"What If Your Church Is A Cult!?!?"

foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] to come together one more time one more time one more time [Applause] together [Music] praise God's name just to praise His name [Music] to praise her name praise her name God allowed us to come together louder yeah [Music] to sing Our Song and sing our song come together sing a song sing Our Song [Music] I put those hands together to clap our hands [Music] got broad hands together [Music] clap our hands to come together everybody say one more time one more time God allowed us to come together one more time one more time one more time foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] God allowed us to come together one more time and brothers and sisters we're gonna go right into the oath to the ancestors all right because without them we do nothing so the first and most important thing we must do is acknowledge those who made it possible for us to be here come on and join in with me and the brothers oh ancestors African ancestors it is your children give respect and honor oh ancestors we call upon you and welcome you in this place African ancestors Let Your Presence fill in this place oh ancestors who have the purpose be excluded from the history books so that the world will not know of your greatness our African ancestors who gave civilization to the world our African ancestors who gave their hearts to the world our African ancestors who gave music to the world our African ancestors as a girl to the world our African ancestors who gave medicine to the world our African ancestors who gave literacy to the world our African ancestors who gave philosophy to the world African ancestors who gave God Consciousness to the world oh ancestors we thank you for devoting your life your children grandchildren and great-grandchildren now stand with us strengthen us guys teach us and protect us rise up o African ancestors and let our enemies be scattered and give us the wisdom and the boldness to deal with our preferences and those who would hinder The Liberation and empowerment of our people Justice and live in us and we will not fail to honor you we will not fail to respect you we will have failed to hear you and we will not betray you I'll say evil and now brothers and sisters we want to take the time to honor just a few of the great Africans who have gone ahead of us call forth their great African names and honor them and the great vizier and physician and multi-genius to clean the tokris queen so that nepharu Queen our hotel Queen almost nefertari queen king had ships it Nefertiti Queen T and queen nefertari the second we say ashay to mean Kevin Rob to Hootie maze known as stuck Moses III yes a minnow kept the third Africa Rams is the second Chewbacca to Haka Hannibal and the great African warrior Shaka Zulu we say to all of the kings queens priests and Warriors of Nubia yes Ethiopia Kenya the Congo Tanzania Uganda Central South and West elkibu Land we say ashay to the more than 600 million yes whose lives were lost in the European invasions of Africa and in the Middle Passage we say to the more than 300 million who have since lost their lives to racism and hate crimes we say to Harriet Tubman okay Nat Turner I say Fannie Lou Hamer Sojourner Truth hey Carter G Woodson Booker T Washington today Dr Charles Drew okay Noble Drew Ali Benjamin Banneker say George Washington Carver say Bishop Richard Allen Bishop Charles Harrison Mason J Howard Thurman brother Mahalia Jackson The Honorable Marcus Messiah Garland hey Benjamin e made Langston Hughes Dr Martin Luther King J Malcolm XJ Thurgood Marshall today The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Dr Amos Wilson Dr John Henry and have made their ancestral transition to their life Deeds Legacy and contributions we say hey again we say hey again [Music] from the Allah English words are God is great and he's worthy to be prayed I say hallelujah [Music] God is great and he's worthy to be brave yeah yeah yeah yeah I say ugly though God makes us one we all should be one of the Eagles will come and say you are with us God makes us one all should be wonderful God make us one we all should be one [Music] [Laughter] oh my goodness yes brothers and sisters welcome once again to another Sunday online in Gia scholarship of the African village and Cultural Center I'm Ray Higgins the Chief Elder founder of the African village your brother your friend your teacher and it's so good to have you with me at this time I thank you for taking time out of your schedule to be with me and those of you who are with me here every week you guys are just amazing man I mean it's like I mean really yeah y'all are just amazing I see you guys here in the chat room and giving the greetings and everything and coming in and saying model tip wherever you're from and it's so good to see y'all as it is every week you know I mean like you guys literally make it mandatory okay for me uh to be sure that I'm here because I don't want to disappoint anybody you know the fact that you guys are here on time every Sunday the least I can do is you know be here like I'm supposed to be you know once again family welcome I'm so honored to have you with me today oh my goodness listen to all of the African villages to the brothers and sisters in the African villages starting a course at headquarters to our elders there our brothers and sisters there they're after Village of St Louis model tip I trust you guys are doing well today okay uh to the African village of Youngstown Ohio model tip to you elders and brothers and sisters there I trust you guys are doing okay today to the African village of Detroit in Chicago uh model tip to you guys okay and I thank you for your service and I hope you guys are doing well today to the African Village of New York City all right where uh Siri Wells is the minister in charge I thank you guys for being who you are model tip to the elders and the brothers and sisters there as well to the African village of Charleston South Carolina thank you guys for being who you are yes thank you so very much for holding up the standard of my art within the African village to the African village of Memphis Tennessee oh my goodness model tip to you guys down there as well uh you know he got some great things in line and store coming up and I'm looking forward to seeing that and being a part of it actually you know so let's do what we got to do to save our especially our young people especially our young people you know yeah to all of our friends and supporters okay who are not necessarily attending an African village shop where no one is attending an African village fellowship at this time uh because we've been closed since