February 5, 2025 • 63 mins
What if obedience is more than just a duty but actually the way to express love to God? Join us as we explore this profound idea in our latest episode of Stepping in Faith. We promise you'll gain a deeper understanding of how true righteousness is a matter of the heart. Reflecting on scriptures like John 14 and Romans 12, we emphasize the critical balance between heartfelt obedience and genuine relationship with God, urging you to examine whether your actions stem from love or self-interest.
Guided by the Spirit, not just laws, we reveal how the Holy Spirit acts as our advocate, steering us toward a life aligned with God's will. Just like an employer-employee relationship can't substitute for personal connection, neither can mere adherence to religious codes replace a true relationship with God. Through insights from John 14 and John 16, we delve into the dangers of self-righteousness and the importance of staying vigilant against spiritual deception.
Delve into the heart of biblical stories, from Jesus raising Lazarus to Moses’ plea for God's presence, to uncover obedience as a relational pursuit. These narratives illustrate the beauty of prioritizing God's will over personal desires, shaping a deeper intimacy with the Father. By embracing obedience as an act of worship, not mere rule-following, we explore how to offer our lives fully to God, finding our true identity and purpose in Him. Discover the transformative power of pursuing God through obedience, unlocking answers to life's questions and enriching your spiritual journey.
Ready to dive deeper? 🎧 Join us on YouTube for the full video podcast where we explore faith, love, and relationships through a Christian lens. Whether married, single, or seeking spiritual growth, our episodes offer practical advice and profound insights to strengthen your walk with Jesus. Don’t forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you never miss a powerful episode. Let’s grow together in faith and purpose!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Walter (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of Stepping in Faith,
where, together, we explore theimportance of having a
relationship with God and howthat relationship with God can
impact the relationship you havewith others.
I'm your host, walter, and I'mjoined here alongside my lovely
wife.
Shanea (00:15):
Shanea.
Walter (00:16):
This is episode 10.
Yes.
What is this week's title?
Episode title you don't have itOkay, Obedience is God's love
language.
I got you.
Shanea (00:33):
I'm sorry I just had so many notes.
Yeah, I was, I was, I wasblanking.
Walter (00:38):
Obedience is God's love language is this week's title.
Yes, so we are believers.
So the best way that we startthis off which I think would be
a great way to start this off isin prayer.
So, babe, you want to open thisup in prayer?
Shanea (00:54):
Sure.
Walter (00:55):
All right, let's do it.
Shanea (00:56):
Father God, we thank you for this day.
We thank you for your love,your grace and your mercy.
We thank you for everyonelistening.
We ask, father God, that youwill give them ears to hear,
that you will open up theirhearts.
Father God and Holy Spirit, weask that you will use us as a
vessel to your word to providerevelation and understanding to
those who are listening.
In Jesus' name, we pray.
Walter (01:17):
Amen, amen.
Short and simple, okay.
So obedience is God's lovelanguage, so this came from a
conversation that I was havingwith God last week now yeah,
(01:40):
yeah.
Yeah, I woke up and what Godwas dealing with me on is that
it's very easy to make obedienceyour God.
Shanea (01:53):
Trying to keep the law.
Walter (01:55):
Yeah, even though obedience is God's love language
.
He said it's important that wenever place anything above Him
or pursuing Him, and he saidit's about relationship and God
is always looking at our heartposture.
(02:16):
So it was really key because itmade me realize that, while
obedience is extremely important, the biggest thing that God
looks at with us is our heartposture, so your love language
(02:39):
may be affirmations or whatevermay have you, but if my main
focus is just affirming you, doI really show that I'm loving
you?
Shanea (02:46):
Yeah, it's like, am I just doing things out of routine
, because I'm supposed to do it.
Just like that little story youalways talk about with the man
and the flowers.
Are you giving flowers becauseyou want to give her flowers?
Are you giving flowers becauseit's the give her flowers?
Are you giving flowers becauseit's the right thing to do?
Walter (03:06):
okay, you're not talking to the mic, but yes, that's
very true okay.
I might need to just extend itoh, maybe so yeah these new
headphones.
Shanea (03:18):
I can't really tell.
Walter (03:19):
Yeah, there you go okay, and so, uh, yeah, that's very
important.
What you're referring to iswhen I state that there's two
men that buys flowers for theirwives and there's one, when they
buy the flowers is because he'sshowing that he's doing it
because he love her, and theother one buy the flowers
(03:39):
because he knows that's whathe's supposed to do and that's
relationship versus religion.
Because he knows that's whathe's supposed to do and that's
relationship versus religion.
And really, in a nutshell, whatGod was kind of dealing with me
on was relationship versusreligion, because religion is
based on rules and regulationsand it's like it's the belief
that the things that you do makeyou righteous, and relationship
(04:00):
says it's not the things that Ido that makes me righteous, but
it's my relationship with him,it's my faith in him, it's my
reliance upon him that makes merighteous.
Both still are required to livea life of righteousness
holiness, sanctification,consecration.
The only difference is oneknows it comes from within and
(04:23):
why they're able to do that, andthe other one feels it comes
from on and why they're able todo that, and the other one feels
it comes from on the outside.
What you mean.
So one believes.
Religion says that the worksthat I do on the outside can
help change the inside of me.
Relationship says it's the workthat takes place within me that
completely changes what I do onthe outside.
Shanea (04:40):
Right, and I'm sorry, I'm a little foggy.
Walter (04:42):
No, it's fine.
It's been a lot going on.
Shanea (04:44):
I'm a little foggy, but yeah.
No, you're right, but the onlyway you can do that is through
the Holy Spirit.
Walter (04:49):
Yes, yes, so that was a lot, I think.
(05:14):
But getting into this week'sepisode some of the key
scriptures that we have that wewill be going over.
We have John 14, 21, as well as30 to 31.
We have Exodus 33, 12 to 3, 12to 23.
12 to 23.
We have John 11.
We have Matthew 7, 21 through23.
We have John 4 24.
We have Romans 12.1.
We have 1 Samuel 16.6-7.
And we have Psalms 51.10-11 and16-19.
It's a lot of scriptures.
We have John 14.15-21.
Shanea (05:38):
We'll put them in the description so that you guys can
just kind of reference.
Walter (05:43):
Yeah, and we have John 14, verse 23.
So I guess the best way tostart this off is defining
obedience and love.
So we've already talked aboutwhat God was saying to me, what
obedience is and how obediencecan be used and can become a God
(06:04):
to many of us is, and howobedience can be used and can
become a God to many of us, andthat it's a difference between
one's desire to be obedient justbecause and one's desire to be
obedient to show the father thatthey love the father.
So the important, I think theimportant thing to take away
(06:25):
from this is and we'll probablysay this so many times
throughout this episode it's allabout your heart posture.
So God is consistently lookingat your heart posture.
What type of heart posture doyou have?
Shanea (06:40):
Yeah, it's like why are you doing the things that you
are doing?
Are you doing it for your ownselfish gain?
Walter (06:50):
Or are you doing it simply out of unconditional love
?
So I guess the great way tostart off from you.
What does it mean to truly loveGod and how do you think
obedience?
Shanea (07:05):
fit into our relationship with him.
You got questions now what doesit truly mean to love God, and
how does?
Obedience fit into ourrelationship with him.
I do believe that what it trulymeans to love God how do you
show God love is throughobedience, right, and through
(07:28):
that obedience will bring forthfruit.
So that's how obedience fitsinto our relationship with him.
It's to fulfill his purposes inlife.
Walter (07:42):
Yeah, it's a part of pursuit in life.
Yeah, it's a part of pursuit.
It's one of the ways that weshowcase that we desire a deeper
relationship with the Father.
And so the Bible speaks ofDavid and said David is a man
after God's own heart.
The reason that was the case isDavid loved and hated what God
(08:05):
hated Right, he desired him morethan anything, right, so it was
a pursuit after the things ofGod, consistently.
So I think when we think abouttoday's episode and we're
switching the format up a littlebit, we'll see how it goes a
(08:27):
little bit.
We'll see how it goes uh, thethings that we're going to uh
discuss today is therelationship between obedience,
love and a deeper pursuit ofgod's presence sound like a lot
it kind of tied together does itI think so.
okay, so obedience versus rightstanding right.
I think we can start with John14, verse 21.
(08:48):
We've read this before, and 30through 31.
Mm-hmm, do you want to readthat or do you want me to read
it?
Shanea (08:56):
You said John 14, 21?
Mm-hmm, Let me pull it up.
Oh, you can go ahead, I'malready in.
I'm in NKG.
I mean NKJ.
Walter (09:16):
So John 14 and 21,.
This is what Jesus said.
He said those who accept mycommandments and obey them are
the ones who love me, andbecause they love me, my father
will love them and I will lovethem and reveal myself to each
one of them, or each of them.
Those who accept mycommandments and obey them are
the ones who love me and becausethey love me, my Father will
love them and I will love themand reveal myself to each of
(09:38):
them.
And then, further on, jesussaid and I'm going to let you
read the scripture you want toread, but it says verse 30, I
don't have much more time totalk to you because the ruler of
this world approaches me.
He has no power over me, but Iwould do what the Father
requires of me so that the worldwould know that I love the
(10:00):
Father.
So with both of these, with allthree of these scriptures right,
it all ties back into obedience, obedience being an act of
showing god that you love himright yet jesus being obedient
was just not because he wantedto be obedient or he wanted to
be in right standing, the law itwas his desire just to have a
(10:24):
deeper relationship with thefather.
Shanea (10:26):
He loved the father so much that he's like I have to
show you and the world how muchI love you by obeying everything
that you tell me to do yeah,it's no different than like your
kids just doing stuff becausethey know they want to hear you
say I'm proud of you and I loveyou because you do this and not
because I'm just doing itbecause my mom told me to.
Walter (10:48):
Yeah, so when you when I love the way this is here it
was written out Jesus connectsloving him to keeping his
commands.
Obedience is more than duty.
It's a way to express love andintimacy.
Duty it's a way to express love, and intimacy, and that ties
back into what you just said.
Yeah.
(11:18):
That us being obedient to theFather, us being obedient to
Jesus, is a way of creating adeeper level of intimacy and
cultivating that relationship.
So I think that's definitelykey and I think that's really
important.
And then it digs further withthe heart posture versus
performance.
We talked about this.
We don't pursue right standing,but right relationship.
(11:38):
Right.
We don't pursue right standing,but right relationship.
Shanea (11:44):
Right, but we're taught the opposite.
Walter (11:46):
Yes, the focus should always be on our love for God
and the way we engage with him,and so now it you touched on
this before right, it's notabout the whole transition or
not transition transactional,like we're taught to have a
transactional type love.
Shanea (12:07):
Right, like if I give you something, you have to give
me something back.
I give you 50, you give me 50.
I give you a hundred, you giveme a hundred.
Walter (12:14):
So it's a situation where we are consistently
expecting something in return.
So I'm doing this because thisit me, this right, it's an, I'm
investing and that's religion.
Religion, says we, even whenyou look at the whole tithing
system right?
Shanea (12:33):
I was just like you.
Walter (12:34):
I was literally thinking about the same thing yeah, do
this in order to get this fromgod right, I'm gonna invest this
so that I can get somethingfrom god I know I'm gonna gain
something and then I'm going tobe mad if I don't get it because
I invested this.
Exactly, we treat tithing likeit's the stock market.
Shanea (12:50):
It's like what's your heart posture.
Walter (12:51):
We literally treat tithing like it's the stock
market, like we are investinginto the systems of heaven, and
by investing eventually.
Shanea (13:00):
But you know, we can't buy God, so it doesn't even make
sense.
Walter (13:03):
But that's what we're taught, and so, because of that,
everything we do istransactional.
I'm doing this because of this,but once again, we don't pursue
right standing, but rightrelationship.
Yeah.
So obedience is all abouthaving a right relationship with
(13:24):
God.
Shanea (13:25):
Yeah, well, that's the whole reason why Jesus came is
so that he can restore therelationship, because obviously
we can keep the law.
Walter (13:32):
Yeah.
Shanea (13:33):
So you can't have right standing?
No, it's not even a thing.
Walter (13:38):
After Jesus you can do within your own strength because
it goes back to I can thinkback on times when I was so
desperately wanting to try tostop doing certain things.
And it was hard yes, it wasvery hard to like be like okay,
I'm not going to do this Priorto your conversion.
Prior to my conversion.
Shanea (13:56):
Yeah.
Walter (13:56):
But after my conversion, when I committed myself to the
Holy Spirit I say this all thetime November 26th, 2022, was my
conversion date, where Iencountered God he began to
remove the desires.
So now it's through the powerof the Holy Spirit that you no
longer have those desires to dothose things that you was once
doing.
So I think that's reallyimportant, right.
Shanea (14:19):
Yeah, it is only by his spirit that we're able to keep
the law.
And.
I have down here, cause I addedsome stuff in that you probably
can't see.
So what I said is that it is byhis spirit that we are only
able to keep the law.
It is the Holy Spirit thatleads us to the truth, and this
(14:39):
is why Paul lets us know that wehave to be led by our spirit in
all that we do.
And if it's not God's spiritleading you, then what spirit or
spirits are influencing yourdecisions?
