An Apology to Joyce Meyer

 

Joyce Meyer is a great teacher.

I learned a lot from her when I was a younger Christian. I watched her a great deal in my late 20's, for example. I even read her book The Battlefield of the Mind.

Her teachings on righteousness really helped me to see who I was in Christ. "I am the righteousness of God" was not some phrase I learned to claim over myself only when I started listening to Pastor Joseph Prince.

In 2008, I was learning so much about the Gift of Righteousness, and that God gives us all these blessings because of our righteous standing before God, in Christ! And I learned about this from Joyce.

I knew and believed, and spoke out the verses in 2 Corinthians 5:21, and the other verses that touch on our righteous standing in Christ.

Yet in 2008 and 2009, my life was still full of struggles. I found myself warring in my mind a great deal. Instead of feeling a sense of peace and carefree joy, I felt that I was all alone in the world. I wondered how I could live this life, and I didn't know whether God was really on my side or not.

One thing lead to another, and all the temporal blessings that I enjoyed in my life, I ended up throwing away. I was under so much stress, convinced that there was so much work that I had to do. There was no assurance of faith, and I was constantly plagued with worry about what would happen to me if I sinned, or took a wrong step, or did something amiss.

The world still centered around me, and I felt that everything depended on me.

When I was down and out in my life, during the 2009-2010 period, I became really bitter towards preachers like Joyce Meyer. My life had fallen apart, and I was writhing with guilt and shame because I could not overcome the bad habits, the harsh thoughts, the wrong believing in my life. I felt like I was in an abyss, a cycle of shame that I could not escape. What was all this talk about blessings and our righteous standing, if I was still struggling with all these problems?

Then I discovered the Gospel of Grace through Pastor Prince, I learned about the Old and New Covenants, and I realized that all our sins are forgiven--pass, present, future--because of Jesus and His Finished Work on the Cross.

At that point, I started making cutting, bitting, critical remarks against preachers and teachers of God's Word like Joyce Meyer. "She didn't teach me about this or that! She didn't explain to me about some things and others things! She's just another church lady!" And so on.

Entering into this new, grand year, fifteen years later! I have been seeing more of Jesus than I have ever seen before. Because I have been praying the Ephesians 1 and Ephesians 3 prayers at great length, Jesus has really revealed Himself to me.

And that's the whole point! I see Him more clearly, more fully, more completely as a Living Savior! All that time from 2008 to 2010, I was rooted in His love, but did not know it. All that time, I had already become the righteousness of God in Christ, but I was deceived, in bondage to the mixture of wrong believing and bad teaching of my parents and their traditions. I was still under law, struggling with the classical Galatian error.

The problem was not with what Joyce Meyer had been teaching. When she talked about the gift of righteousness, when she talked about all the blessings accorded to us because of our righteous standing in Christ, she was SPOT ON!

The problem was that I had all this junky, clunky, garbled wrong believing haunting me. That was never Joyce Meyer's fault! I was still holding onto this idea that I had to earn what God so freely gives. Huh? Yes, that was what I believed still. Sure, God had saved me, but I was on my own on this earth. Sure, I was heading for heaven, but I felt that I was still living hell on earth. How awful it is to be under mixture, under law and grace put together.

I do submit that more pastors, preachers, and teachers need to confront this fact: many Christians are hearing the Word of Christ, but they are not recognizing that they are trying to balance or mix the truth with wrong believing, the bad teachings of their past lives, or their former customs.

No wonder Paul writes:

"That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;" (Ephesians 4:22)

We need to put off all the deceitful lusts, and those lusts are not just the desire to eat more food, or engaging in illicit sexual practices. There is also the lust for self-righteous preeminence, to make ourselves big and right in our own eyes because of our own works, i.e. "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, the pride of life." (1 John 2:16)

The problem was that in the background, I still saw God all wrong. I was trying to merge what my parents, what all the religious traditions I had grown up with had told me about God with all the great truths in God's Word that people like Joyce Meyer--and later, Pastor Prince--were revealing to me.

