March 4, 2025 • 61 mins
Have you ever wondered if the Christ you follow is the real deal? In this thought-provoking episode, we tackle the critical topic of "The Message of a False Christ." Host Walter and his wife Shanea delve into how society often shapes a version of Christ that caters more to personal desires than to the truth of Scripture. Through biblical references and engaging discussions, they highlight the alarming trend of Christians creating custom versions of Christ, which can lead to dangerous misunderstandings of grace and obedience.
We explore the significance of a genuine relationship with God and how the Holy Spirit plays a transformative role in our lives. The episode also addresses the necessity of experiencing spiritual growth through challenges—often likened to the wilderness periods Jesus faced—which ultimately leads to empowerment and renewed purpose.
What's more, our hosts call on you, the listener, to critically assess how your faith aligns with the teachings of the true Christ. They challenge common misconceptions that grace is a free ticket to sin while encouraging you to embrace the true purpose of grace: freedom from sin and transformation into a Christ-like existence. Get ready to gain deeper insights, involving both scripture and practical life applications, and uncover the spiritual implications of the choices you make.
Join us in this enlightening discussion and let's pave the path toward an authentic faith. Remember, it’s not enough to simply claim you're a Christian; it’s vital to embody the principles Christ genuinely taught. Subscribe, share, and engage with us as we navigate this crucial examination of faith together.
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!
👉 Watch the full episode on YouTube now!
Mark as Played
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 relationships youhave with others.
I'm your host, walter.
I'm joined here alongside mylovely wife.
Shanea (00:14):
Shanea.
Walter (00:15):
This is episode 14.
Yes, it is.
Babe, what's the title of thisweek episode?
Shanea (00:22):
The Message of a False Christ.
Walter (00:25):
The Message of a False Christ.
The Message of a False Christ.
So this is episode 14, so Iguess we can reiterate this is a
podcast where we delve into thethings of relationships.
Relationships is our theme,relationships as far as marriage
(00:47):
goes, those who are desiring tobe married, those who are
married and then, mostimportantly, our relationship
with christ, our relationshipwith god the father, our
relationship with the holyspirit yep, we are believers we
are believers.
Uh, we say believers becausethere are those that are
christians but we believe.
Matter of fact, we know thatthere is a distinct difference
between being.
We say believers because thereare those that are Christians
(01:17):
no-transcript what?
And so, to get things, started.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
babe, do you want to go ahead and open us up in
prayer?
Sure, Okay.
Shanea (01:32):
Father God, we thank you .
We thank you for your love,your grace and your mercy.
Father God, we thank you forthe message that you've given us
revelation on to share with ourfollowers, to share with our
followers, to share with otherbelievers, to share with other
Christians, father God, thatthey may find themselves seeking
(01:53):
you more and recognizing yourvoice.
Thank you, father God, forallowing us to be a vessel to
your sheep, so that, when you dospeak, that they know that it's
you speaking In Jesus' name.
We pray Amen.
Walter (02:08):
Amen, If we can get that mic a little bit closer to you
babe.
Shanea (02:13):
Okay, well, you kind of sound a little far too.
Do I, you do, or maybe it'sbecause my it's probably because
I can hear myself.
Well, I mean, I can hear myselftoo, so Okay.
Walter (02:27):
And everybody else can hear myself.
Uh, well, I mean, I can hearmyself too.
Shanea (02:29):
So okay, and everybody else can hear us.
Yeah, I just want to make sure,make sure your headphones are
like in your ear, though.
No, they are okay, because Ithink I can hear better now that
I.
Walter (02:35):
I pushed them in because you know, my ears are small
yeah, okay, so to get thingsstarted this week, the message
of a false Christ.
I was um.
It was given to me as I waslistening to last week episode,
(02:56):
and as I was listening to lastweek episode, um, I wish you
would stop.
I know what you're trying to do.
What am I trying to?
Shanea (03:05):
do Get me to smile.
No, I'm not trying to get youwould stop.
Walter (03:07):
I know what you're trying to do.
Shanea (03:07):
What am I trying to do?
Get me to smile?
No, I'm not trying to get youto smile.
Walter (03:09):
What are you trying to do?
Shanea (03:10):
I'm just saying, it kind of sounds like you're whistling
a little bit.
Does it yeah.
Walter (03:15):
I'm not whistling, okay, but before I was rudely
interrupted by my wife, I waslistening to last week episode.
And as I was listening to lastweek episode, I heard false
Christ and it just popped upfalse Christ.
And I'm like, okay, falseChrist, and we've touched on
(03:44):
this before and I knew that'swhat God wanted us to teach on
or discuss.
Excuse me, yet I think when wethink of false Christ, we think
of the Antichrist.
Shanea (03:58):
When we think of false Christ, we think of something
that's just going to be outrightin your face Like that's
demonic or that's satanic.
But ultimately there's a lot ofthings in the world that's
demonic, that Christians do.
Walter (04:13):
Yes.
Shanea (04:15):
And they don't recognize who they're serving.
Walter (04:18):
No, and when you delve into things, you realize that so
many of us we've created ourown version of what we.
We've created a version ofChrist that fits our lives.
Or fits the world.
Or fits the world, but we justwant to be able to do what we
(04:38):
want to do and still be able tosay that we're Christians, and
still be able to say that we'reChristians, because there's
millions of Christians inAmerica, as we know, but there's
very we know that thosemillions of people that profess
or confess Jesus as their Lordand Savior, they're not actually
believers, the world teachesyou to be your own boss.
Shanea (05:03):
To be your own boss, to be your own leader, to go out
and do things for yourself.
Yeah.
And if you are your own boss,because there are a lot of
people out here who's like I'm aboss.
Mm-hmm.
I'm my own boss.
I'm a boss baddie.
Walter (05:23):
Yeah, that's different.
Shanea (05:26):
Yeah Well, they say a different word, but I can't use
it.
Walter (05:28):
Oh, okay, no, don't use that word.
Shanea (05:31):
I can't use it.
Walter (05:31):
I don't even get why people use that word now.
It's crazy because when we wasgrowing up, it was considered
disrespectful.
It's a four-letter word, by theway, but simply put right, what
is a false Christ?
A false Christ is somethingthat is created that fits
(05:52):
people's desires and lifestylesinstead of submitting to the
true Christ.
And there's this misconceptionof grace.
Right that we believe that itallows us to remain in sin
rather than freeing us from it,and so that's it.
Right, like we truly believegrace gives us the ability to do
(06:17):
what we want to do.
Shanea (06:18):
To sin, and that's what a lot of us tell ourselves.
Well, not me anymore, but I wastalking about this in a last
episode.
It's like, oh, god knows myheart.
I'm, you know, I'm, I'm gonna,I'm a christian.
He knows my heart.
Even if I do wrong, he's stillgonna accept me.
God knows me, he knows me.
We have our own personalrelationship and so it doesn't
(06:41):
matter what I do.
Walter (06:43):
Yeah, I think once again , we know this.
We misconstrue grace in thismessage or this podcast is not
about grace, but we misconstruegrace the grace that we refer to
.
It gives us the power, by wayof the Holy Spirit, to be free
(07:04):
from the power of sin.
It's not for us to continue tosin, not saying that we're going
to fall short, because there isgrace for when we fall short.
But there's a differencebetween falling short and making
a decision to consistently,purposefully sin purposefully
(07:31):
sin.
Shanea (07:31):
Well, as a believer, um, we have the holy spirit, and so
that helps us stay within god'slaw, within god's grace,
because we're not doing it inour own strength, and so many
christians aren't believerswhere they are allowing the Holy
Spirit to guide them until theyfall directly under the law.
Walter (07:48):
Yes, so let's get into it.
Second Corinthians 11, 1through 4.
Do you want to read that, or?
Shanea (07:59):
If you have it already pulled up.
Walter (08:01):
I don't have to pull it up, matter of fact, it'd be easy
.
Let me get my phone.
Shanea (08:16):
Second Corinthians already pulled up.
I don't have to pull it up,matter of fact, it'd be easy,
and let me get my phone.
Second corinthians 11, 1through 4, and we'll read in the
nlt version.
Walter (08:19):
You got it.
I'm about to read it.
Go ahead, you can read it.
I'm just doing my split screen.
Okay, I hope you will put.
I hope you will put up with alittle more of my foolishness.
Please bear with me, for I amjealous for you, with the
jealousy of God himself.
I promise you as a pure brideto one husband, christ.
But I fear that somehow yourpure and undivided devotion to
Christ will be corrupted.
(08:40):
Just as Eve was deceived by thecunning ways of the serpent,
you happily put up with whateveranyone tells you, even if they
preach a different Jesus thanthe one we preach, or a
different kind of spirit thanthe one you received, or a
different kind of gospel thanthe one you believed.
And that was Paul speakingRight.
(09:02):
Mm-hmm, and that was.
Paul speaking Right.
So this is Paul forewarning thechurch of Corinth.
(09:23):
That they have on down is thatwe ourselves create our own
version of Christ.
Then we go and seek out leadersthat would teach us that it's
okay to have that version ofChrist.
Shanea (09:38):
Yeah.
The real issue, though, is thatpeople don't believe that Satan
is really as cunning as Paul isspeaking about.
Walter (09:53):
Well, when you look at it and I think this was it
Because it- might look likeJesus.
Shanea (09:58):
It might sound like Jesus.
Walter (10:03):
Well, we don't know how Satan initially looked, even
when he was in the Garden ofEden, and I think Micah touched
on this.
Was it Micah Turnbull?
Someone touched on it that wewere listening to.
It was someone that we waslistening to.
Shanea (10:11):
No, he did speak on it, but we were listening to a
testimony from someone.
Walter (10:16):
So we think we forget who Satan was in heaven?
Yes, we forget who Satan was inheaven.
Shanea (10:22):
Absolutely.
Walter (10:23):
That's first.
Satan was beautiful.
Shanea (10:26):
Yeah, he was beautiful he comes as an angel of light
literally was beautiful andthat's why eve was not deceived
exactly.
Walter (10:32):
She was deceived she was deceived because, she didn't.
Shanea (10:36):
She didn't think there was anything wrong with what he
was saying, because he looked.
He looked angelic he was?
He was an angelic being wellthe point.
Walter (10:45):
The point that Paul was making here is that you have to
be and that's what the testimonywas touching on you have to be
careful to stand firm on whatwas originally taught.
We have to get back to thebasics of who Christ is.
We have to understand whoChrist is, and so that's when
you move away from thinking thatthe Christ that you serve or
(11:08):
the Christ that the Bible speaksof, or we try to reshift this
right, or what people try toteach and they misconstrue the
word, is that Christ allows youto be your own God, but while
also making him your God, and hegives you grace to be your own
God.
We just don't look at it likethat, but that's what we
(11:28):
essentially are saying.
Yes.
It's like, oh, I'm going to dothis because I'm still God's
still working on me in theseareas, but I'm going to give
this over to him.
But you know, listen we talkabout relationships right?
Listen, I just want to have sex, and God knows I want to have
sex.
And Listen, I just want to havesex, and God knows I want to
have sex and he know I strugglewith this and he loved me still.
Shanea (11:46):
God created me.
We are sexual beings.
Walter (11:48):
So it's okay for us to have sex, but you know what?
What we'll do is I'll only havesex with you in this committed
relationship, so it's not thesame as me being out here and
just being extremely promiscuous.
I'm doing it the right way byjust having sex with you, ladies
.
That's what I'm going to tellyou.
I'm giving y'all some pointers.
Listen, I may eventually beyour husband anyway.
(12:11):
Technically, we already marriedin the spirit, so I can have
sex with you until we getmarried.
Shanea (12:20):
God is going to be okay with that, ladies this is what
I'm going to tell you, becauseI'm going to marry you Because
I'm going to marry you.
Walter (12:27):
Matter of fact, you know what?
I already put a ring on you.
We're engaged.
