TDQ - thediscernerquarterly

Faith Beyond

The Word of Faith

From disillusionment to deeper discipleship

10th anniversary

Guest article

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As promised late last year, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of this little blog, we will be publishing several guest articles written by individuals that I have come to know & trust. One such person is Pastor Chuck Lewis of Tularosa Community Church in New Mexico, USA. I found his YouTube channel while I was looking for something else & the rest, as they say, is history. Please take your time to read through this excellent piece & avail yourself of the links provided for the work Chuck is doing. There will also be a video presentation of this work available soon. I will add a link when it is. TDQ.

Hello and welcome, my name is Chuck, and this is my story about entering and exciting the Word of Faith Movement. Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!

DISCLAIMER

To some, it may seem as though I am angry at the people mentioned in the following article or even upset that I am in a wheelchair and that God has not healed me. I want to assure you that the individuals I reference—especially those from the Word of Faith church I once attended—were like family to me. I care for them deeply and would never intentionally portray them in a negative light. However, truth can sometimes be difficult to hear. Even so, I will do my best to present the truth in love.

Please understand that if there appears to be any anger, bitterness, or resentment in what follows, it is directed solely toward the false teaching of the Word of Faith movement—which is a cancer in the body of Christ—not to the people with whom I shared my experiences or towards God.

DEFINING TERMS

Today, I want to share my experience within the Positive Confession and Word of Faith Movement. Before I do, it’s important to define what I mean by these terms so we’re all on the same page:

1. The Positive Confession movement is a specific teaching that emphasizes the power of spoken words to create reality.

a. The Positive Confession movement emphasizes spoken faith as a creative force that can bring about healing, prosperity, and success. While it has shaped much of modern charismatic and prosperity teaching, it has also been widely criticized for distorting biblical doctrine and placing undue blame on believers who suffer.

2. The Word of Faith movement is a broader theological system that incorporates positive confession along with prosperity gospel, healing, and metaphysical influences. In short, positive confession is a doctrine within the larger Word of Faith movement.

a. Think of Positive Confession as the engine (spoken faith creates reality), while the Word of Faith movement is the vehicle that carries prosperity gospel, healing, and metaphysical influences. One is a doctrine; the other is a movement built around it.

As you can see, the two terms are closely connected, and for that reason, I consider it appropriate to use Positive Confession Movement and Word of Faith Movement interchangeably when describing their shared theological framework and overlapping doctrinal emphasis.

THE POSITIVE CONFESSION MOVEMENT AND ITS INFILTRATION OF CHRISTIANITY

While I reference a Word of Faith church I once belonged to, it’s important to understand that Word of Faith and Positive Confession are not denominations. They are theological movements within charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity. Think of the Word of Faith movement as the broader system, and Positive Confession as a core doctrine within that system. Neither has a central governing body or formal membership, yet both have significantly influenced independent charismatic churches around the world.

NECESSARY CLARIFICATION

Although these teachings are most commonly associated with charismatic and Pentecostal circles, their influence is not limited to those traditions. Positive Confession and Word of Faith theology can infiltrate any branch of Christianity willing to accept their assumptions. While charismatic and Pentecostal churches may be more susceptible due to their emphasis on spiritual gifts and experiential faith, any church lacking biblical discernment can find itself adopting these ideas.

In this sense, the spread of these doctrines is like a theological cancer—quietly embedding itself wherever vigilance is absent, reshaping the gospel into something it was never meant to be.

THE ASSEMBLIES OF GOD OFFICIAL STANCE AGAINST POSITIVE CONFESSION

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

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

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

—Assemblies of God. The Believer and Positive Confession. Position Paper. General Presbytery of the Assemblies of God, 1980. Assemblies of God,

https://ag.org/-/media/AGORG/Beliefs/Position-Papers/pp_4183_confession.pdf

Hold onto that thought, because before we go any further, I need to take you back to where this journey began…

WHERE MY STORY STARTS

I was born in 1986 with a birth defect called Spina Bifida, a condition in which the spine and spinal cord do not form properly. It results from a combination of factors—most notably insufficient folate during pregnancy. Because of this, I was left paralyzed from the waist down and have used a wheelchair my entire life.

When I talk about the Positive Confession movement, I speak as someone who understands why its promises sound so appealing at first. I also speak as someone who has seen, firsthand, the deep damage those teachings can cause.

I grew up in charismatic circles. My parents are both Christians, and from an early age I learned the value of church life and Christian community. But woven into those years are experiences I wish I could forget—moments shaped by teachings that promised more than they delivered. Let me share a few of those experiences with you, so you can better understand where I’m coming from and how I arrived here…

WHOSE SIN CAUSED THIS? At my first church—an Assembly of God congregation—my parents were told that my birth defect was the result of their sin. My dad was twenty‑seven, my mom twenty‑four, and they were already trying to navigate the shock of my diagnosis. No one could name a specific sin, of course. It was more of a vague accusation wrapped in spiritual language.

Looking back, I can’t help but think that the people who said such things could trace their theological lineage straight back to Job’s friends, who confidently blamed suffering on hidden wrongdoing without understanding the heart of God.

The claim that a child’s disability is caused by the parents’ sin is not only theologically unfounded — it is directly corrected by Jesus. When the disciples asked about a man born blind, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”, Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned… This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him.” (John 9:2–3, CSB).

