Stepping In Faith

The Message Of A False Christ

• Stepping In Faith • Season 1 • Episode 14

Share episode

Have you ever wondered if the Christ you follow is the real deal? In this thought-provoking episode, we tackle the critical topic of "The Message of a False Christ." Host Walter and his wife Shanea delve into how society often shapes a version of Christ that caters more to personal desires than to the truth of Scripture. Through biblical references and engaging discussions, they highlight the alarming trend of Christians creating custom versions of Christ, which can lead to dangerous misunderstandings of grace and obedience.

We explore the significance of a genuine relationship with God and how the Holy Spirit plays a transformative role in our lives. The episode also addresses the necessity of experiencing spiritual growth through challenges—often likened to the wilderness periods Jesus faced—which ultimately leads to empowerment and renewed purpose.

What's more, our hosts call on you, the listener, to critically assess how your faith aligns with the teachings of the true Christ. They challenge common misconceptions that grace is a free ticket to sin while encouraging you to embrace the true purpose of grace: freedom from sin and transformation into a Christ-like existence. Get ready to gain deeper insights, involving both scripture and practical life applications, and uncover the spiritual implications of the choices you make. 

Join us in this enlightening discussion and let's pave the path toward an authentic faith. Remember, it’s not enough to simply claim you're a Christian; it’s vital to embody the principles Christ genuinely taught. Subscribe, share, and engage with us as we navigate this crucial examination of faith together.

Ready to dive deeper? 🎧 Join us on YouTube for the full video podcast where we explore faith, love, and relationships through a Christian lens. Whether married, single, or seeking spiritual growth, our episodes offer practical advice and profound insights to strengthen your walk with Jesus. Don’t forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you never miss a powerful episode. Let’s grow together in faith and purpose!
👉 Watch the full episode on YouTube now!

Walter:

Welcome back to another episode of Stepping in Faith, where, together, we explore the importance of having a relationship with God and how that relationship with God can impact the relationships you have with others. I'm your host, walter. I'm joined here alongside my lovely wife.

Shanea:

Shanea.

Walter:

This is episode 14. Yes, it is. Babe, what's the title of this week episode?

Shanea:

The Message of a False Christ.

Walter:

The Message of a False Christ. The Message of a False Christ. So this is episode 14, so I guess we can reiterate this is a podcast where we delve into the things of relationships. Relationships is our theme, relationships as far as marriage goes, those who are desiring to be married, those who are married and then, most importantly, our relationship with christ, our relationship with god the father, our relationship with the holy spirit yep, we are believers we are believers.

Walter:

Uh, we say believers because there are those that are christians but we believe. Matter of fact, we know that there is a distinct difference between being. We say believers because there are those that are Christians no-transcript what? And so, to get things, started.

Speaker 3:

babe, do you want to go ahead and open us up in prayer? Sure, Okay.

Shanea:

Father God, we thank you. We thank you for your love, your grace and your mercy. Father God, we thank you for the message that you've given us revelation on to share with our followers, to share with our followers, to share with other believers, to share with other Christians, father God, that they may find themselves seeking you more and recognizing your voice. Thank you, father God, for allowing us to be a vessel to your sheep, so that, when you do speak, that they know that it's you speaking In Jesus' name. We pray Amen.

Walter:

Amen, If we can get that mic a little bit closer to you babe.

Shanea:

Okay, well, you kind of sound a little far too. Do I, you do, or maybe it's because my it's probably because I can hear myself. Well, I mean, I can hear myself too, so Okay.

Walter:

And everybody else can hear myself. Uh, well, I mean, I can hear myself too.

Shanea:

So okay, and everybody else can hear us. Yeah, I just want to make sure, make sure your headphones are like in your ear, though. No, they are okay, because I think I can hear better now that I.

Walter:

I pushed them in because you know, my ears are small yeah, okay, so to get things started this week, the message of a false Christ. I was um. It was given to me as I was listening to last week episode, and as I was listening to last week episode, um, I wish you would stop. I know what you're trying to do. What am I trying to?

Shanea:

do Get me to smile. No, I'm not trying to get you would stop.

Walter:

I know what you're trying to do.

Shanea:

What am I trying to do? Get me to smile? No, I'm not trying to get you to smile.

Walter:

What are you trying to do?