Why can't we just test it?
We need to test it before we,you know, commit to this.
Just to know that we all ofthese things was going to be
said, or listen, I can do this.
I can do this, I can do that.
Shanea (12:46):
It's okay.
A lot of people say well, howdo you even know you're going to
like sex with this person ifyou don't have sex with them
Exactly Before you get?
Walter (12:50):
married and when you start nipping away at things,
you begin to create a differentversion of who Christ is,
because you say, okay, I'm goingto have sex, or I'm going to do
whatever and to have sex, orI'm going to do whatever, and
then I'm going to ask God toforgive me.
Shanea (13:05):
Yeah Well, the problem is, that's what the church
teaches.
Walter (13:08):
That's not spiritual.
Shanea (13:10):
Unfortunately.
I think that the real problemis that people aren't having
encounters with God themselves.
They experience God throughother people's experiences.
Walter (13:23):
Well, also.
Shanea (13:24):
Even though their experiences aren't really truly
God, because you can't tell,because you haven't had your own
experience.
Walter (13:31):
Yet, at the same time, here's what we have to be
careful with right, and it'sright.
Here we have to be careful withseeking out teachings and
seeking out leaders that don'tencourage us to change, that
don't encourage us to haveconsecrated or live consecrated
(13:53):
and holy and sanctified lives byway of the power of the Holy
Spirit.
And unfortunately, within oursociety today, especially within
America, we are so used to justbeing in our own gods, so we go
to churches that fit what we'relooking for.
We got the coffee shops, we gotthis, we got that.
(14:16):
Oh, I love my church.
It has everything I need.
Yet your spirit is not beingfed, paul would say spiritually.
And he did say you are still ababe in Christ.
Spiritually, you're still ababe in Christ.
Shanea (14:30):
Yeah, you're feeding your flesh when you go to church
.
Walter (14:33):
Yeah.
Shanea (14:35):
But you leave church feeling empty.
Walter (14:38):
Well, the thing is and this is good right, many of us
and I used to do it we lead aSunday Christian lifestyle.
We live a Sunday Christianlifestyle and I would go as far
as say we live a Christianlifestyle for about a few hours
out of Sunday.
(14:59):
Because, some of us as soon aswe get out of church.
I did it myself.
I got Kendrick on.
I got whomever on.
I'm leaving out the churchparking.
I did it myself.
I got Kendrick on.
I got whomever on.
I'm leaving out the churchparking lot with Kendrick
bumping.
I'm going in the church parkinglot with Eric Bellinger bumping
chilling all of them.
Chris Eccles bumping, which Ishould not be listening to
(15:19):
because you know it's outright.
Just sometimes I will be inchurch listening to it inside
the church.
Right.
And I'm saying this because Iknow it's other people doing it
and so but you don't submit yourlives to God day by day.
You don't submit, you don'tmake Jesus your Lord and your
(15:39):
Savior over your life throughoutthe week.
Shanea (15:41):
But that's because nobody told you what you were
doing was wrong.
Walter (15:45):
Because we're creating, once again, an alternate version
of who Christ is.
So let's get into this right.
Okay, let's go to Ephesians 4,17 and 22.
And this is just going to diginto the importance of having a
transformed mind.
You want to read that?
Shanea (16:08):
Ephesians 4, 17.
Walter (16:13):
Verse 22.
Shanea (16:15):
With the Lord's authority, I say this live no
longer as the Gentiles do, forthey are hopelessly confused.
Their minds are full ofdarkness.
They wander far from the lifeGod gives because they have
closed their minds and hardenedtheir hearts against him.
They have no sense of shame.
(16:36):
They live for lustful pleasureand eagerly practice every kind
of impurity.
But that isn't what you learnedabout christ.
Since you have heard aboutjesus and have learned the truth
that comes from him, throw offyour old sinful nature in your
former way of life, which iscorrupted by lust and deception.
(17:01):
Instead, let the spirit renewyour thoughts and attitudes, put
on your new nature, created tobe like God, truly righteous and
holy.
Walter (17:15):
Exactly.
Shanea (17:19):
It's all right there.
It's hard though.
Well, the thing is that wedon't go through the process of
having our minds renewed I thinkthe thing is is that people
don't throw off their old sinfulnature and their old former way
of life because it's it's verychallenging to do and people
(17:41):
will look at you like you'recrazy.
Walter (17:43):
Well, the reason that it's challenging is because
that's just and I didn't putthis in here, but it was
something I was thinking aboutas I was taking notes.
And let's just really addressthe elephant in the room.
Many people confess jesus to belord and savior in their lives,
(18:03):
of their lives.
They don't believe it yeah,they don't believe in their
heart and the church and I thinkwe may have touched on this
before.
Many of the churches are moreconcerned with numbers than they
are with transformation.
Yeah.
So it's not by my might or yoursthat people's lives are changed
(18:28):
.
So, it's not by what your pastoror a minister or a prophet,
it's not their words thattransform your life.
We know, even as we saw in Actswith Peter, the Bible says that
as the Holy Spirit spokethrough Peter and gave him the
words, that he was literallyspeaking through him.
(18:49):
It said the words pierced theheart of men and they came to
Peter and they said what must wedo to be saved?
So it's only through the powerof the Holy Spirit that true
transformation takes place.
So the reason thattransformation is not taking
place is because, once again,the people who are teaching you
(19:09):
don't know God, or even if theydo, they're not submitted to God
wholeheartedly, so they're notallowing him to speak through
them or even understanding thatthere's no power in in
themselves, but the true poweris in jesus yeah, well, they
(19:30):
even teach the pastors.
Shanea (19:32):
You know they they um prepare all these sermons like
themselves, without the holyspirit.
So it's like, how do you like?
How are you giving a messageand you haven't spoken to God
about who he wants to speak to?
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Or what he wants to say you know to help people?
Shanea (19:51):
How do you even know you're helping people?
Because, to be honest, theydon't do testimonies in church,
no more.
Walter (19:57):
No, well, I mean, here's the thing, um, even as I was
working on the notes and I toldyou last night I wanted to do
this, but I wasn't givenanything he told me to get up to
in this in the morning, andI'll speak to you then on what I
want you to teach.
And so I think that is soimportant, because I could have
(20:19):
wrote notes, I could have cameup with my own stuff, but it
would have been me forcing itand there's nothing in that.
And so leaders have to be at apoint of understanding that you
don't do anything in your ownstrength, because, once again,
there's no power.
And that's what you talkedabout People's minds not being
transformed or them not evenknowing how the reason is, and
(20:42):
you touched on that.
Before they haven't encounteredChrist, they haven't like the
words, haven't pierced theirsubconscious, their heart.
Shanea (20:53):
Yeah, and I think the other thing, too, that people
don't teach about is that youknow we have our spirit we have
our soul and we have our ownwill.
Renewing your mind, you have tochange your will.
Your will has to be the will ofGod, not the will of self.
So it's like whatever I need todo, I'm going to do it the way
(21:15):
that God wants me to do it.
If I need to throw down my oldsinful nature and I need to live
a different way, I need tothrow away everything that I had
before so I can do the will ofGod.
That's my will.
Yes, and a lot of people don'tdo it because they're so used to
(21:36):
doing their own self, their ownself-will.
Walter (21:43):
Yes, and I mean once again this is people don't know.
Shanea (21:48):
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it
drink it.
Yeah.
Because he has a will.
You can't force someone to dosomething that naturally they
don't naturally want to do.
Walter (21:57):
Well, that goes into the next point, and before we go
there, I want to say this right,it's important to understand
this.
We're talking about your mindbeing renewed.
We have to understand our mindbeing renewed impacts our
behavior, our decisions inrelationships and particularly
(22:19):
in marriage.
It impacts all of that.
It impacts your behavior, thedecisions you make and your
relationships, what type ofrelationships you choose to be
in, what type of relationshipsyou have with your friends and,
most importantly, therelationship you have with
(22:41):
Christ and your spouse.
This is why your mind has to berenewed.
This is why you have to gothrough the process of having an
understanding of who Christtruly is, because if you don't,
it would negatively impact everyother area of your life.
It would negatively impactevery other area of your life.
(23:02):
So, talking about what you justsaid, I think that's a great
place to move on to the nextpoint which is the wilderness
experience.
So Luke 4, 1 through 14.
And specifically because I'llread that, because I would say
(23:22):
for everyone, read it all.
But I wanted to touch on twopoints.
In Luke 4.
And once again this is the NLT,verse 1,.
It states that Then Jesus, fullof the Holy Spirit, returned
from the Jordan River.
He was led by the Spirit intowilderness, where he was through
(23:52):
the temptations by the enemy.
It says that Jesus returned toGalilee filled with the Holy
Spirit's power.
Reports about him spreadquickly through the whole region
.
He taught regularly in theirsynagogues and was praised by
everyone.
So we know that when lookinginto that, we know that, prior
(24:20):
to that, jesus was baptized byJohn.
And when he was baptized by John, the Bible says that the Spirit
of God, the Holy Spirit,descended upon him like a dove
in a bodily shaped form, andthen he was ushered into the
wilderness by the Holy Spirit tofast for 40 days and 40 nights
and be tempted by the enemy.
And it was saying that after hewent through his wilderness
(24:43):
experience which is key he leftthe wilderness full of the power
of the Holy Spirit.
Yes, the issue is this Withinthe wilderness experience, right
, it's not just a testing spaceor a moment of testing.
(25:04):
No.
It's a place for spiritualgrowth and being taught how to
overcome sin.
Right, the thing is and I don'tthink I said this in here or
it's not in here, let's go there.
What was coming to me, was thisright here?
When we think of Jesus goingthrough the wilderness
experience and leaving thewilderness with the power of the
(25:27):
Holy Spirit, we think of itfrom the perspective of him
being able to cast out demons,heal the sick, prophesy, and
that's all we focus on.
But in all reality, that's allwe focus on.
But in all reality, the truepower of the Holy Spirit lies in
a changed character.
It lies in a changed person.
Shanea (25:58):
The true power of the Holy Spirit is what allows us to
walk in the power of the HolySpirit to overcome sin.
Yeah, well, the power of theholy spirit helps us come into
our authoritative rights, havingdominion over the earth and
everything.
Walter (26:10):
You can't have dominion if you don't have power but we
look for power based off ofmiracles and signs and wonders,
not understanding that the enemycan perform miracle signs and
wonders.
The greatest miracle that youcan see in a person is a changed
life, not based on theiractions and what they do, but
something that you can see fromit being something that's
(26:33):
inwardly done.
Desires being removed.
Shanea (26:36):
Right, you have people looking at you like there's
something about you removed.
Right, you have people lookingat you like there's something
about you.
Even strangers that don't evenknow you are just like, you're
so peaceful.
There's something about you,what I don't know what it is
it's the holy spirit, it's theholy spirit so, um, I think,
(27:00):
right.
Walter (27:02):
Part of having your mind renewed, part of being able to
walk in the true likeness ofchrist, requires that, just as
christ did, we walk through thewilderness experience.
And it's so important for us togo through the wilderness
experience because we have somany things that we've taken on.
(27:24):
That's a part of this worldthat God has to remove.
Christ went to the wildernessand we can see it like this.
Christ went to the wildernessto kill off his flesh.
Shanea (27:34):
He went to the wilderness to die.
Walter (27:37):
You go to the wilderness to die.
Yeah, you go to the wildernessto die.
Yeah, you go to the wildernessto die to self and you come back
with the power of the holyspirit to do his will to do his
will, including his will beingthat he wants us to live free
from the power of sin right andto fight against it.
Exactly.
Shanea (27:58):
So we are constantly at war.
Walter (28:00):
And that is a great segue.
Living in the power of the HolySpirit?
That is a great segue.
Babe, you want to read Romans 2, 13 through 16?
.
2 verse 13 through 16?
.
Sure Walter.
