Prosperity Teachers and Old Testament Texts pt.3

(Pardon the funny face in the video...yes, I did it on purpose lol...its called passion) In this video, I want to see how prosperity teachers use the book of Job to justify their teachings. Many times, instead of facing the text for what it says, prosperity teachers go to great lengths to convince their listeners that Job's sufferings were unique and were not ultimately from God, while at the same time, they will easily affirm God's great blessing on Job's life. I look at quotes from Kenneth Copeland and Joseph Prince in this video to see how their teaching compares to scripture. Below are the links to the articles and sermon which I quoted from: Acting in Fear: A Look at Job's Life - Kenneth Copeland Satan Cannot Come Before God - Joseph Prince Why Good People Suffer - Answers from Job's Story - Joseph Prince Religion Doesn't Help You, Faith Does - Kenneth Copeland

Prosperity Teachers and the Old Testament pt. 2

 In this video, I am continuing to answer the question "How do prosperity teachers use Old Testament texts to justify their teachings?" Deuteronomy 28 is a popular passage that many prosperity teachers use to show that obedience to God's Word merits financial and material prosperity. On the contrary, prosperity teachers believe that the curse spoken about in Deuteronomy is the curse of the law and is essentially poverty and that this curse comes through disobedience to God's word. What does the Bible say about this passage and how we should properly interpret it? Let me know your thoughts, comments, agreements, and disagreements.

Prosperity Teachers and the Old Testament pt. 1

 This video is in response to a question I was asked recently, "How do prosperity teachers use Old Testament texts in order to justify their teachings (a.k.a the prosperity gospel)?" In this video I give an overview of "The Blessing of Abraham" as taught by prosperity teachers and what the Bible says about Abraham's blessing. I wrote on this a few months ago and I use a lot of the same points I wrote here. The verses that I cover in this video are: 

 Genesis 12:3 

 Genesis 24:34-35 

 Galatians 3:5-9

Reformed and Charismatic? A Look at Spiritual Gifts in the Life of the Church

I listened to this sermon recently that was preached at the Desiring God Pastors Conference by Tope Koleoso. It rocked me. If you are looking for a good sermon to listen to on how the spiritual gifts function in the life of a gospel centered, Christ-exalting church...(minus the chaos)...this is a great sermon to listen to. My biggest takeaway from this is that we cannot allow fear to cause us to limit or constrain the Holy Spirit and how he wants to work in our preaching, and in our praying for the sick and deliverance of those oppressed by Satanic opposition. The same Spirit who empowers the former, empowers the latter. Thoughts and comments are welcomed.

A Call to be Rigorous and Discriminating in our Doctrinal Knowledge

This was taken from John Piper's sermon on Galatians 1:6-10 entitled "When Not to Believe an Angel". Piper's challenge to his church is to not be babes in their thinking but to think and think hard about the essential and foundational doctrines of Christianity. The gospel is something that as Christians we must be clear on. Heresy and false teaching are very real threats to the church that often arise not from outside of the church but from the inside. Our experiences and feelings as Christians should never be elevated above or replace our thinking about the gospel or foundational Christian teachings.

And what makes that underlying truth in the text so powerful is that the "different gospel" in the churches of Galatia was not a religion from a foreign land. It was a close counterfeit to the real thing. The people in verse 7 who were perverting the gospel were professing Christians. They probably belonged to the church in Jerusalem and knew its leaders (2:12). This "different gospel" was not on the order of Buddhism or Hinduism or Islam. It was an in-house distortion. It was promoted by men who called themselves Christian "brothers" (2:4).

So another implication of verses 6 and 7 for us is that doctrinal maturity is not a luxury at Bethlehem. It is a necessity. If a "different gospel," which is no gospel but only a perversion, can spring up inside the church, then surely we must make it our aim to become rigorous and discriminating in our doctrinal knowledge. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 14:20, "Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; be babes in evil, but in thinking be mature." Galatians is one of the best books in the Bible for helping us refine and clarify what the heart of the gospel is, which can't be replaced or altered. There is a tragic pattern in churches and in history, I think. Renewal breaks forth on a church or on an age through a fresh encounter with the gospel and the Spirit. Hearts are filled with the love of Christ, and mouths are filled with praise. The concern for evangelism and justice rises.

