Need Doctrinal help ASAP

OK - so I started going to this church about 8 weeks ago and it's been awesome, very Holy Spirit filled - but there's something in the preaching that has me at an impass. I've heard a reference once to 'word-faith' teaching, and they seem to teach on faith / Abraham a lot. So I was doing some digging and am copy / pasting some direct quotes from their over seer. That makes me a little weary.

"
When we discover the rights we have in Christ that are given to us throughout the Bible, we are to constantly affirm them and testify to them. The apostle Paul said that as we share our faith, we will have an understanding of what we have in Christ:

That the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgment of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. (Philemon 6)

Therefore, our faith will only be effective as we confess with our mouths, from a believing heart, all the good things which belong to us as believers in Jesus.

We know that in Jesus Christ we have been given salvation. Salvation is a wonderful word. It means much more than just being saved from hell so that you can go to heaven one day. It is salvation for the whole man: spirit, soul, and body. It is for our peace of heart and mind, our homes, our health, and our finances. It is freedom from all bondage and fear, with nothing missing and nothing broken.

Affirmation of these truths should ring from our lips. We are told to hold fast to them without wavering. Wavering is brought about through double-mindedness and causes our confession to deny the very things that God has promised us.
""

And "Confession of God’s Word from a believing heart is powerful. It is like the Word in God’s mouth. It creates, it moves mountains, and it releases heaven’s power!
"

What's being taught here and should I be running for my life or what?!

Ok that's just confirming what I'm praying about, dang it why do these churches have so much manifest presence of Jesus and the doctine of demons! UGH makes me sick!

Yeah, don't get me wrong I've been going to Times Square Church since 2001, I've just moved too far away to attend regularly, most of the local churches are very luke warm, so I finally find one that appears to be on fire, passionate worship, constant mission trips, etc. They are VERY into evangelism; but I will say this, I don't think I heard the word repentance once since going.

Either way, I'm out of that house, sucks because the people are genuine and pretty awesome, just most of them don't recognize it as a WOF church, this 1 part of me wants to try to show them truth - but I know where that will go, and it won't be pretty! Anyway, pray for them - pray for me as I hunt for a different church!

Soulrider I'm not sure but i think we shared on a thread a long time back.

Brother I felt to share something with you that you don't need to ask anybody else what to do but seek God and get filled or refilled with the Holy Spirit and He will show you what to do and if these people are in error then He will show you how to go about it. Brother you've been in timesquare church all them years you have something few people have and you should be full of God to make a difference and if God says you can't then listen to Him. When I go somewhere the Holy Ghost shows me what to do and I expect the atmosphere to change.

Brother all power lives in me and He should to be living in you too!

Blessings...from brother rbanks

"OUR FAITH WILL ONLY BE EFFECTIVE AS WE CONFESS WITH OUR MOUTHS"

This is why I would discourage a mute from joining the WOF.

approved brother i definitely don't agree with some things in the WOF movement but He was thinking of vs 10 that you left out.

Romans 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

The mouth will confess what the heart believes even a mute person will make some kind of outward expression of what he believes inwardly. This gospel of Christ is so powerful to the one who truly believes that the mouth will confess it unto salvation. The word is near thee even in thy mouth that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth what the heart believes that God hath raised Jesus from the dead (brother that is resurrection power)then the Holy Spirit will cause the mouth to confess that Jesus is Lord. No man can say Jesus is Lord but by the Holy ghost.

How can our faith be effective if our mouth does not speak what we believe. We can't be timid about this thing and we can't be ashamed to speak. Whoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. I realize that you can say all the right things and still not believe in your heart but how can you truly believe in your heart having a mouth to speak and not speak.

