Why Prosperity Gospel is not Gospel, part two

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19:21, NIV)

“Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted to him. Therefore, I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted to you.” (Mark 11:23-24, NASB)

“Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and to him who keeps on knocking, it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will [instead] give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will [instead] give him a snake? If you then, evil (sinful by nature) as you are, know how to give good and advantageous gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven [perfect as He is] give what is good and advantageous to those who keep on asking Him.” (Matthew 7:7-11, AMP)

Last week, we discussed the prosperity gospel– what it entails and why it isn’t gospel. Primarily, we focused on the financial side of the movement and how teachers of prosperity gospel twist the Bible to claim that God is the way to health, wealth, and material success. In my personal life as someone who wants to make freelance writing into a career, I follow a lot of freelancers or writing coaches to study their business models and tips. The weird thing is, without fail when talking about the “spirituality” or “mindset” of the lifestyle, they tend to mention that they subscribe to people that are known teachers of prosperity gospel: Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes, Kenneth Copeland, and the list goes on.

And what I see as a common theme with people like this– people that just want to live happy, successful, prosperous lives– is that they all lean on similar principles. Some way, somehow, it always incorporates some iteration of the following: “Speak it into existence!” “Manifest it!” “Put it into the universe!”

Without fail, prosperity gospel wants you to believe in the overarching theme that if you have enough faith, you can bend God’s will towards your desires and convince Him to do what you want… and they twist scripture to try and back that up. Among the most common is Mark 11 and Matthew 7, shown above. 

In Mark 11, Jesus has just cursed a fig tree to never bear fruit again. The disciples, being amazed that Jesus has done this and it came to be, are in awe. At this, Jesus replies to the disciples that faith in God’s insurmountable power is essential to seeing truly incredible things come to pass, including hurling a mountain into the sea. However, if we read this verse within the full context of the Bible, we would already know that God’s character is not to be a genie in a bottle or a spiritual waiter, taking orders we make by faith and providing them.

If we look at Matthew 7, we’ll see something along the same lines: Jesus teaching that if we pray by faith in persistence, God will provide our needs. But the key to underlying spiritual truth lies in the following verses, where Jesus says that if someone asks for bread, will they be given a stone? If that same person asks for a fish, will they be given a snake? If a sinful, imperfect father still gives his children good gifts that serve their needs, how much more would our gracious, all-powerful, heavenly Father do the same for those that walk by faith in Him? Of course, just the way a human father gives advantageous, good things to his children, God does just the same.

The key here is that just like a child may ask for something– say ice cream for dinner– and not be given that request because it isn’t actually good for them to have. An earthly parent knows that ice cream for dinner isn’t a nourishing meal. If a child had ice cream for dinner, their body over time would be unhealthy and damaging to their future; which is why a parent would deny such a request, seeing as the will of the parent overturns the will of the child. The child’s faith in their parents’ love for them isn’t what sways the parent to grant a request. They cannot believe their way into changing the parents' will to see them live a good and balanced life.

In the same way, God’s will over our lives will always be superior to what we want. We cannot speak something into existence that God does not already ordain for us to have. We cannot change God’s heart to give us something that He already has the foresight to know will take us off the path to righteousness. Just because we ask for something, regardless of our amount of faith, does not mean we will receive it. Why? Proverbs says it perfectly: Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.

We can plan and believe by faith that God will endorse that plan, but the Lord’s purpose will always override the plans of those that truly walk with Him– regardless of how much we pray or believe.

So the ailments, struggles, or trials we have; the truth is, we may have them as a way to keep us on that narrow path to righteousness. If you struggle with anxiety, depression, cancer, disability, whatever it is– maybe God has given you that struggle in order to keep you dependent on Him.

My dad is partially deaf. Do I pray that God will heal Him and restore His hearing? Yes. Do I believe that God is powerful enough to do that? Yes. But just because I have faith that He can, doesn’t mean it is His sovereign will to do it. Even if God never restores my dad’s hearing, I still stand by faith that something like that is not outside of His power. I just have to trust that God can use that deafness to keep my dad leaning on Him, and that even if His will doesn’t line up with mine, there is a reason in His purpose for that deafness.

I cannot “speak into existence” that my dad will be healed. I cannot manifest it by faith. And if God doesn’t restore that hearing, it doesn’t mean I don’t have enough faith or that I need to believe harder.

Manifestation and the word of faith movement are a dangerous road to travel down. The beliefs are rooted in and can lean towards new age religion and the occult. It makes us out to be little gods, believing that just because we believe in some version of a counterfeit Jesus, we can walk around and wield His power. 

We cannot. Only God can, and He will only do it out of His sovereign grace and power. As His children, we can certainly ask, but if we don’t receive our faith in Him should not waver.

I get it. The prosperity gospel is attractive and the preachers that preach it all seem to make it work for themselves. But narrow is the path that leads to Jesus. All those prosperity and word of faith preachers won’t be rewarded for the confusion they spread and the people they led away from Jesus into hell. They may have riches here, but only God knows what they have waiting for them after this life is over.

So it’s my deep and heartfelt prayer that if you have been led astray by prosperity gospel and preachers that are known to teach it, that you would take this devotion and turn it over in your heart, asking God to reveal to you His Truth. Read your Bible and check my words against it. It’s the only real way to see the difference between God, His character, and what delights Him. If what you see convicts you, then remove those falsehoods from your life completely and turn back to Jesus. There is absolutely no shame in falling back into His unending grace and hiding yourself in Him again.