In approximately 1978, I began attending a small church in Farmer's Branch, Texas, outside Dallas, where I lived at that time. I got to that church the same way most people find a church, by following family or friends to the church they attend. The woman in our prayer group who seemed more spiritual to us than the others, first went to a church called, Beverly Hills Baptist, so I would go there with her and her non-Christian husband. When she left that church and went to the one in Farmer's Branch, I went with her.
The church, Word of Faith, the pastor, Robert Tilton.
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At the time I started there, we met in an old warehouse, and the most number of people we had at church on the best day was about 200 people.
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I left that church group under the following circumstances:
God gave me a terrifying dream in 1979.
In this dream, a man was speaking to a group of people. I went in and sat down and began to listen. A second man rushed into the room and said, "Stop ... wait ... can't you see ... It's too late ... It's already begun."
The first man resumed speaking.
I looked out the windows to see what had "already begun".
I was very shocked at what I saw.
There was a tall pole with a yellow civil defense speaker on top of the pole. I saw a gas coming out of that speaker. The gas was poisonous and was going to kill people and it was coming directly toward us!
The shocking thing was the speaker that was set there to warn us was the instrument being used to distribute the gas which would end up killing us!
I looked at the man who was seated next to me. He had a very big smile on his face as he attentively looked directly at the man who was speaking. But then I realized, this man was dead! He was a corpse.
I looked at the other people in the room and they were all dead.
As I sat there listening to the man who was speaking to the dead group of people, I began to yawn and I realize the gas was killing me too as I sat there among them.
I felt like Daniel who was sick after having a dream, for I didn't know what that dream meant and it was very difficult to live with it.
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One Wednesday night, in 1982, at church, at Word of Faith, I glanced at the man sitting next to me and realized this was the corpse I had seen in the poison gas dream.
I looked about the auditorium and saw the people who were dead in the dream.
I got up immediately and went to the Ladies Room and began praying.
I said to God, "I believe YOU are showing me to leave this church group so I'm going to drive away. But if YOU want me to come back, I will turn around and return."
I drove away immediately.
God did not want me to come back.
With that, God began teaching me about "The Faith Movement".
Up to that moment, I hadn't realized anything was wrong with that movement or with that church I had been attending.
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About the same time I left, the man who had been our Sunday school teacher left that church group.
I talked to him and told him I didn't realize I was different from them.
He said, "Joan ... you were never like them."
I wasn't?
He said, "They talk about faith but I always saw that you lived faith."
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What God showed me:
From the moment I was born again in 1975, I was taken to the following scripture to serve as a guide for my actions and development.
Jesus said:
John 5:30 ... I can of MINE own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and MY judgment is just; because I seek not MINE own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent ME.
The apostle Paul said:
I Corinthians 2 ... And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and HIM crucified. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
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God taught me to stay in the Bible ... meditating on verses in the scriptures ... and when I spoke to speak that which the Holy Spirit brought to my mind in scripture, dreams, examples and words.
I did not prepare anything in advance.
I was taught by God to step out in front of people and speak that which HE put in my ear at the moment I was out there.
When I focused on a scripture in my personal study, it was a scripture which had been brought to my mind by the Holy Spirit.
Therein lies the power of God ... by that which the Holy Spirit speaks to us.
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And God taught me about the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, primarily through the following scriptures:
John 14:26 ... But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, WHOM the Father will send in MY name, HE shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
John 16:13 ... Howbeit when HE, the Spirit of truth, is come, HE will guide you into all truth: for HE shall not speak of HIMSELF; but whatsoever HE shall hear, that shall HE speak: and HE will shew you things to come.
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love HIM. But God hath revealed them unto us by HIS Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
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Herein lies the primary difference in that which our Sunday school teacher at Word of Faith saw between what I was doing and what most of the others at that church group were doing.
I was led by the Holy Spirit in what scripture I used and in what I did.
Most of them were searching the Bible to try to find a scripture to stand on to justify what they wanted.
And this fit with that which Bob Tilton taught. I recall him teaching that if you wanted a red pickup, get a picture of the pickup you wanted and put it on the door of your refrigerator where you would see it day and night and eventually you would figure out how to get that pickup.
And this fit with that which Bob Tilton taught. I recall him teaching that if you wanted a red pickup, get a picture of the pickup you wanted and put it on the door of your refrigerator where you would see it day and night and eventually you would figure out how to get that pickup.
I had no idea they were searching for scripture to get what they wanted.
I thought we were the same until God brought me out by opening my eyes with the poison gas dream.
I thought we were the same until God brought me out by opening my eyes with the poison gas dream.
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I did have some clues during the years I was at this church.
In one January, we had a very severe ice storm. I lived about 15 or 20 miles from Word of Faith, so I couldn't drive to church that Sunday because of the ice on the highways.
Highland Park Methodist Church was about 2 blocks from my apartment. I decided to walk there and go to their service. As I walked through the parking area, I noticed all the expensive cars, Mercedes, Cadillacs, BMW, even a Rolls Royce.
At Word of Faith we were constantly hearing about prosperity and how God prospered HIS people. But here, at this Methodist church I was seeing real prosperity in the form of worldly wealth!
"What is going on?" I wondered.