But in all the glorious stirrings of heart there begins to be an impatience with doctrinal refinements. Clear doctrine requires thought, and thought is seen to be the enemy of feeling, so it is resisted. There is the widespread sense that the Holy Spirit will guard the church from all error, and so rigorous study and thought about the gospel are felt to be not only a threat to joy but a failure of faith. The result over a generation is the emergence of a people whose understanding of biblical teaching is so hazy and imprecise that they are sitting ducks for the Galatian heresy. It arises right in their midst. Paul said to the elders of Ephesus in Acts 20:30, "From among your own selves will arise men speaking distorted things to draw away the disciples after them." He says in verse 27 that he has done his part to prepare them by "declaring the whole counsel of God." I hope to be able to say the same thing some day about Bethlehem: "I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God."

Your Faith Has Made You Well

"Your faith has made you well....."

I've often wondered about this statement made by Jesus concerning the woman who touched the hymn of His garment and was made whole. Was it her faith that made her whole or was it her faith that made her whole? The difference between these two statements is huge, as the former suggests that faith is something that we posses which we use to obtain something. The latter statement suggests that it is the belief and trust in someone or something (faith) who is able to do something which we are unable to do in and of ourselves.  R.C. Sproul, in his commentary on the Gospel of Mark, provides some good insight concerning this passage. Mark 5:24-34 says,

 And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. 25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’ ” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” 

Sproul states

What did Jesus say to her? He did not say, "Daughter, your touch has made you well." Neither did he say, "Daughter, My garments have made you well." No. He said, "Daughter, your faith has made you well" (v. 34a). What did He mean? There was no intrinsic power in her faith. Her faith was not the efficient cause of her healing; Jesus was. But her faith was the instrumental cause of her healing. Just as in our justification, God does not declare us righteous because there is any inherent righteousness in our faith, prompting God to say, "Because you have faith, I will save you." No, faith is the instrumental cause of justification because it is the tool or instrument by which we take hold of Christ. Christ is the efficient cause of our justification. In the same way, it was Jesus who healed the woman.

2 Sermons by Demetrius White

These are  two great sermons by a good friend of mine, Demetrius White. This brother has truly been a blessing to me and an encouragement to so many others. He recently preached on the New Birth from John 3 and yesterday he gave an awesome sermon on the book of Numbers. Check these out and enjoy!

The New Birth - by Demetrius White

Numbers - by Demetrius White

B.Graves on the Holy Spirit

Yesterday, my brother, Brandon, got the opportunity to speak at his church for a few minutes on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. The audio can be found here. I'm so proud of this dude! Check it out.

Allow Me To Re-Introduce Myself...

              So after thinking over some potential topics for a while, I've decided to start posting some shorter posts on the Attributes of God. This series will be called "Allow Me To Re-Introduce Myself...", derived from the Jay-Z Black Album song, "PSA". Why call it this?  Other than it being a cool name for a series, the attributes of God have nothing to do with Jay-Z, but have everything to do with God, the Creator, Sustainer, and Author of all things. At the most basic level, what we think about God will shape everything about us. I don't intend to unpack each attribute in an exhaustive way, but my only hope is to state the attribute of God's character and provide some practical ways on how His character has everything to do with us. For this brief look at the manifold characteristics and essence of the One True God, I will use two voices from the past in addition to the scriptures in order to help me communicate the attributes of God. The first will be A.W. Tozer's "The Knowledge of The Holy", and the second source will be Stephen Charnock's "The Existence and Attributes of God".

What do God's attributes and characteristics have to do with us? Why are they important? Of what benefit will they be to my life, other than being able to spell "omnipotent" in Words with Friends? Hopefully the next few posts in this series will be able to answer these questions. To begin, here is a quote from the late A.W. Tozer on the importance of having a right view of God.

"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. The history of mankind will probably show that no people has ever risen above its religion, and man's spiritual history will positively demonstrate that no religion has ever been greater than its idea of God. Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God."

