A place better than the throneroom of God?

I don't know if you realise what these Faith preachers are asking you to do. They will say from time to time that you are not to ask God for healing, but command healing. That in fact we should definitely not say "if it's your will, God". The supposed reason for this is that we already know God's will on the issue—he wants to heal. Therefore, to come to God and ask is like questioning your orders.

But I would argue this is presumption, and leads us to run ahead of God, and go in a different direction.

Consider for a moment the gargantuan thing they are saying: there's a place that is better than the throne room of God? Really? There's a place more decisive than the place where decisions get made (Psalm 103:19), where the world got birthed (Colossians 1:16; Isaiah 46:10), where the Devil himself has to come to get permission to do anything (Job 1:6-12; 2 Chronicles 18:18-21), where angels get told what to do (Revelation 1:1), where Jesus directed us to (Matthew 6:6,9)?

This looks to me much rather like a cunning deception that is designed to take us away from God. Satan wants to put distance between you and God, to drive a wedge. Don't believe him for a second! I can't imagine a place more powerful than the throneroom of God.

Now, Word Faith doctrine teaches that Jesus gives us authority, like a pre-authorisation, and so that's why we don't need to come to him. They couple that doctrine with an over-realised eschatology (the end times can be had here right now—complete with the perfect new heaven and earth). So, that is, it is always God's will to heal, deliver and save, right here and right now, to the point of 100% perfection.

If we were to follow this doctrine to its logical end, you wouldn't even need to approach God for anything. You know God's will, and you have been given the appropriate power to enact that will. So you don't need to ask God—indeed some teach that is offensive, because it is distrusting—you just go and heal people. (Again, do we realise what we're saying here? Doing what Jesus explicltly taught his disciples to do—ask God—is offensive, but doing what might have been done once or twice, without affirmation, is much better?)

Interestingly, most people who I've seen implement this teaching do not completely follow it. They mix in a lot of requests to God, and may even seek out the leading of the Spirit in who to pray for. This is because these Christians are mature enough to realise that asking God is not only okay, but a good thing to do; and, that we cannot presume God's will—we must be led by the Spirit. Yet, they do not realise the occultic roots of what they do so they continue in both. People are definitely confused here.

It all starts to make sense when you realise what those in the occult practices of New Age and New Thought teach. What they teach is that you are the seat of power, that you are gods, and that there is no personal God (see 02: The New Age Connection). So it's all about knowing yourself and the power within you, and channeling that power by spiritual laws to attract health, wealth and whatever you want. It's very similar to the Star Wars concept of the Force: impersonal, binds everything together, and if you were to just control it, miracles would happen. These ideas were deliberately brought into Christianity by E. W. Kenyon because he wanted to stem the tide of people being attracted to New Age groups. They've then been taken up by people like Kenneth Hagin and everyone else, and expanded on.

Jesus gave us access to the Holy of holies, not direct power

This whole idea that God has given us pre-authorisation is incredibly destructive—and deceptive. It turns a submissive but powerful Jesus-as-Trinity into an authoritative dictatorial spiritual force-power.

This approach necessarily means that "nevertheless not my will but yours be done" be limited, as we unpacked in 05: The role of doubt and belief in healing. This is directly opposed to how our way of life must be surrendered—in our very core being, in our daily prayers and actions, and in our overall ethic.

When people go down this track they are led into the sin of presumption, which makes us run ahead of God, and not look to see where the Spirit wants us to go. It opens the door to trusting in ourselves, and boasting of our works and wonders (see the Directionalism series).

So, did Jesus really give us pre-authorisation? Power to do what we want, when we want it, able to direct God here on earth?

When Jesus died, the temple curtains were ripped from top to bottom, presumably by an angel (Matthew 27:51). This represents access for us to the Most Holy Place, a place where previously only the High Priest, and only once a year, was able to access. It means that finally, and completely differently from the previous Testament, that we can all come to God directly with our requests (Hebrews 10:19-22).

This is why Jesus emphasised coming to God in prayer with every request, with faith—not because your faith has force in itself, but because faith is the direction in which you face, and we no longer have to go through an earthly intermediary (the priest). We can come directly to God. That was revolutionary, so it needed underscoring.

Let me say it again: the revolution that Jesus brought was direct access by every believer to God, through the one perfect intermediary, Jesus the Christ.

Furthermore, all of Jesus' teachings was to bring our requests to God. To ask God (Mark 11:24; John 15:7; Luke 11:9; Matthew 18:19-20). To pray in secret to God (Matthew 6:5-15). The rest of the New Testament backs that up again and again (Philippians 4:6; Ephesians 6:18; James 4:2-3; 1 John 5:14-15).

