PART 6: HAVE A CONFIDENT EXPECTATION OF GOOD
The central idea in this part is all about having hope: a confident expectation of good from God because He is gracious. It’s about what is hope, why it is important, how to have it, and bible examples of this truth in action.
CHAPTER 16: THE BATTLE BELONGS TO THE LORD
Joseph Prince used the famous battle that Jehoshaphat fought against enemies that formed an unholy alliance against God’s people (2 Chronicles 20). It demonstrated how hope comes, and how it works magic in impossible situations that God’s people finds themselves in. Inspiring chapter.
CHAPTER 17: GOD LOVES IT WHEN YOU ASK BIG
The story of Jabez’s prayer and God’s answer to him (1 Chronicles 4:9) was the basis of encouraging us to unashamedly ask big when we approach God in prayer. He tells the inspiring story of Olivia Lum, the entrepreneur who founded Hyflux, Singapore’s first water management company to be listed in the SGX.
CHAPTER 18: FINDING HOPE WHEN ALL SEEMS HOPELESS
Joseph Prince reminds us of the thesis of this book. There is power in right believing. And the secret to right believing is right listening. He demonstrates this principle by showing how listening to the stories of Jesus healing power raised the faith of the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years (Mark 5).
Well, I am surprised that I have actually come to this point. This is the second last part of the book. Most books remain unfinished on my book shelf. I am easily distracted when it comes to ideas. I move from one idea and interest to another quickly. You could say it was my earlier pledge to readers that has brought me to this point. Now I can see the finish line.
The insights in these chapters does not grab you like gems in the earlier chapters. But the stories are inspiring. I love the Olivia Lum story. Wonderful stuff. This part is an easy lap. It energises, it inspires. It is not rocket science. Hope is strengthened when we keep our eyes on Jesus and his love for us. God wants to bless us and we can have a confident expectation of good because of His unchanging love.
Joseph Prince, Kong Hee, Benny Hinn, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, Bill Johnson, Brian Houston (Hillsong), Todd White, Crefo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland………and many many more are erroneous Word of Faith (WOF) preachers , they teach the Prosperity Gospel where they teach that God wants you to be always healthy and wealthy. This is not Biblical (look at poor Apostle Paul who was so poor he needs to work as tent maker). Check out the recent interview of Costi Hinn (the nephew of Benny Hinn who was working for his uncle and his ministry for years. He exposes the tricks and fakes of the WOF movement. He spent 30 years with his uncle and could only think of 1 miraculous healing , the rest you see on stage is mostly not verifiable or temporary. These pastors live a extravagant lifestyle reaping the tithes of God’s people. Many people has wrecked their lives following these pastors. If they are so good at healing , they should setup a Christian Hospital and heal all sick Christians. Some of them even call themselves apostles, some claim they speak to God (Joseph Prince does).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TjVXjmQxpc
God Bless
Steven
Hi Steven,
Thank you for your comment. You have highlighted some teachings you found erroneous or extreme. We should not lump the above ministers together. There are some fine differences. Thankfully we have a God who knows all and sees every motive and intentions of the heart. On that day each will receive His due. In the meantime, let us be suspend sentencing and pray for each of them. Many of the above persons have been used by God to win thousands of precious souls to Christ, and to build up His people in some precious ways. There may have been things they preached and practiced that has triggered controversy, disagreement and accusations. These can be debated with more light and love and respect and less heat and flame throwing. We are all flawed people after all, trying to show other flawed people where to find bread.
Hi Pastor,
Thanks for your very gracious message. I am truly worried for the salvation of the people in some of these churches. My siblings attends one of them. They seem to be following a different Gospel. Paul reminded us to be careful of teachers that preach a different gospel (Gal 1:8). I think as Christ followers, we should remind every church goer of the dangers of these preachers. Otherwise, one day, when some of them see Christ, He may say “I never knew you” (Matt 7:21-23). Some of the people that will get this judgement from Christ are those who walk according to flesh, putting money and comfort above God, since “No one can serve two masters”). We all know that it is not a sin to be rich, but it is a dangerous situation to love money more than God. If the pastors in question are preaching that God wants you to be rich, wants you to be healthy all the time. What kind of a Gospel are they preaching? To me, it is a different Gospel.
