October 29, 2025 • 13 mins
When a voice sounds certain but your spirit feels thirsty, that gap matters. In this episode, we unpack how to recognize false teachers without fear through Jude’s vivid warnings—hidden reefs, waterless clouds, fruitless trees. Learn to test teachings by their fruit, not their flair, and to tell the difference between mistakes and manipulation. With simple, Spirit-led tools, you’ll strengthen discernment, quiet anxiety, and refocus your confidence on Jesus as your steady compass in a noisy world.
Grow in God’s Word. Lead boldly.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
This is episode 107, and I'm your host, Atoya, and
this is Equip the Next, whereyou get equipped to lead,
disciple, and move the missionforward.
It's time to recognize thesefalse teachers.
You don't want to miss thisvideo.
(00:48):
Thank you so much for coming,and thank you for returning,
whichever that is.
Thank you for supporting aswell.
Um, it does mean a lot to me, itdoes encourage me and allows me
to move the mission forward.
So, today I wanted to talk aboutrecognizing false teachers
without fear.
Now, I want to go on record bysaying that just because
(01:12):
somebody is maybe not teachingthe right way does not
necessarily mean that they are afalse teacher.
They could be teaching in errorbecause of what they've learned.
We've all been there.
Um, it's really the spiritbehind it that I'm kind of
focusing on today.
Um, also, when you're looking atrecognizing a false teacher um
(01:33):
without fear, it's it's so thatway you don't feel like
obligated to listen to thembecause maybe you look up to
them.
I don't know.
I don't know.
But my goal is to help you toidentify them so that way you
can move forward.
I also want to make note thatthere's a difference between a
(01:57):
false teacher and someone whojust maybe doesn't have the same
opinion as you when it comes tocertain things.
I mean, certain things in theBible are just black and white,
and there are other things thatyou might have your
interpretation, I might have myinterpretation, and that is
fine, and we can agree todisagree, you know, and so I'm
more so talking about falseteachers who are very malicious
(02:23):
in their intent.
I think it would be best topoint you to, um, to start this
conversation, point you to thebook of Jude.
There are a lot of other books,but the book of Jude is just an
easy read.
It's literally one chapter.
Um, and if you want a breakdown,a more detailed study of the
(02:49):
book of Jude, feel free tolisten to episode 78 in this
podcast because I go in in indepth with the book of Jude.
I'm not going to do that here,but just want to encourage you,
you can definitely go and checkthat out.
But he highlights some redflags.
(03:10):
Um for, you know, I I mean, hehe's he's talking to um, he's
not talking to us, but if we goand we can apply this book,
there are definitely some redflags, some some areas in which
we can take note of when we areusing discernment.
(03:33):
That's the key word is usingdiscernment.
One of the things that'smentioned, and this is um, let
me see.
You can let me get my Bible,y'all.
Let me get my Bible because Ihave 50 million books around me.
So um yeah, it's it's uh Jude 1,because it's only one chapter,
(03:59):
starting in verse like 12.
Yeah, 1213.
And he's using a lot of imageryhere, but he's saying, These are
hidden reefs at your lovefeasts, as a feast with you
without fear, shepherds feedingthemselves, waterless clouds
(04:22):
swept along by winds, fruitlesstrees in late autumn, twice
dead, uprooted, wild waves ofthe sea, casting up the foam of
their own shame, wanderingstars, for whom the gloom of
utter darkness has been reservedforever.
(04:46):
Um in a nutshell, there's a lotof there's a lot of imagery here
that is describing theseteachers.
Kind of want to break some stuffdown.
You're looking at dangerousreefs.
Um reefs that that uh can behidden and are dangerous to
(05:09):
ships.
You may not be able to see them.
Waterless clouds.
So they're they put on a bigshow to the spiritually parched,
even though there's no substancebehind what they say.
There's a there's there areclouds with no water.
(05:29):
Listen to the imagery.
He says they're fruitless treesthat produce nothing of
spiritual value.
They're fruitless trees, theyproduce nothing.
He says they're wild waves thatfoam up shameful deeds, they're
wandering stars that lead othersastray, they're wanderers, they
(05:54):
pull you away from Christ andfocus on them.
I've seen a lot of people likethis.
They end up turning into colts,by the way, most of them.
But I've seen a lot of peoplelike this.
They when I'm looking atflattering words, you want to
look at certain things.
Are they is it an encouragingword they're giving you, or are
(06:16):
they are they appealing to yourego?
That's the key.
But they'll point you to them,and I've also seen a lot of
people when they're teaching,it's fearful.
There's a difference betweenreverencing God and having that
(06:36):
reverence of that fear of God,but it's a reverence, and you're
being afraid, you're fearful.