Jesus dismantles the assumption that suffering is always tied to personal sin. Scripture teaches that while suffering exists because of the fall, individual affliction is not automatically divine punishment. Job’s friends made this same error — confidently assigning blame without knowledge — and God rebuked them for not speaking truthfully about Him.

A biblical worldview recognizes that people with disabilities are not objects of suspicion or blame but image‑bearers through whom God often displays His strength and grace. The question Scripture leads us to ask is never “Who sinned?” but “How will God be glorified in this?”

CHARLES WILL WALK: My dad attended the Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship breakfast every Saturday during my childhood (and still does from time to time even now). At these meetings, everyone would write a prayer request on a small slip of paper—about the size of a Post‑it note—and exchange them so no one would forget to pray for one another.

On one of those slips, my dad wrote, “Charles will walk.” He kept that little piece of paper tucked in his wallet for years. Eventually, he showed it to me and told me he still believed God was going to heal me.

Looking back now, I know it was completely outside my control, but as a kid, I remember feeling a strange sense of responsibility—as if I somehow needed to make it happen so my dad wouldn’t be disappointed.

The desire for healing and wholeness is real, and Scripture encourages believers to pray boldly. But assuming that God has promised a specific healing goes beyond what the Bible actually teaches. Faith is not a force we use to make God act; it is trust in God’s character, not in a guaranteed outcome.

The apostle Paul prayed repeatedly for his “thorn in the flesh” to be removed, yet God answered, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is perfected in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9, CSB). Paul’s experience shows that unanswered prayers for healing are not signs of weak faith but opportunities for God’s power to be displayed in unexpected ways.

A biblical view of healing recognizes that God can heal, God sometimes does heal, but God is never obligated to heal according to our expectations. True faith is measured not by whether a miracle occurs, but by whether we trust God’s goodness and sovereignty regardless of the outcome.

A WORD FROM THE LORD: In 1995, after leaving our first Assembly of God church in ’93 and spending about a year at a Nazarene church, my mom and grandma (who lived with us) began taking my siblings and me to another AG church about thirteen miles away. At that time, my dad was still attending the original AG church.

I still remember our first visit. It was an evening prayer service, and the sanctuary was mostly dark except for a few dim lights. People were scattered throughout the room—some praying at the altar, others tucked into corners. It didn’t take long before a woman approached me saying she “had a word from the Lord.” According to her, I was going to be healed.

This was one of the earliest—though far from the last—times someone claimed to have a word for me. Even complete strangers in public would approach me with visions or dreams of me walking. At first, I remember thinking, Great, sign me up. But as the years went on and more people came with their prophecies and promises, I found myself growing increasingly skeptical and wary of anyone who wanted to share a “word” with me.

Experiences like these reveal a common problem in certain charismatic environments: the belief that God is constantly giving individualized prophecies about healing. While Scripture affirms that God can speak and that He can heal, it also warns believers to test every message rather than accept it automatically. The apostle John writes, “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God” (1 John 4:1, CSB). Not every “word” someone claims to receive is from the Lord.

Furthermore, Scripture never portrays healing prophecies as something delivered casually by strangers in dim sanctuaries or grocery store aisles. In fact, Paul warns the church about those who speak confidently without true authority, saying they are “puffed up with empty notions” (Colossians 2:18, CSB). Claims of visions and dreams must be weighed carefully, not embraced automatically.

THANK GOD FOR SHOES: There were also more dramatic moments, like the time another woman at that same AG church bought me a pair of men’s size 7 shoes because she believed God had told her that if I thanked Him for my healing every day, I would soon be healed, able to walk, and eventually wear them. I remember my mom placing the shoes on a shelf in my closet where I could see them. For a while—I don’t remember exactly how long—she would ask questions like, “Did you thank God for your healing today?” or “Do you feel any different?”

Not wanting to be a Doubting Thomas, I always answered positively. This continued for some time, but eventually my mom stopped bringing it up, and I just wanted to forget the whole thing. Years later, when my younger brother grew big enough to wear the shoes, my mom asked if I would mind him having them.

The idea that healing can be guaranteed through repeated thanksgiving or ritual acts—like thanking God daily until the miracle comes—is not supported by Scripture. While the Bible does call believers to give thanks in all circumstances, it never teaches that gratitude is a formula to force God’s hand. Paul writes, “Give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18, CSB). Gratitude is commanded, but it is an expression of trust, not a mechanism to secure healing.

The danger of this teaching is that it shifts the focus from God’s sovereignty to human effort. It implies that if healing does not come, the fault lies with the sufferer’s lack of thanksgiving or faith.

Promises like “you will walk if you thank God every day” place an unbearable burden on the one suffering. They turn faith into performance and gratitude into a transaction. But biblical faith rests not in formulas or rituals, but in the unchanging character of God. True thanksgiving is not about manipulating outcomes—it is about trusting God’s goodness whether healing comes or not.

