May 27, 2025 • 35 mins
Why does God make us wait for things? What are we supposed to do while we wait? We're starting part 1 of your three part mini-series on "counterfeit vs. promise". We are breaking down what this phrase means and what we as believers should be doing while waiting on Gods promises, to avoid falling for the counterfeits in our lives.
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BALI CHRISTIAN GIRLS TRIP link: https://luxetribes-creator-brief.my.canva.site/amani-bali-trip-2025 JOIN GOD'S GIRL GROUP: www.AMANIWORTHAM.com
For sponsorships and collabs 📧 : amani@a-listme.com
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#christianpodcast #christian #christianity #blackchristian #blackpodcast #Jesus #god
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Amani Talks podcast. You're
here with your hosts Amani on the podcast where we
discuss our Christian based topics and deepening our relationship with
the load. So for all my returning subscribers.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I love you guys.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hey, hey, and to all my new people here, go
ahead to hit that subscribe button, like comments, share all
that good stuff that helps the episode get out there,
and yeah, it just helps our little community grow. So
just a few things before we get the episode going today.
So first of all, my girls group that's in Atlanta, Georgia.
We are taking a few of our girls and we
are going to Bali for our first Christian girls trip. Okay,
(00:37):
it's so hard as a Christian woman to travel with
you know, your friends or your family sometimes, especially if
you don't drink, you don't party, stuff like that. So
I was like, okay, I love to travel. Let's get
my girls group. Let's go to Bali this summer. So
we're going to Bali July nineteenth through the twenty fifth.
I was just speaking to the trip planner and three
more spots have opened up, so I closed the registration
after we had a certain amount of women coming, but
(00:58):
because of the overwhelming response, the trip planners have actually
told me, hey, we should open up more spots because
they've even been asked about it. So three more women
are able to come. So if you guys are interested
in going with my girls group to Bali this summer
on a Christian girls trip for a whole week, we
are going with Lux Tribes, which is a black woman
owned solo traveling company that brings together solo travelers to
(01:19):
group travel. I went on one of their trips to
Morocco for my birthday last year and it was the
best trip I've ever been on. Hands down. They took
care of everything. It was an amazing trip. Anyway, we
have three more spots open, so I will put all
the details in the description box below. If you guys
are just interested in joining my God's Girl group that
is based out in Atlanta, I will put my website
(01:40):
on moniworthm dot com. Also in the description box there
you can contact me and I will add you to
our group. Me. For those of you who have emailed
me last week, I'm sorry I'm behind all my emails,
but I will get you guys in the God's Girl
Group this week. So Yeah, just give me your info
and I'll add you to the group me and that's
how you get all the info, and then also subscribe
to the emails and we'll get the info there as well.
(02:01):
So we definitely have a lot of exciting things coming
our way from my girls group that is growing, and
I just love the response that I've been getting from people.
You know, community is just so needed, especially for Christians.
We cannot do this walk alone. You need other Christian
women beside you. You need other Christian friends. It's not
a once, it is a need, y'all. So I'm trying
(02:23):
to garner that somewhat. I'm trying to create that in Atlanta.
And so yeah, if you want to be a part
of the trip, that info is going to be below.
And if you just want to join the group in Atlanta,
that info is also going to be below. And I
can't wait to see you guys on the trip and beyond.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So let's go.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Ahead and get into the episode for today. So, something
that has been on my mind and my heart heavy
is this idea of a counterfeit that comes into our
lives to distract us from the promise that God has
given us. So I'm going to do a three part series.
It's going to be today next week in the week
after that, and we are going to do three part
(03:00):
of Counterfeit Versus Promise. The three episodes are going to
be about the waiting process for your promise and what
that should look like. The second episode is going to
be about deciphering the counterfeit from the promise, and the
third is going to be letting go of the desperation
that would entice you to fall for the counterfeit in
your life. So, first of all, let's talk about what
(03:21):
the counterfeit versus the promise is, because this is actually
a concept that I have myself just become privy to.
I had heard about it before, but I didn't really
know what that looks like in my own life until recently.
And so now of course I'm like, oh, light bulbs
are like coming on, and I'm understanding it more now
I've heard of it before. But what does counterfeit versus
(03:43):
promise actually mean in your life?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
What does that actually look like?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
So basically, counterfeit versus promise is one of these things
is what God has for you, and the other is
what the devil can give you. And a perfect example
of counterfeit versus promise can be found in the very
first book of the Bible. I think there is multiple
examples of counterfeit versus promise in the Book of Genesis,
(04:07):
but I think the most famous example is Abraham and Isaac,
starting in Genesis twelve. So in Genesis twelve we see
the beginning of this promise that God makes Abram. At
this point, his name is not even Abraham, it's still Abram.
And God gives him this promise at the age of
seventy five, that he would make him a father of
a great nation. So father of a great nation, what
(04:29):
does that mean? That means that he will have descendants.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
God is promising him, promises to not only Abraham, but
his offspring, his offspring's offspring, his generations to come. But
at seventy five years old, Abraham doesn't have any kids.
He has a wife named Sarah. She's barren. They're seventy five,
They're not having kids. At this point in the Bible,
people are living about maybe like a little over one
(04:52):
hundred years old. So seventy five, him and his wife,
they are past child bearing age, and God is giving
him this promise at seventy five, I will make you
a father of nations. But when you continue to read
on in Genesis fifteen, we see that the promise has
still not been fulfilled. And this is ten years later.
So now God has come back to Abram, and Abram asked, God,
(05:13):
what's going on? Like, you gave me this promise a
decade ago about making me a great nation. I was
seventy five, I'm eighty five. Now I'm not getting no younger.
Where my kid's at? That's basically what Abraham's asking God.
Like Abraham says in fifteen, he said, Lord, God, what
will you give me? Seeing I go childless? And then
he says a few verses down, look, you have given
me no offspring. So he's like, you know, you keep
(05:35):
giving me these promises, but I'm not seeing anything come
to fruition. And I don't know about y'all, but I
understand Abraham, because ten years after, it's already unbelievable that
you would even be able to biologically do this, you know,
And sometimes we put our own human logic to what
God can do for us. But we'll talk about that
a little bit later on. But you can understand where
(05:55):
Abraham's coming from It's like, you know, you told me
this ten years ago and I've been waiting and I
still ain't seen it yet. So what's going on? And
after ten years Abram and his wife Sarah, they're tired
of waiting. Sarai finally says, listen, I got this handmaid.
Her name is Hagar. You go into her. Maybe I
can have children through her. So now we're seeing they
(06:17):
are getting fed up with the wait. It's ten years
of a wait. They have God's promise, they have clearly
heard from God, but they are getting anxious. They're getting impatient.
They're thinking, Okay, let me step in. Maybe God needs
a little bit of help. This is the exact point
of the crossroads when you have to choose counterfeit or promise.
(06:38):
When God has spoken very clearly into your life, but
you're not seeing things fast enough. Will you take things
into your own hands. So we see that God gave
Abram this promise, but he could not wait, and he
and his wife fell into the counterfeit of thinking that
they had to assist God. Oh, God not working fast enough.
Let me nudge him, let me do something. Obviously, he
(07:00):
needs some help. We do that all the time. When
we are too through with waiting. We do that all
the time. Oh, let me do something to help God along.
He probably forgot. Let me nudge him real quick. God,
God does not forget when we gets tired of waiting.
That's our problem, that's not God's problem. He does not
move based on our timing. Right. And it's very easy
(07:20):
to fall into a council fit. It's very easy to
take matters into your own hands. Like I said, I
don't blame Abraham. God told him something, and ten years
later he ain't seen nothing come from it. So we
see in Genesis fifteen where Abram's wife is like, listen,
here's my maid. Maybe we can have this child through her,
because I'm sure that Abram has told Sarai what God
has told him. So Abram does it, and what happens
(07:44):
Hegar the handmaid. She gets pregnant and never ceases to
amaze me about God how much free will he gives us.