The Holy Spirit was given for teaching and witnessing

The question now becomes: but didn't the Holy Spirit give us direct power?

Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit for the following reasons:

• to give us the words to speak when witnessing (Mark 13:9-11)

• to teach us "everything", and bring to remembrance everything Jesus said (John 14:25-26)

• to bear witness about Jesus (John 15:26)

• to "receive power" when the Holy Spirit comes upon us, and to be Jesus' witnesses (Acts 1:8)

Now, people think the Holy Spirit first came at Pentecost, but actually Jesus appeared to ten of the disciples and gave them the Holy Spirit well before Pentecost (John 20:19-23). They were in a locked room, fearing persecution, without Jesus anymore, so had need of the Holy Spirit's comfort. They did not speak in tongues or express any power.

When Pentecost came, the Spirit enabled them to speak foreign languages and witness to everyone "about the great deeds God has done" (Acts 2:8-11). So this first expression of the Spirit's power was to enable the gospel to go out in all languages.

Peter explains this is prophecy (Acts 2:18), and this is done through the servants of God. Peter also describes how the signs and wonders are from God (Acts 2:19). I think of this as like a pipeline from God through us, and out to others. Our job is to simply direct the pipe to particular people (whom God places), but God turns on the water that travels through the pipe. In Peter's epistle, he describes this as being carried along by the Holy Spirit, and explicitly not coming from the will of the person (2 Peter 1:21).

Even when Peter is described as saying to a lame man, "In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, stand up and walk", and on raising him up, was healed (Acts 3:6-8), Peter expressly denies that was "our own power or piety" (Acts 3:12). He carefully describes how it was done by Jesus (Acts 4:8-12).

Correctly understanding this means that we ought not to teach or communicate that we can have power, or that we are the seat of any power (a New Age concept), but rather, as those who received Peter's teaching came to say, "a notable miraculous sign has come about through them" (Acts 4:16). God works through us.

He will give us words to say; he will give us things to do; he will give us miracles to do, not because we're special or know the secret formula to get such power, but because it is God's will at that time to make his name known.

So instead of power, God actually wants to send you out to witness. You want (vicarious) power? You must witness. And that may cost you your life.

I can't underscore this enough. Some people want power for themselves and their desires. That's directly in opposition to the self-sacrificial life that God has called us to (e.g. James 4:3). In complete contrast, the acts of the Holy Spirit through the Apostles, as recorded in Acts, are done in a context of people sold out for Jesus, ready to go to jail, ready to keep going after being stoned, ready to keep preaching after directly being told not to. Those who seek power for power's sake do not understand the gospel, and are expressing a mark of the devil.

This is why I say the Word Faith Jesus would never have gone to the cross. How could he? He could not say "nevertheless not my will but yours be done"—the Word Faith Jesus is power, might, deliverance, and violently takes ground by force (taking Matthew 11:12 out of context)! And that force is similar to how Peter spoke when he rebuked Jesus for talking about his necessary death on the cross: "this shall never happen to you!" (Matthew 16:22) Of course Jesus says "get behind me, Satan! ...you do not have in mind the things of God, but merely human concerns" (Matthew 16:23). The Word Faith Jesus was supposed to conquer the spirit realm and usher in a new perfected kingdom—but death ruins that opportunity. Thinking logically. Of course, no Word Faith believer sees it this way, but I am pointing out the huge inconsistency between elevating power and promoting Jesus' way. Whereas New Age thought says you have power and you are gods, Jesus' teaching says power is found by giving up your life, surrendering it to the one and true and only God, daily, and submitting to God's will.

Christ's ambassadors

As Christ's ambassadors, we do not in fact have power in and of ourselves. Any power that we do have is given for explicit purposes, and any misuse of that power, in an earthly ambassadorship, will be rendered null and void. This is a vicarious power. A delegated power.

When Paul uses the term ambassador, he is talking about how God committed the preaching of the Gospel of reconciliation to us, "as though God were making his plea through us" (2 Corinthians 5:20, NET). There's that word "through" again. This is "on Christ's behalf".

If we did preach another gospel, Paul would call down a curse on them to be "condemned to hell" (Galatians 1:8). The power of God would not be present in that false preaching, though you would probably expect lots of hand waving and shouting and spiritual sounding experiences.

In fact, there's a relatively easy way to tell if it was false preaching. How many of those who professed Jesus showed up the next day? The next week? If it was from God, you would not be able to stop their hunger for the things of God. If it wasn't from God, no amount of follow up is going to be sufficiently persuasive, unless they're looking for a religion. (For more tests, see 03: 9 tests.)

