Have Faith In

GOD

 (based on conversations I have had with professing christians)

-part seven-

 

what faith won’t:

(or so the bible says)

 

If there were anyone able to teach The Church, both ancient & modern, concerning faith in God, surely it would be The Lord Jesus Christ Himself. I believe this to be so. Therefore, we need to treat His methodology & doctrine as a masterclass. What Jesus taught on faith runs contrary to the teaching of word of faith advocates. Of that I have no doubt. The Lord did not say the things that this abhorrent movement claims He said about faith. I can still count the bruises that run up & down my left leg, where I have continually kicked myself for ever being drawn into such a stream of falsehood. Don’t misunderstand me. No one forced me to believe what I was being taught & no one strongarmed me into saying or doing the things that I said & did. I had to have my eyes opened & I had to acknowledge the fact that I had been deceived. This affected me in two primary ways. The first, was me being brought to a place of repentance. The second, is what I do here & now.

The Church has been lied to, but not by God. It is impossible for Him to lie (Numbers 23:19, Titus 1:2). The Church has been deceived, but not by Christ. He warned us against deception. He is the truth. (John 14:6, Ephesians 4:21). The Church has been led astray, but not by The Holy Spirit. He leads us into all truth (John 15:26 & 16:13). Who then has lied to us, deceived us & led us astray? An enemy has done this & his chief agency has been certain men. Paul warned the elders in Ephesus of the wolves who would arise from among their own ranks after his departure. Men who would not spare the flock (Acts 20:19-31). He identifies them as enemies of the cross (Philippians 3:18-19).

¹³ For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. ¹⁴ And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. ¹⁵ Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works (2^nd Corinthians 11:13-15).

¹ But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction. ² And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. ³ And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not (2^nd Peter 2:1-3). 

⁴ For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ (Jude 4).

This surely highlights the need for believers to come to know The Scriptures & their Divine Author intimately. If we do not engage in this process as part of genuine discipleship, we will be exposed to error. Paul told Timothy that the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ are wholesome words (1^st Timothy 6:3). The Apostle instructed him [to] “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.” (2^nd Timothy 1:13). Word of faith rhetoric is not sound. It is not wholesome. Their teachings are not the words of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Their doctrine is false. It is insidious. It is poisonous. Yet countless millions blindly adhere to the word of faith. Let’s look at another twisted foundation in their flawed teaching; the belief that you can have what you say.

²² And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God (Mark 11:22).

I am not a grammarian, nor am I a theologian, but I can read. In this verse we hear what Jesus said; but what did He mean? Have faith in God seems pretty straight forward to me. God is the One in Whom we are to place our trust. That makes Him both originator & object of our faith. The Church had believed this for centuries, until the word of faith began to be taught extensively. Suddenly, there was a new clarity being brought to these seemingly obscure words of Christ. Little did The Church know, realise or even care that this new light was actually new thought, sprinkled with a hint of new age. Its introduction was subtle.

“Let us focus our attention on the statement, ‘Have faith in God’ (v. 22) or, as the margin reads, "Have the faith of God." Greek scholars tell us this could have been translated, Have the God kind of faith.”

 

Kenneth E. Hagin, Exceedingly Growing Faith, Copyright © 1983 RHEMA Bible Church AKA Kenneth Hagin Ministries, Inc.

 

This statement is patently false. The author is mistaken at best, or a blatant liar at worst. Whereas it is true that the margins of some Bibles do have the alternative rendering ‘..faith of God’, it is not true that ‘Greek scholars tell us this could have been translated, Have the God kind of faith’. Which scholars tell us this? Weust? Swete? Worrel? Kittle? Lightfoot? This is a rather slick trick & a smooth bait & switch. Those holding to the ‘God kind of faith’ theory have no doubt gone to the writings of A. T. Robertson, who said the following.

“Thus Mark 11:22 exete pistin theou we rightly translate ‘have faith in God,’ though the genitive does not mean ‘in,’ but only the God kind of faith.”

