Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens
Date: August 09, 2013 04:14AM
I have been doing a little study of where John Robert Stevens actually got most of the message he taught. The message of the manifest sons of God is not anything that origionated with him. JRS could be classified as a radical Latter Rain adherent, in that he believed and taught the manifest sons of God message. If you trace down all the adherants of that theology, you will find a lot of this shepherding in the various fellowships. It seems to always evolve to the same thing. I don't know that it HAS TO, but it seems to, at least up until now. The belief that spiritual Gifts can be simply imparted to people that don't have very much depth of the word, and by "word," I mean the bible, and to people that have not sought God with all their heart, and gone through a work of the cross, and by "work of the cross," I don't mean standing in a circle and interceding for the leader, and speaking against a the devil, when the devil is no doubt perfectly content with what is going on and is no doubt not "coming against" anybody IN THAT particular fellowship.
If you google Latter Rain and take a look at the various churches that espouse that theology, they ALL deny involvement, though most don't claim the God told them not to get involved. If God did tell John Stevens not to get involved with it, then I am at a loss as to why he did get involved, and to the point that he did.
The moderator told me that we could discuss Latter Rain, as long as it is briefly and then to get back on subject. I am not going to say any more about it, other than to encourage all of you to google it, and then to research the prophetic movement, the apostolic restoration movement, the manifest sons of God, Joel's army, shepherding, the whole thing is out there, and it is has been going on since the late 1940s along with and right beside the Living Word Fellowship. It is nothing new.
I don't know how much of it could have been a revelation of God, I DO KNOW the whole thing got perverted, and it got perverted right there in the Living Word Fellowship, ESPECIALLY when JRS died. As I said before, JRS is not the only leader that the followers prayed that he would come back to life, to be the first born into resurrection life. William Branham is one of them.
I still have respect for JRS in a lot of ways. I think he did believe what he taught, unlike a lot of television preachers you see, in my opinion. I don't know what Marilyn believes, I was not around when she was in charge, I just know that when she was with JRS and she was talking on the tapes, I just thought she was an air head new ager and I figured that JRS had just lost his head over a younger woman. I didn't figure enough in the future to think all leadership would cowtail down to her. I guess they had no choice, and that leads me to believe that as John's wife she must have had some legal edge on them, perhaps she owned their churches, I don't know. I guess that will come out some day, exactly how much money and property was in her hands when John Stevens died.