Thank you, shania, sure, walter, thank you.
Shanea (28:20):
Shania, Romans 2, 13 through 16.
For merely listening to the lawdoesn't make us right with God.
It is obeying the law thatmakes us right in his sight.
Even Gentiles who do not haveGod's written law show that they
(28:41):
know his law when theyinstinctively obey it, even
without having heard it.
They demonstrate that God's lawis written in their hearts for
their own conscious, andthoughts either accuse them or
tell them they are doing right.
So when we think about the HolySpirit and even what Paul is
(29:02):
referring to, Paul stated thatthe law was written on the
(29:24):
hearts of the Gentiles.
Walter (29:24):
So you had the Jews that were trying to adhere to the
law based off of just memory andknowing the law, but you had
the Gentiles that justautomatically adhered to the law
based off of it being a part oftheir subconscious, not their
conscious.
Shanea (29:41):
You know what I hear when I read this again, For
merely listening to the lawdoesn't make us right with God.
It is obeying the law thatmakes us right in his sight.
And what was coming to me isthose who, like I said before,
who use their theology orknowledge of the Bible to
(30:03):
condemn other people.
But they themselves are obeyingevery God's every command, and
so it's merely listening orknowing the law.
So you think about thePharisees they knew the law, but
they didn't obey it, theydidn't walk in it Well.
Walter (30:27):
I think that is key right.
It's not just about knowing thelaw, it's about obeying the law
.
But even the thing is thisright it's also about your heart
posture as you obey.
Because the Gentiles, it's just, they didn't even know what the
(30:49):
law was.
They just lived righteously,based on the fact that they had
the power of the Holy Spirit.
So it wasn't that their actionsmade them right with God per se
, it was more so, their heartposture.
Shanea (31:05):
Right Same.
So, like after my conversion, Ididn't read the Bible prior to.
I didn't know a lot of thingsthat was in the Bible, but the
way that I moved, being led bythe Holy Spirit, I didn't have
to, I didn't have to physicallyknow where in the Bible this
(31:26):
says I needed to make thesechanges in my life.
It just automatically happened.
Walter (31:32):
Yeah, because it's the power of the Spirit of God kind
of guiding you.
That's the whole law beingwritten on your heart process,
and so this is good, right.
So the law being written on ourhearts is not for external
performance, but for an internaltransformation that enables us
(31:56):
to live righteously.
And so and you just talkedabout this, right- yeah.
True change comes through thepower of the Holy Spirit, not by
willpower or external rules,and that's the difference
between the law being written onyour heart versus you knowing
the law and growing up beingtaught the law.
(32:18):
It's relationship versus versusreligion.
Once again, like at the mostbasic form, is relationship
versus religion.
Shanea (32:29):
And it's even worse that you know the law and don't
follow it.
Obey it.
Walter (32:35):
And so, by the power of the Holy Spirit we're talking
about this and having anunderstanding of who Christ
really is.
We get to Romans 6, verse 12through 20.
So Romans 6, verse 12 through20.
And this is a lot, and Isuggest people read everything.
(32:59):
But it says Do not let sincontrol the way you live.
Do not give in to sinfuldesires.
Do not let any part of yourbody become an instrument of
evil to serve sin.
Instead, give yourselvescompletely to God, for you were
dead, but now you have new life,so use your whole body as an
instrument to do what is rightfor the glory of God.
(33:21):
Sin is no longer your master,for you no longer live under the
requirements of the law.
Instead, you live under thefreedom of grace.
Well then, since God's grace hasset us free from the law, does
that mean we can go on sinning?
Of course not.
Don't you realize that youbecome the slave of whatever you
(33:43):
choose to obey?
You can be a slave to sin,which leads to death, or you can
choose to obey God, which leadsto righteous living.
Thank God, once you were slavesof sin, but now you
wholeheartedly obey thisteaching we have given you.
Now you are free from yourslavery to sin and you have
become slaves to righteousliving Because of the weakness
(34:06):
of your human nature.
I am using the illustration ofslavery to help you understand
all this.
Previously, you let yourselvesbe slaves to impurity and
lawlessness, which led evendeeper into sin.
Now you must give yourselves tobe so.
This is so key, right, becausewhat it tells us is that the
(34:32):
justification that you utilizeto sin is no longer
justification.
Grace was never given to you togive you the ability to live a
life of sin.
Grace was provided to give youthe ability to be free from a
life of sin by way.
Shanea (34:50):
By the power of the Holy .
Walter (34:51):
Spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Shanea (34:53):
The only way you can defeat the enemy is through the
power of God's Spirit the HolySpirit, exactly.
You can't fight against demonicentities without the power of
the Holy Spirit.
Walter (35:08):
Yes, and that's so key that's important that we
understand that.
So, living by the spirit right,romans 8, 1 through 15.
And once again, romans 8,.
I would recommend you read allof this.
But, babe, do you want to goahead and read Romans 8?
Shanea (35:25):
Romans 8,.
What 1 through 15?
Walter (35:27):
Yes.
Shanea (35:29):
So now there is no condemnation for those who
belong to Christ Jesus, andbecause you belong to him, the
(35:51):
power of the life-giving spirithas freed you from the power of
sin that leads to Mm-hmm.
In that body, god declared anend to sin's control over us by
giving his son as a sacrificefor our sins.
He did this so that the justrequirements of the law would be
(36:18):
fully satisfied for us who nolonger follow our sinful nature,
but instead follow the spirit.
Those who are dominated by thesinful nature think about sinful
things, but those who arecontrolled by the holy spirit
think about things that pleasesthe spirit.
So letting your sinful naturecontrol your mind leads to death
, but letting the spirit controlyour mind leads to life and
peace and we can stop there fortime's sake, because this is a
(36:39):
lot.
Yeah.
Walter (36:40):
But I would definitely recommend everyone read all of
this.
But it really touches on thisright here, right, and this is a
beautiful thing.
True, when you think of whoChrist is, when you think of the
gospel, when you think of thefact that you have people that
(37:05):
are teaching the message of afalse Christ.
Mm-hmm what Christ literally.
There's a lot of things thatChrist did, but ultimately
Christ is and we'll touch onthis later on but his
crucifixion, his death and hisresurrection.
It provided us the ability tobe free from the power of sin.
(37:29):
It is not there to give you anokay or say it's okay for you to
sin, it's okay for you to dowhat you want to do.
It's really there to allow usto be in a space to where you
don't have to be under thecontrol of your sinful nature,
which your sinful nature isdictated by the prince of this
world.
(37:50):
It comes under the control ofdemons.
We can call it whatever we want, and but it's it's you.
Either you're being controlledby something and that's what
paul was saying.
You're either being controlledby the holy spirit, or driven or
guided by the holy spirit, oryou're being controlled or
driven or guided by the princeof this world, the enemy, yeah,
(38:10):
and everything that falls underhim, the principalities, demons,
all of that stuff rulers andthat digs into lust, perversion,
disc, uh, discord, uh, chaos,all of these different things
yeah, um.
Shanea (38:25):
What was coming to me as we were reading was um um luke
9, 57 through 62, the cost offollowing Jesus.
I think that a lot of timespeople misconstrue because you'd
(38:48):
be using that word, the cost offollowing, of following christ
and so when you don't have anunderstanding of what that looks
like, you get a false christyes you are following a false
christ, because you don't knowwhat following the real christ
looks like, because everyonetells you it's okay for you to
(39:12):
struggle with these things thatyou have been struggling with.
It's okay for you to strugglewith these things that you have
been struggling with.
It's okay for you to still dothings as the Romans do, the
people in the world do.
It's still it's okay for you todo all of those things.
And it's like when you getreally, truly, truly, really,
truly, truly, truly, truly giveyour life to Christ.
(39:33):
It is complete, total, uttersurrender and the cost of
following Jesus.
Like Paul said and even Jesusgives a parable here, exactly
saying what Paul said you haveto leave everything.
Walter (39:52):
Yes.
Shanea (39:53):
You have to leave your former life.
That means you have to leaveyour sinful nature, and your
sinful nature could be yourenvironment.
You have to leave everythingbecause those are decisions that
you and the world made.
Those are not decisions thatyou made with Jesus.
You might have thought you weretalking to Jesus, but you
(40:16):
weren't really being led byJesus.
Jesus didn't lead you into thisrelationship.
Jesus didn't lead you into thatjob.
Jesus didn't lead you into thisuniversity.
Jesus didn't lead you into alot of areas in your life.
And so when you think about thecost of following Jesus said
that foxes have no dens to livein and birds have no nest, but
(40:38):
the son of man has no place evento lay his head.
And when I had read that,before the revelation came to me
, was Jesus, he, he, followinghim?
You don't know where you'regoing.
Walter (40:51):
No.
Shanea (40:53):
He goes where God tells him to go.
You go where he tells you to go.
That's why you don't have, youdon't have a place, you don't
really have a say.
So like I can't buy this housebecause I want to buy this house
and live here, I can't justlive in Baltimore because I want
to live in Baltimore, because Ihave to go where the spirit
(41:13):
leads me.
Because foxes don't have anydens, they just live.
And then when and this appliesto me a lot is when the man said
I want to follow you, but letme go bury my father first.
And Jesus said no, you can't.
(41:34):
If you want to follow me, Letthe spiritually dead bury the
dead, because you're dead toyour former life, You're dead to
your former self.
You're dead to your customs.
Walter (41:44):
You're dead to your culture.
You've taken upon the cultureof Christ, the culture of the
kingdom of God, and that's evenChrist had to show the example
of that with with Lazarus, youknow, he had to show the example
and he had to.
Actually, in that moment, eventhough they wanted him to be
there, he wanted to be there.
He had to submit himself to thewill of God, right
(42:06):
Understanding that greater gloryhad to be shown.
Shanea (42:09):
Right and people don't really look at the
characteristics of God and therethere's things that God will
tell you to do that doesn't makesense to other people.
Just like in that instance, itdidn't make sense for Jesus not
to go and check on Lazarus'family.
Even they probably were likewhy isn't he here?
This doesn't even make anysense.
Walter (42:33):
But that's what comes with truly following Christ, and
it all boils down to this.
Anything outside of that is afalse message, and so we have to
look at it from thisperspective, right, because we
have two things being taught inthe church.
We have the church eitherteaching a gospel that
emphasizes suffering, or the lawis a way to righteousness.
(42:56):
So there are those who believethat your suffering leads you to
a more righteous life.
Yeah.
How much you suffer leads you toa more righteous life, or you
following the law leads you to amore righteous life, right
Rather than submission to Christand sanctification, which is
(43:18):
the true way to righteousness,which is a true way of having a
closer relationship with Christwhich is the true gospel.
The true gospel is totalsubmission to Christ by way of
faith.
It's total submission to christ.
That means you pick up yourcross and you follow him in
(43:41):
every area, in every part ofyour life.
Yeah, you submit it all to god.
What were you about to say?
Shanea (43:48):
no, I was saying a lot of people, they.
I just lost the word.
Walter (43:58):
Holy Spirit, help me.
Shanea (44:02):
They associate suffering with being Christian.
Walter (44:08):
Yeah.
Shanea (44:08):
They associate suffering with Christ, not literally with
Christ, but they associatetheir suffering to Christianity.
Walter (44:18):
And while you do, in instances, suffer from being a
Christian or a believer, onceagain we have to see what that
entails.
Shanea (44:31):
We take this back to Peter.
Walter (44:33):
Yes.
What type of suffering is it?
Is it suffering because of yourdisobedience?
Is it suffering because ofdecisions you've made?
Is it suffering because of yoursin?
Or is it suffering becauseyou're doing what Christ has
called you to do?
There's a distinct difference.
There's a distinct difference.
(44:59):
There's a distinct difference.
Yet it's not your sufferingthat makes you righteous.
It's your faith in Christ Jesusand submitting to him that
makes you righteous.
It's your submission to theHoly Spirit that makes you
righteous.