A. T. Robertson., A Grammar of the Greek New Testament In the Light of Historical Research. (emphasis added)

Robertson is my go to guy for Greek grammar. His works are a great read. It’s important to remember that here, he is describing the use of what is called the objective genitive. He is not discussing the subject of faith as taught by modern word of faith protagonists. Neither is he confirming the blasphemous belief that God possesses faith. It is a supreme trust in Almighty God. It is a faith of that kind. Well, it has been said that a commentary isn’t authoritative Scripture, is it? No, I wholeheartedly agree; a commentary is not authoritative Scripture. Mark 11:22 is though & Jesus said, ‘Have faith in God’. He meant what He said. Those who listen to word of faith teaching will rarely question its authenticity, because it fits the nefarious narrative that has been crafted around the subject of faith; grammar & theology go hand in hand. The translators have been faithful to the text. I maintain my belief that it is not true that ‘Greek scholars tell us this could have been translated, Have the God kind of faith’, because Robertson’s statement is misunderstood & misapplied. If we take the time to look at some English translations, we shall see this more clearly.

DRA: And Jesus answering, saith to them: Have the faith of God.

YLT: And Jesus answering saith to them, Have faith of God;

GNV: And Jesus answered, and said unto them, Have the faith of God.

RGT: And Jesus answered, and said to them, Have the faith of God.

WYC: And Jesus answered and said to them, Have ye the faith of God;

ISV: Jesus told his disciples, Have faith in God.

KJ21: And Jesus answering, said unto them, Have faith in God.

ASV: And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

AMP: Jesus replied, Have faith in God [constantly].

AMPC: And Jesus, replying, said to them, Have faith in God [constantly].

BRG: And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

CSB: Jesus replied to them, Have faith in God.

CEB: Jesus responded to them, Have faith in God.

CJB: He responded, Have the kind of trust that comes from God.

CEV: Jesus told his disciples: Have faith in God.

DARBY: And Jesus answering says to them, Have faith in God.

DLNT: And having responded, Jesus says to them, Be having faith in God.

ERV: Jesus answered, Have faith in God.

EHV: Jesus replied, Have faith in God.

ESV: And Jesus answered them, Have faith in God.

ESVUK: And Jesus answered them, Have faith in God.

EXB: Jesus answered, Have faith in God.

GW: Jesus said to them, Have faith in God.

GNT: Jesus answered them, Have faith in God.

HCSB: Jesus replied to them, Have faith in God.

ICB: Jesus answered, Have faith in God.

PHILLIPS: Have faith in God, replied Jesus to them.

JUB: And Jesus, answering, said unto them, Have faith in God.

AKJV: And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.

LSB: And Jesus answered and said to them, Have faith in God.

LEB: And Jesus answered and said to them, Have faith in God.

TLB: In reply Jesus said to the disciples, If you only have faith in God.

MEV: Jesus answered them, Have faith in God.

MOUNCE: And answering, Jesus said to them, Have faith in God.

NOG: Yeshua said to them, Have faith in God.

NABRE: Jesus said to them in reply, Have faith in God.

NASB: And Jesus answered and said to them, Have faith in God.

NASB1995: And Jesus answered saying to them, Have faith in God.

NCB: Jesus said to them, Have faith in God.

NCV: Jesus answered, Have faith in God.

NET: Jesus said to them, Have faith in God.

NIRV: Have faith in God, Jesus said.

NIV: Have faith in God, Jesus answered.

NIVUK: Have faith in God, Jesus answered.

NKJV: So Jesus answered and said to them, Have faith in God.

NLV: Jesus said to them, Have faith in God.

NLT: Then Jesus said to the disciples, Have faith in God.

NMB: And Jesus answered and said to them, Have confidence in God.

NRSVA: Jesus answered them, Have faith in God.

NRSVACE: Jesus answered them, Have faith in God.

NRSVCE: Jesus answered them, Have faith in God.

