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september 4, 2002

so here finally is the follow-up essay concerning some of the issues that will be addressed on my upcoming solo record, "she must and shall go free." i do this for several reasons. first, is to give you a glimpse of my heart, mind, and motivation concerning some sensitive areas that i’ll be running headlong into over the next few months. second, is to provide you with tools to defend the Gospel as it pertains to these issues. as a combination of these two, the third reason that i write this essay is in hopes that you would understand and defend me through what might be a difficult year.

i should start by stating that this is a record for, about, and concerning the church. i should also express some of the difficulty that i’ve had through the writing of this record, specifically concerning some of the language that i found necessary to use, especially when referring to the church. when writing songs, and seeking to be informed by the whole counsel of scripture on this topic, you find the majority of the images of the church in scripture are pretty hard words. you begin to see the church for who she is: a harlot and a whore, who is made beautiful only by the garment provided for her by her bridegroom and in the light of His righteousness. i tried to speak only of the church as scripture speaks of her, both as the whore and as the radiant bride. as Christ’s bride, we need humility and brokenness as much as we need encouragement and edification. mainly, i believe that with the many issues that we face in our churches today, this was an important and a timely word for us as a church; this may be what it takes to wake us up. however, i’m afraid that this will not be a very popular word (not that it’s ever been).

that said, nearly all of the subject matter falls under the heading of idolatry, and more specifically idolatry in the church. i believe each of the things that we will discuss deal with and are symptoms of this fundamental and age old epidemic. unfortunately, our idolatry as a church has become a great deal of our identity over many years of church history. over the past year and a half i have seen the characteristics of the faithless israelites right here in our american churches. this has been seen most recently and clearly in the church’s response to bruce wilkinson’s book ‘the prayer of jabez’ (which is the concern of a at least a few of the songs on the record). as i foresee this being one of the bigger issues that we’ll deal with in this material, this is probably as good a time as any to express the problems, both cultural and scriptural, that i have with this book. incidentally, i’ve heard several different reports on how many copies bruce’s book has sold, but i believe it to be around 8-10 million copies. we shouldn’t quickly overlook that figure. it is not only staggering in the world of Christian literature, but in the book world in general. from looking at some figures regarding the demographics that are mainly buying ‘the prayer of jabez,’ it is clear that the church supports wilkinson’s teachings on jabez’s prayer, and has made her voice heard in these numbers. for those of us that are not so in touch with what’s happening in today’s Christian sub-culture (which i assure you is not a bad thing), allow me to bring you up to speed on the ‘prayer of jabez’ phenomenon. first i will seek to show you simply what we know of jabez and the prayer that he prayed from scripture alone. i will then try to communicate what bruce teaches in his book and in his lectures regarding this scripture, and what i believe he imposes upon it.

let’s start with scripture. the account of jabez’s prayer (which, incidentally is all that we know of him) is located in I chronicles 4:9-10, which reads:

Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain,” Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.

some might say, “so what; what’s wrong with that?” the answer is, “nothing.” scripture does not fail us. however, men often fail scripture. what we know clearly from scripture is that there was a man named jabez, that his mother gave birth to him in pain (hence his name), and that he cried out to God for a few things:

-to bless him
-to enlarge his territory
-that His hand would be with him
-that He might keep him from harm and free from pain

in conclusion, we also know that God granted his request. now here’s what we don’t clearly know from the text:

-what specifically he was asking God for
-how many times jabez prayed the prayer, if more than once
-how long it took for God to answer his prayer
-how God answered his prayer (i.e. what God actually gave jabez)

i affirm that there is much to learn from this scripture (i would direct you to charles spurgeon’s excellent treatment of the text in his sermon ironically titled, ‘the prayer of jabez’), but i simply don’t believe that what bruce wilkinson teaches on the subject is correct. so let’s look at bruce’s interpretation of I chronicles.

bruce wilkinson says that we are to follow the example of the prayer of jabez and apply it to our lives in order that we might be “blessed indeed.” bruce tells us the following: -to pray the prayer of jabez word for word everyday for 30 days -that within weeks you will begin to see results (blessings beginning to appear), however it sometimes takes the entire 30 day period -to indeed expect blessings of all kinds in your life thanks to your faithful praying of the prayer of jabez, including literal expansion of territory and finances.

furthermore, i have personally heard bruce use phrases like, “if you pray the prayer everyday for 30 days, God must bless you,” and, “if you don’t pray the prayer you’re tying God’s hands from being able to bless you as fully as He would like.” he talks about the “flood waters of blessing” that God desires to flow into your life (as a result of the prayer of jabez), and what a shame it would be if we got to heaven and discovered blessings of all kinds that God didn’t give to us because of our failure to pray the prayer of jabez. i’m aware that in his book bruce talks about the ‘expansion of territory’ referring to ministry opportunities, but he seems to write one thing and publicly teach another here. i have heard bruce promise groups of people committing to the faithful praying of the prayer of jabez (on God’s behalf) that they will receive not ministry opportunities, but literal and financial expansion (e.g. the size of a Christian bookstore doubling, the income of a Christian family doubling, the doubling of the clientele in a Christian establishment where the owners are praying the prayer, and so on).

