An examination of the word faith heresy and how it relates to the Luciferian sin.

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"How you are fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! You said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' -- Isaiah 14:12-14 (ESV)

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." -- Matthew 16:19 (ESV)

https://charismamag.com/spirit/spiritual-warfare/42372-are-you-rebuking-satan-the-wrong-way

Today we examine the demonic word faith heresy. The core belief is that our words have the same power that God's spoken word has. Literally. This is no different than the sin of Lucifer. Our first set of key verses detail the fall of Lucifer. How God cast him out of heaven for the transgression of wanting to be God. Lucifer said he will ascend to heaven and set his throne on high. He said he will make himself like the Most High. Today's deep theology is that the job is already filled. When Lucifer tempted Eve in the Garden, he tempted her to commit the same sin and she did:

But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. -- Genesis 3:4-6 (ESV)

Lucifer tempts Eve by saying she too would be like God. When she saw that the tree was desired to make one wise, she ate what was forbidden. The devil does not change his playbook much because he does not need to. Realize that people who refuse the gift of salvation do so because they like being their own God. Many of the heresies running wild in the church today can be traced back to this Luciferian desire. Word faith is just one of the more obvious ones. I have literally heard Joel Osteen and other word faith adherents base their false teaching on this verse:

as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations"--in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. - Romans 4:17 (ESV)

Do we see the problem using this as the proof text for word faith? It does not say that our words have any power at all. God is the one who calls things that are not as though they were. Why? Because He is God and as previously stated, the job is filled. God sees all time. So, He knew He could call Abraham the father of many nations because He sees all time! He saw already that Abraham would become a father of many nations. We have no such foresight beloved. The above link is to a recent article by Charisma News' Kathy DeGraw. Kathy's bio claims she "is a prophetic deliverance minister releasing the love and power of God, to ignite and activate people, release prophetic destinies and deliver people from the bondage of the enemy." A prophetic deliverance minister sounds lofty but is not scriptural in any sense. What I love about her own perception of her power is that she can release the love and power of God, ignite and activate people, release prophetic destinies, and deliver people from the bondage of the enemy! Now, let's examine these claims. Who can really release the love and power of the Lord? If you answered God you are correct! God is also the one who can ignite and activate people, release prophetic destinies, and only Jesus can deliver us from the bondage of the enemy. That bondage beloved is sin and it's kinda why Jesus went to the cross last time I checked. Once again the sin of Lucifer on brilliant display. Kathy DeGraw not only aspires to be God but apparently she already thinks she is!

"Is it enough to just rebuke the enemy? Are we missing an important element of prayer? We've all heard people say, "I rebuke you, devil" or "I rebuked the enemy." But, are we following up those words with an action we want the enemy to take as Jesus did? Are we binding and restricting our situation or storms and then speaking to it and declaring over our situation what it should do?" -- Kathy DeGraw

Another area that word-faithers get wrong is this notion of loosing and binding. I am sure we have all heard it before from the hyper-charismatics and super spirituals in our own church. They run around binding and loosing things declaring and decreeing their power over the devil himself. Some stick to spiritual matters but others just go full tilt and start binding and loosing everything from common colds to cancer. Such is the case with Kathy DeGraw. Before we get there however let us understand where she and the hyper-charismatics get this notion from. This verse about binding and loosing is from the scene where Peter correctly answers that Jesus is the Christ. Jesus declares that God gave Peter such an insightful and correct answer. He states that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church of Christ. Then He says the second key verse today. That Peter will be given the keys to kingdom of heaven and whatever he binds on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever he looses one earth shall be loosed in heaven. Before we get confused I have one question:

Does earth dictate anything to heaven?

The answer is no beloved. Heaven flows to earth and not the other way around so what is Jesus saying? First, for simplicity sake let us understand that loosing means allowing and binding means prohibiting. Because Peter is being given the keys to the kingdom of heaven he now will understand what is allowed and not allowed in the kingdom. Thus what he binds and looses on earth will be determined by this insight. Today we have the keys to the kingdom of heaven in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. By reading and understanding the bible, we too know what is permissible and what is not. We can bind what we know is not allowed and loose what is. The death and resurrection of Christ broke the power of sin in our lives. Sin is not permitted in heaven. Thus we can bind the sin that we struggle with. The supernatural power is not ours beloved -- it is His. It is interesting that Kathy equates rebuking the enemy with prayer because that is essentially what it is. The problem is who are you praying to in that scenario? The devil. Let us see what Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM) has to say about that:

"Prayer is not to be offered to the saints, to Mary, to dead relatives, or anyone else. Nevertheless, many well meaning Christians make a huge mistake when dealing with demonic forces. During their prayers to God, they sometimes switch, and pray to the demonic forces when they try and rebuke them. On the surface this might sound a good idea, but I find nothing in Scripture that says a Christian is to, essentially, pray to demons and rebuke them. Instead, the biblical pattern is to pray to God and ask God to do the spiritual battle." -- CARM

Once again though, Kathy DeGraw acts as if she is God. As if she has the power that only He possesses. We do not declare anything over our situations. If we want we can declare scripture as a reminder to us what God has said. Perhaps it will bolster our faith but to actually declare what will and will not transpire? Yeah that is not a power we possess as merely the created.