Because if God gave Abram the promise of you will
have an air through your own body and he's like, okay,
ten years I ain't seen nothing. Heygar, you up next, girl.
God could have made it so that Hegar never got pregnant.
(08:06):
God could have made it so that, No, I gave
you this promise, Hagar is not going to be the
one your descendants come through. Stop being so impatient. I'm
not on your time. I'm coming. God could have did that,
but no, he let Hagar get pregnant. He allowed Ishmael
to come through Abram. God doesn't force us like God
(08:30):
does not force us to go along with what we
know is right. And you can argue, well, maybe Abram
wasn't clear on the promise because God said, oh, an
ear will come through your own body. He never said
anything about his wife Sarah. And we know back in
these times men had multiple wives, and you know, say,
oh is the one that gave Hagar to Abram. It
(08:51):
wasn't like Abram just you know, there's a lot of
things that you can say about this, and these are
very valid points because God never told Abram that survived
with be the mother of this child. God told Abram
that the child would come through his body.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
So he's probably.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Thinking, well, technically, technically, you know that's what we do
all the time. Technically, did God really say this, technically
it is through.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
My own body?
Speaker 1 (09:15):
If I still go through Haygard, that's still biologically my son,
and that's the truth. And so I think, like, why
didn't God specifically tell Abram it's going to come through
your body and Sarah your wife? And I think, why
didn't God tell Abram that? He didn't tell Abram that
Sarah was going to be the mother of the nations
(09:36):
until after Ishmael had already come about? Why did God
wait to give Abram that piece of information? In my
own understanding and in my own experience, one thing I've
learned about the waiting season with God is He's not
going to give you all the details about your promise upfront.
I think he very rarely does. He wants to test us.
(09:56):
God does test us. He wants to see us exercise
our faith. He wants to see us exercising our trust
in him. If God were to give us all the
details about the promises that He has for us up front,
that does not have to There's no show of faith
from us.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
There's no show of trust.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Trust is believing that even though you don't hold all
the power and all the peaces in your hands, that
God will still come through with exactly what he said
he was going to come through with. If God gives
us every single detail, where's the trust, where's the faith?
Where is Oh my gosh, I see God working it
out all In the end, He most of the time
(10:35):
will not give us all the details to the promises
because He is trying to stretch our faith. He is
trying to exercise our faith. The Lord already knows the
inner workings of our hearts, our minds are so he
already knows if we're going to wait or not. He
already knows if we're going to fall into a counterfeit
or not. He already knows everything that's going to happen beforehand.
It's not for his benefit, it's for ours. We need
(10:56):
to see an exercise of.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Our own faith.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
We need to see if we have patience or not.
We don't know if we'll have patience tomorrow in a year.
We need to see that patience.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Being built today.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
It's for our benefit. It's for us to exercise our faith,
for us to exercise our trust.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And that's what we're.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Talking about today, waiting on God to fulfill these promises
versus accepting and falling for the counterfeits in our lives.
First off, we have to understand the weight? Presently? Why
is God making me wait for something that he already
told me that he was gonna give me? Why did
God make Abraham wait decades for Isaac? This can be
seen as cruel or unnecessary, or like God is dangling
(11:39):
something over our heads, just outside of our reach right
because you can't rush God, no matter how impatient you are,
you can't and you won't rush God.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
So sometimes it's like why the weight? Why? God?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Number one is, the Lord has good plans for us,
but sometimes presently we are not ready for it. When
I think about all the things when I was younger
that I could have swore I was ready for. When
I was thirteen and I wanted to move out of
my mom's house so bad because my parents were so strict,
Do I think that at thirteen I could have paid
my own bills?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Like?
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Do I think that at thirteen I could have made
my own doctor's appointments? Do I think that at thirteen
I could have lived on my own? Absolutely not. But
when you're thirteen and you're desperate for something, you're thinking, oh,
I could get it right now, when I would handle
it properly.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Know you wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
The weight is for your preparation. God does not make
us wait for his benefit. Like I said before, the
weight is for us, and number one, the weight is
to prepare us, to prepare your maturity, to prepare how
you're going to handle the promise. Sometimes you can get
exactly what you wanted and the timing is so off.
(12:49):
You get it before you're ready, and you ruin it.
You ruin it by not knowing how to handle it,
by not knowing how to grow it, by not knowing
how to nurture it, by not knowing how to keep
it because there was no preparation time. When you get
things immediately upfront, there's no preparation, there's no maturity. You
don't really know what to do with it. And that's
why we see so many celebrity children when they are
(13:12):
child stars, right and they get all that fame, that money,
everything up front. They never have to ask for anything. Yeah,
they're working for it, but it's coming to them at
such an early age.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
So many of them.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Tell us all the time that they were not ready
for that level of fame at that young of an age.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
They were not prepared for it.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
They probably got what most of us would want, right
if there is no preparation period.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
You very well could get what.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
You want out of life, but the chances of you
keeping it, the chances of that thing being prosperous, the
chances of that thing actually serving you correctly.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Slim to none.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
So sometimes the weights, a lot of times the weights
is to prepare us so that we have the fruit
that we need to nurture the promise. We have the
attributes that we need, we have the spirit that we
need to keep the promise once the Lord has fulfilled it.
Sometimes God makes us wait just so that we can
have some quiet time and learn him. The idea that
(14:06):
the Lord's goodness was made whole and fulfilled and complete
it on the cross is accurate, but that does not
negate the fact that we still have desires on earth.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
But if your desires overtake.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Your relationship with the Lord, what's the good of these desires?
Like the Word says, what is a prophet? A man
that he gains the world but loses his soul? And
there can be times that these things could literally be
smacking us in the face and we would not be
able to recognize it because we can't even recognize the
person who's giving it to us. There is no good
in getting the things that you want out of life
(14:39):
if you don't have God in those things. So sometimes
He will sit us down and make us wait for
the future that He has for us because we just
need some time in the Word. We need some time
to pray. And this goes back to the first point,
because when we talk about being prepared for the things
that God has for us, what is being prepared look like?
That means being able to p pray over what you have.
(15:02):
Prayer is our best tool as Christians, talking to God
and paving the way for Him working in our lives.
That's what prayer does for us. Prayer paves the way
you tell God what you need and you're able to
go back and say, oh, my Gosh, I prayed for
this and the Lord fulfill this for me.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Our God is.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Very relational, like he wants that relationship with us.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
That's a part of.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Sustaining what God has for you, your prayer, life, your time,
and the Word when spiritual war, fear, and battles come.
Being grounded in the Word, being able to pull verses
from your memory, being able to really study the Word,
and being able to equip your physical self, your mental
self your spiritual self.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Your spiritual self.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Sorry with the Word of God, so that when you
have the things that God gives you, that's what you
use to sustain it. Your prayer life, the Word, your
relationship with him. Taking a step back and just having
a greater relationship with Him before the promise is one
hundred percent needed. And another reason why the Lord may
make you wait for the promise that he has already
(16:03):
given you is fruit building. Patience is the fruit of
the spirit. You can't say that you have patience if
you've never experienced anything in your life that made patience
a necessity. If you're getting everything that you want without
any waiting period, you will never have patience. You can't
say that You can't say that you have love for
people if that love has never been tested. It's easy
(16:26):
for you to love people who love you back, just
like the word says like it profits you nothing to
love people who love you back, love your enemies. That's
how you really know that your love is true when
it's being tested. And how can you know that you
have true patience unless that patience has been tested through
a waiting period. Fruit building, testimony building are all things
(16:47):
that come about in our waiting period. So now that
we're understanding the weight more and we got in some
context to it, and we see why the weight is necessary,
what should we be doing during the weight? What was
Abraham doing from the age of seventy five when the
Lord first gave him that promise in Genesis twelve, to
the age of one hundred, when we finally see later
(17:08):
on when Isaac is born, twenty five years Abram was
waiting on Isaac. And what was he doing in that
twenty five years. Well, we know one thing he was doing.
