Before I get started on this subject, I want it understood that I don’t hate any one of these people. I don’t wish any harm to come to them. If I hated anybody or I wished any harm on anybody I wouldn’t have the right to call myself a Christian and in a lot of cases I would be no better than some of these people.
I also don’t believe that it is a sin to be poor (as some of the Word of Faith teachers teach), I don’t believe that at all. But I do think that these people’s lifestyles and their very net worth is a bit on the side of ridiculous. But I will get more into that as I go forward.
As I said I don’t hate these people, and I don’t wish any harm on them. What I do wish is that their eyes would open to what they are doing wrong, that they would realize how far they have strayed and come back to the God who called them in the first place and get back on the path that He wanted them on. Where they are right now is a very very far way from there. And I do believe that instead of hating them and turning our backs on them we need to start and continue to pray for them. They don’t need our hatred, they need our prayer and a lot of love and guidance. Anybody can stray, “For a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again” Proverbs 24:16 (NKJV), and that same person can be restored. So as long as we’re clear on that……
However the Bible does instruct us to expose and call out False Teachers and that is exactly what I am doing here. And they are everywhere, and they keep cropping up every day more and more. The Bible does say that we are not to judge, but when it comes to Christians and within the church, we are instructed to judge within the church but then with a Godly judgement.
So for those who would want to use the excuse of “judge not, lest ye be judged”, Go further into the New Testament and go and study what the Bible says about Christians judging within the church and and exposing false teachers, you will find that I am well within my rights to judge here.
But anyway, let’s get started.
I’m starting the first post with the woman who has called herself a “Hooker for Christ”. First off that smacks of so much disrespect it is disgusting. I’m talking about Joyce Meyer. The pastor and owner of Joyce Meyer Ministries based in St Louis Missouri.
The term “Hooker for Christ” was started by a woman who while living in Las Vegas worked as a prostitute before finding Christ and coming to salvation. She started up a ministry called Hookers for Christ and the ministry is aimed at pulling these woman off the street, bringing them to Christ and helping them to restore and re-build their lives. All well and good and very honourable and not a bad ministry at all to start. But is the name really necessary? Seriously? Because looking at the name it tells me that these women are still prostitutes only they’re Christians now, at least that’s my first impression of this ministry at first glance.
Enter Joyce Meyer, who once interviewed the founder of this ministry and proceeded to start calling herself by the same name, “Hooker for Christ”.
But that’s only the start.
One of the biggest scandals to hit Joyce Meyer Ministries was the incident of Chris Coleman, the man who murdered his wife and two small sons in their sleep. I don’t know how many people actually know about this incident, but it was big enough to include it in one of the crime series on the Crime and Investigation Channel.
The story of Chris Coleman goes roughly like this….Chris worked for Joyce Meyer Ministries as one of Joyce’s bodyguards, being one of her bodyguards he travelled around the world with Joyce – as was part of his job description. Interviews with people close to the family revealed that Chris had a gorgeous wife, in every sense. An absolutely stunning woman, Godly in nature and a wife most men would only dream of having. And 2 beautiful little boys.
However, something went horribly wrong and Chris began having an affair with his wife’s best friend. Since he travelled a lot as one of Joyce’s bodyguards it made it easier for him to continue the affair since he could meet with his mistress in other countries without the risk of his wife finding out.
Time goes by and Chris wants a divorce and he wants to marry his mistress, but he has a problem; Joyce Meyer ministries has a 0 tolerance policy on divorce and any employee who gets divorced can kiss their job goodbye, the ministry doesn’t leave you to fend for yourself in these situations though, as far as my knowledge they do offer marriage counselling etc, they will do what they can to help…supposedly, you’ll see what I mean by that in a minute. Now Chris, has a nice cushy position with a huge salary, the chance to travel, and he’s not about to give that up. Which is the basis of his dilemma, but if his wife had to pass away………..
So Chris starts sending death threats…..to himself. Threats to himself, threats against his family. He’s quite cunning about it, since he sent the threats from outside devices to his home email, to his cellphone and a number of times the threats were sent from his computer at work from a fake email address he had set up for just this purpose.
