This is a real good sermon in which the Word of faith is mentioned quite a bit.

The testimony of my involvement with Word of Faith and Charismatic movement spans for a period of 22 years. How I left the wacky world of Word of Faith/ Charismania is what I will be sharing here. It was in 1987 that a business partnership went bad, my wife and I were facing a looming disaster with the possibility of a foreclosure, losing the business, and our whole lives being crushed all at the same time.

The a few years before this I rededicated my life to the Lord Jesus with the birth of my daughter. I found out that most of my in-laws were born again Christians and started to hang around my 2 brother-in law who were involved with Full Gospel Businessmen Fellowship International. It was at this time that I started to watch Christian TV, and found out about the prosperity gospel through Kenneth Copeland, Frederick Price, Benny Hinn and the Word of Faith. It seemed like a God send at the time, concerning the huge financial problems I was facing, but I was to find out later that the false gospel of prosperity was an abject failure.

It was at a Full Gospel dinner that a new Pastor out of Rhema Bible Training center was opening up a new Church in Bethel Ct. so we all decided to attend. The indoctrination into word of faith began. The first thing you are taught is tithing, so I went jumped in with both feet. I was giving offerings to all the TV ministries, you name it and I gave to Copeland, Tilton, Price, Oral Roberts, Full Gospel and the Word of Faith Church I was attending.

I was totally caught up in this doctrine as the way out of my problems. Little did I realize that I was getting deeper in debt. The time was getting closer that the business had to be sold or just walk away. At the time it was my wife and I were working 14 hrs a day 6 days a week just to keep the business running so that we could sell it. A dear Christian brother who went home to be with the Lord a few years, heard of our dilemma  and offered to work for us for whatever we could pay him.

What a blessing that was for my wife and I especially with a young daughter in tow. Sal and I would pray every day that the Lord to send the customer’s in to the store. The Lord honored our prayers and were able to keep the business running till a buyer became interested. My sister in law was committed to the Word of Faith teachings and told me to walk around the store 7 times and the Lord would sell the business. I was desperate, instead of reading my Bible and communicating with God. I walked around the store 7 times, because she said Joshua did it in Jericho,but what she left out was that God told Joshua to march around the walls of Jericho and then blow the trumpet and then God cuased the walls to fall down from the inside out. This is the type of false teaching that comes out of Rhema it is based on pure superstition.

The only way that we could sell the business was to take a down payment which payed the vendors and a monthly payment  for a year which the buyer eventually defaulted. In turn my one bedroom condo was foreclosed on and my family left Connecticut and moved to Naples Florida in 1994. All of this happened at a time of going to a Word of Faith Church, attending Full Gospel meetings giving tithes and offerings all over the place. I felt like an abject failure because of what people were saying that I didn’t have enough faith thats why all this stuff happened to me.

At the time the Word of Faith Church was becoming more and more legalistic. The teachings of Kenneth Hagin were not working, I bought up every book possible such as You can write you own ticket with God and Authority of the Believer. Nothing was working as it was preached name and claim it, confess it and posses it. I mean all this false teaching was failing and my walk with the Lord was suffering. Full Gospel was devolving into a bless me club as they embraced the next false prophet that blew into town who was full of himself and not the Holy Spirit. There was a Jezebel spirit running loose in the Word of Faith Church I was  attending, no it is called sin and the Pastor had to step down because he was involved in adultery as well as the Music Minister. I left the church before everything blew up. I was on my way out of the Charismatic life, but I still loved the Lord and was determined to know Him and serve Him in a greater way. I changed Churches and started attending an Assembly
of God Church in Stamford CT. for a year then it was time to to Florida.

Once in Florida I tried many different Charismatic Churches that preached the gifts of the Spirit but never saw any evidence of the Gifts in operation. Charismatic Christianity was becoming more and more of a side show. The Jim Baker scandal, Jimmy Swaggart scandal,Robert Tilton scandal. Every one of the scandals in ministry had a corresponding blow of lack of trust and integrity with these TV preachers. You can go right down the line, the scandals are too numerous to mention. It did have an effect on me and it caused me to question what were my real beliefs and  allowed me time to dedicate my time to study the Bible more and know what God’s Word really says and how to apply it in my life.