Walter (14:53):
Yeah, I think let's, let's, let's dig into this
deeper, because what just cameto me was good, thank you.
So, to kind of expound on whatyou just stated, the interesting
(15:14):
thing is this right here, wedon't realize, as quote unquote
Christians, that the enemy isstill trying to get us to do the
same thing that he getnon-believers to do, or
non-christians, and it is theact of making yourself your god,
yeah, or it is the act of,because, when you think about
(15:35):
religion, me doing these things,yes, makes me righteous right,
I make myself.
Shanea (15:42):
I put myself in right standing when you can't, you can
only do that by way of the holyspirit exactly.
Walter (15:48):
So now, once again, we look at because we're so quick
to recognize the devil andsatanist and all of these things
and whatever you want to wantto point out, but it's so hard
for us to recognize him whenhe's active in the quote-unquote
church.
It's hard for us to recognizehim when he's active in the
quote unquote church.
It's hard for us to recognizehim when dealing with Pharisees
(16:09):
and not understanding, as we'vementioned so many different
times it's the Pharisees thatcrucified.
Shanea (16:14):
Jesus.
Walter (16:16):
It's the Pharisees that chose a murderer.
I believe it was a murdererover Jesus.
And so, with that being thecase, it's really important to
realize that even in that, thatis still serving the enemy.
Shanea (16:30):
Yeah, even following religion, it's still false.
Walter (16:36):
It's still ungodly.
Shanea (16:37):
Yes, because you're not being led by the Holy Spirit,
because let's just put this intofull perspective Monks aren't
bad people.
Right.
Walter (16:49):
Monks are more morally based than Christians.
Monks are more disciplined thanChristians.
Shanea (16:56):
That's true.
Walter (16:58):
Many of the religious practices out here that truly
follow it.
And it's not tainted.
They're not bad people.
No.
They're good people by allaccounts, but you being a good
person is not what is going toget you into heaven no, it's
right relationship.
It's relationship with god byway of jesus christ that's right
(17:20):
it's surrendering to god, it'ssurrendering to j Christ.
It's making him your Lord andSavior.
Shanea (17:27):
And what was coming to me when we had this conversation
in the car about.
I forgot exactly what we weretalking about, but when you have
an employer and you're anemployee- and you're doing
everything.
you're following all the codes,you're doing everything you're
supposed to be doing and youhave somebody else who's doing
what you're doing, but they geta promotion.
Why did they get the promotion?
(17:48):
Because they have arelationship with the boss.
They know the boss.
The boss knows them.
They recognize who they are.
They don't recognize you justbecause you're doing all this
work.
Everybody else is doing thesame thing.
Walter (18:03):
You're a number.
Shanea (18:04):
Yes, you're just a number, but he doesn't recognize
you.
He obviously knows you're anemployee, that you work for him,
but does he recognize you assomeone who he's going to
elevate, who he's going to place, not on a pedestal, but he's
going to bless?
Walter (18:22):
You know, because it boils down to the fact we talked
about this before.
Many a call, but few are chosen.
Right.
And so I guess you, because youput it in here John 14, 15, 15,
verse 15 to 21.
Do you want to read that?
Shanea (18:38):
Yeah, yeah, I did John 14, 15 to 21.
I also have John 16 and 13 inhere as well.
Walter (18:48):
You want to read that, are you there?
Shanea (18:50):
I'm here, john 14.
Walter (18:53):
Beginning at verse 15.
Yeah.
Shanea (18:54):
Verse 15.
If you love me, obey mycommandments and I will ask the
father and he will give youanother advocate who will never
leave you.
He is the Holy Spirit who leadsinto all truth.
The world cannot receive himbecause it isn't looking for him
and doesn't recognize him.
But you know him because helives with you now and later
(19:19):
will be with you.
No, I will not abandon you asorphans.
I will come to you.
Soon the world will no longersee me, but you will see me.
Since I live, you also willlive when I am raised to life
again.
You will know that I am in myFather and you are in me and I
(19:41):
am in you.
Those who accept mycommandments and obey them are
the ones who love me, andbecause they love me, my father
will love them and I will lovethem and reveal myself to each
of them.
Walter (19:54):
Okay, why was that so important to include that in?
Shanea (19:58):
Because Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to guide us into
obedience.
We can't do it without him.
That's why he sent us a helper.
That's why I put it in there,because he sent us a helper.
And then I have John 16, 13 inthere.
That says let me find it.
(20:24):
That says let me find it.
When the spirit of truth comes,he will guide you into all
truth.
He will not speak on his own,but will tell you what he has
heard.
He will tell you about thefuture.
And so when he the spirit oftruth comes, he will guide you
(20:44):
into all truth, and so, onceyou're being led by the Holy
Spirit, you can't be led intodeception or lies about who God
wants you to be or where he'scalled you to be, so you aren't
making this Because he don't lie.
Exactly because he doesn't lie,so you're not making decisions
on your own.
That's going to lead you awayfrom God because, you have the
spirit of God, so it's reallyimportant that you aren't making
(21:06):
decisions without being led bythe spirit of God.
First.
Walter (21:10):
That's good.
Shanea (21:11):
Because he's truth.
So anything outside of that isa lie.
Walter (21:16):
And you know, once you recognize the voice of the
spirit of God, once yourecognize the voice of God, once
you recognize the voice ofJesus, it shifts everything,
because when he speaks, there'spower in the truth that he's
speaking.
And so we think of Micah, forexample, who struggled with
homosexuality and he talkedabout how his encounter with
(21:39):
Jesus, jesus began to speak lifeinto him, and sometimes
deliverance is essentiallyspeaking truth, truth.
The truth Sometimes deliveranceis simply speaking truth to a
person.
Yeah.
Speaking truth, because it allstarted with a lie.
Many times it starts with a lie.
Shanea (21:56):
Yes.
Walter (21:57):
And so the way you fix that is through truth.
We all want to go throughdeliverance, not understanding
that there's different forms ofdifferent ways that a person can
be delivered.
You can have light that and I'moff topic but you can have
light that you can allow thelight of God to come in you
through reading your word,through what you watch, what you
listen to, through praying andthose demons will begin to flee.
Shanea (22:21):
You can actually go through deliverance when you or
someone can assist you, untilyou tell them to come out but
those demons can't leave ifyou're still holding on to lies
if you're still holding on tothings that you think about
yourself that you're not worthythat you're worthless, that you
like boys or you like girls whenyou're supposed to like the
opposite sex.
Walter (22:38):
If you still believe those lies, that demon is not
going to leave, and the thingwith that is that, understanding
that it's important to tellpeople the truth.
Right, it's important to tellthem the truth right.
So if you're struggling, youcan't do that, just you can't do
that with hate yeah it's thetruth in love yeah, it's like
(23:01):
you can't beat it out ofsomebody.
Shanea (23:04):
You can only change them with the truth.
And love yeah, but a lot oftimes people in the church will
just abandon you.
Walter (23:12):
Yeah.
Shanea (23:12):
Or they'll tell you something's wrong with you.
Or they'll try to beat it outof you Instead of telling them
the truth, which is that Jesusloves you.
That's the truth.
Walter (23:23):
And so I think that's good we got off topic you.
That's the truth, and so Ithink that's good we got off
topic but, that was worthmentioning.
And now we dig into whatobedience is about relationship,
not just action.
Example is Moses, exodus 33, 12through 23.
We won't read it, but if youwant to, you can definitely.
For time's sake, you candefinitely read it.
(23:45):
We would recommend reading it.
But just to summarize, mosesdesired a greater level of
intimacy with God, and so Moses,basically his plea, was for
God's presence.
So he said if your presencedoes not go with us, do not
(24:06):
bring us up from here.
And it shows that he desiredintimacy more than anything else
, not just direction, right,which is, which is good.
He desired intimacy, not justdirection, and so we've had
people for, for example,question like who should I be
with?
And what Moses was looking atis.
(24:26):
He showed us an example of it'snot just about getting a
question answered by God.
Shanea (24:35):
It's not just getting stuff from God.
Walter (24:36):
It's about the relationship.
Moses looked at God andessentially said if you ain't in
the promised land, I'm notgoing.
Yes, I could lead the people tothe promised land, but I'm not
going without your presence,because what's more important to
me is your presence.
Shanea (24:49):
It's a relationship with you.
I don't want to go anywherewithout you.
Walter (24:52):
I will stay in, like you got to think how deep and
impactful and powerful that is,that Moses essentially was
saying that I will stay in thewilderness, I will stay in the
wilderness.
Mm-hmm if it means me beingseparated from your presence.
How many of us would be willingto stay in the wilderness?
Shanea (25:15):
Yeah, and that's love.
Walter (25:16):
That's love.
Shanea (25:19):
That you would die.
Walter (25:20):
You would die, you would give up your comforts Because,
remember, moses came from Egypt.
He had all of the comforts onecould think of, because he was
raised essentially as the childof a king.
Yeah, the child of a pharaoh.
Was raised essentially as thechild of a king.
Yeah, the child of a pharaoh,and so a grandchild of a pharaoh
, and so, with that being thecase, I believe, grandchild.
(25:40):
Was it grandchild or was itchild?
Shanea (25:42):
Child of the daughter, the daughter.
Walter (25:44):
So grandchild.
Shanea (25:45):
Or yeah daughter.
Walter (25:46):
It was a daughter, right the pharaoh.
Shanea (25:48):
Daughter of the pharaoh.
Walter (25:49):
Yeah, I pharaoh, daughter of the pharaoh.
Yeah, I don't think it was thewife, I don't remember.
Don't quote us.
We gotta go back and let me see.
I don't want it.
I want to make sure we quote,quote correctly yeah, it was so,
the grandchild grand the.
(26:10):
Pharaoh, because it was adaughter of the Pharaoh that
raised Moses.
So I think that's key.
That last part is key, thatdesiring God's presence more
than anything, it reflects apursuit of intimacy, not just
direction.
Shanea (26:28):
Yeah, and that what we're saying brings up a good
point, Cause I had also put onhere um John 15, four through
five, Um, and what?
What came to me is it says um,no branch can bear fruit by
itself.
It must remain in the vine,Meaning like you have to be in
(26:51):
the perfect will of God, right,or you have to like?
In tying back to John 14, whereJesus says I am in you, you are
in me and I am in God, and sobeing obedient leads to that
fruit.
So you don't have to try and doit on your own, you allow the
(27:12):
spirit to lead you.
Walter (27:17):
That you know.
I think you know.
What comes to mind is scripture, where it talks about being
deeply rooted in Christ.
Yeah.
And allowing your roots to groweven more deep.
Right.
Shanea (27:25):
So it's not you going to God and asking for these things
, or things to be fulfilled, orthese problems that you have,
and bringing it to him.
It's literally like you willget everything that you need
when you are part of the vine.
Walter (27:40):
Well, it digs back to.
It ties back to Genesis 1 and 2, where Adam and Eve had
everything they needed withinthe garden of Eden.
So there was not a need to askfor protection or ask for
provision, they just flowed.
(28:01):
There was a responsibility thatGod gave to them.
They knew what they weresupposed to do, so they focused
on doing that and God handledeverything else.
So I think that's so important.
That's good that you made thatpoint.
Yeah.
That you don't have to focus onthat when you are actually
connected to the vine.
So it shifts even how you pray.
Yeah.
Your prayers is.
(28:21):
Your prayer is not full of alist of demands.
Yeah.
Or wish lists per se Right.
You're praying because you knowyou still deal with battles.
You still deal with the enemycoming up against your family.
So you take that to God andthat's there.
But you also approach it fromthe perspective of like God.
(28:41):
I know you got me.
Shanea (28:43):
Right, I know you got me , but also I want to be more
like you.
I want to know your mind, Iwant to know what you're
thinking.
Walter (28:48):
I want to be in you.
Shanea (28:50):
I want you to be in me.
Walter (28:52):
Then you will begin to find yourself in a situation
where you are hating what hehates and love what he loves.
Right, so that's good, that'sgood.
So I think I'll say this andthen we'll move forward.
This is so good.
Obedience isn't just a rule tofollow yeah it's a path that
(29:15):
leads to greater intimacy withGod.
Obedience literally flows outof the desire for a deeper
relationship with God, not frommere adherence to rules yeah,
yeah.
Shanea (29:31):
And while you touched on , that, I have also here, but I
don't think I put it on here foryou to see, where I put in Mark
seven.
Mark seven, eight basicallysays for you ignore God's law
and substitute your owntradition.
Walter (29:53):
For you ignore God's law and substitute your own
tradition.
For you ignore God's law andsubstitute your own tradition.
Shanea (29:57):
Yeah, so like my thought was when I wrote down that we
can't be so caught up in rightstanding and traditions brought
on by culture and religion thatwe forget that disobedience to
God's word is a sin.
So when he's speaking and he'stelling you to do something, you
got to do it regardless if itgoes against the law.
Walter (30:20):
Because the law told Jesus that he wasn't supposed to
heal on the Sabbath and he'sstill healed Exactly.
And so the law.
Sometimes it's true becausethere's a culture in church.
A lot of stuff people do in thechurch makes no sense, and so
the law sometimes it's true,because there's a culture in
church.
