Leaving the NAR Church: Dina’s Story
/"I was so addicted to the experience that I was always on the hunt for more."
Dina’s story is one of many from people I’ve met who desire as I do to see the New Apostolic Reformation movement exposed for what it is: An anti-biblical counterfeit that sounds almost like biblical Christianity.
In this series, I want to take readers beyond the textbook What is the New Apostolic Reformation Movement explanation, into the personal experiences from those who have been there, and what happened when God opened their eyes to the truth.
Eight years ago, Dina left the church she was a member of. This is her story in her own words:
Where do I start when it comes to a movement that is so widely accepted, yet so demonically inspired? A movement that talks about Jesus, sings about Jesus and is growing at a phenomenal rate? This movement is moving at light speed and is infiltrating churches and denominations worldwide and becoming wholly accepted among Christians as biblical truth.
I spent 15 years under the NAR/Dominionism movement and didn’t even know what I was sitting under. In fact, I would bet that 95 percent of pastors that teach it, don’t understand the depth of heresy that they are spewing from the pulpit into their congregations. How do I know this? Because 95 percent of pastors that I personally know, have never had any formal/seminary training. They are simply passing on to their congregations what those before them taught to them, what they read in a book or what they see on popular Christian TV. It’s easy to get caught up in all the “good” words that we see and hear, what’s popular, what tickles the ear.
In 1997 I had just left a Word of Faith Church that I had been saved in. The Pastors had bled the people dry of all of their finances and suddenly “God” spoke to them to move their ministry to another state. A woman that my husband and I were friends with was a secretary at another church in town and invited us to visit. We had quite a few friends who attended her church so we found ourselves quite comfortable and familiar. We spent many years there laboring in the church, me mostly. I was very involved in everything I could get my hands into. I was on the praise team, I headed up the cleaning team, worked our conferences and some office work. Let’s just say I had a key to the church. I always had good intentions and my heart was to serve God and for Him to be glorified, but I was always left wanting, lacking and tormented.
Our leadership was another story. I had never seen such division in a church. The fighting and constant bickering was an understatement. There was never cohesiveness among the leaders and there was a constant revolving door of pastors and positions. I survived my share of worship leaders who berated and beat the sheep until they completely ran them out of the church. Homosexuality was prevalent, yet hidden among them. Sin was covered up as “shortcomings or mistakes” and perverted grace ran rampant among them.
There was never any discipline in the church or talk of repentance and the entire pulpit was infected with sinful lifestyles. When I would confront leadership about things that were going on in the church, I would be told that it was being taken care of or that it wasn’t what I thought is to be. Titles were fought for among leadership and they would “spiritually” kill you for them. It was a sickening display of a power struggle among them. I would watch them elevate each other from position to position as they would parade each other up to the pulpit and sit them in Kings chairs for all to see. They would prophecy to each other, “pass mantles” to each other, re-name each other, ordain each other and promote from one title to the next. It was sickening and all done in the name of “The Lord told me to promote you.” Man was always elevated in these circles and worshiped above God. It was just one big circus side show with many, many acts.
The teachings in this church were focused entirely on the Kingdom of God and extra biblical revelation. These teachings were so “deep” that when you left, you questioned what you had just been taught, but it sounded so good, you accepted it. Prophecy was a norm and expected at every service. We were taught that we were the Kingdom of God here on earth and that we would be the ones ushering Christ back. His return was all in our lap and depended on us as we took over the world and its systems. The worse thing about all of these teachings was that every 6 months “God” would speak to one of the pastors a new word for the season and then there would be a new way of doing things. We were constantly chasing new words and new revelations that kept you spinning in circles and chasing your tail. It became very wearisome.
Our worship services were so long that visitors would leave in the middle. They were so full of emotion and hype that I once saw my Pastor under such an influence (demonic) that he literally bent over backwards and nearly touched his head to the floor. He would be so caught up in worship that he would shoot invisible arrows into the air, speak in unknown tongues and enter realms no one else dared to go.
These worship services were purely dedicated to the flesh and we would always have to tap into the supernatural. We would sing, prophecy, dance, shout, cry, run and lay on our faces seeking an experience with God. There was always so much effort put into chasing Him and having encounters. It was such a show of theatrics and emotion that visiting preachers would praise us on how great and one of a kind our worship services were. We ate that kind of praise up and pursued it even more. I was so addicted to the experience that I was always on the hunt for more.
One day as I was watching GOD TV, I came across Kimberly and Alberto Rivera singing at The Toronto Airport Conference. It was so beautiful that I was hooked immediately. I had always been somewhat attracted to the supernatural, so this was right up my alley. I ordered their CD’s and information on soaking and began my own Soaking Ministry. I continued to introduce the church to any and all supernatural music that I could get my hands on. The deeper, the better when it came to worship. I loved what I thought was “His” presence, it was addicting and I could never get enough. Our church thrived on deep, spiritual music and it was always encouraged and welcomed.
I eventually mixed prayer with the soaking and loved having spiritual experiences. I prophetically sang words of the Lord over people and I loved the high that I got by doing so. I loved these deep spiritual experiences so much that I wanted others to have the same encounters. I thought that if only someone could experience His presence then they would become a true believer that God exists and want to follow Him. I always thought that one moment in His presence and you’ll never be the same. But I soon found out that it was not the case and no matter how many of these “experiences” we had, no one was changed and lifestyles remained the same. The worship in that church had become the “GOD” in that church. It was worshiped above the Word. There was no substance or foundation to stand on, it was shallow sand.