I think it’s fair to mention that the pastor and leadership at this AG church were not like the individuals I’ve described. They did not preach or teach that divine healing is always God’s will from the pulpit. In fact, as best as I can remember, when there were altar calls or special times of prayer, they prayed biblically—asking God to bring healing according to His will. They also never gave strange or mystical instructions to people about how to receive healing. The stories I’ve shared here came from individuals within the congregation. While this article is not simply about my experiences of people telling me I was going to be healed, those moments are significant. As I mentioned earlier, they help you better understand where I’m coming from and how I arrived at this point. With that in mind, I’ll share two more experiences that I believe are especially important…

SILVER & GOLD: This particular experience took place in 2009. By then, I had been part of the Word of Faith church with my younger brother and sister for about seven years. However, this account happened during a youth meeting at the second Assembly of God church I attended. At the time, I had recently been placed in a youth ministry role at the Word of Faith church and was also assisting the youth pastor at the AG church.

We hadn’t been there very long—people were just arriving—when my sister announced, “God said that if we pray for you, you will be healed tonight.” Now, I should pause here to clarify: it may sound like I don’t believe in healing, but I do. I believe that God can and does heal people today. Whether He chooses to heal or not, however, is entirely His decision.

So, I agreed to let them pray. I don’t know how long the prayer session lasted—it felt like an eternity. There was speaking in tongues, laying on of hands, decreeing, and declaring. Finally, they tried to “silver and gold” me by pulling me up out of my wheelchair to make me stand (did I mention I can’t stand?). At that point, my brother stepped in and said, “Y’all need to stop. If God wants to heal him, He can. But you aren’t doing anything.”

Even now, writing about it years later, I can still remember the sense of shame and embarrassment I felt when it was all over.

The practice of forcing a healing moment—whether through decreeing, declaring, or physically pulling someone from a wheelchair—reflects a misunderstanding of both faith and God’s sovereignty. Scripture never teaches that healing can be manufactured by human effort or ritual. Instead, believers are called to pray with trust, leaving the outcome in God’s hands. James writes, “The prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up” (James 5:15, CSB). Notice that it is the Lord who raises up, not the intensity of the prayer or the actions of the people.

When healing does not occur, Word of Faith and Positive Confession theology often shifts the blame onto the sick person, implying they lacked faith. Yet this is precisely the error Jesus corrected in John 9. Suffering is not automatically a sign of unbelief or failure. To insist otherwise is to place burdens on the suffering that Scripture never places there.

ANOINTING WITH OIL: Sometime later—I don’t remember exactly when—my sister called and told me, “God said that if I come over and anoint your feet with olive oil, He’s going to heal you.” At that point, I replied, “God hasn’t told me anything about this, so I think I’m good.”

The idea that God guarantees healing through a specific ritual—like anointing with olive oil—is a distortion of what Scripture teaches.

The danger of claims like “God told me if I anoint you, you’ll be healed” is that they shift authority away from Scripture and onto personal impressions. Furthermore, healing is always subject to God’s sovereign will.

I should clarify here that I do believe God can, at times, speak to others regarding you. For example, Nathan confronted David about his sin in 2 Samuel 12, and Agabus warned Paul about what lay ahead in Acts 21. However, not in the way I’ve seen it practiced or claimed in the instances I described earlier. This whole trend of personal prophecy really needs to stop, because it is not biblical and often causes harm to the person being “prophesied” to. So, when I say that I believe God can sometimes speak to others about you, let me give a couple of examples of what I mean…

SHOULD I GO TO BIBLE SCHOOL? When I started attending the church where I now serve as an associate pastor, God began leading me to pursue formal biblical education. At the time, my brother and I were taking IT classes at the local college. I shared my thoughts with both my brother and my pastor, and they agreed that it was the right step for me to take. I believe it is not only biblical but also practical to seek godly wisdom from godly people. I’m convinced that God often confirms things with them that He has already been dealing with in your own heart.

EXTREME URGENCY: I have had several instances where God has given me dreams or a strong sense of urgency concerning other people and situations in their lives. When I approach them, I usually don’t have specifics—I simply share the warning from my dreams and the urgency I’m feeling.

The first time this happened, I didn’t tell the person, and things went very badly. Another time, I did warn someone, but they continued on with what they were doing, and again the outcome was very bad. Toward the end of my time in the Word of Faith church, I had a dream and approached the pastor, but he didn’t listen. Later, after everything unfolded, I learned that two other people had also had dreams and tried to warn him.

A more recent situation was drawn out, beginning in late November and continuing through March of the following year. I was woken up in the middle of the night to pray for this person, I kept having dreams about them, and I even began experiencing panic attacks during the day. I warned them on three different occasions, and finally, after the last warning, they conceded and turned away from what they were doing. I know that if they hadn’t, their life would have been completely ruined.

I want to emphasize that God was already dealing with these individuals. In these cases, I was simply the one confirming what He was telling them. So, it wasn’t as though I was approaching them with a “special word from the Lord” when they had no idea what was happening—they did. And while only one of these situations turned out well, I have resolved that whenever I have these kinds of dreams or a sense of urgency, I will warn the person involved.

MY INTRODUCTION TO THE WORD OF FAITH MOVEMENT

My younger siblings and I (I was 16, they were 12) started attending The Cross Family Worship Center in 2002. It was a small church that met in a couple of rooms at our local community center, just down the street from where we lived. We were initially invited by my cousin when the country/western band he was part of played a concert there one Sunday morning. However, we stayed after learning they had a Wednesday night youth group.

