F4F | Joel Osteen Hearing in the Spirit

Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith here on YouTube. If you've ever been told that God's gonna whisper amazing things about you into your heart and stuff, and that you've got to listen to that voice even when circumstances are going terribly wrong in your life, go ahead and hit the subscribe button.

You've been taught false doctrine in a form of what's called the Word of Faith heresy. So today we're gonna be heading over to Joel Glowstein's church,

Lakewood, and we're gonna be listening to a part of his message titled, Hearing in the

Spirit. Hearing in the Spirit. And boy, this is a this is a hot mess.

The best way to put it, a total hot mess. Not only is what he is what he's gonna say not biblical, the

Bible doesn't actually say this or teach this, his Bible twists are gonna be really blatant.

But furthermore, some of the things he's going to talk about actually address and touch on sin.

But he doesn't identify it as sin, and the real tragedy here is that the things he's describing are sins, and the people there at Lakewood are not gonna be told that they need to repent, and that Christ Jesus has bled and died for these sins, and that they need to be forgiven by God and then bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

Instead, this is a weird, non -biblical, you know, completely false doctrine regarding sanctification, and it has nothing to do with holiness or bearing fruit and repentance or anything like that.

It's actually quite frightening when you consider the implications of what it is that he's teaching.

So let's take a look at the desktop here, and let's listen in as Joel Osteen explains to us how we can be hearing in the

Spirit. Here we go. This is my Bible. I am what it says I am.

I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do. Today I will be taught the

Word of God. No, no, no you won't. Yeah, not at all.

I boldly confess my mind is alert, my heart is receptive, I will never be the same.

In Jesus' name, God bless you. I want to talk to you today about hearing in your spirit.

Just as we have physical ears, we have spiritual ears. Which biblical text says that we have spiritual ears?

I'd like to see this doctrine laid out in clear and unambiguous biblical passages.

God doesn't speak to us out loud normally like we see in the movies. He speaks to us in our spirit.

Again, text please, where does it say that? God speaks to us through His Word, the written

Word of God. Now I didn't cue this up ahead of time, but let me go ahead and we create a new tab here in my

Accordance Bible software and show you something from 2nd Timothy chapter 3.

The Apostle Paul, writing near the end of his life before he was martyred, had beheaded by Emperor Nero of Rome.

He writes to a young Pastor Timothy, who is a pastor of one of the congregations in the city of Ephesus, and he says, you however have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, and my love and my steadfastness.

My persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, which persecutions

I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

All Scripture is breathed out by God. The Greek word there, by the way, is theonoustos, it is

God -breathed, and it is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete and equipped for every good work.

In Mark chapter 7, Jesus gives a just a sharp rebuke against the

Pharisees and their man -made commandments, and says that they're literally false doctrines.

And here we got another passage that is just wonderful. So he says to the Pharisees, he said to them, you have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your man -made tradition.

Moses said, honor your father and mother. And so here's the note, like in the same breath,

Jesus says that these commandments that Moses wrote down are a command of God, and that Moses himself wrote them down, which is a good way of looking at Scriptures as being written down by human beings, and yet theonoustos,

God -breathed, God actually speaking through them. So if you want to hear God speak to you, read the

Bible. If you want to hear God speak to you out loud, read the Bible out loud.

It's kind of how that works. So what Joel Osteen here is saying regarding hearing God with spiritual ears, the

Bible nowhere teaches that, literally not one place. We continue. Many times he will speak things that contradict what we see with our eyes.

Maybe you're facing an illness, doesn't seem like you'll ever get well. You'll hear a voice saying, you're healthy.

Yeah, no you won't. No, no you won't. This is, what he is saying is straight up not even close to what

God's Word says at all. No passage says any of this. Strong.

Or you're struggling in your finances. You can't seem to get ahead. You'll hear that voice saying, you're blessed, you're prosperous, you have more than enough.

It's just the opposite of what it looks like. But God calls you what you are before it happens.