February of 2020 all right due to this pandemic that's going on you know and want to be sure especially that our elders are protected you know so we don't want to risk uh their safety so we just haven't been meeting in person for Fellowship we've been meeting for special occasions like uh weddings or funerals or something on that wise okay or I rather call them Ascension ceremonies because there's nothing fun about a funeral and fun is the root word or funeral right so we've been meeting on special occasions such as that but as far as our in-person fellowship we've been doing it here online you know and again family I want to say thank you to those of you who have been attending here online and spreading the word about our work man you know that's that's so important so I thank you guys for that thank you so very much listen I want to get to the teaching today and uh over the last month or so you guys know I've been airing um messages that I had done years ago to show how I moved my congregation uh from and from a traditional Baptist Church to uh african-centered congregation and I tried to give examples of that in the teaching okay again you don't tell people you show people all right and that's the mistake that I made in my first bastard where my eyes came open I came back and I told everybody I was wrong and I taught them wrong and walked off and left in less than a month they hadn't lost my mind and all that kind of stuff but when you when you show them let them see the evidence for themselves you know that's either in print okay or audio or however you want to do it um it helps to make the transition process a lot easier when people can see the evidence for themselves okay so having said that let me get to the teaching for today um today I'm going to teach about um oh my goodness here I'm going to teach you today about um understanding what a cult is all right but before doing that let's let's let's start off by doing the Circle here okay and if you want to make it with your hands feel free to do that as well okay but here's what it says the space inside this circle represents my realm of knowledge all that I think I know about whatever I think I know is depicted right here within this circle I must keep in mind that there is more to Know Than what is within the circumference of my awareness did you get that brothers and sisters I start all of my teachings off with that illustration and the reason for that is because as a teacher it's my job to tell you information that you do not already know if I'm only saying what you already know that I'm not teaching you anything okay then I'm preaching to you all right I don't I don't I don't preach anymore I teach okay I want to be sure that people understand preachers Proclaim teachers explain got that okay having said that understand why I do what I do every every week when I teach I start off with this as well all right the aim of this lecture is to begin the process of undoing and reversing ideas and Concepts that have been programmed into the minds of our people by the religious statements in church doctrines that have caused us as a people to adopt a belief system that has resulted in our loss of contact with what is real our loss of contact with what is factual our loss of contact with what is historical and our loss of contact with what is spiritual okay so it's important to understand brothers and sisters that's why I do what I do that's my that's my focus that's my mission okay if it has if it has nothing to do with undoing and reversing ideas and Concepts that's been programmed into the minds of our people by religious statements and church doctrines then I that's that's have to get somebody else to get involved in that because that's not my assignment my assignments to straighten out what religion has done to most of us remember this when you've told so many lies on top of each other over the centuries that telling the truth about one of your early foundational lies would unravel all the lies that have been defensively piled on top of it thus exposing you for what you truly are you have no choice but to continue to lie think about this especially with today's subject being understanding what a cult is when your ability to maintain your control over another person's reality is based on the lies about what you are and who they are you can never tell the truth all right and I hope today as we get into today's teaching that it will Empower some of you who are trapped in I would call it a religious perversion to be able to walk away from that okay and as we go through uh the characteristics today of what a cult is I pray that you will be able to identify things that simply may not be right in your church all right so let's get into this today I'm teaching about what if your church is a cult what if your church is a cult okay now many of you who are watching me don't even go to church anymore okay this is specifically targeted for those by our brothers and sisters our family members who are just totally senselessly committed to a program of religion that's draining their very life all right so I want to reach our people on that platform where they are you know okay do you not know that uh people say things like oh I used to be a slave to sin but now since I got into the church I'm just as much a slave to the church as I was to sin well that's what happens when you're in a cult okay let's get into it today first of all we need to understand what a cult is what is a cult a cult is a group or a society of followers of a social or religious entity that adheres to a certain set of beliefs and rituals okay understand this a cult is simply the way of a group in other words and follow me very well okay just because we use the word cult doesn't mean it's bad a cult is simply the way of a group that's what a cult is all right I hope I hope I'll break this down for you some more as we get into it the word cult is the root word of the word culture all right understand how deep this goes a culture is a system of information that codes the manner in which the people in an organized group Society or Nation interact with their social philosophical and physical environment that's all culture is culture is something that's been established by those in power for the control and maintenance and and smooth flow of the society or the group in accordance with those with the will of those in power all right so important understand that now there are a lot of people who uh today we had we have more like a system of free thought and people are starting to say don't confine me to the parameters of this environment or this cult or this group or this Society okay I'm a free thinker I don't want to be bound