At that time, the AG church we had been part of for seven years didn’t have anyone under 40. We lovingly referred to it as “The Old Folks Home.” Our mom agreed to let us start going to The Cross, but she required us to explain to our current pastor why we were leaving. They understood, and we made the change.

I want to reiterate that this AG church played a significant role in our early upbringing, and we thought the world of the pastor and his wife. It wasn’t as though we shut the door and never looked back. In fact, we visited from time to time, and as I mentioned earlier, I even helped with their youth ministry once I became involved in youth ministry myself (more on that later).

I would soon discover that The Cross was a Word of Faith church. Up to that point, I had never heard of the Word of Faith Movement, and whatever they were didn’t really matter to me. Over the next ten years, The Cross Family Worship Center became home. This was especially important for my brother, sister, and me when our actual home fell apart during our parents’ divorce. Around this time, our grandma—who lived with us throughout my entire childhood until I moved out—began attending with us as well. Even when the church changed buildings (and towns), it remained home, and these people became family. But no family is without its problems.

THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET WEIRD

As we begin looking at the progressively strange and twisted teachings that took place, I think it’s important to emphasize that they were indeed progressive. I’ve found this to be true in most situations where false teaching and unusual ideas are introduced; if they hit you with the heavy stuff all at once, you’d likely run away and never return. Instead, it comes gradually, step by step.

Before going further, I should tell you a little about the pastor and his wife. Pastor Jeff and his wife Teresa were both graduates of Rhema Bible Training Center, Kenneth Hagin’s Word of Faith school in Oklahoma. Jeff had grown up Lutheran but left the church, becoming entangled in drugs, alcohol, and trouble with the law before turning his life around. Teresa came from a primarily Catholic background.

Now, Jeff and Teresa were not like many of the Word of Faith teachers you see today—the ones flying in private jets and living in multi‑million‑dollar mansions—they didn’t manipulate us into “sowing seed” so they could live in luxury while we lived in poverty. When we first started attending, Jeff was working at UPS, and Teresa was raising Australian Shepherds as their means to livelihood. While they taught “divine prosperity,” they worked hard for what they had and trusted God to provide.

The primary focus of Jeff’s teaching centered on health, healing, and speaking the Word over yourself. He often shared how God had delivered him from his addictions. He also told of a time when Teresa suffered a mental breakdown and crippling anxiety, and how, when she began confessing the Word over herself, that’s when her freedom came. This testimony deeply impressed me and influenced me to begin speaking the Word over myself concerning my own healing.

As I mentioned, Jeff and Teresa were Rhema graduates, and that teaching spearheaded much of their ministry. Jeff’s sermons were chock‑full of stories about “Dad” Hagin, John G. Lake, Smith Wigglesworth, and other “men of faith” who had embraced the Word of Faith message and, in his telling, transformed their lives and the lives of others. He also spoke of miraculous events he had witnessed at Rhema’s Winter Bible Seminar—how ushers would begin running around the building and people would suddenly start getting healed. Jeff even brought people from Rhema to our church to spark revival, increase our faith, and jumpstart the miraculous. Allow me to share some of those experiences…

HOLY LAUGHTER: The first guest speaker brought in was Marty Blackwelder, a key figure in Kenneth Hagin Ministries during the 1990s and early 2000s, serving in music, teaching, and pastoral roles. Marty visited The Cross twice, and his main message was centered on “Holy Laughter.” He would take verses such as “The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10) and “A joyful heart is good medicine” (Proverbs 17:22) and build the doctrine of “holy laughter” or “laughing in the Spirit.”

He sang what he called “Christian drinking songs,” with lyrics like: Ha, ha, ha, ho, ho, ho, hey, Mr. Devil get out of my way. Ha, ha, ha, ho, ho, ho, hey, I rebuke you and you cannot stay.

Marty told stories about how laughing in the Spirit supposedly produced miracles. For example, he claimed that when he and his wife were unable to have children, they lay on the bed together and laughed at the devil, and that this resulted in her becoming pregnant. He also taught that if you couldn’t laugh in the Spirit, you simply needed to “laugh by faith”—in other words, fake it until you make it.

By the end of his services, Marty often had the entire church laughing. However, I believe this had very little to do with the Spirit and much more to do with Marty himself and the power of suggestion.

The doctrine of “holy laughter” misuses Scripture by taking verses about joy and twisting them into a ritualized practice that Scripture never commands. While the Bible affirms joy as a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), it never teaches that forced laughter produces healing, miracles, or spiritual breakthroughs.

For example, Nehemiah told the people, “Do not grieve, because the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10, CSB). This joy was rooted in their renewed understanding of God’s Word, not in manufactured laughter. Likewise, Proverbs says, “A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones” (Proverbs 17:22, CSB). The verse describes the benefits of a cheerful disposition, not a command to laugh by faith or “fake it until you make it.”

The danger of teachings like “holy laughter” is that they substitute emotional manipulation for genuine spiritual transformation. Paul warned against empty practices that distract from Christ: “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elements of the world, rather than Christ” (Colossians 2:8, CSB).

True joy comes from the Spirit’s work in the heart, not from staged rituals. Jesus Himself said, “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete” (John 15:11, CSB). That joy flows from abiding in Him, not from laughing exercises.

