65 years old, been saved since early 20 s. I have gone to these prosperity churches for many years. Thank you Lord Jesus He delivered me! I started reading the scripture for myself! I knew something wasn’t right in my spirit for years! I just thought these are men of God! What do I know?! After Jim and Tammy went down, Jimmy Swaggart went down, and Kenneth Copeland got weird and Kenneth Hagin got weird and they all started the “ laughing, drunken, dog barking” movement,literally pushing people down by the “ spirit”! I knew that was of Satan movement! I retreated to my home by myself and read the Word of God and prayed! These are very dangerous people! Wolves in sheep’s clothing!!!
Avoid a church that follows Rodney Howard Browne
I'm glad you were delivered from this deception. I was too.
Thank God. I left a similar path.
Same. Thank God He led me out of that.
Thanks for sharing this story.
You took a bullet for us, and lived to tell us that this assembly needs prayer to get back on track.
Blessings from Alberta Canada. ✝️
I also always get crazy red flags the moment I hear “sow your seed.”🚩🚩🚩
Totally! That expression makes me cringe 😬.
"Sowing and reaping" is a perfectly biblical concept. Read 2 Corinthians 9. Paul was taking a collection for the church at Jerusalem, and in verse 6 he said, "He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." In other words, God does indeed bless those who give to His work. Unlike the prosperity preachers, though, I add a couple of caveats: (1) The blessings are not always material, and (2) we don't always reap the blessings in this life.
@@citizenken7069 agreed! It’s just when I hear that specifically in the context of giving so you get blessings back (rather than joyfully out of loving obedience, trusting the Lord to provide for our needs) I go into hyper vigilant mode.
Well...um...actually...the Spoken Gospel is supposed to be the Seed of God. When the preacher speaks, he spreads God's seed upon the Church, who is the Bride of Christ.
And that's why we can't have female preachers. It messes up the analogy. 😄
@@ailius1520 Lol in the farming sense though, not the birds and the bees! 🤣 I’m with you though as far as female pastors.
This is one of the things that Martin Luther wanted to reform in the Catholic church 500 years ago. It seems we never learn.
Amen, sister! ❤ you, keep doing what you do! God is working wonders through your teaching!
Thank you so very much for sharing, people NEED to hear this!!👍🎉😊
Melissa I laughed so hard throughout this video because my friend and I (willingly) went to a local church and it was a prosperity/word of faith church and this video/story sounds just like the experience my friend and I had recently lol. They are everywhere, twisting the word of God for no reason at all.
I don't believe these preachers have really studied the Word of God.
They just pick out and use scripture to confirm what they want to say ..not the other way round. (What God is saying).
Hi Melissa, i discovered your channel a couple of weeks ago. You have a new fan. Grateful for the opportunity to get your insightful comments and as for today's edition, very much agree with your call on the Prosperity Church movement. Very best wishes and John 3:16.
Wow! This is excellent, Melissa. I don't know where to begin with my story from attending a Word of Faith church for 3 years. Thanks be to God He revealed the Truth to me and we left that church! I had no idea what "Word of Faith" was or even that the church was Word of Faith until we had been attending about two years. Long story....but I am still unlearning all the magic tricks of using the HOLY BIBLE as a spell book to get what I want......I am ASHAMED that I stayed so long. But I am out PRAISE the LORD I am free! Thanks for the work you are doing and for this excellent video. 🙏
If we talk about faith( in my opinion) the book of Job is better to describe how faith should be . Of course God never change only our world change. Overall, thank you for your video and I like what you doing. I must said, currently not assisting any church because I want to read the Bible and understand the word of God “on my own” but I also watch from time to time videos like yours that make sense to me.
Thank you!
God bless you!
I for one am happy you walked into that church, He guided you and this gave the chance for a comparitive study and exposing, bringing to light. Thank you for being an obedient watchman.
My pastor says it’s fun to watch me when the subject of the prosperity gospel comes up. He says I look like I’m ready to blow a gasket. That’s because I’ve seen people blamed for not being healed because they didn’t have enough faith. As someone who is legally blind from vision loss due to glaucoma, I prayed for YEARS for healing. And I that was before my vision loss. I eventually came to realize that it wasn’t my lack of faith, but that sometimes God had us walk through the hard things. My mother-in-law recently died and my sister-in-law said that the reason she didn’t get her healing was because she wanted to go home instead. No, that’s not it. My husband is still a part of the WOF movement, but I left several years ago. I also couldn’t take the whole thing that it wasn’t a good service unless everyone was speaking and tongues and dancing in the ailes. A kit of emotionalism.