It's you picking up your crossand following him.
It's you choosing to submit tothe will of God so that he can
guide you into a life that ismore holy, consecrated and
(45:20):
sanctified.
And abundant.
Exactly Because even Jesussubmitted himself to the spirit
of God when he was here in fleshform, which is why the
scripture says that he was ledinto the wilderness by the Holy
Spirit to be tempted by theenemy and fast for 40 days and
40 nights.
Jesus didn't go to thewilderness because he wanted to
(45:44):
People who just want to fast,because you want to.
He was led by the Spirit of Godand he began to teach us the
importance of being led by Godin all we do.
He always submitted himself tothe Father.
Yeah, once again right, becausewe're talking about false Christ
and the dangers of false Christ.
(46:15):
We have to understand right,that faith alone is not enough
and there's a teaching thatteaches that faith alone is
enough and does not require alife of holiness, consecration
and sanctification.
I'm sorry, but that's wrong.
It is not enough to justbelieve.
(46:36):
We talked about last week theimportance of faith and
obedience, that faith withoutworks is dead.
Faith and obedience was stillto submit to a life of
consecration, was still tosubmit to a life of holiness,
was still to submit to a life ofsanctification.
So this is a lot.
(47:01):
This is a lot, and we touchedon that before.
Oh my gosh, I'm trying to getthrough all of this.
It's a lot of good stuff.
So this I think we was talkingabout this the other night,
right, what was placed in myspirit is, when you create an
(47:22):
idol out of Christ, like a falseChrist, it literally can set
you up to be more open to theAntichrist.
Yeah, it literally leads youaway from Christ and,
(47:42):
unknowingly, it can lead youdirectly into the hands of the
Antichrist Because you don'tknow Christ.
Right.
Shanea (47:52):
You have no understanding of who Christ is
and if you think you'll know whothe Antichrist is when he comes
, which you won't because theBible says that you won't,
because he comes directly fromthe church the only way you will
know is through the Holy Spirit.
Walter (48:07):
You have to have discernment.
And you have to already have arelationship with Christ.
Shanea (48:12):
Yes, Because if I never have a relationship with you, I
don't really know who you are.
I might, could have read aboutyou, and but if I don't really
know who you truly are, likewhat your characteristics are,
and that's key is the fruit.
That's why the Bible lets usknow the fruit of the spirit.
That is how you will know thatthat is, in fact, godly.
Walter (48:38):
And we have to remember that Christ did life with the
disciples.
They did life with him forthree years.
How can you gain anunderstanding of who Christ is
if you're not doing life withhim, which goes back to
(48:58):
relationship?
You have to do life with him.
You have to do life with theFather.
Shanea (49:04):
You have to be married.
Walter (49:06):
You have to do life, you have to develop a relationship
and you have to understand thatit should consistently be
leading you closer to Christ.
It should be consistentlyleading you closer to the Father
, and if it's leading you tocloser to the Father, you will
begin and we touched on thisbefore.
(49:26):
You will hate what the Fatherhates and you will love what the
Father loves.
And the Father is holy, he'ssanctified, he's one that's for
consecration being set apart.
I'm sorry that that means yourlife won't look like everybody
(49:46):
else.
You can't do what everybody elsedoes no.
Shanea (49:49):
And that is the suffering for Christ in.
Walter (49:53):
Christ.
Shanea (49:53):
Christ's name, because people will persecute you.
Walter (49:55):
Because you're not doing what they're doing, because
you're not doing what they'redoing.
You're not bowing to KingNebuchadnezzar as everybody else
is.
No, you're not living in Babylonlike everyone else, even as
they're threatening to throw youinto the fiery furnace, you
still refuse to bow becauseyou've submitted yourself to the
Holy Spirit, you've submittedyourself to Christ, you've
(50:16):
submitted yourself to the Father, and so I think this is so
important right Now, as we wrapup, because we've touched on a
lot and I think we're doingreally great with time.
What would you say to everyone,babe?
What would you say to everyone,babe, matter of fact, is there
(50:37):
anything else that you want totouch on?
Shanea (50:41):
um, no, I mean, we obviously can go deeper, but I
think this is a good place tostart.
Yeah, for people who um aregetting to know christ, wanting
to know christ, the thing is isthat you have to continue to
keep seeking and reading andlearning his voice so that you
(51:03):
will know what the antichristlooks like and and don't get us
wrong, the spirit of antichristis already here yes the actual
antichrist is currently beingushered in, but the spirit of
antichrist is already here.
The actual Antichrist iscurrently being ushered in, but
the spirit of Antichrist hasbeen here since Christ.
Yes, we see that with thePharisees, that spirit is always
here, directly tied to religion.
Walter (51:25):
Yes, it teaches a different version of Christ.
It pulls you away from the truegospel.
It pulls you away from whochrist really is and what he's
always called for us to live, orhow he's always called for us
to live our lives.
That is what the antichrist isanything that does not look like
the characteristics of christis an antichrist but you have to
(51:47):
understand when paul wastouching on it and we read that
in the scriptures, right theywhen he touched on those who was
teaching a different christ,they were still teaching christ
right, they were teaching afalse christ exactly so I think
this is so important becauseonce again you just said that
before and we've said this onmultiple occasions you're
(52:09):
looking for the antichrist to bethe.
Antichrist.
So you're looking for an ElonMusk to be the Antichrist.
Yeah.
But you don't realize theAntichrist is coming directly
from the church.
Shanea (52:23):
Right, it's going to look like Christ, walk like
Christ, but it's not going to beChrist.
Walter (52:27):
They're going to misconstrue who Christ really is
.
Shanea (52:31):
They're going to say this is who Christ is.
Walter (52:33):
Exactly.
Shanea (52:34):
Which they're already doing.
Walter (52:35):
It's already being set up.
Shanea (52:36):
It's already being done in the church.
That's why, the things that weare teaching, people come to us
and are like, are you teaching adifferent Christ?
And I'm like, yeah, the one youlearned was not the Christ, the
Christ that I know, not theChrist who just delivered me.
Walter (52:51):
Not the Christ who died on the cross?
For our sins.
It's a different Christ.
It's slightly misconstrued.
It's not like they're going tolike.
Even when you look at Jesus notJesus even when you look at
Adam and Eve, when they dealtwith the serpent, what did the
serpent say?
You won't surely die?
He slightly twisted the word,even when he came up against
(53:22):
Jesus, when he was temptingjesus in the wilderness.
He's, he knows the word.
Yes, he knew the word.
That's why it says that theenemy will come as an angel of
light, disguised as an angel oflight.
Yeah, so.
So here's the thing it will looklike, right what I would say is
this really examine your livesand see if there's any areas in
your life where you may havebeen following a false Christ or
a message of a false Christ, oreven if you've been attracted
(53:46):
or drawn to leaders and teacherswho teach a message that is not
of Christ or is slightlydifferent from the things of
Christ, and if so, really prayon that and ask God to help you
in those areas and we have togain a better understanding of
(54:06):
what grace is.
We do, we have to gain a betterunderstanding of what grace is
and we've got to stopmisconstruing it.
In its simplest form, graceisn't there to allow you to
continue on doing what you wantto do.
Grace is there and there'sdifferent versions of grace.
(54:28):
But when we touch on sin, graceis there.
For when you do make a mistakeand fall short, grace is there
to catch you and lift you backup, but grace is not there for
you to continue to fall short.
Grace, in its most powerful way, gives us the ability to be
(54:50):
free from sin the power of sin.
And so that's what I would say.
That's what I would say, and Iwould also say we touch on this
all the time it's so importantthat we submit every area and
every part of our lives to God,to Christ.
It's important that wesurrender to him.
(55:12):
So, babe, anything else youwant to add before we recap?
No, I don't have anything okay,so how about you do the recap,
the key points there?
Okay, I'm sorry, i'm'm hungry.
It's fine, me too.
(55:32):
Okay, so just to recap thedangers of following a false
Christ and the importance ofmind renewal and submission to
the Holy Spirit.
Shanea (56:00):
So, recapping what we touched on is the dangers of
following the false christ, theimportance of having our mind
renewed and the importance ofsubmitting everything we have to
the holy spirit.
Oh, that's how you wanted me tosay that yes?
Oh well, I didn't write it.
Walter (56:05):
So it's fine and it's important that we understand
that there has to be a truetransformation and that
transformation is found by wayof Christ, but that is actually
evident through a changed life,not just you saying that you are
a Christian.
That's not enough.
(56:26):
I'm sorry.
That's not going to be whatleads you into heaven.
That's not going to be whatleads you into heaven.
When you truly experience andencounter Christ.
You can never go back to theway that you lived before.
Shanea (56:42):
No.
Walter (56:43):
It's impossible to do that.
Shanea (56:45):
Even if you try, you will go through so much hell.
Walter (56:51):
You will so examine your relationship with God, examine
your relationship with Christ,and please learn the importance
of truly living by the power ofthe Holy Spirit, and that it's
not just about signs and wonders, but it's what really allows
(57:14):
you to live a life that's beentransformed.
Shanea (57:18):
Yeah, it's having peace.
Walter (57:21):
Yes.
Shanea (57:22):
Literally peace, grace and peace.
I don't even know how toexplain it, because once you
stop doing the things that youused to do, you don't really
want to go back, because youdidn't really have peace.
Walter (57:41):
Well, the Bible calls it this.
It says it's peace thatsurpasses all understanding.
Right, I can't even explain thepeace and that doesn't mean
that you won't have trials andtribulations, no, that doesn't
mean that there won't bechallenges, tribulations?
No, that doesn't mean thatthere won't be challenges, but
the thing is that you can't goback.
Shanea (57:58):
No, because the peace comes from knowing that you
aren't your own boss, you aren'tyour own God, and that you have
this huge support system.
You have a kingdom of supportsystem system, you have a whole
system of support yeah, I think,and that is that, that that
(58:21):
brings me peace I think simplyput the song comes to mind.
Walter (58:26):
It is well in your soul.
Yeah, it becomes well, yeah, itwell.
As you deal with everything youdeal with, it becomes well.
You learn to let go and say God, this is yours.
Yeah.
I'm submitted to you in everyarea of my life.
Shanea (58:43):
Because, as long as you're in God's perfect will,
there's provision, and thatprovision brings you peace
because you're not doinganything outside of what god's
already called you to do.
Therefore, the enemy doesn'thave any legal rights to take
from you or um disrupt what godalready promised you yet even if
(59:07):
he does, you can become he willtry you can become, even if he
does.
Walter (59:11):
you can become like like Nebuchadnezzar I'm not
Nebuchadnezzar.
You can come up like Shadrach,meshach and Abednego, with King
Nebuchadnezzar.
Yeah.
What he said to him, that webelieve our God will save us.
But even if he does not, westill won't bend our knees and
worship you.
We still won't bow to you.
That's the place that you wantto get at, that's where you want
(59:35):
to be.
That's peace that surpasses allunderstanding, that I believe
my father would save me.
But even if he don't, I stillsubmit to him.
Shanea (59:45):
And that power is your weapon.
Walter (59:48):
Yes, yes.
Shanea (59:51):
So, babe, you want to end this out with what comments,
all that stuff well, we thankyou guys for listening and
tuning in with us.
Um, hopefully this has been ablessing to you.
If it has, please share it withothers.
(01:00:13):
Um, yeah, that's really it.
I don't have anything else?
I just comment, I just want youguys to um, if you can, you
know, share um some of yourtestimonies or share how your
walk with god has been, sinceyou've been listening to this
podcast.
Walter (01:00:30):
Um, yeah yeah, and hopefully it's been a blessing.
Uh, this is all about him.
This is not our podcast.
Shanea (01:00:38):
We say it all the time, so carefully I also want to
shout out to um the followerswho, like, have been with us
since day one, who haveconsistently been posting.
We can't repost anythingbecause it's not our podcast.