A lot of stuff people do in thechurch makes no sense.
It's nothing but culture.
It's passed down.
Shanea (30:38):
Yeah, but the thing is is when God speaks, you don't
know why he's telling you to dowhat you're doing.
Walter (30:46):
Or listen, listen to this A culture Okay, a culture
that is not rooted in thekingdom of God is still demonic.
Yes, even if it's within thechurch.
Shanea (31:02):
Yes.
Walter (31:04):
So, okay, let's say this A church culture that is not
rooted within the kingdom of Godis demonic.
Shanea (31:13):
When they're not in the vine.
Walter (31:15):
It's demonic.
Shanea (31:16):
Yes.
Walter (31:17):
Anything that is detached of the kingdom,
detached away from the kingdomof God.
Shanea (31:21):
And anything that don't bear fruit is what.
Walter (31:23):
Demonic.
Cursed, it's cursed, it'sdemonic.
Shanea (31:26):
It's cursed.
We have to dig intounderstanding this, because it's
so Just like Jesus cursed thattree because it didn't bear
fruit, this is going to hurt andwe have to be rooted in.
Walter (31:34):
Christ.
This is so uncomfortable.
This is so uncomfortablebecause I'm sorry, religion is
not God.
Yeah.
Once again religion is whatcrucified Jesus.
Shanea (31:44):
Yes.
Walter (31:46):
Religion wanted Jesus out.
Yes, religion wanted Jesusunalived.
Shanea (31:51):
Yes, and they did.
Walter (31:53):
Like.
Literally, it fell within theplan of God for Christ's life
and why he came in the firstplace to become the perfect
sacrifice, but religion withinitself was demonic.
Shanea (32:04):
That's why we shouldn't pursue right standing and we
should pursue relationship,which is what Jesus came to
teach Exactly.
He always talked about himbecause relationship with the
father, god is going to tell youthings that isn't written in
the law.
It's going to go against theodds, and what came to me when I
was thinking about this wasmary and joseph.
(32:25):
Mary was pregnant.
Joseph, by all accounts, asaccording to society and culture
, should not have married her.
Walter (32:32):
Nope, Because she had to have committed adultery Exactly
Even before she sinned shefornicated he should not have
married her.
Shanea (32:38):
But God gave him a commandment and said you have to
marry her because this is who Icalled you to be with, so that
I can birth forth my promise,which is Jesus.
Walter (32:48):
But if Joseph would have approached that from a natural
perspective which is whathappens a lot of time with
religion, it's not spiritual,it's naturally based he would
have forfeited everything.
Shanea (32:59):
He would have forfeited everything.
But the thing is the reason whyGod chose Joseph is because
Joseph came from David's line.
Everything ties together.
It's a reason.
It's a reason, it's a reason itwas a promise that was made to
David the.
Messiah is going to come fromyour line, Joseph genealogy.
(33:21):
When you follow it is a part ofDavid's line.
He had to marry Mary and birthforth Jesus.
So it's like, no, you can'tchoose your partner, and I'm
going to go back to it.
You can't.
You have to be in the perfectwill of God.
Walter (33:39):
You have to be obedient to his word.
Yeah, I mean, I'm not going todo that because I ain't even
trying to deal with these people.
No, I'm just saying it, justkind of all just ties together
about not following traditionand following culture.
That's true.
That's true.
Shanea (33:59):
Yet to stay on topic, Because God has a purpose and he
has a plan.
We are on topic.
Walter (34:05):
We are kind of, but we have so much to get through that
I want to get to we're beingobedient.
We are Now and you're speakingof Jesus, but obedience leads to
intimacy, and Jesus, he's theexample.
Right.
John 11.
And I believe you put John 11in right.
Did.
I Did.
(34:25):
I put John 11?
.
You might have put.
John 11 in there.
Let me see God was giving somuch information.
Oh, I did put John 11.
So everyone, please read John11.
Please read John 11.
It's really good.
It touches on when Jesus raisedLazarus from the dead, and so
(34:49):
we don't have time to readthrough all of it.
Shanea (34:52):
I guess you could just tell them what happened.
Walter (34:57):
So essentially, Lazarus was a friend of Jesus.
Lazarus was the brother of Maryand Martha and Mary was the one
that poured down the or pouredthe expensive perfume on the
Lord's feet and washed his feetwith it and wiped it with her
hair.
(35:18):
So Lazarus was sick and theysent message to the Lord asking
him to come to heal Lazarus.
Verse 4 says but when Jesusheard about it, he said Lazarus'
sickness will not end in death.
Heard about it, he saidLazarus' sickness will not end
in death.
No, it happened for the gloryof God, so that the Son of God
(35:38):
will receive glory from this.
So although Jesus loved Martha,mary and Lazarus, the Bible
says he stayed where he was forthe next two days.
Finally, he said to hisdisciples let's go back to Judea
.
Mm-hmm.
But his disciples objected,rabbi, they said only a few days
ago the people in Judea weretrying to stone you and you're
(35:59):
going there again.
Jesus replied there are 12hours of daylight every day.
During the day people can walksafely, they can see because
they have the light of thisworld.
But at night there is danger ofstumbling because they have the
light of this world, but atnight there is danger of
stumbling because they have nolight.
Then he said our friend Lazarushas fallen asleep, but now I
(36:20):
will go and wake him up.
We dig deeper down, or gofurther down, where it touches
on how Mary saw Jesus, and shewas just distraught and it
literally tugged at Jesus' heart.
But he knew he had to allowthis to take place.
(36:42):
He knew Lazarus had to die, andso it's an example of Jesus
showing that his love for Godwas greater than anything, that
even if it meant going againsthis own flesh, he still chose to
be obedient to God Because hehad a close relationship with
(37:04):
Lazarus, mary and Martha and byaccounts they're his friends.
So why didn't he just heal himright to save her from that pain
?
Because lazareth was dead forthree days he could have, but he
was being obedient because theobedience was greater.
So it shows us an example that,even when it goes against how we
feel right, we still submitourselves to the perfect will of
(37:28):
the father and we show Him andthe world how much we love Him
by doing so.
Shanea (37:32):
And even though we can do something, it's should we do
it.
Walter (37:37):
Yes.
Shanea (37:38):
And it's always asking, because this is what we do when
we're asking God a question,it's God should we do this Not
can I do it, because weobviously can do whatever we
want to do, because we havepermissive will.
Permissive will, but it'sshould I do this.
Walter (37:53):
Yeah, that's the key thing, and I'll read this
because I think it explains itperfectly.
It says Jesus exemplifies theperfect balance of obedience and
intimacy even in moments ofsorrow, ie the death of Lazarus.
Jesus shows that the intimacywith God goes beyond external
(38:15):
actions.
It's about heart to heartconnection.
And so, jesus, obedience to thefather was a reflection of his
love and his commitment to thefather's will.
So how committed are you to thefather's will?
Father's will?
(38:36):
So how committed are you to thefather's will?
Will you be so committed to thefather's will that you would go
through experiencing grief andsuffering in order to follow his
will?
That's suffering.
Shanea (38:46):
Most people don't.
Walter (38:48):
That's what suffering is Not self-induced, but Jesus
doing what he did in thisinstance, that was a perfect
example of suffering.
I love the Father more.
Shanea (39:02):
It's dying to yourself, dying to yourself.
Walter (39:05):
Yeah, it's suffering.
Shanea (39:06):
It's death.
Walter (39:08):
And so I want to ask this we're not going to ask
every question, but how can wemodel Jesus relationship with
the father in our own lives?
Yeah, and I think I'll answerthat.
You have to let go of your, youhave to die to self, you have
(39:36):
to crucify your flesh.
You literally have to die.
You have to want God more thanyou want anything else.
You have to let go ofeverything that you thought your
life should be in order toaccept and walk in what it is,
that he's called for you.
And even when walking in thatit's not about that.
(39:58):
It's about not being apart fromhim.
That's more important thananything in the world.
Not what I gain, not me beingable to see, not the dreams, not
the visions, not the whatevercomes along with what God's
purpose is for your life.
It's simply a yearning to havea greater and more intimate
(40:19):
relationship with him.
Right To where you say whateveryou tell me to do, I will do.
Whatever you tell me to say, Iwill say.
Whatever you tell me to go, Iwill go.
That's what Jesus consistentlytold us it's not desiring the
gifts and the blessings morethan the blesser and the gifter
yes, that's the best way to putit.
So we are about to dig intodeep waters.
(40:40):
We got some ways to go, butwe're about to dig into deep
waters.
This is what God was dealingwith me on this is what God was
dealing with me on.
So in the beginning, right Adamand Eve, they sinned.
Their sin was disobedience.
(41:04):
God told them not to eat fromthe tree.
The enemy came and he deceivedthem and convinced them to eat
from the tree.
And so, in doing that, what Godwas dealing with me on is this
right here, the enemy's lovelanguage is disobedience to God.
Shanea (41:23):
Right.
Walter (41:27):
And everything he does, he tries to get us out of the
perfect will of God.
We show the enemy that we lovehim when we disobey God.
Exactly, we disobey God.
Shanea (41:30):
Exactly, we disobey God's commands, we disobey his
words.
Walter (41:34):
And the dangerous thing is that this is how it was
presented to me.
His desire is to lead peopleaway from the will of God,
masquerading as a voice thatpromotes self-love and
self-worship.
Right as a voice that promotesself-love, and self-worship,
like he gets us caught upbecause it's like oh well,
(41:55):
you're doing this because it'sbest for you and it's not wrong
for you to want what's best foryou.
Sometimes you need to be focusedon what's best for you, but we
don't realize in doing that weare becoming our own God.
And the greatest thing with theenemy, with his fall, it
stemmed from pride andselfishness.
Shanea (42:16):
Right, but it also teaches us to pleasure ourselves
.
Walter (42:21):
So I think that was so key.
Shanea (42:23):
Because Eve saw the fruit and she thought it was
delicious.
Walter (42:27):
So I think that I'll ask you this question.
Mm-hmm, thought it wasdelicious, so I think that I'll
ask you this question how doesdisobedience open the door for
spiritual separation and hinderour relationship with God.
Shanea (42:40):
How does disobedience open the door for spiritual
separation and hinder ourrelationship with God.
Well, we see that in the gardenthey were disobedient.
God gave them a word and toldthem not to eat from this fruit
or eat from this tree, andbecause the enemy wants us to
(43:06):
focus on ourselves and what'sgood for us and what's going to
be good for us which heexplained to Eve in the garden
this is going to be good for youbecause you're going to be like
.
God and he don't want you toknow that when you give in to
those fleshly desires that arenot led by the Spirit of God,
(43:29):
you will sin and you'll becomedisobedient.
Walter (43:32):
And you'll become disconnected.
Shanea (43:33):
Right, because you'll be out of the perfect will of God.
Walter (43:35):
Yeah, well, when we think about separation from God,
god hates sin, and sin isdisobedience, and so I would say
that, with that, it creates adisconnect every time we disobey
God.
Every time we disobey God, itcreates a disconnect between us
(43:59):
and him.
Shanea (44:00):
Yeah, because we're serving another God.
Walter (44:02):
Yes, so there's a lot of traffic right now.
I can't hear anything.
Shanea (44:09):
I can't hear anything.
Walter (44:10):
I can.
So I would say the disobediencein a way, based on what we've
read and based on what we'veseen happen in the Bible and
based on the way God explainedit.
The reason disobedienceseparates us from God is because
it's a direct way of us showing, without realizing it, that we
(44:32):
don't love them.
Shanea (44:33):
Right, and it leads us down a path of sin, sinful
behaviors.
Walter (44:38):
Yes, but like, if I'm doing stuff right, if you and I
are together and I do thingsthat would basically hurt you
and, in a way, show you that Idon't want to be, I'm like I'm
showing you about what I do.
Right.
I don't want to be botheredwith you.
That will begin to create adisconnect.
Shanea (44:59):
Yeah, Because you're you're saying one thing, but
you're doing another.
Walter (45:04):
Or let's oh my gosh, yeah.
So the way that disobediencethank you, scratch all of that
the way that disobedienceseparates man from God is being
disobedient to God places you ina position where you become
(45:28):
ashamed to be in his presence.
Shanea (45:32):
Yeah, and that's what we touched on in the last one, and
when I was reading the Isaiah,ezekiel, ezekiel, that it goes
back to Ezekiel, I believe, 16,where we were talking about
idolatry.
Walter (45:48):
Yeah, it starts with Adam and Eve.
Shanea (45:50):
Yeah.
Walter (45:51):
Because the first thing the Bible says after they ate
from the tree, that theyimmediately realized that they
were naked and they were ashamed.
Shanea (46:00):
So it brings forth shame , and we did talk about that I
think in the first episode,second episode, he said he will
give you over to your idol andyou will come back because you
will be ashamed.
So disobedience or sin?
Walter (46:12):
and just at the basic, and people may disagree with
this, but it's true Disobedienceis the actual sin right.
The sin itself is disobedience.
There's acts, there's thingsthat we do, but at the end of
the day, sin is disobedience toGod.
Yes, Sin is disobedience to Godbecause we get so caught up in
(46:35):
stuff and judge people becauseours isn't as noticeable Right.