It is notable that the accounts in Acts are careful to say that it is "the Lord" who was adding to the numbers of believers (Acts 2:47; 5:14)—the Apostles were not able to save people. It is the Holy Spirit who draws people to himself (John 6:44), convicts people of their sins (John 16:8), and adopts them (Romans 8:15).

So in the same way, we ought to be careful not to lead people through a formulaic prayer, as if our formula or their words could save, but lead them directly to pray to God—looking out for the telltale signs of drawing (desire), conviction of sins, and other works of the Spirit. (See the "Becoming Christian" series.)

I like Ray Comfort's premeditated openings that help explain the Gospel to people. There are many other 'tools' that help us quickly share the Gospel. But to many Pentecostals, because these are not spontaneous, they do not seem to be from the Spirit. This is true—they are from the Word, intellectually derived. But the Spirit's role, remember, is (partly) to remind us of the Word. The Spirit points us back to the Word. So if we're already talking about the Word, wouldn't the Spirit be excited and happy for us?

Now, Pentecostals will rightly argue that we ought to wait on God before witnessing, if at all possible, to hear from him as to who he wants to show himself to. In this way, we can find God's will, and God's words that he would want to say to people. We thus can locate where the Spirit is moving, and work with the Spirit, rather than presuming the Spirit will follow us. As Christ's ambassadors, we don't have a fixed location, we follow the Spirit (Romans 8:14). Where the Spirit says "this one is mine", that's where we want to be heading.

In this way, we find the Spirit and the Word in unison, and I find no incompatibility between the two approaches. We can do both at the same time. To learn what the Bible says and repeatedly say it, is not a bad thing! But we can also speak directly to people's personal experiences by receiving a word from the Spirit about them, and that will be powerful in its own way. And this power is for witnessing about how Jesus knows and cares for people.

I talked earlier about how our ambassadorial power was delegated, and using that delegation to do our own thing, something that it was not delegated for, would be an abuse of that power. So sometimes God wants to heal a person, and sometimes he doesn't (e.g. 2 Corinthians 12:1-10). But by teaching that God always wants to heal, we abuse our power, and we overstep our bounds. We end up causing hurt because we then teach that if a person doesn't get healed, it's because of their lack of faith or the presence of sin. We stay immature because rather than delighting in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:10), we think it wrong to be weak, and therefore can't be strong when we're weak. We also may even ostracise those who are chronically ill, as being weaker Christians—unless they continually express 'faith' that their health is coming, particularly by not going to the doctors (that God provided them). These abuses take their toll. In contrast, Paul takes great strength from learning to live with his sickness.

You can direct God?

Many Word Faith teachers, following on from the New Age teaching that we are gods and are the seat of power, teach that we can direct God. That we can command God. That we put God to work.

Once again, this goes directly against what the whole Word is all about every day: surrendering to God; doing God's will not ours; praying "nevertheless not my will but yours be done" after Christ; and praying "your kingdom come, your will be done" (Matthew 6:10), not "my kingdom come, my will be done".

James preaches to the heart of it, arguing that we can't even know tomorrow:

To put it differently, for those who want to decree and declare that this or that will happen: "you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil." All future events must be prefaced with "if the Lord wills". I know that's a hard pill to swallow. But that's the clear teaching of the Word and shows just how far Word Faith preachers have gone astray.

We talked previously about how the reason why Word Faith doctrine makes so much about not using "if the Lord wills" is because they are relying on hypnotic technique (#05). Therefore, if you use that phrase, you are removing the single-track focus they may try to setup, by introducing a different thought. If, however, we understand that God orders all events, we can do away with all such techniques.

What is faith?

Let's switch angles. It could be clearer to look at this from the angle of what faith is.

Think of the Israelites with the Promised Land ahead of them. It was theirs! It was promised by God and he had confirmed it with signs and wonders, bringing them out of slavery, preserving their clothes in the wilderness, and providing for them daily. Yet God knew their hearts: that if they defeated the Canaanites by their own power, they'd pat themselves on their back, and forget that God did it. So even with the map laid out before them, they had to come to God for each occasion, and rarely did they fight in the conventional way. Walking around a city and blowing trumpets didn't seem like a winning strategy, but they did it because God told them to, nevertheless.