DIVINE HEALING: The second Rhema man they brought in was Jim Hockaday, a central figure in Kenneth Hagin Ministries during the late 1980s through the early 2000s. His leadership in music and healing ministry helped shape Rhema’s emphasis on prayer and faith. At the time he visited The Cross, he was teaching at Rhema’s Healing School. As Jeff promoted Jim before his arrival, he shared numerous stories about the great healings that had taken place under his ministry. Jeff expected to see the same kind of miraculous events at our church that he had witnessed at Rhema—and, of course, we were told we needed to be “in faith” for this to happen.

Needless to say, I was excited. A genuine faith‑healer—maybe he could heal me! As the time approached for his arrival, there was a buzz of anticipation in the air. When Jim finally came, I had all the faith one could possibly have that something miraculous was going to happen and that I would be healed. I remember being one of the first to go up for prayer. Jim asked the usual questions: “Do you want to be healed?” “Do you believe God can heal you?” Then he prayed…and nothing happened.

That’s when he said, “Sometimes God heals instantaneously, and at other times He heals progressively.” He then told me that I was healed and needed to continue standing on that fact until it fully manifested. In other words, Jim had done his part, God had done His part, and now it was up to me.

Over the years, I’ve seen this pattern repeated countless times, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s nothing more than a way out for the “faith‑healer.” Not that God couldn’t heal me—that’s not what I mean. I have seen God perform truly miraculous things in my life concerning my health, and I know that I would be dead if not for His intervention. But when you teach that it is always God’s will to heal, and healing doesn’t occur, someone has to be blamed. And inevitably, the blame is shifted onto the sick person: You don’t have enough faith to receive your healing!

I can’t begin to describe how I felt after this event—embarrassed, hurt, confused… all of those words fit. I also had many questions: “How long was it going to take?” “What if I accidentally lost it?” “Could I keep ‘standing in faith’?”

The following Wednesday night at youth group, I remember the youth pastor being very excited, telling everyone that I had been healed. It didn’t take long, however, for people to start acting as though it had never happened. No one mentioned Jim or my supposed healing again after that.

The next thing that really began to change the direction of the church was the Florida Outpouring. The Florida Outpouring, also known as the Lakeland Revival, was a NAR revival that erupted in Lakeland, Florida, in April 2008 under the leadership of Todd Bentley. Originally planned as a one‑week event at Ignited Church, it quickly expanded into nightly gatherings that drew thousands of attendees and millions of viewers worldwide through satellite broadcasts and online streaming.

The revival was marked by intense worship, claims of miraculous healings, and Bentley’s dramatic preaching style, which created a highly charged atmosphere resembling a rock concert. While many participants testified to personal renewal and supernatural experiences, the movement became controversial due to questions about accountability, theology, and Bentley’s later personal scandals. By August 2008, the revival collapsed, leaving behind a mixed legacy—celebrated by some as a powerful move of God, but criticized by others (myself included) as a cautionary tale of excess and lack of oversight.

Now, one might ask, “How did a revival in Florida affect a church in New Mexico?” Well, my friend, I’m glad you asked…

REVIVAL BY SATELLITE: Initially, Jeff and Teresa had been watching GOD‑TV at home when the Florida Outpouring began, but they felt very strongly that everyone in the church needed to see what was happening. After all, it might spark revival in New Mexico. The only problem was that not everyone had a way to watch it. That’s when Jeff decided to move his satellite dish to the church so it could serve as a hosting site for the revival.

GOD‑TV was streaming the events live, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, indefinitely—and our church was watching. In fact, normal church services were even postponed in favor of watching the Outpouring.

ROAD-TRIP TO REVIVAL: During the Florida Outpouring, Jeff and Teresa, along with the associate pastor Bill and his wife Kim, and a few other congregation members, decided that watching via the live stream wasn’t enough. They traveled to Florida to experience the revival in person. Meanwhile, those of us who couldn’t make the trip eagerly awaited their report when they returned home.

It seemed at the time that God was truly doing something in and through the Florida Outpouring. But as you and I know, appearances can be deceiving. In hindsight—always 20/20—it became clear that it wasn’t God at work, but the enemy gaining a foothold. When Jeff and the others returned, that’s when things really began to change…

EXPECTATIONS RAISED: During the Florida Outpouring, there were claims of supernatural manifestations such as gold dust, angel feathers, and other unusual signs. These reports were circulated among attendees and promoted by some leaders, though they lacked any verifiable evidence. When those who had gone—and supposedly experienced some of these things—returned, they fully expected to see the same manifestations at our church. I remember a couple of examples in particular. One involved Ms. Kim, our associate pastor’s wife, getting very excited about some “gold dust” she found on the pew while cleaning. My brother and I reminded her that the woman who had been sitting there on Sunday was wearing a very sparkly dress. Another incident involved a stranger with a shofar. During a Sunday morning service, a woman who had never attended before walked in during worship, pulled a large ram’s horn out of her purse, and began blowing it. Of course, those of us who saw what was happening knew exactly what the noise was, but others who didn’t see assumed that angels were singing with us.

While these were more comical examples of the changes that began to take place, one thing I especially notice now, looking back, is this: as expectations rose, spiritual discernment diminished.