It wasn't that Joyce Meyere was so much church-lady Pharisee. It was that I was the Pharisee!

I can write this post as an apology to Joyce Meyer, and I encourage her to keep preaching the Gospel of Grace and let everyone know the Gospel truth that in Christ, we have become the Righteousness of God, and that in Christ we are accorded all the blessings with Him! (Ephesians 1:3)

Evangelism is About Revelation, not Reason

                                    

Last night, while I was visiting the Del Amo mall, a young man walked up to me.

His name was Anthony.

He started talking to me about Jesus Christ. He wanted to share the Gospel with me. I had no problem with him talking to me, since I had announced at the outset that I believe in Jesus, that He is my Savior, and I am so grateful for all the blessings which He has--and is--lavishing on me.

He began rattling off a number of Scriptures, including key passages in the Book of Revelation. He showed me passages about the Spirit and the Bride, and how they both invite us to draw from the Water o Life:

"And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." (Revelation 22:17)

He then asked me "What does the water of life represent?"

I said "The Holy Spirit." and I referenced this verse in the Gospel of John:

"37In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39(But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)" (John 7:37-39)

He then mentioned the account of Jesus with the woman at the well in John chapter. I agreed.

He then asked me whether I had the Holy Spirit or not. I shared with him: "Yes, I do."

He then asked me: "How do you get the Holy Spirit?"

I told him that because I believed in Jesus, I have received the Holy Spirit.

He seemed perturbed somewhat, that I had answers to many of his questions. It really showed how disrespectful he was, that he refused to listen to me at the outset, that I had said that I am a Christian, and that I believe in Jesus Christ.

At that point, I asked him which church he belonged to. I was starting to wonder if he was a Seventh Day Adventist or a Mormon, or a member of the so-called United Church of Christ, which denies the full deity and pre-eminence of Jesus Christ.

The discussion then veered to how people need to keep the law of the New Covenant. He pointed to the passage in which Jesus took the cup of blessing at the Last Supper, and He declared "This is my blood of the new and everlasting covenant."

I was really disturbed when he said "Law" in relation to the New Covenant. I began to interrupt him, but gently. "We are no longer under law. We are under grace. You can find this in Romans."

He would not let me finish. He then stood up, said to me "You are a lawbreaker," and he walked away. A simple rush of peace came over me. I did not lose my temper, I did not raise my voice. Before he walked away though, I chided him, "Why will you not let me speak. I have allowed you to speak, haven't I?"

At that point, he called me a "lawbreaker," and he left. He did not get the answers that he was hoping for, I suppose. He had probably been trained that he would force me into an intellectual corner and cause me to acknowledge that I am a sinner or something else. He was hoping to win me over with a clear decision for Jesus.

What was really striking about his evangelism, if one can call it that, is that he did not mention the name of Jesus even once. He did not give the impression that he even knew how Jesus is!

While that dialogue between Anthony and me had been taking place, there was another gentleman, an older man, who was watching. When Anothony walked away, he laughed and asked me "What was that all about?" I told him how he was trying to share the Gospel with me--although the reality is that he had no good news to share, since he wanted to bring me back under law, and did not mention grace once.

He then remarked: "Wow! That's so sad. He was upset that you are religious, even though he was trying to make you religious. One would think that he would be happy for you!"

He was not interested in helping me. He was interested in "winning a convert," or at the very least winning an argument. That is not true evangelism.

I must admit, however, that I waded into this similar fight for pre-eminence with the older gentleman who started speaking with me afterwards. He told me that he is not religious, and he believes that there are too many inconsistencies with belief, plus all the complexities in the world, for him to believe that there is a God.

I insisted on asking him some questions. He clearly was not prepared to articulate his views on the issue. He wanted to defend evolution, and I asked him the usual questions which set such thinking to naught, such as "where is the evidence?" I also asked him "Where in the fossil record does one find the transitioning species?"