The true Gospel, involves both Faith and Repentance. Many Churches has watered down the Gospel to a Roman’s road and a sinner’s prayer (that is not even found or mentioned in the Bible). With true Faith and repentance, will there be a change in the heart of the person (by the power of the Spirit). And then the fruits of the Spirit will be evident. Many church goers are indistinguishable in behaviour from any non-Christians. This should be alarm bells , how can true Christians with the Holy Spirit inside us not have any change in behaviour, what happened to the fruits of the Spirit, how can we not be transformed by the renewing of our minds ? Romans 12:1-2
Some of these Church preachers even teach the HyperGrace teaching, that it is okay for Christians to sin, since we are already under grace and is covered by the blood of Christ. This is contrary to 1 John 3. I am not saying we are sinless, but true Christians will resist sins till we bleed and strive to be holy (Heb 12:4, 14). This is dangerous stuff that the so called churches are teaching.
Many people criticize me for pointing all this out. But isn’t this what Jesus and Paul would have done? If the teaching is not Biblical, we owe it to God to correct them, otherwise our ministry here on earth is all in vain. Especially if some of this people may be led to hell with a wrong Gospel, we owe it to this people to warn them of the dangers and not to play with fire. Recently, I found this article that talks about if it is wrong to judge. I believe that we should, but carefully (substantiated with the Bible) and lovingly, lest we be doubly guilty of being hypocrites like the Pharisees.
Here is a good article on what is the right and Biblical thing to do if we find that there are teachings that are not in line with what God wants. Especially if we are sure that they are from false teachers.
https://www.gotquestions.org/judge-teachings-leaders.html
For those who are interested to find out why repentance is important for salvation, check my blog (only has 1 article, so sad).
https://singaporeberean.blogspot.com/2019/02/salvation-according-to-bible-if-you-ask.html
For those who need alternative Biblical and doctrinal teaching in this area, I strongly suggest searching for John Macarthur sermons on Saving Faith
God Bless !
Dear Steven,
I observe that you are sincerely concerned about the salvation of souls of loved ones and of people who attend certain churches. This is certainly a valid concern and if so the churches and ministries you mention should be evaluated based on the gospel message they preach. Do they believe humans have gone astray and cannot save themselves but are hopelessly in need of a rescue from above? Do they further believe that God in His vast mercy and love sent Jesus Christ to be the Savior of the world, purchasing forgiveness of sins and reconciliation through his death, resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father? Do they further believe that they need to align themselves to the truth and that this would result in the grace of God transforming their lives? If they do then it then depends on the responses of faith of the people who attend the churches. We are saved by grace through faith alone. These are the fundamentals that should be the criteria in any examination.
Concerns about secondary truths like prosperity and healing should not come into the picture of your concern for their salvation. These controversial issues are sometimes confused by semantics and poor definition, fine distinctions and nuanced positions. Imbalanced truths can result in disillusion, false hopes, and disappointments but these can all be part of the learning process that allows the believer to reach a place of mature acceptance of necessary tensions in truths.
I wish I could be clearer or more thorough in my response to you but this is all I have for the time being and it may not satisfy you but I hope it contributes somewhat to the conversation. God bless!
Hi Pastor,
I know that most of the Churches teaches that Jesus is the only way and His blood is needed for us to be saved. I may not know most of those church goers well enough to know their hearts. But the Bible teaches that we can see by their fruits. Based on my conversations with them and some of their actions, it is sad that many of them think and act like the world and love the world as much as God, if not more. This is in contrary to what 1 John 2:15-17 teaches about do not love the world and Jesus telling us to take up the cross and follow Him, basically dying to our old selves and becoming new creatures. If not this will lead to a slippery path, where sin is taken lightly and even becoming acceptable (the Hyper grace teaching is dangerous in promoting this). This is also why we are seeing decaying morals in church goers today compared to maybe 40 years ago. I don’t have statistics, but in the US, divorce and infidelity numbers have gone up. LGBT is starting to gain foothold in Churches. The number of Christians in Singapore has gone up , but how many are truly saved and transformed ?
There are many more Pastoral voices in the US in the last 10 years talking about how they are worried that don’t see transformation in Church goers and they are worried for their parish. Francis Chan, David Platt , John Macarthur, and Paul Washer are some of the well known Pastors that are warning the people about this behaviour. On the other hand, there are even more well known teachers in US that teach the Prosperity gospel that gives the sheep (or goats) a false sense of what they need to do to be saved, a simple prayer that lacks repentance. The watered down gospel message is prevalent in many Churches , I took a look at the call to altar web pages of the 3 largest Church in Singapore, only 1 has the word “repent” in their sinner’s prayer. Some teachers even change the word “repent” to mean “turn to God”, but does not acknowledge that it is to “turn away from sin and turn to God”. So I am not sure even if the 1 Mega church goers understand what is true repentance. Which may explain the lack of transformation in behaviour and the lack of discernment about what are sins and how should Christians behave in an increasingly sinful world.
