If you partake of this fast, other benefits mentioned on The Daniel Fast website are winning the battle over the flesh (hard to do when we are still flesh when the fast is done), losing weight and healings from diabetes, allergies, arthritis and cancer. Another benefit is said to be putting our spirit in charge of the other two parts of us, the soul and the body. It must be news to the Holy Spirit that we can put Him in charge of things. (source). Here is what others have experienced by fasting along with Jentezen Franklin: healed relationships, spiritual growth, physical healings, financial breakthroughs, and other blessings. Wow.
"If that is the case, you have to wonder what blessings aren’t being released, Franklin writes, what answers to prayer are not getting through…what bondages are not being broken…because we fail to fast." The Word-Faith crowd always makes a point to say that we will lose out on something if we don't do it their way. This is an example. Fasting is a voluntary activity we engage in at the prompting of the Spirit or when we feel we need to humble ourselves in grief or repentance, or to focus on Jesus in a more pointed way. More on fasting in previous post.
Jentezen Franklin is the guru of fasting. He has written two books on it and is the one who championed The Daniel Fast. His statements about why we fast include fasting to get a blessing, to earn God's favor, to get a public reward, to get our greatest breakthrough, to "release" a hundredfold return. (source).
So the lesson from The Daniel Fast and Jentezen Franklin is that we fast to get something. I do not believe we fast to get something, and I do not believe we should expect something and I do not believe we have the power to cause God to do something if we fast. More on what fasting is all about in the previous post.
Secondly, if we fast, Franklin says, it causes God to "release" these things into our lives. My understanding is that fasting is a private expression of a deeply felt spiritual need and a way to humble myself before Almighty God.
All this elevates fasting to an importance the bible does not give it nor did Jesus give it. So who is this Jentezen Franklin?
Franklin is pastor of a Holiness church in GA but he is also pastor of a Holiness church in CA. How does he do it? This article from Charisma Magazine explains:
"Every Sunday, Franklin arrives at Free Chapel in Gainesville (GA) by 5 a.m. for prayer, preaches two sermons and shakes hundreds of hands before boarding a private jet at 2 p.m. with his family and two staff members. They arrive at John Wayne Airport, located five minutes from Free Chapel Orange County (OC), and by 6 p.m. Franklin is in the pulpit. The next day is filled with Orange County staff meetings, and the group returns to Gainesville on Tuesday. "This may sound like a crazy schedule, but it is actually exhilarating," Franklin says. ... "My family comes first, and what shows me that this is of God is the way they can be with me more now than ever," Franklin says. "The school systems have actually worked it out that my children can be off the two days so they can be with me."
Is this a biblical model of pastoring? Pastor means shepherd. How can he shepherd his flock if he has one pasture in Judah and one in Persia? He can't. It is not a biblical model of shepherding. As for his family, is taking his children out of school for two days a week the best, most stable life for them? Is his ambition so great he plunks his children in the middle of his "crazy schedule" so he can enjoy the 'exhilaration'? And a private jet??? He had a choice to stay in GA. He chose the jet set lifestyle. Is this the proper Christian pastoring and fathering model we want to buy into? It isn't for me, and I refuse to spend money buying his book.
His friends tell us a lot about who Franklin is. This weekend he is preaching from the pulpit of false preacher Joel Osteen's stage at Lakewood Church! (source here and here). There is no worse false church in America than Lakewood. There is no worse false preacher than Osteen! Osteen denies the Gospel in favor of becoming a motivational guru to have "your best life now". The only way you're having your best life now is if you're going to hell. (that was John MacArthur's wit). This Jentezen Franklin will be preaching from Osteen's stage for two days. That should tell us a lot.
FALSE PASTOR ALERT.
If that is not enough, after this weekend Franklin will be hosting the "Praise the Lord" show with Jan and Paul Crouch on TBN. There is no deeper of a snake pit of false doctrine than Praise the Lord show on TBN and Franklin will be promoting it. (source)
Franklin should be excised from any bible-believing church on these bases ALONE.
But wait, there's more.
As for his teachings, they are false doctrine too. He said in one sermon as he appealed for money, lots of it for over ten minutes, over sentimental music blared from loudspeakers, "I've never come to Hillsong Conference where I haven't sown at least a $1000 seed..."
Yet the bible says, "So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full." Mt 6:2
and Franklin goes on, "$1000 seed...into this place, because if I sow now, the rain of now will fall on my life." NAME IT CLAIM IT! Tithe big, you get big. And what is "the rain of now" for heaven's sakes? His hands were fluttering down as rain, and the audience looked up as if expecting manna or Armani suits or money to fall from the sky right then.
He is a Word-Faith preacher and we know those are false. The Word-Faith crowd is big on "if you do this, you get this." "If you do this it will cause God to move." They talk about 'releasing' power into your life, but in fact the only thing we have the power to release is a fart after dinner. He elevates to us more power than we have and diminishes Jesus in the process.
"It is so easy to get caught up in the busyness of ministry," he says. "It's dangerous to have a growing ministry and a shrinking passion for God; something gets out of whack. When I find myself becoming mechanical in my preaching, even a one-day fast fine-tunes me and makes my heart sensitive. For me, fasting is the key."
Fasting is not Jiffy Lube. It is the Word fine-tunes you. Sigh.
But most telling, is the following:
He said, "When I feel myself growing dry spiritually, when I don’t sense that cutting-edge anointing, or when I need a fresh encounter with God, fasting is the secret key that unlocks heaven’s door and slams shut the gates of hell. The discipline of fasting releases the anointing, the favor, and the blessing of God in the life of a Christian."
Don't gloss over this.
It is the most abhorrent statement imaginable. It is sacrilege. Jesus has the key to heaven and hell. Nothing we do unlocks it. How sacrilegious to say that any activity we do unlocks heaven or shuts hell. This is wrong! On just that statement, he should be booted from every bible-believing pulpit, our churches, and our bookshelves!
And why is fasting characterized as a "secret"? It is not, at least not to anyone who reads the bible. And what is a 'cutting edge anointing'? Is it different from a regular anointing? Franklin distinguished the "normal seed" from the "precious seed" in one 'name it claim it' sermon I'd listened to. I guess I am missing out on the "cutting edge" anointing and I just have to settle for the regular anointing we get when we're saved. (1 John 2:20).
See, that is the dangerous heresy in Word-Faith preachers like Franklin, they subtly elevate themselves and their teachings above what the bible says, making everything else seem humdrum by comparison by using sexy words like cutting edge, fine-tune, heart sensitive, breakthroughs, hundredfold return, precious seeds.... it is all very exciting in Franklin's world, exhilarating, even. By comparison, the staid old faith, prayer, service, obedience seems dry as yesterday's toast.
The Word-Faith doctrine "puts confidence in the nature of faith rather then in the object of faith. It assumes that there's something inherent in believing that enacts [or "releases"] something when it isn't true at all. It is not the nature of faith that is effective, it is the object of faith. It is my faith in God that gets results not my faith in my faith." (source: A biblical answer to the prosperity Gospel)
Franklin Jentezen is a jet setting, TBN hosting, Osteen partnering Word-Faith prosperity preacher who has no business being in any biblical church. He is a wolf. Avoid Jentezen Franklin and The Daniel Fast. Rely on the Holy Spirit to direct your steps. Pray, fast when the Spirit prompts you, read your bible so you will have the discernment to spot a false teaching when you come across one. Go have a good lunch, and don't forget to thank the Lord for it!
Tweet
No comments:
Post a Comment