NRSVUE: Jesus answered them, Have faith in God.

NTFE: Have faith in God, replied Jesus.

RSV: And Jesus answered them, Have faith in God.

RSVCE: And Jesus answered them, Have faith in God.

TLV: And Yeshua answered, saying to them, Have faith in God.

WEB: Jesus answered them, Have faith in God. 

It interests me as a layman that the vast majority of translations have stayed with the words ‘Have faith in God’, while only a few have used the alternative ‘Have the faith of God’. I have never found a single genuine Bible version that translates this verse from Mark 11, using the words ‘Have the God kind of faith’. Therefore, I would hazard a guess that this is because there isn’t one. But why would anyone want to insist that ‘Have the God kind of faith’ is the correct translation of these words of Christ? Well, if they can change what He said, they can change what He meant. In the word of faith cosmos, these verses have to be made to fit snugly around Hebrews 11 & Romans 4. This doctrinal tailoring is accomplished by twisting the related passages. Faith has to be a law or a force in order to work & if the words of The Lord Jesus appear to affirm & confirm these falsehoods, there’ll be no arguing with Him. I believe that Jesus said what He meant, despite the circus tricks that our word of faith associates attempt to mesmerise their followers with. God is both originator & object of our faith. Scripture affirms this historically. Jesus taught this consistently. The Apostles taught this faithfully.

Even if we were to adopt the translation ‘Have the faith of God’, as some have rendered it, this is still a world apart from the disfigured statement ‘Have the God kind of faith’. The latter only works when it is viewed as part of a perverted faith formula. The Lord Jesus had just given His disciples an object lesson in His Divine authority & Messiahship. He said something that only He could say. He did something that only He could do. These things have to be understood in their context, not in the heretical-metaphysical-law-of-attraction-mind-science-new-age perspective that has been violently imposed upon the text.

My dear friends; we cannot simply place wings on a slug & then attempt to pass it off as a butterfly.

As a layman, I would have to conclude that the vast majority of translators have remained faithful to the rendering ‘Have faith in God’, because that is the best interpretation of what The Lord Jesus both said & meant. Also, for centuries it prevented the doctrinal downturn that the word of faith movement, among others, has so surreptitiously pushed to the fore. This is the worst kind of opportunism, equalled only by the audacity of the serpent in the garden. Our enemy’s tactics have not changed.

²³ For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith (Mark 11:23). 

There you have it; you can have what you say. Jesus said so, therefore it must be true. Who in their right mind would dare to argue with The Son of God? Not me. I willingly concede that there is no debating The Lord Jesus Christ. However, I will fervently duke it out theologically with any claims that Messiah is teaching His disciples & us by extension, the principle of the power of our words. This is a lie. Henry Barclay Swete has a helpful note along these lines.

“The Twelve were crossing the Mount of Olives; below them, between the mountains of Judaea and the mountains of Moab, lay the hollow of the Dead Sea. ‘Faith, cooperating with the Divine Will, could fill yonder basin with the mass of limestone beneath their feet.’ The metaphor was in use among the Rabbis….Faith is regarded as the normal attitude of the heart, not a sudden emotion or isolated act.”

Henry Barclay Swete, Commentary on Mark’s Gospel (emphasis added).

As we look at the Gospels, we can see that this may not have been the only occasion on which The Lord sought to instruct the twelve concerning having faith in God. See Matthew 17 & 21, as well as Luke 17. The words of Christ concerning the moving of mountains would not have been totally lost on the disciples either. This designation was more common than many of us know. Herod the Great was known as a mountain mover. His palace structure, Herodium, was built to celebrate a great victory over the Parthians around 40BC & to declare Herod’s influence & might. Blokes, eh. They never change.

“Jesus was teaching against the backdrop of Herodium in the distance. Herodium was the mountain palace built by King Herod as a lavish memorial for his own fame. In pride and by oppression, Herod used slaves to artificially raise the hill of his palace to become the highest peak in the area.”