Shanea:

I'm just saying, it kind of sounds like you're whistling a little bit. Does it yeah.

Walter:

I'm not whistling, okay, but before I was rudely interrupted by my wife, I was listening to last week episode. And as I was listening to last week episode, I heard false Christ and it just popped up false Christ. And I'm like, okay, false Christ, and we've touched on this before and I knew that's what God wanted us to teach on or discuss. Excuse me, yet I think when we think of false Christ, we think of the Antichrist.

Shanea:

When we think of false Christ, we think of something that's just going to be outright in your face Like that's demonic or that's satanic. But ultimately there's a lot of things in the world that's demonic, that Christians do.

Walter:

Yes.

Shanea:

And they don't recognize who they're serving.

Walter:

No, and when you delve into things, you realize that so many of us we've created our own version of what we. We've created a version of Christ that fits our lives. Or fits the world.

Walter:

Or fits the world, but we just want to be able to do what we want to do and still be able to say that we're Christians, and still be able to say that we're Christians, because there's millions of Christians in America, as we know, but there's very we know that those millions of people that profess or confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they're not actually believers, the world teaches you to be your own boss.

Shanea:

To be your own boss, to be your own leader, to go out and do things for yourself. Yeah. And if you are your own boss, because there are a lot of people out here who's like I'm a boss. Mm-hmm. I'm my own boss. I'm a boss baddie.

Walter:

Yeah, that's different.

Shanea:

Yeah Well, they say a different word, but I can't use it.

Walter:

Oh, okay, no, don't use that word.

Shanea:

I can't use it.

Walter:

I don't even get why people use that word now. It's crazy because when we was growing up, it was considered disrespectful. It's a four-letter word, by the way, but simply put right, what is a false Christ? A false Christ is something that is created that fits people's desires and lifestyles instead of submitting to the true Christ. And there's this misconception of grace. Right that we believe that it allows us to remain in sin rather than freeing us from it, and so that's it. Right, like we truly believe grace gives us the ability to do what we want to do.

Shanea:

To sin, and that's what a lot of us tell ourselves. Well, not me anymore, but I was talking about this in a last episode. It's like, oh, god knows my heart. I'm, you know, I'm, I'm gonna, I'm a christian. He knows my heart. Even if I do wrong, he's still gonna accept me. God knows me, he knows me. We have our own personal relationship and so it doesn't matter what I do.

Walter:

Yeah, I think once again, we know this. We misconstrue grace in this message or this podcast is not about grace, but we misconstrue grace the grace that we refer to. It gives us the power, by way of the Holy Spirit, to be free from the power of sin. It's not for us to continue to sin, not saying that we're going to fall short, because there is grace for when we fall short. But there's a difference between falling short and making a decision to consistently, purposefully sin purposefully sin.

Shanea:

Well, as a believer, um, we have the holy spirit, and so that helps us stay within god's law, within god's grace, because we're not doing it in our own strength, and so many christians aren't believers where they are allowing the Holy Spirit to guide them until they fall directly under the law.

Walter:

Yes, so let's get into it. Second Corinthians 11, 1 through 4. Do you want to read that, or?

Shanea:

If you have it already pulled up.

Walter:

I don't have to pull it up, matter of fact, it'd be easy. Let me get my phone.

Shanea:

Second Corinthians already pulled up. I don't have to pull it up, matter of fact, it'd be easy, and let me get my phone. Second corinthians 11, 1 through 4, and we'll read in the nlt version.

Walter:

You got it. I'm about to read it. Go ahead, you can read it. I'm just doing my split screen. Okay, I hope you will put. I hope you will put up with a little more of my foolishness. Please bear with me, for I am jealous for you, with the jealousy of God himself. I promise you as a pure bride to one husband, christ. But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted. Just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent, you happily put up with whatever anyone tells you, even if they preach a different Jesus than the one we preach, or a different kind of spirit than the one you received, or a different kind of gospel than the one you believed. And that was Paul speaking Right. Mm-hmm, and that was.

Walter:

Paul speaking Right. So this is Paul forewarning the church of Corinth. That they have on down is that we ourselves create our own version of Christ. Then we go and seek out leaders that would teach us that it's okay to have that version of Christ.

Shanea:

Yeah. The real issue, though, is that people don't believe that Satan is really as cunning as Paul is speaking about.