But they they want you to focuson them, they want they're
really big into titles too, butthey want you to focus on them
and what they say.
And if you don't, if you don'tlisten, then you're then you're
condemned, you're you're cursed,whatever the case may be.
They have these flatteringwords, but they have no
(06:58):
substance.
You can look at their fruit, useyour judgment too.
Use your judgment.
Always remember, and I teachthis.
Always remember the word and thespirit should always agree.
Even if you're a babe in Christ,you have the Holy Spirit in you.
(07:20):
It's gonna be something in youthat just ain't feeling right.
You ever get that?
What I want you to do, and I Itell people this a lot, if you
are like, well, I don't know ifit's God or not, go back and
think at a time.
Think think back when youthought you heard the Holy
(07:40):
Spirit and you were right.
Write that down.
If there are multiple times,write those down.
Every time you thought you heardthe Holy Spirit, you weren't
sure, you thought you heard theHoly Spirit, and then all of a
sudden you found out you wereyou were right.
That was the Holy Spirit.
(08:01):
That was he, you know, that thatdid happen.
He told me this, and and I andhe was right.
I'm glad I made a left turn andthen make a right turn because
there was a traffic jam.
Whatever that is, it could bereal small.
It could be you're in thegrocery store and he told you to
get these oranges instead ofthese apples, and you you're
glad you got them because therewas a recall on the apples, you
(08:23):
know, something like that.
It could be very small.
Write those moments down.
What was going on then?
What were you thinking about?
How did that feel?
That's a great way to get thatmuscle memory going and hearing
him.
Also remember that the word andthe word always agree too.
(08:47):
Or I'm sorry, um, scriptureinterprets scripture.
Scripture interprets scripture.
If if somebody plucks out apassage of scripture, they
should be able to find itsomewhere else, multiple places.
This is why it's so important tome.
For me, this is my passion forteaching people how to study the
(09:08):
Bible for yourself, not to Biblethump, not to nitpick, not to do
any of that, but just so thatyou can know the Bible for
yourself.
This is the time more than ever.
Like, seriously.
Um, I want to go to why it'simportant to sharpen our
discernment.
If you go to Hebrew, Hebrews 5.
(09:32):
I'm gonna go to 13.
So Hebrews 5, 13, 14, it says,for everyone who lives on milk
is unskilled in the word ofrighteousness, since he is a
child.
But solid food or a babe inChrist, more so this is what
this is meaning.
But solid food is for themature, for those who have their
(09:57):
powers of discernment trained byconstant practice to distinguish
good from evil.
This is the ESV version.
So it takes practice, and that'swhy I said it, you know, if ever
(10:18):
you've heard from the HolySpirit and you thought it was
you thought it was um him and itcame to pass, write it down.
Because it'll allow you to trainyourself and to use discernment.
You always also have toremember, I put down, it's okay
(10:41):
to have an opinion aboutsomething, but it shouldn't be
held as doctrine.
Somebody, you know, has anopinion.
I have opinions about certainthings that you don't want it to
be doctrine, like you have to dothis.
That goes back to legalism,right?
We talked about that.
But it's important to trainyourself.
(11:03):
There was a mentor um that saidthis to me or to the group.
She said, no, she said to me,because I actually asked the
question.
And so she answered it and itwas really good.
She said, If you obey if youobeyed or if you did something
(11:25):
that you thought was the Lordout of obedience, he's not gonna
beat you up if you got it wrong.
It it's important to understandthat just like a child, we have
to learn through error, right?
Um, you don't learn until youfail.
(11:48):
And so there's also times whenyou thought you heard the Lord
and you were like, oh, that wasI was that was me all day.
Write those things down too.
And what you can do is you cancompare the two.
Compare them.
That will definitely help you,it will propel you forward when
(12:12):
it comes to discernment, atleast.
Are you gonna get it right allthe time?
No, but at least you'll havediscernment be able to be able
to recognize false teachers anddon't have any fear because
there's a fear attached to it.
There's a fear that make youfeel like you're cursed if you
don't agree, they make you feellike you're kicked out of a club
(12:33):
if you don't agree, they makeyou feel really bad.
And you shouldn't have to feellike that if just because you
don't agree with something.
You know what I mean?
Like, I don't agree with that.
Okay, cool.
That's that freedom that youwant to have moving forward.
(12:55):
I pray that for you.
That is my goal, is to just praythat whoever's listening to this
can study the Bible withconfidence, learn, and apply it
and grow, and hopefully be apart of a community if you want
to join us.
We also have a telegram group,you know, just because I'm not
(13:19):
on Facebook like that.
I am, but I'm not.
But anywho, enough of that.
Listen, I want to give you achallenge.
Pray for discernment, ask theLord to give you wisdom.
Remember, we talked about that?
