Joel Osteen’s Prospeology
Josh July 17th, 2006
Just a few random thoughts on Joel Osteen’s drivel. A Section from Chapter 1 of Joel Osteen’s “Your Best Life Now”.
Chapter One Enlarging Your Vision
I heard a story about a man on vacation in Hawaii with his wife. He was a good man who had achieved a modest measure of success, but he was coasting along, thinking that he’d already reached his limits in life. One day, a friend was driving the couple around the island, showing them the sights. They stopped to admire a gorgeous house set high on a hill. The property was replete with beautiful palm trees and lush green gardens in a picturesque, peaceful setting with a panoramic view overlooking the ocean. As the man gazed at the magnificent home, he commented to his wife and friend, “I can’t even imagine living in a place like that.” Right there, something inside him said, Don’t worry. You won’t. You will never live in a great place like that. Startled at his own thoughts, he asked himself, What do you mean? As long as you can’t imagine it, as long as you can’t see it, then it is not going to happen for you. The man correctly realized that his own thoughts and attitudes were condemning him to mediocrity. He determined then and there to start believing better of himself, and believing better of God.
In classic Osteen style, Joel starts out with an anecdote. “The man correctly realized that his own thoughts and attitudes were condemning him to mediocrity.” Hmm…let me ask, “Who defines mediocrity?” What if I don’t like hills? What if I hate palm trees and gardens? What if I hate the ocean? What if I like my one room log cabin in Colorado on the river? Is that mediocrity? Not for me!
It’s the same way with us. We have to conceive it on the inside before we’re ever going to receive it on the outside.
Not true. I didn’t “receive” my salvation firstly because of some inner conception derived in and of and by myself. God determined long ago that I would receive this salvation. Blessed be His Name.
If you don’t think you can have something good, then you never will. The barrier is in your mind.
What is this garbage? Please define “good”, Mr. Osteen. The barrier is not in my mind, but in God’s will. His boundaries are for my good and His glory. He may never want me to own a “gorgeous house”. He may want me to ride a bike for the rest of my life. He MAY BE TEACHING ME something through my trials. “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you face trials of various kinds…” (James 1). Or what of, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made known in weakness.”
It’s not God’s lack of resources or your lack of talent that prevents you from prospering. Your own wrong thinking can keep you from God’s best.
I’m getting sick now.
You, too, may have assumed that you’ve already peaked, that you’ve reached your limits in life, that you will never be more successful. I’ll never achieve significance, do something meaningful, or enjoy the good things in life that I’ve seen others enjoy. Sad to say, you are exactly right … unless you are willing to change your thinking. That’s why the first step to living at your full potential is to enlarge your vision. To live your best life now, you must start looking at life through eyes of faith, seeing yourself rising to new levels.
Why must everything be “prosperous” from the eyes of man? What if achieving significance means martyrdom, persecution, or affliction? What, then, Mr. Osteen? Will your positive prosperity theology give me solace and comfort? Let me say, “new levels” doesn’t necessarily mean “higher” levels in the sense you might think, Mr. Osteen.
See your business taking off. See your marriage restored. See your family prospering. See your dreams coming to pass. You must conceive it and believe it is possible if you ever hope to experience it.
See your business go under. See your marriage ripped apart. See your family dying with sickness and disease. See your dreams fade like a vapor in the wind. You must concede that these things can very well happen, and you must prepare to worship God despite such occurrences. “The Lord makes everything for its purpose. Even the wicked for the day of doom”—Proverbs 16. Mr. Osteen, when things seem to be all “wrong”, what then do we do with your shallow words? God have mercy on the souls of those who’ve fallen prey to your deception…your wolf-like deception in sheep’s clothing.
To conceive it, you must have an image on the inside of the life you want to live on the outside. This image has to become a part of you, in your thoughts, your conversation, deep down in your subconscious mind, in your actions, in every part of your being.
“Delight yourselves in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” –Psalm 37:4. There’s an order there. It’s not, “Conceive on the inside, what you want to live outwardly and God will bless it. You’re limited by your thoughts.” Where’s submission to the Lord Almighty found? Not in your “gospel”, Mr. Osteen.