💯 agree! Thank you for making this video so that I can share with others. ❤
I thought this young generation was brain dead but girl you are a breath of fresh air!
@12:10 "That's not true" - words that need to be said way more often in many 'churches'. Discernment is not a 'gift' that is prevalent or appreciated these days. There are plenty of crowds that only want to hear what their itching ears want to hear - messages that feed into the self centered flesh - "what am I getting" hearts. Thanks for sharing your experience.
You really did a great job of explaining the story of the three Hebrew boys and what faith is and what it is not.
This is the time we accidentally walked into a Pentecostal church. We were living in Montana in-between pastorates (my husband is a pastor) and we needed to find a church to attend. We went to a church that was meeting in a senior center. We still had three out of our four boys living with us. We walked in and the seats were all filled so we sat along the wall by the door we had entered to get in. They did announcements and sang a song…all good so far….and then another guy got up and started talking about the demons in the town. He said, “We need to cast them out!” He was facing north so he said, “Everyone turn to the west and cast out the demons!” The congregation turned to the west and “cast them out”…hahaha. Then he said, “Everyone turn to the north and cast out the demons!” Everyone did that and my husband and I looked at each other and said, “Oh oh…..we’re to the east.” so we hightailed it out of there. We were all laughing when we got to the car knowing that when they turned to the east to cast out the demons they probably thought we were of the enemy and they cast us out…hahaha. So funny!
This is shocking to me
"By golly, the demons in the East RAN in fear before we could cast them out!"
Secretly this is what they do to turn aside those not seated. Building occupancy codes you know. 😉
Thanks for sharing. 😄
😂😂😂 that IS funny!! 😂😂😂
Why are laughing about this? You shouldn’t laugh at what breaks God’s heart 😢
If you think that was funny I would suggest you take a good look at yourself.
My father was saved when he had cancer. We live in a sin filled world and death became part of that. While God can heal physically, He also uses illness (like with my father) to bring some people to salvation where they will be healthy and perfect for eternity. Praise God for the truth and your videos and others who teach the truth in love.
Thank you for this video. I really appreciate your Thorough teaching and conviction of the truth of Scripture.
I wasted 30+ years in Word of Faith. I left church for 12years when the "seeds' never grew. Now, I'm a Reformed Baptist secure in God's sovereignty.
I had just made a post about this sort of thing and then this pops up in my subscriptions 😮
My home church had a "guest speaker" pastor who was saying that instead of people having to fly to Redding for a touch of God and he praised God for what was happening in Redding, that they would flock to our church for that touch of God. Id love to get your take on his sermon if I could send to you privately. The same with your experience, not all he says is wrong but oh man- is a mess!
Thank you for your teachings, we have an even greater hunger to read the Bible PROPERLY IN CONTEXT and your channel along with a few others are fueling that hunger. God bless you Melissa ❤
Amen! On the note of "Even if God doesn't deliver us from this" I agree, because God doesn't answer to us. Whatever is God's will is what's going to happen.
Came to faith in a Pentecostal church, which after a few years, turned charismatic/prosperity. I knew something was wrong because I actually read my Bible. All of it.
Confessional Lutheran now. Love it.
I think you got it right on. I've been watching your videos, and you have opened my eyes to what's creeping into the church.
I have a ficical disability and was in a church that said I was not being healed because I had too much sin in my life.
Thank you for shining light on the truth.
My prosperity message... "I am saved and will meet my Saviour one day"
You are such a gifted and anointed teacher. Thank you.✝️♥️
Bless you, Melissa, I love your messages, and I also love the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and AbeDnego... Keep up the great work. Blessings.
One of these churches even puts it this way: we want to give you the opportunity to give. It literally repels me, when I think of hungry and homeless people and even children.. but I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to give to that church...
My home church says that too 🤦🏻♀️
I agree with your interpretation and concerns.
Thank you so much for sharing. I was swept up in this for a while; this very much needs exposure!
Thank you so much for your videos. I learn so much from you. You are wise beyond your years with your gift of discernment. Sadly, so many of churches have become so diluted and don’t even begin to teach the true gospel.
