How Obedience Happens

The Word of Faith movement derives its name from Romans 10:8, where Paul said 

“The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart](that is, the word of faith which we preach). NKJV

Paul goes on to say that we are to… 

“confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and to believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead”, then you “will be saved” (Romans 10:9). 

In other words, we are saved from our sins by surrendering to Jesus the control of our lives, and believing that He is arisen in our hearts to change us. 

This is how God set salvation up as Paul explained in Romans 10:17 

“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God”.

Paul goes on to say in Colossians 2:6 

“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” 

Word of Faith people say that if you received salvation from Christ by believing God’s Word about salvation and confessing Him, then we should receive God’s other promises the very same way. We are to speak them and obey them.

Let’s discuss Matthew 6:33. Jesus said 

“… seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” 

To qualify for that promise, 

“we must seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness”, and then we qualify for all these things shall be added to you”. 

Word of Faith people teach to “claim” a promise then we must first qualify for the promise. 

I agree. 

Our attention should be upon keeping our part instead of working on God to keep His part.

Word of Faith people say that we must align our speech, heart, and obedience to that promise by confessing, speaking, and praying that verse throughout the day. 

To qualify for that verse, it is my position that we must align our lives to Jesus teachings which He laid out in the context of the verse (Matthew 5-7) in its entirety. 

I’m sure that Word of Faith people agree with what I’ve just said;

however, I think that if we put more attention on obeying the passage rather than repeating and praying a verse out of the passage. Then, the answers to our prayers and confessions would actually increase. 

I, too, like to confess and align my life, speech, and prayers to God’s Word.

However, we must focus on a verse’s context and apply it in context to qualify for the reality of it.