Envision Your Success From the time she was a little girl, Tara Holland dreamed of becoming Miss America. In 1994, she entered the Miss Florida pageant and won the title of first runner-up. She decided to try again the following year. She entered the same contest, and once again, won the prize as first runner-up. Tara was tempted to get down and discouraged, but she didn’t do that. She stayed focused on her goal. She decided she needed to change her environment, so she moved to Kansas, and in 1997, she entered the Miss Kansas pageant and won the title. That same year, she went on to be crowned Miss America. Tara Holland saw her dream come to pass. In an interview after the pageant, someone asked Tara the secret to her success. She admitted that after she had lost twice in a row at the state-level competitions, she had been tempted to give up, but instead she went out and rented dozens of videos of local pageants, state pageants, Miss Teen, Miss Universe, Miss World-whatever she could find. She rented hundreds of videos of various pageants and watched them over and over again. As Tara watched each young woman crowned a winner, she pictured herself in that situation. She pictured herself receiving the crown. She pictured herself walking down the runway in victory. Time and time again she envisioned herself winning. Seeing herself as a winner, said Tara, was the key to her success. Another reporter asked her if she was nervous walking down the runway in front of millions of people watching on television and with the announcer singing the famous Miss America song. Tara’s response was interesting. “No, I wasn’t nervous at all,” she said. “You see, I had walked down that runway thousands of times before.” Have you ever walked down that runway? Have you ever seen yourself accomplishing your dreams? Do you keep that vision of victory in front of you? Tara Holland knew she would never be a winner until she first saw herself as a winner. She had to reprogram her mind, to rid herself as much as possible of the hurtful memories of losing. She had to replace that vision in her mind of herself as Miss Runner-up. She had to develop a can-do attitude. She saw herself stepping onto the winner’s platform. She saw herself walking down that runway in victory. She created an environment of faith and success.
Where do the Scriptures tie in, Mr. Osteen? Did her positive thinking accomplish all of this? Are you suggesting that we treat our Christian lives like a beauty pageant? If so, we’ve all lost. We can only be made beautiful by the imputed righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a shame…
What you keep before your eyes will affect you. You will produce what you’re continually seeing in your mind. If you foster an image of defeat and failure, then you’re going to live that kind of life. But if you develop an image of victory, success, health, abundance, joy, peace, and happiness, nothing on earth will be able to hold those things from you.
Is anyone else noticing all of the psychological can do found herein? This is absolutely sickening. A “minister” of the Word, and this is what comes out? Can you imagine the Apostle Paul preaching such? Peter? John? JESUS???!!!?
Too many times we get stuck in a rut, thinking we’ve reached our limits. We don’t really stretch our faith; we don’t believe for anything bigger. But God wants us to constantly be increasing, to be rising to new heights.
Oh, really? Well sheesh, Joseph! Sheesh, Job! Sheesh, Paul, Peter! Sheesh, John, you weren’t supposed to end up at Patmos! You should’ve thought more positively! And those evil end times…if we would just think more positively…well, people wouldn’t want to hear what their itching ears want to hear, etc.
He wants to increase you in His wisdom and help you to make better decisions.
Yeah…His kind of wisdom. That which is foolishness and a stumbling block to those who are perishing.
God wants to increase you financially, by giving you promotions, fresh ideas, and creativity.
If Paul had only known!
The Scripture says that God wants to pour out “His far and beyond favor.” God wants this to be the best time of your life. But if you are going to receive this favor, you must enlarge your vision. You can’t go around thinking negative, defeated, limiting thoughts. Well, I’ve gone as far as my education will allow. Or, I’ve had this sickness for years. I guess it’s my lot in life.
Where?
To experience this immeasurable favor, you must rid yourself of that small-minded thinking and start expecting God’s blessings, start anticipating promotion and supernatural increase. You must conceive it in your heart and mind before you can receive it. In other words, you must make room for increase in your own thinking, then God will bring those things to pass. Until you learn how to enlarge your vision, seeing the future through your eyes of faith, your own wrong thinking will prevent good things from happening in your life. God will not pour fresh, creative ideas and blessings into old attitudes.
How presumptuous! God forgive any of us for believing such foolishness!
I just can’t waste any more typing about this nonsense.
So I found my copy of Owen’s Mortification and figured I’d contribute. This particular chapter has several of my favorite quotes from the whole work. Dr. Owen lays out several principles in this chapter summized as follows:
It is the blessings and grace of our Lord Who has once again afforded us another Lord’s Day to worship Him in Spirit and Truth. For those of us who reside in the United States, we’ve another opportunity to worship Him in peace, not wondering what our world will be like the very next hour (although that does not buy us complete peace of conscience concerning the state of our Union).