We know one thing he was doing. He was falling
for a counterfeit. Ishmael, Hagar's son was his counterfeit. And
when I think about the twenty five years that it
(17:29):
took for God to fulfill this promise to Abraham, and
in the midst of that twenty five years we see
Abraham creating his own counterfeit with his son Ishmael, I
think to myself, was the twenty five years necessary, or
let me rephrase it. If Abram and Sara would not
have been so impatient, would it have taken twenty five years?
(17:52):
When Abram was eighty six, that's when Ishmael was born,
when he was ninety nine is when the Lord revisited
him and told him, it's not Ishmael that your descendants
are going to come through. The promise is actually going
to come through your wife, Sarah. She's going to be
the one that's the mother of the nations that you
are going to be father of. And when Abram heard that,
(18:15):
at this point he had been renamed Abraham. When Abraham
heard that, I know he was distraught. I mean, we
know he was distraught because he says God, like, please
just let Ishmael be the one that this promise goes through.
Like he basically says, I wish that Ishmael would be
the one that lives before you. And God's like, no,
you will have another child through Sarah. So we see
(18:35):
the ten year gap from the promise to the counterfeit,
and then we see another thirteen year gap from the
counterfeit to the promise being established. And I think to myself,
would it have taken Abraham and Sarah twenty five years
to have Isaac had they not fallen for that counterfeit?
And if that's true, right, if what I'm insinuating is true,
(18:58):
that it wouldn't have taken that long, then are we saying, then,
that God's plans are delayed by us interfering with God's plans,
by our impatience, by us falling for the counterfeit? Do
we delay God's promise for us? Would God have made
Abraham and Sarah wait twenty five years regardless, or if
(19:20):
they would have made different decisions, would that promise of
isaacav come a little bit sooner? We definitely know that
there are consequences to our actions, and when you go
against God and what he tells you to do, there's
definitely dire negative consequences to that, And I think one
of them is that we tend to steal our time.
We tend to delay our purpose, at least from our
(19:45):
own physical standpoints. Right, time is not a factor with God,
and I think that when we think about God having
one plan for our lives, to him, it was never
a delay. He already knew we were going to do
that right. But to us we see it as a delay.
And we know that Abram and Sarai knew that they
were doing wrong because in Genesis sixteen, Sarah says to Abram,
please go into my maid. Perhaps I shall obtain children
(20:08):
by her. But a couple verses down, we see that
they both immediately regret it when Hagar does get pregnant.
And my whole thing is, why are you regretting your plan,
your decision because you knew that you were doing wrong
by taking it into your own hands. And Genesis sixteen,
let's see verse four. It says, so he went into Hagar,
and she conceived, and when she saw that she had conceived,
(20:31):
her mistress became despised in her eyes. Then Sarai said
to Abram, my wrong be upon you. I gave my
maiden to your embrace, and when she saw that she
had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord
judge between you and me. She knew that she was
doing wrong. She knew that her impatience was allowing her
to go against the god plan, the promise. And when
(20:52):
Sarria is giving Abram her maid, he doesn't go against it.
He goes right along with it. But even he knew
that it was wrong, because after Sarai tells him these things,
he says to her, it's your maid.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Do with her what you will.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
But my whole thing is, if God has given you
this promise and you really felt like you were doing
no wrong by conceiving a child with Hagar. You would
think that Abram would have done everything in his power
to protect her after she was pregnant, because he's like, oh,
this is what the Lord is going to get to me.
This is what the Lord was telling me. He knew
that he was doing wrong. That's why he was like,
(21:26):
it's your maid. Do with her what you will. Sarai
deals with Hagar harshly in heart, and Hagar ends up
running away and they don't even go after her. The
Lord ends up convincing Hagar to go back, and she
gives burst to Ishmael under their roof. But they had
dealt harshly with her, let her run away. They knew
that that child was not the promise that God had
(21:47):
for him, they or for them.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
They knew that they were going.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Outside of God's plan by getting Heygar pregnant.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
They knew it.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
They knew it off the bat. And that's just the
hallmark of the counterfeit. You might get soperate and it
might look good enough to you, it might look great
enough to you that you go along with the counterfeit,
But as soon as you do.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Immediate regret, immediately.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
You know that it was not what you were supposed
to be doing.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
You fall for the counterfeit, and you.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Will immediately regret it every single time. And if you
know any history about who Ishmael became, the Lord also
made him a father of a great nation, the nation
that opposes the descendants that come from Isaac, that are
still in opposition to this day. To this day, we
are still being affected by Abraham and Sarah falling for
(22:40):
their own counterfeit. So here we have a really good
example of what not to do during the wait. You
do not fall for the counterfeit. You do not make
your own plans. You don't nudge God, you don't rush God.
You don't fall into your own impatience. You do not
take matters into your own hands.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
What do you do?
Speaker 1 (22:56):
One of my favorite verses of all time that I memorized.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Since I was like in middle school.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
I think I had this verse up on my wall
when I was living with my parents. Of course, limitations
three nineteen through twenty four, and I'm just going to
read three twenty four through twenty six. The Lord is
my portion, says my soul. Therefore I will wait on him.
The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him. It is good that
(23:24):
one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of
the Lord. So the first part of that verse and
verse twenty five it says, the Lord is my portion,
says my soul.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Therefore I will wait on him.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Now, Jeremiah, the prophet is the author of limitations, and
we see that he's saying, I can wait on the
Lord because he's already He's my portion. I already have
what I need. Therefore I will wait on the Lord.
And that makes me understand. It is easy to wait.
It is good to wait when I understand that all
(23:55):
I need I already have because I have God. That
makes the weight so much more bearable. Even with the
wants and desires that I have out of life. Everything
that I need I have because Jesus died on the
cross for me, and I've accepted that I know where
I'm going when I pass away, and that's all I
truly need.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
And when we once again.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Like I said before, I look to the Cross as
the completion and the full fulfillment of God's goodness towards us,
it makes it so that every other desire dims in comparison. Yeah,
I may want things, but that's not more important than
what God already did for me. There might be things
out of life that I am seeking, things out of
(24:38):
life that I want. I still want to get married,
I still want my career to blow up.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
I still want to have a farm with some farm animals.
But if I never get those things, the Lord is
my portion.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Therefore I will wait on him. It makes me understand
that I need this quiet time with the Lord. While
I wait. What does quiet time look like? Studying, reading, praying,
being close to him, training myself for Godliness, not being
passive with my relationship with God, but taking it very seriously,
getting closer to Him so that my desires start to
(25:11):
mirror his. More. Sometimes we will never even get the
desires that we want because we're so far outside of
our relationship with God that those desires are not things
that He ever told us that we would have in
the first place. They are selfish desires. They are not
things that are going to serve Him. They're not things
that's going to serve the kingdom. They are just selfish,
self serving things that we will never get. And the
(25:32):
closer that we get to God, those type of desires
get washed away, they become obsolete. We stop even thinking
about those things, because the closer we get to him,
the more our desires are fit and too sorry and
to his will. We are more aligned with God's will
for our life. The closer we get to him, the
(25:54):
Lord is my portion, therefore our weight on him. Verse
twenty five says the Lord is good to those who
wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. And
that just goes with what we were saying before. Seeking
the Lord truly and diligently, not for what he can
do for you, Not seeking him because oh if I
seek him now, I'll get the desires of my heart.