For about 10 years I was in a dry spot with the Lord and I was dry, going through the travails of life, numerous surgeries and now dealing with prostate cancer. My sister-in-law told me about a wonderful non denominational Church that she was attending and ask me to go to a service. I started to attend services, but didn’t go regularly due to the fact of surgeries and going back to college to get my degree.

Once I graduated college and surgeries were finished. I started to attend the non denominational Church regularly and attend a weekly Bible study. The diagnosing of prostate cancer caused me to get right with God very quickly. I started to realize that my relationship with Him was not as it should be. As the Pastor preached his sermon on Sundays I became more  and more aware of the catch phrases positive negative and faith, almost every sunday sermon ended with a faith conclusion which I heard being preached before in the Word of Faith in CT. Bells and whistles started going off in my mind. Could it be possible that I would be attending a Word of Faith Church again. Yes it was possible, upon further research I found out that the Pastor was a graduate of Rhema and that the Associate Pastor was also a graduate of Rhema. I did not leave a Word of Faith Church in Ct to only go back in one here in Florida. Whether the Pastor preaches Word of Faith or Word of Faith lite it is still from
Rhema.

I brought this to the attention of my brother and sister in law and they said to me the Pastor is not preaching Rhema doctrine, but it sure sounded like it to me.

After one Sunday service in which the Pastor mentioned that every one in the congregation should buy Charles Capps book The Tongue the Creative Force, I had it and  left the Church. You see for the last 6 months there were many references to Rhema doctrine but it is so subtle that if you are not keyed into to the message it would fly over your head and would not catch it. Combined with the Todd Bentley’s false revival of last year the Lord had me on a true search of where the Charismatic, Healing revivals and Word of Faith intersected. The picture that developed was horrific, add to Joseph Chambers expose on Kenneth Hagin and the Spirit of Serpent in which a Holy Ghost turned into a laughing debacle in which Hagin was full of demon spirits causing people to slither out of their seats and hissing at everyone. I had it I had to move on and put this Charismatic chaos behind me.

I have been attending the Fist Baptist Church here in Naples FL for the last month and half and I am now a member and happy to be out of that Charismatic Chaos that I was involved with for all those years. Praise the Lord because Jesus has set me free!!!!!!!!!!!!

Miscarriage Disaster

While attending Rhema, my wife thought she was pregnant midway through the our second year. We already had four and thought of another one at this time was too much. She was going to school, taking care of the house and kids plus we had started another business so I wouldn’t have to be gone from home all the time.

She didn’t say anything to me for a time. She found herself thinking about not wanting a child. She was very distressed about it. She regretted it. She wished she could change it. She was just so busy right now. We both love kids. At any other time she would have been delighted.

A few weeks later she began to spot. Then she began bleeding more heavily. She finally told me about the pregnancy. She was worried now because she lost our first child due to a miscarriage. She went to the doctor and he said the fetus had died and she would have to have a D&C.

She started to become depressed. She felt she had brought this on by her negative thoughts and maybe she even confessed she didn’t want this baby. She thought she had created this situation. She had committed a mental abortion of the child. After all, at Rhema they taught us that negative confessions will produce negative results. Surely, this was her fault.

She had the D&C and I thought that was the end of it. I knew we both felt real bad losing another child like that. I didn’t know what was going on in her head though. She was very distressed. She kept feeling very guilty that she had brought this into existence by her negative confession. She was tormented. So much so she quit school just 2 months from graduation. She felt she had lost her salvation. She felt alone and God had abandoned her.

She had become another casualty of the Word of Faith teaching. What you confess is what you will possess. You can have what you say. Write your own ticket with God or the devil if you don’t confess properly, I guess.

To this day she still cries when she talks about this. Did she cause this child to die in her womb because of a negative confession? She doesn’t believe that any longer but it did take a toll.

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/03/25/Losing_Reli…

William Lobdell criticizes Christian faith healers such as Trinity Broadcast Network star Benny Hinn, who he calls a “charlatan,” and wonders why other mainstream pastors on TBN do not condemn Hinn. “Where’s the courage within Christianity?” he asks.