Walter:

Well, when you look at it and I think this was it Because it- might look like Jesus.

Shanea:

It might sound like Jesus.

Walter:

Well, we don't know how Satan initially looked, even when he was in the Garden of Eden, and I think Micah touched on this. Was it Micah Turnbull? Someone touched on it that we were listening to. It was someone that we was listening to.

Shanea:

No, he did speak on it, but we were listening to a testimony from someone.

Walter:

So we think we forget who Satan was in heaven? Yes, we forget who Satan was in heaven.

Shanea:

Absolutely.

Walter:

That's first. Satan was beautiful.

Shanea:

Yeah, he was beautiful he comes as an angel of light literally was beautiful and that's why eve was not deceived exactly.

Walter:

She was deceived she was deceived because, she didn't.

Shanea:

She didn't think there was anything wrong with what he was saying, because he looked. He looked angelic he was? He was an angelic being well the point.

Walter:

The point that Paul was making here is that you have to be and that's what the testimony was touching on you have to be careful to stand firm on what was originally taught. We have to get back to the basics of who Christ is. We have to understand who Christ is, and so that's when you move away from thinking that the Christ that you serve or the Christ that the Bible speaks of, or we try to reshift this right, or what people try to teach and they misconstrue the word, is that Christ allows you to be your own God, but while also making him your God, and he gives you grace to be your own God. We just don't look at it like that, but that's what we essentially are saying. Yes.

Walter:

It's like, oh, I'm going to do this because I'm still God's still working on me in these areas, but I'm going to give this over to him. But you know, listen we talk about relationships right? Listen, I just want to have sex, and God knows I want to have sex. And Listen, I just want to have sex, and God knows I want to have sex and he know I struggle with this and he loved me still.

Shanea:

God created me. We are sexual beings.

Walter:

So it's okay for us to have sex, but you know what? What we'll do is I'll only have sex with you in this committed relationship, so it's not the same as me being out here and just being extremely promiscuous. I'm doing it the right way by just having sex with you, ladies. That's what I'm going to tell you. I'm giving y'all some pointers. Listen, I may eventually be your husband anyway. Technically, we already married in the spirit, so I can have sex with you until we get married.

Shanea:

God is going to be okay with that, ladies this is what I'm going to tell you, because I'm going to marry you Because I'm going to marry you.

Walter:

Matter of fact, you know what? I already put a ring on you. We're engaged. Why can't we just test it? We need to test it before we, you know, commit to this. Just to know that we all of these things was going to be said, or listen, I can do this. I can do this, I can do that.

Shanea:

It's okay. A lot of people say well, how do you even know you're going to like sex with this person if you don't have sex with them Exactly Before you get?

Walter:

married and when you start nipping away at things, you begin to create a different version of who Christ is, because you say, okay, I'm going to have sex, or I'm going to do whatever and to have sex, or I'm going to do whatever, and then I'm going to ask God to forgive me.

Shanea:

Yeah Well, the problem is, that's what the church teaches.

Walter:

That's not spiritual.

Shanea:

Unfortunately. I think that the real problem is that people aren't having encounters with God themselves. They experience God through other people's experiences.

Walter:

Well, also.

Shanea:

Even though their experiences aren't really truly God, because you can't tell, because you haven't had your own experience.

Walter:

Yet, at the same time, here's what we have to be careful with right, and it's right. Here we have to be careful with seeking out teachings and seeking out leaders that don't encourage us to change, that don't encourage us to have consecrated or live consecrated and holy and sanctified lives by way of the power of the Holy Spirit. And unfortunately, within our society today, especially within America, we are so used to just being in our own gods, so we go to churches that fit what we're looking for. We got the coffee shops, we got this, we got that. Oh, I love my church. It has everything I need. Yet your spirit is not being fed, paul would say spiritually. And he did say you are still a babe in Christ. Spiritually, you're still a babe in Christ.

Shanea:

Yeah, you're feeding your flesh when you go to church.

Walter:

Yeah.

Shanea:

But you leave church feeling empty.

Walter:

Well, the thing is and this is good right, many of us and I used to do it we lead a Sunday Christian lifestyle. We live a Sunday Christian lifestyle and I would go as far as say we live a Christian lifestyle for about a few hours out of Sunday.