THE NEW NORMAL: One of the things Jeff often spoke about during my time at the church was his frustration with what he called “old, dead religion.” When the Florida Outpouring ended, he determined that he would not return to the way things had been before. One of the major shifts we saw came in the form of our worship services. While in Florida, Jeff had picked up several worship DVDs from Jesus Culture and Bethel Church in Redding, California, and these were now played for an hour before every service.

He also began talking frequently about Bill Johnson (whom I had never heard of) and the things happening at Bethel. Jeff introduced Bethel’s Offering Declarations, which were recited before collecting tithes and offerings at each service. He even held a meeting to go over Bethel’s leadership policies, stating that we needed to begin implementing them in our own church.

I believe Jeff had one goal in mind at this point: to make us into a little Bethel. The “old, dead ways” were gone. Things would never be the same. This was the new normal.

Jeff’s rejection of what he called “old, dead religion” and his embrace of practices imported from Bethel and Jesus Culture reflects a dangerous tendency: replacing the simplicity of biblical worship with man made innovations and emotional experiences. Scripture warns against this kind of shift.

True worship is centered on Christ, not atmosphere—Jesus said, “An hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth. Yes, the Father wants such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth” (John 4:23 24, CSB). Worship is not about creating a concert like environment or importing trends from other movements—it is about Spirit led truth grounded in God’s Word.

Offering declarations distort biblical giving—Paul instructed believers, “Each person should do as he has decided in his heart—not reluctantly or out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7, CSB). Biblical giving flows from the heart, not from reciting scripted declarations designed to manipulate expectation.

Leadership policies must be tested by Scripture—The Bereans were commended because they “examined the Scriptures every day to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11, CSB). Importing leadership structures from Bethel without testing them against Scripture risks building a church culture on human vision rather than God’s Word.

Beware of chasing novelty—Paul warned Timothy, “For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine, but, according to their own desires, will multiply teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear what they want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3, CSB). The pursuit of “new experiences” often leads away from sound doctrine and toward spiritual deception.

The gospel itself is timeless, and true worship is not dead—it is alive wherever Christ is exalted in Spirit and truth. The danger of movements like Bethel is that they elevate atmosphere, declarations, and imported policies above Scripture. The church must guard against replacing God’s Word with human innovation, remembering that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8, CSB).

KEEPING THE VISION: Not only was Jeff introducing and implementing new things, but he also began opposing and objecting to certain practices. Remember I mentioned that in 2009 I took over as the youth leader? And that my brother and I were helping with the youth ministry at our old church on Sunday nights? Well, word got back to Jeff, and needless to say, he wasn’t happy about it. To clarify, I wasn’t hiding it from him—I honestly didn’t think it was worth mentioning.

Jeff sat my brother and me down one Sunday morning to find out what we were doing. We explained, and that’s when he told us it was a very bad idea. He said he wouldn’t outright forbid us from helping anymore, but he was strongly against it and essentially all‑but forbade it. His reasoning was, “They don’t have the same vision as us.”

This was also around the time I joined the worship team and my brother started running sound. Throughout my time in the church, Jeff frequently expressed his disdain for the hymn Amazing Grace because of the line, “that saved a wretch like me.” He would emphatically state, “I’m not a wretch. I’m the righteousness of God in Christ.” He also disliked the phrase “Take care,” insisting, “I’m not going to take care. I don’t have to take care. Because Jesus said He would take my cares.”

These weren’t the only phrases he took issue with. When I incorporated the song Blessed Be Your Name into our Sunday morning worship, he erupted. He called the worship team together and told us we were never to sing that song again—and if we did, he would remove us from the team. His objection was to the line, “You give and take away.” Jeff insisted, “God only gives. He doesn’t take away. That’s Satan who takes away.”

All of this was tied to “keeping the vision of the church.” But I was beginning to realize that I could no longer follow or agree with the vision of this church.

Jeff’s objections to hymns, phrases, and practices reveal a distortion of biblical truth. While he claimed to be “keeping the vision of the church,” his reasoning often contradicted Scripture and undermined the humility and discernment that should characterize Christian worship.

Rejecting “Amazing Grace” and the word “wretch”—The hymn Amazing Grace reflects the biblical reality of human sinfulness. Paul wrote, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, CSB). Before Christ, we are indeed wretches—helpless sinners in need of grace. Even after salvation, believers are called to remember what they were rescued from: “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1, CSB). To deny that reality is to minimize the depth of God’s mercy.

Misusing “Take care”—Jeff’s rejection of the phrases like “take care” was based on a misunderstanding of Scripture. While it is true that believers are called to cast their cares on Christ, Peter writes, “Cast all your cares on him, because he cares about you” (1 Peter 5:7, CSB). This does not mean Christians should avoid the language of care altogether. In fact, Paul commended Timothy because he would “genuinely care about your interests” (Philippians 2:20, CSB). And caring for others is a biblical virtue, not something to be dismissed.

Rejecting “You give and take away”—The line Jeff opposed in Blessed Be Your Name comes directly from Scripture. Job declared, “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21, CSB). To deny that God sometimes takes away is to deny His sovereignty. While Satan may afflict, Scripture is clear that God permits and governs all things according to His purposes (Job 2:6). Removing this truth from worship distorts the biblical picture of God’s authority.