This church was so chaotic that it was anything goes. I remember asking the church secretary if they believed in the rapture of the church and all she told me was that they believed in the return of Christ, but that they believed just a little differently. I personally didn’t know enough of the bible to challenge anything I was being taught and I naively believed anything they said. It all sounded too good to question; the words, the prophecies, the teachings of taking over the world. We held all the power, we spoke it, we prophesied it, we commanded it, we prayed it, we were little gods and we believed it….
My world came crashing down in 2009. Everything that I thought I believed was unraveling at the seams. I started questioning everything after my pastor's own “Bishop” grabbed me one night after he had just got done preaching and kissed me. He grabbed me by the back of my neck and kissed me on the lips, I was mortified. As if I wasn’t already disgusted by the sex act that he emulated from the pulpit of him and his wife, this was the cherry on the cake for me. I was already questioning everything I had been taught due to the lack of evidence or fruit thereof.
I was sick of the words, sick of the titles, sick of the abuse and sick of the lies coming from that pulpit. I eventually questioned the pastor about him “covering” other ministries led by homosexual pastors and was told that in no way shape or form that any of them were homosexuals. Three years later after I left, I found out that the female pastors in question had run off to be married. Thankfully, I knew at the time I questioned him that he was lying and that most of the other church leaders that he affiliated himself with were homosexual as well as him.
I left that church in fear. I was taught by them that you don’t question those in leadership or “touch God’s anointed.” I was also “without a covering” which was a big no-no since I was now left wide open for the devil to wipe me out. Covenant was stressed and a main focus within this circle. My pastor who was promoted to Apostle, then Bishop, had linked up with a man named Bishop David Huskins who was the head of the ICCC. Huskins “father in the Lord” (all NAR terms and teachings), was the famous Dominionist Earl Paulk. Earl Paulk was a huge promoter of Dominionism and was involved in a sex scandal near the time of his death.
David Huskins was a perpetrator of Paulk’s teachings and passed them on to my pastor. Huskins wrote two books on covenant and even hinted at David and Jonathon’s relationship in the bible as possibly being homosexual. I remember the last time I saw David Huskins, he seemed so desperate, lost and depressed. My heart went out to him but I didn’t know what to say to him. In the end, even he didn’t believe what he was teaching or writing because the rotten fruit of it took his life as he put a gun to his head. I watched this teaching destroy him and many others from my church.
Leaving NAR
I remember the struggle I went through when deciding to leave the church. I literally thought my life was over. Who’s going to cover me? Who’s going to be my spiritual father? I questioned my covenant with the church and the people. Could I give up my titles, my positions and my key to the church? I would be giving up all of my prestige and control.
It was a struggle between my flesh and what I knew I had to do. I finally knew that if I wanted to live, I had to leave. I had become so spiritually, emotionally and physically sick that I didn’t know what I believed anymore. I went home that day and didn’t leave my couch for a year. I had already been depressed and confused the entire time I was at that church, but it became worse when I left because of fear.
I literally had a nervous breakdown. I cried all the time and would lie in a ball at night begging God to take my life. I was so confused and depressed that I wanted to die. My body vibrated for almost 2 years and I would have the worst migraines. I was so used to someone prophesying to me and relying on those words that I didn’t know how to live without them. I was no longer hearing God, He was silent. I spent the next few years digging into what I had been taught. I prayed and asked the Lord to show me the truth.
The first thing I did was unfriend every minister that I was friends with on Facebook. I didn’t want to hear what any of them were saying especially since they were all saying something different and proclaiming it to be from God. The next thing I did was start reading my Bible. I know it’s easy to say that if I would have done that from the beginning, I wouldn’t be in this mess, but that’s not true. I was literally saved into this mess and I could twist the scriptures with the best of them and believe it.
I was taught to spiritualize every scripture and look for the real (hidden) meaning behind it. Scriptures were never put into context or taken for face value. The next thing I did was to start looking up all of the catch phrases and buzz words that I had been hearing for 15 years. This opened up a whole new world for me.
Everything I had been taught was wrong, and I mean EVERYTHING! I couldn’t believe that I had been so deceived. I suddenly found myself in a whole new world of knowledge and information. I studied my old teachings every chance that I got and eventually learned the truth about it all. The Lord literally led me in steps out of that mess.
After learning and studying about what I was under, I ran across John MacArthur’s “Strange Fire Conference” on YouTube and it literally set me free from all of it. I started listening to John’s teaching and then ultimately ran across Chris Rosebrough’s “Pirate Christian Radio.” I have such a deep appreciation for Chris and how he not only exposes these false teachers, but how he explains what the scripture really means in its proper context. I still listen to every broadcast due to the fact of me deprogramming 20 years of bad theology and out right heresy.
One of my favorite scriptures is found in John 8:30 "As Jesus spoke these things, many believed in Him. So He said to the Jews who had believed Him, 'If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.'” I have experienced a freedom in the word that I looked for my entire Christian life but could never find.
I have become a passionate Berean of the Word and I’m no longer chasing winds of doctrines, dreams, visions and the supernatural. Now, I am content in my heart about what I believe and why I believe it. I searched the scriptures for truth and when I firmly knew what I believed, I went in search for a church that taught the same. I now attend a church where the real word of God is taught, where people pursue God’s righteousness and where Jesus is the focus from the beginning to the end.
God is back on the throne in my heart where man once placed himself and I have never been more content and firm in what I believe. I praise God everyday for leaders who rightly divide the word of God so that people like me could be set free and walk in freedom. Doctrine is EVERYTHING!
Author’s Note: You can read the entire series of NAR testimonies here. If you would like to send me your story about your NAR church experience and what happened when your eyes were opened, you can email me here. I will be changing your first name to keep you anonymous.