No seeking him for him truly having a relationship with him,
(26:16):
and the way that I humanize the Lord, or I guess,
make the relationship I have with him more relatable to
what I see on earth. Is I think about how
I would want people to treat me, or my friends,
or the human relationships I have on earth. Think about
how you would feel if someone only came around you
(26:37):
for what you can do for them. Sometimes we treat
God like that. We treat him like I'm going to
get close to God because I want these things out
of life.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
I want prosperity, I.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Want I don't know, whatever you want out of life.
We treat him like I'm going to be close to
you so that you can do this for me, instead
of just being close to him just for him. We
don't find goodness just in God. We find goodness sometimes
of what God does for us. Oh, he's so good
because he's done this. We don't say a lot of
(27:08):
the time God is good period.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
We say he's good because.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
He's done this for me. Do those things make him good? Yes,
But that's just a small percentage, a minuscule percentage of
what makes God good. What he does for you on
earth is literally point zero zero zero one percent of
what makes him good. And when we truly chase after
the goodness of God and who he is, that's when
(27:36):
we find true fulfillment in him. That's when we can
truly say the Lord is my portion. Not what he's
doing for me, but the Lord is my portion. That's
why verse twenty five says the Lord is good to
those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him,
and then verse twenty six it is good that one
should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
(27:58):
And I love this verse because when it's says hope
and wait quietly, I think of us as human beings
and as people. We love to complain. Like one thing
about it. We will wait because you gotta wait. You
gotta wait on God. You can't rush them. But we
are gonna complain every step of the way. We gonna
be like going to church, like, hey, how you doing. Oh,
(28:19):
you know, I'm just I'm just waiting on God. You know,
I'm just getting through. We going through tough times and
we're in our small groups and we're catching up and
we're just like, you know, I'm having a rough time
right now, but you know, I'm waiting on the Lord.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Wait for God with a smile on your face. Fix
your face when you talk about God.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Like like your parents said, fix your face before we
go in this store. Don't ask for nothing. Fix your face.
Fix your face when you talk about waiting on God.
It is good that one should hope and wait quietly.
When you have true hope. You're not downcast. When you
have true hope, You're not impatient. When you have true hope.
That's you really being like, oh, I know God got
(28:57):
this for me. So I'm chilling, like, like, you should
be excited about the way almost you should be excited
about experiencing counterfeits in your life. I saw a pastor
I don't It was like a clip on TikTok, and
he said, you should be happy when you see counterfeits
in your life that you don't fall for. Right, you
should be happy about the counterfeits because they let you
(29:19):
know that the real thing is there, it's possible. And
this goes more into the episode that we'll have next
week when we're talking about how to decipher the counterfeit
between the promise, and we're gonna do more of a
deep dive on what a counterfeit actually looks like, how
it shows up in your life, how to discern if
it's a counterfeit or the real thing, because the whole
(29:41):
point of a counterfeit is that it looks so close
to what you want. If you have a ten point checklist,
it's going to check off nine point five of those boxes,
and you might be so desperate that you say good
enough and you grab it. Okay, So we'll get more
into that into next week's episode. But this pastor was
saying it's good when you see the counterfeit in your
(30:01):
life because you know that the real thing is right
behind it. And that's the story of Abraham and Sarah. Yeah,
it might have taken them twenty five years to get Isaac,
but they had ten years get before they had Ishmael, right,
and then another thirteen before they had Isaac. And it
may not have even taken thirteen years between Ishmael and
Isaac had they not fallen for the counterfeit. Who knows
(30:25):
the timeline if they had not. But when you pass
the counterfeit test, the real thing is right behind it,
And that makes me excited. That makes me excited. That
makes me think, like, yeah, I will wait on the
Lord with a smile on my face because I've had
counterfeits come into my life. And we'll get into that
story time next week because I'm telling y'all, like when
I tell y'all the couple things that have been going
(30:46):
on in the past couple weeks, like it's literally gonna
blow your mind. I can't even wait to get into
next week's episode talking about the counterfeits that I've experienced
just recently, you know, But it makes me hopeful, It
makes me glad. Like a year ago, having to pass
up on things in my life that are counterfeits would
have made me a little sad.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
It would have made me say God, like, when is it?
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Like? When am I gonna finally get what you have
for me? But now I see counterfeits in my life
and I get happy because I'm like, oh shoot, like
God is cooking something up. The devil brings counterfeits into
your life to trip you up because the devil knows
what's going on in spiritual realm. We don't see that.
We as human beings, are limited to the physical realm.
But the devil is a spiritual being. He can see
(31:30):
what's going on in the spirit realm. He can see
the promise around the corner, and when he sees it
around the corner, coming for you because God, God's Goodness
is chasing you like I love that song when it's
like your goodness is running after it's running after me. Okay, y'all,
I can't sing, but y'all know that song. What's that
song called? I was literally just listening to it this morning,
(31:52):
Goodness of God, like your goodness is running after me.
The devil knows like when God has something good for
you around the corner. He does not want to see
you experiencing God's goodness. That's when he sends the counterfeit.
When he sees the promises is on the horizon, he
sends the interference so that if you fall for it,
it distracts you from what God has for you. He
(32:13):
wants to see you fail. The devil wants to see
you fail. That's why the counterfeits are a thing.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Y'all.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Don't think the devil was in the midst of Sarah
and Abraham when she got that idea. Oh heygard my handmaid.
The devil was behind that. Yeah, they fell for it.
They were creating it themselves, but the devil was tempting them.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
He knew.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
The Lord knew that Isaac was around the corner. Or
the devil knew, Sorry, the Isaac was around the corner,
and he tempted Abraham and Sarah with Ishmael, and they
fell for it. Who knows how soon they would have
gotten Isaac had Ishmael had not been in the picture.
Who knows how closely the promise is that God has
(32:52):
for you, as long as you don't fall for the counterfeit.
So when I see counterfeits coming into my life, and
they have been coming into my life like so like crazy,
you know, in the past, just couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
I get excited.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
I'm excited right now because I'm like like I'm rubbing
my hands together like birdman, like you know, like when
you see the food coming out at things given, Like
I'm rubbing my hands together because I know that it's
around the corner.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
I know that my plate is about to be served.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Okay, I am hoping and I'm waiting on the Lord,
and I'm doing it with a smile on my face.
I'm not looking at this like, oh my gosh, God,
like I just had to give up this opportunity when
you know I need this and you know I've been
praying for this and I had to give up this.
I don't think like that anymore. That was Amani last year,
a MONI today. I'm looking at the things that I'm
giving up. I'm looking at the counterfeits that are coming
(33:40):
into my life and I'm not falling for it. And
I'm looking at that like God, like my promise is
around the corner, like what Like I'm getting closer to
the promise. And that's how we should look at these things.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
We shouldn't look at.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Our weight as a begrudging time in our life, like,
oh God is making.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Me wait again.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Here we go again, you know, Oh God is dangling
this thing in front of me. Oh I'm doing good, y'all.
You'll like you're sulking in the corner. Fix your face.
Fix your face, fix your countenance. You pray and you
wait for God, and you do it with a smile
on your face. It is good that you should hope
(34:18):
and wait quietly on God without complaining. Put that smile
on your face, because your promise is right around the corner.
If you don't fall for the counterfeit. We're gonna close
out with Psalms twenty seven fourteen. Wait on the Lord,
be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. Wait,
I say on the Lord. So that's where we're gonna
(34:40):
stop and and our part one of the Counterfeit Versus
the Promise miniseries. Make sure that you guys are back
next week for an episode that I'm really excited to
be doing, where we will be talking more about what
the counterfeit looks like in our lives, how to avoid it,
how to decipher it.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Not falling for it. All of that.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
We'll get more into that aspect of the series next week.
Super excited for that. But I hope that this episode
has blessed you somewhat. And yeah, I will see you
guys next week for part two.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Bye.
