Never Trust a "Prophet" Who Lacks Basic Reading Comprehension

The following was posted on social media on November 20, 2023, by the resident "prophet" at a well-known California church:

The Law of Faith

Everything in the spirit realm works by the law of faith whether someone is operating from the dark side (the second heaven) or from God’s Spirit (the third Heaven). In fact, what gravity is to the natural realm, faith is to the spirit realm. The Hebrew writer described it like this, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) He went on to say, “By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.” (Hebrews 11:3)

This is profound; the invisible became visible by the force of faith. This means that the way we transfer things from the third Heaven to the visible world is through the law of faith. This is spiritual intelligence – the revelation of the way things transfigure from spiritual hypotheses to tangible dynamic realities.

Faith is the foundation of spiritual intelligence! We have all heard the idiom, “That guy is so heavenly-minded that he is no earthly good!” Actually, the reason some spiritual people are of no earthly good is that they are dreamers with no faith. It’s faith that actualizes dreams, on-ramps visions, and overcomes visible obstacles!

First, I don't know where this person gets the idea that the second heaven is "the dark side." According to the study resources at Blue Letter Bible, the second heaven is the celestial heaven, or outer space, where the sun, moon, and stars exist. (The first heaven is the earth's atmosphere, and the third heaven is the realm of God and the angels.) Anyone who has taken a basic biblical survey class should know this simple fact about ancient Israelite cosmology.

Second, he writes as though faith is some kind of force we learn to control (I think he may be confusing biblical faith with the midichlorians in Star Wars). Faith is not some spiritualized substance, some ooey-gooey metaphysical compound that we just have to accumulate enough of in order to activate other things, but rather allegiance to King Jesus. In the King James Version, Hebrews 11:1 reads, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

You may object, "But Brian, look right there! It clearly says faith is a substance!" Let's examine that more closely, with the understanding that faith is allegiance. Our faith (allegiance to Messiah Jesus) is the visible, embodied, tangible, substantial outworking of the interior hope we have in God's promises (the substance of things hoped for). Lived allegiance is the observable evidence of the change the Spirit works inside us when we are born again—something that in itself is not seen or observable by human beings.

This writer goes on to say that "the invisible became visible by the force of faith." That is not what Hebrews 11:3 says. The inspired text says by faith we understand that it was God who brought the cosmos into existence, making everyting we see out of what was not visible. It does not say that faith is what caused the worlds to be prepared. It does not say that by faith we cause invisible things to become visible. We do not "transfer things from the third Heaven to the visible world" by the "law of faith." A middle school student with basic reading comprehension skills could detect this man's interpretive errors.

He does make one statement where I certainly agree with the words when understood biblically Faith is the foundation of spiritual intelligence—just not in the way he misrepresents faith. The foundation of spiritual intelligence is enacted, embodied allegiance to Jesus the Messiah-King! That is a firm foundation on which to build one's life.