At some stage Chris decides he needs to make this look authentic so he goes to the police about the threats to himself and his family. Obviously the complaint is now on record so shifting curiosity from him when the time came to finish what he had started.
All the while Chris is travelling around the world with Joyce and meeting his mistress in obscure motel/hotel rooms.
All the while, when questioned, Joyce claimed she had absolutely no knowledge of any of this going on right under her nose. Let’s consider for a second that this man was one of her closest bodyguards….and she knew nothing? Really??
So time goes by, Chris continuing to “receive” threats, a number of complaints are on record with the police of this, his plan, he thinks, is fool proof. And he decides it’s time to act. He tells his family one weekend that he will be out of town on business and leaves. In the early hours of one morning that weekend, he slips back into his house (obviously he didn’t leave) where his wife and two young boys are sleeping and strangles all three of them in their sleep. He then scatters their blood randomly around the rooms so as to add authenticity to the attack and to make it look like there was a struggle. Proceeds downstairs and in the blood of his family writes along the wall “you knew this would happen”, or something along those lines. He then slips out of the house after ransacking the downstairs area to once again make the attack look authentic and to show signs of a struggle.
He gets in his car and quietly drives a few miles away. He pulls out his cellphone and phones a neighbour, telling him that he is out of town for the weekend and asking if his neighbour would please check in on his family and make sure everything is still ok.
Obviously we know what the neighbour found.
Chris didn’t get away with it as you can imagine. The cops started questioning the authenticity of the threats and subpoenaed his work computer and that was his downfall since they discovered that this was one of the places where the threats were originating from. As far as I know Chris is still in prison to this day serving three consecutive life sentences.
Joyce testified at his trial, however her testimony was taken in a closed courtroom, with only the judge, the jury, the attorneys and Chris present. No cameras, or press of any kind were allowed into the courtroom and nobody knows what was said in her testimony. Although it is known that she has said that she had no knowledge of what was going on.
I’m sorry, I don’t believe that for a second, this man was one of the closest people to her, second to her family. When she was out, or when she travelled his job required him to be by her side at all times. And this came as a shock to her? Really??
Not long after Chris was sentenced and the trial was over a family member of the deceased wife decided to file a law suit against Joyce Meyer Ministries stating that she believed that they had had knowledge of what was going on and that they could have done more to prevent the tragedy. I hace to agree there. Joyce’s attorney immediately put forward a motion to have the law suit squashed stating that nothing in Missouri law obligated Joyce Meyer Ministries to do anything about what was going on even if they did have knowledge.
Now I have to think about that for second. This so-called woman of God, is hiding behind man’s law that does not obligate her to do anything about a potential murder plot unfolding right under her nose, never mind the affair that lead to it.
As a Pastor/Preacher/Evangelist, I have to ask what does God’s law obligate her to do? Or was it easier for her to hide behind man’s law and say “I didn’t have to do anything about it, so I didn’t” Did she have knowledge of the affair? I think she did, but let’s not forget she didn’t have to do anything about it, and apparently she didn’t.
Let’s not forget that this is the same woman who blatantly tells everybody and anybody, in her arrogance, that she is not a sinner.
Let’s look at everything that is wrong with Joyce Meyer and there is a lot – I think I could write a book.
First off Joyce Meyer as a woman, has no right to be pastoring a church….everybody is screaming at me now. But yes, it is true and being against a woman pastoring a church is biblically sound doctrine and I’ll prove it.
1 Timothy 2: 11-14 (NKJV) “Let a woman learn in silence with all submission. And I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man, but to be in silence. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression”.
Is Joyce Meyer learning in silence? No, she is teaching entire congregations and conferences of thousands. Does she have authority over a man? Definitely, watch any of her televised conferences and where do you find her husband?…..in the front row learning from his wife! Does this not seem a bit backwards to you? It definitely does to me. And let’s not forget that Dave Meyer is not the only man that is learning from his wife, the congregations that she teaches consist of both women and men.
