As
I begin my testimony of how the
Lord brought me out of bondage,
I must give all glory and honor
to Him. Sharing my experience is
done with much prayer and
seeking of the truth. My main
reason for sharing is to to be a
testimony for God and to
hopefully be an encouragement to
others who are caught in the
lies and deception of Satan.
To those of you who know me and
are trapped in this deception of
Satan, this may offend, and for
that I am truly sorry. This is
in no way intended to be
disrespectful or judgmental in
any way. This is strictly my
testimony of my walk with God
and how He set me free.
To those that are trapped in a
false church, I pray for Satan's
hold to be broken and that God
will give you the strength to
walk away and let Him set you
free.
To those who love the Lord and
know the truth and are serving
Him with your whole heart, soul,
and mind, I pray that this
testimony will be a warning to
you to make you aware of false
prophets and to realize how much
deception is really out there.
To those of you who have loved
ones trapped in a false church,
I stand with you in prayer. Keep
believing God for your loved one
and NEVER give up faith that He
can and will bring them out into
freedom.
Now I will begin to share my
experience with you. My
nightmare began at a time when I
was searching for answers for my
life. My walk with God was one
of much confusion. I desired
strongly to have a close walk
with God; a real relationship
with Him. I had been battling
the guilt of my past and Satan
was constantly beating me down
with it. I wanted to be holy and
pure. I wanted to please God.
Satan knew my desire and set out
to steal my soul.
Because I was not grounded in
the Word of God, nor did I have
a close relationship with God,
my heart and spirit were open
for Satan to take advantage of
me. How does one arrive to this
point? For me it was the battle
I was having with my own soul.
Satan was having a tug o' war
with my soul and was determined
to win. He used every lie and
every trick that he could to
deceive me. My foundation, what
little it was, was soon to be
destroyed.
Right before I began going to
this particular false church,
Satan was whispering lies to me
daily and using my past life to
destroy me. He began to tell me
lies of how I "looked"
like a harlot. It was a lie
because when one receives
salvation, that person belongs
to Christ and God sees you
through the blood of Christ.
But, I gave in to Satan's lies
and I stopped wearing make-up,
began to wear dresses only, and
refused to cut my hair. I
believed that it was God
speaking to me and this was His
way of making me holy and
righteous. I wanted to please
God and Satan had me convinced
that I looked like a harlot.
Had I truly understood what
Jesus did for me on the cross, I
would have known where my
identity was. I allowed Satan to
take my eyes off of the cross
and I began to trust in
"works" for my
sanctification. When the Lord
saves us it is a COMPLETE WORK.
We cannot do, say, or in my
case, wear anything more or less
for our sanctification. I was
not any more or less holy for
changing my looks or my attire.
I was being led into bondages of
Satan and was too blind to see
it. After all, oh, what a
righteous person I began to feel
like! Little did I know it would
lead me to become a
self-righteous Pharisee!
When I first began attending the
church, what drew me to it was
the love I received, plus the
fact that the women there wore
dresses only, never cut their
hair and did not wear make-up. I
thought that at last I had found
a place I would fit in. As the
weeks went by, the people were
overly supportive of us and
displayed much love and
acceptance. I found out later
that in most false churches and
cults, this is a normal pattern
to get you "hooked".
We were immediately led into a
Bible study. Most false churches
and cults set out to educate you
and teach you their particular
"truth" that they
claim God gave specifically to
them. You are told you have a
"high calling from
God" of some sort and that
they have a particular
"message" to teach
straight from God. It is usually
a message that is contrary to
most basic church beliefs and
doctrines. You are told you were
led to their church by God and
that you are chosen to walk in
the way they teach.
The only "message"
Jesus gave his disciples was to
preach the gospel to all
nations. False teachers and
false prophets who claim to have
a "message" different
than what Jesus himself taught
is preaching "another
Jesus". This particular
church I attended claimed all of
the above. Most false churches
and cults have a "central
leader" of whom the
congregation is expected to
treat with the highest respect.
They claim to have special
"revelations" from God
and build doctrines around
scriptures they take out of
context. Their sheep are
expected to obey them and if
they don't, the church member is
labeled rebellious and missing
it with God. You are told you
are in sin when you do not
follow your leaders.
False churches and cults are
usually run with a lot of
manipulation and mind control.
The Word of God says to walk in
the Spirit and follow His
leading. False prophets and
teachers claim to know what the
Spirit wants at all times and
members become dependant on the
leader rather than the Spirit.
The Holy Spirit was given to ALL
believers. The Word of God does
not say "follow the
leader"; rather, it says to
"follow the Spirit"
and to test the spirits to see
if they are of God.
When you attend this type of
church for awhile, you begin to
believe and to become what you
are part of. Instead of being
changed into the image of
Christ, you are changed into the
image of the church. For me, I
had such little confidence in
myself and my walk with God it
was easy to let my so-called
leaders control me. The longer
you stay in this type of
atmosphere, the stronger the
bondage you are in and the
harder it is to walk away from
it.
Satan is very cunning. Most
false churches have many truths
mixed with the lies. You receive
just enough truth so that when
the lies come it is easier to
believe in the lies. It is
almost like a dark, evil, force
that is lingering over your life
ready to destroy it.
I began to convince myself that
the lies were really truths. I
wanted to believe this was the
way to holiness. I was being
manipulated and controlled and
deceived into thinking I was
holy by "works". Satan
had control of my life and I was
too blind to see it. This is one
of the ways Satan will put a
Christian in bondage. A person
who is out in the world without
God knows he has no relationship
with God. Satan already has his
soul. But a person who is
sitting in a false church thinks
he is o.k. Matter of fact, he
thinks he has a "high
calling" from God. Pure
deception!
