Is the Prosperity gospel Wrong?

My question deals with the prevalence of “The Prosperity Gospel”. Some of the well meaning proponents of this suggest that if one is sick, or poor, or even dies untimely, it is evidence of a lack of faith. I find it offensive, and am troubled because some I love have stated this, and it is divisive.

Q. My question deals with the prevalence of “The Prosperity Gospel”. Some of the well meaning proponents of this suggest that if one is sick, or poor, or even dies untimely, it is evidence of a lack of faith. I find it offensive, and am troubled because some I love have stated this, and it is divisive. They have scripture supporting it.
I know firsthand, personally that God answers prayer. But I also know that not every prayer is answered, that His purpose may be otherwise. I am hoping you will address this, for The Church. Thank you.

A. You’re right, the Bible does support much of the Prosperity Gospel teaching. The Lord has promised to meet all our needs (Matt. 6:33) heal us (James 5:14-15) and even make us wealthy (2 Cor. 9:11). But there are conditions, and in failing to teach these conditions, many Prosperity Gospel teachers are in gross violation of the very Scriptures they cite.

It’s clear that we come into the blessings of Scripture as we yield our lives to God. For example, Matt. 6 says that the Lord will provide for those who make seeking His Kingdom and His righteousness their first priority. To me that means placing our entire life in His hands and doing only those things He directs us to do. How many of us do that?

And He promised to make us wealthy so that we could be generous. Generous giving begins after we’ve paid our tithe. People I know who are being blessed this way live relatively simple lives and give away 50-70% of their income. They understand that the Lord blesses them for the purpose of giving generously, not for funding their personal luxuries. How many of us do that?

And just about every time the Lord healed anyone, He said that it was their faith that made it possible. How many of us really believe that the Lord will supernaturally heal us? How many of us have ever even seen anyone healed this way?

In Romans 8:28 Paul said that God works everything together for the good of those who love Him. The word translated love there means to be totally given over to Him regardless of His response to us. How many of us love him that way? Even Peter when he was restored couldn’t use that word although the Lord asked him repeatedly. Finally they settled on the lesser brotherly love. (John 21:17)

In summary, it takes a commitment to developing and maintaining a very close subordinate relationship with the Lord to fully activate these promises, yielding every aspect of our lives to Him to do with as He pleases, just like Jesus did with His Father. This kind of love was much more prevalent in the years after the resurrection. It’s extremely rare today, but clearly necessary, and for that reason many prosperity gospel teachers will have to answer for their misleading instruction (James 3:1).