That was faith—to believe they weren't to trust in their own strength, but rather what God had said to them for that specific occasion. That's faith—to believe that walking would defeat the enemy, as opposed to a sword or spear. It's believing God's specific word, and acting on it, not because being convinced makes the magic happen, but because God wants you to do that particular thing so his power is available for that. In fact, here's the thing, you could have walked around Jericho disbelieving that it would do anything. You could have been thinking, "this is ridiculous". That's because the power is not in convincing people. The power is in God, and what he wants to do.

So when they blew the trumpets, in faith that God would do what he said, God faithfully acted, and he tore the walls down. And everyone knew from then on that God's favour was on them, and the fear of God struck all the people groups around them. And the Israelites praised God.

Interestingly, everyone's faith came after the miracle, in contrast to the way Faith preacher's say it must happen. God worked despite their unbelief and lack of faith. It's like when Moses was asked to speak to a rock to bring forth water, and he instead struck it with his staff. God still made it pour forth water, because the power wasn't in the technique, it was in God (Numbers 20:2-13). It's like the numerous miracles that occurred, where, for example, Moses was asked to lift up his staff and extend his hand toward the sea. The simple mustard seed faith that he needed was just to do what God said to do. He didn't need to speak anything, fast and pray, command the waters to part, or anything at all other than what God said to do. The power was not in the technique, but in God. When Jesus said "come" to Peter, the power was there to walk on water. But Jesus has not said this to us, so the power is not there for us to walk on water. There is no technique, it's all God's will.

So when Jesus appears to give blanket carte blanche powers to people "ask for anything and I will give it", or to "move mountains" (Mark 11:23-24), he's actually simply saying that when he says to you "go", his power is there to do that thing, and that thing alone. Therefore, Jesus is saying that you can do anything (that I ask you to do), if you just act on it. It's pretty simple once you get it. The power is not in the technique, it's in God. So come to God. (Read the Directionalism series for more about steering clear of both Cessationalism and Presumptionalism.)

Now, what is faith from the Word Faith perspective? Faith is described by Faith preachers as having or declaring the substance of things that are not, as though they are (Mark 11:23-24). They are looking at the spirit realm for what God has promised (Colossians 3:2), and calling that into being in the physical realm (Hebrews 11:1-6), and so it is a walk of faith, not sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

At one level, this is a simple error. Rather than saying that faith is believing what God has specifically told you, and acting on it, they are saying that faith is believing for something hoped for, and acting on it. Now, that hope is typically in a promise from God as recorded in the Bible, or for what they presume is always God's will: health, prosperity (in many forms), and/or breakthrough of any kind. The error there is in presuming that the promise is for you right now, or that God indeed does want to give you health, prosperity or breakthrough right now.

At another level, this is a profoundly egregious error. What's taken out of the equation is God's will. Now when you take something out, it may seem like there's nothing left, but usually something takes its place. In this case, what takes its place is your will. By attacking God's will, now you are in control of your own destiny. You are sick? You haven't prayed enough. You haven't got breakthrough? There is something wrong with your faith. You don't have direction? You have not pressed into God enough. All of life's difficulties are boiled down to how you are performing in spiritual warfare—defined as your efforts in the spiritual realm to bring things down to the physical.

This is pure New Age spiritualism. (See the next article for a tabular summary outlining New Age, Word Faith and Evangelical Charismatic beliefs about faith.)

Conclusion

There are certain things that are simply incompatible with each other. We can either follow the oft-repeated way of surrendering ourselves, humbling ourselves, and coming to God for everything; or, we can assert our own will above God's and direct him to do what we want.

We can act on Christ's behalf as Christ's ambassadors, doing his bidding and what he wants done on earth; or, we can presume to have power in and of ourselves and do what we want to do.

There is a very real warning by Jesus and it may well be speaking of these very people:

Notice how the audience Jesus is speaking to do not do "the will of my Father", and yet perform these miracles. Following God's will is super important! Those who do not take heed of this may well miss that they've been deceived by New Age doctrine that desires to take them away from God through any means possible.

Nevertheless, if I had to pick anyone who would do something crazy for God, it would be these guys. If there was some imposing impenetrable fortress opposing God like Jericho, we may just need a crazy on-fire charismatic leader to believe that God wants us to walk and blow trumpets to defeat it. I just wish they would hunger for discernment with the same zeal.

And what a glimpse of the Body of Christ that would be: a group of people passionate for the truth, but full of courage to go and preach the Gospel with the power of God to confirm the Word. This is the Spirit pointing to the Word, and the Word revealing the Father, and the Father directing the Spirit once more. We want to come to the throneroom of God, and then believe what God says to us and go and do it with the zeal of Pentecostals, but always grounded in the truth of the Word like many solid Conservatives do. May it be so.