Hey, everyone, welcome back to the Amani Talks podcast. You're
here with your hosts Amani on the podcast where we
discuss our Christian based topics and deepening our relationship with
the load. So for all my returning subscribers.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
I love you guys.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hey, hey, and to all my new people here, go
ahead to hit that subscribe button, like comments, share all
that good stuff that helps the episode get out there,
and yeah, it just helps our little community grow. So
just a few things before we get the episode going today.
So first of all, my girls group that's in Atlanta, Georgia.
We are taking a few of our girls and we
are going to Bali for our first Christian girls trip. Okay,
(00:37):
it's so hard as a Christian woman to travel with
you know, your friends or your family sometimes, especially if
you don't drink, you don't party, stuff like that. So
I was like, okay, I love to travel. Let's get
my girls group. Let's go to Bali this summer. So
we're going to Bali July nineteenth through the twenty fifth.
I was just speaking to the trip planner and three
more spots have opened up, so I closed the registration
after we had a certain amount of women coming, but
(00:58):
because of the overwhelming response, the trip planners have actually
told me, hey, we should open up more spots because
they've even been asked about it. So three more women
are able to come. So if you guys are interested
in going with my girls group to Bali this summer
on a Christian girls trip for a whole week, we
are going with Lux Tribes, which is a black woman
owned solo traveling company that brings together solo travelers to
(01:19):
group travel. I went on one of their trips to
Morocco for my birthday last year and it was the
best trip I've ever been on. Hands down. They took
care of everything. It was an amazing trip. Anyway, we
have three more spots open, so I will put all
the details in the description box below. If you guys
are just interested in joining my God's Girl group that
is based out in Atlanta, I will put my website
(01:40):
on moniworthm dot com. Also in the description box there
you can contact me and I will add you to
our group. Me. For those of you who have emailed
me last week, I'm sorry I'm behind all my emails,
but I will get you guys in the God's Girl
Group this week. So Yeah, just give me your info
and I'll add you to the group me and that's
how you get all the info, and then also subscribe
to the emails and we'll get the info there as well.
(02:01):
So we definitely have a lot of exciting things coming
our way from my girls group that is growing, and
I just love the response that I've been getting from people.
You know, community is just so needed, especially for Christians.
We cannot do this walk alone. You need other Christian
women beside you. You need other Christian friends. It's not
a once, it is a need, y'all. So I'm trying
(02:23):
to garner that somewhat. I'm trying to create that in Atlanta.
And so yeah, if you want to be a part
of the trip, that info is going to be below.
And if you just want to join the group in Atlanta,
that info is also going to be below. And I
can't wait to see you guys on the trip and beyond.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
So let's go.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Ahead and get into the episode for today. So, something
that has been on my mind and my heart heavy
is this idea of a counterfeit that comes into our
lives to distract us from the promise that God has
given us. So I'm going to do a three part series.
It's going to be today next week in the week
after that, and we are going to do three part
(03:00):
of Counterfeit Versus Promise. The three episodes are going to
be about the waiting process for your promise and what
that should look like. The second episode is going to
be about deciphering the counterfeit from the promise, and the
third is going to be letting go of the desperation
that would entice you to fall for the counterfeit in
your life. So, first of all, let's talk about what
(03:21):
the counterfeit versus the promise is, because this is actually
a concept that I have myself just become privy to.
I had heard about it before, but I didn't really
know what that looks like in my own life until recently.
And so now of course I'm like, oh, light bulbs
are like coming on, and I'm understanding it more now
I've heard of it before. But what does counterfeit versus
(03:43):
promise actually mean in your life?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
What does that actually look like?
Speaker 1 (03:47):
So basically, counterfeit versus promise is one of these things
is what God has for you, and the other is
what the devil can give you. And a perfect example
of counterfeit versus promise can be found in the very
first book of the Bible. I think there is multiple
examples of counterfeit versus promise in the Book of Genesis,
(04:07):
but I think the most famous example is Abraham and Isaac,
starting in Genesis twelve. So in Genesis twelve we see
the beginning of this promise that God makes Abram. At
this point, his name is not even Abraham, it's still Abram.
And God gives him this promise at the age of
seventy five, that he would make him a father of
a great nation. So father of a great nation, what
(04:29):
does that mean? That means that he will have descendants.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
You know.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
God is promising him, promises to not only Abraham, but
his offspring, his offspring's offspring, his generations to come. But
at seventy five years old, Abraham doesn't have any kids.
He has a wife named Sarah. She's barren. They're seventy five,
They're not having kids. At this point in the Bible,
people are living about maybe like a little over one
(04:52):
hundred years old. So seventy five, him and his wife,
they are past child bearing age, and God is giving
him this promise at seventy five, I will make you
a father of nations. But when you continue to read
on in Genesis fifteen, we see that the promise has
still not been fulfilled. And this is ten years later.
So now God has come back to Abram, and Abram asked, God,
(05:13):
what's going on? Like, you gave me this promise a
decade ago about making me a great nation. I was
seventy five, I'm eighty five. Now I'm not getting no younger.
Where my kid's at? That's basically what Abraham's asking God.
Like Abraham says in fifteen, he said, Lord, God, what
will you give me? Seeing I go childless? And then
he says a few verses down, look, you have given
me no offspring. So he's like, you know, you keep
(05:35):
giving me these promises, but I'm not seeing anything come
to fruition. And I don't know about y'all, but I
understand Abraham, because ten years after, it's already unbelievable that
you would even be able to biologically do this, you know,
And sometimes we put our own human logic to what
God can do for us. But we'll talk about that
a little bit later on. But you can understand where
(05:55):
Abraham's coming from It's like, you know, you told me
this ten years ago and I've been waiting and I
still ain't seen it yet. So what's going on? And
after ten years Abram and his wife Sarah, they're tired
of waiting. Sarai finally says, listen, I got this handmaid.
Her name is Hagar. You go into her. Maybe I
can have children through her. So now we're seeing they
(06:17):
are getting fed up with the wait. It's ten years
of a wait. They have God's promise, they have clearly
heard from God, but they are getting anxious. They're getting impatient.
They're thinking, Okay, let me step in. Maybe God needs
a little bit of help. This is the exact point
of the crossroads when you have to choose counterfeit or promise.
(06:38):
When God has spoken very clearly into your life, but
you're not seeing things fast enough. Will you take things
into your own hands. So we see that God gave
Abram this promise, but he could not wait, and he
and his wife fell into the counterfeit of thinking that
they had to assist God. Oh, God not working fast enough.
Let me nudge him, let me do something. Obviously, he
(07:00):
needs some help. We do that all the time. When
we are too through with waiting. We do that all
the time. Oh, let me do something to help God along.
He probably forgot. Let me nudge him real quick. God,
God does not forget when we gets tired of waiting.
That's our problem, that's not God's problem. He does not
move based on our timing. Right. And it's very easy
(07:20):
to fall into a council fit. It's very easy to
take matters into your own hands. Like I said, I
don't blame Abraham. God told him something, and ten years
later he ain't seen nothing come from it. So we
see in Genesis fifteen where Abram's wife is like, listen,
here's my maid. Maybe we can have this child through her,
because I'm sure that Abram has told Sarai what God
has told him. So Abram does it, and what happens
(07:44):
Hegar the handmaid. She gets pregnant and never ceases to
amaze me about God how much free will he gives us.
Because if God gave Abram the promise of you will
have an air through your own body and he's like, okay,
ten years I ain't seen nothing. Heygar, you up next, girl.
God could have made it so that Hegar never got pregnant.