Walter:

Because, some of us as soon as we get out of church. I did it myself. I got Kendrick on. I got whomever on. I'm leaving out the church parking. I did it myself. I got Kendrick on. I got whomever on. I'm leaving out the church parking lot with Kendrick bumping. I'm going in the church parking lot with Eric Bellinger bumping chilling all of them. Chris Eccles bumping, which I should not be listening to because you know it's outright. Just sometimes I will be in church listening to it inside the church. Right.

Walter:

And I'm saying this because I know it's other people doing it and so but you don't submit your lives to God day by day. You don't submit, you don't make Jesus your Lord and your Savior over your life throughout the week.

Shanea:

But that's because nobody told you what you were doing was wrong.

Walter:

Because we're creating, once again, an alternate version of who Christ is. So let's get into this right. Okay, let's go to Ephesians 4, 17 and 22. And this is just going to dig into the importance of having a transformed mind. You want to read that?

Shanea:

Ephesians 4, 17.

Walter:

Verse 22.

Shanea:

With the Lord's authority, I say this live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused. Their minds are full of darkness. They wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity. But that isn't what you learned about christ. Since you have heard about jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature in your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes, put on your new nature, created to be like God, truly righteous and holy.

Walter:

Exactly.

Shanea:

It's all right there. It's hard though. Well, the thing is that we don't go through the process of having our minds renewed I think the thing is is that people don't throw off their old sinful nature and their old former way of life because it's it's very challenging to do and people will look at you like you're crazy.

Walter:

Well, the reason that it's challenging is because that's just and I didn't put this in here, but it was something I was thinking about as I was taking notes. And let's just really address the elephant in the room. Many people confess jesus to be lord and savior in their lives, of their lives. They don't believe it yeah, they don't believe in their heart and the church and I think we may have touched on this before. Many of the churches are more concerned with numbers than they are with transformation. Yeah.

Walter:

So it's not by my might or yours that people's lives are changed.

Walter:

So, it's not by what your pastor or a minister or a prophet, it's not their words that transform your life. We know, even as we saw in Acts with Peter, the Bible says that as the Holy Spirit spoke through Peter and gave him the words, that he was literally speaking through him. It said the words pierced the heart of men and they came to Peter and they said what must we do to be saved? So it's only through the power of the Holy Spirit that true transformation takes place. So the reason that transformation is not taking place is because, once again, the people who are teaching you don't know God, or even if they do, they're not submitted to God wholeheartedly, so they're not allowing him to speak through them or even understanding that there's no power in in themselves, but the true power is in jesus yeah, well, they even teach the pastors.

Shanea:

You know they they um prepare all these sermons like themselves, without the holy spirit. So it's like, how do you like? How are you giving a message and you haven't spoken to God about who he wants to speak to? Yeah.

Speaker 3:

Or what he wants to say you know to help people?

Shanea:

How do you even know you're helping people? Because, to be honest, they don't do testimonies in church, no more.

Walter:

No, well, I mean, here's the thing, um, even as I was working on the notes and I told you last night I wanted to do this, but I wasn't given anything he told me to get up to in this in the morning, and I'll speak to you then on what I want you to teach. And so I think that is so important, because I could have wrote notes, I could have came up with my own stuff, but it would have been me forcing it and there's nothing in that. And so leaders have to be at a point of understanding that you don't do anything in your own strength, because, once again, there's no power. And that's what you talked about People's minds not being transformed or them not even knowing how the reason is, and you touched on that. Before they haven't encountered Christ, they haven't like the words, haven't pierced their subconscious, their heart.

Shanea:

Yeah, and I think the other thing, too, that people don't teach about is that you know we have our spirit we have our soul and we have our own will.

Shanea:

Renewing your mind, you have to change your will. Your will has to be the will of God, not the will of self. So it's like whatever I need to do, I'm going to do it the way that God wants me to do it. If I need to throw down my old sinful nature and I need to live a different way, I need to throw away everything that I had before so I can do the will of God. That's my will. Yes, and a lot of people don't do it because they're so used to doing their own self, their own self-will.

Walter:

Yes, and I mean once again this is people don't know.

Shanea:

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink it. Yeah. Because he has a will. You can't force someone to do something that naturally they don't naturally want to do.

