I know many of us enjoy Joyce Meyer’s teaching. I’m not suggesting you stop listening, but I
recently signed up for one of her weekly teachings with a bible study attached
and was going through it when I hit the stop button.
I have to point out that when listening to ANYONE you really need to let the Holy Spirit be a filter of wisdom to what you are hearing. We are encouraged in Acts 17:11Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
To listen and then reason to see if what we are being taught is true.
If you aren’t already aware, there is a lot of concern over some of the things Joyce teaches. I would be wary of any “name it and claim it”* or “prosperity”* teaching she shares. *(hereinafter called Gimme Teachers J)
So, what I saw.. FAITH 101: New Life in Christ “Joyce
University”God wants you to enjoy your life , and the only way you
can do that is to discover and experience the abundant life Jesus gives.
JOHN 10:10 says: The thief comes
only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life , and have it in
abundance (to the full, till it overflows).
The bible does NOT SAY God
wants us to enjoy life. Joyce added this
and she added it to scripture without a disclaimer that she was doing so (a
rule of thumb I use when listening to teachers)
I did a quick word study** on this to see what the original language was
and enjoy is not in the list.
What concerns me is this
is a false teaching by others Joyce is associated with. Why is this an issue you may
ask?
The idea that God is
primarily concerned with our ENJOYMENT or WEALTH or HAPPINESS is just not true. Look at the fruit of the
spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
gentleness, faithfulness, goodness and self-control (I always get a tickle in
my throat on the self-control…)
If this is what God seeks to
build in our lives, if this is the product of our loving Him and showing others
who He is in our lives… I don’t see enjoyment on the list.
Is enjoyment possible? ABSOLUTELY… but it’s not a biblical
directive, it’s a potential side effect of living for God. My argument with such teaching (and I’m
referring to the Gimme Teaching as a whole here, not just Joyce) is that they
treat God like a genie or ATM who wants to give us all good things and we just
have to ask.
Moms… do we want to give our
kids all good things? Yes.
Is this all we give our
kids? No.
Are some of the good things
we give our kids not considered good by our kids?
As parents we must look ahead
to the ramifications of behavior. We are
training our children to be good, decent, contributing members of society and
yes, we want them to enjoy life and we want to bless them in any way we can…
but that desire to bless them is tempered with not spoiling them by giving them
everything they ask for.
God identifies himself as our
Father and uses this language repeatedly in talking to us about who He is.
I don’t actually put Joyce in
the same camp as the other “name it and claim it” or “prosperity”
teachers. She is more biblically correct
than they are. I also think that she
speaks really strongly to people with anxiety and fear issues and teaches
boldly about these. That’s why I don’t
just cross her off my list of teachers.
I still think we need to “be Bereans” and be wise, checking what we hear
with God’s word.
p.s.
** sources for easy word
study online (images of examples below:
- Read NASB version of bible (I usually pull up paralell versions with NIV and NASB to ensure I understand what I’m reading.)
- (I also like AMP Amplified Bible which is the KJV with a commentary kind of built in to the verses.)
- www.biblegateway.com
- John 10:10 – paralell
- https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2010%3A10&version=NIV;NASB
- Read the whole
paragraph and if necessary the whole chapter.
Remember context is king.
- Look up Greek word in Strong's Concordance (and don’t you just love technology?!! You can do that online with a few clicks HERE!)