If a sinful, earthly king was able to do this, using forced slave labour, what can The King of Kings accomplish, with those who are His willing bond servants?

Jeremy Carr, Pruitt Health Foundation (emphasis added).

Distinguished Rabbis who were skilled in argumentation were also known as mountain movers or uprooters of mountains.

“However, and not insignificantly, the same expression is also used to describe Rabbi Meir Baal HaNes, one of the greatest Tanna [Tannaim; Rabbinic Sage] of the fourth generation (135-170): the Mishnah remembers him well. This confirms the use of this nickname at least three centuries before the aforementioned Talmudic references. It seems that the expression “moving mountains” (oker harim) began to apply to rabbis with great skill in the art of dialectic of Hellenistic origin, whose appearance in the land of Israel coincides with the bet Hillel (contemporary with the emergence of early Christianity), the first to use and disseminate the art of interpretation based on the fusion of hermeneutical rules of both Greek and Jewish origin. Consequently, these Talmudic texts (others could be added as well) clarify that Judaism, since the earliest times, used the appellation or circumlocution “moving, uprooting mountains” to refer to people with considerable teaching charism. In particular, the expression “mountain mover” (oker harim) designates rabbis who were able, with their art of argumentation, to change the point of view of people particularly rigid in their convictions, or immovable like a mountain.” 

Pasquale Basta, Faith so as to Remove Mountains, Pontifical Urbaniana University (emphasis added)

 

Remember the words of The Apostle Paul to the Corinthians; “(for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;  and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled” (2^nd Corinthians 10:4-6). Of course, Paul penned these inspired words much later than the Gospel account, but the disciples would have had other Scriptures to consider, as Jesus taught them.

⁶ Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child. ⁷ But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. ⁸ Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord. ⁹ Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. ¹⁰ See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. (Jeremiah 1:6-10).

¹ God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. ² Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; ³ Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah (Psalms 46:1-3).

These disciples, with their obedient faith firmly placed in God would themselves move mountains. Their ‘saying to the mountain’ would be the anointed preaching of The Gospel. Confirming Christ’s Messiahship to the Jews & affirming His salvation to the nations. Perhaps with these truths in view, the disciples may have considered the words of the Prophet Micah; “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old” (Micah 7:18-20).

²⁴ Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them (Mark 11:24).

In this context, verse 24 mirrors verse 23. With our will surrendered to God in true faith, our biblical mandate before us & His Gospel in our mouths, He will give us or place certain desires within us.

¹⁴ And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: ¹⁵ and if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him (1^st John 5:14-15).

A dear brother in Christ who is an Assemblies of God minister recently broadcast a video on his YouTube Channel along these lines. His name is Chuck Lewis. Please find his channel via the link supplied, like, subscribe and hit the notification bell. He read through his denomination’s position paper on the word of faith, which was published in 1980 & said the following, which nails down what I have attempted to do in these seven articles.

“What the Assemblies [of God] is talking about here is faith in God and I would say that even more so today it is more important than it was even 40 years ago because this word of Faith has just burned through especially American Christianity and has just become a cancer to the body of Christ that's just spread you see churches that may have been on the right track and teaching good biblical things and somehow they just get off into this stuff and they just got weird.”

Charles Lewis, Sheep Among Wolves, ‘Should Christians Practise Positive Confession?’ Broadcast March 15^th 2025 (emphasis added). 

If you are a part of the word of faith movement & your eyes are being opened, I implore you to step back from it. I pray that you will be led out of it by The Lord & by looking again at what The Scriptures actually teach. Most importantly, I would encourage you with the wholesome words of our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ; Have Faith In GOD.

 

The End.