What? No. When you're sick, God calls you well.

When you're addicted, God calls you free. When you're barren, you can't conceive,

God calls you a mother. In the scripture, Abraham didn't have any children, yet God called him the father of many nations.

Yeah, that had nothing to do with the fact that Christian women are being promised that if they're suffering from barrenness that God's gonna give them physical children.

That's not why that's in there. All of that is pointing to the Messiah and all of the barren womb miracles in the

Old Testament of women who couldn't bear children and then miraculously were able to, including

Sarah, point to Jesus Christ because He was born of a barren womb, too, because what could be more barren than the womb of a virgin?

That's kind of the point, is that God is pointing us to Jesus. But what

Joel is doing here is making promises for God that he has not actually made. Gideon was insecure, afraid.

He said, God, I can't lead the Israelites. I come from the poorest family. He saw himself as weak, unqualified, yet God called him a mighty hero.

Yeah, again, that doesn't mean that somehow God's gonna call you a mighty hero. He's taking a descriptive text and turning it into a prescriptive promise, which it most certainly is not.

Well, hear things in your spirit that don't make sense to your mind. You'll think,

I'm not... Yeah, I'm hearing things with my actual physical ears right now coming from the mouth of Joel Osteen that make no sense at all biblically.

I still have this addiction. I'm not blessed, Joel. I have all these problems.

Now I'm gonna back this up, and I want you to hear this, and this is where you can actually see the tattered edges of this so -called doctrine.

He's gonna talk about somebody who is literally suffering from an addiction. Now, I can just put this out there and say it bluntly.

People who are suffering from addictions are sinning. Alcoholics are sinners, and they are committing a sin, a sin that is expressly forbidden by God regarding drunkenness.

That's just one example of an addiction. All other addictions have something to do with taking a good gift that God has given us, or an illegal thing that we're not supposed to be engaging in at all, and then literally being enslaved by those things, and enslaved by our sinful passions.

And so the solution biblically for this problem is to repent, to recognize that this is a sin, and to trust that Jesus Christ has bled and died for these sins, and then bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

And so notice what he's gonna talk about here, straight -up sin, and watch his solution.

It ain't biblical at all, and it has nothing to do with Jesus and Him crucified. In your spirit that don't make sense to your mind, you'll think,

I'm not free. I still have this addiction. I'm not blessed, Joel. I have all these problems.

Gideon said, I'm not a mighty hero. I'm the least one in my father's house.

Abraham said, in effect, I'm not a father of many nations. I don't have one child.

But if you're going to see it come to pass, you have to believe what you hear in your spirit, and not what you see with your eyes.

If you're gonna see it come to pass, you have to believe what you heard in your spirit. People who are hearing voices inside of them need to be institutionalized.

And again, nowhere in the Bible are we taught this. You have to walk by faith and not by sight.

Your circumstances may look like you'll never get well, never get out of debt, never meet the right person.

But if you'll listen down in your spirit, you'll hear a voice saying, burninate the countryside, burninate the peasants, burninate all the people, and the

Tetrarch. Healing is coming. No, you won't. No biblical text says this.

And nowhere are we told that we have to then listen to a voice inside of us and believe that.

And then by believing that voice, the thing will come. No text talks like this.

You will lend and not borrow. New doors are about to open. Favor is in your future. Don't let what you see with your eyes talk you out of what you've heard in your spirit.

God is saying to you what he said to Gideon. You are a mighty hero. No he's not.

Nowhere are we told that God talks to us this way. Another text worth reviewing in this particular context, in 2nd

Timothy chapter 4, right after what we just read about the Word of God, God speaking through the

Word of God. Paul then says this to young pastor Timothy, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who's to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing in kingdom, to preach the word.

Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound doctrine. But having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to soothe their own passions, and they will turn away from listening to the truth, and they will wander off into myths.

And that's exactly what Joel Osteen is doing here. He's telling people what they want to hear. He ain't telling them the truth at all.

