There is non-coincidental connection from Word Faith theology with a New Age worldview. Historians have traced these ideas back to E. W. Kenyon who, frustrated at the lack of the miraculous in his church, began drawing from New Age teaching for his church. Kenneth Hagin and others in turn drew from Kenyon.See D. R. McConnell's book, A Different Gospel: A biblical look at the Word of Faith movement.

A Word Faith friend saw this connection with New Age thinking as a similarity, but with differences. I am respectfully disagreeing. I base this disagreement on having dug into both the history and the fundamentals of the Word Faith religion.

With the history already brilliantly written by D. R. McConnell (as footnoted), and not particularly helpful apart from knowing that it was deliberately merged into Christianity, we will focus on the core concepts behind the New Age, Word Faith and Evangelical Charismatic worldviews.

This juxtaposition will enable us to see the similarities and differences between them.

Let's start.

Where and what (or who) is ultimate power

New Agers teach that everything is part of god. So humans are gods, and we may be reincarnated as animals in the next life since they too are god, and indeed all of what we see is god. This is pantheism. Therefore, ultimate power is found within each of us. We can access this power by reaching 'higher consciousness'—we need to understand who we are in the Universe, that is, that we are god, and then understand spiritual laws and act on them.

The Word Faith teaching is that while ultimate power comes from God, that power is gifted to us through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, when a person becomes a Christian and is filled with the Spirit (what they would term Baptism of the Spirit), they just have to know who they are in Christ and believe that they can perform miracles. Power, then, is found for the individual when they understand this truth, and they do not doubt, but act on it. This undoubting belief is called 'the force of faith', and can be described as impersonal, since it does not rely on coming to God. In fact, classic Word Faith teaching describes each individual as little gods, and some even that we are just as much incarnate as Jesus was.

An Evangelical Charismatic view stresses that all the decisions of this world are made at the throneroom of God, by God. Ultimate power resides there, and must be sought there, whether you are a human, angel or demon. Therefore, to achieve anything that God wants us to, we must come to God in prayer. We are merely a conduit for God's Spirit to work through, having no power in ourselves. While the Spirit now resides in us, we must act out of relationship with the Spirit, and so grieving and quenching the Spirit effects our ability to do God's will.

We can summarise this as follows:

How do we know (anything)

New Agers talk about hearing from an inner voice. It's an intuition from deep within. It's a 'third eye'. This voice, from the Universe, is where we get guidance and understanding from.

Word Faith teaching centers around hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit. Whenever they want to know something, it's not the Bible that they first think to look to, but to still themselves, empty their thoughts, and try to hear a voice. This is uncannily close to New Age meditation and a third eye inner voice, but they are well aware that what they hear may be from God, or it may be from a demon or the world, or their own thoughts. They are very strong on the importance of the Bible too, and how that can help discern where that voice came from. But, while reading what they consider the objective standard (the Bible), they will seek its interpretation from this inner voice, as well as from what others hear (in turn from, hopefully, the Spirit). So it can be very circular.

What's lacking in the Word Faith approach to knowledge is studying the Bible. They read the Bible but don't study it. But studying takes what is unknown (the origin of the inner voice), and grounds it in objective truth. The Evangelical Charismatic approach is to establish objective truth by objective means, while being open to hearing from the Spirit (that relative word) for what is relative: what God wants you to do today. The Bible gives general guidelines for what to do, not specific. For the specific, we are to be led by the Spirit—knowing that it must be within the boundaries the objective Word sets. Furthermore, we don't limit the Spirit's communication to a still small voice (anyone who focuses on that particular way the Spirit can communicate to us shows they have a New Age bias), but look to the wide variety of leading as presented in the Bible.

How to know what to do (day-to-day; ethics)

Looking at more of a day-to-day approach, New Agers will seek to be guided by spiritual laws. So the law of attraction states that what we do will come back to us: if we're negative, bad thing will come back; and, if we're positive, good will come back. Karma. There's plenty of others.