As I sat for years being taught
lies and anti-Christ doctrine
under much manipulation and
control, it began to take its
toll on me. My relationships
with others began to crumble. I
lost my relationship with my
oldest son, my mother, and my
best friend. I had become
hateful, manipulative, and
self-righteous.
Self-righteousness is the main
fruit of a cultic church. When
you are being taught how you
have a "high calling"
and that you are "walking
in holiness" because you
wear dresses, no make-up, and do
not cut your hair, then it is
easy to become filled with pride
and self-righteousness. You
begin to feel you are
"better" than other
Christians because of your
so-called "holiness".
Most of the members would deny
they feel this way, but the
fruit speaks much louder. You
begin to think you are better
than those who are different
than you. You become
self-righteous to the point of
judging others. You become
"religious". You think
you cannot be with certain
people because they wear shorts
or make-up. Just think if Jesus
had done this?
The leaders tell you not to
visit other churches because of
the "spirits" there.
They feel by going there you may
pick up a "wrong
spirit". Cultic churches
have a pattern of isolating you
from the world and even your own
families. Your goal is to
"bring them in" as
well. Bring them in to
salvation? Not hardly. Bring
them in to the false church to
receive this so-called
"message" of God.
Husbands and wives are driven
apart and submission is given to
the leaders. Single people are
told to marry within the church
and if they don't are labeled
"missing it" or
are "in rebellion" if
they seek a mate outside of the
church. Wives rebel against
their husbands under the
direction of the leader who
claims to hear from God. True
Biblical submission for wives is
taken away and given to the
leaders. Husbands are not free
to take their rightful place as
head of their home because they
are accountable to the leaders
rather than God. Children are
taken to the leaders for
guidance rather than the husband
making the decisions for their
children under the guidance of
the Holy Spirit.
The bondages are so strong in
these type of churches and it is
a stronghold that can lead you
and your family straight to a
life of hell. It is very hard to
leave a cultic church because of
the mind control and
manipulation, which are strong
forces Satan uses to keep you in
bondage.
I had become a self-righteous,
religious Pharisee and had to go
through tremendous losses to
have my blinded eyes opened.
My oldest son and I were
constantly bickering and
arguing. He had become
rebellious and began to lose
interest in God. He continued to
go to church because he was
caught up in religious bondage
to false doctrines. He actually
believed he was o.k. and
believed he had this so-called
"high calling". Just
like the bondage I was in, he
was religious and self-righteous
without a relationship with God.
RULES WITHOUT RELATIONSHIP =
REBELLION
My youngest son had no interest
in God whatsoever. I later
learned after we had left the
church, that he felt the church
was a false church from the
beginning. He carried a lot of
anger and resentment over this.
How could he not? My son was
being forced to attend a church
he clearly knew was wrong.
My husband and I blindly trusted
in the false leadership. Our
relationship suffered
tremendously as I had become a
rebellious, self-righteous wife.
I did not have the fruit of a
quiet, meek, submissive, Godly
wife as the Bible describes. My
husband was not free to
lead his home because according
to the church leadership, the
Holy Spirit would only speak to
them. If you told them that God
had shown you anything that was
contrary to their guidance, then
you were told you were wrong and
needed to follow their "headship".
While I was attending this
church, the Lord blessed my
husband and I with a miracle
child: a beautiful, little girl.
She would become a turning point
for my way to victory. As I
began to see the person I had
become, my heart began to be
very troubled. I give all praise
to God for this because this was
the true leading of the Holy
Spirit to bring my family and I
out of the bondage into freedom
in Christ. God had His
protective hand on us and soon
He would open our eyes to the
truth and lead us into a
relationship with Him based on
grace.
I did not want my daughter to
become like me or to be under
the influence of the religious
Pharisees I had become a part
of. I saw what my boys were like
and where they were headed if I
did not do something quick. My
daughter was just beginning her
life and I knew the kind of
mother God was calling me to be,
which by the way, is a true
"high calling". I knew
I could not be what God truly
called me to be sitting in that
church. I began to seek God for
answers and to seek Him with my
whole heart.... just God and me.
He led me to do a study on the
Pharisees in the Bible and the
Lord began to open the Word of
God to me like I had never had
before. I began to do extensive
research on the internet on
false churches and cults. What I
discovered shocked me.
The Lord did bring us out and we
began to attend a Bible-based
church that was teaching on the
cross of Christ. I needed to be
in a church that would teach me
truths out of God's Word and not
out of man's so-called
revelations. I needed to be in a
church that would teach me the
way of the cross of which I had
left to begin with.
Since we left, my family has
come together and my
relationships with others have
improved very much.
I
have learned the true meaning of
grace. I have learned who I am
in Christ. I have learned that
my salvation and sanctification
is based on what Jesus did for
me on the cross at Calvary. I
have learned what Jesus meant
when He said on the cross:
"It is finished." He
did a COMPLETE WORK.
Praise God I am set free....
Dear friend...
I pray
that my testimony will open your
eyes to just how evil Satan
really is. He will never stop
trying to steal your soul; even
after you are saved. It is so
important to stay rooted and
grounded in the Word of God and
to NEVER take your eyes off of
the cross of Christ. Cling to it
always... for in it lies your
life. May the Lord keep you and
establish your heart with
grace...
"And
ye shall know the truth and the
truth shall make you free."
John 8:32
"Stand
fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us
free, and be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage."
Galatians 5:1
If
you need encouragement or
prayer, please feel free to email
me or go to my prayer
request page and I will gladly
stand with you in prayer or
offer words of hope and
encouragement to you. God Bless
You!
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