Before I go into this, I would love to hear from anyone
who has had this kind of experience, and any symptoms
you may have had afterward. Thanks and God Bless.
After watching Kundalini Warning on “You Tube” by Andrew Strom, I was reminded of what I’ve experienced within “Charismania.” I first saw this video on the “Wretched TV” show. I also watched the Kundalini “misunderstanding” video on You Tube. It was very disturbing and reminded me of all the snake studies we did in the spiritual warfare, intercessory prayer room. I would have nightmares of snakes constantly.
I remember one of the “seers” in the group was always having visions of snakes wrapped around me. My dad, who is not even into this kind of thing, called me one day and said he saw a vision of me wrapped in a huge black python. He said it scared him so bad that he actually prayed to God to help me. I don’t doubt that thru their “charismatic witchcraft” they were possibly sending out some kind of bad mojo to my family and me. For one, I had opened the door to it because I was involved in all the unbiblical practices.
The symptoms I had during these prayer sessions would last continually, until I left the group. I would come out drenched in sweat, have cold chills, heart palpitations, shaking all over and racing thoughts—even suicidal thoughts at times. I remember the leader of the group demanding God to do this or that, whereas I would start crying my eyes out and fear God was going to strike us dead on the spot. That really began to open my eyes and prompt me to repentance toward God for even being there and not being brave enough to stand up and scream—–no, you can’t do that!
I truly believe I was in such deep deception, that had God not delivered me, I would be dead by now. I would go home exhausted and severely depressed and I couldn’t figure out why when all the other members were on top of the world as if they had conquered the world. I realize now, it was God convicting me and leading me out. The other members must be so far gone that their conscience has become seared. I thank God for a sensitive conscience (1 Tim. 4).
Christ Rescued Me! 
Just seeing how all this works
Hi there!
I found you through either the closingstages blog, or m’kayla, or one of those folks. 😉 I left a Word of Faith church in July after being there for two years and involved in leadership.
Re: sending out bad mojo – I’ve wondered about this too, as I’ve had ‘visions’ of massive black snakes and other stuff while praying with people, the other person praying in tongues.. I went through the entire month of May waking up from nightmares 4-5 times a night, EVERY night, while involved with that stuff. I had dreams and visions that came to pass, some were (I’m convinced) God’s warning me to get out, others were just plain dark and disturbing. At any rate, I rarely slept. During prayer meetings I would sometimes feel terrified, shaky, anxious, lightheaded. Had a distinct feeling that something was very wrong, but was so deluded I shelved the gut feeling in favour for the wonderful things the church leaders said to explain it away. I also visited TACF (CTF) occasionally; the first time someone laid hands on me there was when it all started. I felt sick to my stomach, drunk, unsteady, etc., and that awful feeling returned during prayer and worship times.
I haven’t read your other articles yet, but it seems like we had a similar experience leaving. I bet you also could tell story after story of how faithful our God is, His provision and protection!
And just a sidenote, as I got to know the leaders and ones who did seem eternally on top of the world, I saw a lot of struggling families… I saw parents that consistantly neglected young children because they needed to have a certain amount of time in their prayer closets, people with heavy debt giving money to “God” beyond their means via health/wealth teachers, and just a general lack of teaching children/teens how to live by the Bible, because “speaking life” over them was the preffered, though useless, way of correcting them.
Ahh sorry for long reply!! 🙂
Hey “Joy,”
It’s good to hear of another exodus from the “Word of Faith” deception that’s becoming so prevalent today. My computer at home has crashed, I’m having to borrow one and go to the library at times. I’ll try to keep checking in w/ you. I’d like to hear more of your testimony. Don’t worry about the long response, I don’t mind. In fact, I encourage it.
Indeed there is so much I want to say about God’s grace and mercy. The bible verses He would lead me to, to bring me out, still amazes me. I plan to write more about my testimony as soon as I get my computer working again. I’m thankful you’ve found our blogs. God Bless.
I look forward to hearing more of your testimony as well.. It’s such an encouragement to connect with people who’ve been through it and also come to the truth! It’s sickening to think of what I used to be involved in, and how I turned my back on God through all of it. I was disgusted at the last prayer meeting I went to, they had photos of the “revival” people hanging on the wall, and we were to go lay hands on these pieces of paper and pray for their anointing to come to us. Afterwards, I overheard the pastor’s wife talking to a youth, referring to one of the photographs as “The [dead] guy you prayed to.” Ugh.
Ultimately I left because I had had enough of this and other weird things going on… I’m kicking myself for not leaving sooner, because as time goes by I see more and more garbage that’s being tolerated and accepted as “a new move of God”, regardless of whether or not the practices are even biblical! But at the time, I was SO confused about everything, all I knew was that something wasn’t right, although I could not articulate how I felt or what was actually wrong. It was like being in a storm that wouldn’t go away, I was crying at every church service. So I stopped praying for signs and wonders and for miracles to follow me everwhere, and simply prayed to be lead into truth – and I told God I would let go of what needed to go if it wasn’t from Him. That thought terrified me. But sure enough, I lost friendships, a serious relationship, a position in leadership & worship teams, and many opportunities to play music in the community – everything that was important to me, that I thought were answers to years of prayers. In the same week, I had to visit my doctor and found that I’d be in and out of the hospital for the rest of the summer – I’m almost afraid to say that God brought it to me, but I will say I’m grateful for this time where I had NOTHING to look to here on earth, but Christ was everything, and through that you see He IS everything. I had tons of time to spend in His Word since I wasn’t required to give every spare moment to the church anymore.
