The Greek word pistis means faith or trust. Why do we make it so complicated? If I find I can trust someone, I will have faith in him. The way to grow in faith is by staying in conversation with the person so that you can see how he responds to you and others. Eventually you see he can be trusted.
...Phil 4:6 we are told to make our requests known to God...not our claims...there is no formula for getting our way..The Lord takes pity on us and hears us..out of His compassion for us (Ps 106:45) and Matt 6:9 says we ought to pray for His will. Our prayers matter and they can change things, but God's first objective is to bring Glory to His name(Eph 1:6, 12, 14 and they are literally hundreds of scripture to back this up)..not do as He is told.
You see this world is not about us at all...IT IS ALL ABOUT HIM. We are here as vessels for His pleasure...
That's an interesting response to TWI's "law of believing", Motherof2 – and I think most noteworthy! In my opinion, you're putting the emphasis on God's will – what God wants – that's what true Christianity is about. After I left TWI I started taking all matters of faith back to square one…still working on that one…geez, they made things so complicated...I thought I would try a novel approach in my Bible study – I would take Scripture at face value – I felt TWI doctrines got too complicated, confusing and even speculative. In the kingdom of TWI I was taught to get clear on what I want in my mind [oh yeah bet I can still quote parts of Release from your prisons – whoop-dee-freakin'-doo], fixate on what I want. It's the ol' switcheroo – instead of God being the object of faith – more money, a better job, etc. becomes the object of my faith... The more I studied in this fashion the more I would find application of some TWI's doctrines flat-out contradicted commands in the Bible. Such as their materialistic orientation with the "law of believing" eclipses Jesus' simple instructions to make the kingdom of God our top priority in Matthew 6.
Matthew 6:25-34
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Stephen Renn's Expository Dictionary of Bible Words says of this "Do not worry" in verse 25 is the Greek word merimnao which means to take care, be careful – but used in the negative sense here implies being anxious…It does not always have a negative sense and after looking at other occurrences I think perhaps another way to translate it might be to say "to be concerned with." A few select verses where merimnao is also used: I Corinthians 7:32 "…He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord…" I Corinthians 12:25 "…that the members should have the same care one for another." And Philippians 4:6 "…Be careful for nothing…" I think all that mental rigmarole TWI put me through "to raise my temperature of believing", yammering about the believing images of victory, positive affirmations – is a royal waste of time and mental processes…It's really just camouflaged worry – it's being overly concerned with material things shrouded in a cloak of spirituality ["oh you may think I'm spinning my wheels but I'm working myself up into a believing-frenzy!"]. I think Jesus laid out a simple agenda in Matthew 6 – pursue God's kingdom and righteousness – and with it will come the full care and provision of God! Courtesy of our loving heavenly Father [not my believing] – free of charge, no strings attached, no mental baggage, no bad side effects.
In my opinion, TWI is nothing more than an unnecessary appendage to the life of a believer. Why do I need them? I can read the Bible for myself. I can pray. I can thank God every day for my existence, basic provisions, strength, wisdom and opportunity to earn an honest living. Many followers of TWI are not aware how their insidious doctrines shift the focus from God to self. Somehow, this "more abundant life" is about getting more of what YOU want. They somehow equate spirituality with financial prosperity – like VPW's booklet Christians should be Prosperous. A warning in I Timothy seems appropriate to bring up here.
I Timothy 6:3-10
3 If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4 he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
I think so much of TWI's draw is in their appealing to the materialistic taste buds of the average person. I have an old flier from the PFAL syllabus of when I first took it in 1974 that unabashedly states "You can have whatever you want." And I still remember the big one-liners when selling the PFAL class to someone: How would you like to increase the power of God in your life? How would you like to learn how to pray effectively? Want to learn how to increase prosperity?...Geez – this stuff is just plain gross…embarrassing…they're not peddling anything even sort of close to Christianity…it's a sleazy little sales campaign to sell a genie-in-a-Bible…I'll tell yah what I think – TWI's idea of godliness is a means to financial gain - - for them! Yup – it's like those darn get-rich-quick-books – the only one who's getting rich quick is the author of the book! Yes sir…keep pumping your money into their coffers – and some how your powers of believing will grow stronger...And isn't it funny how I Timothy 6:8 hearkens back to the same basic provisions of food and clothing mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 6…And maybe that's where I'll stop this sermon since I seem to be going in circles .
Exactly! Well put.. TWI taught the five-senses approach of receiving what you want. Believe..
God teaches the real way which is not about you getting what you want, but about seeing GOd's will come to pass. Trust Him for He knows what you need even before you ASK [Emphasis ON ASKING]!
Recommended Posts
TheEvan
Nice post.