This goes against everything that the Bible teaches on a woman’s place within the church. Her husband is not meant to be learning from her as a woman, in doing that he is handing over his place as Priest of the household to her and is in submission to his wife, this is completely against what the Bible teaches on the subject, and is completely the wrong way around from the way things are meant to be.
But since Mr Dave Meyer helps with the ministry and is basically one of his wife’s employees and at times – as nasty as this sounds – the word lapdog comes to mind, she’s kind enough to pay him a small monthly salary of around $450 000.00 a month, for a monthly sum like that I’m sure he’s happy to give up his place in the household. I’m sorry, but something seems very wrong with this picture. Her husband works for her, she is his boss, she pays his salary and then he still goes and sits in her congregations in submission to his wife and learns from her.
Something is very very wrong with this picture.
But let me add, I have no issue with a woman becoming a pastor I really don’t. In fact if I got a chance I would love nothing more than to have a degree in theology. My problem comes in when you use your role or ordinance as a pastor to teach where you have no right as a woman to teach. As a woman you should be only allowed to teach in certain areas of ministry, but not to pastor an entire church, that is not a woman’s place to teach a man.
Yet, Joyce seems to think this is perfectly acceptable, perfectly fine and doesn’t see the issue with what she does, or the fact that her husband is in submission to her. For those that going to get stuck on this point let me recommend this article so we can all move along.
http://carm.org/should-women-be-pastors-and-elders
Let’s get into the money side of things here.
Let’s first consider the difference between right and wrong when it comes to a ministry’s finances. Right would be to use the money that the ministry makes to further the spread of the gospel, to help those in need, to give to charity organizations etc to use that money for a purpose related to the ministry….right?
Wrong would be to manage to attain for yourself a tax exempt status so that any money you make is tax free and then use the money you make on yourself!!
But Joyce apparently has her ways of justifying things, she has blatantly stated that everything she has is God’s blessing and she does not feel the need to apologize for her lifestyle or what she owns. She has been known to have said that she expects the very best of everything for her ministry and for herself to look her best at all times. As an international evangelist, I agree, looking scruffy would not work for you….but how far does she need to take her need to look her best at all times and the best of everything?
And as she stated to an audience in Detroit Michigan during one of her conferences “Stay in your faith and you will get paid”. I didn’t realize we were getting paid for being Christians, this is news to me. If anybody knows where that statement is in the Bible, please let me know I’d really like to go and read it for myself and then possibly find out where my salary cheque is.
But let’s have a look at the breakdown of Joyce’s finances shall we….
What you are looking at below is Joyce Meyer’s home….a compound on which her children also live in houses number 2-5
And I was lucky enough in my research to come across a break-down of the costs involved in these houses.
House 1 – Belongs to Joyce and Dave Meyer
Purchase Price: Approximately $ 795,000.00
10,000 Square Feet
Improvements: $ 1,1 Million
Contains 6 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, Golf Putting Green, Swimming Pool, 8-Car Heated and Cooled Garage, 2 bedroom Guest House and a Gazebo
House 2 – Belongs to Joyce’s Daughter Sandra and her husband Steve
Purchase Price: $ 400,000.00
5,000 Square Feet
Improvements: $ 250,000.00
Contains 4 bedrooms, 3 full and 2 half bathrooms, an All-Season Room, Prayer Room, Media Centre and Home Office.
House 3 – Belongs to Joyce’s Son David and his Wife
Purchase Price: $ 725,000.00
4,000 square feet
Improvements: Unknown
2-Storey Colonnial, 4 Bedrooms, 2 ½ Bathrooms, 2 Garages and a Utility Shed
House 4 – Belongs to Joyce’s Daughter Laura and her husband Doug
Purchase Price: $ 350,000.00
2,358 square feet
Improvements: $ 3,000.00
3 Bedrooms, 2 Bathrooms and Fireplace
And finally…
House 5 – Belongs to Joyce’s son Dan and his wife Charity
Purchase Price: $ 200,000.00
2000 square feet
Improvements: $33,000.00
Brick ranch with a full finished basement.
