UNQUOTABLE QUOTES - Oral Roberts - The Secret Of Life

HOME

WRITINGS

ORGANIZATIONS

Q & A

NEWSLETTER

FAQS

CONTACT

ABOUT

BELIEFS

LINKS

ARCHIVE

FREE BIBLE

STORE

un-QUOTABLE QUOTES

ORAL ROBERTS

DAILY GUIDE TO MIRACLES from Oral Roberts Ministries
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
www.orm.cc

THE SECRET OF LIFE
Oral Roberts
Oral Roberts Ministries
www.orm.cc

"Through the years I've had people tell me, 'I don't believe in miracles.' And my reply has always been, 'You will when you need one.' I believe the secret of life is not only believing in miracles, but expecting to receive them.

Acts 3 tells the story of a lame man who was expecting to receive. A man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg.... When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money.... Peter said, 'Look at us!' so the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. That's a powerful statement.

Then Peter, knowing that the man might not be looking at them and expecting to receive what he could give him, said, 'Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk' (vv. 1-6 NIV).

Peter was saying, 'A miracle is coming toward you. It's here! Now seize it with your faith.' The lame man's expectancy caused his faith to rise, and instantly the man's feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk (vv. 7-8 NIV). He entered the temple walking, jumping, and praising God.

The miracle changed his life forever. He had found the secret of life!

God is a God of action, and unless we throw up some type of resistance, He's continually moving toward us with His miracles. The secret of life is to expect God's miracles and rise up in faith and receive them!"

ON DOCTRINE NOTE:
One of Oral Roberts' claims, is that miracles happen because people expect them. If there is no expectation expressed, then, as a consequence, there cannot be any miracle in their lives. So, he claims that the lame man "was expecting to receive," which Oral Roberts associates with expecting to receive or placing a person in a position to expect and receive a miracle. However, as the Scripture states in relation to what the man was expecting, "he began asking to receive alms," Acts 3:3. The lame man was a beggar who was carried to the gate of the temple every day, where he sat and begged for money from every one who passed by, " . . . whom they used to set down every day at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, in order to beg alms of those who were entering the temple," Acts 3:2. That was his profession, and his expectation was that maybe out of the many hundreds of people who passed by, perhaps a certain percentage would give him a few coins or some food or clothing. His routine was the same and his question was always the same in which he asked for money, not for a miracle.

The fact that the Scripture says the man expected to receive something from Peter and John is not a powerful statement at all, but a statement of fact, in which the reality that they spoke to him indicated that possibly they were going to give him the money that he requested. Oral Roberts would have the reader believe that the man was in a state of expectation in which he had prepared himself not only to receive money but to receive a miracle as well.

However, the nature of the miracle that was given to the lame man reveals that Oral Roberts has strayed far from the biblical text regarding the incident and has brought his own teachings from outside and inserted them in the text where they are not found in the original verses.

Nothing is said in the text about faith or the exercise of faith that, "The lame man's expectancy caused his faith to rise . . ." Oral Roberts would have the reader believe that when Peter told the lame man that he would not be receiving money, immediately he expected a miracle of healing as a substitute, and so, when his faith began to rise and it reached the proper level and Peter presented the miracle to him, he was able to "seize it" with his faith so that the miracle was actually realized in his life. Oral Roberts infers that if the man had not exercised faith by which he seized the miracle, then the miracle would not have occurred. But, the man had no reason to expect a miracle or cause his faith to rise, because he did not know Peter and John or anything about their ability to heal. If he had known any of those things, he would have asked for healing instead of money, which he did not do.

The problem with Oral Roberts is that none of what he claims was necessary for the application of the miracle is evident in the text: nothing is said about faith or faith rising, nothing is said about seizing the miracle and above all, nothing is said about the man expecting a miracle. All of those things have been added to the incident by Oral Roberts in order to conform to the doctrine of "Seed Faith" which he created himself.

Oral Roberts turns the incident on its head, claiming that the man was in a state of expectation for a miracle, when he was actually expecting money, claiming that the man seized the miracle with his rising faith, when the miracle was a gift from God accomplished by the power of God apart from the exercise of faith on the part of the man. The miracle was in the name of Jesus Christ and through His power, not in the name of faith or as a result of faith or because of any claimed inherent power of faith. The narrative goes against everything that Oral Roberts claims, because it is an example of a person who asked for one thing which he did not receive, but was given something for which he did not ask, did not expect and for which he did nothing.

Oral Roberts must change the incident into an example of his "Seed Faith" teaching, in which it is faith that empowers God to act and bring a miracle in a person's life, and the way in which faith can be obtained is to give money to a ministry, and in Oral Roberts' case, it is the Oral Roberts Ministry.

SEE:
ORAL ROBERTS
"Does God Still Heal"
"For What Did Christ Atone In Isa. 53:4-5" [Requires Adobe Acrobat® Reader]

Return to un-Quotes Master List

TOP OF PAGE

GO TO HOME PAGE

GO TO ORGANIZATIONS MASTER LIST

GO TO WRITINGS MASTER PAGE