HAVING DEMONSTRATED IN THE PREVIOUS SECTION the first arm of magic and sorcery at work in the churches through the use of occult ‘mind-power’ via visualisation techniques, we now come to examine its twin and co-worker, ‘word-power’. In just the same way that ‘mind-power’ techniques operate to manipulate matter and consciousness through a concentrated use of the imagination, so ‘word-power’ techniques work for the magician through personal fiats or affirmations and spoken commands addressed directly to people, diseases or to the forces of darkness themselves. Wrapped up in this technique is the use of extremely powerful suggestion and auto-suggestion operating at the level of the hypnotic.

We will now examine briefly the magical practice of ‘word-power’ under two separate headings. First, we will look at its use as a means of the manipulation of matter and consciousness through spoken affirmations; second, we will open up the way that people are controlled through powerful verbal pre-hypnotic suggestions and the ways that they are erroneously attempting to control the forces of darkness through spoken commands.

The Origin of the Power of “Positive Confession”

In this first section, we will examine the way that spoken words are used as a form of ‘creative power’ — the idea that the very words we utter can have a magical effect on both living and inanimate objects. Our primary purpose is to show how this idea has been lifted directly from the occult and how it has now been imposed so extensively within the visible church.

A classic example of this occult technique is given by the “Every Day with Jesus” writer Selwyn Hughes, who was Christian counselling ‘supremo’ in the late 1900s. When he asks himself the question, “How can I use my faith to bring healing?”, he answers, “with the power of our words”, and advises his readers to “say what you believe and believe what you say” (Selwyn Hughes, Lord Heal Me Now, CWR, n.d., p.31-33). This is what is known in Christian circles as “Positive Confession”, the ‘Christianised’ version of occult ‘word-power’ and the verbal equivalent of the occult ‘mind-power’ technique, ‘Positive Thinking’, as popularised by the late 33rd degree Freemason and false teacher Norman Vincent Peale. [NB: See the article on N.V. Peale in the U.S. Freemasonic “Scottish Rite Journal”, February 1993. Peale was Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of New York, Past Grand Prelate of the Knights Templar and of the Shrine. See also this link: https://freemasons.ab.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/ABF200702.pdf . For full details of this and of his clearly modernist theology, see Christian News Encyclopedia, Missourian Publishing Co., Vol.IV, pp.2833-2835. It was in Norman Vincent Peale’s church in New York that the current president of the United States, Donald Trump, was brought up, which is the twisted ‘faith’ he has chosen, and also why he appointed the dreadful prosperity preacher Paula White to head up his White House Faith Office. This is a woman pastor who he very fulsomely refers to as “amazing”. See https://x.com/Protestia/status/1887533776567476393 . Trump called Norman Vincent Peale “the greatest guy”, https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/10/how-self-help-author-norman-vincent-peale-influenced-donald-trump.html  , and you can read here about the influence Peale had on Trump’s religion/philosophy in an article entitled “How Norman Vincent Peale Taught Donald Trump to Worship Himself”, https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/10/donald-trump-2016-norman-vincent-peale-213220/ ].

Some of the exponents of this ‘Positive Confession’ are the Charismatic teachers Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Charles Capps and Frederick K.C. Price. Many others have been influenced by these men and their teachings. The original ‘Christian’ advocate of this occult technique was E.W. Kenyon (1867-1948), who “went beyond the scientific shamanism of the New Thought movement when he first taught ‘the positive confession of the Word of God’” (Stanley M. Burgess & Gary B. McGee, Dictionary of Pentecostal & Charismatic Movements, Zondervan, 1978, p.719).

“Positive Confession” is rooted in the ‘New Thought’ practice of “Decreeing” which was founded by Emma Curtis Hopkins (1849-1925), a member of the ‘Christian Science Church’. In many ways, she was the true founder of the ‘New Thought Movement’, which we have discussed earlier in this chapter. Hopkins’ student, Annie Ritz Militz then founded “Homes of Truth”, a ‘New Thought’ denomination. From Militz, the torch passed to Guy Warren Ballard, and from there to Mark and Elizabeth Prophet who founded the Summit University and the ‘Church Universal and Triumphant’ — also known as the “I AM” movement.