And I mean this is narcissistic to say the least. You're going to accomplish big things.

You're going to go further than you've imagined. He's saying to you what he said to Abraham. You're going to have those children.

You're going to conceive. Your baby is on the way. This is so insensitive to women who actually suffer from barrenness.

For him to say this and make it sound like, oh well God's gonna promise me if he talks inside of my spirit, that he's gonna make it so that I can

I can have a child. This is, again, God is not making these promises, hasn't made these promises, and is not obligated to keep these promises.

Joel Osteen is telling people what they want to hear. He's saying to you what he said to David. You're going to defeat that giant.

Yes, that obstacle is big, but you have greatness in you. I have greatness in me.

Let's take a look back at Mark chapter 7, because Jesus actually talks about what's kind of inside of us.

And it ain't greatness, by the way. This is why we need a Savior like Jesus. So Mark 7 14,

Jesus called the people to him and said to them, so hear me all of you and understand there's nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him.

But the things that come out of a person are what defile him. And when he had entered the house and left the people, his disciples asked him about the parable, and he said to them, then are you also without understanding?

Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from the outside cannot defile him, since it enters not into his heart, but into his stomach and then is expelled?

Thus Jesus had declared all foods clean. And he said, so what comes out of a person is what defiles him, for from within, out of the heart of a man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.

All of these evil things come from within, and they are what defile a person.

Joel Osteen is literally saying that God's gonna tell you there's greatness inside of you, yet no, he never said that to nobody.

Not after Adam and Eve fell, that's for sure. So note that he's not confronting them with their sins at all, he's just basically filling their heads with narcissistic nonsense, that they're just fantastic, and just the apple of God's eye, when in reality, it's from within comes all of our sin.

...pointed, equipped, empowered. He's saying to you what he said to my mother, that cancer is not the end, that sickness is not your final story, restoration is coming.

Yeah, no, death is not the final story of a Christian.

Christians have a real hope, and that real hope is in the resurrection of the dead. And nowhere in Scripture are we promised that God will heal us every single time we get sick.

...about to turn in your favor. Now quit being discouraged by what you see, and start being encouraged by what you hear.

The Scripture says the things we see are only temporary, but what we hear, what

God speaks to us, that's permanent. Yeah, no, and here I know exactly where this text is, and we're gonna take a look at it, because what he just said is not at all what that Bible text says.

It's found in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and we're gonna note that what he's talking about, the text that he made reference to but didn't actually read out, is at the tail end of that chapter.

So we're gonna apply our three rules for sound biblical exegesis, which are context, context, and context, and take a look at what this passage really says.

So Joel Osteen is saying that what we see is not permanent, but what

God speaks inside of our heart, that's the permanent thing. That's what he just said. So let's check this out from Scripture.

2 Corinthians 4, context starts at verse 13. Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written,

I believed and so I spoke, we also believe and so we also spoke, knowing that he who raised the

Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.

For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people, it may increase thanksgiving to the glory of God.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

So you're gonna note here, Paul is basically saying to Christians, all of us, that we are not to look at the circumstances and the afflictions that we're suffering here in this earth, because everything you can see, taste, touch, feel, this is transient.

It's all going away. God's going to destroy it on the day that Jesus returns in glory to judge the living and the dead.

That being the case, we look to the things that are eternal, and the things that are eternal are not seen right now.

And so this is not a contrast between the word that God's gonna speak in your heart about how great you are, as compared to you in your visible circumstances not being great, which is what

Joel Osteen was saying. It has to do with the transient world that we're in, as opposed to the eternal life that we are looking forward to receiving, our hope in Christ.

Now I'm gonna back Joel Osteen up a couple of seconds, because I want you to hear how he twisted that text in context.

Now quit being discouraged by what you see, and start being encouraged by what you hear.