Restricting ministry based on “vision”—Jeff’s insistence that they “don’t have the same vision” contradicts the unity of the body of Christ. Paul wrote, “For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12, CSB). Churches may differ in style, but they share one Lord, one faith, and one baptism (Ephesians 4:5). To forbid cooperation undermines the unity Christ prayed for in John 17.

Jeff’s objections reveal a pattern of elevating personal preference and “vision” above Scripture. By rejecting biblical truths about sin, care, God’s sovereignty, and the unity of the church, he substituted human reasoning for divine revelation.

FAITH BEYOND THE WORD OF FAITH

During my time at The Cross Family Worship Center and within the Word of Faith movement, I struggled…

HELP MY UNBELIEF: First, I struggled with having enough faith. Jeff often spoke about how the power of confessing the Word had changed his and Teresa’s lives, and I desperately wanted that to be true in mine as well. So, I followed the formula they presented: I spoke the Word over myself, I thanked God for my healing, I decreed and declared that I was healed, and I sowed money into ministry in faith, believing I would receive my healing. I even convinced myself that God had told me He was going to heal me—that it was going to happen.

And yet, nothing changed. The only conclusion I could draw was that the problem was me. I didn’t have enough faith. How much more did I need? What if I gave up and my healing was only a day away? I was torn. I thought I had enough faith—after all, I knew God could heal me. But did I truly believe He would heal me? “Lord, help my unbelief!”

SOMETHING I COULD NO LONGER IGNORE: During all of this decreeing and declaring—hearing about the supposed power of our words and the power of positive confession—I kept having a nagging feeling that something wasn’t right. At times, it almost seemed as though this “positive confession” was less about faith and more like trying to cast magic spells.

One thing those who have never been part of this movement may not realize is that Word of Faith pastors talk about the Bible a lot and quote Scripture often, but most of the time they are pulling isolated verses (for example, “By His stripes I am healed”) out of their true biblical context. I discovered this for myself as I began studying the Bible in preparation for sermons. There it was, plain as day—I could not ignore the context of Scripture. The problem was, the more I understood the context, the more the Word of Faith teachings began to unravel right before my eyes.

STRUGGLING TO STAY: Over the next few years, I grew increasingly restless in my spirit. The deeper I went into the Word, the less I found myself agreeing with the teachings of the Word of Faith. These people were my family, and I loved them, but I could no longer ignore the reality that something was wrong. I never doubted God—I knew Christianity was true, and I had no desire to walk away from the faith. But I became convinced that there were teachings and theologies I needed to separate myself from.

A FOUNDATION BUILT ON SAND: Looking back, I can see God’s hand in all of this. I can see how He led me into the Word of Faith movement, and how He ultimately led me out of it. Jeff eventually left his job at UPS and began working in a civil service position flying helicopters. In April of 2012, he informed us that he would be going to Afghanistan for six weeks, returning sometime in late May or early June. In Jeff’s absence, people began leaving the church, and it was very noticeable. Around August, Teresa decided that something needed to be done. She called a secret meeting, blamed the departures on the associate pastor, Bill, and fired him.

Teresa initially wanted me to step in as associate, but I told her I was not going to do that. Instead, it was decided that some of us would take turns preaching until Jeff came home. We were nearly finished with the meeting when Kim walked in, wondering what in the world was going on. Though Bill and Kim stayed with the church until the end, they were devastated by how things unfolded. I’ve visited with them over the years, and it’s clear they still carry the hurt. When my brother and I got home, we both knew we would have to leave the church. But we had no idea what we were going to do or where we were going to go. For the next few months, we committed to fasting and praying for direction. Our sister left shortly after that meeting, following a sharp letter she wrote to Teresa.

There was a lady named Joyce who had begun teaching a Sunday morning Bible school class before Jeff left. Joyce had always been a little eccentric in her beliefs. She and her husband, Clark, owned a cattle ranch in Missouri, and their plan was to raise cattle to feed Christians who were saved after the Rapture. During one class, Joyce claimed she had heard Kenneth Copeland (whom she adored) say that Christians could pray to Kenneth Hagin, and Hagin would take their requests to God. In Copeland’s defense, I don’t believe she actually heard him say this—I think she made it up and pinned it on Copeland so people wouldn’t call her a heretic.

I mention this because Joyce was one of the volunteers who stepped in to teach and preach after Bill was removed. Her “sermon” was on “the world that was.” She taught that there had been a creation before the creation in Genesis, with people who lived before Adam and Eve. According to her, they were terribly evil, so God wiped them out completely, and salvation was not possible for them. When God created the world and everything in it a second time, she said, He knew He needed a plan in case things went wrong again, so He provided Jesus for us. She ended her sermon with something like, “Now I know a lot of you have probably never heard this before. But it’s something to think about.”

When I got home, I called a couple of the other worship team members to get their opinion on what she said. Much to my surprise, their response was, “It’s something to think about.” That was the moment my brother, my grandmother, and I knew it was time to leave.

I called Teresa and told her we were leaving the church. She said she wasn’t surprised, but thought we were making a mistake, explaining, “God will not tell you to leave one place without first providing another place to go.” I told her I wasn’t sure about that, but I knew we had to leave. I also told her I wanted to attend one more youth service so I could tell the kids.

