Daily Devotions with Pastor Jim - “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers 

I’m not familiar with the Charis Bible School but I have heard of the “health, wealth and prosperity” movement. I agree with the general view that God loves us and wants to bring us to the intersection of His greatest glory and our highest good. But I’m not sure folks in that movement would agree with me on what brings glory to God or what our “highest good” really means. I also cannot see how a self-centered orientation aligns with the teachings of Jesus or the rest of the New Testament ie Jesus’ command for us to “deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me”. I don’t see how the health, wealth and prosperity gospel can withstand the universal encroachment of aging and death or, how it might comfort those caught up in some of the ubiquitous amount of pain, evil and suffering in this world. I can’t see how it helps us avoid our vulnerabilities to the love of money and vainglory. Finally, I’m concerned with the way folks from that orientation seem to be “reminding” God of things, as if God is at the end of a leash they hold or, as if God has forgotten something and if we’ll just “name it and claim it, then we can frame it”. This weakens the foundational biblical doctrine of the sovereignty of God to me. And the sovereignty of God remains the ultimate test for any other theological disposition I am considering. I hope this helps!