In pieces like Prophet-Leader Steven Furtick Descends Down To Word Faith Heretic Rod Parsley and Steven Furtick Calls Joel Osteen A Great Man Of God here at Apprising Ministries I’ve talked about how Steven Furtick has a great admiration for Word Faith prosperity preacher Joel Osteen.

Having been in the Word Faith movement for a time as a young Christian I could detect the Osteenesque WF lingo in Furtick’s sermons but I personally hadn’t had any direct evidence until I captured this tweet from him back in September of last year. Furtick gushes about a:

(source)

Keep in mind now that prophet-leader Steven Furtick is a rising star in the evangelical world and his discernment is so badly skewed that he seriously thinks Osteen is “a great man of God” and has also told us “T.D. Jakes Is My Favorite Preacher In The World.” Here’s an example of Jakes’ human potential message Furtick favors:

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As far as Joel Osteen is concerned, actually Steven Furtick has been quite enamored with this 4 Star WF General since at least 2007. Our first clue is Furtick’s June 4th blog post Please Stop Picking On Joel:

As in, Osteen. As in, the pastor of the largest church in America… Osteen preaches to 40,000 people weekly… You couldn’t get 40,000 people to come hear you preach if you gave away free Escalades at the door…don’t hate on a man you’ve never met and analyze the entire content of his ministry based on a 27 minute weekly broadcast.

That’s illogical, narrow, and unfair, and you know it. Don’t hurl insults at someone with a big church simply because you can’t make your church grow, and although you’d never admit it, you’re jealous. That’s right… most of the time the motive isn’t defense of the Gospel… it’s jealousy and presumption. (source)

Right, as a critic of Joel Osteen, I’m jealous of a false teacher who will be judged with greater strictness (cf. James 3:1) for it. No thank you; I think I’ll pass. In closing this, for now, below you’ll see a video clip from Furtick’s sermon series Sun Stand Still, which he first preached in September of 2007:

Tomorrow we begin a new series based on this historic incident… when God hit pause on the cosmos to give His people an accelerated victory-and turn Joshua’s mistake into a miracle.

I feel a tangible, palpable, yet inexplicable certainty that God is doing that very same thing at Elevation right now. We’ve already seen God do more in 20 months than some “experts” project is possible in 20 years. (source)

As you can see, Furtick’s Elevation Church was not yet 2 years old when he did this series. Then three years later it would form the basis of his first book Sun Stand Still. The clip begins with Furtick saying that this supposedly “audacious” quasi-Word Faith is something he just loves and “we ought to pray like that.”

Sounding not a little like Joel Osteen himself Furtick further explains the concept and then tells us “and God likes to respond to prayers like that” because “those kind of prayers move His heart.” He then goes on to ask:

Is it possible that God’s not answering your prayers because you’ve insulted [Him] by their small size? Is it possible? Is it possible?

Is it possible that nothing is too hard for God, so that He’s not actually intimidated by our large requests, but he’s insulted by our puny ones? Is it possible?

No, it’s not possible to offend God when we as Christians bring our requests to Him as our loving Father. Who decides what “puny” prayers are? Prophet-leaders with their delusions of grandeur like a Steven Furtick may be? Remember, Jesus told us part of our prayer each day should be, Give us this day our daily bread (Matthew 6:11).

Finally, Furtick boasts of his own Sun Stand Still moment as he stood on the stage of Lakewood Church earlier in the week with “pastor Joel Osteen and group of other pastors” and prayed that the Lord would give him a huge social gathering a la Osteen’s. It now appears that Steven Furtick has been off-track ever since he first started out.

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Further reading

• REVIEW OF STEVEN FURTICK’S SUN STAND STILL
• STEVEN FURTICK BRINGIN’ ON WORD FAITH AND THE PASTRIXES
• WHAT STEVEN FURTICK SECRETLY WISHES HE HAD THE AUDACIOUS FAITH TO DO HIMSELF