Beware of Prosperity Preachers
Beware of anyone who tries to stifle the screams of faith. Beware of prosperity preachers. Beware of people who say that if you just have enough faith, God will make you rich, God will make you healthy, God will give you all the things you pray for, and you’ll be gloriously successful and happy 24 hours a day. Is God some great vending machine in the sky? Is faith just pushing a button to get what you want?
This health-and-wealth gospel demeans God. It devastates God’s people when they suffer. The health-and-wealth message says that if you’re suffering and you feel like screaming, it must be your own fault. You simply haven’t had enough faith that God would bless you, and so he hasn’t.
How can anybody dump that kind of garbage on people in the name of Jesus? Jesus was “a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering.” He didn’t live in luxury. Jesus never even owned his own home. Jesus was “despised and rejected.” Jesus died in agony and disgrace when he was in his early thirties. And yet some religious teachers insist that Jesus means painless prosperity.
The road of suffering is only for spiritual losers. Possibly you’ve met up with people who talk this way. They stand at your hospital bed and tell you that the reason you haven’t been healed is that your faith isn’t strong enough. They tell you that the reason your business is failing is that you don’t have enough faith that God wants you to be rich.
These people approach the suffering of others the way Job’s friends approached Job’s suffering. Instead of sharing in the sorrow of others, they become experts at handing out blame and calling for more faith. They reject the Bible’s command to “mourn with those who mourn” (Romans 12:15). Instead, they scold those who mourn and tell them to stop crying and have more faith.
My friends, don’t be fooled by prosperity preachers. Don’t let other people make you feel guilty for the sufferings you’re going through.
ref article : Screams of Faith
By Dr David Feddes
