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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 15, 2015, 5:35 am
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Lily Rose, I really hope that Larry Cotton did well and could put that mess behind him without too much discouragement and of course, without the bitterness. I know I have had plenty of bitterness. I was very attached to that church as we all were.

I met Larry Cotton once at Shiloh, we all went out and played some basketball, along with some guys from Knoxville Tennessee. I really liked him.

When people read about cults from the outside perspective, it really does not sink in that there are really good people in them. Those people spend their money and their years trying to make something work, something they believe in. Even though, as we look back, we realize that all we had to do is read the book for ourselves, instead of listening to a pieced together version of the bible, emphasizing one part above another, anybody is subject to being misled if they put their trust in somebody that has that charm, that charisma. I have seen it happen over and over, in churches that nobody would consider a cult. All it takes is turn on Christian television and see the scriptures twisted beyond recognition.

Like the old joke about how Honda cars being mentioned in the bible. How Jesus and His disciples were all together in one ACCORD. You can make the bible say just about anything if you have the charisma to pull it off. The scary thing is how one can make the bible say just anything to yourself, without listening to anybody else if you have a pre-conceived idea of what you WANT it to mean.
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 15, 2015, 7:51 am
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I really don't know why Gary and Marilyn don'g just go on Youtube with their stuff, join the party, there are Latter Rain/ Dominion theology apostles and prophets all over the place today. I think someone said that John Stevens said it would be popular among "mainline churches" some day. Well, it isn't, but it is a pretty big thing. They don't have to mask and hide and slip and slid trying to 'avoid persecution' it's all out there. And it is no different than the stuff that JRS pushed, even the checking auras all of it. It was all out there when JRS was doing his secret teachings to the remnant, and it is all out there now.

If anybody in Living Word wants to continue in all of that stuff without having to call their designated shepherd and ask them every move to make, they don't even have to tithe, they can just turn on their computer.

I found it interesting that the guys that started the shepherding movement, Derik Prince, for one, repented publicly because it turned out to be such a bondage on people and it simply did not work.

Dominion theology is just another word for the belief in the super apostles and the manifest sons of God, all of it, and it is at the church on the corner. It's right there with the pre-trib, the post-trib, the mid-trib, the no-trib, manifest sons of God is right there.

In the case of the Living Word apostles and prophets, I think it would be more of a INFESTATION of minions of Marilyn.
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 15, 2015, 8:10 am
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I've never heard of this rumor that Marilyn approached Larry Cotton with the offer of marriage. It seems bogus to me--far-fetched, implausible given the culture of TLWF. Unless something more concrete is put forth, my inclination is to dismiss it.
I think when authority figures have been abusive toward their members, the tendency of those that have been wronged is to want to believe almost anything negative about the abusers--which can lead to the impartial questioning legitimate accusations.
Anyway, if someone reading this forum has first-hand knowledge, feel free to join in.
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 15, 2015, 8:28 am
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BTW, the prior comment was not to cast any aspersions toward Larry. I didn't know him, but I've heard from many others that he was a decent man, with a genuine concern for people in the fellowship. That said, I think the black/white marriage at the top of the authority chain would have been a major issue in TLWF at that time--leading, I think, the many more leaving than actually did. Hell, if it did happen, it would be one more intriguing tidbit into the narrative of this cult...but I can't see it. There will have to be something more substantive than a rumor to change my mind.
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 15, 2015, 9:48 am
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I agree Changedagain, I really wish I had not put that out there, I have no first hand knowledge of it.

Also, even though this came from somebody that is not at all one to believe rumors, it is much MUCH MORE probable that Marilyn got marriage proposals from all over the place when the leadership was up for grabs.

I was only out there for a week or so, in California that is, and there was so much political climbing, kissing up, clammering for position, I never dreamed any, I mean ANYBODY would be doing that.

I told the story about the joker that approached me, then went to the next table, and offered me some "commission" somewhere.

That church, from the time I got into it on, was the most politicking, back stabbing, clammering for the top bunch of position minded people, and for them to constantly talk about "commision not position" it is laughable.