But anytime you disobey God,you're sinning against God If
God has told you that you'resupposed to do this and you're
not supposed to do that and youdo it anyway.
That's sin.
Right.
Shanea (46:50):
Simple.
It's simple, Not complicated,Just because it's not written
down in the book.
In the law it's still sin.
God told Isaac not to go toEgypt.
Yeah.
Walter (46:58):
There's not a law saying that Isaac has to stay out of
Egypt.
Right, god told Isaac not to goto Egypt If Isaac would have
been sin because it would havebeen disobedience to God.
Just like God told Adam and Evenot to eat from the tree, the
sin was the disobedience.
The sin was doing what God toldthem not to do.
So let's not get so technicalthat we're like okay, well, God
(47:21):
didn't say this specifically inthe Bible, but what did he tell
you?
What did he tell you?
Shanea (47:29):
Right, because he knows you better than you know
yourself.
Yeah, he has.
He has everything written downin a book.
Walter (47:36):
So cause we are looking at time Um true worship.
Shanea (47:44):
What do you mean?
True worship?
Walter (47:46):
True worship.
You want to read that.
John four and 24, and I'll getum romans 12 and 1 you said john
4 and 24 for god is spirit, sothose who worship him must
worship in spirit and in truthand so what I wrote down here is
(48:11):
understanding that God isspirit and calls us.
Worshiping God in spirit andtruth is understanding that God
is spirit and calls us toworship him through a deep,
authentic submission to his will.
And the reason that that wassaid was because of Romans 12.
It says and so, dear brothersand sisters, I plead with you to
(48:32):
give your bodies to God becauseof all he has done for you.
Let them be a living and holysacrifice, the kind he will find
acceptable.
This is truly the way toworship him.
This is truly the way toworship him that digs back into
Jesus, saying that God is spiritand we must worship him in
(48:55):
spirit and truth.
Shanea (48:56):
Right and give your bodies so him and me, me and him
.
Mm, hmm, mm hmm, mm, hmm.
Walter (49:03):
So true worship is becoming a living, holy and
consecrated sacrifice.
Yes, it's about offering ourwhole lives to god, not just
through rituals right or songsor tradition or tradition or
culture or culture, but in everyaspect of our daily walk.
So our life become a livingworship song as they would say
(49:27):
we think worship is just yousinging a worship song.
Shanea (49:30):
Right Worship is the way that you live your life.
Worship is how you live yourlife, because we are altars.
Walter (49:36):
Yes, we are not only altars, we are temples.
We are temples, we are temples.
The Holy Spirit dwells withinus.
We are temples.
Shanea (49:46):
And what do you do in temples?
Walter (49:48):
You worship, you worship are temples, and what do you do
in temples?
You worship.
So true worship, then, is totalsubmission to god's will, not
just outward obedience, but aheart completely yielded to him.
We can keep going, and we cankeep going because we got so
(50:08):
much good stuff here.
We see an example of that withSamuel right when Samuel went to
and this is coming out of 1Samuel, 16, 6 through 7.
When Samuel was looking for theking to replace Saul, the Bible
lets us know that he saw one ofDavid's brothers and he was like
(50:29):
immediately, this got to beking, he looks like a king.
He looks like a king.
Shanea (50:33):
He built like a king.
Walter (50:34):
And God immediately corrected Samuel and said stop,
men, judge by their outwardappearance, I judge by their
heart.
It's not who I call to be king.
Keep looking.
It's all about the heartposture Right, psalms 51, verse
10 through 11, verse 16 through19.
(50:56):
And I'll read these becausethey're so important.
Let me see Psalms 51, verse 10.
It says create in me a cleanheart, oh God.
Renew a loyal spirit within me.
Do not banish me from yourpresence and don't take your
Holy Spirit from me.
Verse 16 says you do not desirea sacrifice, or I would offer
one.
(51:16):
You do not want a burntoffering.
The sacrifice you desire is abroken spirit.
You will not reject a brokenand repentant heart.
O God, look with favor on Zionand help her rebuild the walls
of Jerusalem.
Then you will be pleased withsacrifices offered in the right
(51:37):
spirit, with burnt offerings andwhole burnt offerings.
Then bulls will again besacrificed on your altar, if
your heart isn't right.
God don't want your sacrifices.
Shanea (51:47):
We've seen that with Cain and Abel.
Walter (51:48):
And that's why God was saying you can be obedient to me
as much as you want, but yourheart posture is wrong.
I don't want it.
The scent that it gives up Idon't like.
That's essentially what Davidwas saying.
You don't care about thisunless the heart posture is
right, unless you have a brokenspirit.
There has to be a place ofhumility.
Your heart has to be in rightstanding with God so that God
(52:17):
will accept your offerings, andyour offerings just isn't money,
your offerings is obedience.
Let's dig into that, and I don'tknow if we've touched on it
before.
The church will get you tobelieve that the seed is the
money you give.
No, the seed is the obedience.
The seed is not the amount,it's not what you give your seed
can be.
You sowing your time.
Your seed can be.
God told you to do somethingand you did it.
Your seed is tied to yourobedience.
Shanea (52:39):
It's tied to your heart.
Walter (52:40):
posture Exactly Total surrendering to God, because God
don't care about your offerings?
No, he don't.
Shanea (52:47):
If it's not coming from a place of love of a place of
humility.
Walter (52:52):
Exactly, and so I think we got some stuff.
You want to touch on thepractical ways to pursue God
through obedience.
Shanea (53:06):
What's that nine Mm-hmm?
Through obedience.
What's that nine Mm-hmm?
That obedience should be anongoing pursuit of God?
Mm-hmm.
Not a one-time act.
Walter (53:19):
Why is that so important ?
Shanea (53:25):
Why obedience should be an ongoing pursuit of God.
Mm-hmm.
And not a one-time thing.
Walter (53:31):
I know, but I'm just.
Why is it so important?
Why is it so important for youto consistently pursue obedience
in God?
Shanea (53:40):
So you could be in right standing.
What?
Tell me why I don't.
What?
What's the answer you'relooking for?
Because you look, you'relooking at me like you want me
to answer it the way that youare thinking about the answer.
Walter (54:01):
So if I stop pursuing you and our marriage and our
relationship, what happens withour relationship?
Shanea (54:08):
It dies.
Walter (54:09):
Exactly.
That's why obedience to God isso important and that's why the
pursuit of God is so important.
Your heart posture, becauseanything that you don't pursue,
or when you don't pursue arelationship, the relationship
will become stagnant.
That's true.
It doesn't change the fact thatGod stops loving you.
You stopped loving him.
Yeah.
(54:30):
It's not that God drew awayfrom you, you drew away from him
.
God didn't draw away from Adamand Eve, they drew away from him
.
Shanea (54:39):
That's true.
Walter (54:39):
They had consequences associated with the decisions
they made, but they becameashamed.
Shanea (54:45):
Yeah, draw near and I'll draw near to you.
Speaker 4 (54:47):
Exactly, so that's what that says, yeah, draw near,
and I'll draw near to youExactly.
Walter (54:51):
So that's what that says , and the ways that we do this
is through prayer, through beingin our scriptures, is being
mindful of what we listen to,mindful of what we watch, and
just really submitting ourentire life to God, making sure,
because there's all of thesedifferent sectors within our
lives.
You can't say, oh God, I'llsubmit my job to you, but I'm
(55:14):
not going to submit myrelationship.
Shanea (55:15):
Oh God, I'll submit my relationship to you, but I'm not
going to spend time with you.
Walter (55:17):
Yes, it's everything.
Shanea (55:19):
I'm only going to spend time when I need something.
Walter (55:22):
I'm only going to spend time when I'm in trouble.
Who are you calling first whenyou're dealing with stuff?
You calling on God?
Who are you going to first tosay, yeah, I thank you for
waking me up in the morning?
Who are you speaking tothroughout the day?
And so it's like all of thesethings showcase and put you in a
position to where you canpursue God and then you can have
(55:43):
the power of the Holy Spirit toallow you to remain in the
position of consistentlysubmitting to the will of God
for your life, which isobedience.
And that's what we dig intoGalatians 5, where it talks
about allowing the spirit of Godto lead your life versus being
led by your flesh.
Flesh wants you to bedisobedient to God.
(56:03):
Spirit of God always wants youto be obedient.
Right.
So I don't think this was thislong distant today.
Shanea (56:16):
No.
Walter (56:17):
It was really straight.
Yeah, I have some other stuff,but yeah.
What do you have?
Shanea (56:22):
I don't know I might put this in here Practical ways to
pursue God, through obedienceAlso.
By pursuing God, you come toknow who you are Very true, as
you pursue God, god also revealswho you are.
Walter (56:45):
Romans 12, 1-2.
I believe that specifically isverse 2.
Shanea (56:50):
And what I have in here is Jeremiah 29 through 11.
29, 11.
For I know the plans I have foryou, declares the Lord.
And so, as you pursue the Lord,he starts to reveal his plans
for you.
While you're also getting toknow him, you're getting to know
yourself, because he's going toreveal things to you.
(57:12):
He's going to reveal truth toyou about yourself and about,
obviously, the kingdom of God.
He's going to give youmysteries.
He's going to show you wonders.
He's going to give you gifts.
And all that's cool, but inorder to know who our true
identity is, we have to continueto pursue God, yes, and we
begin to continue to pursue God,yes, and we begin to find our
(57:32):
identity in Christ.
Walter (57:33):
And to add to what you said, there's Romans 12, verse 2
, don't copy the behavior andcustoms of this world, but let
God transform you into a newperson by changing the way you
think.
Then you will learn to knowGod's will for you, which is
good and pleasing and perfect,understanding what God's will is
for your life is found in thepursuit of God.
Shanea (57:53):
Yeah, and also being able to trust him.
And as you trust him, then youwon't be able to lean on your
own understanding.
Walter (58:00):
It would become muscle memory to lean on God.
Paul talked about when he wasgoing through trials and
tribulations, that they were tothe point, the brink of death.
But in the point of being tothe brink of death, what ended
up happening is they learned totrust and rely on God.
And this is 2 Corinthians 1,chapter 1, verse 8 through 10.
(58:24):
He says we think you ought toknow, dear brothers and sisters,
about the trouble we wentthrough in the province of Asia.
We were crushed and overwhelmed, beyond our ability to endure,
and we thought we would neverlive through it.
In fact, we expected to die.
But as a result, we stoppedrelying on ourselves and learned
(58:45):
to rely on God, who raised thedead, or raises the dead, and he
did rescue us from mortaldanger and he will rescue us
again.
We have placed our confidencein him and he will continue to
rescue us.
So, even in the midst ofsubmitting to God, sometimes it
may seem as if you're in somedark times, but you got to trust
(59:05):
that God will rescue you.
And in the midst of trustingthat God will rescue you, he
will.
But it teaches you once againto have total reliance on him,
like it taught Paul.
Right.
And that's what Paul was sayingLike we've been through this
once and I see them do it.
Shanea (59:20):
The thing is in this constant examples in the Bible
where you have to keep yourfocus on God, keep your focus on
Jesus.
Even when Peter was trying towalk on water, he kept his focus
on Jesus.
Once he took it off, he was inthe water.
Walter (59:36):
Exactly so.
I think that's good.
I think we've made some reallygreat points.
So even in hard times likeMeshach, so I think, just to
encourage everyone, take awayfrom this don't treat your
relationship with Godsuperficial.
Don't approach it as asuperficial relationship and
(01:00:00):
expect to experience his glory.
The glory of God comes throughintentional pursuit and
obedience.
Obedience is the pathway todeeper intimacy and greater
manifestation of God's glory inyour life.
So it's so easy to approach Godand the relationship with God
(01:00:26):
as if it's a superficialrelationship, it's only surface
level.
We can't do that and expect toexperience God in all his glory,
god's glory, experiencing God'sglory comes through pursuit,
consistent pursuit.
We have to desire him more thananything else and then, within
(01:00:47):
doing that to those who havequestions that we've seen in the
comment section and things ofthat nature you find that in the
pursuit of God you find thoseanswers in the pursuit of God.
Shanea (01:01:04):
And I know sometimes it feels like I want to give people
more, like a better answer, butthe only answer I have is that
you have to draw closer to Godso he can reveal all the truths
to you.
Walter (01:01:16):
That is the answer.
Shanea (01:01:17):
That's it.
Walter (01:01:18):
There's nothing else, sorry.
And it's a beautiful thingbecause at the same time, it
teaches you to hone into hisvoice and have an understanding
of his voice, because we aren'tyour gods.
Shanea (01:01:32):
No we're not.
We provide you with revelationfrom God, but we are not God.
Walter (01:01:37):
And we have to go through the same process and we
continually have to go throughthe same process.
There'd be questions we havethat were like we need an answer
now, god, and sometimes hedon't even give us the answer.
No because he don't have to.
No, because he's God.
Job Job was a prime example ofthat.
He's God.
He don't have to answer you.
Many times he will, butsometimes he don't, and
(01:01:59):
sometimes him not answering youis an answer.
Right.
So I think that's a good placefor us to stop.
This has been good.
I think it's a great discussionyeah um prayerfully.
This has been a blessing to youall.
I know this week's episodemight be a little bit shorter,
(01:02:22):
but I think it was directly.