Here is a short 10 minutes video of Francis Chan on why he believes some church goers may not be saved. The other Pastors listed above has the same concerns.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNA6tAlArnY
In summary, my opinion is that the lack of repentance from sin, the lack of daily walking with the Trinity through the Word and Prayer has resulted in many church goers walking by the flesh. We pray that they will see the light and the fervent need to have true repentance from their former ways and turn to God for the power to transform.
God Bless!
Hi Steven,
Thank you for your comments. I would agree with you that worldiness have crept into the church and caused the love of many to grow cold. Worldiness has been a great weakness of the church for decades, way before so called hyper grace teachings. It exists among liberal as well as fundamentalist churches, with “prosperity teachings” as well as “discipleship churches”; in Catholic as well as Pentecostal churches. It was around when Billy Graham thundered, “Repent!” in every altar call he makes and when Leonard Ravenhill decried lukewarm churches. You cannot even conclude that “user friendly churches” have more worldly people than “conservative churches with a high view of scriptures.” Worldliness is still around and will increase if we believe the words of Jesus and St Paul.
I do share with you this concern for worldliness in the church but I feel the causes are multiple.
Hello is it God’s plan to fail Hyflux after much endorsement by Joseph Prince?
Hi Yavin,
I really don’t know.
@ lyn …….What was it about Lina.???
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
Our salvation towards heaven and reconciliation with God the Father is justified solely by our faith in Jesus the Christ/Messiah/Savior; …and NOT by the works of keeping Moses Law, either fully(=by Jewish Christians) or partially(=by Gentile Christians – ACTS.15:29).
Notwithstanding this “non-workable” fact about salvation, the works of keeping Moses Law, are still very important for our lives on this earth, ie for the blessings or curses/punishments of God(DEUT.28, ROM.6:23, GAL.6:8).
…….Bear in mind that our salvation will only come into effect when we die and leave this “rotten” earth – hence the Cross and the Resurrection.
The Radical Grace or Hyper Grace teachings tend to cause their followers to be nonchalant or flippant about their willful sins/evil-deeds(=bad works) and over-confident about their salvation in-Christ. This may result in them being cursed/punished by God for foolishly and willfully committing sins, which may cause a few to lose their faith in Christ, eg the suffering wife of Job cursed God and died or like Judas Iscariot who was too ashamed of his sin of greed and betrayal of Christ to keep the faith.
…….Hence, the warning of Jesus to a few early 1st-century Gentile Churches about their sinful/evil works(deeds) at REV.2-3 & 22:14-15.
At MATT.7:15, Jesus has warned His people about false prophets/pastors coming to them in sheep’s clothing(=pretending or assuming to be ‘hearing’ and heeding the voice/Word of God) but inwardly they are ravenous wolves, ie ravage their Church-members financially, emotionally, sexually, etc.
…….This is similar to foolish investors being conned by the masterminds of Ponzi or Pyramid schemes, Genneva Gold scam, MLM/Direct-selling or insurance/lottery ‘businesses’, Bitcoin craze, etc.
Wise and big companies do due-diligence studies b4 they buy up a small company; prudent banks do credit history checks b4 they give out loans; careful girls do background and family history checks b4 they marry, etc. So, wise Christians conduct biblical checks on pastors b4 trusting them or following their teachings.
The ministry Of Jesus is mostly about salvation or everlasting life in the after-life(=not about life on this earth).
…….Whereas, the earlier ministry of Moses is about how to live righteously on this earth and be blessed by God(like for the mostly wealthy Jews of today), ie by following the laws/Word of God = do good and avoid evil-deeds/sins.(HEB.1:1-2)
…….The former is a heavenly blessing(=faith in things that is not seen, eg our resurrection in-Christ – HEB.11:1) while the latter is an earthly blessing(=faith in things that will be seen on this earth, eg in general, prosperity or good health thru good works – Abraham & Job).
I think some of the teachings of Ps Joseph Prince in this book are half-truths, do not jive with the laws/Word of God or are non-biblical.
Peace.
P S – Do not be like (rotten-)Apple’s Steve Job – an ‘evil’ dictator-boss.
When one can monetize God, there is a fatal flaw in the belief system that can and will be exploited by many “professed people of God.” From the around the world many mega pastors have been indicted and convicted.
Lyn your Lina and Olivia narrative is like much of the other personal accounts in the Bible
Hi blogpastor,
in the midst of the Olivia Lum story, let’s not forget the Linas of this world (Please forgive me, Lina, for my previous writings).
I also know two members of New Creation who used up all their life savings in the pursuit of this wonderful stuff. I’m related to one of them. One, as of last week, in his mid-forties just closed up his restaurant and said he has zero in his bank account.
May His will be done in all situations.