I would be interested in hearing tales from Impact, that is the kingdom business that my Dad served. Any further info would be great.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I was told my whole life because JRS laid hands on me when I was born, that the Spirit was imparted to me and that I too was a prophet. I don't remember meeting him, but I know his voice well from the tapes I heard all my life. My parents left right before he died, they told me they had to pretend to be crazy in order to extract themselves. They did not believe it was a cult until Marilyn &q
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

It's easy to see how one could get so wrapped up in this world view...I mean who doesn't want to be told they could have special powers to control the very forces of nature. I have to fight the feeling that I gave up those powers when I walked away and remember that I never had them to begin with.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Thanks for the encouraging words!
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Every time a storm threatens to strike, it makes me very anxious and I can't stop wondering if it is judgement or assault. In my family, if it affected us directly it was assault. If it impacted someone else, it was deserved judgement, most likely brought upon them by our prayers or presence. Talk about a destructive and narcissistic view of the world. It's one I don't miss, but fi
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"For instance, when I read about the armor of God, it's through a veil of spiritual transference and needing to protect my aura so that I am in control of my spirit. It's so difficult to separate what was a control mechanism from what was genuine that I often find myself just compartmentalizing it all." Wow, yeah that is a perfect example. From an early age, I was encourage
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Thank you for sharing and for your candor. For me, the biggest hurdle is the language of the Bible (no matter the translation) was so twisted, bent and added upon my whole life, it's hard not to just feel the weight of it all. I find no solace, only reminders of what I left behind.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Not to change the subject or anything, but I have a question for the general forum, and would love to hear yall's thoughts. How did you relationship to God, change/evolve/end after leaving the cult? Did it regrow after a time? or was it just all too much? Every time I open the Bible now, I can't help but hear it spoken as the voice of the Body of Christ.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

These are general questions for anyone really: Do you still you receive or ask for signs? Do you act on them? and how do you interpret them?
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

What were the beliefs about homosexuality in the church during the 70's and 80's?
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hello all, I have a question in regards to some of the practices around baptism and the church in the late 70's early 80's. What did that ceremony look and feel like? I was told I was baptized and blessed by JRS himself and that I was given an impartation of the spirit from birth. Thanks, just curious!
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

My parents were taught so well they were able to maintain the Cult of the Living Word completely separate for 40 years.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Thanks for pulling up JezTheBelle's post, not sure when she wrote it, but it is still very relevant. From my perspective, trying to pinpoint where it went 'astray,' or became a cult is irrelevant. I've believed for almost 30 years that my family escaped The Walk right as it was "getting bad." Only to find out from Woodrow's book that it was pretty damn bad well
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I'm starting to realize that the idea of transference, being affected, attacks by nephilim spirits, Body signs...etc all of them are very convenient constructs for manipulation and never having to take responsibility for your own actions. Always shifting responsibility from yourself to someone or something else. "I'm feeling this way because you opened up to someone! You need t
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Rebellion is as witchcraft after all.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

This is a very telling section of Woodrow's book: No one can really blame Martha for finally deciding to bail out of a relationship that, while maybe financially rewarding, was one humiliation after another. It is amusing to note that on the declaration that John Robert filed in response to Martha's (there was a battle over all the property – Stevens hired the same attorney that made
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

For those interested, here is a .doc link to Woodrow Nichols's book. I downloaded it a few months ago when I first escaped my family's version of The Walk.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I can personally attest that my parents, even though they left right before JRS died, held onto all the words spoken over them. They reiterated to me my whole life how I was blessed by the brothers and a word was spoken over me giving me special access to God. They are still carrying on the legacy he left behind. I am still feeling the impact of this destructive belief system nearly 40 years late
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Thank you for your concern and words of encouragement, I'm celebrating Christmas with my wife's family who is very supportive and loving. I hope you are having a peaceful time as well. We actually did read the word quite a bit, they wanted us to "feed our spirit" with both the old and new testament. Kabbalistic teachings and Hebrew texts were incorporated, as well as previo
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"The leader's illnesses are caused by demonic or astral assaults because of negative thinking from former disciples or from doubts held by current disciples" So many of these things ring true as they concern the secret LW Outpost my parents ran with me and my siblings as the only members. But this one in particular stands out. My father's perpetual pain was amplified by
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

@larry, your comment about the darkness being afraid of the light is very accurate. I never felt free to discuss what my family actually believed and practiced. Keeping our secrets and presenting us as just christians was part of my existence, up until a couple of months ago. No one, not even my closest friends had any idea that my family prayed for(loosed) judgement to fall on entire cities and
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Thank you all for your support and kind words. I do have a counselor and he has been great, but there is something about talking with people that have a true understanding of this particular cult (still getting used to calling it that). @Reepicheep You mentioned Impact, my Dad was part of that company and I keep trying to find out more about it, but there is nothing out there. Woodrow's
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I don't know what a family that doesn't act like a Body of Christ is supposed to feel like. I think that is the problem I'm currently having. My family operated like a CLW Outpost leaving the church in'82 but still teaching my sisters and I everything they learned there. I don't know how a church should feel. I don't know what a relationship with God apart from them
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

This statement is something I have heard all my life (even though my family left the church in '82). The entire time I have been married to my wife, my family would tell me she "needs a revelation" of Christ and the body of Christ aka my family. She tried for four years. She never got one and my mom started calling her a heathen. This is not something you can explain to an outs
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I've been no contact with my family for about a month now and yesterday I had a very strange encounter with my mom.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Thanks so much for the message Kbyrne, and everybody here. I didn't think anything existed like this forum, because JRS died so long ago. Encouraging but sad that the impact is still being felt today. No pun intended. It's so hard to explain this belief system to anyone who's never experienced it. I have this built in instinctual disdain for all other forms of Christianity beca
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

My parents took the place of JRS and they became the only way my sisters and I could have access to God. Every thing that happened good or bad was open to interpretation by them. If it was a bad thing that happened to us, we needed to press in. If a bad thing happened to them, we needed to press in. Eventually the same type of body signs that JRS manipulated his followers with, my dad began manif
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Really happy to discover this thread. Been desperately trying to find more people that I can relate my story to that will understand what I have/am going through. When I look back at the reasons I've ended my relationships in the past, the answer that rings in my ear is my family. They have convinced me to end so many relationships that I've been happy in and and with because they be
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families