Walter (01:00:53):
He won't let us.
Shanea (01:00:54):
He won't let us, if we could, we would so we really do
appreciate you all for yourrepost and your comments and we
really do appreciate it and Iwish we could show you more love
.
Walter (01:01:08):
There's one specifically that comes to mind.
Shanea (01:01:12):
Our name is Leah.
I think it was Leah, okay.
Leah something I don't have itright here, but.
Walter (01:01:17):
We see you, and then there's another girl.
We see you all and weappreciate you.
Shanea (01:01:21):
Yes, we see you all, we do, we do.
Walter (01:01:24):
So that is it.
That's the end of this week'sepisode.
We will see you all next week.
Be blessed and 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 relationships youhave with others.
I'm your host, walter.
I'm joined here alongside mylovely wife.
Shanea (00:14):
Shanea.
Walter (00:15):
This is episode 14.
Yes, it is.
Babe, what's the title of thisweek episode?
Shanea (00:22):
The Message of a False Christ.
Walter (00:25):
The Message of a False Christ.
The Message of a False Christ.
So this is episode 14, so Iguess we can reiterate this is a
podcast where we delve into thethings of relationships.
Relationships is our theme,relationships as far as marriage
(00:47):
goes, those who are desiring tobe married, those who are
married and then, mostimportantly, our relationship
with christ, our relationshipwith god the father, our
relationship with the holyspirit yep, we are believers we
are believers.
Uh, we say believers becausethere are those that are
christians but we believe.
Matter of fact, we know thatthere is a distinct difference
between being.
We say believers because thereare those that are Christians
(01:17):
no-transcript what?
And so, to get things, started.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
babe, do you want to go ahead and open us up in
prayer?
Sure, Okay.
Shanea (01:32):
Father God, we thank you .
We thank you for your love,your grace and your mercy.
Father God, we thank you forthe message that you've given us
revelation on to share with ourfollowers, to share with our
followers, to share with otherbelievers, to share with other
Christians, father God, thatthey may find themselves seeking
(01:53):
you more and recognizing yourvoice.
Thank you, father God, forallowing us to be a vessel to
your sheep, so that, when you dospeak, that they know that it's
you speaking In Jesus' name.
We pray Amen.
Walter (02:08):
Amen, If we can get that mic a little bit closer to you
babe.
Shanea (02:13):
Okay, well, you kind of sound a little far too.
Do I, you do, or maybe it'sbecause my it's probably because
I can hear myself.
Well, I mean, I can hear myselftoo, so Okay.
Walter (02:27):
And everybody else can hear myself.
Uh, well, I mean, I can hearmyself too.
Shanea (02:29):
So okay, and everybody else can hear us.
Yeah, I just want to make sure,make sure your headphones are
like in your ear, though.
No, they are okay, because Ithink I can hear better now that
I.
Walter (02:35):
I pushed them in because you know, my ears are small
yeah, okay, so to get thingsstarted this week, the message
of a false Christ.
I was um.
It was given to me as I waslistening to last week episode,
(02:56):
and as I was listening to lastweek episode, um, I wish you
would stop.
I know what you're trying to do.
What am I trying to?
Shanea (03:05):
do Get me to smile.
No, I'm not trying to get youwould stop.
Walter (03:07):
I know what you're trying to do.
Shanea (03:07):
What am I trying to do?
Get me to smile?
No, I'm not trying to get youto smile.
Walter (03:09):
What are you trying to do?
Shanea (03:10):
I'm just saying, it kind of sounds like you're whistling
a little bit.
Does it yeah.
Walter (03:15):
I'm not whistling, okay, but before I was rudely
interrupted by my wife, I waslistening to last week episode.
And as I was listening to lastweek episode, I heard false
Christ and it just popped upfalse Christ.
And I'm like, okay, falseChrist, and we've touched on
(03:44):
this before and I knew that'swhat God wanted us to teach on
or discuss.
Excuse me, yet I think when wethink of false Christ, we think
of the Antichrist.
Shanea (03:58):
When we think of false Christ, we think of something
that's just going to be outrightin your face Like that's
demonic or that's satanic.
But ultimately there's a lot ofthings in the world that's
demonic, that Christians do.
Walter (04:13):
Yes.
Shanea (04:15):
And they don't recognize who they're serving.
Walter (04:18):
No, and when you delve into things, you realize that so
many of us we've created ourown version of what we.
We've created a version ofChrist that fits our lives.
Or fits the world.
Or fits the world, but we justwant to be able to do what we
(04:38):
want to do and still be able tosay that we're Christians, and
still be able to say that we'reChristians, because there's
millions of Christians inAmerica, as we know, but there's
very we know that thosemillions of people that profess
or confess Jesus as their Lordand Savior, they're not actually
believers, the world teachesyou to be your own boss.
Shanea (05:03):
To be your own boss, to be your own leader, to go out
and do things for yourself.
Yeah.
And if you are your own boss,because there are a lot of
people out here who's like I'm aboss.
Mm-hmm.
I'm my own boss.
I'm a boss baddie.
Walter (05:23):
Yeah, that's different.
Shanea (05:26):
Yeah Well, they say a different word, but I can't use
it.
Walter (05:28):
Oh, okay, no, don't use that word.
Shanea (05:31):
I can't use it.
Walter (05:31):
I don't even get why people use that word now.
It's crazy because when we wasgrowing up, it was considered
disrespectful.
It's a four-letter word, by theway, but simply put right, what
is a false Christ?
A false Christ is somethingthat is created that fits
(05:52):
people's desires and lifestylesinstead of submitting to the
true Christ.
And there's this misconceptionof grace.
Right that we believe that itallows us to remain in sin
rather than freeing us from it,and so that's it.
Right, like we truly believegrace gives us the ability to do
(06:17):
what we want to do.
Shanea (06:18):
To sin, and that's what a lot of us tell ourselves.
Well, not me anymore, but I wastalking about this in a last
episode.
It's like, oh, god knows myheart.
I'm, you know, I'm, I'm gonna,I'm a christian.
He knows my heart.
Even if I do wrong, he's stillgonna accept me.
God knows me, he knows me.
We have our own personalrelationship and so it doesn't
(06:41):
matter what I do.
Walter (06:43):
Yeah, I think once again , we know this.
We misconstrue grace in thismessage or this podcast is not
about grace, but we misconstruegrace the grace that we refer to
.
It gives us the power, by wayof the Holy Spirit, to be free
(07:04):
from the power of sin.
It's not for us to continue tosin, not saying that we're going
to fall short, because there isgrace for when we fall short.
But there's a differencebetween falling short and making
a decision to consistently,purposefully sin purposefully
(07:31):
sin.
Shanea (07:31):
Well, as a believer, um, we have the holy spirit, and so
that helps us stay within god'slaw, within god's grace,
because we're not doing it inour own strength, and so many
christians aren't believerswhere they are allowing the Holy
Spirit to guide them until theyfall directly under the law.
Walter (07:48):
Yes, so let's get into it.
Second Corinthians 11, 1through 4.
Do you want to read that, or?
Shanea (07:59):
If you have it already pulled up.
Walter (08:01):
I don't have to pull it up, matter of fact, it'd be easy
.
Let me get my phone.
Shanea (08:16):
Second Corinthians already pulled up.
I don't have to pull it up,matter of fact, it'd be easy,
and let me get my phone.
Second corinthians 11, 1through 4, and we'll read in the
nlt version.
Walter (08:19):
You got it.
I'm about to read it.
Go ahead, you can read it.
I'm just doing my split screen.
Okay, I hope you will put.
I hope you will put up with alittle more of my foolishness.
Please bear with me, for I amjealous for you, with the
jealousy of God himself.
I promise you as a pure brideto one husband, christ.
But I fear that somehow yourpure and undivided devotion to
Christ will be corrupted.
(08:40):
Just as Eve was deceived by thecunning ways of the serpent,
you happily put up with whateveranyone tells you, even if they
preach a different Jesus thanthe one we preach, or a
different kind of spirit thanthe one you received, or a
different kind of gospel thanthe one you believed.
And that was Paul speakingRight.
(09:02):
Mm-hmm, and that was.
Paul speaking Right.
So this is Paul forewarning thechurch of Corinth.
(09:23):
That they have on down is thatwe ourselves create our own
version of Christ.
Then we go and seek out leadersthat would teach us that it's
okay to have that version ofChrist.
Shanea (09:38):
Yeah.
The real issue, though, is thatpeople don't believe that Satan
is really as cunning as Paul isspeaking about.
Walter (09:53):
Well, when you look at it and I think this was it
Because it- might look likeJesus.
Shanea (09:58):
It might sound like Jesus.
Walter (10:03):
Well, we don't know how Satan initially looked, even
when he was in the Garden ofEden, and I think Micah touched
on this.
Was it Micah Turnbull?
Someone touched on it that wewere listening to.
It was someone that we waslistening to.
Shanea (10:11):
No, he did speak on it, but we were listening to a
testimony from someone.
Walter (10:16):
So we think we forget who Satan was in heaven?
Yes, we forget who Satan was inheaven.
Shanea (10:22):
Absolutely.
Walter (10:23):
That's first.
Satan was beautiful.
Shanea (10:26):
Yeah, he was beautiful he comes as an angel of light
literally was beautiful andthat's why eve was not deceived
exactly.
Walter (10:32):
She was deceived she was deceived because, she didn't.
Shanea (10:36):
She didn't think there was anything wrong with what he
was saying, because he looked.
He looked angelic he was?
He was an angelic being wellthe point.
Walter (10:45):
The point that Paul was making here is that you have to
be and that's what the testimonywas touching on you have to be
careful to stand firm on whatwas originally taught.
We have to get back to thebasics of who Christ is.
We have to understand whoChrist is, and so that's when
you move away from thinking thatthe Christ that you serve or
(11:08):
the Christ that the Bible speaksof, or we try to reshift this
right, or what people try toteach and they misconstrue the
word, is that Christ allows youto be your own God, but while
also making him your God, and hegives you grace to be your own
God.
We just don't look at it likethat, but that's what we
(11:28):
essentially are saying.
Yes.
It's like, oh, I'm going to dothis because I'm still God's
still working on me in theseareas, but I'm going to give
this over to him.
But you know, listen we talkabout relationships right?
Listen, I just want to have sex, and God knows I want to have
sex.
And Listen, I just want to havesex, and God knows I want to
have sex and he know I strugglewith this and he loved me still.
Shanea (11:46):
God created me.
We are sexual beings.
Walter (11:48):
So it's okay for us to have sex, but you know what?
What we'll do is I'll only havesex with you in this committed
relationship, so it's not thesame as me being out here and
just being extremely promiscuous.
I'm doing it the right way byjust having sex with you, ladies
.
That's what I'm going to tellyou.
I'm giving y'all some pointers.
Listen, I may eventually beyour husband anyway.
(12:11):
Technically, we already marriedin the spirit, so I can have
sex with you until we getmarried.
Shanea (12:20):
God is going to be okay with that, ladies this is what
I'm going to tell you, becauseI'm going to marry you Because
I'm going to marry you.
Walter (12:27):
Matter of fact, you know what?
I already put a ring on you.
We're engaged.
Why can't we just test it?
We need to test it before we,you know, commit to this.
Just to know that we all ofthese things was going to be
said, or listen, I can do this.
I can do this, I can do that.
Shanea (12:46):
It's okay.
A lot of people say well, howdo you even know you're going to
like sex with this person ifyou don't have sex with them
Exactly Before you get?
Walter (12:50):
married and when you start nipping away at things,
you begin to create a differentversion of who Christ is,
because you say, okay, I'm goingto have sex, or I'm going to do
whatever and to have sex, orI'm going to do whatever, and
then I'm going to ask God toforgive me.
Shanea (13:05):
Yeah Well, the problem is, that's what the church
teaches.
Walter (13:08):
That's not spiritual.