Then we have – also bought by the ministry – Joyce and Dave’s $10 Million (Approximately R 100 million) Private Jet.
And the $500 000.00 vacation home that Joyce and Dave own (Approximately R 5 Million) situated at The Lake of the Ozarks.
I took the liberty of adding up the total value of all of this and we come to $22,5 Million (R 270 Million).
And my mind starts thinking of all the things I could do with that money that would actually be ministry driven. Human trafficking, how many safe houses in how many countries could you build with that kind of money? Since she’s very much involved in the human trafficking issue.
You could even build those safe houses and employ full time personnel like psychologists, a maid, social workers etc. And still not have scraped the tip of the ice berg.
Or how about the poor people just in her local community? Gee, I think with that kind of money I could put together a pretty good feeding scheme for the area, or even a teaching program to give the people skills and help them find decent jobs.
What about women’s shelter’s? how much could be done there?
We could clothe all of those people for years, the woman need bras for example (they don’t last forever), with that kind of money you could supply them all their basic needs and more, for goodness knows how long.
The list goes on and on as to what could be done with that kind of money that would be ministry driven, not “pleasing Joyce Meyer” driven.
But let’s continue because the money issue doesn’t end there.
The cars….
Dave Meyer drives a Mercedes S55 AMG Sedan valued at $107, 000.00 (R 1 070 000)
Joyce Drives the ministry’s 2002 Lexus SC with a retractable top valued at $ 53 000.00 (R 530 000)
Her son Dave drives the ministries 2001 Lexus Sedan value at $46 000.00 (R 460 000)
In addition the ministry apparently owns a fleet of vehicles valued at $440 000.00 (R 4 400 000)
According to an internal audit Joyce Meyer Ministries Life in the Word is estimated to bring in $95 Million dollars this year (R 950 000 000)
Her tv shows, regional conferences and fund raising is estimated to bring in approximately $8 Million per month (R 80 000 000)
Are you considering attending one of her conferences? Before you finalize any of your plans just consider that you will be paying $3000.00 per ticket (R 30 000.00). According to Joyce this is because she has employees to pay, she has to pay for her hair, make-up, wardrobe, obviously her 5-star hotel room (would she stay in anything less?) she has to pay for the venue, the equipment etc.
Sounds reasonable enough, until you look at the size of the audience that she attracts and you do the math at $3000.00 per ticket, you kind of get the idea that all she needs to pay for, the amount of money ticket sales brings in borders a tad on the side of overkill.
Take a look at the size of this audience and then remind yourself $3000 per ticket…
You do the math
And Joyce like all of us do (I would assume) likes to own nice things.
A Jefferson County Assessor’s list of Joyce Meyer Ministries read something like this….
$11 000.00 French Clock (R 110 000.00)
$105 000.00 Crownline Boat which is anchored at her $ 500 000.00 vacation home at Lake of the Ozarks (Boat R 1050 000.00 Vacation Home R 5 Milliion)
$19 000.00 Pair of Dresden Vases (R 190 000.00)
6 French Crystal Vases $18 500.00 Each (R 185 000.00 per vase x 6 = R 1 110 000.00)
$8 000.00 Dresden Porcelain Depicting Nativity (R 80 000.00)
2 Curio Cabinets valued at $5 800.00 each (R 58 000.00 per cabinet x 2 = R 116 000.00)
$5 700.00 Porcelain of the Crucifixion (R 57 000.00)
Pair of Germain Porcelain Vases valued at $5 200.00 each (R 52 000.00 x 2 = R 104 000.00)
Then we have the office décor.