to think like you guys think or have to do things the way you do things okay have you ever noticed that when you join some Churches okay uh everybody within that particular church has a certain way of doing things okay that's called culture okay that's the culture of that congregation all right uh some Churches for example you may join a church and when you first join that church you may be one of those kind of people to say what's happening man how you doing you know uh somebody speaks to you hello hello how are you that kind of thing right but now because you've gotten acclimated to the culture of that group now when people speak to you how you doing oh hallelujah praise the Lord I'm I'm doing good thank you thank you God of God is good Hallelujah you didn't used to talk like that okay but you you're now part of a culture or group where people do things a certain way and you end up doing it a certain way all you gotta do is watch the children okay because the children are the perfect imitators of what they see going on in your group let's move on the word culture means that the frame of reference for the members of that particular group is the set of rules and regulations and methods of behavior and interaction within the group so important to understand this okay so important understand this because there are certain churches in fact a lot of churches that you join have what's called an orientation class okay and the purpose of the orientation class is to shape and mold the new members into the way we do things here at this church understand how powerful this goes okay and if you really want to fit in with the group you start acclimating yourself to the behavior of the group moving on because of the social connotation given to the word cult we've been made to believe that a cult is something bad subversive something that's anti-spiritual and even satanic well brothers and sisters most people who make this confusion are confusing the word cult c-u-l-t with the word occult o-c-c-u-l-t okay and even that the word occult has been given a bad rap as well because of the social connotation of black magic Satanism evil worship seances and things like that the word occult simply means hidden that's all it means doesn't mean it's evil doesn't mean it's bad the word occult only means hidden h-i-d-d-e-n so when we say occult knowledge that means knowledge does not available to the masses the the average mind doesn't know about this information okay that's what we mean we say occult knowledge or occult wisdom okay but the word cult again simply means the way of a group or the way of a society it doesn't have to be bad wrong or right it simply means that's the way this group operates so understanding that I asked you a question again what if your church is a cult all right think about that we must understand brothers and sisters that every belief system is a cult from the perspective of another belief system remember that okay every belief system thinks that a a another belief system is a cult for example fundamentalist Christianity holds that any belief system or organization that teaches something different from what their basic doctrines teach they believe that other organizations are called so they end up calling Jehovah's Witnesses occult they call Muslims occult they call Hebrew Israelites occult they're called Mormonism occult they call Hinduism occult they call Buddhism occult they called the roarism occult they call the worldwide Church of God occult and any and all African belief systems anything that comes out of Africa as far as fundamentalist Christianity is concerned it's a cult okay in fact you know what's really interesting that I'm thinking about it I haven't really heard any other belief system refer to another belief system as a cult except Christians Christians are quick to label somebody as a cult trust me I know okay the African village man they oh man when we first got going to St Louis people called us a cult you know and and then of course when when the word got out that we didn't preach Jesus then of course as far as any and all Christians are concerned we definitely became a cult at that point because we no longer preach Jesus all right again the word cult does not mean satanic or anti-christ or not like that the word cult simply means this is the way of this group all right this this is how this group is this is the cult or culture of this group let's deal today with the five major characteristics of a cult now there are quite a few characters but I want to do with the five major characteristics of a cult I got an email a few weeks ago from a young brother that I watched grow up and uh he was asking me how do I know which belief system is right you know and I have a simple real simple way of of determining or Discerning things real simple and you have the same way whether you've been using it or not I describe mine This Way my yes box and my no box your intuition is always at work understand this before I get into the explaining the characteristics of a cult your intuition is always at work but guess what so is your intellect always at work but don't confuse the two your intellect is in your soul okay your intuition is in your spirit and there is a difference between the two all right understand how this goes man in your soul is housed uh will emotions and intellect that's housed in your soul will The Power of Choice emotions how you feel whether you get angry excited or happy or sad that's all part of the soul and your intellect meaning the information that you feed your brain okay follow this will and your spirit is something called your intuition and your intuition is housed something called communion conscience and uh that's the third thing intuition communion is that part of you in your spirit where you literally communicate with or fellowship with Spirit the great spirit your spirit connects to the great spirit or the most high however you want to describe the Almighty all right uh and your conscience is where the great spirit convicts you when you say or do something that you should not do all right the third element of spirit is intuition that's where the Greek Spirit guides you into all truth and that's what I mean by your yes box and your no box as soon as I meet somebody okay they either they I mean especially after about five seconds after they open their mouth they immediately fall into my yes box or they fall into my no box okay it's not a discussion about it and and you know I'm sure you know what I'm talking about have you ever encountered a situation is something about the situation just wasn't right nope nope sorry about that's called your no box okay have you ever encountered a situation and you've got a complete green light on the on your ins in your insides about you felt completely good about it take take feel felt out because that's again that's emotions you just knew that this was okay there was no doubt in your mind this is okay okay that's your yes box the problem that many people have is the intellect is constantly at war with their intuition what I mean by that you encounter a thing or you meet a person okay and something just not right about that person your spirit your intuition has already told you uh-uh nope but your intellect goes to war with your intuition it says don't be judgmental you know don't don't be passing judgment and so now you have now you're a tug of war with your with within yourself all right never never battle with your intuition your intuition never leaves you wrong family that is the part of you that the most high the great spirit has reserved to him or herself to guide you all right through this Maze of in the belly of the Beast that we're in you need to be in tune in your spirit with the most high God and that's where God guides us in our spirit not in our soul guides us in our intuition not in our intellect okay so again back to the brother asked me how do I know if religion is right I told him I said brother you already have the answer to that okay now a lot of times what I've found especially in counseling what I've found from a lot of people is when their intuition tells them no and see that's the thing about intuition man intuition speaks right up just like that it does not delay it speaks up immediately it doesn't have to give it any thought it just knows once you have to give a thought that's intellect okay and one of the things is deep about how our intuition says Nope but our intuition our intellect wants to try to analyze it and break it down and figure why not okay and so you end up violating the warning from your intuition I'm talking to somebody right now somebody right now needs to hear what I'm saying because you're about to make a about to make a major decision and you know you're not at peace about it in your spirit okay if you're not a piece about it then don't go through with that whatever it is don't go through with it man listen to your intuition your intuition does not lead you wrong okay but you don't know how much we don't put into this already hey I'm trying listen I'm not gonna battle with you about it see that's the whole thing about intuition intuition not gonna grab everybody through it and make you do it nope intuition is going to Simply say to you nope don't do it okay and if you don't listen then you just pay the consequences of not listening to The Guiding in your spirits that's all all right let's get into the major characteristics of a cult what are the major characteristics let's talk about five major characteristics the first that I want to talk about is what I call unchallenged obedience to the leader any pastor or religious leader that convinces you that obedience to their words is necessary for Spiritual emotional social financial and even physical welfare you watch that you yeah that that should be a warning Bill to you okay you have religious leaders out here that teach that in order to be blessed the people must obey what they say and then they misuse bible verses to reinforce that false teaching for example first Samuel 15 22 says these words and Samuel saith hath the Lord has great delight and burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord behold to Baal is is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams now let me show you how y'all and I've heard it too how you've always heard that verse presented the Bible says obedience is better than sacrifice see that I was taken out of context what it says here if you allow me to transliterate it is saying do you think God gets as much delight in your burnt offerings and sacrifices and obeying his voice do you think he gets more Delight out of that or do you think he gives the light out of you not obeying his word but making sacrifices the answer is simple obedience is is better than sacrifice it has nothing to do with obeying the pastor okay and that's what a lot of pastors use obedience is better than sacrifice right and then what they do is they oh my then then they use another verse from Hebrews 13 to 17 that says obey them that have rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you in other words they're trying to misuse this verse okay to control people a lot of religious leaders do that the Bible says obedience is better than sacrifice and it also says obey them that have rule over here and I'm as your pastor I got ruled over you because I have to watch for your soul people y'all better start learning listen to your spirit your intuition okay there are a lot of things is going on in a lot of churches and you know good and well your spirit is not feeling right about it but because you don't know how to combat it you feel like you're not going to be blessed because they've misused Bible verses to keep you under control understand how deep this goes okay another characteristic of a cult is what I refer to as Financial exploitation this is when the pastor or the religious leader uses unsound unfair unspiritual and unscriptural tactics to extract money from the followers of the group for the support of the organization or the leader now I'm sure many of you if you had ever been to church at all I'm sure you've heard this whole phrase here of you a curse with a curse because you ain't paying your tithes well let's deal with that because let's just deal with that right now I remember when I taught this over the air in St Louis one Sunday after we went off the radio a pastor in that city called me and uh when I answered the phone I said hello and and uh Deuce it stop effing with my money and I looked in the phone I said and I called his name I said man is this what's wrong with you man stop effing with my money I said I'm not messing with your money brother all I did is talk what the Bible says I taught what you guys are not teaching I taught it in this proper context as I'm going to show you guys right now and it's gonna blow some of y'all's mind okay how many times have you heard this passage right here Malachi 3 8 through Tim will a man rob God okay yet you and notice I have a question mark there because I want you guys to know who's the you in this verse because religious leaders and pastors have tried to use this verse to make it sound like you are robbing God because you haven't tithed okay so let me break this down for you here right well a man it didn't not it doesn't say well a people around God he says will a man rob God yet you man have robbed me but you say where and have we robbed thee and the answer is in tithes and offerings so now the response here is you are cursed with the curse for you have robbed me even this whole nation so now we should be able to see from here that it's not talking to the people it's talking to the leader of the people all right not only have you robbed me you've robbed the people or re-robbed the nation so now the rebuke here is bringing all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be meat in my house and prove me now here with says the Lord of hosts if I will not open you the windows of heaven and pour you out of blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it now deep it was deep brothers and sisters okay is to further prove I don't know if I put it in here or not probably I probably might have forgotten to okay to further prove it write this down Malachi two and one Malachi the second chapter the first verse now pastors will preach Malachi 3 8-10 to give you to make you give ten percent of your income every week and then try to convince you that if you don't do it God says that you a curse with a curse that is not what God God said no such thing no God had said no such thing okay again notice the text here will a man rob God yet you you man who's the man here the priest don't take my word for it I forgot to insert it in in the notes so you guys write it down and verify it for yourself Malachi 2 verse 1 the second chapter of Malachi verse one it says plain as day and now oh ye priests this commandment is for you not the people and now oh ye priest Pastor religious leader this commandment is for you and throughout the rest of the Book of Malachi is a rebuke to the religious leaders who were misusing the tithe that the people were bringing still goes on today you understand and that's why the question here is in Malachi 3 will a man rob God yet you priests have robbed me you say we're going to rob you and tied them off from jealous y'all are not being good stewards over what the people are bringing the people see back in this day times wasn't about money anyway all right ties had to do with more of your possessions such as your crops okay that's why I said bring ye the tithes into the storehouse people would bring a percentage that's where the tithe is a percentage of their crops to the storehouse in other words tithing was the old-fashioned welfare system that the people would have during the time of a drought when crops were low there was crops already stored in the storehouse because the people that brought a percentage of their possessions you understand how this goes right that has nothing to do with what goes on today nothing at all so you see how people our view and again this is to I call this financial exploitation when you are misusing bible verses to exact money out of people under the disguise that if they don't obey what you're saying that these people are going to be cursed and the last thing you want to block tell a black person is they're going to be cursed you don't hear that they already put that mess in our head long time ago moving on another characteristic of a cult is enslaving organizational structure again the question today is what if your church is a cult enslaving organization of structure what is that this is when the members of the group are forbidden to associate with other persons or support any other group or organization that does not hold the same beliefs and practices you'd be surprised brothers and sisters how many people have come to me who are members of the African village and asked if it was okay with me if they support another group or organization and I said of course I don't you're grown you're grown man you're a grown woman I have nothing to do with that okay dude you free to do what you want to do in my former Church our pastor told you know certainly we need not supposed to fellowship with you know and and and made me think about back when I was young you know my my great-grandmother used to ask me if I was liking a girl my great-grandmother used to ask me what kind of church you go to okay if she went to a Baptist Church no you stay away from her because they ain't saved could see my grandmother was Pentecostal Holiness right you know so this kind of thing of of I grew up with that with that mentality you know this this group over here is not saved or this person over here it doesn't have the Holy Ghost because they haven't spoken in tongues or this person over here uh is not worshiping God right because they're they're saying in the name of the Father and Son the Holy Ghost and and it is supposed to be like that's only supposed to be in Jesus name and then the people say fathers on the Holy Ghost so all this kind of confusion is going on because it's the way of the group how many how many videos have you seen uh Tick Tock videos or whatever have you seen of stuff that goes on in religious services you know sometimes I see the church the the black church where people just shouting and dancing all over the place and and it's sometimes agrees me because it looks like that's the only thing that the black church has to offer is he his emotionality emotionalism you know that's the biggest thing that they oh my goodness you know no learning takes place at all just just just a bunch of dancing and beat and getting getting the groove on and the music and the drums going and you know and I I grew I'm not I I came up through all that I came up through all that in fact I participated in it because I was a musicians you know yeah but again enslaving organizational structure is when the religious leader tells the people no you can't you can't fellowship with them over there because they don't believe like us that's wrong brothers and sisters okay and what Bible verses do they use again they use the bible verses to justify their control okay and that's what gives them their control because you believe the Bible to be the word of God okay but you don't know enough of biblical literature to know that they're misappropriating the verses so you think that this is what God is saying to you okay for example notice what it says here neighbors three and three how and oh my goodness how well I remember these verses said to me how can to the Bible say how can two walk together except they agree I remember the day that my mom came to me and said you cannot be my assistant any longer I said why not Mom I said because we don't agree we're not saying the same thing so what does this verse mean transliterated it would actually mean how can two people walking hand and hand be going in two different directions it just can't happen right if you hold in somebody's hand and walking with them how can it be walking with them but yet y'all are going in different directions it's not possible that's really the meaning of this verse okay this has been used or I should say misused to control people like I don't know what how can two walk together except they agree they've used that uh verse to discourage marriages between two young people you know who genuinely genuinely love each other but the Bible says y'all can't get married because y'all don't agree y'all don't believe the same Doctrine okay then they use another verse second Corinthians 6 verses 14 through 17 being not unequally yoked together with unbelievers oh my goodness man you should have how many times have people said this to brothers and sisters in the African village once the word gets out that you know we don't preach Jesus in African village then that means that you are an unbeliever if you go to the African village so people are discouraged from fellowshipping with you in the African village and that's one of the reasons why our fellowship with each other is so it's so important you know because we're fellowshipping with brothers and sisters of like mine but when people want to take a verse out of context completely out of context this is be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers as I wasn't talking to you this is so-called Paul's writing to the Christians at Corinth because of certain things that was going on there in the city of Corinth that's what they're supposed to be okay and yet they want to take this and bring way up to 2023 and excuse me I'd apply it to you because they don't think that you be should be fellowshipping or communicating with those people over there so they're going to miss you control you with Bible verses say what Fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness been around them people over there the Bible said what communion has light with Darkness and Bible goes on to say and what conquered hath Christ with Belial what part has he that believeth was an infidel you a Believer unbelievers are infidels you won't please God you got to stay away from the people over there that kind of control that kind of control that kind of control believe me brothers and sisters it goes on I remember excuse me I remember very early on in my Ministry um when I was when I was a full-time evangelist still preaching program Christianity though right and I had to do a Revival in Springfield Massachusetts and uh when I arrived I flew in I caught a cab to the hotel and I called the pastor to let her know I was there now of course I didn't notice Pastor someone had referred me to her she asked me if I would come and give three nights in a Revival I said sure I wouldn't pastor well I'm at the hotel and she sends these sisters to pick me up right um three beautiful plump oversized sisters they picked me up and I go out to get in the car and all three of these oversized women are sitting in the front seat crammed up in there together nobody's in the back seat right and so I'm sitting in the back and so I I said are y'all are y'all comfortable up there you know and and they couldn't even couldn't even move right and so the sister in the middle said yeah we all right Pastor it's just that our pastor don't allow us to sit on the same seat with a man I said okay that was like the introduction to where I was going like I said I didn't know this woman right when I got to the church I mean you would have thought that the pastor was a animal trainer with a whip in one hand and a chair in the other hand telling the people how to move when to move where to go in fact she even kept their bank accounts she kept their checkbooks she kept their Bank savings books I had never seen anything like that you know but these people were perfectly fine with it this was their way you know so I don't I don't even remember what I talked about that night to be honest with you it was it was so all I knew is I was I was glad to be I was glad to get out of there because that whole environment was hitting my my no box like crazy okay but there are people up under her control because they just didn't know better she used verses in the Bible to let that not your good people spoken of things like that so you're not to be seen on the same seat with a young man and you want to know why so much lesbianism in the church let's continue the 16th verses and what agreement hath the temple of God with Idols for you are the Temple of the Living God now again how how is this a plot misapplied okay this was written to the people in the city of Corinth okay because of activity that was going on in Corinth understand this so he says you are the Temple of the Living God as God that saith I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and he should be my people this was supposedly written to the Jews supposedly written to the Jews right it's in the Book of Leviticus there okay wherefore come out from among them be separate separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you so how does a cult leader misuse this the first today a cult leader would take this verse and apply it tell you to come out from among a certain group or influence of people that they think that you should not be around and they think you shouldn't be around this group of people because of you around this group of people you might learn something and in order for me to maintain control over you I have to keep you over here with us these these are things that occult leader does where if you're wherefore come out from among them and be separate saith the Lord and though because you don't know no better you think this verse is applying to you another characteristic is doctrinal restrictions what is doctrinal restrictions Brother Ray this is when the pastor or the religious leader prohibits the followers from doing their research or learning anything that's outside or beyond the teachings of the leader or the organization see here's how this goes family understand this most pastors and religious leaders know that if the people ever get to know or learn what that Pastor knows then they no longer need the pastor see how that works so what these religious leaders do is they keep the minds of the people restricted or Limited to their circumference of awareness you can't learn more than the pastor it's not allowed I've had more people come to me who've gone back to their pastor and the pastor told him warned them to stay away from him don't listen to him all right what he's saying is not true and then they say well Pastor I'll check out what he said and I see what he's saying is true and then the past says are you trying to tell it now now you're trying to correct the past now you're trying to correct the past see what I tell you oh man you ever hear that that the story about pharaoh and Moses going to Pharaoh saying let my people go well the spirit is saying that same thing today to certain religious leaders let the people go let the people go you've held them enslaved to your limited ignorance long enough let the people go when you as a religious leader want to restrict people from doing their own research I think that's one of the things things that stands out among a lot of people I hear people say to me all the time Brother Ray you know what really did it for me is when I heard you say don't take my word for it go do your own research I've had more people say I've never heard of Minister say that before and this is the reason why you haven't heard it because the religious leader must keep your thinking within the confines of their circumference of awareness I remember when Pastors in St Louis was going around telling Folk I don't know what this man coming here talking ain't nobody heard no stuff like this before I guess not that don't mean it's wrong because you haven't heard it before so cult leaders or pastors who are really leaders of a cult okay does not encourage in fact they discourage their followers from doing reading and research they'll tell you in a minute the only thing you need is the word of God you don't need those books all you need is the word of God did the word that's all you need is a word that's all you needed the word no bro listen to this he who only knows one knows none write that down he who only knows one knows none let's look at some scripture references that they use to enforce their doctrinal restrictions Galatians the first chapter verses eight through nine here's what the Bible says now again what here's the mistake we make we take what was written to the people of that time and try and applying it to us today I think I mentioned in one of my earlier teachings we must always interpret literature from the perspective of the speaker or the writer and not the perspective of the reader let me say that again you must always interpret literature from the perspective of the speaker or the writer not from the perspective of the reader okay and so what happens today is religious leaders today quote Bible verses like this the Bible says though we are an angel from heaven preach any of the Gospel unto you and that we preach unto you let him be accursed as he said before so I say now again any man preach any of the Gospel unto Youth and that you have received from me let him be an optimized better be accursed that wasn't written to you I wasn't written to anybody alive today that was written to the Christians at the city of galatia okay and again the letter was written to address a situation that was going on there it is inappropriate to try to take this verse and apply it to the reader today now a lot of religious leaders again use this or I should say they misuse this to keep their followers enslaved understand how this goes another verse they uses first Timothy 4 and 1. now the Bible says that the spirit speaketh expressly and in the latter time of course I'm trying to sound like a lot of these preachers do right in a lot of times some shall depart from defeat giving heed to seduce in spirits and doctrines of devils and actually the word Devil's there is Diamond which is translates into demons because there's really only one devil right so it should be doctrines of demons notice what it says again the spirit speak is expressing that in a lot of times so I'm going to depart from the faith giving heed to seducing Spirits you have no idea people how many folk have said this stuff right here to brothers and sisters who have left their churches to come join the African village they call themselves warning people then second Timothy 4 3 the Bible sentence is going to happen for the time gonna come when they will not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lust shall Heap unto themselves teach us having itching ears oh my goodness man the stuff I've heard I I listen I grew up with these I grew up with all these verses that I'm reading to you I grew up with them to the point to as you know we we were scared to visit another church we were scared to even entertain the thought of listening to somebody that was from a different denomination assistant but that's the best way to maintain control keep the people ignorant like I said the beginning when you've told so much so many lies over the centuries they're now telling the truth about one of your early foundational lies would unravel all the lives that have been defensively powered on top of it thus exposing you for what you really are you can't tell the truth can't do it notice this one oh my goodness I remember I remember this one being said to me when I was told to get out of would not get out but dreaming you have to leave my house yeah man when my eyes came open and I started teaching it Jesus never existed my mother quoted this to me the Bible says that whosoever transgressed and abided not in the doctrine of Christ you ain't got God you ain't got God he's everybody within the doctrine of Christ hath both the father and the son now notice this part here 10 verse if there come any unto you and bring not this Doctrine receive him not into your house neither bit of God's speed for he that bideth him God's speed is a partaker of his evil Deeds so what is this verse saying to the ignorant to the ignorant it's saying that you cannot even say God be with you to a person who doesn't believe like you do because if you say God be with you if you say which means go with God if you say vaya con dios then that means that you are partaker of his evil deeds and God's Gonna Get You I'll never forget the date my mom said to me these words you have to leave my house because the Bible say don't receive you into my house that was her understanding of this verse and I mean if you don't understand the etymological environment if you take it face value then you see why a lot there's so much division in families today all over religion okay all over religion marriage is being torn apart all over religion families being torn apart all over religion because the pastor or the religious leader is misleading the people by misapplying verses of the book they've been made to believe in and of course I think this is the fifth characteristic a self-righteous perspective this is when the pastor or religious leader teaches that their organization is right their organization is right and any and all other organizations that do not hold to the same teaching are evil Unholy ungodly and dangerous now again the question today is what if your church is a cult some of you watching me who have who are still going to your