Do You Believe the Lie?

I'm rereading Joel Osteen's "Your Best Life Now" for the third time, and it seems the more I read it, the angrier I get. (I just got "A Better You" his new book, and I'll be writing reviews on both books for you next week.)

I've also been having a few conversations with my sister, who, like I, am a prosperity Christian who believes we've been lied to.

The reason I'm angry, and you should be too if you've been through the same experience, is that I've been lied to most of my life, and I've been lied to by the very ones who claimed to love me. By believing those lies, I've had so much stolen from me.

When I say this, what I mean is that we, as human beings, were born to be in perfect relationship with God. He made us specifically to have a relationship with Him, and part of that is that He really loves us.

HE WANTS TO BLESS US. HE WANTS TO BLESS YOU. HE WANTS TO BLESS ME.

I was raised in a very religious, authoritarian home. Lots and lots of hellfire and brimstone. That's bad. Once you take Jesus Christ as your Savior, and one of the reasons is so that you will be saved, you should already know all that hell fire and brimstone stuff. It's not necessary to keep teaching it all the time, and that's exactly the problem. A lot of churches spend way too much time teaching sin and hell fire, and really all you get with all of that teaching is more hell fire and more sin. It really doesn't help anyone.

So, by now, you're probably wondering what this has to do with taking authority in your life. Well, it has a lot to do with it.

Like I said before, we've all been lied to, and we've all been lied to a lot.

We were meant to be "more than conquerors." We are to overcome in this life. We are to be happy, healthy, whole, and have it all because God wants to bless us, and His resources are infinite.

If you're sick, broke, falling apart, and just generally miserable, I can tell you right now that you aren't in God's will. Not only that, you're probably that way because you believe the lie.

God wants to heal you. He wants you to be happy, and He wants you to prosper. He made the whole world for us. Not for the animals. Not for the plants. Not even for the angels. For us.

We are something special. We are important. We are beautiful, and we are loved, deeply loved.

If your life isn't what you want it to be, then it's time for you, for me, to stand up and declare for something different. It's time to start speaking those blessings. In your own life. In the lives of your children, grandchildren, and anyone else you feel compelled to speak those blessings for.

If you don't have those blessings yet, are you secretly telling God "no" because you don't believe you deserve everything He wants you to have?

For example:

You probably remember the story of Jacob. Jacob stole his brother Esau's blessing when he tricked Isaac, their father, into giving him his brother's blessing. Jacob became very prosperous. He had it all. That doesn't mean to say there weren't problems along the way. There were.

When Esau found out, he was livid. He was the first born. Jacob had received what was his. Their mother sent Jacob away so that Esau wouldn't kill him.

In ancient times, especially in the Old Testament, the blessings you received could make you or break you. Blessings were extremely important.

Blessing is an important part of our lives now. It determines who we are, and it determines what we become. What I mean by this is that if you're constantly told that you're wonderful, that you're special, that you're beautiful, etc., you'll believe it. If you come from a background like I did, where you were told you'd never amount to anything, that people like you didn't go to college, etc., you believe that too.

Satan wants to lie, cheat, and steal to take away everything that you have that's wonderful and beautiful in your life, whether it's your children or your dreams, or WHO YOU REALLY ARE. If you don't speak blessings over these things, if you don't pray about these things, and if you don't take authority over these things, Satan will steal them out of your life.

I don't know about you, but Satan has stolen enough from me already, and he's used people in my life who were supposed to love me to do it.

As a new year approaches, will you join me in kicking Satan, the naysayers, and junk religion that says we have to be miserable until we die and go to heaven, to the curb?

You and I, all of us deserve everything that God has waiting for us. It's time to start praying those blessings and speak those things into existence that God wants us to have. That's the REAL Science of Getting Rich.

---

Orignal From: Do You Believe the Lie?