Shanea (01:02:25):
We said all that needed to be said.
Walter (01:02:26):
Yeah it was precise and straight to the point so we can
try and go a little longer, butnot gonna push it.
No, not gonna push it, so wepray that this was a blessing to
you.
Uh, we appreciate your support.
Definitely do be in the commentsection.
I see you all comment a lot oninstagram um share it if you are
(01:02:46):
enjoying this.
If this being a blessing to you, let us know how.
Shanea (01:02:49):
Share it with others?
Yes, so it can be a blessing tothem, those who need to hear it
.
Walter (01:02:54):
Yes, Like, comment, subscribe.
And we just pray that thiscontinue to be a blessing.
So until next week, we'll seeyou.
Then We'll see you then.
Bye, goodbye.
Welcome back to another episode of Stepping in Faith,
where, together, we explore theimportance of having a
relationship with God and howthat relationship with God can
impact the relationship you havewith others.
I'm your host, walter, and I'mjoined here alongside my lovely
wife.
Shanea (00:15):
Shanea.
Walter (00:16):
This is episode 10.
Yes.
What is this week's title?
Episode title you don't have itOkay, Obedience is God's love
language.
I got you.
Shanea (00:33):
I'm sorry I just had so many notes.
Yeah, I was, I was, I wasblanking.
Walter (00:38):
Obedience is God's love language is this week's title.
Yes, so we are believers.
So the best way that we startthis off which I think would be
a great way to start this off isin prayer.
So, babe, you want to open thisup in prayer?
Shanea (00:54):
Sure.
Walter (00:55):
All right, let's do it.
Shanea (00:56):
Father God, we thank you for this day.
We thank you for your love,your grace and your mercy.
We thank you for everyonelistening.
We ask, father God, that youwill give them ears to hear,
that you will open up theirhearts.
Father God and Holy Spirit, weask that you will use us as a
vessel to your word to providerevelation and understanding to
those who are listening.
In Jesus' name, we pray.
Walter (01:17):
Amen, amen.
Short and simple, okay.
So obedience is God's lovelanguage, so this came from a
conversation that I was havingwith God last week now yeah,
(01:40):
yeah.
Yeah, I woke up and what Godwas dealing with me on is that
it's very easy to make obedienceyour God.
Shanea (01:53):
Trying to keep the law.
Walter (01:55):
Yeah, even though obedience is God's love language
.
He said it's important that wenever place anything above Him
or pursuing Him, and he saidit's about relationship and God
is always looking at our heartposture.
(02:16):
So it was really key because itmade me realize that, while
obedience is extremely important, the biggest thing that God
looks at with us is our heartposture, so your love language
(02:39):
may be affirmations or whatevermay have you, but if my main
focus is just affirming you, doI really show that I'm loving
you?
Shanea (02:46):
Yeah, it's like, am I just doing things out of routine
, because I'm supposed to do it.
Just like that little story youalways talk about with the man
and the flowers.
Are you giving flowers becauseyou want to give her flowers?
Are you giving flowers becauseit's the give her flowers?
Are you giving flowers becauseit's the right thing to do?
Walter (03:06):
okay, you're not talking to the mic, but yes, that's
very true okay.
I might need to just extend itoh, maybe so yeah these new
headphones.
Shanea (03:18):
I can't really tell.
Walter (03:19):
Yeah, there you go okay, and so, uh, yeah, that's very
important.
What you're referring to iswhen I state that there's two
men that buys flowers for theirwives and there's one, when they
buy the flowers is because he'sshowing that he's doing it
because he love her, and theother one buy the flowers
(03:39):
because he knows that's whathe's supposed to do and that's
relationship versus religion.
Because he knows that's whathe's supposed to do and that's
relationship versus religion.
And really, in a nutshell, whatGod was kind of dealing with me
on was relationship versusreligion, because religion is
based on rules and regulationsand it's like it's the belief
that the things that you do makeyou righteous, and relationship
(04:00):
says it's not the things that Ido that makes me righteous, but
it's my relationship with him,it's my faith in him, it's my
reliance upon him that makes merighteous.
Both still are required to livea life of righteousness
holiness, sanctification,consecration.
The only difference is oneknows it comes from within and
(04:23):
why they're able to do that, andthe other one feels it comes
from on and why they're able todo that, and the other one feels
it comes from on the outside.
What you mean.
So one believes.
Religion says that the worksthat I do on the outside can
help change the inside of me.
Relationship says it's the workthat takes place within me that
completely changes what I do onthe outside.
Shanea (04:40):
Right, and I'm sorry, I'm a little foggy.
Walter (04:42):
No, it's fine.
It's been a lot going on.
Shanea (04:44):
I'm a little foggy, but yeah.
No, you're right, but the onlyway you can do that is through
the Holy Spirit.
Walter (04:49):
Yes, yes, so that was a lot, I think.
(05:14):
But getting into this week'sepisode some of the key
scriptures that we have that wewill be going over.
We have John 14, 21, as well as30 to 31.
We have Exodus 33, 12 to 3, 12to 23.
12 to 23.
We have John 11.
We have Matthew 7, 21 through23.
We have John 4 24.
We have Romans 12.1.
We have 1 Samuel 16.6-7.
And we have Psalms 51.10-11 and16-19.
It's a lot of scriptures.
We have John 14.15-21.
Shanea (05:38):
We'll put them in the description so that you guys can
just kind of reference.
Walter (05:43):
Yeah, and we have John 14, verse 23.
So I guess the best way tostart this off is defining
obedience and love.
So we've already talked aboutwhat God was saying to me, what
obedience is and how obediencecan be used and can become a God
(06:04):
to many of us is, and howobedience can be used and can
become a God to many of us, andthat it's a difference between
one's desire to be obedient justbecause and one's desire to be
obedient to show the father thatthey love the father.
So the important, I think theimportant thing to take away
(06:25):
from this is and we'll probablysay this so many times
throughout this episode it's allabout your heart posture.
So God is consistently lookingat your heart posture.
What type of heart posture doyou have?
Shanea (06:40):
Yeah, it's like why are you doing the things that you
are doing?
Are you doing it for your ownselfish gain?
Walter (06:50):
Or are you doing it simply out of unconditional love
?
So I guess the great way tostart off from you.
What does it mean to truly loveGod and how do you think
obedience?
Shanea (07:05):
fit into our relationship with him.
You got questions now what doesit truly mean to love God, and
how does?
Obedience fit into ourrelationship with him.
I do believe that what it trulymeans to love God how do you
show God love is throughobedience, right, and through
(07:28):
that obedience will bring forthfruit.
So that's how obedience fitsinto our relationship with him.
It's to fulfill his purposes inlife.
Walter (07:42):
Yeah, it's a part of pursuit in life.
Yeah, it's a part of pursuit.
It's one of the ways that weshowcase that we desire a deeper
relationship with the Father.
And so the Bible speaks ofDavid and said David is a man
after God's own heart.
The reason that was the case isDavid loved and hated what God
(08:05):
hated Right, he desired him morethan anything, right, so it was
a pursuit after the things ofGod, consistently.
So I think when we think abouttoday's episode and we're
switching the format up a littlebit, we'll see how it goes a
(08:27):
little bit.
We'll see how it goes uh, thethings that we're going to uh
discuss today is therelationship between obedience,
love and a deeper pursuit ofgod's presence sound like a lot
it kind of tied together does itI think so.
okay, so obedience versus rightstanding right.
I think we can start with John14, verse 21.
(08:48):
We've read this before, and 30through 31.
Mm-hmm, do you want to readthat or do you want me to read
it?
Shanea (08:56):
You said John 14, 21?
Mm-hmm, Let me pull it up.
Oh, you can go ahead, I'malready in.
I'm in NKG.
I mean NKJ.
Walter (09:16):
So John 14 and 21,.
This is what Jesus said.
He said those who accept mycommandments and obey them are
the ones who love me, andbecause they love me, my father
will love them and I will lovethem and reveal myself to each
one of them, or each of them.
Those who accept mycommandments and obey them are
the ones who love me and becausethey love me, my Father will
love them and I will love themand reveal myself to each of
(09:38):
them.
And then, further on, jesussaid and I'm going to let you
read the scripture you want toread, but it says verse 30, I
don't have much more time totalk to you because the ruler of
this world approaches me.
He has no power over me, but Iwould do what the Father
requires of me so that the worldwould know that I love the
(10:00):
Father.
So with both of these, with allthree of these scriptures right,
it all ties back into obedience, obedience being an act of
showing god that you love himright yet jesus being obedient
was just not because he wantedto be obedient or he wanted to
be in right standing, the law itwas his desire just to have a
(10:24):
deeper relationship with thefather.
Shanea (10:26):
He loved the father so much that he's like I have to
show you and the world how muchI love you by obeying everything
that you tell me to do yeah,it's no different than like your
kids just doing stuff becausethey know they want to hear you
say I'm proud of you and I loveyou because you do this and not
because I'm just doing itbecause my mom told me to.
Walter (10:48):
Yeah, so when you when I love the way this is here it
was written out Jesus connectsloving him to keeping his
commands.
Obedience is more than duty.
It's a way to express love andintimacy.
Duty it's a way to express love, and intimacy, and that ties
back into what you just said.
Yeah.
(11:18):
That us being obedient to theFather, us being obedient to
Jesus, is a way of creating adeeper level of intimacy and
cultivating that relationship.
So I think that's definitelykey and I think that's really
important.
And then it digs further withthe heart posture versus
performance.
We talked about this.
We don't pursue right standing,but right relationship.
(11:38):
Right.
We don't pursue right standing,but right relationship.
Shanea (11:44):
Right, but we're taught the opposite.
Walter (11:46):
Yes, the focus should always be on our love for God
and the way we engage with him,and so now it you touched on
this before right, it's notabout the whole transition or
not transition transactional,like we're taught to have a
transactional type love.
Shanea (12:07):
Right, like if I give you something, you have to give
me something back.
I give you 50, you give me 50.
I give you a hundred, you giveme a hundred.
Walter (12:14):
So it's a situation where we are consistently
expecting something in return.
So I'm doing this because thisit me, this right, it's an, I'm
investing and that's religion.
Religion, says we, even whenyou look at the whole tithing
system right?
Shanea (12:33):
I was just like you.
Walter (12:34):
I was literally thinking about the same thing yeah, do
this in order to get this fromgod right, I'm gonna invest this
so that I can get somethingfrom god I know I'm gonna gain
something and then I'm going tobe mad if I don't get it because
I invested this.
Exactly, we treat tithing likeit's the stock market.
Shanea (12:50):
It's like what's your heart posture.
Walter (12:51):
We literally treat tithing like it's the stock
market, like we are investinginto the systems of heaven, and
by investing eventually.
Shanea (13:00):
But you know, we can't buy God, so it doesn't even make
sense.
Walter (13:03):
But that's what we're taught, and so, because of that,
everything we do istransactional.
I'm doing this because of this,but once again, we don't pursue
right standing, but rightrelationship.
Yeah.
So obedience is all abouthaving a right relationship with
(13:24):
God.
Shanea (13:25):
Yeah, well, that's the whole reason why Jesus came is
so that he can restore therelationship, because obviously
we can keep the law.
Walter (13:32):
Yeah.
Shanea (13:33):
So you can't have right standing?
No, it's not even a thing.
Walter (13:38):
After Jesus you can do within your own strength because
it goes back to I can thinkback on times when I was so
desperately wanting to try tostop doing certain things.
And it was hard yes, it wasvery hard to like be like okay,
I'm not going to do this Priorto your conversion.
Prior to my conversion.
Shanea (13:56):
Yeah.
Walter (13:56):
But after my conversion, when I committed myself to the
Holy Spirit I say this all thetime November 26th, 2022, was my
conversion date, where Iencountered God he began to
remove the desires.
So now it's through the powerof the Holy Spirit that you no
longer have those desires to dothose things that you was once
doing.
So I think that's reallyimportant, right.
Shanea (14:19):
Yeah, it is only by his spirit that we're able to keep
the law.
And.
I have down here, cause I addedsome stuff in that you probably
can't see.
So what I said is that it is byhis spirit that we are only
able to keep the law.
It is the Holy Spirit thatleads us to the truth, and this
(14:39):
is why Paul lets us know that wehave to be led by our spirit in
all that we do.
And if it's not God's spiritleading you, then what spirit or
spirits are influencing yourdecisions?
Walter (14:53):
Yeah, I think let's, let's, let's dig into this
deeper, because what just cameto me was good, thank you.
So, to kind of expound on whatyou just stated, the interesting
(15:14):
thing is this right here, wedon't realize, as quote unquote
Christians, that the enemy isstill trying to get us to do the
same thing that he getnon-believers to do, or
non-christians, and it is theact of making yourself your god,
yeah, or it is the act of,because, when you think about
(15:35):
religion, me doing these things,yes, makes me righteous right,
I make myself.
Shanea (15:42):
I put myself in right standing when you can't, you can
only do that by way of the holyspirit exactly.
Walter (15:48):
So now, once again, we look at because we're so quick
to recognize the devil andsatanist and all of these things
and whatever you want to wantto point out, but it's so hard
for us to recognize him whenhe's active in the quote-unquote
church.