 

copyright © by david Samuel Parkins mmxxv all rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the author, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is presented & without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser

 

Have Faith In

GOD

 (based on conversations I have had with professing christians)

-part six-

 

what faith doesn’t:

(or so the bible says)

 

It is The Lord, not the devil, that is in the detail & how often we miss Him completely. I believe that there is nothing in The Scriptures by mistake, nor is there anything so small that it remains insignificant indefinitely. If jots & tittles are important to God, they ought also to be significant to us. However, there are those who willingly & wilfully pass over whatever is there in the plain reading of God’s Word, in order to construct & introduce something entirely alien to the text, for their own purposes. This leads to gross errors & the further along this rocky road we travel, the greater the dangers. Let me give you a prime example, using the second faulty foundation of word of faith rhetoric; the so called confession of faith. “(as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations; according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;  and being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.  And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.” (Romans 4:17-22).

I recommend reading Romans 4 in its entirety, rather than simply being led by the nose into cherry picking verses that are twisted out of all reasonable recognition, after the manner of mainstream word of faith teaching. The answers, are in the texts. However, a selective isolation of verses is necessary for some to attempt to prove the principle that we dismantled in our last meeting; the false premise that faith is a law or force, originally used by God in creation & also known as the God kind of faith. These verses from Romans 4 are then employed by word of faith proponents, in a heavily elasticated attempt at further revealing the nature of the God kind of faith, because according to them, faith “..calleth those things which be not as though they were;” (Romans 4:17b). We are taught to imitate God by doing the same thing as Him. Call those things which be not, as though they were. Speak faith filled words that bring our heart’s desires into reality. Say it & see it. Name it & claim it. Blab it & grab it. Confess it & possess it. The dangerous proximity of this dogma to the new age’s law of attraction is concerning to say the least, but it would seem that some are simply hitting the snooze button & ignoring the alarm. Tut. Tut. Tut.

When we examine the passage in Romans 4, this is not what Paul was teaching at all. There is no such thing being taught here. Please bear with me while we thrash this out.

The cry goes up, “We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;” (2^nd Corinthians 4:13); “A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled. Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” (Proverbs 18:20-21). You see, they say, Scripture clearly teaches this principle of confession. Beginning with our confession of Christ as our Saviour at salvation & continuing on in our walk of faith. “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” (Romans 10:10). We are to confess with our mouths whatever we have come to believe in our hearts. Is this what the Apostle Paul was teaching? Let’s look at the text.

Dissenters will say that the Apostle Paul didn’t know what he was talking about. The glaringly obvious differences between Romans 4 & the original narrative in the book of Genesis cannot be ignored. However in defence of our dear brother, I have to point out that Paul was a distinguished Jewish theologian, making a particular doctrinal point, while discussing a Hebrew construct, to an audience that included gentiles. Your average, common or garden word of faith teacher will not get into this, because explaining what Paul does here theologically will unravel the twisted falsehoods they peddle. Paul is building his contention concerning God’s justification of Abram by faith, apart from the works of the law or circumcision & despite his human failings. We too are justified by faith, apart from the works of the law or circumcision & despite our human failings.

We also have to remember the admonition that The Lord gave to Abram; “I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.” (Genesis 17:1). The Lord Jesus also said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48). Well, thanks be to God for the doctrine of sanctification.

God promised Abram many things. “And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6). The Lord God was his shield. The Lord God was his reward. The Lord God promised him descendants as the number of the stars in the heavens & as the sand of the seashore. The Lord God promised that Abram would be the father of many nations & that kings would come out of him. The Lord God promised him & his descendants the land of Canaan. The Lord God also promised him a son from his own body, through his wife. The Lord God would make His covenant with the lad & his seed after him.

The Lord God was speaking. The Lord God was promising. The Lord God was demonstrating His perfect foreknowledge & Divine Omniscience. It is His eternal perspective, because He is all seeing & all knowing. This is the theological point that Paul is unpacking in Romans 4, seen from God’s eternal viewpoint. However, the rhetoric of modern faith teaching removes God from the centre & places man there. It is you who are in control of your life, destiny & circumstances because it is you who has the power through your confession. Lean in.