Blessings...from brother rbanks

hi, i see that we need wisdom in these times in how not to condemn something that is or sounds like it is word of faith.if you look up sozo in strongs it will amaze some of you. there is some great truth in wof yet it is dangerous to those who carry it an inch too far. if you understand bro. ken hagin basic teaching , you will know that he starts off by saying "have faith in God, or have the God kind of faith and IFyou do you can say unto this mountain...etc" faith begins with a directive word from God and when received,believed and obeyed ...you now have biblical faith. he does not say if you want a new car to confess into being...this is where a lot of folks get into trouble...you must have the word from God to have faith and anything else is presumption. be careful to eat the fish and spit out the many bones.jimp

Soulrider, i am confused as to how you can say that the church "is very Holy Spirit filled" and yet you feel an inner caution about the doctrinal teachings in the church. That is a self-contradictory statement if ever there was one. And IF heresy is being preached there then the church is not Holy Spirit filled. The Word of Faith movement IS heresy/false teaching...Go with your gut. Pray and ask God and by an by He will reveal the truth to you. If you begin to hear statements that people are not healed or not financially blessed simply due to "lack of faith" then that IS heresy. They have a longstanding tendency to blame the person who is not healed; it must always be THEIR fault, THEIR lack of faith (never the lack of faith of the person praying over them, etc). Also, Christ is proof of the lie of the Health and Wealth Gospel (aka Prosperity Movement); Jesus was not rich, wealthy, ambitious, nor socially prestigious. Christ did not come so that we could be prosperous and wealthy, He came to save souls and the focus should be on Him and on soul saving. On dying to self, not on promotion of self.

Quote: there is truth mixed with error.

Show me a church that hasn't got truth mixed with error..

Edit spelling

Trekker,

I know that they are a word of Faith teaching church, they are however a lot more reigned in with the extremeness of the teaching, or I should say - not as blatant about it in the more obvious areas of that doctrine; which is why it took me 2 months of going to the church to finally recognize it as such. They by no means go as overboard as some of these guys on TBN. Most of the regulars there I've gotten to know and speak to and the conversation is never really focused on that doctrine, as a matter of fact - most of what they teach is very solid - which is why it's hard to detect.

I believe that their love for God is very genuine, and the core statement of faith in the church is solid; it's just that they preach Faith from the pulpit in this way- take that away and you've got a really powerful church that is sold out to do the work of Jesus, they are very into missions as well.

I know I'm defending them because I know them a bit; I just don't think they see it as a false doctrine, I'm going to send a really good email in love - but will make my case against the WOF doctrine. I think the people there are really great and zealous for the Lord, and 95% of what is taught is right on, it's just the 5% that's off is what sickens me; I am so grieved, broken and weary about this because of the people that are in it - such great people.

Please I beg you please in all earnest pray for them and wisdom for me to make a strong enough case that they will recognize it as such and repent.

Brother Joe

Brother Joe,

I don't want to be negative toward these individuals nor tie the hands of Our Lord Jesus but if the WOF doctrine is a serious conviction of these individuals it will take quite a bit more than an email for them to change their heart on the matter. I say this only to say be careful and prepared to come under some kind of fire, people take their doctrine pretty seriously and to go contrary to it brings offense.

Also I have never been to a church where I agreed 100% on the doctrine of a church. I always found something I wasn't quite in agreement with. What I found is not everyone believes the same thing when you walk into a church and while WOF is something that maybe taught among this church its definitely not something everyone buys into at that church. What is the Lord telling you to do about the matter? I can give an opinion all day long but ultimately we have to ask ourselves at the end of the day did my actions bring Glory to God?

I also found that it's awefully hard to make generalizations of a group of people and that it generally takes sitting down on an individual basis to really understand what they are thinking and believe.

In my opinion and history of the WOF movement I wouldn't go to the particular church but would maybe set up a bible study night with some of the brothers and sisters you know there and really get a handle on what they believe.

Quote: Need Doctrinal help ASAP

It's not doctrinal help you need it's the Holy Spirit you need to lead you.

My advice would be to seek the leading of the Holy Spirit..

Edited for spelling

Be patient. Seek the Lord through the Word and much Prayer. (And for a personal note, listen to a lot of Leonard Ravenhill, A. W. Tozer and T. Austin Sparks. They don't preach today like these guy from the past).

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Soulrider, I hope you read my two posts as well as Colin's.

Brother if the Holy Spirit is present in this church then you need to be careful to follow His leading with what He is already doing.

The bible says not to quench the Spirit and also not to grieve the Spirit and you don't want to be responsible for causing some little one to stumble or fall.

Pray in the Holy spirit, bathed yourself in prayer and then precede with caution, make sure that you are lead by the Spirit and give no room for the adversary.

Until you hear from God you need to do nothing. God has not made any of us to do the Holy Spirit's job.

God Bless you brother...from brother rbanks