"When we look at the Scriptures, when Jesus rebuked, He gave the item He rebuked a follow-up command. We are rebuking, but I believe it isn't getting us the results it should. For years, I ministered to a couple who had an epileptic child. The wife kept saying, "I rebuked the devil." However, there were three challenges with her prayer. She prayed silently. The devil couldn't hear what she was binding and restricting. She prayed legalistically. She believed just praying in her mind, "I rebuke you, devil" would get the job done. She didn't give the enemy a follow-up command. Once she did rebuke him aloud, if she ever followed my advice and prayed aloud, she didn't tell the enemy what to do, the disease to leave or command her child to be healed. She just kept telling me all the time, "I rebuked the devil." -- Kathy DeGraw

You have got to be kidding me. This is what happens when you run around like the seven sons of Sceva, having no clue what you are dealing with. So in the Charismaniacal crazy-land of Kathy DeGraw, the devil cannot hear silent prayers so he will not listen to being bound unless it passes a certain decibel level. Secondly, just having faith that God will answer the prayers is somehow "legalistic" and lastly she did not give the devil "next steps" so he knew what to do after he was bound. You just cannot make up such silliness. In DeGraw's mind again, we are little gods with the power to now control the enemy if we would only be specific.

When we look at the storm on the water in Mark 4, we see an example of Jesus rebuking the wind and speaking to the sea. "He rose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, 'Peace, be still!' Then the wind ceased, and there was a great calm" (Mark 4:39). Jesus rose up and rebuked the wind, which was causing disruption on the sea. When He rebuked the wind, which is taking authority over it, He spoke to the sea and gave it a follow-up command of authority to be still. Notice, the wind ceased first. The wind and the sea, both things He took authority over, had to react in order for the stillness to come forth. It was twofold: rebuking and speaking a follow-up command." -- Kathy DeGraw

This is just as bad an affront to proper English as it is to the bible. Based upon the grammar, we must conclude that the rebuke was peace, be still. These are not two commands but one. How do we know that? because of the usage of a comma and not a period between peace and be still. What is Kathy DeGraw saying here? That if Jesus had just said "Peace" that the sea would not have grown still? Seriously? The rebuke to the wind resulted in the sea growing still. Nowhere does the text come close to intimating that Jesus is speaking different commands to the sea and the wind. Only in the wickedly deceitful hearty of Kathy DeGraw does such idiotic nuances exist. But wait! There's more!

"We can discover another example of rebuking and taking authority over demons. "When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the foul spirit, saying to it, 'You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and enter him no more'" (Mark 9:25). Jesus did not just rebuke the demon and it came out. He rebuked the foul spirit and said what He commanded it to do. When searching through the Scriptures for adequate spiritual warfare techniques, we need to pay attention to the filler words such as "saying," "said" and "call." We need to look for action words in the Scriptures. Here, Jesus said to the demon, "You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and enter him no more" (Mark 9:25b). Jesus not only cast the demon out, but took authority, commanded departure and also sealed in the person's deliverance by commanding the demon to enter him no more. He was rebuking and taking complete authority over every part of the demonic stronghold." -- Kathy DeGraw

Sealed the child's deliverance? Again, is she serious? Is Jesus ability to cast out demons somehow restricted by the words that He says? So according to Kathy, if Jesus had just said, "come out of him" then the demon could have simply re-entered the boy? How powerless a christ does Kathy DeGraw serve? That unless He said enter him no more His authority would be limited only to "come out of him." This is what happens when we limit the God we serve to pump up our role. The truth is the disciples could not cast out this demon and the father's faith had failed from the years of having to deal with it. Jesus is over all creation. He could have said "Snickerdoodle!" and the demon would have come out and entered the child no more if that was what Jesus wanted. Is God bound by linguistics? Is His intent only followed by His creation if it is spoken in proper English? Aramaic? Ancient Greek? Those are carnal languages given to us by God because we wanted to be like Him at the Tower of Babel as well. Once again, the Luciferian sin. DeGraw concludes:

"We must follow Jesus' example. I believe many people don't receive their deliverance or their healing doesn't manifest because we aren't following the biblical example of deliverance. Learn more about how we should follow Jesus' deliverance ministry in my podcast Prophetic Spiritual Warfare on the CPN network. You can learn more about deliverance and the power of speaking out in my books, Speak Out and Discerning and Destroying the Works of Satan. Think about your situation and what you need to speak out and not only rebuke but take authority over. I am believing for your situation to take a divine turnaround once you start rebuking as Jesus did!" -- Kathy DeGraw

Let's put an end to this silliness once and for all. DeGraw turned to the Gospel of Mark for the initial proof of Jesus giving two sets of commands. There is however the same story in the Gospel of Matthew and Luke and in neither one of those accounts are two separate commands noted. These stories are the same beloved. Jesus rebuked the wind and the seas but He did not provide follow up commands or anything that meaningless. God's command is God's command. The larger problem here is that Kathy DeGraw is still trying to be God and the job is already filled. In all of these instances, Jesus never corrected anyone saying they should have rebuked. The issue for the disciples and the father in Mark 9 was faith, not the power of their words. Do not fall for fake healers like Kathy DeGraw who have such a limited view of the power of God and a bloated sense of themselves.

Reverend Anthony Wade -- August 30, 2019

Authors Bio:
Credentialed Minister of the Gospel for the Assemblies of God. Owner and founder of 828 ministries. Vice President for Goodwill Industries. Always remember that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.