“I Just Wanted More Land” is Gary E. Gilley’s response to Bruce Wilkerson’s book The Prayer of Jabez. It is a welcome rebuttal to that dangerous and misleading theology of Wilkerson’s shockingly popular book.
In the first chapter, Gilley argues that Wilkerson’s biggest error is to teach “that the repetition of a prayer; any prayer; even a biblical prayer; unlocks the power of God in our lives”(15, emphasis his). He goes on to explain that Wilkerson’s thesis is very popular because we want God to give us what we want.
In the second chapter, he analyzes what Wilkerson does with the prayer, arguing that Wilkerson’s book is a exercise in eisegesis, rather than exegesis. Rather that stating what the biblical text says (Wilkerson even drops a phrase from the prayer for some reason), Wilkerson use a devotional or allegorical interpretation of the text to make it the sure-fire way to get God to do our bidding – all we have to do is repeat the prayer of Jabez enough times and God will be forced to do our bidding!
In the third chapter, Gilley gives a plea for discernment and muses that Jesus and the New Testament writers were oblivious to the most important prayer in the Scripture and the method by which we can control God..
In the fourth chapter, Gilley gives an overview of how to do proper exegesis.
The book concludes with a look at Bible translations, strategies for Bible study, and serval specific examples to work through to see how to read and apply the Scripture.
Gilley is a wonderful and readable writer. He has diagnosed the problem with Wilkerson’s theology that a vast majority of Christianity has been oblivious to, and he deserves to be thanked for that, as well as for his general instruction on how to read the Bible appropriately. Pick up a copy of this book for anyone who is praying the pray of Jabez or for anyone who is looking to know how to read and interpret the Bible. It is a wonderful way in, besides being a corrective to Wilkerson’s prosperity teaching.
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