Melissa, really enjoy listening to your Podcast. God Bless You! 🏜️☝️😎❤️📖✝️🛐 The Word of God is a C🧭MPASS to direct us to the right direction.
I just had this experience recently and it affected my faith because it sounded SO good. They gave me a pamphlet with different verses out of context about how Jesus wants me to be rich and how Jesus himself wasn't poor on earth because he had an accountant (Matthew) and "poor people don't need accountants" like what.
Ha! Had an accountant! I’ve never heard that one. John Hagee said he was rich (Jesus) because the Word says He had seamless garments, and only rich people in those days had seamless garments. They can spin a tale, can’t they?
I just recently found your channel and am loving what I am watching so far. Thank you for speaking the plain truth found in the Word without sugar coating it to fit into today's society norms.
I‘m going to visit a church this Sunday and pray that it goes better than Melissa’s experience 😱
Also be sure you're at a full gospel church, one that includes the message of sin and repentance in every sermon. I repeat...in every sermon. God bless
You were Spot on sister in identifying false teachings and the masterful use of scripture twisting to manipulate and mislead. It is easy to do because few believers have studied the word of God to find themselves approved. Thank you for your ministry of truth. God bless you 💕
Wow I just left my childhood church and it was just like this! I had no idea but now everything is so clear 😳 The pastor always used scripture to emphasize how we shouldn’t touch what’s God’s (money) or we would get punished and how we should sacrifice and give our biggest donation because God would give it back & there were a lot of money campaigns where you would give to save your family, free yourself, miracles, etc.
The pastor always spoke about giving high amounts like 1k, $500 and would ask for a tithing, 10%, campaign envelopes and for newspapers, all in ONE SERVICE!. I did learn a lot from this church and I am grateful for it until I couldn’t ignore the emphasis on the $$ throughout the entire service. Thanks for sharing! 🙏
Love this chicklet !!! Truthbombs abound !!! My understanding is that God will deliver us either by life or by death because heaven is the perfect rescue… I completely agree with yes, no or wait
Highly respect your biblical review on it
I appreciate you and this channel. Thank you.
You are a very good note taker!
Excellent! I live in Woodland Park,CO, home of Andrew Wommack Ministries. And it is terribly hard to discern on the surface if a church is truly scripture-based, or infiltrated with Word of Faith heresy.
So many Christians are proud to have Andrew Wommack and his Charis Bible College in our community, with no idea most of what he teaches is heresy. I have developed a two-part presentation in hopes of helping our local community understand we live in a mission field and have much work to do. Regarding your comments on faith…AWM actually goes one step further….they believe when they were born again they actually were given God’s own faith…they don’t have ‘faith IN God,’ they have ‘the faith OF God. Ei yi yi.
My presentation doesn’t explain how they twist scripture to validate their doctrine…rather it simply compares what Wommack says directly to scripture. It’s a comparative study.
I’m praying for venues to invite me to present it, what God has in mind is still unclear.
Anyway, blessings to you!
Excellent, clear work, Sister! Blessings
Thank you for spreading The Truth, The Way, and The Life.
The idea that if God does not come through for you in a situation means that you do not have enough faith, is debilitating. It can create an extremes where "if you go through trials" then you are lacking faith - this is how far I believed it before having come out of WOF. I did not know or hear James 1 ever, that trials are needed. Trials were always portrayed as a negative unchristian - like thing.
Looking at my trials thinking my faithlessness has put me here caused me to start speaking things out wildly. Believing that my words have some super power that will move my mountain out of my life, but that never worked. I also believed in the little gods ideology so of course my words have power to create.
It is an exhaust self effort type of faith that carried disappointment.
Anyway what changed things in the end was simple prayer, standing firmly on scripture (once i read it for real) and repentance. Letting go and stop trying to do it myself, simply trusting His Promises as true and that He is faithful even when I am faithless. 2 Timothy 2:13
Yep, you nailed it! Good job in your analysis!
God gifted me salvation thru Jesus. Nothing and I mean nothing ever is required from Him ever. The joy that brings to me is my greatest joy.