The Old Testament proof-text which is dishonestly claimed for this practice is Job 22:28, which states: “Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee; and the light shall shine upon thy ways” (KJV). The New Testament proof-text also dishonestly claimed for “Positive Confession” is based on a misapplication of Romans 10:8: “‘The word is near you, even in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith which we preach)”. One Christian writer states that “Positive Confession” “refers quite literally to bringing into existence what we state with our mouth, since faith is a confession” (Stanley M. Burgess & Gary B. McGee, Dictionary of Pentecostal & Charismatic Movements, Zondervan, 1978, p.718). Another ‘Christian’ publication which advocates this blasphemous teaching states: “He who masters his words will master his works. Say what you want, speak it into existence. The principle of command is a life-changing concept” (Skip Ross, Say Yes to your Potential, Word Books, 1983, p.100). Similarly, faith-healer and prosperity preacher, Morris Cerullo, in his book “A Guide to Total Health and Prosperity”, claims that “If [Christians] will only confess it out of their mouth and claim it”, they could have anything they want, worldly riches and success, even complete immunity to colds and influenza! (Morris Cerullo, A Guide to Total Health and Prosperity: God Wants to Bless You, World Evangelism Inc., 1978, p.42). He boldly lists twenty-eight “Covenant Blessings” which can immediately be “claimed” by any believer — all of which are related to health and material prosperity. One of these states:

“Take your every success right now with this claim: ‘The Prosperity and success that God has for me is being multiplied even this minute. I receive it and apply it in every area of my life, my whole family, my business, my job’” (Ibid., p.104).

One of the world’s most popular ‘Christian’ teachers, the late Kenneth Hagin, also advocated this “Name-it-and-Claim-it”, “Positive Confession” prosperity teaching:

“Our confession is the key to receiving God’s blessings and it is the key to holding on to God’s blessings… The confessions of your faith in God’s Word will bring the desired realities into your life” (Word of Faith Magazine, Kenneth Hagin Ministries, September 1990, pp.6-7).

According to Kenneth Hagin, the steps involved in this process are as follows: “First…decide what you want from God and find Scriptures which cover your case…[then] let every thought and desire affirm that you have what you’ve asked for” (Word of Faith Magazine, Kenneth Hagin Ministries, January 1990, pp.4-5). The vast majority of heresies have been caused by this eisegetical approach to the Bible: First decide what you want to believe — then plunder the Word of God for texts which you imagine will support it.

Another fatal flaw in this teaching is that it presumes that worldly prosperity and complete physical comfort in this life should be a primary aim of the believer and a fundamental Christian right. The New Testament, however, teaches that this life is but a brief and afflicted preparation for the life to come and that everything we do must be planned with that goal in mind (John 16:33; Luke 12:32-34; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18). Not only that, but the people of God of all eras are also taught in Scripture that they should seek neither prosperity nor poverty, nor the desires of their own heart, but rather they should pray earnestly to the Lord: “Feed me with the food You prescribe for me” (See Proverbs 30:7-9; cf. Matthew 6:11).

In 1978, Morris Cerullo claimed that “the world laughs at and ridicules the Church” because God’s people do not claim the healing, prosperity and blessings which are theirs by right (Morris Cerullo, A Guide to Total Health and Prosperity, op. cit., p.44). He “prophesied” that “those days soon will be over”, when the Church “takes the limits off God” and moves into a “new dimension” or “Deeper Life” in the power of the Holy Spirit as manifested in the Charismatic Movement. He claimed that God “showed” him:

“that there is coming a time when those who want the real moving of His Holy Spirit will be distinguished clearly from anybody else…so that the real and the middle-of-the-road compromisers are easily distinguishable” (Ibid., pp.6-7).

