I spent a couple of years and 10K+ on professional counseling after leaving TLWF. A few take-aways that may be helpful to others are: 1. TLWF really is a spiritually abusive cult from a professional’s viewpoint (the reason it is on this website) and the emotional trauma I experienced was perfectly normal – I wasn’t going crazy even though I was clinically depressed. 2. The extreme control does not produce maturity but rather immaturity. You need to make decisions for yourself and grow by what you learn from the consequences of those decisions. As you mature, you gradually grow out of another’s control – it’s a normal human growth process. If you fail to mature, you tend to stay under another’s control – something I think the leadership is aware of and utilizes. 3. Our inner still small voice, that most of us trust, can be trained to believe a lie – it’s not always God speaking. For example, the voice that says to a Muslim, “Be a suicide bomber and you get to go to the front of the line in heaven.” He so believes the voice to be true, that he will die following it. Although the counseling I received was helpful, an even more important lesson I learned was that we all need a plumb line to see if our inner voice lines up with Jesus’ teaching. I appreciate his words so much more now than when I was in TLWF. It’s important to read his words for yourself and not just get them second hand.
There are so many wonderful people still in TLWF and the default opinion within the group is that if you disagree with any of the teaching or “words from God”, you are personally attacking the people and obviously in rebellion. I would say the opposite is true. If someone is speeding down a highway and there is a bridge out ahead and you fail to warn them, I would suggest you really don’t care about them. The plumb line is the teachings of Jesus, not John’s word – careful study will reveal that they are not the same. At some point you have to decide if you will take note of Jesus’ warning, “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ, and will deceive many.” He also said, ”At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ! Or, “There he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect – if that were possible. See I have told you ahead of time.” Jesus was talking about the last times and I think we would be wise to look around and see who is calling themselves the Christ – and especially those that are looking to be obeyed as God. To be quite frank, how well did the obedience in exchange for resurrection life work for John and those that followed him, or is it working for G&M? You can’t give away something you don’t have.
There are so many wonderful people still in TLWF and the default opinion within the group is that if you disagree with any of the teaching or “words from God”, you are personally attacking the people and obviously in rebellion. I would say the opposite is true. If someone is speeding down a highway and there is a bridge out ahead and you fail to warn them, I would suggest you really don’t care about them. The plumb line is the teachings of Jesus, not John’s word – careful study will reveal that they are not the same. At some point you have to decide if you will take note of Jesus’ warning, “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ, and will deceive many.” He also said, ”At that time if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ! Or, “There he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect – if that were possible. See I have told you ahead of time.” Jesus was talking about the last times and I think we would be wise to look around and see who is calling themselves the Christ – and especially those that are looking to be obeyed as God. To be quite frank, how well did the obedience in exchange for resurrection life work for John and those that followed him, or is it working for G&M? You can’t give away something you don’t have.