“[In Proverbs] chapter 18 verse 21, it says death and life are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat his fruit. Now this particular verse of scripture is an astounding revelation; listen to this; death and life, what else is there that covers the gamut doesn't it? Death and life, but listen to this, listen to this; death and life are not in the power of God. Look at the verse. It doesn't say death and life are in the power of God. It doesn't say death and life are in the power of Jesus. It doesn't say death and life is in the power of The Holy Spirit. It doesn't say death and life is in the power of satan. It says death and life is in the power of the tongue. That's incredible and those who love it will eat its fruit. In other words you're going to eat the fruit of what you speak. death and life. I love that, because it tells me that I am the architect of my own destiny. Now that does not say that God is not in the mix, don't misunderstand me but he made us with free will so we can obey or disobey. We have that choice and He'll allow us to do it. We see it all the time. So He's put principles into His Word that we can take and operate in and through these principles bring about what God intended in the first place for his creation of us; abundant living in every area of life. So he says death and life are in the power of the tongue so that means you can speak death to your life or you can speak life to your life.”

Frederick K. C. Price, The Power of Positive confession, at Faith Christian Center in Arlington, Texas in 2009 (emphasis added).

The thrust behind positive confession is the misplaced belief that because God is a faith God, He confessed creation into existence. The words and God said are lifted from Genesis 1 in order to try & prove this point. Therefore, if we are to be imitators of Him as dear children (Ephesians 5:1) we are to do the same. I am yet to find a single word of faith advocate who has been able to move a single grain of sand with their faith, much less create a universe or move a mountain. Even the leaders of this movement seem to have difficulty fighting off the dentist, optician, doctor, mortician or funeral director. Fred Price himself died in 2021 after succumbing to Covid 19 related complications. Of course, his passing was billed as him deciding to go & be with The Lord after catching a glimpse of glory.

“Faith's confession is always a joyful confession. It confesses that we have the money before it has arrived. It confesses perfect healing while the pain is still in the body. It confesses victory while defeat still holds it captive. Your confession is based upon the living Word. "I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that He is not only able to make good, but He is making good now in my case." When we confess the Word with joy, it brings conviction to the listeners. In Romans 10:10 it says, "For with the heart man believeth ." I like to translate it like this, "For with the heart, man acts on the Word." The heart acts and that drives the lips to confession. A doubting heart is a sense-ruled heart. A fearless confession comes from a Word-ruled heart. The Word dominates their heart life and they speak as did Paul, "I know in whom I have believed."…Paul had a faith-filled, joyous confession. Only a heart that is nourished on the Word can stand in these hard places. When we know that the Word is God speaking to us now, it is not difficult to act upon it.”.

E. W. Kenyon, The Hidden Man; an Unveiling of The Subconscious Mind © 1981 (emphasis added).

Oh dear. If what these men say is true, it would mean that Paul failed miserably in living up to his own teachings. He made several bad confessions, saying, “And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.” (1^st Corinthians 2:3) & “For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” (1^st Corinthians 15:10) & “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;” (Ephesians 3:8) & “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” (1^st Timothy 1:15) & “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Romans 7:24). Yet Paul claimed to have kept the faith. “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:” (2^nd Timothy 4:7). He fought. He finished. He was faithful.

This is the same Apostle who admonished the Romans not to think of themselves more highly that they ought to. “For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith” (Romans 12:3).

Perhaps Paul knew something that the modern Church has conveniently forgotten or deliberately ignored. Let’s return to our example of true faith; our father, Abram.

¹And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. ² And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. ³ And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. ⁴ Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. ⁵ And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. ⁶ And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. ⁷ And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? ⁸ And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. ⁹ And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. ¹⁰ And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹ And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. ¹² And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. (Genesis 22:1-12).

