I Have Departed From the New Apostolic Reformation movement

I am making my way back to a simpler faith and a more traditional approach. I found myself in some facebook classes designed to help me learn to prophesy. An uneasy feeling crept over me as each session unfolded. Finally I woke up one night and felt pretty certain the Lord wanted me to withdraw. When I did I stopped trying to discern voices whether mine or the spirit’s. I stopped trying to attain to the high of being slain in the spirit. I realized I had been greatly deceived. That’s when I began to research the new apostolic reformation and came to understand that I do not agree with it and wanted out.

I stopped making decrees for prosperity and increase. I stopped looking down on believers who weren’t enlightened by this new movement of miracles. I stopped giving lots of money to these prophets for their conferences, books, classes and constant needs for cash. I stopped feeling ashamed of the times when I didn’t feel “filled with the spirit”. I stopped seeking encounters with angels and experiences that took me into heaven itself. I stopped trying to give out words from the Lord to vulnerable people. I quit the nonsense!

I read testimonies of others who had suffered under false prophets and such ministries. I compared my experiences with theirs and understood how a group I was in lead by a “prophet” operated under that same deceptive spirit and how I had been sucked in, then spit out. It’s left me without real friends as nearly everyone I had been close to for a few years is still associated with NAR. I am lonely but no longer under that spirit of error. I press on...

We are told throughout God's Word that there are MANY false teachers and prophets. I believe this is the reason when we listen to group teachings or find a Church to attend that we know God's Word enabling us to divide the false teachings from the Truth of God's Word. I am so sorry that you had such a terrible experience, yet by discontinuing your beliefs in God's TRUE Word (prosperity healing, a few comments made) you will be missing out on His best for you. Unfortunately not all preachers/teachers are servants of God, sadly again, as you found out.

Just a suggestion: Pray, asking God for a church or group where the teachings are from the inspired Word of God. BUT again, we must know God's Word so that we will not fall prey to false teachings. I personally don't see any problem with questioning what is being taught or preached to us as long it's in line with the Word of God. If we are not sure we need to search God's Word ourselves.

That is wonderful new Anita, and we can thank the Lord for opening your eyes to Satanic deception. You may be lonely where you are but you are not alone. Many Christians have seen the folly of the NAR Movement and spoken out against it.

Looks like you are on the right spiritual track now. Glad to have you onboard with us. Welcome to CC.

The naked unadulterated truth will set you free. We have two precious gifts, the bible and the Holy Spirit. use them, they are the purveyors of the truth.

That is a good testimony. The Holy Spirit gives us checks when something is not biblical.

In 1985 I was involved in a church called Word of Faith. To make a long story short, I felt that check in my Spirit and hearing scriptures being misinterpreted and knowing that the pastor was doing it for financial gain, I had to leave that movement.

I learned at that time that there are pastors who do not cringe when they hear a scripture being used to teach something that that verse was never intended to teach and I had to ask myself why that was? Why did I fear and tremble at His word and would never use a scripture to teach something other than what it means in context and yet this pastor could do it without shame? God showed me that there are choices that a preacher can make over time that will allow him to be given over to a lying spirit where he will believe he is getting spiritual revelation and preach it but it is false teaching. He knows that it is not what that scripture means but he preaches it anyway because it is popular and he is getting lots of attention and financial gain. He is an idolater. A false prophet, given over to darkness and loving to have it so. That church folded and the pastor was exposed nationally in the media later, but I was long gone by then.

The Lord will give us a check in our Spirit and use scripture to open our eyes, and then we still have to make a choice. You made the right choice. Others will use excuses like "the pastor must be right, he must know more than me, I felt a little uncomfortable with what he was teaching but he is smarter than me, so I should ignore my suspicions and just submit" These are the beginnings of deception. God is faithful and he will give us those checks and if we choose the pastor over the word of God we are committing idolatry and if we do it long enough we will be given over to deception. If after many years the pastor is exposed and we finally realize we were believing in false teaching we do not have a right to get disillusioned with God or with church or with pastors, we need to take responsibility that we did not respond correctly to the checks we had in our spirit when God tried to warn us.

I have heard many testimonies of people coming out of various false teachings and fallen churches, and they almost always have a memory of how God tried to warn them but they suppressed it. This is important because many that come out of churches that have had a scandal and been found to be teaching hogwash will be down on themselves for being deceived and quickly turn it into anger toward pastors and toward God himself and use it as an excuse to go back to the bars or other destructive sins. When I counsel with them they seem to want to stay in a victim mentality over their experiences with church and false teachers and I have to bring them slowly to that place where they remember how God tried to warn them years before everything went south but they chose to side with the pastor instead of scripture. When they see that and remember the warnings they had and the checks in their spirit then it helps them to realize how much God did love them and was trying to show them, so after this they will often take responsibility of their deception. God did not deceive them God warned them. They wanted to be deceived for various reasons. They chose something over truth in their hearts and they need to repent rather than blame God or pastors. We are always responsible for being deceived.
I know that sounds harsh and that is because it is so hard to admit because we want an excuse for our willingness to go along with a false teaching longer than we should have. We don't like to admit that we wanted it to be true even after we saw in scripture that it wasn't.

yea beware of word of faith teachings, I think deep down people know they are just after the $$ and fleecing the flock. People want to go along with it because they are desperate to believe in something and with satan giving a pretty good counterfeit of what faith really is, people fall for it.

Funny thing is those who believe in this and taken by NAR are sincere about it and probably the most religious people you'll ever meet. They will be at church everytime the door is open, go to all the conferences, buy all the books, watch endless you tube videos of their favourite preachers and be praying loudly and long at every prayer meeting and pepper their talk with spiritual bon mots.

I appreciate the excellent responses! I posted what I wrote above on facebook and received validation there as well at discovering the deception and turning from it back to pure Bible instruction.

I have felt down for a few days but one of the reasons I believe I noticed the falsehoods is because I’ve been in the habit of reading from the Bible daily and listening to commentaries by McGee and others. By staying grounded in the word and great preaching I had the comparison between the NAR and the truth.

Interestingly, I received a phone call from a woman I met briefly a few years ago. She invited me to join her prayer zoom meetings. She also came out of NAR and knew the false prophet I got involved with because she had been involved with her, too. One of the facebook comments I received was from a woman who lead a study I was in for years while she was VP of a local Bible college. She said “it’s getting very hard to find fellowship these days” and I think that means she has run into this pervasive theology.

Between the responses here, on social media, and the phone call, I find some encouragement. God is faithful. I moved to another state right before covid and making new friends seems daunting, but in time I believe He has new things. God guides my steps.

I am so sorry this happened to you, you are not alone I like you was nearly destroyed by so called prophets and it infuriates me that people still do this to people especially for profit. however you came out of it and were saved from their clutches you felt the spirit in you and that is a good sign because not as many people in such circumstances would have felt it and listened.

I don't know why so many people want to be prophets because trust me it seems amazing and cool but anyone who has ever had to give a dire warning or a word from God that most people would not want to hear knows it can be a very hard and heavy burden. More than anything prophets are not liked by many because people want to hear a good word from the lord yet if the word is not good and encouraging suddenly they will turn on you with fiery arrows call you a false prophet and well... it's hard.