Originally published Tuesday, 10 September 2019.
This week marks four years since my husband Paul sat down with the pastor of our Word of Faith/Prosperity gospel church to vulnerably and lovingly share his heart on some deep convictions and concerns of error of what was being preached there and what he had believed his whole life.
God used His written Word and other Biblically sound teachers- Thank You, Jesus, for Justin Peters, John MacArthur, Paul Washer, and John Piper to name a few- to open our eyes to see the false teaching we had believed for many years- for me, since 2008, and for him, the first 25 years of his entire life. We could not in good conscious continue to serve in leadership nor attend that ministry any longer, and we sadly had to part ways. Special and dear relationships were greatly impacted because of this decision; We had experienced something similar to losing friendships several years prior when we decided to leave the church Paul grew up at and where we met and got married- it began to become very worldly and performance driven the bigger it grew. This megachurch now has several locations in our city and in another state; it is also associated with some of the biggest names in prosperity gospel theology.
I share this out of a heart of love because there are still so many whom we care about involved in this movement at different ministries and churches around St. Louis and in other cities, including pastors and leaders. We love them with a deep love, but we absolutely hate the deceptive teachings that twist scripture and confuse so many people all over the globe.
As I have shared recently, our journey to understanding what God’s Word really says and renewing our minds to replace lies we were believing with His truth has been difficult and painful and lonely. But it also has been one of best things that has happened to us. Our understanding of the gospel and God’s sovereignty has brought us such joy and comfort, especially during storms and painful loss we have walked through over the last year or so. To be sure, our children will only know of that teaching we believed for what it is…false. We pray God would use us to disciple them and anyone else who He places in our path.
We have not shared too many major details of our testimony, especially publicly. It is difficult to keep silent when you see false teaching and deception running rampant. I am very cautious as to what and when I speak out against this false teaching and movement on social media. To be completely honest, I want God to use me to see many, many people’s eyes open, but I know that when you begin “tipping over sacred cows,” people are going to get offended. Our heart is never to push those whom we love in this movement further away from us or build up walls; we want to be a bridge to reach as many as we can. I pray that is evident in anything that is said or done regarding all of this.
We have such an incredible burden to speak out about all of this, and we now ask God to use us to warn others of this dangerous movement and point them to the truth.
With all of this said, in God’s absolutely amazing providential timing, He is opening up some doors of opportunity for my husband and I to share our testimony of coming out of the deception of Word of Faith/Prosperity/NAR theology on some larger platforms that have the potential to reach hundreds of thousands of people.
I humbly ask, would you please join me in praying that we would discern the right time to release our story and that if/when we share it, God would give us boldness and wisdom on what exactly to say so that others would be helped and that God ultimately would be glorified? We greatly appreciate your prayers and support!
Thank you, friends!
Soli Deo Gloria
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