Anonymous Asks (391)

“Is the ‘Name It Claim It’ philosophy biblical?”

I had to look up this phrase since I’m entirely unfamiliar with the concept. A Google Ngram search shows it began appearing in English literature just prior to 1980 and took off in popularity post-2000, peaking after 2020. Having established that, I looked for a book by that name in hope of finding a popular proponent of the teaching. The one that crops up most frequently is a 2008 publication by Dag Heward-Mills entitled Name It! Claim It!! Take It!!! (with all those crazy exclamation marks), available since 2024 as a free PDF online in what I think is its entirety.

Prosperity Gospel by Another Name

The book certainly falls within the Ngram timeframe, but late enough to suggest the phrase probably did not originate with Heward-Mills. TV evangelists like Kenneth Copeland have popularized the concept to the point that it may not be possible to figure out exactly where it came from. For our purposes, it hardly matters one way or another; the basic teaching has been around for centuries.

Dag Heward-Mills is a Ghanaian evangelist, ‘faith healer’ and author of over 100 books. His website claims these have sold in the millions. He describes the philosophy as follows:

“ ‘Name it, claim it and take it’, is simply a descriptive term for exercising your faith. Every Christian must have faith and must exercise it! Faith is the reason for breakthroughs and miracles in our lives. Faith is the reason for answers to prayer. Generally speaking, people who have faith are more prosperous than those who do not. I have noticed a difference between Christians who walk by faith and those who do not! Faith people also experience disappointments, sickness and other shortcomings. However, very generally speaking, I notice a trend of blessings, abundance and long life among those who believe for them.”

There’s really not much more to it than that. It’s a version of the prosperity gospel that gives the Christian license to ask God for pretty much anything (“What do you want from God? Just name it!”).

A Biblical Caveat

To be fair to Heward-Mills, he does note there’s a biblical caveat to that:

“Of course, there are some conditions. John 15:7 says that if you abide in Him and His Word abides in you, you can ask for what you want! When you abide in Christ your desires will line up with the Word of God. I came to know the Lord years ago. My desire now is to win more people to Christ. I desire to experience church growth and the blessings of the Holy Spirit.

Somebody may ask, ‘Don’t you desire more money or cars?’ The answer is no. If it was money I desired, I would simply practice medicine in America. That would be a simpler way of satisfying a desire for money.”

That all sounds well and good, and I would agree with it as written. Of course it is necessary to know what you want before you ask for it. In that sense at least, the “name it” concept is fine, though I note scripture teaches we often need help figuring out what we are looking for:

“For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.”

Abiding and Asking

He’s also not wrong that when we abide in Christ, our desires come to align with the word of God. This is what we mean by asking in the name of Jesus. It’s not merely a matter of tacking his signature on the end of our requests for whatever we please, but acting as his agents and representatives making requests of the Father that Christ himself initiates and approves in order to further his agenda in the world. So when Heward-Mills writes, “My desire now is to win more people to Christ,” who could argue? Scripture plainly teaches that’s one of our Lord’s most fervent desires, and furthering it is our job through prayer.

So you can claim whatever you like, but it only “works” if you are abiding in Christ and your interests align with the teaching of scripture. “Taking it” involves acting on what you have prayed for and stepping forward to watch God work. For example, if you have named and claimed a good marriage, you have to behave according to the teaching of scripture about marriage. Be a good and godly husband, he teaches, and reap the blessings of a godly and prosperous marriage.

If that were all there is to naming, claiming and taking, I would be entirely untroubled, but it’s not. Not even close. What sounds great in theory sounds horrible when you actually write it out.

The Confession Session

The entire last half of Heward-Mills’ book is dedicated to what he calls “confessions”, in which he gives samples of naming and claiming for his readers to pray. Read them out loud, he says, believe them, and they will be yours. Some examples follow. Under “Confessions for Attaining Wisdom”, we read:

“Wisdom has brought me promotion!

Because I am so wise with the wisdom of God, I have been promoted!

The wisdom of God has exalted me!

I am moving ahead because of wisdom!

I have wisdom for business, wisdom for school and wisdom for good relationships!

I do not enter relationships and break up!

I have stable and long-lasting relationships because I am wise with the wisdom of God!

I am getting more wisdom everyday!

I am not an old king who can no longer be advised!

In all my getting, I am getting more wisdom!

I seek the counsel and advice of many counsellors! Because of that I have safety in all that I do!

I lend myself to counsel and advice!

I will not go in the way of Judas, Adonijah, Ahitophel and Lucifer!

I am a winner man!

Winning ideas are flowing through my mind!”

Lather, rinse, repeat. There are dozens of these.

Winning and Promotion as Unmitigated Positives

This all just sounds like a Christianized version of the “power of positive thinking” philosophy any secularist might latch onto. It assumes “winning” and “promotion” are unmitigated goods when both may be sub-Christian desires.

Frankly, it’s at our lowest points in life that the Lord Jesus uses us most powerfully. If abounding is all God ever wants for me, why does Paul tell the Philippians, “I know how to be brought low”? Why does he speak of learning the secret of facing hunger and need? Why would he tell the Corinthians, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong”?

In theory, what Heward-Mills is selling sound fine. In practice, it ends up contradicting the teaching of the very word of God it claims to be actualizing in the world.

Stability as a Virtue

Again, Heward-Mills writes, “I do not enter relationships and break up! I have stable and long-lasting relationships because I am wise with the wisdom of God.”

Stability in relationships is a fine idea in the abstract. In reality, Christians enter into many relationships out of love and with the best intentions in the world, then find circumstances we could not have foreseen change our view about them. The Bible teaches there are all kinds of relationship situations in which the best thing for believers to do is get right out of them and keep our distance once we know the truth about them. “Avoid such people,” Paul tells Timothy. You will see his list of “such people” is lengthy. But the evidence these are evil people better left to their own devices is not usually written on their foreheads. We have to engage with them for a while to find out what they are made of, meaning some so-called Christian relationships begin and end. That’s a feature, not a bug.

Even the Lord Jesus had multiple relationship failures. None of these was his fault, and none would have been better avoided in the first place. People became his disciples, followed him for a while, then abandoned him. That was their prerogative, and he even rejoiced in it. People like the rich young ruler — a man Jesus loved — declined to follow him when the price he named was too high. Judas betrayed him and Peter denied him. These were not “stable” relationships, but the Lord let each one play out until the condition of each failing heart revealed itself to its owner and to the world.

Extended Mantras

In fact, Heward-Mills’ confessions are nothing more than extended mantras, some of which apply on any given day and many of which do not. Some never apply. The Lord did not teach his disciples to pray by mindlessly reciting lists but in accordance with the needs of the moment, not in vague generalities but in discerning specifics.

In the end, not all our prayers receive the answers we would prefer. That’s not generally because we haven’t got enough faith, though it may be. Many of our better-intended requests involve the wills of other people, something the Lord is inclined to override very infrequently. I feel confident in asking the Father to open blind eyes and deaf ears to the gospel so that the lost can make a genuinely informed decision about where they want to spend eternity. I cannot feel confident asking the Lord to forgive people who, having heard and understood the gospel, decide they do not want God’s forgiveness. I cannot ask in good conscience for the Father to pardon people who do not love and will never love his Son. He knows that. I don’t. To make either of these latter requests would not be an exercise of faith but presumption.

For all scripture praises faith, it has precisely zero intrinsic value. Its value to the Lord depends solely on that in which we place faith and on what we do with it as a result. From that angle, the “name it claim it” philosophy fails the biblical taste test.