It's hard for us to recognizehim when he's active in the
quote unquote church.
It's hard for us to recognizehim when dealing with Pharisees
(16:09):
and not understanding, as we'vementioned so many different
times it's the Pharisees thatcrucified.
Shanea (16:14):
Jesus.
Walter (16:16):
It's the Pharisees that chose a murderer.
I believe it was a murdererover Jesus.
And so, with that being thecase, it's really important to
realize that even in that, thatis still serving the enemy.
Shanea (16:30):
Yeah, even following religion, it's still false.
Walter (16:36):
It's still ungodly.
Shanea (16:37):
Yes, because you're not being led by the Holy Spirit,
because let's just put this intofull perspective Monks aren't
bad people.
Right.
Walter (16:49):
Monks are more morally based than Christians.
Monks are more disciplined thanChristians.
Shanea (16:56):
That's true.
Walter (16:58):
Many of the religious practices out here that truly
follow it.
And it's not tainted.
They're not bad people.
No.
They're good people by allaccounts, but you being a good
person is not what is going toget you into heaven no, it's
right relationship.
It's relationship with god byway of jesus christ that's right
(17:20):
it's surrendering to god, it'ssurrendering to j Christ.
It's making him your Lord andSavior.
Shanea (17:27):
And what was coming to me when we had this conversation
in the car about.
I forgot exactly what we weretalking about, but when you have
an employer and you're anemployee- and you're doing
everything.
you're following all the codes,you're doing everything you're
supposed to be doing and youhave somebody else who's doing
what you're doing, but they geta promotion.
Why did they get the promotion?
(17:48):
Because they have arelationship with the boss.
They know the boss.
The boss knows them.
They recognize who they are.
They don't recognize you justbecause you're doing all this
work.
Everybody else is doing thesame thing.
Walter (18:03):
You're a number.
Shanea (18:04):
Yes, you're just a number, but he doesn't recognize
you.
He obviously knows you're anemployee, that you work for him,
but does he recognize you assomeone who he's going to
elevate, who he's going to place, not on a pedestal, but he's
going to bless?
Walter (18:22):
You know, because it boils down to the fact we talked
about this before.
Many a call, but few are chosen.
Right.
And so I guess you, because youput it in here John 14, 15, 15,
verse 15 to 21.
Do you want to read that?
Shanea (18:38):
Yeah, yeah, I did John 14, 15 to 21.
I also have John 16 and 13 inhere as well.
Walter (18:48):
You want to read that, are you there?
Shanea (18:50):
I'm here, john 14.
Walter (18:53):
Beginning at verse 15.
Yeah.
Shanea (18:54):
Verse 15.
If you love me, obey mycommandments and I will ask the
father and he will give youanother advocate who will never
leave you.
He is the Holy Spirit who leadsinto all truth.
The world cannot receive himbecause it isn't looking for him
and doesn't recognize him.
But you know him because helives with you now and later
(19:19):
will be with you.
No, I will not abandon you asorphans.
I will come to you.
Soon the world will no longersee me, but you will see me.
Since I live, you also willlive when I am raised to life
again.
You will know that I am in myFather and you are in me and I
(19:41):
am in you.
Those who accept mycommandments and obey them are
the ones who love me, andbecause they love me, my father
will love them and I will lovethem and reveal myself to each
of them.
Walter (19:54):
Okay, why was that so important to include that in?
Shanea (19:58):
Because Jesus promises the Holy Spirit to guide us into
obedience.
We can't do it without him.
That's why he sent us a helper.
That's why I put it in there,because he sent us a helper.
And then I have John 16, 13 inthere.
That says let me find it.
(20:24):
That says let me find it.
When the spirit of truth comes,he will guide you into all
truth.
He will not speak on his own,but will tell you what he has
heard.
He will tell you about thefuture.
And so when he the spirit oftruth comes, he will guide you
(20:44):
into all truth, and so, onceyou're being led by the Holy
Spirit, you can't be led intodeception or lies about who God
wants you to be or where he'scalled you to be, so you aren't
making this Because he don't lie.
Exactly because he doesn't lie,so you're not making decisions
on your own.
That's going to lead you awayfrom God because, you have the
spirit of God, so it's reallyimportant that you aren't making
(21:06):
decisions without being led bythe spirit of God.
First.
Walter (21:10):
That's good.
Shanea (21:11):
Because he's truth.
So anything outside of that isa lie.
Walter (21:16):
And you know, once you recognize the voice of the
spirit of God, once yourecognize the voice of God, once
you recognize the voice ofJesus, it shifts everything,
because when he speaks, there'spower in the truth that he's
speaking.
And so we think of Micah, forexample, who struggled with
homosexuality and he talkedabout how his encounter with
(21:39):
Jesus, jesus began to speak lifeinto him, and sometimes
deliverance is essentiallyspeaking truth, truth.
The truth Sometimes deliveranceis simply speaking truth to a
person.
Yeah.
Speaking truth, because it allstarted with a lie.
Many times it starts with a lie.
Shanea (21:56):
Yes.
Walter (21:57):
And so the way you fix that is through truth.
We all want to go throughdeliverance, not understanding
that there's different forms ofdifferent ways that a person can
be delivered.
You can have light that and I'moff topic but you can have
light that you can allow thelight of God to come in you
through reading your word,through what you watch, what you
listen to, through praying andthose demons will begin to flee.
Shanea (22:21):
You can actually go through deliverance when you or
someone can assist you, untilyou tell them to come out but
those demons can't leave ifyou're still holding on to lies
if you're still holding on tothings that you think about
yourself that you're not worthythat you're worthless, that you
like boys or you like girls whenyou're supposed to like the
opposite sex.
Walter (22:38):
If you still believe those lies, that demon is not
going to leave, and the thingwith that is that, understanding
that it's important to tellpeople the truth.
Right, it's important to tellthem the truth right.
So if you're struggling, youcan't do that, just you can't do
that with hate yeah it's thetruth in love yeah, it's like
(23:01):
you can't beat it out ofsomebody.
Shanea (23:04):
You can only change them with the truth.
And love yeah, but a lot oftimes people in the church will
just abandon you.
Walter (23:12):
Yeah.
Shanea (23:12):
Or they'll tell you something's wrong with you.
Or they'll try to beat it outof you Instead of telling them
the truth, which is that Jesusloves you.
That's the truth.
Walter (23:23):
And so I think that's good we got off topic you.
That's the truth, and so Ithink that's good we got off
topic but, that was worthmentioning.
And now we dig into whatobedience is about relationship,
not just action.
Example is Moses, exodus 33, 12through 23.
We won't read it, but if youwant to, you can definitely.
For time's sake, you candefinitely read it.
(23:45):
We would recommend reading it.
But just to summarize, mosesdesired a greater level of
intimacy with God, and so Moses,basically his plea, was for
God's presence.
So he said if your presencedoes not go with us, do not
(24:06):
bring us up from here.
And it shows that he desiredintimacy more than anything else
, not just direction, right,which is, which is good.
He desired intimacy, not justdirection, and so we've had
people for, for example,question like who should I be
with?
And what Moses was looking atis.
(24:26):
He showed us an example of it'snot just about getting a
question answered by God.
Shanea (24:35):
It's not just getting stuff from God.
Walter (24:36):
It's about the relationship.
Moses looked at God andessentially said if you ain't in
the promised land, I'm notgoing.
Yes, I could lead the people tothe promised land, but I'm not
going without your presence,because what's more important to
me is your presence.
Shanea (24:49):
It's a relationship with you.
I don't want to go anywherewithout you.
Walter (24:52):
I will stay in, like you got to think how deep and
impactful and powerful that is,that Moses essentially was
saying that I will stay in thewilderness, I will stay in the
wilderness.
Mm-hmm if it means me beingseparated from your presence.
How many of us would be willingto stay in the wilderness?
Shanea (25:15):
Yeah, and that's love.
Walter (25:16):
That's love.
Shanea (25:19):
That you would die.
Walter (25:20):
You would die, you would give up your comforts Because,
remember, moses came from Egypt.
He had all of the comforts onecould think of, because he was
raised essentially as the childof a king.
Yeah, the child of a pharaoh.
Was raised essentially as thechild of a king.
Yeah, the child of a pharaoh,and so a grandchild of a pharaoh
, and so, with that being thecase, I believe, grandchild.
(25:40):
Was it grandchild or was itchild?
Shanea (25:42):
Child of the daughter, the daughter.
Walter (25:44):
So grandchild.
Shanea (25:45):
Or yeah daughter.
Walter (25:46):
It was a daughter, right the pharaoh.
Shanea (25:48):
Daughter of the pharaoh.
Walter (25:49):
Yeah, I pharaoh, daughter of the pharaoh.
Yeah, I don't think it was thewife, I don't remember.
Don't quote us.
We gotta go back and let me see.
I don't want it.
I want to make sure we quote,quote correctly yeah, it was so,
the grandchild grand the.
(26:10):
Pharaoh, because it was adaughter of the Pharaoh that
raised Moses.
So I think that's key.
That last part is key, thatdesiring God's presence more
than anything, it reflects apursuit of intimacy, not just
direction.
Shanea (26:28):
Yeah, and that what we're saying brings up a good
point, Cause I had also put onhere um John 15, four through
five, Um, and what?
What came to me is it says um,no branch can bear fruit by
itself.
It must remain in the vine,Meaning like you have to be in
(26:51):
the perfect will of God, right,or you have to like?
In tying back to John 14, whereJesus says I am in you, you are
in me and I am in God, and sobeing obedient leads to that
fruit.
So you don't have to try and doit on your own, you allow the
(27:12):
spirit to lead you.
Walter (27:17):
That you know.
I think you know.
What comes to mind is scripture, where it talks about being
deeply rooted in Christ.
Yeah.
And allowing your roots to groweven more deep.
Right.
Shanea (27:25):
So it's not you going to God and asking for these things
, or things to be fulfilled, orthese problems that you have,
and bringing it to him.
It's literally like you willget everything that you need
when you are part of the vine.
Walter (27:40):
Well, it digs back to.
It ties back to Genesis 1 and 2, where Adam and Eve had
everything they needed withinthe garden of Eden.
So there was not a need to askfor protection or ask for
provision, they just flowed.
(28:01):
There was a responsibility thatGod gave to them.
They knew what they weresupposed to do, so they focused
on doing that and God handledeverything else.
So I think that's so important.
That's good that you made thatpoint.
Yeah.
That you don't have to focus onthat when you are actually
connected to the vine.
So it shifts even how you pray.
Yeah.
Your prayers is.
(28:21):
Your prayer is not full of alist of demands.
Yeah.
Or wish lists per se Right.
You're praying because you knowyou still deal with battles.
You still deal with the enemycoming up against your family.
So you take that to God andthat's there.
But you also approach it fromthe perspective of like God.
(28:41):
I know you got me.
Shanea (28:43):
Right, I know you got me , but also I want to be more
like you.
I want to know your mind, Iwant to know what you're
thinking.
Walter (28:48):
I want to be in you.
Shanea (28:50):
I want you to be in me.
Walter (28:52):
Then you will begin to find yourself in a situation
where you are hating what hehates and love what he loves.
Right, so that's good, that'sgood.
So I think I'll say this andthen we'll move forward.
This is so good.
Obedience isn't just a rule tofollow yeah it's a path that
(29:15):
leads to greater intimacy withGod.
Obedience literally flows outof the desire for a deeper
relationship with God, not frommere adherence to rules yeah,
yeah.
Shanea (29:31):
And while you touched on , that, I have also here, but I
don't think I put it on here foryou to see, where I put in Mark
seven.
Mark seven, eight basicallysays for you ignore God's law
and substitute your owntradition.
Walter (29:53):
For you ignore God's law and substitute your own
tradition.
For you ignore God's law andsubstitute your own tradition.
Shanea (29:57):
Yeah, so like my thought was when I wrote down that we
can't be so caught up in rightstanding and traditions brought
on by culture and religion thatwe forget that disobedience to
God's word is a sin.
So when he's speaking and he'stelling you to do something, you
got to do it regardless if itgoes against the law.
Walter (30:20):
Because the law told Jesus that he wasn't supposed to
heal on the Sabbath and he'sstill healed Exactly.
And so the law.
Sometimes it's true becausethere's a culture in church.
A lot of stuff people do in thechurch makes no sense, and so
the law sometimes it's true,because there's a culture in
church.
A lot of stuff people do in thechurch makes no sense.
It's nothing but culture.
It's passed down.
Shanea (30:38):
Yeah, but the thing is is when God speaks, you don't
know why he's telling you to dowhat you're doing.
Walter (30:46):
Or listen, listen to this A culture Okay, a culture
that is not rooted in thekingdom of God is still demonic.
Yes, even if it's within thechurch.
Shanea (31:02):
Yes.
Walter (31:04):
So, okay, let's say this A church culture that is not
rooted within the kingdom of Godis demonic.
Shanea (31:13):
When they're not in the vine.
Walter (31:15):
It's demonic.
Shanea (31:16):
Yes.
Walter (31:17):
Anything that is detached of the kingdom,
detached away from the kingdomof God.
Shanea (31:21):
And anything that don't bear fruit is what.
