When you have an attitude of faith and speak victory over your life, God will show up and do amazing things.
— Joel Osteen (@JoelOsteen) January 14, 2015
World famous Word of Faith preacher, Joel Osteen, says all you have to do is have faith, speak victory over your life, and God will show up to do amazing things. What say Joel to the Christians around the world who are being persecuted on a daily basis for their faith? Is there faith not strong enough? Does this only apply to American Christians? Do these people not “speak enough victory over their lives?”
Perhaps Joel Osteen has no idea what it means to be a Christian. In fact, if you aren’t suffering in some way for Christ, you very well may not be a Christian. Paul says in 2 Timothy, “12Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” I’m not saying that you can’t be a Christian, and also be financially successful, or in some ways be blessed, but the Bible does not, in any way, teach that you can speak victory over your life. If you are blessed by God, it is by God’s providence alone that he has given you success, and it’s not based on anything you have done (Job 1:21).
If you live in a country where, for the time being at least, you are freely allowed to practice your Christian faith, you should be on your knees thanking God for that daily. There will come a time when any mention of the name of Jesus can get you killed. The world hates Christians (1 John 3:13), but we are to count it all for joy (James 1:2-4), because Jesus Christ is the one that has spoken victory over our lives at the cross (John 16:33), and he alone shall take away all of our suffering and wipe away every tear (Revelation 21:4). Paul says in his letter to the Romans in Chapter 5:
3Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.