This is the last desperate refuge of the Gnostic, who claims that his false brand of Christianity is the genuine, higher, deeper, spirituality; while those who do not follow this trend are at best, compromisers, at worst, impostors. But how can those who so readily twist the Scriptures and mimic occultic practices be the real, Holy-Spirit-inspired Christians? This “Positive Confession” technique is precisely the same as that practised for decades at the neo-Gnostic New Age Findhorn Community, where it is known as “Prosperity Consciousness”. The sad truth is that it is the cultic antics of the Charismatic Movement, in its departure from historic, evangelical Christianity into the realms of Shamanism and the occult, which have brought the Church into such ridicule and the Gospel into disrepute. Therefore, when Selwyn Hughes gives his biblical justification for ‘Positive Confession’ theology, we can clearly see that his error lies in believing that all Christians are endowed with exactly the same power as Jesus. He writes:

“Just as Jesus spoke the WORD of rebuke to the fig tree so you as a child of God can speak the withering word of rebuke to that disease or sickness upon your body. When Jesus spoke, His WORD was with power. When you speak, your WORD can have just as much power” (Selwyn Hughes, op. cit., p.39).

Frankly, I have yet to meet a single Charismatic leader who can even make a fig-tree immediately wither, let alone effect a genuine Divine healing which has an instantaneous visible transformative effect on organic matter! (They can certainly grow giant cabbages at the New Age Findhorn Community; but that is not by the power of the Holy Spirit!). Rev. Paul/David Yonggi Cho (whose sorcery we examined extensively in the previous section) also endorsed the same magical principle of ‘word-power’ when he advised his readers to:

“Claim and speak the word of assurance, for your word actually goes out and creates. God spoke and the whole world came into being. Your word is the material which the Holy Spirit uses to create. So give the word, for this is very important. The church today has lost the art of giving commands. We Christians are becoming perennial beggars, for we are constantly begging” (Paul Yonggi Cho, The Fourth Dimension: The Key to Putting Your Faith to Work for a Successful Life, Logos International/Valley Books Trust, 1979, p.31).

Actually, the real reason that the church has “lost the art of giving commands” is because it is no longer in God’s will for us to practise such an art. The art of “giving commands” to disease and demons died with the last of the Apostles, as I shall categorically demonstrate with numerous proofs later in this chapter, and I will clearly show the reasons why those first century Apostles uniquely had such power. Moreover, only God has the power to create with a personal fiat. Yet it is clear from the statements above that these people believe that they are God and that they have exactly the same divine power that Jesus exercised during His earthly ministry, which is yet another example of the “You will be like God” aspect of the ‘Satanic Initiation’ of our first parents in Eden which we examined in detail in Chapter 1.

As a further example, Bishop Earl P. Paulk, who held the office of Bishop in the International Communion of Charismatic Churches from 1982, has written: “Just as dogs have puppies…so God has little gods. Until we comprehend that we are little gods and we begin to act like little gods, we cannot manifest the Kingdom of God” (Stanley M. Burgess & Gary B. McGee, Dictionary of Pentecostal & Charismatic Movements, Zondervan, 1978, p.719). Perhaps it was this arrogant belief that led to the downfall of Bishop Paulk and three of his office-bearing family members in a sex scandal at their 7,700 seat “neo-Gothic cathedral” in Atlanta. A story in Christian News revealed that women who served in this and a sister church “charge that the ministers pressed them into having sex, saying they would be serving God” (Christian News, Monday, January 25, 1993, Vol.31, No.4., p.3). Clearly it is very dangerous for a mere minister of the Gospel to believe that he is God!

In similar vein, Methodist faith-healer John G. Lake (1870-1935) said, “Man is not a separate creation detached from God, he is part of God Himself… God intends us to be gods” (Stanley M. Burgess & Gary B. McGee, Dictionary of Pentecostal & Charismatic Movements, Zondervan, 1978, p.719). Kenneth Copeland also supported this view when he said, “You don’t have a God in you. You are one” (Ibid.). Now, it is true that Christians are described in 2 Peter 1:4 as being “partakers of the divine nature”, but this is by virtue of the imputed righteousness of Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit. It does not mean that they are partakers in the divine essence which can be plugged into at will, for that is occult-mysticism, as I have earlier revealed on many pages.

This point of distinction is the fundamental difference between the orthodox, Biblico-Christian concept of the spiritual relationship between God and man, and the “divinisation-of-man” theory which is at the heart of all the Satan-inspired religions and cults of the world.

