Roughly, ten years ago, I started the healing process from word of faith teachings. I can tell you, healing did not come overnight. Honestly, healing took years.
During this time, not only had I prayed, no, actually begged that God reveal His truth and only His truth, but I prayed that He would clearly reveal the word of faith teachings with which I'd grown up for what they truly were.
And, during this time, a young woman in our church (a non word of faith church) was brutally raped and left for dead.
This young woman had given her life to the Lord only months before this horrific event. Within a couple weeks of being raped, she was back in church sharing her story of how God saved her life.
The bruises were still clearly visible around her neck where the rapist had tried to strangle her. And, yet, she was praising God for her life and using this unspeakable horror to reach out to others.
I shared her story with my sister, a sister who is as word of faith as it gets. And, after sharing this young lady's story and how she was placing her trust in God all the while, my sister said,
"Well, she must not be a real Christian then."
See, with the theology with which we grew up, bad things don't happen to Christians. Essentially, if you stay within the word of faith guidelines, you are bullet proof.
I know, I know, many people, after reading this are thinking of the apostles or, perhaps, the last verses of Hebrews 11:
Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.
I can only tell you that at that moment, I gave praise for a young woman who went through something no woman should ever have to endure and who was able to use it for God's glory. At that moment, I realized the difference between the 'theology of me' and true Christianity.
I taught the 91st Psalm to the youth and we had some kids die over the years due to accidents and sickness. I always had confused teenagers asking me the same questions. WOF teaches that we we are in faith, we always win. But the Bible says many die in faith. Jesus died in faith. Great post
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you've experienced healing, Susie, but I'm not sure how I would know that I was healed. I never bought into all of the full gospel/WOF crap, but I was certainly enveloped in it from when I first decided to follow Jesus (1976) until around 5 years or so ago. I'm not completely sure that I would know "true" Christianity if it came up and hugged me. But I've also leaning towards a conclusion that true Christianity is not about doctrines, or Bible study, or even living right. Those are all "outside stuff" to me. I think the authenticity is somehow connected to how we live and relate to the Lord on a personal level, and not as much on the corporate level as we've been led to believe over the last two or three hundred years.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I found your blog through JunkerJorge.
I'll be sharing more of my story including how I came to believe what I now believe. I understand completely how you feel because I almost completely lost my faith as a result of these teachings. I've talked to many people who feel the same.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, when I say I'm 'healed' doesn't mean I don't still occasionally have 'twitches' but those twitches are good because they help remind me of how harmful these teachings truly are.