The “word-faith” movement is a heresy that has plagued the evangelical world for the past hundred years or so, but has become especially pervasive with the advent of the modern televangelists and mega-churches. Its central tenants are in direct conflict with sound biblical doctrine. In the following article, Michael S. Horton (2007) did a fantastic job of discussing the largest proponent of the word-faith movement, Joel Osteen.
At the core of the “word-faith” false gospel is the notion that man is by nature (at least somewhat) good. While the secular world indeed supports that supposition, the Bible does not. In fact, the Bible describes the heart of man as full of wickedness, deceit, evil thoughts, pervasiveness, and vile plans (see Romans 3, Ephesians 2, Jeremiah 17:9, the description of the state of man in Genesis 6:5, etc.). If I get the time to in the near future, I will write about the nature of man and attempt to combat the false idea that man is by nature (at least somewhat) good.