Dr. Bernard, today's question on the podcast comes from one of our listeners down under.

It's interesting to me how much Australian Pentecostalism has affected North American

Pentecostalism and vice versa. I think the topic that we want to ask you

about today, though, may have originated here in the United States. So this leader asks about

this what we sometimes call decreeing and declaring. It's this idea that Christians have creative

power in their words and they can speak certain things into existence.

I think typically it's usually some sort of blessing or health, wealth, some sort of material

blessing. The idea being that if Christians have enough faith and they decree and declare something,

then the creative power of their words can make that a reality.

Is there any biblical basis for this idea of decree and declare?

Can Christians decree and declare something to be true?

This is an important question, and there's an element of truth in this concept,

but also there's a great danger, and I think it has been taken to excess in the charismatic movement. In fact, this idea is even in other movements such as Christian science,

where the power of the human mind can cause reality to change.

And in fact, there's been some study that some of the early word of faith preachers

actually drew from these, you would say, non-Christian or marginal Christian sources

that deal more with, you know, psychology or mysticism rather than

biblical Christianity. So there is a great danger then there. So let's talk positively. And by

the way, let's start looking at the positive and then we'll look at the negative. And by the way,

I do discuss this in my book, spiritual gifts. I talk about the important role of faith. So the positive aspect is

absolutely we must have faith in God to receive answers to prayer. God doesn't merely respond to

need. He responds to faith. There are many needy people who never receive a miracle or an answer to prayer or supply

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