Do we see Abram utilising confession for possession here? Surely the father of the faith would have left us evidence of this principle in action, wouldn’t he? Between Abram believing God & his act of faithfulness in being willing to sacrifice Isaac, there were one or two significant occurrences. In Genesis 15, Abram believed God & was justified by faith. In Genesis 16, he goes into Hagar & produces Ishmael. In Genesis 17, The Lord changes his name & he receives the sign of circumcision. Abram becomes Abraham. In Genesis 18, The Lord appears to Abraham & informs him of His intentions concerning the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah. In Genesis 19, he rescues his nephew Lot from sin city. In Genesis 20 Abraham encounters Abimalech & lies to the king about Sarah being his wife, in order to save his skin. In Genesis 21, Sarah conceives & gives birth to Isaac. Our father Abraham had been a busy boy. Yet throughout his ventures, Abraham wasn’t confessing, naming, claiming or saying. God said it. God promised it. God did it. Ultimately, by the time we get to Genesis 22, we see that Abraham has moved to a place in faith, of unquestioning obedience to his God.

¹ Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God, ² (which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) ³ concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh; ⁴ and declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead: ⁵ by whom we have received grace and apostleship, for obedience to the faith among all nations, for his name: (Romans 1:1-5).

²⁵ Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, ²⁶ but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith: (Romans 16:25-26).

Do not be tempted to think that you can simply confess, name, claim, say, see, declare or decree your way into or out of anything in this life. It is a lie that appeals to the desperate & the delusional. I have seen both. Abraham’s faith grew out of the relationship he had with The Lord. This went beyond what had been said to him. It also embraced the faithfulness of He Who had said it. Abraham had faith in God & that faith produced the obedience that underpinned & drove his actions. If you want to walk in faith as Abraham did, let’s see your submission & devotion.

⁷ Art not thou our God, who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel, and gavest it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever? (2^nd Chronicles 20:7).

⁸ But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend (Isaiah 41:8).

²³ And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. (James 2:23).

There was no law, therefore there was no legalism. There was no circumcision, therefore there was no obligation. Faith is our loving response to a loving God, not a system or formula. I have of course heard the objection that it is our confession that Jesus takes before The Father & we are encouraged to do the same because of our covenant rights. “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;” (Hebrews 3:1). However, these verses speak of our personal profession of Christ as our Saviour, not the misguided belief that The Lord Jesus takes whatever we have been naming, claiming, saying, seeing, declaring & decreeing, before God as our covenant representative, while we exercise the God kind of faith. What utter nonsense. This is not the example of faith set out for us in The Scriptures.

Romans 4 does not end with verse twenty two. The Apostle Paul continues, saying, ^“Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; ²⁵ who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” (Romans 4:23-25). The justification by faith of all who believe is what is being taught. Calling those things which be not as though they were, is a simple & straightforward description of what God did & can do, because He is The Lord. It is not the principle of positive confession that the word of faith message teaches. It was God Who said these things, not Abram. It was God Who made these promises, not the patriarch. It was God Who declared, decreed & ordained these things, not man. If we are to imitate God, as some say, then let’s see them raise the dead, because our text tells us that it is God Who “..who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.” (Romans 4:17b).

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, ¹⁸ of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: ¹⁹ accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure (Hebrews 11:17-19).

With these truths in view, we can see just how ludicrous word of faith assertions are. As I have said; The Lord God was speaking. The Lord God was promising. The Lord God was demonstrating His foreknowledge & Divine Omniscience. It is His perspective, because He is all seeing & all knowing. Furthermore, our text from Romans 4 clearly states that it is “..God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were (Romans 4:17b).

If we are meant to imitate God by doing & saying the same thing as Him, then that would mean that we can also call non-existent things into being. But this is not what Paul is teaching us here. It is The Lord, not the devil, that is in the detail.

⁸ And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. ⁹ So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham. (Galatians 3:8-9).

In our next & final visitation of the topic of faith, we will address what is perhaps the most abused passage of Scripture that word of faith leaders handle. It is a flagrant abuse of the teaching of The Lord Jesus Christ, devoid of any knowledge of what, in my opinion, is probably the pinnacle of our Saviour's demonstration of & teaching on faith. Of course, I’m speaking of Mark 11:22-24.

 

End of Part Six

 

 

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