 Tozer's words could not ring any louder. Firstly, God is important because in the Bible, God's Word about Himself, God tells us that He is the most supreme being both inside and outside of anything and everything that is known.Because He is that, He deserves our worship, honor, and love. If God is supreme in His being - supreme in power, life, love, righteousness, and justice -then to attribute to anyone or anything else supremacy and worship is not only wrong and misplaced, but un-fulfilling. God's attributes are important because it is through these characteristics that we are able to attain an incomprehensible, yet true view of who God is. It isn't  enough to simply know that there is a God and that He has a few good attributes that seem to benefit us and the world we live in. Almost anyone we can think of who will affirm that there is a God will affirm that He is a creator, good, loving, and generous, and these are all good things to know; but to only know these things about God is incomplete. In the Bible, God presents Himself completely, in that we can know what we know about Him in truth, yet what we know truly about Him isn't a fraction of what we can know about Him exhaustively.

Practically, knowledge of God's attributes is for our worship of God. An incomplete knowledge of who He is will only result in incomplete worship and an incomplete perspective of our lives within His dominion. Many are ready to praise the Lord for His goodness while only few will praise Him for His justice. God's love for the world is proclaimed aloud for everyone to hear, while His hatred for sin is proclaimed often softly or angrily. The fact is that we cannot have one attribute without the other. A God with all love, patience, and mercy and no justice would be like the unjust judge who pardons every criminal without hearing the case. Likewise a God with absolute justice, wrath and no love, patience or mercy would have crushed this world under His wrath the minute Adam sinned against Him. When we examine these attributes and how God reveals Himself in His word, it will produce in us a reverential awe for God, the proper perspective of Him, and overwhelming joy at the fact that this Sovereign, all-powerful, merciful God is on our side through Christ.

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.              Proverbs 9:10

Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches,   but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”  - Jeremiah 9:23-24

Your Identity in the Fight for Holiness - Kevin DeYoung

This is a quote from Kevin DeYoung's book, "The Hole in Our Holinesss" concerning how the Christian is able to fight sin and pursue holiness by focusing on their new identity in Christ. I found it to be very helpful and hope it helps and encourages you as well.

Second, the gospel aids our pursuit of holiness by telling us the truth about who we are. Certain sins become more difficult when we understand our new position in Christ. If we are heirs to the whole world, why should we envy? If we are God's treasured possession, why be jealous? If God is our Father, why be afraid? If we are dead to sin, why live in it? If we've been raised with Christ, why continue in our old sinful ways? If we are seated in the heavenly places, why act like the devil of hell? If we are loved with an everlasting love, why are we trying to prove our worth to the world? If Christ is all in all, why am I so preoccupied with myself?

                                                              - Kevin DeYoung, "The Hole in Our Holiness", 84

 

 

Writer's Block...

So, I've just about written my brains out for the last several posts and I haven't posted in a while as you can see. I recently started a Tumblr titled "Gospel Prosperity" just to post random pictures and thoughts, but I will begin writing again here shortly...about what, I dunno. If you have any suggestions, ideas or questions, send them...

The Prosperity Gospel's Biggest Proof Text

   

 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

   
(Mark 11:20-25 ESV)

Without getting into an exhaustive post about the origins and ideas of the Word of Faith movement, the purpose of this post is to take a look at the Word of Faith movement's big proof text from which much of its theology originates. The term "prosperity gospel" is one that has been used throughout the previous posts to describe the ideas that the Bible teaches the guaranteed health and wealth of Christians through the atonement of Jesus Christ. Synonymous with that term is the Word of Faith movement. This movement began in the 1940's and 1950's with a man by the name of Kenneth Hagin, who is often regarded as the Father of the Word of Faith Movement, and many of his writings and teachings helped shape what many know today as the prosperity gospel. Hagin began his ministry of health and wealth when he was miraculously healed from his sickbed as a 17 year old in 1934. According to Hagin,

"I was only 17 then and had no other Christians to fellowship with who believed as I did. I didn't have even one person, young or old, to stand with me to encourage me in this area of faith and believing God. I simply had to stand alone - but I tell you, I had a great time doing it! I am sure the one reason I didn't have some of the problems others had with the world, the flesh, or the devil was because I told everyone, "I am a new creature." That was my constant confession. Hold fast to your confession that you are a new creature. You will always rise to the level of your confession. The new man on the inside will be manifested on the outside because he will dominate the flesh."  -

                                                        "Understanding How To Fight the Good Fight of Faith, (7)

I believe this quote summarizes most of Hagin's work and Word of Faith's doctrines in more ways than one. I would like to elaborate further on this in another post, but here are the three ways that I think this quote captures all of Hagin's writings and WoF's beliefs on faith, confession, health, and wealth:

1) They are based on experiences.