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William Lobdell’s journey of faith — and doubt — may be the most compelling spiritual memoir of our time. Lobdell became a born-again Christian in his late 20s when personal problems drove him to his knees in prayer.

As a newly minted evangelical, Lobdell — a veteran journalist — noticed that religion wasn’t covered well in the mainstream media, and he prayed for the Lord to put him on the religion beat at a major newspaper. In 1998, his prayers were answered when the Los Angeles Times asked him to write about faith.

Yet what happened over the next eight years was a roller-coaster of inspiration, confusion, doubt, and soul-searching as his reporting and experiences slowly chipped away at his faith. He explored every doubt, every question — until, finally, his faith collapsed. – Kepler’s Books

William Lobdell has been a journalist for 25 years, winning scores of state and national awards. In 1998, he was assigned to the religion beat for the Los Angeles Times. During his eight years covering faith, he was a finalist for national religion writer of the year in 2002, 2003 and 2004. He left the religion beat when he lost his faith, in 2007.

Special thanks go out to MKayla for transcribing this video. She did a great job

JOHN EDWARDS TESTIMONY:

Hey guys! My name is John Edwards.  I’m a Rhema Graduate. I went to Rhema Bible Training Center in 96-98 and I was ordained by Kenneth Hagin and came to Alabama, started a church called The Edge then we changed the name to Hillside Church.

About January of 2008 I decided to leave the Word of Faith Movement. What I want to do is to put together a series of YouTubes; I want to help people out there who are trapped in the Word of Faith.

Word of Faith is a dangerous, cultic movement. And it’s so similar to the new age message that it’s right there beside it – and it sucks you in. Word of Faith – what attracted me to it is that I thought I could have a say in my life. I always had fear of maybe losing my kids or getting cancer or going bankrupt. I heard the Word of Faith message as it was presented by Kenneth Hagin and it gave me hope that I could have a say for my life.

And the dangerous thing about the Word of Faith is that it puts the believer in the driver’s seat and it puts God and His will and His plan for your life in the back seat.  The whole Word of Faith movement is based on one passage of scripture in Mark chapter 11, verse 23, Jesus said “Whosoever shall say to until this mountain be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart thou shall believe those things that he sayeth, the things shall come to pass and he shall have whatsoever he said”.

Now what they did – Jesus was a Jewish Rabbi; He spoke in Aramaic. And a real popular teaching idiom back then in that culture was a phrase “moving a mountain”. It meant to cut through red tape, it meant to do the impossible with God. And Jesus was using a hyperbole in His teaching. It was an on- purpose exaggeration. You know where Jesus said if your eye causes you to sin to pluck it out, and He talked about hating your mother or father in comparing to loving Him? He doesn’t really want you to hate your mother or dad or pull your eyeballs out, He’s just using an exaggeration to prove a point on purpose to show how powerful faith is.

When Jesus was talking to his disciples and said “If you say to the mountain move -and it will move if you believe and not doubt”.  His disciples had sense enough to know He was using an exaggeration to show them an example of the power of faith. Now what the faith preachers did- namely Kenneth Hagan whom I love, I went through the school, I’m not mad at him, but he was wrong. What they did is they made a science of every little word that Jesus said as hyperbole; they made a science on it. What the Word of Faith does is that it teaches you that you can have what you say. They take that last phrase that Jesus said “he shall have whosoever he said” and made a whole religion on how to get everything you need from God. And the dangerous thing about it is that it puts fear in the believer.

Word of Faith people are the most legalistic, paranoid, superstitious, in-bondage people I have ever known in my life. And you know what?  I’m part of the problem!  I preached the heresy for eight years. I taught people they could have what they say, and that’s not what Jesus said. At the most what Jesus said that you will have what you say to the mountain.

But Word of Faith teachers and Word of Faith Christians actually believe that whatever comes out of your mouth is actually going to happen. For instance, if you say” oh my back’s killing me”, they believe you’re going to develop cancer of the spine or something. If you say “oh my heads killing me” they’ll think you’re gonna get a brain tumor. They believe that your words will create entities in themselves and they’re not.