The jo
I have chronic illness and pain, and several Pentacostal brothers and sisters said if I had enough faith, God would heal me. Now, I got saved at age 21, praise God, by listening to a well-known Pentacostal tv preacher, so no offense to any sister or brother in Christ of that persuasion. I’m 66 now, so my faith has grown, and my life has been led by our Lord through trials, tribulations and amazing blessings. I’m mature enough to know our Lord sometimes says no, yes or wait, and I don’t need to know why, as I trust He knows what He’s doing and doesn’t need my help. I know He can heal me anytime He wants to, and if not here, then when I arrive in Heaven. It’s not my business what He chooses for me. It’s my business to love, honor, worship, witness His Gospel and obey Him. Now, I’m not angry with the ignorance of those who said that to me; although it’s very arrogant ( in my opinion) of them to take credit for any faith they may have, as even that is s gift from God and absolutely NO credit to them/us. But, I take issue with those who say this because they are not being Scriptural and are doing harm to people who are already suffering. Now, it did hurt me, caused me to doubt my faith (for a minute) and could have-had I not known better-to doubt God and His love for me. That’s dangerous! I know this is a long post, and I hope for your indulgence, as I thought it very important to mention. Too much of that lie is being taught. Faith is not to our credit or power, it’s a gift of God, and He gives a measure to each one according to His plan. Thank you for allowing my story. I hope you forgive it’s length. God bless you.
Hey Melissa! I also have friends who are going to two churches that I don’t think are quite safe. They don’t teach prosperity gospel-in fact, they’re churches in our synod (so they claims to align with the doctrine of our denomination), but they have been using tactics from the Church Growth Movement, including raffles for mere church attendance, “hip” shallow sermons that sometimes have biblical errors (one claimed some righteous people died in the flood, another started a sermon with “Does Jesus have swag?”), and of course, music from Bethel and Elevation. We aren’t charismatic; we’re confessional Lutheran! Yet so many young people go to one of these two churches. I don’t know how the pastors get away with it since our synod sometimes seems to nitpick about biblical accuracy on the other end of the spectrum (getting upset over someone casually using the wrong phrase).
I’d like to warn my friends but it’s hard because these two churches are “approved” by our highest church leaders, and I’m a PK so I don’t want to seem judgmental. I go to a more traditional style church within the same denomination-where old people and families go and where few young people attend. The doctrines taught at the two churches aren’t totally damaging, but they are borderline self-help and so different from our “normal” churches.
Point being, it would be great if you someday shared your journey of warning your friends.
You hit the nail on the head with ‘self help’, that’s exactly what some of this stuff is like
This helped to shed light on what prosperity teaching is, made it a bit more concrete for me. Thank you
Thank you, Melissa! Another great video……I totally agree with everything you said.
So basically these type of churches are teaching that our faith is a power above God’s power. That WE have the power to make God do what we want. The world’s God is money……but it sounds like I’m these type of churches money is their God as well……no difference. How sick if that???
And I would dare say that these people put the power of money above the power of God… Wow. We need to be praying for these people.
OMG!!! "Pay tithing and you will be blessed with all you need." "Pay tithing and God will heal you." I heard this all the time as a Mormon!
I've visited churches like that and fully agree with you. Times when I closed my note book and my Bible and put it under my seat and just waited for it to finish.
On point. Can't stress enough the truth that God is a sovereign. You cannot arm-twist God. You see it again and again in Jesus like when He almost walked by the disciples on water not even acknowledging them till they cried out to him. No it does not make Him uncaring. It stresses His sovereignty and the fact that He will have mercy, on whom He will have mercy. Very well explained. God bless.
Good, the POWER of discernment gave you a shock ;)
I went to a meeting in the downtown Buffalo area several years ago just because I heard about it on the radio. The speaker, a woman, got up to speak a said she would be coming from... and then proceeded to rattle off 15-20 scripture references but just the books and the numbers of the verses, quoting not one. Quickly she had the emotions of the crowd whipped up to a good frenzy as I stood quietly in the back with praise and worship for Jesus. The transition to money from Jesus was calculated and imperceptible, seamless. It sounded like Jesus Jesus Jesus $ Jesus Jesus $$ Jesus $$$!!! Sadly no gospel was offered at the end only offerings taken, hollow promises given to people who were desperate and hurting.
Love the example of the burning furnace. Great question. If you are facing persecution right up to imminent death, will you still be willing to worship the Lord? Such a great example of great faith. I never looked at it as worship. That is so beautiful.
