Word of encouragement for those recovering from unhealthy churches

Many Christians who leave the Local Churches or similar unhealthy churches become disillusioned and often spiral into a spiritual pit and become worse than before. People within the LCs use this as evidence to warn others against leaving (this happened to me personally), however the word of God helped me greatly overcome many pitfalls after I left.

A verse the Lord gave me today was Proverbs 29:18 (KJV)

Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

If we just stay where we are and try to overcome the world and sin it will be hard and the results may not be much different from asceticism. If you study the apostles and disciples of the early church, they lived a life driven by a vision to serve God and were willing to follow the Holy Spirit wherever He took them. Because of the vision that carried them, they simply didn't have time to get caught in the affairs of the world that entangle so many of us living in the Laodiciean church age today.

For myself this vision has been the realization that this world is passing away with its desires (1 John 2:17) and the only thing that really matters is my eternal home. I want to do my best to impact people's eternities today so I can see them in heaven. With this vision, I haven't waited around for leaders in my church to give me a job, but I've simply asked God how I can use my gifts to best serve Him. Back in the LCs when folks including myself served, we often looked for some form of credit or praise for giving up our time. With my new vision in mind I care little about the praise of others-- and that is really *FREEING* when you start working to only please God, because he sees everything and is the best boss anyone could ask for.

All this is being made possible through faith in our heavenly home which God has prepared for us (Hebrews 11:16). I used to use Christianity as fire insurance to make sure my eternity was secure while getting the most I could from the world in the most likely chance that God was real. But when I started to take Jesus seriously I realized he was 100% real and I was dealing with a true and living God.

Going back to having a vision, in Ephesians 6, Paul tells us to take on the whole armor of God. It's interesting that he includes in this list, the sandals of the Gospel of peace, which many Christians tend to overlook. When we live our lives in pursuit of a vision God gives us concerning the gospel, we're better equipped in spiritual warfare. God knows it's much harder to hit a moving target than one that is standing still.

Yet no matter how equipped we'll be, like in any war many of us will stumble because of the enemy's attacks, but God's grace empowers us to get back up to rejoin the battle. The only thing that should worry us is when we give up and surrender.

And because we're in a spiritual battle we should expect persecution, including those from the LC. Jesus told us to expect it and he even said we'll be blessed in eternity when we do receive hate (Matthew 5:11-12). Jesus told us to expect trouble in this world (John 16:33) but not to worry because he's got it all taken care of in eternity so we can have peace. Therefore there's no reason for us to ever become bitter or hate our enemies because we *ALWAYS* have a reason to rejoice and unceasingly pray for the reward God has prepared for us (1 Thess 5:16-18)! And when we do so the reality of heaven will invade our lives and empower us because we'll be living in agreement with the way God sees things.

Romans 8:28
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.