Your words are powerful. I can cuss you out with my words and make you mad. I can tell jokes and make you laugh. I can build you up or I can cut you down. But I cannot create things with my words as is taught by the Word of Faith. So the new age message, this humanism message is that man is God, that we all together as man we are God.  We can do anything.  We have our own wisdom and our own life.  The Word of Faith message is very, very similar. It tricks you into thinking you’re in control of your life. You are in control of your destiny. I know because I taught this for many years. It’s a cult. It was founded on cultic principles.

E.W. Kenyon was a Baptist preacher who was very involved in new age and new thought and metaphysics. He went to a school in Boston that was covered up with new age and new thought.  If you’ve heard about the new book called The Secret, if you’ve ever watched that – it’s new age – it’s humanism- it’s garbage– it’s counterfeit Christianity. It’s a counterfeit faith. Okay? And EW Kenyon took the principles of the new age, the new thought, The Secret, metaphysics and he blended it in with the bible to make another gospel – the gospel of me, the gospel of my words.

And the Word of Faith was then picked up by Kenneth Hagin who took Kenyon’s writings and then expanded on them. And the dangerous thing about the Word of Faith is it’s all centered on the power of your words, being the prophet of your own life, you, as a human, being in control of your destiny.

It’s also a very materialistic, money-minded movement. You can go to any Word of Faith preacher or TV or any Word of Faith church and they can’t preach for 10 minutes without talking about money.  They’re obsessed with money, they’re obsessed with wealth, they’re obsessed with cars and rings, and big churches and TV’s and helicopters and jets.  It’s a dangerous movement, folks. There’s a lot of deception there.

The Word of Faith as it’s taught by Word of Faith preachers today, Kenneth Hagin, Michael Murdock, people taught like I did. I’m John Edwards, I know you never heard of me, but I taught it. Its not the new covenant, it’s not the New Testament. It’s a delusion, it is a lie, and it is a twist of scriptures.  It’s designed to get your heart and your mind off of Jesus, off of the kingdom of God and on onto your bank account and on to your words. It produces fear, bondage and legalism. It’s counterfeit. It’s not the New Testament. The New Testament is about God loving you in your sins and sending Jesus His Son to die for you so that you can believe in Him and be borne again. To have all your sins forgiven, removed forgotten, so that you can have a personal Father – son, Father – daughter relationship with Almighty God to help you through life to give you the peace you need, to help you with your problems. And it’s about having eternal life.  When you die you go to live with God the Father and Jesus in heaven forever. That is the good news; that is the gospel.

But the Word of Faith preachers have turned it around into a self help gospel of me. And what I want you to do is get you a New Testament, go to a Christian book store and buy the New Testament on CD and just listen to it. Just listen to the word of God. It’s a new covenant. It’s not a covenant of prosperity, health and wealth.  It’s a covenant of dying to yourself to love others, to serve others. It’s a gospel of spreading God’s love to everyone. When you put others first, you love your neighbor as yourself. You put God first, you put Jesus first. You do have a God that will meet your needs. You do have a God that will heal your body, but Him meeting your needs and Him healing your body- that’s just a small part of the big truth of your redemption.

The Word of Faith is like putting a frog in a pot of water and turning the heat up, just start boiling the water, and he’s swimming around, and kicking around and he doesn’t know anything’s wrong! And before you know it –he’s cooked!  That’s what happened to me!  I started out wanting wanted to get The Faith.  Why? So I could love God more? No. So I could be in control of my life. Look. I learned. I don’t want to be in control of my life, I want Jesus in charge of my life.

So, please come back and have a look at some more of these later.

God bless you.

I’m John Edwards

Bye-bye

read this blog post about this video

Signs And Wonders Movement Exposed: THE VIDEO SERIES THAT EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST SEE!!!!!!

THIS IS THE VIDEO SERIES THAT EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST SEE!!!!!!!

This powerful 2 DVD set contains three full length documentaries exposing the signs and wonders movement. The money scandals, the false miracles and the manipulative methods of the likes of Benny Hinn, Paul Crouch, Morris Cerullo, John Avanzini and Rodney Howard-Browne are fully revealed on camera. This shocking material is desperately needed as a cure for the mass-hysteria and worldwide deception being perpetrated by this movement. The DVDs feature expert commentary from leading Christian experts in this field. Coded for all regions (such as USA and UK). Nearly 4 hours total running time.