The "law of believing' is more predictably man-oriented look-what-I-can-do stuff from your favorite neighborhood cult.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
dmiller
While in twi, I believed in the *Law* of believing, but later realized ---
that it was the absolute most insidious, evil, doctrine they ever promoted.
Anything that happened to you was YOUR fault, and they couldn't be blamed.
Mind control has been promoted by many successful salesmen, and marketed.
Docvic copied them, and promoted it as a *Law*, with scriptures attached.
The *Law* of believing is the flatulence leaving the south end of a north bound horse.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Captain Crunch
The Greek word pistis means faith or trust. Why do we make it so complicated? If I find I can trust someone, I will have faith in him. The way to grow in faith is by staying in conversation with the person so that you can see how he responds to you and others. Eventually you see he can be trusted.
Regards,
CC
Link to comment
Share on other sites
T-Bone
That's an interesting response to TWI's "law of believing", Motherof2 – and I think most noteworthy! In my opinion, you're putting the emphasis on God's will – what God wants – that's what true Christianity is about. After I left TWI I started taking all matters of faith back to square one…still working on that one…geez, they made things so complicated...I thought I would try a novel approach in my Bible study – I would take Scripture at face value – I felt TWI doctrines got too complicated, confusing and even speculative. In the kingdom of TWI I was taught to get clear on what I want in my mind [oh yeah bet I can still quote parts of Release from your prisons – whoop-dee-freakin'-doo], fixate on what I want. It's the ol' switcheroo – instead of God being the object of faith – more money, a better job, etc. becomes the object of my faith... The more I studied in this fashion the more I would find application of some TWI's doctrines flat-out contradicted commands in the Bible. Such as their materialistic orientation with the "law of believing" eclipses Jesus' simple instructions to make the kingdom of God our top priority in Matthew 6.
Matthew 6:25-34
25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Stephen Renn's Expository Dictionary of Bible Words says of this "Do not worry" in verse 25 is the Greek word merimnao which means to take care, be careful – but used in the negative sense here implies being anxious…It does not always have a negative sense and after looking at other occurrences I think perhaps another way to translate it might be to say "to be concerned with." A few select verses where merimnao is also used: I Corinthians 7:32 "…He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord…" I Corinthians 12:25 "…that the members should have the same care one for another." And Philippians 4:6 "…Be careful for nothing…" I think all that mental rigmarole TWI put me through "to raise my temperature of believing", yammering about the believing images of victory, positive affirmations – is a royal waste of time and mental processes…It's really just camouflaged worry – it's being overly concerned with material things shrouded in a cloak of spirituality ["oh you may think I'm spinning my wheels but I'm working myself up into a believing-frenzy!"]. I think Jesus laid out a simple agenda in Matthew 6 – pursue God's kingdom and righteousness – and with it will come the full care and provision of God! Courtesy of our loving heavenly Father [not my believing] – free of charge, no strings attached, no mental baggage, no bad side effects.
In my opinion, TWI is nothing more than an unnecessary appendage to the life of a believer. Why do I need them? I can read the Bible for myself. I can pray. I can thank God every day for my existence, basic provisions, strength, wisdom and opportunity to earn an honest living. Many followers of TWI are not aware how their insidious doctrines shift the focus from God to self. Somehow, this "more abundant life" is about getting more of what YOU want. They somehow equate spirituality with financial prosperity – like VPW's booklet Christians should be Prosperous. A warning in I Timothy seems appropriate to bring up here.
I Timothy 6:3-10
3 If anyone teaches false doctrines and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4 he is conceited and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5 and constant friction between men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
I think so much of TWI's draw is in their appealing to the materialistic taste buds of the average person. I have an old flier from the PFAL syllabus of when I first took it in 1974 that unabashedly states "You can have whatever you want." And I still remember the big one-liners when selling the PFAL class to someone: How would you like to increase the power of God in your life? How would you like to learn how to pray effectively? Want to learn how to increase prosperity?...Geez – this stuff is just plain gross…embarrassing…they're not peddling anything even sort of close to Christianity…it's a sleazy little sales campaign to sell a genie-in-a-Bible…I'll tell yah what I think – TWI's idea of godliness is a means to financial gain - - for them! Yup – it's like those darn get-rich-quick-books – the only one who's getting rich quick is the author of the book! Yes sir…keep pumping your money into their coffers – and some how your powers of believing will grow stronger...And isn't it funny how I Timothy 6:8 hearkens back to the same basic provisions of food and clothing mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 6…And maybe that's where I'll stop this sermon since I seem to be going in circles
.
Edited by T-BoneLink to comment
Share on other sites
TrustAndObey
Exactly! Well put.. TWI taught the five-senses approach of receiving what you want. Believe..
God teaches the real way which is not about you getting what you want, but about seeing GOd's will come to pass. Trust Him for He knows what you need even before you ASK [Emphasis ON ASKING]!
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.