$30 000.00 Malachite Round Table (R 300 000.00)
$23 000.00 Marble-topped antique commode (R 230 000.00)
$14 000.00 Custom office bookcase (R 140 000.00)
$7000.00 Stations of the Cross in Dresden Porcelain (R 70 000.00)
$6 300.00 Eagle Sculpture on a Pedestal (R 63 000.00)
$5000.00 Silver Eagle (R 50 000.00)
Numerous paintings bought for between $1 000.00 to $4 000.00 each (R 10 000.00 – R 40 000.00)
Joyce’s Private Office Suit
Conference table and 18 chairs valued at $49 000.00 (R 490 000.00)
Woodwork in both Joyce and Dave’s offices valued at $44 000.00 (R 440 000.00)
Unfortunately I couldn’t find pictures of these things.
The assessment was apparently done in an attempt to remove Joyce Meyer Ministries tax exempt status, unfortunately they failed in the attempt.
But the assessor’s final records showed personal property of close to $ 5.7 Million (R 57 000 000.00)
In furniture, artwork, glassware, the latest equipment and machinery all filling a building of 158 000 square feet. Which contains one small chapel for employees use only and is off limits to the public.
So when we add up everything that we have here we come to a total of……..Ok, I can’t even read the number I came out with, but you’re welcome to do the math yourself.
But once you do and you come to your total….consider this….out of all of that money per month the ministry gives a total of $ 880 000.00 to charity. Wow!! Could they spare it??
But this is what Prosperity Gospel teaches, that we are entitled to these riches, we are entitled to blessings to this extent. Joyce Meyer has been quoted as saying that all of this is her reward and that she is living her reward today.
Being a church ministry all the money she brings in is tax free, being a church ministry she is exempt from tax.
But I think for us honest, decent Christians being in this position and not attempting to hide behind a false teaching to justify dishonesty, would take the money we get in, yes, live off some of it to some extent (we also need to live) but the bulk of it would be sent back out to do the Lord’s work, or am I wrong? I don’t think I am.
Look at the amount of ministry money this woman has squandered on rubbish and just think for a minute the amount of places and the amount of things that could have been done with that money to put it to better use. After all, that money is not hers, it belongs to the ministry and ultimately the money belongs to God Himself and is to be used for His work. Not for “pleasing Joyce and Dave Meyer” and making sure they can keep their lavish lifestyle.
It disgusts me, it honestly does, and these false teachers like Joyce Meyer, who as I said earlier has no right or place to be preaching in public as a woman in the first place, will teach that being poor is a sin!! What!!?? Yes, you heard right, according to proponents of Prosperity Gospel if you are poor and you are not living in the blessings of God like she is, then there is some unconfessed sin in your life, or you are doing something wrong and you need to find the problem, deal with it and sort it out and the blessings will flow. Really? I have never heard such a load of rubbish in my life.
Yes, of course God wants to bless us, He loves us that much, but to this extent?, to the extent of living a sin filled life in preaching to the world as a woman, knowing one of your employees is committing adultery and doing nothing about it, possibly knowing of the murder plot unfolding under your nose and not doing anything about it and then still lying on top of it and saying you knew nothing (I do not believe her story that she didn’t know what Chris Coleman was up to). And then to still squander the ministry and ultimately the Lord’s money to keep yourself happy I don’t think this adds up with a God who would bless a person like this that is not the God I know as my Father, curse you, punish you? Definitely, bless you? For lying, covering up adultery and possibly a murder, squandering money that doesn’t belong to you, going against what His Word says about preaching as a woman and doing it anyway…..bless you? I don’t think so.
I remember watching Joyce Meyer preach a while back on the fact that she is a woman and a preacher and saying that this was God’s calling on her life and making it into a bit of a funny anecdote. And I have to ask myself now, would God go against His own Word…..No. And 1 Timothy 2:11-14 states very clearly about woman as preachers.
And then I remember the verse in Deuteronomy which speaks very clearly about what happens to you when you put words in His mouth and say He said something when He didn’t.
Deuteronomy 18:20(NKJV) “But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.” You will NEVER hear me say emphatically that the Lord said something to me, or did something, unless I am 150% sure of my statement/facts. Not because I’m afraid of the consequences, more because it’s just plain downright disrespectful. I always use the words “I think” or something along those lines, that way I’m leaving room for error. And that was a lesson I learnt from a Pastor.