• With all due respect to Hagin, I believe that the sickness and suffering that he experienced at 17 was real and was as serious and as intense as he says. I also believe that he was genuinely healed from his sickness by God. But Christians are not called to base our faith on our experiences or base the Bible on our experiences, but rather let the Bible be the base from which we interpret our experiences and ground our faith. According to Hagin in this quote, it appears that he trusted more in his confession than in Christ and this is where the Word of Faith teaching bears left off the road of sound doctrine.Just within the book quoted, "Understanding How To Fight..", Hagin uses roughly 40 personal experiences to justify what he believes the Bible is saying about confession, faith, health and wealth. Many of these experiences are personal dialogues or "revelations" with himself and God that form into doctrinal principles that he says Bible supports.

2) They are based on what YOU say.

• In the prosperity gospel, God promises healing, wealth, and success in the atonement of Jesus for all who believe. The way that one accesses this guaranteed prosperity is through faith and this faith is not "active" until one confesses and verbally says what they believe. By Hagin telling everyone that he was a "new creature" he was activating his faith to believe God for healing. His new man within would overcome the "flesh" or sickness. 

3) They are based on YOU

• Much of what you hear or see within the prosperity gospel begins with you and ends with you. What this means is that it begins with God having your best interests in mind (health, wealth, success). Prosperity begins with your confession, is only coming to you  when you keep confessing it, and in the end only benefits you. Hagin, nowhere in his book "Understanding How To Fight" mentions anything about the eternal purposes of Jesus in healing people presently. It is interesting that in Mark 16:16-18, Jesus in the Great Commission, lists healing the sick as a sign that points to the message of the gospel and Himself. Hagin never mentions healing or God's blessing as a way to be drawn closer to God through the person and work of Jesus, but only describes these things as  "rights" and "benefits" from a "covenant". Healing and God's blessing in a material connotation is not mentioned in the Bible in this way at all. When Christ healed in scripture and when He heals today, it is to point to Himself (John 5:1-15, Matt 8:18, John 9:3-7), not so that we could point to ourselves. 

So here is the prosperity gospel's biggest proof text, Mark 11:20-25. The reason that I believe that this is their biggest proof text is because it is the passage of scripture that is constantly referenced in many prosperity teachers writings and sermons. Below, I have listed three quotations from three of prosperity or Word of Faith teachers concerning this passage. In these quotes we will look at their perspective on this passage, determine if it is accurate with the scriptures, and then see what the text says for itself. The quotes will be from Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, and Gloria Copeland, some of the prosperity gospel's original and most renown teachers.

Kenneth Hagin

Our confessions rule us. That is a spiritual law which few of us realize. Jesus said, "...whosoever shall say... and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith" (Mark 11:23). Notice the last phrase again, "he shall have whatsoever he saith." What we say is our confession. What we say is our faith speaking - whether it is on the positive side or the negative side. Jesus said that whosoever shall say, he shall have whatsoever he saith.... I tell people all the time, "If you are not satisfied with what you have in life, then change what you are saying. You have created what you have in  your life with your own words."

                                                                                         - Understanding How To Fight, 112


Kenneth Copeland

Jesus said in Mark 11:23, "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain , Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith." Notice the last words, "he shall have whatsoever he saith." Faith is released with the mouth. Even our salvation is based on the confession of our mouths that Jesus Christ is our Lord (see Romans 10:9-10). You can have what you say! In fact, what you are saying is exactly what you are getting now. If you are living in poverty and lack and want, change what you are saying. It will change what you have!...Since then I have learned the powerful force of the spiritual world that creates the circumstances around us is controlled by the words of the mouth. This force comes from inside us....In mark 11:23, Jesus is talking about saying things that have not yet come to pass. The mountain had not yet been removed when it was spoken to. Jesus said for us to believe that those things which we say will come to pass and then we will have whatsoever we say. When I learned these facts, it became easy for me to confess, "I have it now...I can see it through the eye of my faith."