Shanea (13:10):
Unfortunately.
I think that the real problemis that people aren't having
encounters with God themselves.
They experience God throughother people's experiences.
Walter (13:23):
Well, also.
Shanea (13:24):
Even though their experiences aren't really truly
God, because you can't tell,because you haven't had your own
experience.
Walter (13:31):
Yet, at the same time, here's what we have to be
careful with right, and it'sright.
Here we have to be careful withseeking out teachings and
seeking out leaders that don'tencourage us to change, that
don't encourage us to haveconsecrated or live consecrated
(13:53):
and holy and sanctified lives byway of the power of the Holy
Spirit.
And unfortunately, within oursociety today, especially within
America, we are so used to justbeing in our own gods, so we go
to churches that fit what we'relooking for.
We got the coffee shops, we gotthis, we got that.
(14:16):
Oh, I love my church.
It has everything I need.
Yet your spirit is not beingfed, paul would say spiritually.
And he did say you are still ababe in Christ.
Spiritually, you're still ababe in Christ.
Shanea (14:30):
Yeah, you're feeding your flesh when you go to church
.
Walter (14:33):
Yeah.
Shanea (14:35):
But you leave church feeling empty.
Walter (14:38):
Well, the thing is and this is good right, many of us
and I used to do it we lead aSunday Christian lifestyle.
We live a Sunday Christianlifestyle and I would go as far
as say we live a Christianlifestyle for about a few hours
out of Sunday.
(14:59):
Because, some of us as soon aswe get out of church.
I did it myself.
I got Kendrick on.
I got whomever on.
I'm leaving out the churchparking.
I did it myself.
I got Kendrick on.
I got whomever on.
I'm leaving out the churchparking lot with Kendrick
bumping.
I'm going in the church parkinglot with Eric Bellinger bumping
chilling all of them.
Chris Eccles bumping, which Ishould not be listening to
(15:19):
because you know it's outright.
Just sometimes I will be inchurch listening to it inside
the church.
Right.
And I'm saying this because Iknow it's other people doing it
and so but you don't submit yourlives to God day by day.
You don't submit, you don'tmake Jesus your Lord and your
(15:39):
Savior over your life throughoutthe week.
Shanea (15:41):
But that's because nobody told you what you were
doing was wrong.
Walter (15:45):
Because we're creating, once again, an alternate version
of who Christ is.
So let's get into this right.
Okay, let's go to Ephesians 4,17 and 22.
And this is just going to diginto the importance of having a
transformed mind.
You want to read that?
Shanea (16:08):
Ephesians 4, 17.
Walter (16:13):
Verse 22.
Shanea (16:15):
With the Lord's authority, I say this live no
longer as the Gentiles do, forthey are hopelessly confused.
Their minds are full ofdarkness.
They wander far from the lifeGod gives because they have
closed their minds and hardenedtheir hearts against him.
They have no sense of shame.
(16:36):
They live for lustful pleasureand eagerly practice every kind
of impurity.
But that isn't what you learnedabout christ.
Since you have heard aboutjesus and have learned the truth
that comes from him, throw offyour old sinful nature in your
former way of life, which iscorrupted by lust and deception.
(17:01):
Instead, let the spirit renewyour thoughts and attitudes, put
on your new nature, created tobe like God, truly righteous and
holy.
Walter (17:15):
Exactly.
Shanea (17:19):
It's all right there.
It's hard though.
Well, the thing is that wedon't go through the process of
having our minds renewed I thinkthe thing is is that people
don't throw off their old sinfulnature and their old former way
of life because it's it's verychallenging to do and people
(17:41):
will look at you like you'recrazy.
Walter (17:43):
Well, the reason that it's challenging is because
that's just and I didn't putthis in here, but it was
something I was thinking aboutas I was taking notes.
And let's just really addressthe elephant in the room.
Many people confess jesus to belord and savior in their lives,
(18:03):
of their lives.
They don't believe it yeah,they don't believe in their
heart and the church and I thinkwe may have touched on this
before.
Many of the churches are moreconcerned with numbers than they
are with transformation.
Yeah.
So it's not by my might or yoursthat people's lives are changed
(18:28):
.
So, it's not by what your pastoror a minister or a prophet,
it's not their words thattransform your life.
We know, even as we saw in Actswith Peter, the Bible says that
as the Holy Spirit spokethrough Peter and gave him the
words, that he was literallyspeaking through him.
(18:49):
It said the words pierced theheart of men and they came to
Peter and they said what must wedo to be saved?
So it's only through the powerof the Holy Spirit that true
transformation takes place.
So the reason thattransformation is not taking
place is because, once again,the people who are teaching you
(19:09):
don't know God, or even if theydo, they're not submitted to God
wholeheartedly, so they're notallowing him to speak through
them or even understanding thatthere's no power in in
themselves, but the true poweris in jesus yeah, well, they
(19:30):
even teach the pastors.
Shanea (19:32):
You know they they um prepare all these sermons like
themselves, without the holyspirit.
So it's like, how do you like?
How are you giving a messageand you haven't spoken to God
about who he wants to speak to?
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
Or what he wants to say you know to help people?
Shanea (19:51):
How do you even know you're helping people?
Because, to be honest, theydon't do testimonies in church,
no more.
Walter (19:57):
No, well, I mean, here's the thing, um, even as I was
working on the notes and I toldyou last night I wanted to do
this, but I wasn't givenanything he told me to get up to
in this in the morning, andI'll speak to you then on what I
want you to teach.
And so I think that is soimportant, because I could have
(20:19):
wrote notes, I could have cameup with my own stuff, but it
would have been me forcing itand there's nothing in that.
And so leaders have to be at apoint of understanding that you
don't do anything in your ownstrength, because, once again,
there's no power.
And that's what you talkedabout People's minds not being
transformed or them not evenknowing how the reason is, and
(20:42):
you touched on that.
Before they haven't encounteredChrist, they haven't like the
words, haven't pierced theirsubconscious, their heart.
Shanea (20:53):
Yeah, and I think the other thing, too, that people
don't teach about is that youknow we have our spirit we have
our soul and we have our ownwill.
Renewing your mind, you have tochange your will.
Your will has to be the will ofGod, not the will of self.
So it's like whatever I need todo, I'm going to do it the way
(21:15):
that God wants me to do it.
If I need to throw down my oldsinful nature and I need to live
a different way, I need tothrow away everything that I had
before so I can do the will ofGod.
That's my will.
Yes, and a lot of people don'tdo it because they're so used to
(21:36):
doing their own self, their ownself-will.
Walter (21:43):
Yes, and I mean once again this is people don't know.
Shanea (21:48):
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it
drink it.
Yeah.
Because he has a will.
You can't force someone to dosomething that naturally they
don't naturally want to do.
Walter (21:57):
Well, that goes into the next point, and before we go
there, I want to say this right,it's important to understand
this.
We're talking about your mindbeing renewed.
We have to understand our mindbeing renewed impacts our
behavior, our decisions inrelationships and particularly
(22:19):
in marriage.
It impacts all of that.
It impacts your behavior, thedecisions you make and your
relationships, what type ofrelationships you choose to be
in, what type of relationshipsyou have with your friends and,
most importantly, therelationship you have with
(22:41):
Christ and your spouse.
This is why your mind has to berenewed.
This is why you have to gothrough the process of having an
understanding of who Christtruly is, because if you don't,
it would negatively impact everyother area of your life.
It would negatively impactevery other area of your life.
(23:02):
So, talking about what you justsaid, I think that's a great
place to move on to the nextpoint which is the wilderness
experience.
So Luke 4, 1 through 14.
And specifically because I'llread that, because I would say
(23:22):
for everyone, read it all.
But I wanted to touch on twopoints.
In Luke 4.
And once again this is the NLT,verse 1,.
It states that Then Jesus, fullof the Holy Spirit, returned
from the Jordan River.
He was led by the Spirit intowilderness, where he was through
(23:52):
the temptations by the enemy.
It says that Jesus returned toGalilee filled with the Holy
Spirit's power.
Reports about him spreadquickly through the whole region
.
He taught regularly in theirsynagogues and was praised by
everyone.
So we know that when lookinginto that, we know that, prior
(24:20):
to that, jesus was baptized byJohn.
And when he was baptized by John, the Bible says that the Spirit
of God, the Holy Spirit,descended upon him like a dove
in a bodily shaped form, andthen he was ushered into the
wilderness by the Holy Spirit tofast for 40 days and 40 nights
and be tempted by the enemy.
And it was saying that after hewent through his wilderness
(24:43):
experience which is key he leftthe wilderness full of the power
of the Holy Spirit.
Yes, the issue is this Withinthe wilderness experience, right
, it's not just a testing spaceor a moment of testing.
(25:04):
No.
It's a place for spiritualgrowth and being taught how to
overcome sin.
Right, the thing is and I don'tthink I said this in here or
it's not in here, let's go there.
What was coming to me, was thisright here?
When we think of Jesus goingthrough the wilderness
experience and leaving thewilderness with the power of the
(25:27):
Holy Spirit, we think of itfrom the perspective of him
being able to cast out demons,heal the sick, prophesy, and
that's all we focus on.
But in all reality, that's allwe focus on.
But in all reality, the truepower of the Holy Spirit lies in
a changed character.
It lies in a changed person.
Shanea (25:58):
The true power of the Holy Spirit is what allows us to
walk in the power of the HolySpirit to overcome sin.
Yeah, well, the power of theholy spirit helps us come into
our authoritative rights, havingdominion over the earth and
everything.
Walter (26:10):
You can't have dominion if you don't have power but we
look for power based off ofmiracles and signs and wonders,
not understanding that the enemycan perform miracle signs and
wonders.
The greatest miracle that youcan see in a person is a changed
life, not based on theiractions and what they do, but
something that you can see fromit being something that's
(26:33):
inwardly done.
Desires being removed.
Shanea (26:36):
Right, you have people looking at you like there's
something about you removed.
Right, you have people lookingat you like there's something
about you.
Even strangers that don't evenknow you are just like, you're
so peaceful.
There's something about you,what I don't know what it is
it's the holy spirit, it's theholy spirit so, um, I think,
(27:00):
right.
Walter (27:02):
Part of having your mind renewed, part of being able to
walk in the true likeness ofchrist, requires that, just as
christ did, we walk through thewilderness experience.
And it's so important for us togo through the wilderness
experience because we have somany things that we've taken on.
(27:24):
That's a part of this worldthat God has to remove.
Christ went to the wildernessand we can see it like this.
Christ went to the wildernessto kill off his flesh.
Shanea (27:34):
He went to the wilderness to die.
Walter (27:37):
You go to the wilderness to die.
Yeah, you go to the wildernessto die.
Yeah, you go to the wildernessto die to self and you come back
with the power of the holyspirit to do his will to do his
will, including his will beingthat he wants us to live free
from the power of sin right andto fight against it.
Exactly.
Shanea (27:58):
So we are constantly at war.
Walter (28:00):
And that is a great segue.
Living in the power of the HolySpirit?
That is a great segue.
Babe, you want to read Romans 2, 13 through 16?
.
2 verse 13 through 16?
.
Sure Walter.
Thank you, shania, sure, walter, thank you.
Shanea (28:20):
Shania, Romans 2, 13 through 16.
For merely listening to the lawdoesn't make us right with God.
It is obeying the law thatmakes us right in his sight.
Even Gentiles who do not haveGod's written law show that they
(28:41):
know his law when theyinstinctively obey it, even
without having heard it.
They demonstrate that God's lawis written in their hearts for
their own conscious, andthoughts either accuse them or
tell them they are doing right.
So when we think about the HolySpirit and even what Paul is
(29:02):
referring to, Paul stated thatthe law was written on the
(29:24):
hearts of the Gentiles.
