Stan,I also enjoyed your testimony.I was one of those sheep with, as Mishel put it, poked out eyes. I just escaped the madness this summer and I got saved in 1975 too! However, for about 17 years I was in, what I call a semi-Charimatic church. Not too much goin' on. Occasional prophecy(by the same elder, during the same lull in the worship each Sunday)and occasional tongues, though now I doubt what I thought was tongues is really tongues, but just psyched out babbling. I had a similar experience of being granted true repentence and I took that opportunity gratefully. I started seeing the church through new restored eyes. I want to warn so many people. But I feel it is like trying to empty an ocean with a spoon...or maybe a bucket.We left our Word of Faith,wanna-be-mega church and hardly anyone noticed even though we had been deacons before our "great awakening".No one but the assos. pastor who asked us to be deacons has called or emailed or talked to us about leaving.Probably to be fair, though we attended for over a year, we just couldn't seem to connect and make friends. It's a big church and we were accustomed to small congregations. But we tried for a year. I guess it's better in the long run, because God knew we were going to leave.
So right now, we don't have a church or home study group. I go online and try to find like minded Christians and we have a few friends from my husband's workplace though not all are Christians.But I consider that a good thing. I also go on line and try to talk to/warn people that are following heretical teachings etc. They mostly get really angry and don't want to hear God's word. I know I used to be that way too: prideful, arrogant, more spiritual and special with all of my experiences and anointings....Sometimes the conversations on these sites will go on for weeks. After a while,though, after being told I'm full of "religious" spirits(credit Rick Joyner for that term) or mean-spirited, or legalistic or ignorant or not even Christian to being called names outright...well, I just want to give up. But then I think, maybe one of these sheep with wool pulled over their eyes might actually think about the things that were said. Most of the sites that I have debated/commented on are Youtube sites were people are advocating "holy" laughter, drunk/stoned in the "spirit", "heavenly" travel, casting out "religious" spirits with laughter or some other unknown method.(One "prophetess"Kathie Walters-"holy" laughter preacher-said that she has cast religious spirits out of people and the demons always come out "quoting reams of scripture".Go figure... BTW Kathie Walters' mentor is Bob Jones. Thus far she has managed to "fly under the radar" not being well known as he or Rick Joyner, Bobby Conner,NAR guys and gals etc. I think there are a lot of people out there like that. Teaching all this unholy stuff to the gullible sheep and making their living off of it. They really get upset if you can back your disagreement or warning with scripture...
Well, just wanted to say I appreciate the testimony of others who have escaped. I pray that we stay free and that the Lord will help us/use us to help others escape the falseness too.They really need prayer.