What are prayer declarations and words of faith? A prayer declaration is when people believe that praying in faith means to pray it as if it is so, so that it will be so. Words of faith are essentially the same thing; they believe that their words speak reality into existence. Those who teach these things take verses such as these below to justify their teachings. “as it is written, “A FATHER OF MANY NATIONS HAVE I MADE YOU”—in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.” - Romans 4:17 LSB Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit. - Proverbs 18:21 LSB
To start, let’s consider Romans 4:17 above, “... God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.” I cannot fathom how anyone could read this and interpret it as, “Wonderful! I can give life to the dead and call into being that which does not exist!” In context, who is this verse talking about? It is talking about the one and only Almighty God, the one who spoke creation into existence. Were you there at the beginning of creation? Do you believe that you are the one true, Almighty God? Do you even believe that you are a little "g" god?
Now, hypothetically speaking, I would imagine that someone who strongly believes that their words of faith or prayer declarations can manifest reality would say, “But aren’t we God’s children?” To that I would say, yes! If you are a born-again believer then you are God’s child, but that does not mean that you have become God, a god, or even that you have all the attributes of your heavenly Father. Some such examples are that when we are born again, we do not become omniscient (all knowing), yet our heavenly Father knows all. We do not become omnipresent (being present everywhere simultaneously), yet this is true of our Father. Those who claim that your words of faith and prayer declarations have literal power over sickness, life, death, etc. are in a way, claiming that you as God’s child are omnipotent, all powerful, but this is simply not true. Do you know what being a child of God does mean? It means that you have been saved from God’s wrath by the mercy, grace, and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. It means that your sins have been washed away by the blood of Christ. It means that you will stand before Him, not to be judged and condemned by your many sins but robed in the holiness and righteousness of Christ! Even more, being a child of God means that the Spirit of Christ dwells with your spirit to enable you to live in a way that pleases Him. What an amazing gift! But that is not all. By the power of the Spirit of God, you are able to be like God! “How so?” You may ask. By the power of the Holy Spirit and submission to Him and the word of God, you are able to have the fruit of the Spirit, so that you can be like your heavenly Father. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. - Galatians 5:22-23 LSB These are the incredible, powerful attributes of God and He enables His children to partake in them, if they will humbly submit themselves to the commands of His word and the guidance of His Spirit. These attributes of God when lived out by His children bring Him abundant glory and praise. This is what it looks like to live powerfully in the Holy Spirit. Can you not see the incredible beauty of this? Now, let us consider this verse: Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit. - Proverbs 18:21 LSB
Those in the word of faith movement, take these words literally. But why? Solomon certainly didn’t intend for them to be taken literally, just reading the second portion of this proverb makes that clear. “And those who love it will eat its fruit.” (Proverbs 18:21b) In Solomon’s day, were people killing people with their words or raising them to life with the power of their tongues? No. Does speaking life or death with your tongue produce a literal fruit that you can eat or give to others so they can eat it? No. These verses are metaphors about how our tongues can speak encouragement, truth, wisdom, good, etc. but they can also speak things that wound hearts and minds (metaphorically), wickedness, lies, deceptions and more. Our words have real power, but not in the way that the word of faith and prayer declaration teachers claim.
One of the most important questions we can ask is, what did Christ teach concerning words of faith and prayer declarations? This would be of utmost importance if He spoke on such a matter would it not? Let us look to the words of Christ found in Matthew 5:33-37. “Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE LORD.’ “But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of the evil one. - Matthew 5:33-37 LSB The word translated as oath is omnyō and it means: to swear, to affirm, to promise, to threaten, with an oath, to invoke, to declare, in swearing to call a person or thing as witness. Jesus actually commanded us, “make no oath at all” and the word oath can accurately be translated as to declare, to invoke, to affirm, to promise. How highly do you respect the words and commands of Christ?
There is more we can learn from the verses above. What is one of the reasons that Christ gives, for why you shall not make an oath (or declaration) by anything, not even by your own head, “for you cannot make one hair white or black.” Do you deny this reality? You do not have the ability to change a single one of your hairs to white or black. Why would you think that you can do great and powerful things when you cannot even do something as incredibly trivial and evident as changing the color of a single strand of your hair by your words of faith or prayer declarations. I will not ask you to try this, for to do so would be to ask you to disobey a command of God, but I will pray that you will humble yourself and that God would give you eyes to see and ears to hear truth for your good and for His glory.
I expect that I will write more concerning the false teachings of the word of faith and New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) in the future. Why? Because God seeks people to worship Him in spirit and in truth. Lies and deceptions do not glorify God and they do not enable His children to live in a way that pleases Him. What we believe matters, we are either growing in our love, knowledge, and obedience to His truth for His glory or we are being led further and further into the darkness of deception. I found it beautiful and encouraging when I heard Justin Peters say:
“Genuine Christians don’t stay in this movement... if the Holy Spirit of God is strong enough to save us, He is strong enough to deliver us out of deception. He bears witness to the truth. He convicts of error. He illumines the meaning of God’s word. He sanctifies us and a genuine Christian is not going to stay in this movement. God will deliver them out. The Holy Spirit of God loves us too much and loves Christ too much to leave His own in that level of deception.”
“And which of you by worrying can add a single cubit to his life span? Therefore, if you cannot do even a very little thing, why do you worry about other matters? - Luke 12:25-26 LSB ‘For they prophesy a lie to you in My name; I have not sent them,’ declares Yahweh. - Jeremiah 29:9 LSB
“So beware how you listen, for whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him.” - Luke 8:18 LSB
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” But as it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. Therefore, to one who knows to do the right thing and does not do it, to him it is sin. - James 4:13-17 LSB
If you are interested in watching the video where the Justin Peters quote came from, here is a link to it ((2998) Heresies of Word of Faith & New Apostolic Reformation | Costi Hinn & Justin Peters| SO4J-TV | Show 5 - YouTube).
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