It's okay to ask him.
Listen, thank you for listeningto the Equip the Next podcast.
If you're ready to take the nextstep, grab my freebie five Bible
(13:43):
study guardrails for confidenceat equipthenext.com forward
slash freebie.
And remember, grow in God's wordand lead boldly.
This is episode 107, and I'm your host, Atoya, and
this is Equip the Next, whereyou get equipped to lead,
disciple, and move the missionforward.
It's time to recognize thesefalse teachers.
You don't want to miss thisvideo.
(00:48):
Thank you so much for coming,and thank you for returning,
whichever that is.
Thank you for supporting aswell.
Um, it does mean a lot to me, itdoes encourage me and allows me
to move the mission forward.
So, today I wanted to talk aboutrecognizing false teachers
without fear.
Now, I want to go on record bysaying that just because
(01:12):
somebody is maybe not teachingthe right way does not
necessarily mean that they are afalse teacher.
They could be teaching in errorbecause of what they've learned.
We've all been there.
Um, it's really the spiritbehind it that I'm kind of
focusing on today.
Um, also, when you're looking atrecognizing a false teacher um
(01:33):
without fear, it's it's so thatway you don't feel like
obligated to listen to thembecause maybe you look up to
them.
I don't know.
I don't know.
But my goal is to help you toidentify them so that way you
can move forward.
I also want to make note thatthere's a difference between a
(01:57):
false teacher and someone whojust maybe doesn't have the same
opinion as you when it comes tocertain things.
I mean, certain things in theBible are just black and white,
and there are other things thatyou might have your
interpretation, I might have myinterpretation, and that is
fine, and we can agree todisagree, you know, and so I'm
more so talking about falseteachers who are very malicious
(02:23):
in their intent.
I think it would be best topoint you to, um, to start this
conversation, point you to thebook of Jude.
There are a lot of other books,but the book of Jude is just an
easy read.
It's literally one chapter.
Um, and if you want a breakdown,a more detailed study of the
(02:49):
book of Jude, feel free tolisten to episode 78 in this
podcast because I go in in indepth with the book of Jude.
I'm not going to do that here,but just want to encourage you,
you can definitely go and checkthat out.
But he highlights some redflags.
(03:10):
Um for, you know, I I mean, hehe's he's talking to um, he's
not talking to us, but if we goand we can apply this book,
there are definitely some redflags, some some areas in which
we can take note of when we areusing discernment.
(03:33):
That's the key word is usingdiscernment.
One of the things that'smentioned, and this is um, let
me see.
You can let me get my Bible,y'all.
Let me get my Bible because Ihave 50 million books around me.
So um yeah, it's it's uh Jude 1,because it's only one chapter,
(03:59):
starting in verse like 12.
Yeah, 1213.
And he's using a lot of imageryhere, but he's saying, These are
hidden reefs at your lovefeasts, as a feast with you
without fear, shepherds feedingthemselves, waterless clouds
(04:22):
swept along by winds, fruitlesstrees in late autumn, twice
dead, uprooted, wild waves ofthe sea, casting up the foam of
their own shame, wanderingstars, for whom the gloom of
utter darkness has been reservedforever.
(04:46):
Um in a nutshell, there's a lotof there's a lot of imagery here
that is describing theseteachers.
Kind of want to break some stuffdown.
You're looking at dangerousreefs.
Um reefs that that uh can behidden and are dangerous to
(05:09):
ships.
You may not be able to see them.
Waterless clouds.
So they're they put on a bigshow to the spiritually parched,
even though there's no substancebehind what they say.
There's a there's there areclouds with no water.
(05:29):
Listen to the imagery.
He says they're fruitless treesthat produce nothing of
spiritual value.
They're fruitless trees, theyproduce nothing.
He says they're wild waves thatfoam up shameful deeds, they're
wandering stars that lead othersastray, they're wanderers, they
(05:54):
pull you away from Christ andfocus on them.
I've seen a lot of people likethis.
They end up turning into colts,by the way, most of them.
But I've seen a lot of peoplelike this.
They when I'm looking atflattering words, you want to
look at certain things.
Are they is it an encouragingword they're giving you, or are
(06:16):
they are they appealing to yourego?
That's the key.
But they'll point you to them,and I've also seen a lot of
people when they're teaching,it's fearful.
There's a difference betweenreverencing God and having that
(06:36):
reverence of that fear of God,but it's a reverence, and you're
being afraid, you're fearful.
But they they want you to focuson them, they want they're
really big into titles too, butthey want you to focus on them
and what they say.
And if you don't, if you don'tlisten, then you're then you're
condemned, you're you're cursed,whatever the case may be.
They have these flatteringwords, but they have no
(06:58):
substance.
You can look at their fruit, useyour judgment too.