(08:06):
God could have made it so that, No, I gave
you this promise, Hagar is not going to be the
one your descendants come through. Stop being so impatient. I'm
not on your time. I'm coming. God could have did that,
but no, he let Hagar get pregnant. He allowed Ishmael
to come through Abram. God doesn't force us like God
(08:30):
does not force us to go along with what we
know is right. And you can argue, well, maybe Abram
wasn't clear on the promise because God said, oh, an
ear will come through your own body. He never said
anything about his wife Sarah. And we know back in
these times men had multiple wives, and you know, say,
oh is the one that gave Hagar to Abram. It
(08:51):
wasn't like Abram just you know, there's a lot of
things that you can say about this, and these are
very valid points because God never told Abram that survived
with be the mother of this child. God told Abram
that the child would come through his body.
Speaker 2 (09:04):
So he's probably.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
Thinking, well, technically, technically, you know that's what we do
all the time. Technically, did God really say this, technically
it is through.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
My own body?
Speaker 1 (09:15):
If I still go through Haygard, that's still biologically my son,
and that's the truth. And so I think, like, why
didn't God specifically tell Abram it's going to come through
your body and Sarah your wife? And I think, why
didn't God tell Abram that? He didn't tell Abram that
Sarah was going to be the mother of the nations
(09:36):
until after Ishmael had already come about? Why did God
wait to give Abram that piece of information? In my
own understanding and in my own experience, one thing I've
learned about the waiting season with God is He's not
going to give you all the details about your promise upfront.
I think he very rarely does. He wants to test us.
(09:56):
God does test us. He wants to see us exercise
our faith. He wants to see us exercising our trust
in him. If God were to give us all the
details about the promises that He has for us up front,
that does not have to There's no show of faith
from us.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
There's no show of trust.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
Trust is believing that even though you don't hold all
the power and all the peaces in your hands, that
God will still come through with exactly what he said
he was going to come through with. If God gives
us every single detail, where's the trust, where's the faith?
Where is Oh my gosh, I see God working it
out all In the end, He most of the time
(10:35):
will not give us all the details to the promises
because He is trying to stretch our faith. He is
trying to exercise our faith. The Lord already knows the
inner workings of our hearts, our minds are so he
already knows if we're going to wait or not. He
already knows if we're going to fall into a counterfeit
or not. He already knows everything that's going to happen beforehand.
It's not for his benefit, it's for ours. We need
(10:56):
to see an exercise of.
Speaker 2 (10:58):
Our own faith.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
We need to see if we have patience or not.
We don't know if we'll have patience tomorrow in a year.
We need to see that patience.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Being built today.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
It's for our benefit. It's for us to exercise our faith,
for us to exercise our trust.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
And that's what we're.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
Talking about today, waiting on God to fulfill these promises
versus accepting and falling for the counterfeits in our lives.
First off, we have to understand the weight? Presently? Why
is God making me wait for something that he already
told me that he was gonna give me? Why did
God make Abraham wait decades for Isaac? This can be
seen as cruel or unnecessary, or like God is dangling
(11:39):
something over our heads, just outside of our reach right
because you can't rush God, no matter how impatient you are,
you can't and you won't rush God.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
So sometimes it's like why the weight? Why? God?
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Number one is, the Lord has good plans for us,
but sometimes presently we are not ready for it. When
I think about all the things when I was younger
that I could have swore I was ready for. When
I was thirteen and I wanted to move out of
my mom's house so bad because my parents were so strict,
Do I think that at thirteen I could have paid
my own bills?
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Like?
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Do I think that at thirteen I could have made
my own doctor's appointments? Do I think that at thirteen
I could have lived on my own? Absolutely not. But
when you're thirteen and you're desperate for something, you're thinking, oh,
I could get it right now, when I would handle
it properly.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Know you wouldn't.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
The weight is for your preparation. God does not make
us wait for his benefit. Like I said before, the
weight is for us, and number one, the weight is
to prepare us, to prepare your maturity, to prepare how
you're going to handle the promise. Sometimes you can get
exactly what you wanted and the timing is so off.
(12:49):
You get it before you're ready, and you ruin it.
You ruin it by not knowing how to handle it,
by not knowing how to grow it, by not knowing
how to nurture it, by not knowing how to keep
it because there was no preparation time. When you get
things immediately upfront, there's no preparation, there's no maturity. You
don't really know what to do with it. And that's
why we see so many celebrity children when they are
(13:12):
child stars, right and they get all that fame, that money,
everything up front. They never have to ask for anything. Yeah,
they're working for it, but it's coming to them at
such an early age.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
So many of them.
Speaker 1 (13:22):
Tell us all the time that they were not ready
for that level of fame at that young of an age.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
They were not prepared for it.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
They probably got what most of us would want, right
if there is no preparation period.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
You very well could get what.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
You want out of life, but the chances of you
keeping it, the chances of that thing being prosperous, the
chances of that thing actually serving you correctly.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Slim to none.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
So sometimes the weights, a lot of times the weights
is to prepare us so that we have the fruit
that we need to nurture the promise. We have the
attributes that we need, we have the spirit that we
need to keep the promise once the Lord has fulfilled it.
Sometimes God makes us wait just so that we can
have some quiet time and learn him. The idea that
(14:06):
the Lord's goodness was made whole and fulfilled and complete
it on the cross is accurate, but that does not
negate the fact that we still have desires on earth.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
But if your desires overtake.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Your relationship with the Lord, what's the good of these desires?
Like the Word says, what is a prophet? A man
that he gains the world but loses his soul? And
there can be times that these things could literally be
smacking us in the face and we would not be
able to recognize it because we can't even recognize the
person who's giving it to us. There is no good
in getting the things that you want out of life
(14:39):
if you don't have God in those things. So sometimes
He will sit us down and make us wait for
the future that He has for us because we just
need some time in the Word. We need some time
to pray. And this goes back to the first point,
because when we talk about being prepared for the things
that God has for us, what is being prepared look like?
That means being able to p pray over what you have.
(15:02):
Prayer is our best tool as Christians, talking to God
and paving the way for Him working in our lives.
That's what prayer does for us. Prayer paves the way
you tell God what you need and you're able to
go back and say, oh, my Gosh, I prayed for
this and the Lord fulfill this for me.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Our God is.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
Very relational, like he wants that relationship with us.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
That's a part of.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Sustaining what God has for you, your prayer, life, your time,
and the Word when spiritual war, fear, and battles come.
Being grounded in the Word, being able to pull verses
from your memory, being able to really study the Word,
and being able to equip your physical self, your mental
self your spiritual self.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Your spiritual self.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Sorry with the Word of God, so that when you
have the things that God gives you, that's what you
use to sustain it. Your prayer life, the Word, your
relationship with him. Taking a step back and just having
a greater relationship with Him before the promise is one
hundred percent needed. And another reason why the Lord may
make you wait for the promise that he has already
(16:03):
given you is fruit building. Patience is the fruit of
the spirit. You can't say that you have patience if
you've never experienced anything in your life that made patience
a necessity. If you're getting everything that you want without
any waiting period, you will never have patience. You can't
say that You can't say that you have love for
people if that love has never been tested. It's easy
(16:26):
for you to love people who love you back, just
like the word says like it profits you nothing to
love people who love you back, love your enemies. That's
how you really know that your love is true when
it's being tested. And how can you know that you
have true patience unless that patience has been tested through
a waiting period. Fruit building, testimony building are all things
(16:47):
that come about in our waiting period. So now that
we're understanding the weight more and we got in some
context to it, and we see why the weight is necessary,
what should we be doing during the weight? What was
Abraham doing from the age of seventy five when the
Lord first gave him that promise in Genesis twelve, to
the age of one hundred, when we finally see later
(17:08):
on when Isaac is born, twenty five years Abram was
waiting on Isaac. And what was he doing in that
twenty five years. Well, we know one thing he was doing.