It's striking how much emphasis Word Faith followers stress the importance of speaking life and positive thoughts, and not speaking negative—alongside an equally strong emphasis on how what we speak will come about. I've also noticed lots of teaching on the techniques of praying for healing—and each different Word Faith group will present a different way. On the other hand, a strong maturity prevents them from placing too much trust in that technique, and they also emphasise listening to the Spirit, and how God alone does the healing, salvation or miracle. They tend not to come to God for working out his will in any particular situation, assuming that God always wants to heal, save and deliver, anytime, anywhere.

In the Evangelical Charismatic understanding, since it is understood that all power is located in God, they get things done chiefly by asking God. More specifically, rather than assuming the will of God, they will come to him for each occasion, since they know that God wants them to rely on Him rather than a learned technique, or a practised process. They look to where the Spirit is already, or wait for him to come, actively pursuing the Spirit but fearing to run ahead (by assuming God's will). On receiving direction, they will go with the full physical gifts and abilities God has given them to achieve his will. All of this is done within a thorough understanding of what the Bible says on the topic.

What is reality?

For New Agers, the physical realm is an illusion. Much like the Matrix, the real world is not what you see around you but beyond it—in this case, the spiritual realm. What happens in the spiritual world determines what happens in the physical. Therefore, opening yourself to the spirits is where you need to be—for power, knowledge, and control over your life and others.

Perhaps surprisingly, Word Faith adherents have essentially the same understanding. Your physical circumstances are not to be viewed as reality. To change the physical, you war in the spirit realm. While you might look sick to the physical senses, your healing is done in the spiritual realm, and only needs to manifest itself in the physical. We start everything in the spiritual realm, to get things done in the physical. To start in the physical is to start in the strength of your own flesh, which is useless.

The Evangelical Charismatic understanding is that God created both the physical and the spiritual realms as good, and both to glorify Himself. The spiritual is designed to flow through the physical, and work alongside it to achieve the same goal. While we can do things in our own strength, we can also do physical work for the glory of God, and to his praise. What we do and achieve physically will be judged by God in the age to come, and is an opportunity to point others to God, and show something about God. God initiates everything, but can do so starting from the physical, or the spiritual.

This can be summarised as follows:

What is the goal of life? What was Jesus' example?

The goal of any New Ager is to become one with the Universe. This can be achieved by realising a higher consciousness, that you are god. Most believe in reincarnation based on the fact that all are one and the same substance (god). The highest good is to join with the Universe. While still here on earth, one may follow others who have reached a higher consciousness, such as Jesus—but one may also choose to follow their own path. If one is a good person, it is believed that they will receive good in return.

The Word Faith follower believes that Jesus put aside his divinity to show what life could be like as a mere man—with just the power of the Spirit. So one of Jesus' purposes was to show what we all could do if we just had the Spirit. Therefore, our goal is the same: to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons, and seek and save the lost. The goal in this is to point to Jesus and the life we can have with him now, and expect to see full healing, deliverance, prosperity and salvation.

The Evangelical Charismatic belief is that Jesus chose not to use his divinity at times, but since he was also God, we cannot necessarily follow in his footsteps. Nevertheless, as Jesus taught his disciples, we are to heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons, and seek and save the lost. The goal in this is to point to Jesus, and point to the life to come, and we expect to see glimpses of the life to come but not full perfection (such as full healing) until our second life.

How can we reform society, and sustain social good?

The New Age belief system is all about individual enlightenment and each person doing what they perceive as being good in their own eyes. It therefore is highly anti-institutional, and pro-individual. The best societal-wide change will come when each individual gains higher consciousness.

The Word Faith system of belief is also anti-institutional, reacting as it does against Conservative non-charismatic religion. Their catch cry is "revival", by which they envision mass healings, exorcisms, salvations, and repentance—and therefore mass societal change. The only way to achieve this on such a scale is to have people come to God and then realise the power they have in Christ. Institutions get in the way of the Spirit by establishing rules.

The Evangelical Charismatic upholds institutions to the extent that they are led by God and continue to point to God. They also uphold individual change through repentance and faith, knowing that no one ultimately change for the good without God. What institutions offer is the ability to organise as a Body, working together in unity and the diversity of gifts and talents, to glorify and point to God.

What laws do we need to live by?