Walter (31:23):
Demonic.
Cursed, it's cursed, it'sdemonic.
Shanea (31:26):
It's cursed.
We have to dig intounderstanding this, because it's
so Just like Jesus cursed thattree because it didn't bear
fruit, this is going to hurt andwe have to be rooted in.
Walter (31:34):
Christ.
This is so uncomfortable.
This is so uncomfortablebecause I'm sorry, religion is
not God.
Yeah.
Once again religion is whatcrucified Jesus.
Shanea (31:44):
Yes.
Walter (31:46):
Religion wanted Jesus out.
Yes, religion wanted Jesusunalived.
Shanea (31:51):
Yes, and they did.
Walter (31:53):
Like.
Literally, it fell within theplan of God for Christ's life
and why he came in the firstplace to become the perfect
sacrifice, but religion withinitself was demonic.
Shanea (32:04):
That's why we shouldn't pursue right standing and we
should pursue relationship,which is what Jesus came to
teach Exactly.
He always talked about himbecause relationship with the
father, god is going to tell youthings that isn't written in
the law.
It's going to go against theodds, and what came to me when I
was thinking about this wasmary and joseph.
(32:25):
Mary was pregnant.
Joseph, by all accounts, asaccording to society and culture
, should not have married her.
Walter (32:32):
Nope, Because she had to have committed adultery Exactly
Even before she sinned shefornicated he should not have
married her.
Shanea (32:38):
But God gave him a commandment and said you have to
marry her because this is who Icalled you to be with, so that
I can birth forth my promise,which is Jesus.
Walter (32:48):
But if Joseph would have approached that from a natural
perspective which is whathappens a lot of time with
religion, it's not spiritual,it's naturally based he would
have forfeited everything.
Shanea (32:59):
He would have forfeited everything.
But the thing is the reason whyGod chose Joseph is because
Joseph came from David's line.
Everything ties together.
It's a reason.
It's a reason, it's a reason itwas a promise that was made to
David the.
Messiah is going to come fromyour line, Joseph genealogy.
(33:21):
When you follow it is a part ofDavid's line.
He had to marry Mary and birthforth Jesus.
So it's like, no, you can'tchoose your partner, and I'm
going to go back to it.
You can't.
You have to be in the perfectwill of God.
Walter (33:39):
You have to be obedient to his word.
Yeah, I mean, I'm not going todo that because I ain't even
trying to deal with these people.
No, I'm just saying it, justkind of all just ties together
about not following traditionand following culture.
That's true.
That's true.
Shanea (33:59):
Yet to stay on topic, Because God has a purpose and he
has a plan.
We are on topic.
Walter (34:05):
We are kind of, but we have so much to get through that
I want to get to we're beingobedient.
We are Now and you're speakingof Jesus, but obedience leads to
intimacy, and Jesus, he's theexample.
Right.
John 11.
And I believe you put John 11in right.
Did.
I Did.
(34:25):
I put John 11?
.
You might have put.
John 11 in there.
Let me see God was giving somuch information.
Oh, I did put John 11.
So everyone, please read John11.
Please read John 11.
It's really good.
It touches on when Jesus raisedLazarus from the dead, and so
(34:49):
we don't have time to readthrough all of it.
Shanea (34:52):
I guess you could just tell them what happened.
Walter (34:57):
So essentially, Lazarus was a friend of Jesus.
Lazarus was the brother of Maryand Martha and Mary was the one
that poured down the or pouredthe expensive perfume on the
Lord's feet and washed his feetwith it and wiped it with her
hair.
(35:18):
So Lazarus was sick and theysent message to the Lord asking
him to come to heal Lazarus.
Verse 4 says but when Jesusheard about it, he said Lazarus'
sickness will not end in death.
Heard about it, he saidLazarus' sickness will not end
in death.
No, it happened for the gloryof God, so that the Son of God
(35:38):
will receive glory from this.
So although Jesus loved Martha,mary and Lazarus, the Bible
says he stayed where he was forthe next two days.
Finally, he said to hisdisciples let's go back to Judea
.
Mm-hmm.
But his disciples objected,rabbi, they said only a few days
ago the people in Judea weretrying to stone you and you're
(35:59):
going there again.
Jesus replied there are 12hours of daylight every day.
During the day people can walksafely, they can see because
they have the light of thisworld.
But at night there is danger ofstumbling because they have the
light of this world, but atnight there is danger of
stumbling because they have nolight.
Then he said our friend Lazarushas fallen asleep, but now I
(36:20):
will go and wake him up.
We dig deeper down, or gofurther down, where it touches
on how Mary saw Jesus, and shewas just distraught and it
literally tugged at Jesus' heart.
But he knew he had to allowthis to take place.
(36:42):
He knew Lazarus had to die, andso it's an example of Jesus
showing that his love for Godwas greater than anything, that
even if it meant going againsthis own flesh, he still chose to
be obedient to God Because hehad a close relationship with
(37:04):
Lazarus, mary and Martha and byaccounts they're his friends.
So why didn't he just heal himright to save her from that pain
?
Because lazareth was dead forthree days he could have, but he
was being obedient because theobedience was greater.
So it shows us an example that,even when it goes against how we
feel right, we still submitourselves to the perfect will of
(37:28):
the father and we show Him andthe world how much we love Him
by doing so.
Shanea (37:32):
And even though we can do something, it's should we do
it.
Walter (37:37):
Yes.
Shanea (37:38):
And it's always asking, because this is what we do when
we're asking God a question,it's God should we do this Not
can I do it, because weobviously can do whatever we
want to do, because we havepermissive will.
Permissive will, but it'sshould I do this.
Walter (37:53):
Yeah, that's the key thing, and I'll read this
because I think it explains itperfectly.
It says Jesus exemplifies theperfect balance of obedience and
intimacy even in moments ofsorrow, ie the death of Lazarus.
Jesus shows that the intimacywith God goes beyond external
(38:15):
actions.
It's about heart to heartconnection.
And so, jesus, obedience to thefather was a reflection of his
love and his commitment to thefather's will.
So how committed are you to thefather's will?
Father's will?
(38:36):
So how committed are you to thefather's will?
Will you be so committed to thefather's will that you would go
through experiencing grief andsuffering in order to follow his
will?
That's suffering.
Shanea (38:46):
Most people don't.
Walter (38:48):
That's what suffering is Not self-induced, but Jesus
doing what he did in thisinstance, that was a perfect
example of suffering.
I love the Father more.
Shanea (39:02):
It's dying to yourself, dying to yourself.
Walter (39:05):
Yeah, it's suffering.
Shanea (39:06):
It's death.
Walter (39:08):
And so I want to ask this we're not going to ask
every question, but how can wemodel Jesus relationship with
the father in our own lives?
Yeah, and I think I'll answerthat.
You have to let go of your, youhave to die to self, you have
(39:36):
to crucify your flesh.
You literally have to die.
You have to want God more thanyou want anything else.
You have to let go ofeverything that you thought your
life should be in order toaccept and walk in what it is,
that he's called for you.
And even when walking in thatit's not about that.
(39:58):
It's about not being apart fromhim.
That's more important thananything in the world.
Not what I gain, not me beingable to see, not the dreams, not
the visions, not the whatevercomes along with what God's
purpose is for your life.
It's simply a yearning to havea greater and more intimate
(40:19):
relationship with him.
Right To where you say whateveryou tell me to do, I will do.
Whatever you tell me to say, Iwill say.
Whatever you tell me to go, Iwill go.
That's what Jesus consistentlytold us it's not desiring the
gifts and the blessings morethan the blesser and the gifter
yes, that's the best way to putit.
So we are about to dig intodeep waters.
(40:40):
We got some ways to go, butwe're about to dig into deep
waters.
This is what God was dealingwith me on this is what God was
dealing with me on.
So in the beginning, right Adamand Eve, they sinned.
Their sin was disobedience.
(41:04):
God told them not to eat fromthe tree.
The enemy came and he deceivedthem and convinced them to eat
from the tree.
And so, in doing that, what Godwas dealing with me on is this
right here, the enemy's lovelanguage is disobedience to God.
Shanea (41:23):
Right.
Walter (41:27):
And everything he does, he tries to get us out of the
perfect will of God.
We show the enemy that we lovehim when we disobey God.
Exactly, we disobey God.
Shanea (41:30):
Exactly, we disobey God's commands, we disobey his
words.
Walter (41:34):
And the dangerous thing is that this is how it was
presented to me.
His desire is to lead peopleaway from the will of God,
masquerading as a voice thatpromotes self-love and
self-worship.
Right as a voice that promotesself-love, and self-worship,
like he gets us caught upbecause it's like oh well,
(41:55):
you're doing this because it'sbest for you and it's not wrong
for you to want what's best foryou.
Sometimes you need to be focusedon what's best for you, but we
don't realize in doing that weare becoming our own God.
And the greatest thing with theenemy, with his fall, it
stemmed from pride andselfishness.
Shanea (42:16):
Right, but it also teaches us to pleasure ourselves
.
Walter (42:21):
So I think that was so key.
Shanea (42:23):
Because Eve saw the fruit and she thought it was
delicious.
Walter (42:27):
So I think that I'll ask you this question.
Mm-hmm, thought it wasdelicious, so I think that I'll
ask you this question how doesdisobedience open the door for
spiritual separation and hinderour relationship with God.
Shanea (42:40):
How does disobedience open the door for spiritual
separation and hinder ourrelationship with God.
Well, we see that in the gardenthey were disobedient.
God gave them a word and toldthem not to eat from this fruit
or eat from this tree, andbecause the enemy wants us to
(43:06):
focus on ourselves and what'sgood for us and what's going to
be good for us which heexplained to Eve in the garden
this is going to be good for youbecause you're going to be like
.
God and he don't want you toknow that when you give in to
those fleshly desires that arenot led by the Spirit of God,
(43:29):
you will sin and you'll becomedisobedient.
Walter (43:32):
And you'll become disconnected.
Shanea (43:33):
Right, because you'll be out of the perfect will of God.
Walter (43:35):
Yeah, well, when we think about separation from God,
god hates sin, and sin isdisobedience, and so I would say
that, with that, it creates adisconnect every time we disobey
God.
Every time we disobey God, itcreates a disconnect between us
(43:59):
and him.
Shanea (44:00):
Yeah, because we're serving another God.
Walter (44:02):
Yes, so there's a lot of traffic right now.
I can't hear anything.
Shanea (44:09):
I can't hear anything.
Walter (44:10):
I can.
So I would say the disobediencein a way, based on what we've
read and based on what we'veseen happen in the Bible and
based on the way God explainedit.
The reason disobedienceseparates us from God is because
it's a direct way of us showing, without realizing it, that we
(44:32):
don't love them.
Shanea (44:33):
Right, and it leads us down a path of sin, sinful
behaviors.
Walter (44:38):
Yes, but like, if I'm doing stuff right, if you and I
are together and I do thingsthat would basically hurt you
and, in a way, show you that Idon't want to be, I'm like I'm
showing you about what I do.
Right.
I don't want to be botheredwith you.
That will begin to create adisconnect.
Shanea (44:59):
Yeah, Because you're you're saying one thing, but
you're doing another.
Walter (45:04):
Or let's oh my gosh, yeah.
So the way that disobediencethank you, scratch all of that
the way that disobedienceseparates man from God is being
disobedient to God places you ina position where you become
(45:28):
ashamed to be in his presence.
Shanea (45:32):
Yeah, and that's what we touched on in the last one, and
when I was reading the Isaiah,ezekiel, ezekiel, that it goes
back to Ezekiel, I believe, 16,where we were talking about
idolatry.
Walter (45:48):
Yeah, it starts with Adam and Eve.
Shanea (45:50):
Yeah.
Walter (45:51):
Because the first thing the Bible says after they ate
from the tree, that theyimmediately realized that they
were naked and they were ashamed.
Shanea (46:00):
So it brings forth shame , and we did talk about that I
think in the first episode,second episode, he said he will
give you over to your idol andyou will come back because you
will be ashamed.
So disobedience or sin?
Walter (46:12):
and just at the basic, and people may disagree with
this, but it's true Disobedienceis the actual sin right.
The sin itself is disobedience.
There's acts, there's thingsthat we do, but at the end of
the day, sin is disobedience toGod.
Yes, Sin is disobedience to Godbecause we get so caught up in
(46:35):
stuff and judge people becauseours isn't as noticeable Right.
But anytime you disobey God,you're sinning against God If
God has told you that you'resupposed to do this and you're
not supposed to do that and youdo it anyway.
That's sin.
Right.
Shanea (46:50):
Simple.
It's simple, Not complicated,Just because it's not written
down in the book.
In the law it's still sin.
God told Isaac not to go toEgypt.
Yeah.
Walter (46:58):
There's not a law saying that Isaac has to stay out of
Egypt.
Right, god told Isaac not to goto Egypt If Isaac would have
been sin because it would havebeen disobedience to God.
Just like God told Adam and Evenot to eat from the tree, the
sin was the disobedience.
The sin was doing what God toldthem not to do.
So let's not get so technicalthat we're like okay, well, God
(47:21):
didn't say this specifically inthe Bible, but what did he tell
you?
What did he tell you?