Walter:

Well, that goes into the next point, and before we go there, I want to say this right, it's important to understand this. We're talking about your mind being renewed. We have to understand our mind being renewed impacts our behavior, our decisions in relationships and particularly in marriage. It impacts all of that. It impacts your behavior, the decisions you make and your relationships, what type of relationships you choose to be in, what type of relationships you have with your friends and, most importantly, the relationship you have with Christ and your spouse. This is why your mind has to be renewed. This is why you have to go through the process of having an understanding of who Christ truly is, because if you don't, it would negatively impact every other area of your life. It would negatively impact every other area of your life. So, talking about what you just said, I think that's a great place to move on to the next point which is the wilderness experience.

Walter:

So Luke 4, 1 through 14. And specifically because I'll read that, because I would say for everyone, read it all.

Walter:

But I wanted to touch on two points. In Luke 4. And once again this is the NLT, verse 1,. It states that Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit into wilderness, where he was through the temptations by the enemy. It says that Jesus returned to Galilee filled with the Holy Spirit's power. Reports about him spread quickly through the whole region. He taught regularly in their synagogues and was praised by everyone. So we know that when looking into that, we know that, prior to that, jesus was baptized by John.

Walter:

And when he was baptized by John, the Bible says that the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, descended upon him like a dove in a bodily shaped form, and then he was ushered into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to fast for 40 days and 40 nights and be tempted by the enemy. And it was saying that after he went through his wilderness experience which is key he left the wilderness full of the power of the Holy Spirit. Yes, the issue is this Within the wilderness experience, right, it's not just a testing space or a moment of testing. No.

Walter:

It's a place for spiritual growth and being taught how to overcome sin. Right, the thing is and I don't think I said this in here or it's not in here, let's go there. What was coming to me, was this right here? When we think of Jesus going through the wilderness experience and leaving the wilderness with the power of the Holy Spirit, we think of it from the perspective of him being able to cast out demons, heal the sick, prophesy, and that's all we focus on. But in all reality, that's all we focus on. But in all reality, the true power of the Holy Spirit lies in a changed character. It lies in a changed person.

Shanea:

The true power of the Holy Spirit is what allows us to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome sin. Yeah, well, the power of the holy spirit helps us come into our authoritative rights, having dominion over the earth and everything.

Walter:

You can't have dominion if you don't have power but we look for power based off of miracles and signs and wonders, not understanding that the enemy can perform miracle signs and wonders. The greatest miracle that you can see in a person is a changed life, not based on their actions and what they do, but something that you can see from it being something that's inwardly done. Desires being removed.

Shanea:

Right, you have people looking at you like there's something about you removed. Right, you have people looking at you like there's something about you. Even strangers that don't even know you are just like, you're so peaceful. There's something about you, what I don't know what it is it's the holy spirit, it's the holy spirit so, um, I think, right.

Walter:

Part of having your mind renewed, part of being able to walk in the true likeness of christ, requires that, just as christ did, we walk through the wilderness experience. And it's so important for us to go through the wilderness experience because we have so many things that we've taken on. That's a part of this world that God has to remove. Christ went to the wilderness and we can see it like this. Christ went to the wilderness to kill off his flesh.

Shanea:

He went to the wilderness to die.

Walter:

You go to the wilderness to die. Yeah, you go to the wilderness to die. Yeah, you go to the wilderness to die to self and you come back with the power of the holy spirit to do his will to do his will, including his will being that he wants us to live free from the power of sin right and to fight against it. Exactly.

Shanea:

So we are constantly at war.

Walter:

And that is a great segue. Living in the power of the Holy Spirit? That is a great segue. Babe, you want to read Romans 2, 13 through 16?. 2 verse 13 through 16?. Sure Walter. Thank you, shania, sure, walter, thank you.

Shanea:

Shania, Romans 2, 13 through 16. For merely listening to the law doesn't make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight. Even Gentiles who do not have God's written law show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. They demonstrate that God's law is written in their hearts for their own conscious, and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right. So when we think about the Holy Spirit and even what Paul is referring to, Paul stated that the law was written on the hearts of the Gentiles.

Walter:

So you had the Jews that were trying to adhere to the law based off of just memory and knowing the law, but you had the Gentiles that just automatically adhered to the law based off of it being a part of their subconscious, not their conscious.