The Scripture says the things we see are only temporary, but what we hear, what

God speaks to us, that's permanent. No, the unseen things are eternal, not what

God speaks into our heart. So he just straight -up twisted this text. Isn't it any wonder they didn't actually put the reference to where that biblical passage was up on the screen?

Did you see it? It wasn't there. And the reason why is because if anybody knew how to read and could find that text handily while he was preaching this, they would have known that he was not telling the truth.

One translation says the things we see are subject to change. That sickness may look permanent, the truth is it's subject to change.

One touch of God's favor, suddenly you'll be well. That addiction you've struggled with for years.

And there it is. This is a sin. This is, he's describing straight -up sin.

Addictions are sinful, and he's not calling them to repent and to be forgiven and bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

He's not teaching biblical sanctification for people who are legitimately sinning against God and their own bodies through these addictions and others.

No, he's just saying, no, you're gonna hear a voice on the inside of you saying, you're not addicted, you're free.

Listen to what he says. I'll back this up just a smidge. Suddenly you'll be well. That addiction you've struggled with for years looks like that's your destiny.

Don't believe that lie. It's subject to change. How about repent?

Be forgiven. Christ bled and died on the cross for those sins. You feel like you're stuck, not getting good breaks, not seeing any growth.

Stay in faith. It's subject to change. God has the final say. He said, the path of the righteous, your path gets brighter and brighter.

If you'll listen, you'll hear that voice saying, new levels are coming. No biblical text says that a voice is gonna tell you that new levels are coming.

He's literally just making this up. New opportunities, new relationships.

First Kings chapter 18, there was a great drought. It hadn't rained. Now this is another fantastic twist here on his part.

I mean, it's just jaw -droppingly stupid how badly he's twisting this text, and nobody there cares.

Nobody even there understands at all. They have no understanding of the Bible in such a way that they can defend themselves even against the most bizarre and patently obviously, you know, twisting of Scripture.

They don't even do it there. Listen to this. For three and a half years, the crops had dried up, the food supply was limited.

People were worried. They didn't know what they were going to do. The prophet Elijah came along and told the king,

I hear the sound of an abundance of rain. There wasn't a cloud in the sky.

Everywhere he looked, it was dry, barren, no trees, no vegetation.

It had been that way for years. I'm sure the king thought, Elijah, this heat is getting to you.

You're hearing things. There's no thunder. There's no sound of an abundance of rain.

It's just the way it's always been. But that's the way God is. Now, let's take a look at just some of the details of this story.

1 Kings chapter 17, we have the first appearance of Elijah, and here's what it says.

Now Elijah the Tishbite of Tishbe, in Gilead said to Ahab, as Yahweh the

God of Israel lives before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word.

And the important thing here, when you take a look at the broader context of what's going on in 1 Kings at this time, is that Israel was worshiping the false god

Baal, and the story behind Baal is he was the god of the air. He was the god who brought the rains.

And so Yahweh basically sent the prophet Elijah and said, it ain't gonna rain until I say so, which is a way of proving your false deity

Baal isn't even real. And so it didn't rain until Elijah said so, and if you read the story in 1

Kings 17 and 18, Elijah literally skedaddles out of Israel and is gone for three years, and then is sent back by God after three years, and that's when the whole showdown between Elijah, the one prophet of God, and the false prophets of Baal on the top of Mount Carmel occurred, which is a, you know, just a fantastic text against idolatry, and it shows that Baal was never a true deity, and that he was never the one who brought the rain, it was always the god of Israel, the one true god, who brought the rain.

So what Joel has done is, like, he's gutted of all of its meaning, and just kind of jumps to the end without he explaining the beginning of the story, and says, so Elijah said to Ahab, I hear the sound of an abundance of rain.

Well, that was right after Elijah had slaughtered all of the prophets of Baal, after their god was unable to send fire to consume their offering on the top of Mount Carmel, but Yahweh did.