                                                                                      - The Laws of Prosperity,  80


Gloria Copland

"Get ready to release your faith right now for whatever you need from God. Mark 11, verses 22-24, will work for any need. And Jesus answering them saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Whosoever shall say unto this mountain. According to Jesus, in order to change things you are to speak to the mountain. The mountain is the obstacle or need in your life. Let's assume that your need is financial - you just simply need more money to live and to give. Say this: "Poverty, I speak to you in the name of Jesus, and I command you to be removed from my presence and my life. I will no longer tolerate you. I forbid you to operate against me in any way." You do not talk to God about the problem. Talk to Him about the answer - the Word of God....Most people want God to talk to the mountain for them, but HE WILL NOT. He has given the believer that authority; and if you want results, do it His way. TALK TO THE MOUNTAIN!"

                                                                                 - God's Will is Prosperity, 103

So what can we conclude from these interpretations?

1. This passage speaks of confession
2. We can have whatever we confess, both negative and positive
3. We can speak to circumstances, and they will change

Is this what Jesus is communicating in Mark 11? Does this interpretation fall in line with the other parallel passages in the gospels (Matt 21:10-22)? Remember, in proper Biblical interpretation, we cannot simply pull a passage from scripture and make a doctrine of it, we must interpret the scriptures in their context. The way that this verse initially looks and sounds, it seems that it says exactly what these interpretations say.  But what is the context?

Context:(Mark 11:1-19)
It is the last week of Jesus' life before the crucifixion. He enters into Jerusalem on a colt, being celebrated in what we know as the Triumphal entry, where people are laying their coats on the street for Jesus to ride on and palm branches are being waved by excited men, women, and children crying out "Hosana! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" Jesus enters Jerusalem for the final time of his life with His disciples and heads towards the temple. That night he stays in Bethany, a city outside of Jerusalem, and in the morning, on the way back to Jerusalem, Jesus makes a breakfast stop at a fig tree on which he finds no fruit. Without hesitation, Jesus curses the fig tree by simply saying to it "May no one ever eat fruit from you again." He then proceeds to enter the city. Whereas Matthew 21 records the fig tree's immediately withering and the disciples immediately asking Jesus about it, Mark records that Peter made an observation about the tree on the next day and Jesus proceeds to tell the disciples about what has happened to the tree.

The context tells us that this was the last week of Jesus life and therefore He would not be with the disciples much longer. Up until this point whatever they needed, Jesus provided and they hadn't had to ask for anything (John 16:24). Jesus teaches the disciples this lesson on prayer because when He leaves them, they will need to talk to the Father in the name of Jesus, rather than Jesus talking to the Father on their behalf as he has done over the last 3 years (John 16:26). Therefore upon seeing the disciples astonishment in the case of the fig tree, Jesus tells the disciples to "Have faith in God." It is upon this statement that Jesus begins to elaborate on the confidence that His disciples can have in facing the most impossible situations. Because God is on their side in Jesus, the disciples can do as Jesus did to the fig tree and even speak to "this mountain" and tell it to be thrown into the sea, if they do not doubt, but believe that what they say will come to pass. Unlike the previous interpretations, this faith and confidence does not stand alone, confident in its own ability to produce results, but rather, this faith works itself out, not through isolated demanding and confession of something, but through prayer - looking to God's ability to do all things, and this kind of faith asks for God's will to be done believing that we have received what we ask for. This text does not teach that our faith has creative and destructive powers, it teaches that God has creative and destructive powers and it is through confident prayer and trusting in Him that we can believe and receive whatever we ask for.

So what about the word "whatever"?
Both Copelands and Hagin believe that what falls under the category of "whatever" is: life circumstances, circumstances in the world, and anything you aren't satisfied with. If you are sick, then you can ask for health; if you are poor, then you can ask for wealth; "if you are not satisfied with what you have in life..." then ask for whatever you want in order to be satisfied. Your words essentially have power over anything and everything. Gloria Copeland goes even further when she says that God will not override what you say.