Walter (29:24):
So you had the Jews that were trying to adhere to the
law based off of just memory andknowing the law, but you had
the Gentiles that justautomatically adhered to the law
based off of it being a part oftheir subconscious, not their
conscious.
Shanea (29:41):
You know what I hear when I read this again, For
merely listening to the lawdoesn't make us right with God.
It is obeying the law thatmakes us right in his sight.
And what was coming to me isthose who, like I said before,
who use their theology orknowledge of the Bible to
(30:03):
condemn other people.
But they themselves are obeyingevery God's every command, and
so it's merely listening orknowing the law.
So you think about thePharisees they knew the law, but
they didn't obey it, theydidn't walk in it Well.
Walter (30:27):
I think that is key right.
It's not just about knowing thelaw, it's about obeying the law
.
But even the thing is thisright it's also about your heart
posture as you obey.
Because the Gentiles, it's just, they didn't even know what the
(30:49):
law was.
They just lived righteously,based on the fact that they had
the power of the Holy Spirit.
So it wasn't that their actionsmade them right with God per se
, it was more so, their heartposture.
Shanea (31:05):
Right Same.
So, like after my conversion, Ididn't read the Bible prior to.
I didn't know a lot of thingsthat was in the Bible, but the
way that I moved, being led bythe Holy Spirit, I didn't have
to, I didn't have to physicallyknow where in the Bible this
(31:26):
says I needed to make thesechanges in my life.
It just automatically happened.
Walter (31:32):
Yeah, because it's the power of the Spirit of God kind
of guiding you.
That's the whole law beingwritten on your heart process,
and so this is good, right.
So the law being written on ourhearts is not for external
performance, but for an internaltransformation that enables us
(31:56):
to live righteously.
And so and you just talkedabout this, right- yeah.
True change comes through thepower of the Holy Spirit, not by
willpower or external rules,and that's the difference
between the law being written onyour heart versus you knowing
the law and growing up beingtaught the law.
(32:18):
It's relationship versus versusreligion.
Once again, like at the mostbasic form, is relationship
versus religion.
Shanea (32:29):
And it's even worse that you know the law and don't
follow it.
Obey it.
Walter (32:35):
And so, by the power of the Holy Spirit we're talking
about this and having anunderstanding of who Christ
really is.
We get to Romans 6, verse 12through 20.
So Romans 6, verse 12 through20.
And this is a lot, and Isuggest people read everything.
(32:59):
But it says Do not let sincontrol the way you live.
Do not give in to sinfuldesires.
Do not let any part of yourbody become an instrument of
evil to serve sin.
Instead, give yourselvescompletely to God, for you were
dead, but now you have new life,so use your whole body as an
instrument to do what is rightfor the glory of God.
(33:21):
Sin is no longer your master,for you no longer live under the
requirements of the law.
Instead, you live under thefreedom of grace.
Well then, since God's grace hasset us free from the law, does
that mean we can go on sinning?
Of course not.
Don't you realize that youbecome the slave of whatever you
(33:43):
choose to obey?
You can be a slave to sin,which leads to death, or you can
choose to obey God, which leadsto righteous living.
Thank God, once you were slavesof sin, but now you
wholeheartedly obey thisteaching we have given you.
Now you are free from yourslavery to sin and you have
become slaves to righteousliving Because of the weakness
(34:06):
of your human nature.
I am using the illustration ofslavery to help you understand
all this.
Previously, you let yourselvesbe slaves to impurity and
lawlessness, which led evendeeper into sin.
Now you must give yourselves tobe so.
This is so key, right, becausewhat it tells us is that the
(34:32):
justification that you utilizeto sin is no longer
justification.
Grace was never given to you togive you the ability to live a
life of sin.
Grace was provided to give youthe ability to be free from a
life of sin by way.
Shanea (34:50):
By the power of the Holy .
Walter (34:51):
Spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Shanea (34:53):
The only way you can defeat the enemy is through the
power of God's Spirit the HolySpirit, exactly.
You can't fight against demonicentities without the power of
the Holy Spirit.
Walter (35:08):
Yes, and that's so key that's important that we
understand that.
So, living by the spirit right,romans 8, 1 through 15.
And once again, romans 8,.
I would recommend you read allof this.
But, babe, do you want to goahead and read Romans 8?
Shanea (35:25):
Romans 8,.
What 1 through 15?
Walter (35:27):
Yes.
Shanea (35:29):
So now there is no condemnation for those who
belong to Christ Jesus, andbecause you belong to him, the
(35:51):
power of the life-giving spirithas freed you from the power of
sin that leads to Mm-hmm.
In that body, god declared anend to sin's control over us by
giving his son as a sacrificefor our sins.
He did this so that the justrequirements of the law would be
(36:18):
fully satisfied for us who nolonger follow our sinful nature,
but instead follow the spirit.
Those who are dominated by thesinful nature think about sinful
things, but those who arecontrolled by the holy spirit
think about things that pleasesthe spirit.
So letting your sinful naturecontrol your mind leads to death
, but letting the spirit controlyour mind leads to life and
peace and we can stop there fortime's sake, because this is a
(36:39):
lot.
Yeah.
Walter (36:40):
But I would definitely recommend everyone read all of
this.
But it really touches on thisright here, right, and this is a
beautiful thing.
True, when you think of whoChrist is, when you think of the
gospel, when you think of thefact that you have people that
(37:05):
are teaching the message of afalse Christ.
Mm-hmm what Christ literally.
There's a lot of things thatChrist did, but ultimately
Christ is and we'll touch onthis later on but his
crucifixion, his death and hisresurrection.
It provided us the ability tobe free from the power of sin.
(37:29):
It is not there to give you anokay or say it's okay for you to
sin, it's okay for you to dowhat you want to do.
It's really there to allow usto be in a space to where you
don't have to be under thecontrol of your sinful nature,
which your sinful nature isdictated by the prince of this
world.
(37:50):
It comes under the control ofdemons.
We can call it whatever we want, and but it's it's you.
Either you're being controlledby something and that's what
paul was saying.
You're either being controlledby the holy spirit, or driven or
guided by the holy spirit, oryou're being controlled or
driven or guided by the princeof this world, the enemy, yeah,
(38:10):
and everything that falls underhim, the principalities, demons,
all of that stuff rulers andthat digs into lust, perversion,
disc, uh, discord, uh, chaos,all of these different things
yeah, um.
Shanea (38:25):
What was coming to me as we were reading was um um luke
9, 57 through 62, the cost offollowing Jesus.
I think that a lot of timespeople misconstrue because you'd
(38:48):
be using that word, the cost offollowing, of following christ
and so when you don't have anunderstanding of what that looks
like, you get a false christyes you are following a false
christ, because you don't knowwhat following the real christ
looks like, because everyonetells you it's okay for you to
(39:12):
struggle with these things thatyou have been struggling with.
It's okay for you to strugglewith these things that you have
been struggling with.
It's okay for you to still dothings as the Romans do, the
people in the world do.
It's still it's okay for you todo all of those things.
And it's like when you getreally, truly, truly, really,
truly, truly, truly, truly giveyour life to Christ.
(39:33):
It is complete, total, uttersurrender and the cost of
following Jesus.
Like Paul said and even Jesusgives a parable here, exactly
saying what Paul said you haveto leave everything.
Walter (39:52):
Yes.
Shanea (39:53):
You have to leave your former life.
That means you have to leaveyour sinful nature, and your
sinful nature could be yourenvironment.
You have to leave everythingbecause those are decisions that
you and the world made.
Those are not decisions thatyou made with Jesus.
You might have thought you weretalking to Jesus, but you
(40:16):
weren't really being led byJesus.
Jesus didn't lead you into thisrelationship.
Jesus didn't lead you into thatjob.
Jesus didn't lead you into thisuniversity.
Jesus didn't lead you into alot of areas in your life.
And so when you think about thecost of following Jesus said
that foxes have no dens to livein and birds have no nest, but
(40:38):
the son of man has no place evento lay his head.
And when I had read that,before the revelation came to me
, was Jesus, he, he, followinghim?
You don't know where you'regoing.
Walter (40:51):
No.
Shanea (40:53):
He goes where God tells him to go.
You go where he tells you to go.
That's why you don't have, youdon't have a place, you don't
really have a say.
So like I can't buy this housebecause I want to buy this house
and live here, I can't justlive in Baltimore because I want
to live in Baltimore, because Ihave to go where the spirit
(41:13):
leads me.
Because foxes don't have anydens, they just live.
And then when and this appliesto me a lot is when the man said
I want to follow you, but letme go bury my father first.
And Jesus said no, you can't.
(41:34):
If you want to follow me, Letthe spiritually dead bury the
dead, because you're dead toyour former life, You're dead to
your former self.
You're dead to your customs.
Walter (41:44):
You're dead to your culture.
You've taken upon the cultureof Christ, the culture of the
kingdom of God, and that's evenChrist had to show the example
of that with with Lazarus, youknow, he had to show the example
and he had to.
Actually, in that moment, eventhough they wanted him to be
there, he wanted to be there.
He had to submit himself to thewill of God, right
(42:06):
Understanding that greater gloryhad to be shown.
Shanea (42:09):
Right and people don't really look at the
characteristics of God and therethere's things that God will
tell you to do that doesn't makesense to other people.
Just like in that instance, itdidn't make sense for Jesus not
to go and check on Lazarus'family.
Even they probably were likewhy isn't he here?
This doesn't even make anysense.
Walter (42:33):
But that's what comes with truly following Christ, and
it all boils down to this.
Anything outside of that is afalse message, and so we have to
look at it from thisperspective, right, because we
have two things being taught inthe church.
We have the church eitherteaching a gospel that
emphasizes suffering, or the lawis a way to righteousness.
(42:56):
So there are those who believethat your suffering leads you to
a more righteous life.
Yeah.
How much you suffer leads you toa more righteous life, or you
following the law leads you to amore righteous life, right
Rather than submission to Christand sanctification, which is
(43:18):
the true way to righteousness,which is a true way of having a
closer relationship with Christwhich is the true gospel.
The true gospel is totalsubmission to Christ by way of
faith.
It's total submission to christ.
That means you pick up yourcross and you follow him in
(43:41):
every area, in every part ofyour life.
Yeah, you submit it all to god.
What were you about to say?
Shanea (43:48):
no, I was saying a lot of people, they.
I just lost the word.
Walter (43:58):
Holy Spirit, help me.
Shanea (44:02):
They associate suffering with being Christian.
Walter (44:08):
Yeah.
Shanea (44:08):
They associate suffering with Christ, not literally with
Christ, but they associatetheir suffering to Christianity.
Walter (44:18):
And while you do, in instances, suffer from being a
Christian or a believer, onceagain we have to see what that
entails.
Shanea (44:31):
We take this back to Peter.
Walter (44:33):
Yes.
What type of suffering is it?
Is it suffering because of yourdisobedience?
Is it suffering because ofdecisions you've made?
Is it suffering because of yoursin?
Or is it suffering becauseyou're doing what Christ has
called you to do?
There's a distinct difference.
There's a distinct difference.
(44:59):
There's a distinct difference.
Yet it's not your sufferingthat makes you righteous.
It's your faith in Christ Jesusand submitting to him that
makes you righteous.
It's your submission to theHoly Spirit that makes you
righteous.
It's you picking up your crossand following him.
It's you choosing to submit tothe will of God so that he can
guide you into a life that ismore holy, consecrated and
(45:20):
sanctified.
And abundant.
Exactly Because even Jesussubmitted himself to the spirit
of God when he was here in fleshform, which is why the
scripture says that he was ledinto the wilderness by the Holy
Spirit to be tempted by theenemy and fast for 40 days and
40 nights.
Jesus didn't go to thewilderness because he wanted to
(45:44):
People who just want to fast,because you want to.
He was led by the Spirit of Godand he began to teach us the
importance of being led by Godin all we do.
He always submitted himself tothe Father.
Yeah, once again right, becausewe're talking about false Christ
and the dangers of false Christ.