I only wish to God that I had made the journey out to California to have a look for myself before I spent a 7 years attached to them. One trip out there and about one service listening to John Robert Stevens, alive and unedited, and I believe I would have walked out, just like I walked out after looking into the wild, soul-less shark eyes of Marilyn.
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 15, 2015, 9:57 am
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"The Wild, Soulless Shark Eyes of Marilyn"
What a great book title. It really grabs your attention!
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 15, 2015, 10:11 am
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Changedagain,, LOL I think I have been on a roll. Be sure not to miss the other book title I threw out there, "The Infestation of the Minions of Marilyn."
That can be the sequel to "The Wild, Souless Shark Eyes of Marilyn."

I can come up with the titles if somebody can write the books. We could split the proceeds 50/50.
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 15, 2015, 11:54 am
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Apostle Dog Wrote:
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> > I found it interesting that the guys that started
> the shepherding movement, Derik Prince, for one,
> repented publicly because it turned out to be such
> a bondage on people and it simply did not work.
>

_____________________________________________________

I know what you mean. That CISNEO link I posted was 30 + years old and it appears that a number of church leaders caught up in the shepherding movement repented and freed their members decades ago, with the exception of the TLWF.

I agree with the comment by Christian Broadcasting Network President Pat Robertson describing shepherding as "an unnatural and unscriptural dominion of one man by another."

Silencing the congregation was so much a part of the DNA of the LW. So much was/is hidden, covered up, and suppressed in the LW it's surprising to me that anything contrary to their party line leaks out such as the speculation regarding Larry Cotton. I personally don't believe that the majority of those harmed by the LW make up lies and a rumor that Marilyn asked Larry to marry her hardly casts much negativity or is a way to get back at the LW.
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 15, 2015, 12:03 pm
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lily Rose I watched the video you sent about cults, and when I was reading what was on there, I started wandering, that maybe when the Living Word was started to begin with, that maybe all of it was planned, on purpose, to be a cult. I mean, if there were to be a perfect model of a cult, the Walk fits the picture in every way.

I wonder if there is a college course somewhere that teaches how to create and manage a cult, because it seems that there was intelligent design behind the creation of Living Word Fellowship to deliberately make it a mind control cult.
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 15, 2015, 12:50 pm
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lily rose Wrote:
> I personally don't believe that the
> majority of those harmed by the LW make up lies
> and a rumor that Marilyn asked Larry to marry her
> hardly casts much negativity or is a way to get
> back at the LW.

My point is that there is so much that each one of us has personally experienced from being in this cult, we don't need to engage in speculation. I'm sure the LW leaders are ready to pounce on any allegation that proves to be false, which could discredit all the legitimate stuff that has been written here--which is vast, BTW.
I have no idea whether Marilyn approached Larry Cotton to marry her after John's death. If someone knows for certain, they are free to communicate that.
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 15, 2015, 12:56 pm
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Remember--both my wife and myself had experiences where we were physically threatened by these leaders, each for something we said. So I'm aware that they are not hindered by normal boundaries. Since this was a direct experience, I shared it.
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 15, 2015, 3:34 pm
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Well, I don't know about that. However, if John Miller wrote a tell all book, I would fund his pension.
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 15, 2015, 9:45 pm
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I am going to try to look at some of the things that I did learn while I was in Living Word Fellowship, at least, some of the good things that came from bad experiences. Although the intercessory prayer was largely misplaced, I learned the value of spending time in this sort of prayer. I don't think it was invented by John Stevens, but it was emphasized by Stevens in his church. Of course the part where they were all interceding for him all the time was a perversion, but the fact is there is power in prayer, even if it is one person. I think the church has always, since the very beginning had intercessors in the background standing in the gap. This is the ministry of the priesthood, those that go to the Lord for the people. Jesus is at this moment on the right side of the Father interceding for us.

I learned what not to do in that movement more than I learned what to do. But either way, I learned. It was not all wasted time, not for any of us.

Living Word is not the only church I was in that was full of problems. I have been in a few that collapsed. The very first church that I was in was in the Jesus movement. Miracles happening. One day a heroin addict was delivered and his needle marks actually disappeared from his arms. But even in a church like that, the Children of God rolled into town and seduced the pastor's wife and they rode off with most of the people and all of the church vans, and of course, the pastor's wife in only one week's time. That is how fast the seduction of the enemy can work and breeze right through a church.