To sum it all up...
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my Savior. Habakkuk 3:17-18
This is my desire to pray this prayer, in faith, and yet as an act of worship to my Heavenly Father.
Thank you for your excellent, insightful video. God bless.
Excellent assessment of the prosperity preaching church! Also LOVE the Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego Scripture that you quoted! (Daniel 3:16-18). My hubby & I just inadvertently went to a prosperity Gospel as well. We attended an out of town mega church which 'hosts' a speaker's conference series which we really like. We ended up hearing about the 'seed faith' $ and affiliation with Joyce Meyer(red flag) and other tell tale 'prosperity gospel' signs within the sermon. Thank you for pointing all of this out in your video. We need to stand firm on correct hermeneutics in this day & age, when up is down, left is right and sadly the church is affected! Please keep up the great work for our LORD & Savior in these End Times.
I continue to appreciate your very succinct, very understandable, and very true representation of those who perpetrate word of faith theology. I’m so glad you went to the church.
Would like to know the man to avoid, especially if he is fluid from church to church.
I very much enjoyed your notes, and your rightly dividing the word of truth !
Lora
Thank you Melissa for telling the truth, my family got cut in this word of faith teaching very toxic now out of this but several of my children and grandchildren don't want to go back to church, 10 years of this teaching did loss damages, they are following bill jonhson very sad ,blessings to you and family love in christ
I agree. Thank you for sharing this. It only make me wish I had access to this wisdom so many years ago, when I was misled by these exact issues.
Melissa, I think you are doing a good work to expose the errors in the so called churches.
Thank you for sharing this experience and breaking it down. This guest speaker seems to be stepping into gnosticism (spelling?), having some "special knowledge". i agree with you calling BS on his "special interpretation". Scripture says what it means, and means what it says! Oh, and the idea that when Jesus quoted scripture to the tempter "didn't work" for the first and second temptation is completely ludicrous. The tempter tired his first approach (Matt 4:3 - ESV) ..."If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." Jesus does NOT concede and counters with recorded scripture and shuts the temptation down. The fact that there is a second and third temptation does not mean that Jesus failed in any way or that the scripture He used was ineffective; it simply shows that the enemy is not going to give up easily. I also appreciate your mention that Jesus is The Word made flesh. Because He Is Devine, He could have said anything and been perfectly right and justified. However, He did set the standard for us to pattern our behavior (showing us how to act) by quoting established scripture. I really enjoy your work - thanks for all you do.
I went to one once, where I felt a strong *localized* presence in the front - which seemed really "off" and, quickly found myself at odds with it. Then they start talking about casting visions and such and I was trying to find a discreet moment to leave during the 'service.' A couple of people followed after me and asked me what was wrong. I was shocked that they think that what they perceive to be G-d's Spirit trumps G-d's word, so you can't really use it to argue with them and they were shockingly nonplussed when I called their teaching out as witchcraft.
Good Works For CHRIST. Thank you Melissa.
Magnificent video Melissa! I love this topic. Keep going to those false churches and expose them.
Melissa is spot on. With 100% faith, God may not deliver you from illness or poverty. The message from the scriptures is to trust in God no matter what happens and use scripture as a weapon against evil.
That is a really good example of how faith as a power can be an error in biblical understanding. Great job Melissa!
These preachers want God to serve them, not us to serve God.
Look forward to hearing how the conversation/s went with your friends who attend this church.
👍✝️
You sat there longer than I would have ,
But I understand your kinda working 😊
The business of these “churches” is business
Cash flow baby...cash flow.
It's all about money. These "churches" have been around for quite a while now. In Australia and UK also. The whole "prosperity teaching" and "prosperity gospel" thing is evil.
Sounds like that preacher didn't read on in James to the part where the poor are in the glory of a high position in the Kingdom of Heaven. Maybe he forgot that Job is one of the 3 righteous given as an example of righteousness in Ezekiel and Job's attitude was "I will call on you even if you wound me." as a prophecy about The Christ ...
Job 13:15 "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him: but I will maintain mine own ways before Him." (The first part of that verse is precious to me. However, Word of Faith folks effectively cling to the self-justifying second part of the verse, forgetting that Job later said, after being confronted by the living God, "Wherefore I abhor [myself], and repent in dust and ashes.")