This entire technique of “Positive Confession” is well-summed up in the words of Selwyn Hughes as, “Say what you believe and believe what you say”. But this is just another “rip-off” from the teachings of Transcendental Magic and Theosophy. One ‘New Thought’ occultist confirms this fact with the statement: “Owing to the vibratory power of words, whatever man voices, he begins to attract” (Florence Scovel-Shinn, The Game of Life and How to Play it, Fowler, 1925, p.25). Another Theosophical publication, in which the words of the “Ascended Master” Kuthumi are recorded, shows clearly the origin of this doctrine:

“When we contemplate methods of God realization, we dare not exclude the power of the spoken Word [in which] the body of your letter is composed of statements phrasing your desires…and the supplications that would be involved even in ordinary prayer. Having released the power of the spoken Word through your outer consciousness, your subconscious mind, and your super-conscious or Higher Self, you can rest assured that the supreme consciousness of the Ascended Masters whom you have invoked is also concerned with the manifestation of that which you have called forth” (Elizabeth Clare Prophet, Prayer and Meditation: Jesus and Kuthumi (Summit University, 1963), pp.138-139). [emphasis added]

This statement clearly shows that when such ‘word-power’ is invoked, the ‘vibration’ is picked up by the demonic realm and answered accordingly. In other words, these techniques do actually work. That is why those phoney pastors and teachers manage to snag private jets, stretch limos and vast mansions. However, it is not ‘God’s blessing’ that is bringing it about, but the work of Satan through his demonic lackeys. When you pray to God in the manner disclosed in His Word, He answers that prayer and honours it with His blessings. But when you issue commands and decrees through the power of the spoken word in order to manifest material benefits, the Lord hands you over to Satan who responds with a ‘Faustian kiss’ for incentive. We need not linger long examining this. The system that has been advocated by Selwyn Hughes, Morris Cerullo, Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland and Yonggi Cho for developing a “Prosperity Consciousness” is exactly the same as that being utilised by the occultists in ‘New Thought’ and neo-Gnostic circles. The only difference is that those in the churches who teach this heresy have dressed it up in ‘Christianised’ jargon.

There is never any need whatsoever for Christians to get bogged down in repetitive ‘Christianised’ mantras or the use of ‘word-power’. In common with the use of ‘mind-power’, the employment of word-power is a manifestation of the ‘Satanic Initiation’ which our first parents received in Eden and which is the hallmark of all occultism (“You will be like God”, Genesis 3:5. See earlier in Chapter 1, §1). The ‘Christian’ heretic Selwyn Hughes teaches: “Say what you believe and believe what you say”. The witch, Starhawk (alias Miriam Simos), teaches that “Magic works on the principle that, ‘It is so because I say it is so’” (Starhawk, The Spiral Dance: The Rebirth of the Ancient Goddess, Harper & Row, 1979, p.111). Just like its occult twin, ‘mind-power’, ‘word-power’ whether in a church or in secular circles is the ancient art of witchcraft dressed up in modern clothes.

Therefore, when the so-called ‘Ascended Master’ quoted above says, “when we contemplate methods of God realization, we dare not exclude the power of the spoken Word”, we can begin to grasp the true occult control which lies behind this increasingly popular practice in so-called Christian circles. It is but one more component in the process I mentioned earlier leading to “The Dawning” of the time when the greatest evil will come upon the face of the earth.

In the next section, we will open up the way that so many are controlled in a vast number of churches through powerful verbal pre-hypnotic suggestions and the ways that they are mistakenly attempting to control the forces of darkness through spoken commands. In particular, three areas will be extensively examined: 1) The hyped-up experience known as “Baptism in the Holy Spirit”; 2) The gibberish “Tongues” spoken by so many; 3) The phoney so-called “Deliverance Ministries”.

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[The above 3,000-word piece is extracted from the vast 84,000-word Chapter 11, “Sorcerous Apprentices: The Occult ‘Mind-Sciences’ in the Church Today”, in the upcoming 1,046-page Second Edition of “The Serpent and the Cross” which will hopefully be published in early October. The above is to whet your appetite for the full book. Let me know if you want to get it at cost price. There are no profits (or prophets!) round here]

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2025
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]

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