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Originally Posted by RCTW
I decided to stop going to LC last week and still adjusting. Keep praying that I can find a suitable church and new fellowship in Jesus.
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It’s been just over a year since my wife and I left the LC. Here are a few lessons that we've been learning along the way:
1. Immerse Yourself in the Scripture: A couple of years before leaving the recovery, the Lord gave me a great appetite to read the Bible, unlike anything I'd experienced in my last 25 years in the LC. This not only revived my spiritual life but also freed me from some sinful habits and helped me recognize serious issues within the recovery. As we continued reading the Bible, we gradually stopped practicing repetitive calling and pray-reading.
2. Repentance and Humility: When my wife and I realized we were guilty of idol worship by blindly following W. Lee, as well as hostility and pride towards other Christians, we repented in tears. This was a powerful moment of liberation that can be compared to our second salvation.
3. Authentic Prayer and Fasting: Departing from scripted and abstract prayers in the LC, we learned to pray authentically for our needs (for our marriage, our kids, our health, our parents, siblings, and other relatives, our finances, etc.) We started to practice fasting as well. We started to say the Lord’s Prayer. More often, we would kneel, and direct our prayers to the Heavenly Father and end our prayers in the name of Jesus. By praying in a calmer, conversational manner, we grew closer to God, and each other and witnessed more definite answers to our prayers.
4. Ask the Lord to give you good Christian friends to support you. My wife and I asked the Lord to give us good people and friends for ourselves and our children. We moved to a new place. We met a new neighbor, and she turned out to be a godly older woman, a former missionary. Her husband invited me to his weekly man bible study group. We met some more people who invited us to a home bible study group which we started to attend weekly. Our son befriended a boy at a playground who turned out to be from a good Christian family and invited him to join Trail Life (faith-based Boy Scouts). I meet for coffee weekly with another brother who was once involved in a group similar to W. Lee's cult but has since found strength in his faith journey. He's now thriving in his walk with the Lord, having even become a missionary. It's inspiring to see him preparing for another missionary trip abroad. There are many more examples of how the Lord arranged everything to care for our spiritual needs.
5. Join a healthy Christian church. I cannot emphasize enough how important this step was for us. When we just left the LC, we stayed home the first Sunday and gathered as a family to read the Bible and pray. At that time, we thought we would keep staying home and meeting in our home as a family. We did not want to join a denomination. Little did we realize that we were still heavily under the ill influence of Lee’s teaching. Looking back, we see that Satan’s strategy for those who leave the LC is to keep them cut off from the Body of Christ, to make them stay home at any cost, to make them think that there is no need for a church or that all the churches are degraded, shallow, and a waste of time. However, if we let our pride go and humble ourselves before the Lord, we will realize that we are wrong, that we still hold our old false beliefs, and we are still hurting. Without becoming a part of a healthy church, there cannot be full healing and realization of who we are in Christ. A substantial amount of the New Testament would not apply to staying home Christians. For example, it’s impossible to practice “love one another” and walk/march in the Spirit without other brothers and sisters alongside. To be more involved, we opened up our home for a weekly Bible study group which is a blessing to us.
6. Be willing to let go of old teachings and concepts. It's a sad reality that many individuals who have left the LC find themselves in a state of confusion or uncertainty. Reflecting on our own journey, we gradually came to the realization that the LC was rife with teachings that were deeply influenced by deception. What were once perceived as profound truths were, in fact, distorted interpretations of Scripture, often bordering on teachings that aligned more with human philosophy and even doctrines influenced by demonic sources. It's a sobering realization, but one that prompts us to humbly let go of any pride associated with those teachings and instead approach the Word of God with the innocence and openness of children, seeking understanding through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. We decided to be baptized again to consecrate ourselves and our lives to the Lord anew. We gradually realized that W. Lee was not merely wrong in some minor teachings and practices but rather he preached a false gospel and serious heresies from demons. Therefore, we wanted to simply humble ourselves and be like children. This required some humility. In the church where we are now, we are taking ten lessons prior to being baptized. At first, we thought that we do not need such elementary and basic teachings as we know much more. However, as we are taking lesson by lesson, the light shines, and we see the true gospel, the true love of the Father, and His redemption in His Son.
7. Do not judge other Christians how they worship or meet as long as it does not contradict the Bible. In the LC, we used to think that only LSM-approved material is spiritual and sanctified and all content in Christianity is Babylonian or natural or soulish or sinful. We despised Christian songs because we thought they were worldly. Now, we should humble ourselves and realize that we were wrong. We need to learn to be accepting and judge according to the Bible, not according to W. Lee, or LSM, or our own standards.
8. Explore Diverse Christian Literature: This is very important to me. In the LC, we foolishly despised all the riches and gifts that were available in the Body of Christ. We were undernourished. After we parted with the LC, we threw away all our W. Lee and W. Nee books and started to collect and read various many good books from topics such as Christian cults and abusive churches, to emotionally healthy spirituality, to books on the Christian view of masculinity and femininity, books on parenting, etc. Also, we started to listen to some good preachers.
9. Listen to Christian music/songs. In the LC, we suppressed our soul and what might be soulish. Now we realize that we need to nurture our soul and many Christian songs bring us such healing and healthy emotions.
10. Talk to other former members. It's incredibly beneficial to connect with other former members. We have had some meaningful conversations with individuals who've also transitioned away from the LC. One brother, in particular, who played a significant role in introducing us to the LC many years ago, eventually left himself. Several months ago, we had the opportunity to engage in an open and honest fellowship with him, learning about his experiences within the LC. It's been enlightening and reassuring to share our journeys and glean wisdom from each other's paths.
Take Time and Have Hope. We've come to understand that it takes time to adjust to a new way of living and thinking. Despite the challenges, we hold onto hope, remembering our identity as children of the King, and finding assurance in the victory of Jesus over death and Satan.
Hopefully, it will be helpful to you. God Bless You!