New Agers hate external laws. They are relativists believing that you cannot judge another person. This is because everyone is part of god (the Universe). There are spiritual 'laws' that are really principles like physical laws such as gravity, but in terms of ethical laws, you need to be true to yourself. Internally, each person is essentially good at heart, meaning there is little need for external forces such as laws and a judicial system to keep 'evil' at bay: what bad a person does comes back on them anyway (karma).

The Word Faith system of belief recognises there is an external law, the Bible, but strongly emphasises that we are no longer under the law—the law we are to live by now is the law of love, and whatever the Spirit says. While talking about holiness and repentance, it largely leaves that up to the individual to figure out with the Spirit. There is no systematic teaching of behavioural norms, and judging others is forbidden. This creates a largely relativised system of norms. Internally, each person is essentially evil at heart, creating a need for salvation, as well as consistently coming to God for victory over sin.

The Evangelical Charismatic system upholds the Bible as the source of law for both personal living, the church and the world—since it is the only foundation for what is good. The law of love works to preserve and uphold the moral law, as long as that moral law embodies love. As each person is born sinful, good behaviour is necessary to teach from a young age, and salvation is required of everyone. A strong emphasis is held to continual repentance towards holiness throughout the Christian life. The Spirit convicts of sin and righteousness, leading a person—acting together with other Christians who share their wisdom in the Body: highlighting the usefulness of codified wisdom and hence law. Since laws are based on the objective truth of the Bible, and the way God made us all, they are generally useful for all people in society.

The good news and the bad news

There's good news and bad news.

The bad news is that the Word Faith worldview is dangerously close to the New Age worldview, if not essentially the same but for exchanging the concept of 'the Universe' with 'God'.

The good news is that such a pure Word Faith view is not necessarily held by Word Faith practitioners. In my experience they have a mix of New Age and Bible such that they can at once affirm a true Christian worldview, while at other times—perhaps not realising the incongruity—affirming a New Age worldview.

It is hoped that by understanding these key similarities and differences, Word Faith adherents would be able to see the discern what is New Age in origin, and move away from it to something more biblical, and thereby honour and glorify God all the more.

There are a few Word Faith adherents, however, not anyone I know at the time of writing, to whom the following may be aimed at:

I say this because people like Kenneth Hagin teach people not to pray. Whether it's for health, wealth or breakthrough, you are not to pray to God because apparently, we already know God's will. We are to therefore claim these things (as they are promised to us, this teaching says).For example, Faith for Prosperity – Kenneth E. Hagin, Hope Faith Prayer, https://www.hopefaithprayer.com/faith/kenneth-hagin-faith-lesson-no-15-faith-for-prosperity/, under heading 'Proven Through Personal Experience'. Now, I don't know anyplace more authoritative and decisive than the throneroom of God, so to strongly discourage people from going there for the biggest moments of people's lives, is something I personally hate with a passion. This is directly leading people away from God. This is exactly the sort of thing that a demonic doctrine would teach.

In fact, I point out that the Word Faith Jesus would not have gone to the cross—he could not have prayed "nevertheless, not my will but yours be done", nor accepted suffering and death as a good thing. The Word Faith Jesus would never have prayed to the Father, but rebuked the demons and religious leaders and avoided the cross.

The Matthew passage is in the same vein as how Jesus rebuked the 70, after they reported their joy at rebuking demons: "do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names stand written in heaven.”” (Luke 10:17-20, NET) If you rejoice more that you know God—or rather, that God knows you—as opposed to miracles done through you, then you are on the right path. Put another way, what are you more satisfied in: the miracles done through you, or your relationship with God?

So, as I noted, I don't know anyone who would fit into that exclusively, though people certainly get into some of that teaching. We ought to hold onto the good, and spit out the bad. What's happening is a common enough thing that we have a name for it, and that is syncretism. It's a confused fusion of two opposing worldviews. While believing the Bible they also believe in ideas originating from lying spirits. So we need clarity as to what to hold onto so we don't live confused lives, not pleasing to God.

What we're left with is a grid to which we can continue to work out what else we might hold to that is New Age in origin, so this ought to be a real help for our next part.