If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. -- James 1: 26-27 (ESV)
She is one of the most popular "preachers" for women today. She is one of the most sought after conference speakers for the entire Purpose Driven Industrial Complex. She is Joyce Meyer and she is one of the most dangerous false teachers alive. She blends a folksy mix of prosperity gospel, word faith heresy and NAR theologies to create a hodgepodge mess that could lead most people far astray from the biblical God and Christ. She has openly taught and believed that Jesus Christ was born again, which would mean that He sinned. She openly teaches that Jesus stopped being the Son of God on the cross. She openly teaches that Jesus went to hell to pay for our sins where He was tormented and if you do not believe that then you are going to hell yourself. Meyer has taught that we are "little gods" a common word faith heresy practiced by the likes of Creflo Dollar and Kenneth Copeland. Not only is she a little god but she claims that she is not a sinner. A great deal of the teachings she provides she claims direct revelation from God to explain their extra-biblical nature. Her wealth is estimated in excess of 15 million dollars as she preaches about God wanting you rich beyond your dreams of greed. She owns a 10 million dollar private airplane. This can literally go on and on beloved. She is a wolf plain and simple and has been devouring the sheep of the Lord and those seeking God for many many years. It is always fascinating when someone so popular and false takes pen to paper to write so that we might gain a direct insight to how flawed her hermeneutics and understanding of Scripture is. The above link is to a recent article she published on Charisma Magazine's website where she shares what she did when she realized that the devil had robbed her. Let us reason together beloved:
"I've been robbed! That is one of the first revelations I had after I started diligently studying the Word and realized I wasn't living the life Jesus died to give me. At first it made me mad, but it was the truth I needed to hear to help me begin an amazing transformation to a life I can honestly say I now enjoy. For many years before this, I was a Christian but I wasn't serious about my walk with God. As a result, I was miserable. I didn't have any real peace or joy, and I felt guilty most of the time. Thankfully, God showed me through John 10:10 that I didn't have to be miserable and I could have abundant life in Christ." -- Joyce Meyer
We start with such thick irony, which is often the case with false teachers who cannot properly divide the Word of truth because they do not respect it. When you approach the Bible to proof text your pre-drawn conclusions, it is of little wonder that you cannot actually hear what God is truly saying. So Meyer's opening contention is that once she started diligently studying the Word God gave her a revelation through John 10:10, which is the premise and underpinning of this article by Meyer:
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. -- John 10: 10 (ESV)
I've been robbed! That is the revelation Meyer claims God gave her when she read John 10:10. To this I would ask if she only read John 10:10 in a vacuum because then I might be able to understand how one might get confused. This is a perfect verse for us to learn about the importance of context beloved. For years I too thought that this verse is clearly teaching that Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. I know I have heard it preached from pulpits by solid preachers as well. So what is the problem when you actually read the context? The thief Jesus is warning us about is not the devil.
'"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers." This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.' -- John 10: 1-11 (ESV)
The imagery is quite clear. This is the Good Shepherd teaching. The contrast Christ is drawing is between the Shepherd and the thief. The teachings of Jesus versus the false teachings that seek to steal the seed of the Gospel from your heart and thus destroy and kill your future hope. And what exactly is that future hope beloved? What is the abundant life Meyer is selling here? She is selling the abundant temporal life, which is consistent with prosperity preachers but that is not what Jesus is saying here. What did Jesus come to bring us beloved? Was it for an extra car in the driveway or a snazzy corporate jet? No! It was for eternal life and the promises found in Jesus to attain it. This is a subtle nuance to grasp but Meyer is right to list the fruit of the Spirit but she lists them as a means to have an abundant life now. Yes a yielded life to Christ will result in the fruit for this life but it is rooted in the eternal not the temporal. Peace, joy, self-control are all important for believers but that is to help us overcome this world through Christ not pitch a tent towards Sodom. The fruit is also what allows us to stand out to the lost. So that they might want what they see we have. So if the Good Shepherd comes to bring eternal life and that is only accomplished through the preached Gospel then we know the enemy is the false teachers who do not preach the Gospel, such as Joyce Meyer. Therein lies the irony. The devil did not rob you Joyce, whoever preached falsely to you did. Now you have become the thief and the sad irony is that you believe God led you to John 10:10, ignored the surrounding 15 verses, so that you could life your best life now and missed the larger point about the Gospel and eternal life. Meyer would continue:
