Leaving the Message: Our Stories is a collection of firsthand testimonies from people who have left high-control religious groups, authoritarian churches, and spiritually abusive environments.
These conversations focus on lived experience — what it was like inside, what leaving cost, and what recovery looks like afterward. Guests share their stories in their own words, exploring themes of control, fear, identity, faith, family, and healing.
This podcast exists to preserve voices that are often ignored or misunderstood, and to provide understanding, validation, and hope for those navigating life after high-demand religion.
Full conversations and additional context can be found on the main Leaving the Message YouTube channel.
Views expressed by guests or co-hosts are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Derby Media Group LLC.
Website: https://william-branham.org
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/LeavingtheMessage
Legal: https://william-branham.org/legal
Narcissistic Traits and the Neo-Charismatic Movement
John invites Paul to share his journey through several neo-charismatic communities, including Icthys Fellowship, the Vineyard Movement, Torchbearers International, IHOPKC, and a deliverance ministry. Paul uses narcissistic personality traits as a framework—not a diagnosis—to examine how teachings about superior leaders, unique spiritual insight, prophecy, revival, and special callings shaped his identity from childhood through adulthood.
Paul describes the process of questioning those beliefs, leaving the deliverance ministry in 2014, and gradually accepting an ordinary life without the pressure to fulfill an unusually significant destiny. He also offers practical advice for people questioning a harmful community, discusses resources that helped him reconsider how truth is evaluated, and explains how embracing human limitations brought greater peace.
______________________
Weaponized Religion: From Christian Identity to the NAR:
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1735160962
Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCGGZX3K
______________________
- Support the channel: https://www.patreon.com/branham
- Visit the website: https://william-branham.org
25 Sept 2026
Leaving The Message: Amie's Story of Fear, Loss, and Freedom
John invites Amie to share her experience of being raised in The Message, the questions that developed as she compared family history with conflicting accounts, and the painful reactions she faced after leaving. They discuss isolation, conditional relationships, doomsday teaching, distrust of doctors and government, divisions among churches, and the difficulty of rebuilding a Christian life outside the movement.
Amie explains how fear and loneliness can keep people from questioning what they were taught and offers encouragement to those beginning a similar journey. She describes finding freedom through faith in Christ, reading the Bible without relying on recorded teachings, resisting the urge to immediately replace one controlling environment with another, and helping others who are privately considering leaving.
18 Sept 2026
The Cost of Following Thus Saith the Lord
John invites Kim to share her story of becoming involved in Word of Faith, New Apostolic Reformation, and Shepherding Movement circles during a vulnerable season of life. She describes relying on personal prophecies, attending meetings where leaders claimed spiritual authority, and struggling to process promises that did not come to pass.
Kim also reflects on high-control church culture, public shaming, pressure to submit, family division, grief, and the long process of healing. The conversation focuses on the dangers of following human leaders as though they speak directly for God, and Kim's central warning is simple: open the Bible, follow Jesus, and do not allow anyone to replace your relationship with the Lord.
______________________
Weaponized Religion: From Christian Identity to the NAR:
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1735160962
Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DCGGZX3K
______________________
- Support the channel: https://www.patreon.com/branham
- Visit the website: https://william-branham.org
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