The Word of Faith “prosperity gospel” movement promises health, wealth, prosperity, and power - usually guaranteed when you give a financial contribution ("seed offering") to their ministries.
One look at the bookshelves in a Christian bookstore or online gives witness to the movement with titles like:
5 Steps to Release God's Power for Promotion and Increase in Your Life
The Laws of Prosperity
God Wants You To Be Rich
The Power of I Am
Your Best Life Now
You're Supposed to be Wealthy
Speak What You Want and Receive it Supernaturally
Release Your Destiny
Prosperity is the Whole Gospel
and so many others.
It is a movement that falsely promises we can “name it and claim it,” and God will deliver, or that we will receive supernatural experiences by tapping into the power of the Holy Spirit as if he is ours to command and manipulate like a genie in a bottle to give us whatever power, experience, or material thing we want. Both teachings overshadow the true gospel of Christ and living a life in humble obedience and surrender to Him.
The thing is, our requests are not promised to be granted just because we ask. What IS promised is that God will give us whatever we pray for that is in agreement with his will: "And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him." (1John 5:14-15)
He delights in giving us what will bring the evidence of his Holy Spirit into our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23), but he will not say yes to requests that come from a wrong motive (James 4:3: "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures."), or when we ask out of a prideful sense of entitlement (James 4:6: "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.").
If we are genuinely seeking God's will then our motives will be pure, our hearts will be humble, and our desires will line up with His. Even Jesus, who asked to be spared from being crucified prayed "not my will but yours be done" (Luke 22:42), then responded in humility and obedience.
The Lord invites us to come to him with boldness and confidence (Hebrews 4:16) and to bring him our petitions (Philippians 4:6), but we must also make sure our hearts are in the right place; that we are coming before the throne of grace with an attitude of submission and glorifying God instead of elevating ourselves.
Amen.
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