I knew they didn't teach much scripture at the Methodist church.
It seemed to me that we had so many poor people attending Word of Faith in search of prosperity and gobbling up the prosperity messages that were being taught constantly at that church.
(I didn't care for the prosperity message but what I did was copy down all the scripture the preachers spoke and during the week I would meditate day and night on those scriptures ... then the next time I went to a service, I copied down all the scripture they spoke at that service and I meditated between church services on those scriptures I had copied down.)
One bad fruit that I know of developed in me during my stay at Word of Faith because of the teaching we were hearing ... It concerned my car.
My car was about 8-10 years old and had a hard top covered with vinyl which was in vogue at that time. I lived in a modest apartment and did not have a garage. So the car had to sit out in the hot, Texas sun, and the top cloth split and began to peal.
Though I liked driving the car, the image was really not in keeping with the success, prosperity taught in the faith movement.
I became embarrassed over my car.
The other ministers I knew in that movement had Cadillacs and Lincolns.
The woman who managed our office at that time tried to get me to go buy a Cadillac, saying we could afford the payments. I didn't entertain this idea at all for I felt I was to stay out of debt and it would be risky to do such a thing over a car. But I do recall feeling my car showed God wasn't blessing me at that time so my faith was in question. Of course, that was not true.
I've been away from the Faith Movement messages since 1982. God worked with me considerably in doing the following instructions given in Philippians 2 ...
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made HIMSELF of no reputation
I know the shame I felt over my car when I was in the Faith Movement came from the teachings of the Faith Movement.
My car was about 8-10 years old and had a hard top covered with vinyl which was in vogue at that time. I lived in a modest apartment and did not have a garage. So the car had to sit out in the hot, Texas sun, and the top cloth split and began to peal.
Though I liked driving the car, the image was really not in keeping with the success, prosperity taught in the faith movement.
I became embarrassed over my car.
The other ministers I knew in that movement had Cadillacs and Lincolns.
The woman who managed our office at that time tried to get me to go buy a Cadillac, saying we could afford the payments. I didn't entertain this idea at all for I felt I was to stay out of debt and it would be risky to do such a thing over a car. But I do recall feeling my car showed God wasn't blessing me at that time so my faith was in question. Of course, that was not true.
I've been away from the Faith Movement messages since 1982. God worked with me considerably in doing the following instructions given in Philippians 2 ...
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made HIMSELF of no reputation
I know the shame I felt over my car when I was in the Faith Movement came from the teachings of the Faith Movement.
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God's way to prosper and have good success:
Psalm 1 ... Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Psalm 1 ... Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Joshua 1 ... Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper withersoever thou goest.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Have not I commanded thee? (Didn't God tell you to do what you are doing?)
Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.
Have not I commanded thee? (Didn't God tell you to do what you are doing?)
Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
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We were being taught at church that we had "authority" as believers over weather that caused destruction.
I wondered why some of the great men of faith didn't exercise their authority and stop that storm from hitting.
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Many people failed to reach their expressed goals, but when that happened it was said their faith was too weak.
Never did I hear anyone say, "This teaching is wrong."
Never did I hear anyone say, "This teaching is wrong."
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For a very brief season (1980-198l), I was one of the rising stars in the Faith Movement among the ministers, being on radio from coast to coast by 1981.
Then after a meeting in Seattle, I was enroute to the airport to return to Dallas, when I heard the following from the Holy Spirit:
"The foundation is laid. Now we're really going to move."
"OH boy!" I foolishly thought.
A few weeks after this, I heard the following from God by HIS Spirit.
The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God ... The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God ... The time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God.
Over and over, God spoke this to me.
Then God opened my eyes to see sins in the lives of ministers and sins in several big time ministries.
When I was unable to get a message to these ministers in private, I was persuaded (I believe by God) to give the message on radio, telling of the sins, and naming those ministers by name.
To get me to do this, the following scripture was called to my attention.
II Timothy 4:14 ... Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord reward him according to his works: Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatly withstood our words.
By this scripture, I saw Paul naming a wrong doer by name in front of all as he warned the church about the man.
I began doing this on my radio broadcasts and in some of my meetings.
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A very important moment came for me in Seattle after I began doing these things.
The manager of the radio station in Seattle was waiting for me outside the meeting room.
He came to me and said,
"Joan ... you have many good messsages ... just speak those messages ... if you keep speaking these judgment messages, I don't know what is going to happen to you ... we might have to put you off the air."
He came to me and said,
"Joan ... you have many good messsages ... just speak those messages ... if you keep speaking these judgment messages, I don't know what is going to happen to you ... we might have to put you off the air."
Instantly, without any thought at all, the Holy Spirit rose up in me and said the following through me.
"George ... If I don't speak the message I believe to be from God, then I don't have a message and I may as well be off the air."
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The greatest problem in the Faith Movement is instead of learning to turn to God and follow the Spirit of God, they learn to take authority over the situation and "be as gods" quoting scripture by their natural minds.
Look at what Paul says about antichrist.
II Thessalonians 2 ... NASB
Let no one in any way deceive you, for it (the day of the Lord) will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?
And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed.
For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. Then that lawless one will be revealed
II Thessalonians 2 ... KJV
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
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II Thessalonians 2 ... KJV
Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.