churches have seen these characteristics in your church you've been able to identify with a lot of the things that I've said here well let me finish on this last one okay a self-righteous perspective this is when your pastor teaches that their organization is right in any and all other organizations that do not hold to the same teachings or evil Unholy ungodly and dangerous let's look at let's look at second Timothy the third chapter the first verse okay notice what it says this no no also that in the last days perilous times shall come fifth verse says that these people will have a form of godliness but they will deny the power thereof from such turn away and the seventh verse these people who ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth okay again the I've had these verses used referring to me from other religious leaders y'all know in the last name perilous times are gonna come y'all and false teachers are going to come along having a form of godliness but they ain't gonna have the power they ain't gonna have the power oh they look good they look good but they ain't got the power okay and you notice they got all this information all this knowledge but they ain't coming to the knowledge of the truth yet though see how do you see how these verses are being misapplied yeah man oh buddy brothers and sisters I tell you there's so much that goes on around us and your intuition knows that it ain't cool your intuition knows it's not cool right but you tolerated anyway that's what gives a cult leader their power stop violating your own spirit stop violating your own intuition all right stop it stop doing that start living in your truth take a stand even if you have to stand by yourself I know what it feels like I've had to do it but I tell you one thing when take when you take a stand for what you know to be the truth is man you sleep good I do anyway sleep good I have to look over my shoulder worrying about anything um because I stood for a truth justice righteousness we call it my art okay so family do that okay uphold the standard of my odd before getting out of here I want to invite you to uh if you've been watching on YouTube go ahead and And subscribe to my YouTube channel okay in fact this coming week we're going to restructure the YouTube channel so that we can actually have members on the YouTube channel those of you who are subscribers just going to move you over to a membership okay and uh and we'll explain more about that as we as we put it finish putting it together all right hit that notification button so that when I go live you will get noticed that I'm live okay also encourage you to listen to uh the 24-hour seven day a week teach a seven day a week teaching on our online radio station the africanvillage.org or wblr.com both go to the same address okay and even the website is still under construction just hit the play arrow and you'll hear the teaching 24 hours a day seven days a week okay we're trying to move everything over to a digital platform okay so just bear with us in our restructuring stuff all right and for those of you been asking how can I get the message that I heard on blr you'll be able to digitally digitally download all that in the very near future all right okay what's next here if you want to make a donation to support our work and I pray that you will and by the way thank you to those of you who have been doing that thank you so very much thank you very much okay um thank you thank you thank you it helps us to continue this work as effectively as we can all right if you're making a donation um through uh PayPal as you see there are PayPal address for go to paypal.com and make your donation to African village1 aol.com and that's African with the letter k African village one at AOL.com if you're making a donation through cash app all right the address is Cash tag Dr Ray Higgins if you're making your donation through Zell it's my email address rayhagans gmail.com or mail in your donation payable to the African village all right and send it to 3520 North newstead Avenue St Louis Missouri 63115 okay yes if you want to send you mail it in and for those of you who have been mailing it mailing in your donations thank you so much for your support brothers and sisters I I don't have the words to really let you guys know how much I appreciate y'all man you know your continued support and and what have you so just I I thank you for being who you are thank you so much all right and of course I got I got got to tell you all about uh one of the greatest organizations that I know of the black achievement fund okay yeah come on and join if you have not joined yet come on and become a member of the black achievement fund and you know that when uh when you get when you join they're gonna send me a notice that you joined let them know that I referred you okay they're gonna send me an email tell me you joined and then I'm gonna send you an email from me to you stating my appreciation for your joining okay so come on and be a part of us the black achievement fund we're doing some great things oh man every Sunday at two o'clock Eastern Standard Time okay our president and founder brother r.k Hodges is goes live and so you can do go to the website baf.solutions and watch brother R Key's presentation at two o'clock all right baf.solutions black achievement fund black achievement fund okay well I'm gonna get out of here now because in about um in about 10 minutes I'm going to air uh where's what I'm looking for looking for our Music here okay and about uh about 10 minutes we're gonna air what am I yeah y'all there with me for a moment I'm trying to find what I'm looking for this is crazy I just had it right here in my lap okay here it is ah let me pull this up and we get out of here okay um uh the African and me loves the African and you when we come together ain't nothing we can't do because you're easy to love okay so let's get into it and uh again family thank you for your support and thank you to brother ABI to Tech for puts together for us yeah [Music] [Music] when we come together [Music] easy to love let's do it again together [Music] [Music] you're easy to love about truth let's do it come on together [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] come together [Music] you're easy to love righteousness [Music] in you yeah when we come together [Music] [Music] foreign put the blackness in you when we come together [Music] [Applause] [Music] easy to love you're so easy to love family to my heart and live peace

Channel: Dr. Ray Hagins

Views: 26,979

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Id: swlhVf3YgM4

Length: 85min 35sec (5135 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 30 2023