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Meyer is decidedly word faith and promotes some very strange ideas.
“We laid hands on the check and prayed. I went and got all of our
checkbooks and my pocketbook and Dave got his wallet and we laid hands on them
and put the blood on them, asking God to protect our money, to cause it to
multiply and to see to it that Satan could not steal any of it from us” (p.111
The Name, The Word, The Blood.).
It works for her. Some people think that representatives of Christ should
live opulent lifestyles resulting from the gospel, this viewpoint results from
being brainwashed from the prosperity cult of word faith. This is the very
opposite of what the apostles taught and gave as examples that the church is
to follow. There is nothing wrong with being paid for ones labor, to have
support to do ministry work but what we are seeing goes beyond abuse. Consider
what they prayed for them-selves and the stories that follow. Hopefully it
will make you pause and think...
A recent series of investigative articles
in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch revealed Meyer's ministry purchased for Joyce and
Dave a $2 million home, a $10 million private jet, and houses worth another $2
million for the couple's children, who also work for the ministry. The articles
also outlined Meyer's recent personal purchases, including a $500,000 vacation
home. Meyer, 60, lives in Fenton, Missouri, near St. Louis.
Meyer's ministry withdraws program from
Channel 24
By BILL
SMITH Post-Dispatch
01/02/2004 Joyce Meyer's “Life in the Word” TV show will no longer be aired
on the Rev. Larry Rice's KNLC (Channel 24).
Rice said he had told Meyer two weeks ago that he was canceling her Sunday
evening program and was considering canceling her weekday show when the ministry
notified him Friday that it was pulling off the station.
Rice said his actions were prompted by Meyer's lavish lifestyle and what he saw
as teachings that often went “beyond Scripture.”
Rice said he had become increasingly worried about what he views as the “excessive
lifestyle” of Meyer and her family.
He said Friday that the ministry's $2.5 million home in south St. Louis County
where Meyer lives, and the $100,000 Mercedes-Benz owned by her husband, Dave,
“crosses the line.”
“She wasn't always like this,” he said of Meyer. “She's really drifted.”
Good for him to stand up for the truth even though he would
lose money. We need more people with integrity like this.
*After 9 years of giving, man has no Chrysler, no wife, no wealth By Carolyn Tuft Post-Dispatch 11/17/2003
Bob Schneller gave to Joyce Meyer until it hurt. Nine years later, he says, it
still aches.
He's out of money, out of a marriage and out of faith with televangelists.
Schneller, 59, lives alone in a 600-square-foot, early-model mobile home in
House Springs. He's surrounded by videotapes of televangelists. He says he
studies the tapes to learn how he was taken in by Meyer.
Not so long ago, Schneller spent his days hanging on Meyer's every word. The
money he gave her - $4,400 a year - surpassed his annual mortgage payment. He
and his wife lived on $30,000 a year.
“She teaches you that if you give a seed offering, it will come back tenfold
or a hundredfold,” Schneller said. “I know it sounds ridiculous, but you get
caught up in it. You believe it as truth.” “Her teachings were practical,”
Schneller said. “I'd never heard anyone preach that way before.”
He goes on to say Most of what Meyer taught, Schneller said, is what he calls
the “name-it-and-claim-it” theology: If you have enough faith, you can name
what you want.
“So I laid across the hood of a brand new 1985 Chrysler Fifth Avenue,”
Schneller said. “I never did get it. She would say that I didn't have enough
faith, or that there was sin in my life blocking the blessing. It always goes
back to you.”
The Schnellers began giving more to Meyer: $350 a month. They went to Meyer's
home Bible sessions.
By the early 1990s, Meyer's popularity started to climb.
But Schneller was less fortunate. His back went out, and he lacked money to pay
his bills. He went to Meyer and told her what was happening. She laid her hands
on him, he said, and told him that he would be healed, that his problems would
soon go away.
“One day, I went out to my mailbox, and there inside were six $100 bills
wrapped up,” Schneller said. “Right after that, she had me give testimony,
and she used it to prove that you can be blessed.”
Despite the $600, nothing changed, he said. He went on workers' compensation and
underwent neck surgery. Meyer called him to wish him well, he said. She began
giving seed money to a ministry that Schneller and his wife had started, Sword
of Spirit of Truth.
Then, in the spring of 1994, a new technique was percolating among charismatics
like Meyer. It was called “holy laughter,” a ritual in which the
congregation sings songs repetitively. The preacher steps onstage and begins
laughing. Immediately, the room breaks into laughter. People slide out of their
chairs and onto the floor, “drunk on the Holy Spirit.”
But Schneller felt uncomfortable with it.
The Schnellers went to a church in Waterloo. There, Schneller spoke out against
holy laughter. A few days later, Schneller said, his wife was called into
Meyer's office.
Meyer told her, Schneller said, that because of their position on holy laughter,
“I can no longer support you.”
They parted ways.
Since then, Schneller's marriage has fallen apart. He works as a security guard
and attends a “regular church, where the Bible is taught verse by verse.”
These are only a few stories that need to be paid attention to when you
listen to Joyce Meyer or any of those that teach the false prosperity
promises.
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