"God is not going to override your authority either. He has given you authority in the earth. He has given you instructions in His Word to put you over in every situation. He will let you die sick if you choose to do so. You would have to ignore every healing scripture in the Bible and all that Jesus bought for you when he bore your sickness and carried your diseases, but you have the authority to go ahead and die."  - God's Will is Prosperity, 104-105

 There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking God for money or healing or success in some area in life in prayer, but is this what Jesus meant in this passage- That we will get whatever we ask for whenever we ask for it? Clearly, whatever means whatever, but is there any qualification to "whatever"? Can I say to the ATM " No one will ever draw money from you again", when it refuses to give me two $10's instead of a $20? Can I say to my Saturn ,"Tomorrow you will be a Ferrari?" Can I say "I'm going to live until I'm 240 years old" and God be unable to overrule that statement? In a sense, I am joking, but I'm really not joking. I believe in Jesus, I trust that God can give me a Ferrari, and I sincerely believe that the ATM in the lobby will stop working, at least until it gets a feature that allows for smaller bills. What is to stop me from receiving that? I have made a confession about something that I am not satisfied with, and I fully expect for it to be done. In all seriousness, whether these things happen or not, there is a reason requests like these are made all of the time and remain unanswered. New jobs, new houses, sickness, restoration of a relationship, poverty - these are all things that people immediately think of when we think "whatever" in this verse. In addition to these things, there are many more that could be said and there are things "confessed" in a much more sincere and serious way that seem to never come to pass. Why? Is Jesus saying that we can only ask for mountains and fig trees? Is there a limit or restriction to what we can ask for?

In order to answer these questions, scripture must interpret scripture. Our prayers and requests before God as Christians must be within the sphere of God's will. 1 John 5:14-15 states "And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
Its easy to see where John, Jesus' closest disciple, gets this statement from. He writes it as if the words had just come from Jesus' mouth that morning at the fig tree. The thing that stands out from this verse, which helps to balance Mark 11:22-25 is that the prayer and asking that we are told to do must be according to God's will.

Now you may say, "Well, its God's will that I be healthy all the time and wealthy and be successful and victorious in life." I would ask, where do you find this in the Bible? Where does God ever say that His will is that all who believe in Jesus be physically healthy all the time and materially prosperous and never suffer? Yes, God does bless His people with prosperity at times and yes, He does heal, but nowhere does He guarantee this to anyone in the Bible - it is a gracious gift when He gives it.  While these things are weighty matters to us and of great concern to us, scripture tells us that God's will is much more concerned with weightier matters - the condition of our soul, our sanctification, and our being conformed into the image of Christ (Romans 8:27-29; Romans 12:2; 1 Thess 4:3). This does not mean that God wants Christians to be poor and sick. Word of Faith often responds with this accusation when it hears that God doesn't guarantee healing and prosperity in the atonement of Christ. This also doesn't mean that God wants all Christians to be wealthy. God may will for some to be wealthy in order to accomplish His will in their sanctification (1 Tim 6:17-20). In the same way, God may will that poverty be used in order to do His sanctifying, Christ-conforming work in the life of a believer.( 2 Cor. 8:1-5). Suffering  in the life of the believer is even used to work for the good of the Christian's sanctification (Romans 5:3-5). The proper application of  Mark 11:22-25 and 1 John 5:14-15 is this : We can have confidence and assurance to pray and ask for whatever we need in order for God to continue His sanctifying, transforming, and Christ-conforming work in our lives - and God will grant it. That can be health, it can be money, it can be good things, it can be the lack of money, or health, or "good things" when we trust in them more than we trust in God. What we cannot do is use passages such as Mark 11:24 and make them  bow to our own selfish desires and what we think God's will for us should be. James, the brother of Jesus, warns us against this in his epistle when he states "You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." (James 4:3).

Conclusion
In conclusion, after thoroughly reading what these teachers had to say about confession, faith, and prosperity, I didn't see any statements that pointed to the person and work of Jesus Christ. To the Copelands and Hagin, Jesus' death and the extra benefits that they believe it gives are only a means to an end, that end being their happiness and contentment in this life. Healing is never mentioned for the purpose of exalting Christ's mission of spreading the gospel in the world. Prayer is never mentioned for the purpose of dependence upon God to know His will, and prosperity is only mentioned as a right that Christians are obligated to rather than a conduit to distribute to those who are without on the basis of God's graciously giving to us in Christ. Mark 11:22-25 is often used within the prosperity gospel in order to convince people that God wants us to have whatever we want, and all we have to do is speak it. We can see that what Jesus wants is for His disciples, both then and now,  to confidently and humbly depend on and pray to God, believing that He will give us whatever we ask, namely, all things necessary for His glory and our joy in this life, for the ultimate purpose of being conformed into the image of Jesus.