Agony of Deciet: The Health & Wealth Gospel #1: Historical Roots of This False Religion VIDEO

Agony of Deciet: The Health & Wealth Gospel #2: Touch Not the Lord’s Annointed gods VIDEO

Agony of Deciet: The Health & Wealth Gospel #3: Miracles for Money VIDEO

Agony of Deciet: The Health & Wealth Gospel #4: The Cult of the Tele-Evangelists VIDEO

Agony of Deciet: The Health & Wealth Gospel #5: Negating Positive Confession VIDEO

THIS VIDEO IS A PART OF A 5 PART SERIES. All parts are 1 hour in length but well worth the time, as I have seen most every Word of Faith exposure videos. And in my opinion it is the very best,, this series is even better than Justin Peters series called “A Call for Discernment”

Mat 24:23-28 Signs and Wonders: Expository VIDEO SERMON

This one the best as it is all exegetical expository preaching. If I lived in London,, this is the church I would go to. Damon

On February 1st Suzanne Hinn, wife of famous televangelist Benny Hinn, filed divorce papers in a southern California court. The documents cite irreconcilable differences as grounds for the legal action. News of the divorce has rocked Hinn`s worldwide following and has already been used as fodder for critics of the controversial healer`s ministry.

Don Price, senior advisor to Mr. Hinn, stated in a Press release that “Pastor Benny Hinn and his immediate family were shocked and saddened to learn of this news. The couple has been married for more than 30 years, and although Pastor Hinn has faithfully endeavored to bring healing to their relationship, those efforts failed and were met with the petition for divorce that was filed without notice.”

Confidential sources have informed Christianity Today that the Hinn marriage has been in trouble for a long time and that the divorce proceedings were no shock to Benny Hinn. CT tried unsuccessfully to reach Benny Hinn and Mr. Price for comment.

Suzanne Hinn is being represented by Sorrell Trope, a legendary figure in divorce litigation. His previous clients include Cary Grant, Rod Steiger, Nicole Kidman and Elin Nordegren, wife of Tiger Woods. Mrs. Hinn was unavailable for comment. The couple was married in 1979 and have four children.

Lee Grady, contributing editor of Charisma magazine, told CT that the impact of divorce on Benny Hinn’s ministry will depend on the nature of their marriage problems. Grady also said that the charismatic world “has been shaken to its core in recent years by a number of high-profile leaders who haved divorced or had moral failures. Many charismatics I know are troubled by this, and they feel it is time for deep introspection, repentance and a rejection of the shallow, celebrity Christianity that has typified much of our movement.”

Reporting by James A. Beverley

Christianity Today

Part I and Part II

Smoke and Mirrors. However, “Benny Hinn: Show Must Go On”

This great video examines biblical texts used by those who practice being Slain in the Spirit.

See this post

Kim Clement prophesies about Haiti Earthquake — AFTER THE FACT!

This news clip video is from the outro to video #1 from this series
Signs And Wonders Movement Exposed: THE VIDEO SERIES THAT EVERY CHRISTIAN MUST SEE!!!!!!!
http://thewordonthewordoffaithinfoblo…

Prosperity teachers are getting bolder and bolder these days.

A CNN interview with Ole Anthony of the Dallas, TX-based Trinity Foundation, which has been looking into the lavish lifstyles of the “blab it and grab it” TV preachers.

Do my “profits” no harm….
Would Jesus Wear a Rolex
Performed By: Ray Stevens
Written By: Chet Atkins and Margaret Archer

David Wilkerson preaches against the false Gospel of prosperity and self being embraced wholesale by many in the Church. The Gospel of ‘Health & Wealth’ is a dangerous heretical message which twists Scriptures to feed the flesh of those who want their “Best Life Now”.

A powerful message delivered with passion and urgency, “Another Gospel” (preached originally in 1999) is a message to both those who are caught up in the ‘Word of Faith / prosperity” heresy and those who are deeply concerned with the current state of the Church.

Edifying and sound – go and share it with your friends!

Please feel free to upload it to your own sight! (The message is taken from sermonindex.com and is not copyright).