Use your judgment.
Always remember, and I teachthis.
Always remember the word and thespirit should always agree.
Even if you're a babe in Christ,you have the Holy Spirit in you.
(07:20):
It's gonna be something in youthat just ain't feeling right.
You ever get that?
What I want you to do, and I Itell people this a lot, if you
are like, well, I don't know ifit's God or not, go back and
think at a time.
Think think back when youthought you heard the Holy
(07:40):
Spirit and you were right.
Write that down.
If there are multiple times,write those down.
Every time you thought you heardthe Holy Spirit, you weren't
sure, you thought you heard theHoly Spirit, and then all of a
sudden you found out you wereyou were right.
That was the Holy Spirit.
(08:01):
That was he, you know, that thatdid happen.
He told me this, and and I andhe was right.
I'm glad I made a left turn andthen make a right turn because
there was a traffic jam.
Whatever that is, it could bereal small.
It could be you're in thegrocery store and he told you to
get these oranges instead ofthese apples, and you you're
glad you got them because therewas a recall on the apples, you
(08:23):
know, something like that.
It could be very small.
Write those moments down.
What was going on then?
What were you thinking about?
How did that feel?
That's a great way to get thatmuscle memory going and hearing
him.
Also remember that the word andthe word always agree too.
(08:47):
Or I'm sorry, um, scriptureinterprets scripture.
Scripture interprets scripture.
If if somebody plucks out apassage of scripture, they
should be able to find itsomewhere else, multiple places.
This is why it's so important tome.
For me, this is my passion forteaching people how to study the
(09:08):
Bible for yourself, not to Biblethump, not to nitpick, not to do
any of that, but just so thatyou can know the Bible for
yourself.
This is the time more than ever.
Like, seriously.
Um, I want to go to why it'simportant to sharpen our
discernment.
If you go to Hebrew, Hebrews 5.
(09:32):
I'm gonna go to 13.
So Hebrews 5, 13, 14, it says,for everyone who lives on milk
is unskilled in the word ofrighteousness, since he is a
child.
But solid food or a babe inChrist, more so this is what
this is meaning.
But solid food is for themature, for those who have their
(09:57):
powers of discernment trained byconstant practice to distinguish
good from evil.
This is the ESV version.
So it takes practice, and that'swhy I said it, you know, if ever
(10:18):
you've heard from the HolySpirit and you thought it was
you thought it was um him and itcame to pass, write it down.
Because it'll allow you to trainyourself and to use discernment.
You always also have toremember, I put down, it's okay
(10:41):
to have an opinion aboutsomething, but it shouldn't be
held as doctrine.
Somebody, you know, has anopinion.
I have opinions about certainthings that you don't want it to
be doctrine, like you have to dothis.
That goes back to legalism,right?
We talked about that.
But it's important to trainyourself.
(11:03):
There was a mentor um that saidthis to me or to the group.
She said, no, she said to me,because I actually asked the
question.
And so she answered it and itwas really good.
She said, If you obey if youobeyed or if you did something
(11:25):
that you thought was the Lordout of obedience, he's not gonna
beat you up if you got it wrong.
It it's important to understandthat just like a child, we have
to learn through error, right?
Um, you don't learn until youfail.
(11:48):
And so there's also times whenyou thought you heard the Lord
and you were like, oh, that wasI was that was me all day.
Write those things down too.
And what you can do is you cancompare the two.
Compare them.
That will definitely help you,it will propel you forward when
(12:12):
it comes to discernment, atleast.
Are you gonna get it right allthe time?
No, but at least you'll havediscernment be able to be able
to recognize false teachers anddon't have any fear because
there's a fear attached to it.
There's a fear that make youfeel like you're cursed if you
don't agree, they make you feellike you're kicked out of a club
(12:33):
if you don't agree, they makeyou feel really bad.
And you shouldn't have to feellike that if just because you
don't agree with something.
You know what I mean?
Like, I don't agree with that.
Okay, cool.
That's that freedom that youwant to have moving forward.
(12:55):
I pray that for you.
That is my goal, is to just praythat whoever's listening to this
can study the Bible withconfidence, learn, and apply it
and grow, and hopefully be apart of a community if you want
to join us.
We also have a telegram group,you know, just because I'm not
(13:19):
on Facebook like that.
I am, but I'm not.
But anywho, enough of that.
Listen, I want to give you achallenge.
Pray for discernment, ask theLord to give you wisdom.
Remember, we talked about that?
It's okay to ask him.
Listen, thank you for listeningto the Equip the Next podcast.
If you're ready to take the nextstep, grab my freebie five Bible
(13:43):
study guardrails for confidenceat equipthenext.com forward
slash freebie.
And remember, grow in God's wordand lead boldly.
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