Ugh. Awful.
If this woman is acting in the capacity of a Pastor, she is in direct, plain violation of God's word.
"You attract what you expect"? Where is that in God's word? Sounds like the demonic "Law of Attraction" that is popular among New Age folk.
"They find what they focus on." I think it's that what we focus on shapes what we want, who we are, which shaping is reflected, finally, in how we live. We aren't hummingbirds, or carrion-eaters, that are what they are by virtue of their nature, unable to be other than they are. We humans are able to choose upon what we'll orient our attention. This woman's analogy, then, isn't very well thought-out.
"Practice hearing the voice of God." This is nowhere taught in Scripture. Nowhere. In the record of the Bible, whenever God had something to say to someone, He always made it crystal clear that He had spoken and what He was communicating - even to those who didn't want to hear from Him. Did Abraham need to practice hearing God's voice? No. God sent angelic messengers to him. Did Moses need to practice hearing from God? No. God met him in pretty dramatic fashion with a burning bush and disembodied voice when Moses wasn't expecting to hear from God at all. Did Gideon need to practice hearing the voice of God? No. He, too, wasn't looking for a communique from God but, like Abraham, Gideon had an angelic messenger sent to him. And so it goes all through the record of Scripture; God used angelic messengers, visions, dreams, a disembodied hand or voice, a talking donkey, prophets, etc., to communicate with human beings. No "hearing practice" necessary.
The "practice hearing from God" thing is a surefire way for folks to mistake their own inner self-talk and personal desires for God's voice. Since God doesn't speak in a way that requires that we "practice" in order to hear, when believers set about to "hear" from God - and don't - they begin to cast about for anything that seems like "God's voice." And since they are looking inward, ultimately, for that "voice," it's no surprise that it's their own inner voice that they end up mistaking for God's. But making this mistake, thinking one's own inner voice is God speaking, will have, in the end, devastating effects spiritually. The devil, of course, gets in on this self-deception, making the deception much worse, if he can. Beware, then, any so-called Bible teacher who's urging you to "practice hearing from God."
We have God's word, the Bible, that is entirely sufficient to communicate God's will and way to us. It is a "lamp unto our feet and light unto our path," (Psalm 119:105); it is "profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man (or woman) of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works" (2 Timothy 3:16-17); "Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed thereto, according to your word" (Psalm 119:9); "It is written: 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4). Read Psalm 1. If any born-again person wants to know God's will and way, they need only open their Bible and read from it - no "hearing practice" necessary. And they can be sure they are hearing from God and not their own self-talk, or some demonic counterfeit of God's voice, as they encounter the words of God from the objective, authoritative source that is Scripture.
"I chose to believe from God." On what basis? The woman offers no solid biblical ground for her belief in what she thinks she heard from God; she simply decided she would believe it. This is nutty logic and kooky spiritual living! "There is a way that seems right to a man (or woman) but the end thereof are the ways of death." (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25)
"You are going to get in life exactly what you expect." Not hardly! On its face, this is patently false. Anyone who has reached the age of fifty can tell you this is a ridiculous statement. Will a deaf man become a concert pianist, if he persistently expects to be one? Will a guy with dwarfism play in the NBA, if he simply thinks hard enough that he can? Will a paraplegic win the Olympic 100-meter sprint if he thinks with sufficient determination that he can? Obviously not.
"Whatever gets in your mind and stays there, you will attract it in your life. Positively and negatively." At this point, Terri flatly states that she is teaching the pagan, New Age idea of "Law of Attraction." She immediately confuses it with the biblical principle of reaping what one sows (Galatians 6:7-8; 2 Corinthians 9:6), talking of people who sow negative attitudes about themselves in others, who then reap a harvest of the same in the them.
Terri goes on to establish the idea of the "Law of Attraction" by way of immigrant folk who become millionaires because they see America as "a land of opportunity." She is subtly locating life-shaping power in the individual's thinking rather than in God. I wonder if Terri thinks the apostle Paul's suffering for Christ and the Gospel was simply a result of Paul's own bad thinking drawing to himself the suffering he endured. Maybe she thinks the apostle John was boiled in oil and then exiled to Patmos because he attracted such pain and suffering to himself through his own bad expectations. Perhaps Jesus died on the cross only because he anticipated he'd die on it? Not an unreasonable conclusion, under Terri's "Law of Attraction" doctrine.
Terri, being a very poor spokeswoman for God's truth continues, badly mishandling a verse from Proverbs and making it the ground for her version of the "Law of Attraction." Here's the verse in its immediate context:
Proverbs 23:6-8 (NASB)
6 Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, Or desire his delicacies;
7 For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, "Eat and drink!" But his heart is not with you.
8 You will vomit up the morsel you have eaten, And waste your compliments.
Solomon is not suggesting a "Law of Attraction" here, but is warning folks that a selfish man is duplicitous, giving others a false impression of his attitude toward them. The selfish man urges his guests to eat and drink but in his heart resents them. What the selfish man really thinks of his guests is not revealed in what he says. This is the meaning of Proverbs 23:7, not that a person can attract a certain life-outcome by means of thinking on it persistently.
I've only listened, at this point, to 4:28 of the video and have collected all of these false teachings already. Surely, this is enough, though, to warrant dismissing her as a serious teacher of God's truth. Really, she's an unabashed false teacher, no matter how "cutesy" she seems.