Let’s discuss Joyce Meyer Ministries Tax Problems
According the American Law (I did read up on this) – when a religious institution is Tax Exempt they have to fall under certain criteria some of which includes –
• A cap/limit on salaries (do we want to have another look at Dave Meyer’s salary)
• A limited amount of possessions that the Ministry may own (do we want to have another look at what the ministry owns)
• A religious organization can only be tax exempt if the property is being used for the public good and if regular public church services are held there. Joyce Meyer Ministries is off limits to the public and only has one chapel for employees use only.
• Exempt religious property cannot be held for private or corporate profit (the county assessor has determined that Joyce and her family are benefiting financially from the ministry)
• A tax exempt institution cannot take royalties on any books and such that it sells (Joyce Meyer claims royalties)
Joyce Meyer Ministries has been under investigation for Tax Evasion, their attorney advised Joyce to sell some of their properties and lower some salaries to avoid prosecution. What did Joyce do? She shifted some money around. Last I checked that was called Money Laundering, Joyce Meyer Ministries generates over $100,000,000.00 of filthy, dishonest, dirty money per year and then she runs it through her Ministry Washing Machine and it comes out of the Laundry as “White-As-Snow” – just like she WANTS you to believe she makes your sins . . .
But since we’re on the subject of her teaching let’s get onto that and see how far she actually goes as a false teacher.
And I am directly quoting some of her here.
She does not believe that Jesus paid for our sin on the cross. Instead she believes that Jesus spent the 3 days before His resurrection in hell being tormented and it was there that he made atonement for our sins.
• “During that time He entered hell, where you and I deserved to go (legally) because of our sin…He paid the price there.…no plan was too extreme…Jesus paid on the cross and in hell….God rose up from His throne and said to demon powers tormenting the sinless Son of God, “Let Him go.” Then the resurrection power of Almighty God went through hell and filled Jesus…He was resurrected from the dead the first born-again man” (Taken from “The Most Important Decision You Will Ever Make 1991 pg 35-36)
Let’s examine this – 1 John 4:1-2 (NKJV) “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.”
She’s not outright denying Christ, what she is saying is that the Cross was not enough, that He had to descend into hell to be tormented there as well to make atonement for us. To me that’s slapping Him in the face and saying the death He suffered wasn’t good enough, which by the way is a teaching that all cults teach, that the Cross was not enough. But my biggest issue here is Jesus being tormented in hell….think about that for a second. It doesn’t gel does it?
Nope, Jesus did descend into hell, that’s where He was for 3 days, but He went first of all to teach the prophets that were in the paradise compartment about His work on earth and what He had accomplish and to let them know that they now had access to Heaven itself through Him and basically to fetch them. Also to fetch the keys to hell, which He now has control over.
“There is no hope of anyone going to heaven unless they believe this truth…” (The Most Important Decision You Will Ever Make 1996 Edition pg 43) – Meaning the above quote – That’s not blatant at all, is it?
Other quotes include
• That when Jesus was on the cross He did not stay dead but went to hell – No Comment…Really.
• “Jesus is the first born again man” – actually the thief next to him on the Cross was the first Born-Again man…Luke 23:43 (NKJV) “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” I would really like her to explain how The Son of God can be Born-Again or even how she can believe this is necessary….or just generally where she gets this rubbish from, how does this make sense to her?
• “Jesus stopped being the Son of God” – Really? This is a very very dangerous false teaching, this is a direct attack on the very nature and person of Jesus Himself. She is saying that Jesus was no longer part of the Trinity, no longer God’s son (see 1 John 4:1-2), that His divinity was gone and He was no longer our Saviour essentially. He was no longer who He said He was. She is treading on very thin ice with this one. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that Jesus EVER stopped being the Son of God. My suggestion is that she retract this statement and very quickly, she is adding to Scripture, Revelation 22:18 (NKJV) “For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the Holy City, and from the things which are written in this book”
• “Jesus was born again” – She is implying that Jesus who was innocent, without sin and blameless, needed to be Born –Again and changed, the same as we as human beings who are not innocent, full of sin and blame need to be changed?? Think about that for a second. And consider this as well…God requires the shedding of innocent blood to atone for sin, if Jesus needed to be changed/Born-Again that implies that His blood was not innocent and then what point was there to Calvary?
