Leaving the NAR Church: Lydia's story
/We sent her there with our blessing and financial support, gone from us for a year without contact for the most part and under their influence and NAR teaching. Our solid home church, pastors and elders, supported and sent her off with their blessing as well.
Lydia’s loved one was exposed and indoctrinated to the New Apostolic Reformation through Adventures in Missions (AIM) and The World Race. (See, The aim of AIM and the World Race.) The guilt she feels is compounded by the fact that this young woman will no longer listen to Lydia’s tearful Scriptural pleas for discernment.
Many of us have lost loved ones to the counterfeit NAR movement, which has shipwrecked the faith of millions around the world. 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.
Here is Lydia’s story in her own words.
We offer this warning as a family who has, for now, lost a loved one to the NAR. We bear some of the responsibility… maybe a large part. We beg, parents and pastors, do your homework and sound the alarm before your loved one or a sheep from your fold is drawn away by these wolves. We were too trusting that any church or organization that calls itself Christian actually is. If they had a solid statement of faith without anything alarming or without any important doctrine missing we assumed they would be exactly that…Christian.
Our loved one was accepted on the World Race with the mission organization Adventures in Missions (AIM). They have ties with IHOP, YWAM, Bethel, on and on, they are all interconnected somehow in the NAR and much more far reaching than the typical big names we are warned about.
We would venture to guess many would now stay away from IHOP with so much written about them…but what about an organization like AIM??
She was accepted as a missionary while being a new convert coming out of a very depraved lifestyle, with untried faith. This should have been a huge red flag, but we wanted so badly to believe that the Lord had grown her faith so exponentially and recovered her lost years to such an extent that this was an amazing gift of the Lord to use her as a missionary.
The World Race is a big draw for these young and restless 20-year-olds wanting to do something great and important and clearly not yet ready or willing to take on adult responsibility. An 11-month mission trip to 11 countries is exactly the type of adventure this age group would be drawn to. Unbeknownst to our family, our loved one was drawn right into the emotionally manipulative false teaching. We sent her there with our blessing and financial support, gone from us for a year without contact for the most part and under their influence and NAR teaching. Our solid home church, pastors and elders, supported and sent her off with their blessing as well.
We were naive and dismissive of the questions we had. We have to consider that maybe we chose not to seek the answers to them because we didn’t want to spoil the apparent enthusiasm to serve God after years of rebellion. It may have been a legitimate enthusiasm, but that does not mean she was qualified.
The regret is hard to live with. We take responsibility and repent for trusting where we shouldn’t have. Now our loved one is unwilling to talk about faith or our concerns at all. She has been taught to believe we are wrong, that they have a higher knowledge because it is coming from the Lord Himself through appointed “prophets”. No amount of pointing out the error in comparison with Scripture has any effect. We believe this is in part because the emotional, “drunk in the spirit” experiences of the NAR are actually addictive. They can’t leave.
All is not without hope though, we have a mighty God who has pulled each one of His children from a miry pit of sin and opened our eyes. We have faith that through the use of His Word and prayer before the Throne of Grace that He will open their eyes also.
Parents and Pastors, pay attention! Every church or mission organization is NOT necessarily Christian. This is partly why we are losing our kids. We had a home that taught the Bible, attended a solid Gospel preaching church and yet…how did this happen? It happened because Christianity today is not defined the same as yesterday. The subtly of the enemy is preying on families that don’t do their homework and are undiscerning.
Those connected to the NAR lure these young kids with the idea that they have greatness and power within themselves. It tells them that the faith of their parents is lacking knowledge of the potential within them. It tells them we need to be prayed for in hopes that, we too, will EXPERIENCE what they have. They believe WE are limiting the Holy Spirit’s power to work through us and they feel sorry for US!
It is all lies being fed them as truth and covered with Christian terms that all of us would recognize as Biblical. The NAR does not define them the same though. The internet is full of information if we would take the time to pay close attention to what is being taught, sites like Berean Research are a place to start.
Google the name of the church or the organization with some of the NAR terms and see if there is a connection, there is no acceptable reason for us to be lacking knowledge as to what any church or organization is teaching regardless of their statement of faith. If our loved ones still follow them we can rest more easily and confidently before the Lord that we did our best to warn them.
However, we bear the responsibility for sending them to these wolves with our blessing.
Author’s Note: Lydia’s blog, Mission and Mysticism is a helpful resource exposing the NAR. 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.