That Wednesday, before youth service, my former youth pastors showed up to stage an “intervention” for my brother and me. We talked for quite a while, but eventually the husband realized our minds were made up and they weren’t going to change them. He warned me that a pastor wasn’t just going to take me in and let me start teaching youth right away. I agreed, but told him I still had to go.

During this time, I felt like Abraham—called to leave my home for a place I did not know. I also felt like Peter—knowing that Jesus held the keys to life, knowing I could not abandon the faith, but also knowing I had to find faith beyond the Word of Faith. The theology of the Word of Faith movement was built on a foundation of sand, and the tide was coming in.

CONCLUSION

While I haven’t spoken much about it in this writing, my grandma struggled tremendously under the weight of Word of Faith teachings. She had battled depression throughout her life, and the doctrine only deepened that struggle. Like many within the movement, she could not understand why she didn’t seem to have enough faith to see the “manifestations” of her “confessions.”

Shortly after leaving The Cross Family Worship Center, I visited Bill and Kim. It was then that I began to really see the damage Word of Faith teaching had caused in their lives. Their son David, as a young teenager, became heavily involved in drugs. Yet they felt they could not talk about it or seek help, because doing so would “not be in faith.” They were told they simply needed to keep claiming that David was not a drug addict.

As for The Cross Family Worship Center, only about six people remained. When Jeff returned in November of that year, they had to leave the building they were renting, and the small group began meeting in his house.

In 2016, Jeff was diagnosed with stomach cancer. He died a year later at the age of 56—the same age his father had been when he also died of stomach cancer. I only saw Jeff once after leaving The Cross. I was at Wal‑Mart when I ran into him and Teresa, and I told him that I loved him.

After Jeff’s death, those who had been attending the house‑church eventually joined an Assembly of God congregation—the second one I attended. I still see them and talk with them from time to time, and they all serve in one way or another within the church. I cannot express how thankful I am for this.

Teresa didn’t make the transition as easily as everyone else. In fact, for quite some time she did not attend any church at all. Instead, she became deeply involved in far‑right politics.

In 2024, I ran into her at a doctor’s office. She was on oxygen, and I wouldn’t have recognized her if her daughter hadn’t been with her. She explained that she had developed pneumonia some time earlier and had been placed on oxygen. She was there to find out what was going on and whether she could be taken off of it.

On October 5, 2025, Teresa died. When I heard the news, I called my former youth pastor to learn what had happened. It turned out she had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2024 but had refused to undergo treatment. When I saw her at the doctor’s office, she had just returned from an extended stay in Houston, Texas, following her initial diagnosis.

I don’t know if she ever truly admitted to herself that the Word of Faith theology doesn’t work. In January of 2024, she posted the following…

I did find out, however, that when Teresa came back home, she began attending church with the rest of them.

As for me, I left The Cross Family Worship Center on October 14, 2012, after Sunday morning service. That very night I attended Tularosa Community Church—the Assembly of God congregation my mom had taken me out of when I was seven. By then, they were on their second pastor since we had left. Pastor Randy Borror and his wife Susan had been serving there for about two years.

That night I gave Pastor Randy the short version: “I recently left my old church, and I’m looking for a new one.” He told me he wanted to talk more about it later in the week. After our conversation, we both agreed that I would begin a new youth ministry in January of 2013. As it turned out, the church had been praying for about two years for a youth minister and ministry—right around the same time I had begun wrestling in my spirit about leaving The Cross.

After a little over a year in ministry, I was appointed as an associate pastor. That same year, I applied to the Berean School of the Bible, a correspondence program through Global University.

Due to health problems and the demands of full‑time ministry, it took me longer than I would have liked to complete the program. Nevertheless, in 2022, a little less than ten years later, I graduated from Global University, and in April of 2024 I received my full ordination from the Assemblies of God.

In 2016, just days before my 30th birthday, my younger brother took me to the hospital. The diagnosis: End Stage Renal Disease (kidney failure) caused by a kidney infection. I went septic, and for a time things did not look good. As of this writing, I am nearing ten years of being on dialysis.

It’s interesting—those in the Positive Confession/Word of Faith movement would look at a situation like this and conclude that (1) I didn’t have enough faith, (2) I wasn’t confessing the right things, or (3) I had gross, unrepentant sin in my life. But that’s not how I see it at all. Since this happened, my faith has grown stronger than ever. I have learned to depend on God’s strength in ways I never would have otherwise. Despite the challenges, I can and do trust God. I can say with the three Hebrews: whether He delivers me or not, I will trust Him.

In 2018, after my life began to settle and I adapted to dialysis, I launched a website and online ministry called Sheep Among Wolves. The goal of SAW is to provide solid, practical, and relevant apologetic and discipleship teachings and resources to help Christians deepen and defend their faith. More on this at the end.

Looking ahead, 2026 will mark my seventeenth year in youth ministry, my twelfth year as an associate pastor at Tularosa Community Church, and my eighth year in online ministry with Sheep Among Wolves. I’m in this for the long haul, and I believe there are great things ahead—we’re just getting started.

~fin~

ABOUT SHEET AMONG WOLVES

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PS. If you made it through this, give yourself a star! You are now free to roam about the countryside!