Liba Hopeson
“Name it and claim it!” — this popular slogan is often heard from prosperity preachers across television, YouTube, and large church stages. Their message is simple but powerful: “Speak your blessing! Declare your miracle! What you confess, you will possess!”
They teach that if you “name” what you want—healing, success, or wealth—and “claim” it in faith, God must give it to you. They often say that your words have creative power, and that your faith can make things happen. To support this, they quote verses like Mark 11:24: “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours,” or Proverbs 18:21: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
At first, this teaching sounds inspiring. It talks about faith, confidence, and positive expectation. It tells us to believe God for great things—and we should. But when we look deeper, this message twists what true biblical faith and prayer mean. It quietly changes our focus from trusting God to controlling God.Many Christians, especially those longing for healing or breakthrough, are easily drawn to such messages because they promise instant results and emotional comfort. But truth mixed with error can be more dangerous than a clear lie.
Let us look at why this “name it and claim it” teaching, though attractive, is deeply unbiblical and spiritually misleading.
1. It Makes Prayer Human-Centered
One of the biggest dangers of this teaching is that it puts human desire at the center of prayer, not God’s will. It turns prayer into a method for getting what we want. People start to think faith is a tool to demand blessings from God—as if God is bound to act when we say certain words.
But prayer, in the Bible, is never about control; it’s about surrender. Jesus taught us to pray, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). Prayer should begin and end with God’s will, not ours.
Theologian D.A. Carson notes that real faith doesn’t try to manipulate God’s power but trusts His wisdom. Faith that is focused only on results becomes self-centered. True prayer is not “Lord, give me what I want,” but “Lord, help me to want what You give.” In other words, biblical prayer is not a transaction but a transformation. It changes our hearts before it changes our circumstances.
2. It Misuses Scripture
The “name it and claim it” message often sounds biblical because it quotes the Bible—but the problem is how it uses the Bible. It takes verses out of their proper setting and changes their meaning.
For example, Mark 11:24 says, “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” On the surface, this sounds like a promise that God will give anything we ask for if we just believe hard enough. But when we read the full passage, we see Jesus was teaching about genuine faith that trusts God, not a formula for getting things. The surrounding verses warn against hypocrisy and emphasize forgiveness, humility, and obedience. Jesus was not teaching us to use words like magic; He was calling us to have a pure heart that trusts God completely.
Another verse often used is Proverbs 18:21: “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” Prosperity teachers say this means our words can create reality. But in its real meaning, the verse teaches that our words can bless or harm others—they can build up or destroy relationships. It’s about the moral effect of our speech, not about speaking physical things into existence.
New Testament scholars such as Craig Blomberg, Gordon Fee, and N.T. Wright warn that prosperity teachers read the Bible selectively. They highlight verses about blessing but ignore verses about suffering, sacrifice, and submission to God’s will. They forget that Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble” (John 16:33). When Scripture is taken out of context, faith becomes a formula—“say it, believe it, get it”—instead of a relationship with a loving and sovereign God.
Sound interpretation always considers the context, the audience, and the author’s intent. Without this, even true verses can be made to say false things.
3. It Distorts the Meaning of Faith
In the “name it and claim it” movement, faith is often treated like a power or energy that makes things happen. The stronger your faith, they say, the more likely you are to receive what you want. But in the Bible, faith is not about how much power we have, but about whom we trust.
True faith is not faith in our words or in our desires—it is faith in God Himself. Hebrews 11 gives a long list of people of faith. Some experienced great victories, but others suffered, wandered, and even died without seeing the promises fulfilled. Yet all of them were praised for their faith. Their faith was shown not by what they gained but by how they remained faithful when life was hard.
As G.K. Beale explains, biblical faith is not the power to command results but the willingness to trust God’s plan. Faith says, “God, even if You don’t do what I ask, I still believe You are good.” That is the kind of faith that pleases God. True faith is not necessarily measured by outcomes but by endurance. It holds on to God even when the miracle does not come.
4. It Promotes Materialism
Prosperity preachers often equate blessing with wealth, health, and comfort. They suggest that if you are truly faithful, you will be rich, successful, and always healthy. But this teaching is very different from what Jesus and the apostles taught.
Jesus said, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth” (Matthew 6:19), and warned that it is hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. Paul wrote, “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1 Timothy 6:6). Nowhere in Scripture are riches or comfort presented as proof of strong faith.
When faith becomes a path to wealth, God is no longer our treasure—His gifts are. This turns Christianity into a spiritual marketplace. As theologian John Stott once said, the gospel of Christ calls us to carry the cross, not to climb the ladder of success. True faith leads to generosity, gratitude, and service—not greed or pride. A faith that only works when life is easy is not faith at all. Real faith thrives even in scarcity because it finds satisfaction in Christ, not in comfort.
5. It Blames the Believer
Another harmful effect of the “name it and claim it” teaching is that it puts the blame on believers when things go wrong. If someone is still sick, poor, or struggling, they are told, “You didn’t have enough faith.” This creates guilt, shame, and confusion.
But the Bible shows that even the most faithful servants of God faced suffering. Paul, a man full of faith, prayed three times for healing from his “thorn in the flesh.” God answered, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Paul’s weakness became a platform for God’s strength.
God is not a vending machine who dispenses blessings when we insert enough faith. Sometimes His “no” is a greater gift than His “yes,” because it draws us closer to Him and shapes our hearts. True faith accepts that God’s ways are higher than ours, even when we do not understand. The cross reminds us that suffering is not a sign of weak faith—it is often the very place where faith grows the deepest.
The Problem with the Word “Claim”
The word “claim” itself shows what is wrong with this teaching. To “claim” something means to say, “It’s mine. I deserve it.” But Christians don’t approach God with demands—we come in humility, knowing that every good thing we receive is by grace, not by right.
That’s why true prayer often ends with, “If it is Your will.” This is not weak faith—it’s strong faith, because it trusts God’s wisdom more than our desires. Even Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, “Not my will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22:42). If the Son of God prayed in surrender, we must do the same.
The heart of faith is not claiming authority over God’s promises, but resting under God’s authority with confidence and peace.
Conclusion
The “name it and claim it” message may sound positive, but it quietly replaces trust with control. It makes prayer about getting things instead of knowing God. True faith doesn’t try to command God; it learns to rest in Him. It doesn’t say, “I claim this,” but “I trust You.” It doesn’t focus on what we speak, but on what God has spoken in His Word.
As many faithful believers across generations have testified, God’s greatest blessings often come not through what He gives, but through what He teaches us in waiting. The real mark of a faithful Christian is not how much he claims, but how deeply he trusts—even when God’s answer is different from what he asked. Faith is not about claiming blessings; it’s about trusting the Blesser. That is the kind of faith that pleases God.