• “Jesus paid for our sins in hell” – Wrong, the Cross was full and final payment for our sin John 19:30 (NKJV) “So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said ‘It is finished!’ and bowing His head, He gave up His spirit.” (emphasis mine).
• “We are called little gods” – her theory is that when you have a baby you call it a human kind, when say cattle give birth to a calf it’s called cattle kind (where she gets this is beyond me), so what was God supposed to call us. I don’t know, Joyce, maybe human beings? Blasphemy much?
• Joyce Meyer said she is not a sinner – Wait let me give you the whole quote “I am not poor, I am not miserable and I am not a sinner” Basic Bible 101 – 1 John 1:8 (NKJV) “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” please note that John used the words “we” and “us” putting himself in the same spot as other sinners.
Romans 7:19-24(NKJV) Paul wrote “For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death”. Is Joyce Meyer anywhere remotely close to the Christian maturity and level of character of John and Paul? I think not. Arrogance is an ugly thing “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble” let’s leave that there.
• “The hosts of hell were literally on Jesus and were laughing: The host of hell were literally on Jesus and were laughing” – I am utterly speechless here.
• Joyce Meyer gets revelation knowledge – I have a question, is Joyce Meyer in the same league as the apostles? Or the Old Testament prophets? That she receives revelation from God Himself?. I think not, I don’t know what Bible she is reading but half the stuff she teaches I suspect comes out of the sacred book of JoyceMeyeronomy, none of what she teaches is anywhere in my Bible. So, I don’t know. But, again 1 John 4:1-2….Test the spirits. If she’s getting revelation knowledge from anywhere it is definitely not from the God I serve. I don’t doubt that there are those Christians that God will give this knowledge to if He sees fit and according to His discretion, but I definitely don’t see Him giving this type of knowledge to somebody who so openly preaches a false gospel.
• “Words are containers for power” – Not God, no, ‘words’ contain power according to Joyce, as an ex-practitioner of Paganism (specifically witchcraft) This is an ancient Egyptian metaphysical construct…In layman’s terms….Pagan!!
A number of Word of Faith preachers are proponents of this teaching, that by our words and positive affirmations we are able to create our own realities. They tend to focus on Genesis 1 and God speaking the universe into being to back this up. The fact that we as human beings are Not God, doesn’t seem to faze them and Joyce Meyer is right in the middle with the rest of them.
• “If you stay in your faith, you are going to get paid” – Really?!
• “The Lord recently showed me that we can bless or curse the financial seed we sow. We can speak positively about our financial future, or we can say things like, ‘I can’t afford it’ . . . ‘Every time I turn around something happens to take my money’. . . . We should water our giving with the water of His word and expect an abundant harvest. Sow your seed and speak prosperity scriptures over your finances.”
I have to tear this apart properly….using all the Scriptures that Prosperity Gospel Preachers avoid like the plague.
Matthew 19:24 (NKJV) – “And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God”
Matthew 19: 16 & 21(NKJV) – “Now behold one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” 21 “Jesus said to him, “if you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come, follow Me”
James 2:5(NKJV) – “Listen, my beloved brethren: has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?”
Acts 4:34-35 (NKJV) – “Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostle’s feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need”
Matthew 6:24 (NKJV) – “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Money)
Job 27:16-17 (NKJV) – “Though he heaps up silver like dust, and piles up clothing like clay – he may pile it up, but the just will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver”
Proverbs 13:22 (NKJV) – “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children, but the wealth of the sinner is stored up for the righteous”
Matthew 6:19-21 (NKJV) – “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures one earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be”
I could go on and on and on…but I think we get the message.
Till next time
You’re in Christ’s service
Shalom
daughterofyhwh 