So, you know, he just left all of that out, as if somehow the whole point of the story in 1

Kings 17 and 18 is that God's gonna speak into your heart, and like Elijah said,

I hear an abundance of rain, there's gonna be favor and new levels and nonsense like this coming your way.

Nothing could be further from the truth. This guy, I mean, this narcissistic twisting, it literally is so demonic.

It is so self -focused, it's literally satanic in its emphasis. Throughout, God will talk to you about rain.

In lack, he'll talk to you about abundance. When you feel insignificant, like you could never make much out of your life, he'll talk to you about greatness.

Where in Scripture does it say any of this? What have you done with Jesus, the biblical one, the real one?

He'll put things in your spirit that seem impossible to accomplish. Or when you're lonely, you don't think you'll ever meet the right person, he'll talk to you about a divine connection.

He will. Where does God promise to do that? He speaks to your spirit about what's coming, but very often it's just the opposite of what our circumstances look like.

You heard abundance, but all you can see is lack. You heard healing, all you can see is sickness.

Or you heard new levels, all you can see is more of the same. Yeah, God ain't talking inside of your heart.

Read your Bible. The question is, whose report are you going to believe?

What you saw with your eyes, or the report of the Lord, what you heard in your spirit? This is like a formula for, like, creating mental illness.

Like Elijah, I hear the sound of breakthroughs, the sound of freedom, the sound of healing.

I hear the sound of new levels, the sound of abundance. God is about to do a new thing.

He's going to exceed your expectations. You may not see any sign of it.

Everything looks the same. Get ready, the rain is coming. What you heard is on the way.

So that's apparently the gospel that he preaches, and I would remind anybody who listens to this fellow what

Scripture actually says about those who preach a false gospel. Because what he said is not the good news that Christians are to proclaim, and yet he acts like he's the deliverer of great news, that new levels and abundance and health and all, it's on the way.

Just listen to the voice inside of you. Yet the Apostle Paul, who was actually an apostle of Jesus Christ, sent by Jesus Christ, says this to the churches of Galatia who had believed a false gospel.

He said, I'm astonished that you're so quickly deserting him who called you into the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.

Not that there is another, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

Damned is what that literally means, anathema. And as we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed, anathema.

Damned. That's literally what he's saying. And so what is the gospel that Paul preached?

It wasn't that God's gonna speak abundance into your heart or nonsense like that. No, you can find what the gospel that Paul preached, because he laid it out for us in 1

Corinthians 15, and here's what he writes. I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel that I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word that I preached to you, unless, of course, you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the

Scriptures, that he was buried and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and he appeared to Cephas and to the

Twelve, and then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to James and to all the apostles, and last of all to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

The good news that Christians are to proclaim is not that God's gonna speak greatness into your heart. The good news that Christians are called to proclaim is that Christ died for your sins, and that he rose again bodily on the third day after he was crucified, and this is what the eyewitnesses record for us.

This is the good news that Christians are to proclaim, and Joel Osteen is preaching a completely false gospel, and I'll be blunt,

I am 100 % convinced that he is under the condemnation of Galatians 1, of the one who preaches a gospel contrary to the one that was preached by the

Apostles, because his gospel, Joel Osteen's gospel, that's no gospel at all. It is filling people's heads with nonsense teaching doctrines that he has no authority to teach.

He's making promises for God that God never made, and all along the way he's twisting

God's Word and mangling it in order to make it appear like it teaches all this nonsense that he's spewing, and if he doesn't repent of his false teaching, then the condemnation of Galatians 1 will fall on him, and he will not spend eternity with Christ in heaven in a new earth.

He'll spend eternity in the Lake of Fire. Keep that in mind. If you found this helpful, please feel free to share it with other people.

I know it's hard -hitting, but the idea here is that we speak the truth and we don't pull any punches, and the nonsense that Joel Osteen is spewing, although he does it with a smile and he seems so nice, that smile and niceness is sending people to hell and not bringing them to repentant faith in Christ for the forgiveness of their sins.

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And until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.