Faith Is Not Mental Assent Part 1

Faith Is Not Mental Assent Part 1

There are many who slam the Word of Faith movement. Yes, the modern-day WOF might have taken it quite far stretched in some areas, but it didn't begin that way. We don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. There are good stuff that we can always learn from, regardless of any pulpit. In fact, the WOF shows us more about faith in the Word than many others.

Unknown to many, Kenneth Hagin wasn't the founder of the Word of Faith. The distortion in the modern-day WOF wasn't taught by him. It was his colleagues and the preachers after him who deviated from truths. In fact, he addressed the abuses before he died.

"Financial prosperity is not a sign of God's blessing."

"People should never give in order to get."

"It is not biblical to name your seed in an offering."

"There is no debt-breaking anointing."

Yeah there are many naysayers (usually the conservatives) who took his teachings out of context and slammed his theology, without thoroughly reading through his teachings. If you come with a biased mindset, everything you read will always be through a biased len. Kenneth Hagin probably walked in love and truth more than anyone of us who is alive and kicking. Yeah you might not know because you are biased.

His teachings on faith are worth reading. One regular quote is this... "Faith is not mental assent".

"𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑎𝑔𝑟𝑒𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑑𝑎𝑦 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝐵𝑖𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑡𝑟𝑢𝑒, 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑊𝑜𝑟𝑑 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑜 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑙 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑜𝑛 𝑖𝑡." - Kenneth Hagin

Alot of people say that they believe in the Word... they believe in healing, etc. But believing is only true believing when it produces an outcome (Mark 11:24).

You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞—and shudder! - James 2:19

The word 'believe' used here is 'pisteuó'. It is the exact same word used when Jesus taught His disciples, including Mark 11:24.

So what's the difference between the demons believing and us believing? The demons believe God but they did not receive salvation. We believe God and we receive salvation.

Because true believing must produce an outcome (James 2:20). If we don't act on our belief, it is not true believing. If we only say that we believe, it is simply mental assent that is no different from the demons. Thus, a person who says that he believes God but has zero change/desire to change in his life is simply the same as a demon ---- a demon's belief.

When someone says that he believes in healing, but there is no fruit and course of action, it means that he only has mental assent but does not truly believe.

We will talk more about it in the next part.