We know one thing he was doing. He was falling
for a counterfeit. Ishmael, Hagar's son was his counterfeit. And
when I think about the twenty five years that it
(17:29):
took for God to fulfill this promise to Abraham, and
in the midst of that twenty five years we see
Abraham creating his own counterfeit with his son Ishmael, I
think to myself, was the twenty five years necessary, or
let me rephrase it. If Abram and Sara would not
have been so impatient, would it have taken twenty five years?
(17:52):
When Abram was eighty six, that's when Ishmael was born,
when he was ninety nine is when the Lord revisited
him and told him, it's not Ishmael that your descendants
are going to come through. The promise is actually going
to come through your wife, Sarah. She's going to be
the one that's the mother of the nations that you
are going to be father of. And when Abram heard that,
(18:15):
at this point he had been renamed Abraham. When Abraham
heard that, I know he was distraught. I mean, we
know he was distraught because he says God, like, please
just let Ishmael be the one that this promise goes through.
Like he basically says, I wish that Ishmael would be
the one that lives before you. And God's like, no,
you will have another child through Sarah. So we see
(18:35):
the ten year gap from the promise to the counterfeit,
and then we see another thirteen year gap from the
counterfeit to the promise being established. And I think to myself,
would it have taken Abraham and Sarah twenty five years
to have Isaac had they not fallen for that counterfeit?
And if that's true, right, if what I'm insinuating is true,
(18:58):
that it wouldn't have taken that long, then are we saying, then,
that God's plans are delayed by us interfering with God's plans,
by our impatience, by us falling for the counterfeit? Do
we delay God's promise for us? Would God have made
Abraham and Sarah wait twenty five years regardless, or if
(19:20):
they would have made different decisions, would that promise of
isaacav come a little bit sooner? We definitely know that
there are consequences to our actions, and when you go
against God and what he tells you to do, there's
definitely dire negative consequences to that, And I think one
of them is that we tend to steal our time.
We tend to delay our purpose, at least from our
(19:45):
own physical standpoints. Right, time is not a factor with God,
and I think that when we think about God having
one plan for our lives, to him, it was never
a delay. He already knew we were going to do
that right. But to us we see it as a delay.
And we know that Abram and Sarai knew that they
were doing wrong because in Genesis sixteen, Sarah says to Abram,
please go into my maid. Perhaps I shall obtain children
(20:08):
by her. But a couple verses down, we see that
they both immediately regret it when Hagar does get pregnant.
And my whole thing is, why are you regretting your plan,
your decision because you knew that you were doing wrong
by taking it into your own hands. And Genesis sixteen,
let's see verse four. It says, so he went into Hagar,
and she conceived, and when she saw that she had conceived,
(20:31):
her mistress became despised in her eyes. Then Sarai said
to Abram, my wrong be upon you. I gave my
maiden to your embrace, and when she saw that she
had conceived, I became despised in her eyes. The Lord
judge between you and me. She knew that she was
doing wrong. She knew that her impatience was allowing her
to go against the god plan, the promise. And when
(20:52):
Sarria is giving Abram her maid, he doesn't go against it.
He goes right along with it. But even he knew
that it was wrong, because after Sarai tells him these things,
he says to her, it's your maid.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Do with her what you will.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
But my whole thing is, if God has given you
this promise and you really felt like you were doing
no wrong by conceiving a child with Hagar. You would
think that Abram would have done everything in his power
to protect her after she was pregnant, because he's like, oh,
this is what the Lord is going to get to me.
This is what the Lord was telling me. He knew
that he was doing wrong. That's why he was like,
(21:26):
it's your maid. Do with her what you will. Sarai
deals with Hagar harshly in heart, and Hagar ends up
running away and they don't even go after her. The
Lord ends up convincing Hagar to go back, and she
gives burst to Ishmael under their roof. But they had
dealt harshly with her, let her run away. They knew
that that child was not the promise that God had
(21:47):
for him, they or for them.
Speaker 2 (21:49):
They knew that they were going.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Outside of God's plan by getting Heygar pregnant.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
They knew it.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
They knew it off the bat. And that's just the
hallmark of the counterfeit. You might get soperate and it
might look good enough to you, it might look great
enough to you that you go along with the counterfeit,
But as soon as you do.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Immediate regret, immediately.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
You know that it was not what you were supposed
to be doing.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
You fall for the counterfeit, and you.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Will immediately regret it every single time. And if you
know any history about who Ishmael became, the Lord also
made him a father of a great nation, the nation
that opposes the descendants that come from Isaac, that are
still in opposition to this day. To this day, we
are still being affected by Abraham and Sarah falling for
(22:40):
their own counterfeit. So here we have a really good
example of what not to do during the wait. You
do not fall for the counterfeit. You do not make
your own plans. You don't nudge God, you don't rush God.
You don't fall into your own impatience. You do not
take matters into your own hands.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
What do you do?
Speaker 1 (22:56):
One of my favorite verses of all time that I memorized.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
Since I was like in middle school.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
I think I had this verse up on my wall
when I was living with my parents. Of course, limitations
three nineteen through twenty four, and I'm just going to
read three twenty four through twenty six. The Lord is
my portion, says my soul. Therefore I will wait on him.
The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him. It is good that
(23:24):
one should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of
the Lord. So the first part of that verse and
verse twenty five it says, the Lord is my portion,
says my soul.
Speaker 2 (23:33):
Therefore I will wait on him.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
Now, Jeremiah, the prophet is the author of limitations, and
we see that he's saying, I can wait on the
Lord because he's already He's my portion. I already have
what I need. Therefore I will wait on the Lord.
And that makes me understand. It is easy to wait.
It is good to wait when I understand that all
(23:55):
I need I already have because I have God. That
makes the weight so much more bearable. Even with the
wants and desires that I have out of life. Everything
that I need I have because Jesus died on the
cross for me, and I've accepted that I know where
I'm going when I pass away, and that's all I
truly need.
Speaker 2 (24:17):
And when we once again.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
Like I said before, I look to the Cross as
the completion and the full fulfillment of God's goodness towards us,
it makes it so that every other desire dims in comparison. Yeah,
I may want things, but that's not more important than
what God already did for me. There might be things
out of life that I am seeking, things out of
(24:38):
life that I want. I still want to get married,
I still want my career to blow up.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
I still want to have a farm with some farm animals.
But if I never get those things, the Lord is
my portion.
Speaker 1 (24:50):
Therefore I will wait on him. It makes me understand
that I need this quiet time with the Lord. While
I wait. What does quiet time look like? Studying, reading, praying,
being close to him, training myself for Godliness, not being
passive with my relationship with God, but taking it very seriously,
getting closer to Him so that my desires start to
(25:11):
mirror his. More. Sometimes we will never even get the
desires that we want because we're so far outside of
our relationship with God that those desires are not things
that He ever told us that we would have in
the first place. They are selfish desires. They are not
things that are going to serve Him. They're not things
that's going to serve the kingdom. They are just selfish,
self serving things that we will never get. And the
(25:32):
closer that we get to God, those type of desires
get washed away, they become obsolete. We stop even thinking
about those things, because the closer we get to him,
the more our desires are fit and too sorry and
to his will. We are more aligned with God's will
for our life. The closer we get to him, the
(25:54):
Lord is my portion, therefore our weight on him. Verse
twenty five says the Lord is good to those who
wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. And
that just goes with what we were saying before. Seeking
the Lord truly and diligently, not for what he can
do for you, Not seeking him because oh if I
seek him now, I'll get the desires of my heart.
No seeking him for him truly having a relationship with him,
(26:16):
and the way that I humanize the Lord, or I guess,
make the relationship I have with him more relatable to
what I see on earth. Is I think about how
I would want people to treat me, or my friends,
or the human relationships I have on earth. Think about
how you would feel if someone only came around you
(26:37):
for what you can do for them. Sometimes we treat
God like that. We treat him like I'm going to
get close to God because I want these things out
of life.