Shanea (47:29):
Right, because he knows you better than you know
yourself.
Yeah, he has.
He has everything written downin a book.
Walter (47:36):
So cause we are looking at time Um true worship.
Shanea (47:44):
What do you mean?
True worship?
Walter (47:46):
True worship.
You want to read that.
John four and 24, and I'll getum romans 12 and 1 you said john
4 and 24 for god is spirit, sothose who worship him must
worship in spirit and in truthand so what I wrote down here is
(48:11):
understanding that God isspirit and calls us.
Worshiping God in spirit andtruth is understanding that God
is spirit and calls us toworship him through a deep,
authentic submission to his will.
And the reason that that wassaid was because of Romans 12.
It says and so, dear brothersand sisters, I plead with you to
(48:32):
give your bodies to God becauseof all he has done for you.
Let them be a living and holysacrifice, the kind he will find
acceptable.
This is truly the way toworship him.
This is truly the way toworship him that digs back into
Jesus, saying that God is spiritand we must worship him in
(48:55):
spirit and truth.
Shanea (48:56):
Right and give your bodies so him and me, me and him
.
Mm, hmm, mm hmm, mm, hmm.
Walter (49:03):
So true worship is becoming a living, holy and
consecrated sacrifice.
Yes, it's about offering ourwhole lives to god, not just
through rituals right or songsor tradition or tradition or
culture or culture, but in everyaspect of our daily walk.
So our life become a livingworship song as they would say
(49:27):
we think worship is just yousinging a worship song.
Shanea (49:30):
Right Worship is the way that you live your life.
Worship is how you live yourlife, because we are altars.
Walter (49:36):
Yes, we are not only altars, we are temples.
We are temples, we are temples.
The Holy Spirit dwells withinus.
We are temples.
Shanea (49:46):
And what do you do in temples?
Walter (49:48):
You worship, you worship are temples, and what do you do
in temples?
You worship.
So true worship, then, is totalsubmission to god's will, not
just outward obedience, but aheart completely yielded to him.
We can keep going, and we cankeep going because we got so
(50:08):
much good stuff here.
We see an example of that withSamuel right when Samuel went to
and this is coming out of 1Samuel, 16, 6 through 7.
When Samuel was looking for theking to replace Saul, the Bible
lets us know that he saw one ofDavid's brothers and he was like
(50:29):
immediately, this got to beking, he looks like a king.
He looks like a king.
Shanea (50:33):
He built like a king.
Walter (50:34):
And God immediately corrected Samuel and said stop,
men, judge by their outwardappearance, I judge by their
heart.
It's not who I call to be king.
Keep looking.
It's all about the heartposture Right, psalms 51, verse
10 through 11, verse 16 through19.
(50:56):
And I'll read these becausethey're so important.
Let me see Psalms 51, verse 10.
It says create in me a cleanheart, oh God.
Renew a loyal spirit within me.
Do not banish me from yourpresence and don't take your
Holy Spirit from me.
Verse 16 says you do not desirea sacrifice, or I would offer
one.
(51:16):
You do not want a burntoffering.
The sacrifice you desire is abroken spirit.
You will not reject a brokenand repentant heart.
O God, look with favor on Zionand help her rebuild the walls
of Jerusalem.
Then you will be pleased withsacrifices offered in the right
(51:37):
spirit, with burnt offerings andwhole burnt offerings.
Then bulls will again besacrificed on your altar, if
your heart isn't right.
God don't want your sacrifices.
Shanea (51:47):
We've seen that with Cain and Abel.
Walter (51:48):
And that's why God was saying you can be obedient to me
as much as you want, but yourheart posture is wrong.
I don't want it.
The scent that it gives up Idon't like.
That's essentially what Davidwas saying.
You don't care about thisunless the heart posture is
right, unless you have a brokenspirit.
There has to be a place ofhumility.
Your heart has to be in rightstanding with God so that God
(52:17):
will accept your offerings, andyour offerings just isn't money,
your offerings is obedience.
Let's dig into that, and I don'tknow if we've touched on it
before.
The church will get you tobelieve that the seed is the
money you give.
No, the seed is the obedience.
The seed is not the amount,it's not what you give your seed
can be.
You sowing your time.
Your seed can be.
God told you to do somethingand you did it.
Your seed is tied to yourobedience.
Shanea (52:39):
It's tied to your heart.
Walter (52:40):
posture Exactly Total surrendering to God, because God
don't care about your offerings?
No, he don't.
Shanea (52:47):
If it's not coming from a place of love of a place of
humility.
Walter (52:52):
Exactly, and so I think we got some stuff.
You want to touch on thepractical ways to pursue God
through obedience.
Shanea (53:06):
What's that nine Mm-hmm?
Through obedience.
What's that nine Mm-hmm?
That obedience should be anongoing pursuit of God?
Mm-hmm.
Not a one-time act.
Walter (53:19):
Why is that so important ?
Shanea (53:25):
Why obedience should be an ongoing pursuit of God.
Mm-hmm.
And not a one-time thing.
Walter (53:31):
I know, but I'm just.
Why is it so important?
Why is it so important for youto consistently pursue obedience
in God?
Shanea (53:40):
So you could be in right standing.
What?
Tell me why I don't.
What?
What's the answer you'relooking for?
Because you look, you'relooking at me like you want me
to answer it the way that youare thinking about the answer.
Walter (54:01):
So if I stop pursuing you and our marriage and our
relationship, what happens withour relationship?
Shanea (54:08):
It dies.
Walter (54:09):
Exactly.
That's why obedience to God isso important and that's why the
pursuit of God is so important.
Your heart posture, becauseanything that you don't pursue,
or when you don't pursue arelationship, the relationship
will become stagnant.
That's true.
It doesn't change the fact thatGod stops loving you.
You stopped loving him.
Yeah.
(54:30):
It's not that God drew awayfrom you, you drew away from him
.
God didn't draw away from Adamand Eve, they drew away from him
.
Shanea (54:39):
That's true.
Walter (54:39):
They had consequences associated with the decisions
they made, but they becameashamed.
Shanea (54:45):
Yeah, draw near and I'll draw near to you.
Speaker 4 (54:47):
Exactly, so that's what that says, yeah, draw near,
and I'll draw near to youExactly.
Walter (54:51):
So that's what that says , and the ways that we do this
is through prayer, through beingin our scriptures, is being
mindful of what we listen to,mindful of what we watch, and
just really submitting ourentire life to God, making sure,
because there's all of thesedifferent sectors within our
lives.
You can't say, oh God, I'llsubmit my job to you, but I'm
(55:14):
not going to submit myrelationship.
Shanea (55:15):
Oh God, I'll submit my relationship to you, but I'm not
going to spend time with you.
Walter (55:17):
Yes, it's everything.
Shanea (55:19):
I'm only going to spend time when I need something.
Walter (55:22):
I'm only going to spend time when I'm in trouble.
Who are you calling first whenyou're dealing with stuff?
You calling on God?
Who are you going to first tosay, yeah, I thank you for
waking me up in the morning?
Who are you speaking tothroughout the day?
And so it's like all of thesethings showcase and put you in a
position to where you canpursue God and then you can have
(55:43):
the power of the Holy Spirit toallow you to remain in the
position of consistentlysubmitting to the will of God
for your life, which isobedience.
And that's what we dig intoGalatians 5, where it talks
about allowing the spirit of Godto lead your life versus being
led by your flesh.
Flesh wants you to bedisobedient to God.
(56:03):
Spirit of God always wants youto be obedient.
Right.
So I don't think this was thislong distant today.
Shanea (56:16):
No.
Walter (56:17):
It was really straight.
Yeah, I have some other stuff,but yeah.
What do you have?
Shanea (56:22):
I don't know I might put this in here Practical ways to
pursue God, through obedienceAlso.
By pursuing God, you come toknow who you are Very true, as
you pursue God, god also revealswho you are.
Walter (56:45):
Romans 12, 1-2.
I believe that specifically isverse 2.
Shanea (56:50):
And what I have in here is Jeremiah 29 through 11.
29, 11.
For I know the plans I have foryou, declares the Lord.
And so, as you pursue the Lord,he starts to reveal his plans
for you.
While you're also getting toknow him, you're getting to know
yourself, because he's going toreveal things to you.
(57:12):
He's going to reveal truth toyou about yourself and about,
obviously, the kingdom of God.
He's going to give youmysteries.
He's going to show you wonders.
He's going to give you gifts.
And all that's cool, but inorder to know who our true
identity is, we have to continueto pursue God, yes, and we
begin to continue to pursue God,yes, and we begin to find our
(57:32):
identity in Christ.
Walter (57:33):
And to add to what you said, there's Romans 12, verse 2
, don't copy the behavior andcustoms of this world, but let
God transform you into a newperson by changing the way you
think.
Then you will learn to knowGod's will for you, which is
good and pleasing and perfect,understanding what God's will is
for your life is found in thepursuit of God.
Shanea (57:53):
Yeah, and also being able to trust him.
And as you trust him, then youwon't be able to lean on your
own understanding.
Walter (58:00):
It would become muscle memory to lean on God.
Paul talked about when he wasgoing through trials and
tribulations, that they were tothe point, the brink of death.
But in the point of being tothe brink of death, what ended
up happening is they learned totrust and rely on God.
And this is 2 Corinthians 1,chapter 1, verse 8 through 10.
(58:24):
He says we think you ought toknow, dear brothers and sisters,
about the trouble we wentthrough in the province of Asia.
We were crushed and overwhelmed, beyond our ability to endure,
and we thought we would neverlive through it.
In fact, we expected to die.
But as a result, we stoppedrelying on ourselves and learned
(58:45):
to rely on God, who raised thedead, or raises the dead, and he
did rescue us from mortaldanger and he will rescue us
again.
We have placed our confidencein him and he will continue to
rescue us.
So, even in the midst ofsubmitting to God, sometimes it
may seem as if you're in somedark times, but you got to trust
(59:05):
that God will rescue you.
And in the midst of trustingthat God will rescue you, he
will.
But it teaches you once againto have total reliance on him,
like it taught Paul.
Right.
And that's what Paul was sayingLike we've been through this
once and I see them do it.
Shanea (59:20):
The thing is in this constant examples in the Bible
where you have to keep yourfocus on God, keep your focus on
Jesus.
Even when Peter was trying towalk on water, he kept his focus
on Jesus.
Once he took it off, he was inthe water.
Walter (59:36):
Exactly so.
I think that's good.
I think we've made some reallygreat points.
So even in hard times likeMeshach, so I think, just to
encourage everyone, take awayfrom this don't treat your
relationship with Godsuperficial.
Don't approach it as asuperficial relationship and
(01:00:00):
expect to experience his glory.
The glory of God comes throughintentional pursuit and
obedience.
Obedience is the pathway todeeper intimacy and greater
manifestation of God's glory inyour life.
So it's so easy to approach Godand the relationship with God
(01:00:26):
as if it's a superficialrelationship, it's only surface
level.
We can't do that and expect toexperience God in all his glory,
god's glory, experiencing God'sglory comes through pursuit,
consistent pursuit.
We have to desire him more thananything else and then, within
(01:00:47):
doing that to those who havequestions that we've seen in the
comment section and things ofthat nature you find that in the
pursuit of God you find thoseanswers in the pursuit of God.
Shanea (01:01:04):
And I know sometimes it feels like I want to give people
more, like a better answer, butthe only answer I have is that
you have to draw closer to Godso he can reveal all the truths
to you.
Walter (01:01:16):
That is the answer.
Shanea (01:01:17):
That's it.
Walter (01:01:18):
There's nothing else, sorry.
And it's a beautiful thingbecause at the same time, it
teaches you to hone into hisvoice and have an understanding
of his voice, because we aren'tyour gods.
Shanea (01:01:32):
No we're not.
We provide you with revelationfrom God, but we are not God.
Walter (01:01:37):
And we have to go through the same process and we
continually have to go throughthe same process.
There'd be questions we havethat were like we need an answer
now, god, and sometimes hedon't even give us the answer.
No because he don't have to.
No, because he's God.
Job Job was a prime example ofthat.
He's God.
He don't have to answer you.
Many times he will, butsometimes he don't, and
(01:01:59):
sometimes him not answering youis an answer.
Right.
So I think that's a good placefor us to stop.
This has been good.
I think it's a great discussionyeah um prayerfully.
This has been a blessing to youall.
I know this week's episodemight be a little bit shorter,
(01:02:22):
but I think it was directly.
Shanea (01:02:25):
We said all that needed to be said.
Walter (01:02:26):
Yeah it was precise and straight to the point so we can
try and go a little longer, butnot gonna push it.
No, not gonna push it, so wepray that this was a blessing to
you.
Uh, we appreciate your support.
Definitely do be in the commentsection.
I see you all comment a lot oninstagram um share it if you are
(01:02:46):
enjoying this.
If this being a blessing to you, let us know how.
Shanea (01:02:49):
Share it with others?
Yes, so it can be a blessing tothem, those who need to hear it
.
Walter (01:02:54):
Yes, Like, comment, subscribe.
And we just pray that thiscontinue to be a blessing.
So until next week, we'll seeyou.
Then We'll see you then.
Bye, goodbye.
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