To come to a place of being able to let go was after much wrestling – after all, we believed that you remind God of His promises, remind Him what He wrote so you’ll be sure to get what you want. Name and claim it, and remind God that He should give you whatever you ask for because His word says so. But we seem to overlook the promises that don’t give us the fuzzy-wuzzies… I wonder when we fervently pray outside of God’s will, that eventually He says, “Okay, if you want it so badly, here you go… But you won’t like it!” Like in Ezek. 14, when the people have set up idols in their hearts, and God says He’ll answer them according to their idols so they will repent and no longer stray from Him!
God bless! Hope your computer gets fixed soon. 🙂
Hey Joy,
Thank God He led you out of that mess. The praying to dead people reminds me so much of Catholic mysticism. I’m noticing people w/ a Catholic background seem to be very attracted to this “new move.” I wasn’t Catholic, I was Church of Christ my whole life but I really got into the New Age movement. That led me into the Word of Faith. Jesus said a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after signs. We are to follow Him—all the way to the Father, to be reconciled by His blood.
I’m sorry you’ve had to suffer, although much good seems to be coming from it. Reminds me of John Bunyan. I’ve been reading some of his work and it reminds me of what I’ve been thru too. I believe it’s good to pray that God would count us worthy to suffer for His name sake, so our suffering will not be in vain.
Yup, both pastors from Catholic background, other leaders previously heavily involved with new age and occult (same thing?)… I can see how people involved with new age could easily slide over to word of faith, what with contemplative prayer, the laughing stuff & euphoria, chanting ‘worship’ songs, striving to get higher and higher w/ God, etc.. It’s all the same, isn’t it? We also had friends who got saved (or at least, we said so, I don’t know now), thrown on the floor via a spirit, and soon were back to drugs and getting “new revelation” from their newfound new age stuff. It makes more sense now, thinking of the people I mentioned, that when I questioned teachings, it was either shrugged off or someone proclaimed I needed deliverance from a “religious spirit”, or I was too smart for them (I needed to have the foolishness of God confound me), or I was using my brain too much, or whatever.
The pastors really emphasized leaving the denomination one was from. You couldn’t be “a” believer, you had to be “their” kind of believer. I was part of a reformed church growing up and was pretty much just a bench warmer then, didn’t like calvinism much but I knew enough to know the church doesn’t save a person. They (wof pastors) told me I had to “leave” my ethnicity and my family, stressing that they both had to leave Catholicism before they could know Christ… Well, I didn’t subscribe to any particular denomination, I already knew Christ, and I certainly couldn’t change the colour of my skin! If I stayed close with my family, I would only become more religious. Then I was told I should question my salvation because I don’t speak in tongues! There was always something.
How long has it been since you got out, and are you part of a church? I’m curious to know how that has been, I know several who do a home church or simply haven’t returned.
I left that church scene, will be a year in November. But I still had to deal w/ the charismania while I was still volunteering at the local pregnancy center. In some ways that was even worse. For one I had to overcome their pleas for “love,” “unity,” etc. I constantly felt I was being pulled back into the mess I was trying to escape. Yet, God kept drawing me closer to Him and giving me a strong desire to study His Word (in context), to distance myself from the false teachings, etc. I also found a good book about Charles Spurgeon that helped me understand some of the historical roots of all this mess. One root was the “downgrade controversy” that Charles Spurgeon (then called the prince of preachers) fought against. The Baptist Union stopped practicing church discipline and began allowing heresy to seep in..such as “Baptismal Regeneration,” and “decisional regeneration” both which Spurgeon stood against and exhorted men to believe the true gospel of Gods gift of grace thru faith in Jesus, not in our “decisions” works, etc. These, I believe are some of the heretical roots of what we are seeing today in charismania. Its all about man being exalted and Gods Sovereignty brought down to mans level. Make sense?
Yes, got ya, thanks. 🙂
Spent 6 years in it all. Still getting free of it!
Hey Linda,
How did God finally get your attention and reveal to you that you were in bondage?
He basically kept saying, “Get in my word, daughter. Get in my word.” Before that he told us to “leave and don’t look back”. We didn’t know why at the time. I had been feeling like the only “prude” in the crowd for about 6 years though. I was relieved to find out that I wasn’t really a prude. It was really discernment. Not that I didn’t walk in a bunch of it. I have repented for all the false “annointings” and other stuff. Oh, yeah…..a few months before this I was at a big name church with big name prophetic people at a conference. They kept talking about the Holy Spirit being there. I went outside to where my husband was and said, “The Holy Spirit is NOT in there.” I said, “I don’t care if that big name prophetic woman is up there with her head shaking back and forth and giving those words. He is NOT in the building.” He kept saying, “Linda, you’re nuts! Look who all is in there!” A few months later a friend called and said, “Did you hear about that such and such conference where you were and all those big name prophetic people were there?” I said, “Yes” He said, “Well, it was all a scam. They were all involved in a ponzi scheme!!! If they are so prophetic, how come they didn’t know it was a ponzi scheme they were all buying into???” So there was my confirmation. I knew I wasn’t nuts. And from there my eyes just kept on being opened to more and more. And then my husband’s. And then we left.
Linda, I am so glad you are out of that mess. How long have you been out and have you found another church yet?
I’ve been out for little over a year now, but still finding heresy in every church scene I try to get involved w/ here. Our little area here in Kentucky is ate up w/ it.
I can’t imagine how bad it must be in larger cities. This mess is spreading like cancer. Charismania seems to be all about a “felt faith” rather than a gift from God that comes through His objective Word, not subjective experiences.