some still may find no problem with this teaching. the fundamental problem is that this is simply not found in scripture. as we said before, you don’t see jabez praying his prayer more than on time in scripture (let alone praying it systematically). we don’t see God answering jabez in 30 days or less in scripture. we don’t even see exactly how God answered his prayer in scripture. we certainly don’t see a pattern established in this short passage of scripture that would give us reason to believe that we could pray as this man did (except to pray it over and over again, of course) and expect these ambiguous blessings from God that bruce promises. we also don’t see (anywhere in scripture, incidentally) the bible instructing us to pray any prayer with exact repetition (even the Lord’s prayer is a model prayer only). you will also find nowhere in the bible a way that we can obligate God to do something for us. He does make certain promises to us as his covenant people regarding our repentance and His forgiveness, but even these promises are for His people alone, based on His faithfulness and not ours. however, bruce teaches consistently that 30 days of praying the prayer of jabez will work for anyone, regardless of where they stand in relation to Christ. lastly, you don’t find the early church partaking in the supposed blessing found in the prayer of jabez. in light of bruce’s teaching, we would be lead to believe that those who actually lived along side of Christ during His physical ministry on the earth actually missed out on the great blessings that God intended for them (which would be especially hard to swallow since these men were well versed in the old testament scriptures, and yet recorded nothing regarding any extraordinary significance of jabez’s prayer. considering that bruce has often said that this teaching is the most important truth in the bible next to the Gospel itself, you’d think there would be some record of it in the new testament). basically, all of the things that bruce bases his teaching on are curiously absent from the text. scripture clearly teaches something here, and it’s simply not what bruce is teaching. therefore, if we believe the bible to be true and to have authority over the teachings of men, we must discard bruce’s interpretation. we have no other choice as those who submit themselves completely to scripture.

now all is this is probably troubling to you (in one way or another). but i want to be clear about my concern in all this and why i’m so opposed to this teaching. it’s not necessarily because of the horrendous exegetical work. it’s not necessarily because 98% of bruce’s teaching is unwarranted in scripture. it is for only one reason: because it simply undermines the Gospel. this is the only reason that i could justifiably have. please don’t misunderstand me; i do not mean to tear down bruce wilkinson or any other aspects of his ministry (i consider his work with ‘walk through the bible’ good teaching), i only desire to exalt the Gospel. what is the difference in what bruce says and what the Gospel says? bruce says that even if you’re a Christian that God has withheld His blessings from you (the ‘flood-waters of blessing’ as he says) and that He’ll give them to you if you systematically pray this rather obscure old testament prayer. i would challenge that idea and say that if you believe upon Christ for your salvation today, God has withheld nothing from you. in fact, he has already flooded all of the blessing you could ever imagine into your life, and that IS Jesus. He is ALL of the blessing. He is ALL our reward. He is sufficient for all of our needs and we should in Him be satisfied. what more could anyone possibly offer you? if you possess the very righteousness of Christ, which earns for you a share in the inheritance of the kingdom of God as though you were His very son or daughter, what more could there possibly be? what more blessing than His body and blood? what could anyone possibly offer more that Christ has already provided? this prayer does not, and cannot bring us “extra-ordinary favor with God,” only Christ can. if we truly understood and believed the Gospel, we wouldn’t look twice at a teaching like ‘the prayer of jabez,’ because it would have no power and nothing to offer.

i would admonish you to search the scriptures further on this. let neither my words nor bruce’s hold any influence over you, but rather allow scripture alone bind your conscience. however, i do hope that this gives you some insight into my reaction to this teaching, and why i feel this is not only a relevant topic for discussion in the church, but a necessary one. beloved, let us not stray from our lover and seek to be satisfied elsewhere, while there is none who can give us what only He can. let us begin to deal with our idolatry and adultery against our bridegroom. even if our idolatry doesn’t manifest itself in these ways specifically, we should learn to see all the ways that it does. bruce’s book did not introduce this problem, and the problem will still exist long after this phenomenon has faded. the root of this really has nothing to do with ‘the prayer of jabez,’ the book has only brought our ongoing idolatry back to the surface. the root goes much deeper, to our very hearts. by the grace of God, and by His Spirit, let us see our sin for what it is. let us see our great and continued need for God’s grace and mercy offered only in Christ’s blood, and let us see the great Savior for our need as believable and beautiful. regardless of your level of spiritual maturity, your need for Jesus is just as great today as it has ever been. let our sin weigh heavier on us so that we might lean heavier upon our Savior, and in response we might rightly worship Him. to God alone the glory.

derek