The Living Word Fellowship didn't get invaded like that, with them the threat was within. But still, I learned quite a bit, I just learned how to re-apply it.

A church I was in after I left Living Word Fellowship dropped from 12,000 members to about 1200 members in a week's time, because of immorality of the pastor. Those people were never conditioned to pray until they got a revelation of whatever is going on, they got up and walked out.

I learned from my experiences in life, and in a huge way, my experiences in Living Word Fellowship, that any time that you look to a man and think that they are THE MAN OF GOD, you will find that that idol has feet of clay.

But one of the biggest lessons that I learned is that if ever I hook up with a church or organization of any kind, I will go to the headquarters and see what it like right there at the top before I give myself much to it. I will not take it for granted that it is what it seems to be. Tapes can be edited, I saw that with the meetings I went to in L.A. The videos of that meeting were so highly edited that it looked just fine, and I was there in person and thinking along with the pastor of the Gainsville Florida church that we were going to refuse to worship Marilyn and then head for the door and fight our way out, literlly fight for our lives. And we were not going to go down easy. I am sorry that so many people in the fellowship, decided to go down easy. That is a shame to me.
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 15, 2015, 11:39 pm
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Apostle Dog Wrote:
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> > I only wish to God that I had made the journey out
> to California to have a look for myself before I
> spent a 7 years attached to them. One trip out
> there and about one service listening to John
> Robert Stevens, alive and unedited, and I believe
> I would have walked out, just like I walked out
> after looking into the wild, soul-less shark eyes
> of Marilyn.


______________________________________

I like reading your posts AD. They help me continue to sort things out. Who knows, maybe you would have walked out after encountering JRS alive and unedited or maybe you would have been more sucked in. He was awfully charismatic. I once remember hearing JRS say something in a service (even though now I don't remember what it was) but it was like a Freudian slip and it really bothered me. I mentioned it to Pastor Cokas who wasn't at that service and Cokas said forget it...it was nothing. Anyway, when I bought the tape, that Freudian slip was edited out.
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 16, 2015, 12:15 am
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lily rose Wrote:

> ______________________________________
>
> I like reading your posts AD. They help me
> continue to sort things out. Who knows, maybe you
> would have walked out after encountering JRS alive
> and unedited or maybe you would have been more
> sucked in. He was awfully charismatic. I once
> remember hearing JRS say something in a service
> (even though now I don't remember what it was) but
> it was like a Freudian slip and it really bothered
> me. I mentioned it to Pastor Cokas who wasn't at
> that service and Cokas said forget it...it was
> nothing. Anyway, when I bought the tape, that
> Freudian slip was edited out.

WELL don't leave us hanging Lily Rose, what was the Freudian slip? I gotsta know. Pleeeeease.,,,
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 16, 2015, 1:26 am
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Okay, I'll try Pastor Bruce Larson's advice...."put your hands around your throat and strangle yourself till you pass out and recall that thought..."
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 16, 2015, 6:49 am
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"And Jesus said unto them, take your hands and put them around your own neck and strangle yourself until you pass out and those thoughts will go away."
--somewhere in the New Testament
(New American Living Word Shepherding Edition)
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 16, 2015, 7:58 pm
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Just for fun, I am going to try this. Here is the link to a video. There could be a lot said for at least one of these guys on this video, but it aint about that, it's about the girl in the video. She is just perfect and primed for membership in the Living Word Fellowship. Name of the video is Bethel women or whatever, you can pull it up when you see it, I think it has a picture of a blond girl in it. that's the one. [youtu.be]

I doubt if the link will just pull up, you will have to type it in and google it probably but it is worth it. You might recognize in this girl the total lack of respect for theology, the absolute ignoring or reality, and the disdain for logic.
It's pretty funny. Hope it comes through.
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 17, 2015, 10:37 pm
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John Miller is The. Very. Last. Person. I thought would leave the walk. wonder what the #$%#$ happened.
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Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens

October 18, 2015, 6:41 am
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pbxguy Wrote:
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> John Miller is The. Very. Last. Person. I thought
> would leave the walk. wonder what the #$%#$
> happened.

Really
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