On January 9, 2019, Joyce Meyer made a comment that has been making the rounds.  Following is a transcription of the video found at https://www.instagram.com/joycemeyer/p/BsWuTxmjS_y/

“Faith is something God gives you that you need to use and release in your life. It’s a powerful force but it’s not just an automatic. You put your trust in God. You put your faith in him. I’m glad for what I learned about prosperity but it got out of balance. I’m glad for what I learned about faith but it got out of balance and so every time somebody had a problem in their life it was ’cause they didn’t have enough faith. If you got sick, you didn’t have enough faith. If your child died, you didn’t have enough faith. Well, that’s not right. You can’t…There’s nowhere in the Bible where we’re promised that will never have any trouble. I don’t care how much faith you’ve got, you’re not going to avoid ever having trouble in your life. Jesus said in the world there will be tribulation. Cheer up. I have overcome the world.” (Joyce Meyer, 1/9/2019, underline added)

First of all, I am very critical of Joyce Meyer because of her heretical views on the issues surrounding the sacrifice of Christ.  She has taught such things as the following…

• Jesus stopped being the son of God
• Jesus was born again
• Jesus paid for our sins and hell
• Jesus went to hell in our place and was tormented
• If you don’t believe Jesus went to hell, you cannot be saved
• We are called little gods (though this isn’t related to Christ’s sacrifice, it is significant)

For the documentation on these issues, I just listed, please go to the CARM article Joyce Meyer.

Joyce Meyer’s faith teaching

The problem with her statement about faith that “got out of balance” is with the implication that faith is something a Christian uses and you release in his. Unfortunately, too many people in the prosperity movement consider faith to be, as she says, a “powerful force,” that they can manipulate and utilize for their benefit. This is a false teaching and is, apparently, something of which she has not recanted.

Let me reiterate. The idea that faith is a kind of force that can be utilized and released is not scriptural. But, this errant teaching is frequently promoted by many within the positive confession movement. Unfortunately, it provides those who listen to people such as Joyce Meyer (and Kenneth Copeland), the opportunity to believe that they can command certain things in the spiritual realm and use the “power of faith” to get things accomplished in the physical world. This is, of course, a form of spiritual manipulation and is dangerous.

Got out of balance

When Joyce Meyers said that what she learned how her prosperity teaching “got out of balance” she doesn’t clarify. First of all, what does she mean by out of balance? Second, she should be more specific and explain exactly what she taught that was wrong and then work hard to correct it. Third, she needs to go to the word of God and make sure that everything she’s saying is biblical. But, since she has taught heretical doctrines concerning Christ’s nature and sacrifice, I don’t see her getting any better at understanding Scripture.

Conclusion

Joyce Meyer admitting that things got out of balance in regard to prosperity and faith is itself out of balance because she doesn’t clarify exactly what was out of balance. This is something she should do and then correct it. But, as far as I know, she has not and I do not believe she will. Considering the fact that she has not corrected or recanted her numerous false doctrines listed above in this article, then I am convinced that here “confession” is empty and she is still not to be trusted to teach biblical theology.