I felt the Lord telling me "This is not the right time to share with this man. This is not the approach to sharing the Gospel with him." Still, I pressed him a few more times on a couple of questions about the origins of the uinverse, how everything came about if not by intelligent design. Then, it seemed as though he had to take a call, and I took that motion as my cue to walk away.

As I walked away toward the center of the mall, I realized a number of things. I used to be an agressive evangelist like Anthony. I had a set of questions that I would press on someone, and then I could turn the whole situation around on them to say "You are a sinner, and you need a Savior. Would you like to believe in Jesus Christ and let Him be Lord of your life?"

Back then, I was so interested in winning arguments based on intellect. Today, I realize that Jesus is not just real, and real to my experience, but that He is more than a nice thought or a sentimental result of our reasoning.

Jesus is alive! He is a person! And evangelism should be all about sharing a great revelation of how great He is in our lives. We should be talking about Jesus the same way that we talk about a loving friends, relative, spouse, i.e. someone whom we know intimately, and whom we want others to know intimately, too!

Evangelism is about sharing the Good News, and that Good News is summed up perfectly in Acts 13:

"38Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: 39And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses." (Acts 13:38-39)

We receive forgiveness of sins--all our sins. We are justified from all things, that we cannot receive by the law of Moses.

I did not understand the Gospel in this fullness at all. I had understood the Gospel as something so work-centered, so "I" centered. How sad it is, yet so true. No wonder I was not much of a witness in years past!

Today, I understand fully God's unmerited favor, which I receive through Christ Jesus. Today, I know that He is my life, my Savior. I am connected to a real Person, not just some figment of my imagination, or a set of principles or verses. 

"Herein is love perfected among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement: because as He is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17)

It has taken me a long time to understand how fully real Jesus is to me. It's never been about me or about my self-efforts. It was never about having the right thoughts or doing the right things to ensure that Jesus would always be with me, that His Spirit would always be at work in me.

Today, I am learning so much about how to let that River of Life flow through me uninterrupted, unhampered by my efforts. I am learning that to share the Gospel is as simple as declaring: "Jesus Christ has died for all your sins. You can receive full freedom from condemnation and receive His life!"

Stop Listening to Our Fathers--and Start Listening to The Father

  We have to get past the knowledge of our parents and go to the wisdom of God the Father.

For the longest time, I vacillated between the opinions of my mother and my father. I have only recently learned how wrong they BOTH were, on so many issues.

Unlike many people, I have no problem looking past the two options which are usually placed before us on a number of issues.

I have gotten more accustomed to recognizing that whatever ideas are presented in an either/or fashion, there is often a great way to come up with other options in the midst of them, or outside of their scope entirely.

I don't feel the need to be bitter toward my parents. I realize what they did not know about the Gospel of Grace, and what I have learned today because I have learned so much from the preaching of Pastor Joseph Prince and Pastor Bob George, among many others. So grateful for their work in restoring the Gospel of Grace, that Jesus has finished the Work and given us Himself.

Amen!

We need to seek not the wisdom of our fathers, but the Father. We need the love of the Father, not just the love of our earthly fathers. This is not to disparage the work and the witness of the men and women who raised us. 

But no matter what we are facing, not matter what we have learned, we need the love of THE Father!

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him." (1 John 2:15)

The wisdom of our earthly fathers cannot compare with the Wisdom of the Father. In fact, let us never forget that "Christ is our wisdom" (1 Corinthians 1:30)

One final thought ...

I have listened to so many older men talk about their convictions and beliefs, and many of them acknowledge that their beliefs come from what their fathers told them. "I know that William F. Buckley was a racist, because my father said so, and my father would never tell a lie."

Perhaps your father did not lie to you, but what he said was not true. 

Consider also what my father used to say about lying: "My father told me not to lie, because you are too stupid to keep track of your lies."

But what does the Bible say about lying?

"Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another." (Ephesians 4:25)

and

"Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;" (Colossians 3:9)

We don't tell lies because they are not commensurate with our new nature, our new identity, our new creation as Christ's own, adopted into the Family of God.

We need to stop listening to our fathers, and start listening to the Father!