Speaker 2 (26:45):
I want prosperity, I.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Want I don't know, whatever you want out of life.
We treat him like I'm going to be close to
you so that you can do this for me, instead
of just being close to him just for him. We
don't find goodness just in God. We find goodness sometimes
of what God does for us. Oh, he's so good
because he's done this. We don't say a lot of
(27:08):
the time God is good period.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
We say he's good because.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
He's done this for me. Do those things make him good? Yes,
But that's just a small percentage, a minuscule percentage of
what makes God good. What he does for you on
earth is literally point zero zero zero one percent of
what makes him good. And when we truly chase after
the goodness of God and who he is, that's when
(27:36):
we find true fulfillment in him. That's when we can
truly say the Lord is my portion. Not what he's
doing for me, but the Lord is my portion. That's
why verse twenty five says the Lord is good to
those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him,
and then verse twenty six it is good that one
should hope and wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
(27:58):
And I love this verse because when it's says hope
and wait quietly, I think of us as human beings
and as people. We love to complain. Like one thing
about it. We will wait because you gotta wait. You
gotta wait on God. You can't rush them. But we
are gonna complain every step of the way. We gonna
be like going to church, like, hey, how you doing. Oh,
(28:19):
you know, I'm just I'm just waiting on God. You know,
I'm just getting through. We going through tough times and
we're in our small groups and we're catching up and
we're just like, you know, I'm having a rough time
right now, but you know, I'm waiting on the Lord.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Wait for God with a smile on your face. Fix
your face when you talk about God.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
Like like your parents said, fix your face before we
go in this store. Don't ask for nothing. Fix your face.
Fix your face when you talk about waiting on God.
It is good that one should hope and wait quietly.
When you have true hope. You're not downcast. When you
have true hope, You're not impatient. When you have true hope.
That's you really being like, oh, I know God got
(28:57):
this for me. So I'm chilling, like, like, you should
be excited about the way almost you should be excited
about experiencing counterfeits in your life. I saw a pastor
I don't It was like a clip on TikTok, and
he said, you should be happy when you see counterfeits
in your life that you don't fall for. Right, you
should be happy about the counterfeits because they let you
(29:19):
know that the real thing is there, it's possible. And
this goes more into the episode that we'll have next
week when we're talking about how to decipher the counterfeit
between the promise, and we're gonna do more of a
deep dive on what a counterfeit actually looks like, how
it shows up in your life, how to discern if
it's a counterfeit or the real thing, because the whole
(29:41):
point of a counterfeit is that it looks so close
to what you want. If you have a ten point checklist,
it's going to check off nine point five of those boxes,
and you might be so desperate that you say good
enough and you grab it. Okay, So we'll get more
into that into next week's episode. But this pastor was
saying it's good when you see the counterfeit in your
(30:01):
life because you know that the real thing is right
behind it. And that's the story of Abraham and Sarah. Yeah,
it might have taken them twenty five years to get Isaac,
but they had ten years get before they had Ishmael, right,
and then another thirteen before they had Isaac. And it
may not have even taken thirteen years between Ishmael and
Isaac had they not fallen for the counterfeit. Who knows
(30:25):
the timeline if they had not. But when you pass
the counterfeit test, the real thing is right behind it,
And that makes me excited. That makes me excited. That
makes me think, like, yeah, I will wait on the
Lord with a smile on my face because I've had
counterfeits come into my life. And we'll get into that
story time next week because I'm telling y'all, like when
I tell y'all the couple things that have been going
(30:46):
on in the past couple weeks, like it's literally gonna
blow your mind. I can't even wait to get into
next week's episode talking about the counterfeits that I've experienced
just recently, you know, But it makes me hopeful, It
makes me glad. Like a year ago, having to pass
up on things in my life that are counterfeits would
have made me a little sad.
Speaker 2 (31:06):
It would have made me say God, like, when is it?
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Like? When am I gonna finally get what you have
for me? But now I see counterfeits in my life
and I get happy because I'm like, oh shoot, like
God is cooking something up. The devil brings counterfeits into
your life to trip you up because the devil knows
what's going on in spiritual realm. We don't see that.
We as human beings, are limited to the physical realm.
But the devil is a spiritual being. He can see
(31:30):
what's going on in the spirit realm. He can see
the promise around the corner, and when he sees it
around the corner, coming for you because God, God's Goodness
is chasing you like I love that song when it's
like your goodness is running after it's running after me. Okay, y'all,
I can't sing, but y'all know that song. What's that
song called? I was literally just listening to it this morning,
(31:52):
Goodness of God, like your goodness is running after me.
The devil knows like when God has something good for
you around the corner. He does not want to see
you experiencing God's goodness. That's when he sends the counterfeit.
When he sees the promises is on the horizon, he
sends the interference so that if you fall for it,
it distracts you from what God has for you. He
(32:13):
wants to see you fail. The devil wants to see
you fail. That's why the counterfeits are a thing.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Y'all.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Don't think the devil was in the midst of Sarah
and Abraham when she got that idea. Oh heygard my handmaid.
The devil was behind that. Yeah, they fell for it.
They were creating it themselves, but the devil was tempting them.
Speaker 2 (32:30):
He knew.
Speaker 1 (32:31):
The Lord knew that Isaac was around the corner. Or
the devil knew, Sorry, the Isaac was around the corner,
and he tempted Abraham and Sarah with Ishmael, and they
fell for it. Who knows how soon they would have
gotten Isaac had Ishmael had not been in the picture.
Who knows how closely the promise is that God has
(32:52):
for you, as long as you don't fall for the counterfeit.
So when I see counterfeits coming into my life, and
they have been coming into my life like so like crazy,
you know, in the past, just couple of weeks.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
I get excited.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
I'm excited right now because I'm like like I'm rubbing
my hands together like birdman, like you know, like when
you see the food coming out at things given, Like
I'm rubbing my hands together because I know that it's
around the corner.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
I know that my plate is about to be served.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
Okay, I am hoping and I'm waiting on the Lord,
and I'm doing it with a smile on my face.
I'm not looking at this like, oh my gosh, God,
like I just had to give up this opportunity when
you know I need this and you know I've been
praying for this and I had to give up this.
I don't think like that anymore. That was Amani last year,
a MONI today. I'm looking at the things that I'm
giving up. I'm looking at the counterfeits that are coming
(33:40):
into my life and I'm not falling for it. And
I'm looking at that like God, like my promise is
around the corner, like what Like I'm getting closer to
the promise. And that's how we should look at these things.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
We shouldn't look at.
Speaker 1 (33:52):
Our weight as a begrudging time in our life, like,
oh God is making.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Me wait again.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Here we go again, you know, Oh God is dangling
this thing in front of me. Oh I'm doing good, y'all.
You'll like you're sulking in the corner. Fix your face.
Fix your face, fix your countenance. You pray and you
wait for God, and you do it with a smile
on your face. It is good that you should hope
(34:18):
and wait quietly on God without complaining. Put that smile
on your face, because your promise is right around the corner.
If you don't fall for the counterfeit. We're gonna close
out with Psalms twenty seven fourteen. Wait on the Lord,
be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart. Wait,
I say on the Lord. So that's where we're gonna
(34:40):
stop and and our part one of the Counterfeit Versus
the Promise miniseries. Make sure that you guys are back
next week for an episode that I'm really excited to
be doing, where we will be talking more about what
the counterfeit looks like in our lives, how to avoid it,
how to decipher it.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Not falling for it. All of that.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
We'll get more into that aspect of the series next week.
Super excited for that. But I hope that this episode
has blessed you somewhat. And yeah, I will see you
guys next week for part two.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
Bye.
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