(46:15):
We have to understand right,that faith alone is not enough
and there's a teaching thatteaches that faith alone is
enough and does not require alife of holiness, consecration
and sanctification.
I'm sorry, but that's wrong.
It is not enough to justbelieve.
(46:36):
We talked about last week theimportance of faith and
obedience, that faith withoutworks is dead.
Faith and obedience was stillto submit to a life of
consecration, was still tosubmit to a life of holiness,
was still to submit to a life ofsanctification.
So this is a lot.
(47:01):
This is a lot, and we touchedon that before.
Oh my gosh, I'm trying to getthrough all of this.
It's a lot of good stuff.
So this I think we was talkingabout this the other night,
right, what was placed in myspirit is, when you create an
(47:22):
idol out of Christ, like a falseChrist, it literally can set
you up to be more open to theAntichrist.
Yeah, it literally leads youaway from Christ and,
(47:42):
unknowingly, it can lead youdirectly into the hands of the
Antichrist Because you don'tknow Christ.
Right.
Shanea (47:52):
You have no understanding of who Christ is
and if you think you'll know whothe Antichrist is when he comes
, which you won't because theBible says that you won't,
because he comes directly fromthe church the only way you will
know is through the Holy Spirit.
Walter (48:07):
You have to have discernment.
And you have to already have arelationship with Christ.
Shanea (48:12):
Yes, Because if I never have a relationship with you, I
don't really know who you are.
I might, could have read aboutyou, and but if I don't really
know who you truly are, likewhat your characteristics are,
and that's key is the fruit.
That's why the Bible lets usknow the fruit of the spirit.
That is how you will know thatthat is, in fact, godly.
Walter (48:38):
And we have to remember that Christ did life with the
disciples.
They did life with him forthree years.
How can you gain anunderstanding of who Christ is
if you're not doing life withhim, which goes back to
(48:58):
relationship?
You have to do life with him.
You have to do life with theFather.
Shanea (49:04):
You have to be married.
Walter (49:06):
You have to do life, you have to develop a relationship
and you have to understand thatit should consistently be
leading you closer to Christ.
It should be consistentlyleading you closer to the Father
, and if it's leading you tocloser to the Father, you will
begin and we touched on thisbefore.
(49:26):
You will hate what the Fatherhates and you will love what the
Father loves.
And the Father is holy, he'ssanctified, he's one that's for
consecration being set apart.
I'm sorry that that means yourlife won't look like everybody
(49:46):
else.
You can't do what everybody elsedoes no.
Shanea (49:49):
And that is the suffering for Christ in.
Walter (49:53):
Christ.
Shanea (49:53):
Christ's name, because people will persecute you.
Walter (49:55):
Because you're not doing what they're doing, because
you're not doing what they'redoing.
You're not bowing to KingNebuchadnezzar as everybody else
is.
No, you're not living in Babylonlike everyone else, even as
they're threatening to throw youinto the fiery furnace, you
still refuse to bow becauseyou've submitted yourself to the
Holy Spirit, you've submittedyourself to Christ, you've
(50:16):
submitted yourself to the Father, and so I think this is so
important right Now, as we wrapup, because we've touched on a
lot and I think we're doingreally great with time.
What would you say to everyone,babe?
What would you say to everyone,babe, matter of fact, is there
(50:37):
anything else that you want totouch on?
Shanea (50:41):
um, no, I mean, we obviously can go deeper, but I
think this is a good place tostart.
Yeah, for people who um aregetting to know christ, wanting
to know christ, the thing is isthat you have to continue to
keep seeking and reading andlearning his voice so that you
(51:03):
will know what the antichristlooks like and and don't get us
wrong, the spirit of antichristis already here yes the actual
antichrist is currently beingushered in, but the spirit of
antichrist is already here.
The actual Antichrist iscurrently being ushered in, but
the spirit of Antichrist hasbeen here since Christ.
Yes, we see that with thePharisees, that spirit is always
here, directly tied to religion.
Walter (51:25):
Yes, it teaches a different version of Christ.
It pulls you away from the truegospel.
It pulls you away from whochrist really is and what he's
always called for us to live, orhow he's always called for us
to live our lives.
That is what the antichrist isanything that does not look like
the characteristics of christis an antichrist but you have to
(51:47):
understand when paul wastouching on it and we read that
in the scriptures, right theywhen he touched on those who was
teaching a different christ,they were still teaching christ
right, they were teaching afalse christ exactly so I think
this is so important becauseonce again you just said that
before and we've said this onmultiple occasions you're
(52:09):
looking for the antichrist to bethe.
Antichrist.
So you're looking for an ElonMusk to be the Antichrist.
Yeah.
But you don't realize theAntichrist is coming directly
from the church.
Shanea (52:23):
Right, it's going to look like Christ, walk like
Christ, but it's not going to beChrist.
Walter (52:27):
They're going to misconstrue who Christ really is
.
Shanea (52:31):
They're going to say this is who Christ is.
Walter (52:33):
Exactly.
Shanea (52:34):
Which they're already doing.
Walter (52:35):
It's already being set up.
Shanea (52:36):
It's already being done in the church.
That's why, the things that weare teaching, people come to us
and are like, are you teaching adifferent Christ?
And I'm like, yeah, the one youlearned was not the Christ, the
Christ that I know, not theChrist who just delivered me.
Walter (52:51):
Not the Christ who died on the cross?
For our sins.
It's a different Christ.
It's slightly misconstrued.
It's not like they're going tolike.
Even when you look at Jesus notJesus even when you look at
Adam and Eve, when they dealtwith the serpent, what did the
serpent say?
You won't surely die?
He slightly twisted the word,even when he came up against
(53:22):
Jesus, when he was temptingjesus in the wilderness.
He's, he knows the word.
Yes, he knew the word.
That's why it says that theenemy will come as an angel of
light, disguised as an angel oflight.
Yeah, so.
So here's the thing it will looklike, right what I would say is
this really examine your livesand see if there's any areas in
your life where you may havebeen following a false Christ or
a message of a false Christ, oreven if you've been attracted
(53:46):
or drawn to leaders and teacherswho teach a message that is not
of Christ or is slightlydifferent from the things of
Christ, and if so, really prayon that and ask God to help you
in those areas and we have togain a better understanding of
(54:06):
what grace is.
We do, we have to gain a betterunderstanding of what grace is
and we've got to stopmisconstruing it.
In its simplest form, graceisn't there to allow you to
continue on doing what you wantto do.
Grace is there and there'sdifferent versions of grace.
(54:28):
But when we touch on sin, graceis there.
For when you do make a mistakeand fall short, grace is there
to catch you and lift you backup, but grace is not there for
you to continue to fall short.
Grace, in its most powerful way, gives us the ability to be
(54:50):
free from sin the power of sin.
And so that's what I would say.
That's what I would say, and Iwould also say we touch on this
all the time it's so importantthat we submit every area and
every part of our lives to God,to Christ.
It's important that wesurrender to him.
(55:12):
So, babe, anything else youwant to add before we recap?
No, I don't have anything okay,so how about you do the recap,
the key points there?
Okay, I'm sorry, i'm'm hungry.
It's fine, me too.
(55:32):
Okay, so just to recap thedangers of following a false
Christ and the importance ofmind renewal and submission to
the Holy Spirit.
Shanea (56:00):
So, recapping what we touched on is the dangers of
following the false christ, theimportance of having our mind
renewed and the importance ofsubmitting everything we have to
the holy spirit.
Oh, that's how you wanted me tosay that yes?
Oh well, I didn't write it.
Walter (56:05):
So it's fine and it's important that we understand
that there has to be a truetransformation and that
transformation is found by wayof Christ, but that is actually
evident through a changed life,not just you saying that you are
a Christian.
That's not enough.
(56:26):
I'm sorry.
That's not going to be whatleads you into heaven.
That's not going to be whatleads you into heaven.
When you truly experience andencounter Christ.
You can never go back to theway that you lived before.
Shanea (56:42):
No.
Walter (56:43):
It's impossible to do that.
Shanea (56:45):
Even if you try, you will go through so much hell.
Walter (56:51):
You will so examine your relationship with God, examine
your relationship with Christ,and please learn the importance
of truly living by the power ofthe Holy Spirit, and that it's
not just about signs and wonders, but it's what really allows
(57:14):
you to live a life that's beentransformed.
Shanea (57:18):
Yeah, it's having peace.
Walter (57:21):
Yes.
Shanea (57:22):
Literally peace, grace and peace.
I don't even know how toexplain it, because once you
stop doing the things that youused to do, you don't really
want to go back, because youdidn't really have peace.
Walter (57:41):
Well, the Bible calls it this.
It says it's peace thatsurpasses all understanding.
Right, I can't even explain thepeace and that doesn't mean
that you won't have trials andtribulations, no, that doesn't
mean that there won't bechallenges, tribulations?
No, that doesn't mean thatthere won't be challenges, but
the thing is that you can't goback.
Shanea (57:58):
No, because the peace comes from knowing that you
aren't your own boss, you aren'tyour own God, and that you have
this huge support system.
You have a kingdom of supportsystem system, you have a whole
system of support yeah, I think,and that is that, that that
(58:21):
brings me peace I think simplyput the song comes to mind.
Walter (58:26):
It is well in your soul.
Yeah, it becomes well, yeah, itwell.
As you deal with everything youdeal with, it becomes well.
You learn to let go and say God, this is yours.
Yeah.
I'm submitted to you in everyarea of my life.
Shanea (58:43):
Because, as long as you're in God's perfect will,
there's provision, and thatprovision brings you peace
because you're not doinganything outside of what god's
already called you to do.
Therefore, the enemy doesn'thave any legal rights to take
from you or um disrupt what godalready promised you yet even if
(59:07):
he does, you can become he willtry you can become, even if he
does.
Walter (59:11):
you can become like like Nebuchadnezzar I'm not
Nebuchadnezzar.
You can come up like Shadrach,meshach and Abednego, with King
Nebuchadnezzar.
Yeah.
What he said to him, that webelieve our God will save us.
But even if he does not, westill won't bend our knees and
worship you.
We still won't bow to you.
That's the place that you wantto get at, that's where you want
(59:35):
to be.
That's peace that surpasses allunderstanding, that I believe
my father would save me.
But even if he don't, I stillsubmit to him.
Shanea (59:45):
And that power is your weapon.
Walter (59:48):
Yes, yes.
Shanea (59:51):
So, babe, you want to end this out with what comments,
all that stuff well, we thankyou guys for listening and
tuning in with us.
Um, hopefully this has been ablessing to you.
If it has, please share it withothers.
(01:00:13):
Um, yeah, that's really it.
I don't have anything else?
I just comment, I just want youguys to um, if you can, you
know, share um some of yourtestimonies or share how your
walk with god has been, sinceyou've been listening to this
podcast.
Walter (01:00:30):
Um, yeah yeah, and hopefully it's been a blessing.
Uh, this is all about him.
This is not our podcast.
Shanea (01:00:38):
We say it all the time, so carefully I also want to
shout out to um the followerswho, like, have been with us
since day one, who haveconsistently been posting.
We can't repost anythingbecause it's not our podcast.
Walter (01:00:53):
He won't let us.
Shanea (01:00:54):
He won't let us, if we could, we would so we really do
appreciate you all for yourrepost and your comments and we
really do appreciate it and Iwish we could show you more love
.
Walter (01:01:08):
There's one specifically that comes to mind.
Shanea (01:01:12):
Our name is Leah.
I think it was Leah, okay.
Leah something I don't have itright here, but.
Walter (01:01:17):
We see you, and then there's another girl.
We see you all and weappreciate you.
Shanea (01:01:21):
Yes, we see you all, we do, we do.
Walter (01:01:24):
So that is it.
That's the end of this week'sepisode.
We will see you all next week.
Be blessed and goodbye.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com