Shanea:

You know what I hear when I read this again, For merely listening to the law doesn't make us right with God. It is obeying the law that makes us right in his sight. And what was coming to me is those who, like I said before, who use their theology or knowledge of the Bible to condemn other people. But they themselves are obeying every God's every command, and so it's merely listening or knowing the law. So you think about the Pharisees they knew the law, but they didn't obey it, they didn't walk in it Well.

Walter:

I think that is key right. It's not just about knowing the law, it's about obeying the law. But even the thing is this right it's also about your heart posture as you obey. Because the Gentiles, it's just, they didn't even know what the law was. They just lived righteously, based on the fact that they had the power of the Holy Spirit. So it wasn't that their actions made them right with God per se, it was more so, their heart posture.

Shanea:

Right Same. So, like after my conversion, I didn't read the Bible prior to. I didn't know a lot of things that was in the Bible, but the way that I moved, being led by the Holy Spirit, I didn't have to, I didn't have to physically know where in the Bible this says I needed to make these changes in my life. It just automatically happened.

Walter:

Yeah, because it's the power of the Spirit of God kind of guiding you. That's the whole law being written on your heart process, and so this is good, right. So the law being written on our hearts is not for external performance, but for an internal transformation that enables us to live righteously. And so and you just talked about this, right- yeah.

Walter:

True change comes through the power of the Holy Spirit, not by willpower or external rules, and that's the difference between the law being written on your heart versus you knowing the law and growing up being taught the law. It's relationship versus versus religion. Once again, like at the most basic form, is relationship versus religion.

Shanea:

And it's even worse that you know the law and don't follow it. Obey it.

Walter:

And so, by the power of the Holy Spirit we're talking about this and having an understanding of who Christ really is. We get to Romans 6, verse 12 through 20. So Romans 6, verse 12 through 20. And this is a lot, and I suggest people read everything. But it says Do not let sin control the way you live. Do not give in to sinful desires. Do not let any part of your body become an instrument of evil to serve sin. Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life, so use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God. Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of grace.

Walter:

Well then, since God's grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not. Don't you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. Thank God, once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. Now you are free from your slavery to sin and you have become slaves to righteous living Because of the weakness of your human nature. I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led even deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be so. This is so key, right, because what it tells us is that the justification that you utilize to sin is no longer justification. Grace was never given to you to give you the ability to live a life of sin. Grace was provided to give you the ability to be free from a life of sin by way.

Shanea:

By the power of the Holy.

Walter:

Spirit by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Shanea:

The only way you can defeat the enemy is through the power of God's Spirit the Holy Spirit, exactly. You can't fight against demonic entities without the power of the Holy Spirit.

Walter:

Yes, and that's so key that's important that we understand that. So, living by the spirit right, romans 8, 1 through 15. And once again, romans 8,. I would recommend you read all of this. But, babe, do you want to go ahead and read Romans 8?

Shanea:

Romans 8,. What 1 through 15?

Walter:

Yes.

Shanea:

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus, and because you belong to him, the power of the life-giving spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to Mm-hmm. In that body, god declared an end to sin's control over us by giving his son as a sacrifice for our sins. He did this so that the just requirements of the law would be fully satisfied for us who no longer follow our sinful nature, but instead follow the spirit. Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the holy spirit think about things that pleases the spirit. So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death, but letting the spirit control your mind leads to life and peace and we can stop there for time's sake, because this is a lot. Yeah.

Walter:

But I would definitely recommend everyone read all of this. But it really touches on this right here, right, and this is a beautiful thing. True, when you think of who Christ is, when you think of the gospel, when you think of the fact that you have people that are teaching the message of a false Christ.

Walter:

Mm-hmm what Christ literally. There's a lot of things that Christ did, but ultimately Christ is and we'll touch on this later on but his crucifixion, his death and his resurrection. It provided us the ability to be free from the power of sin. It is not there to give you an okay or say it's okay for you to sin, it's okay for you to do what you want to do. It's really there to allow us to be in a space to where you don't have to be under the control of your sinful nature, which your sinful nature is dictated by the prince of this world.

Walter:

It comes under the control of demons. We can call it whatever we want, and but it's it's you. Either you're being controlled by something and that's what paul was saying. You're either being controlled by the holy spirit, or driven or guided by the holy spirit, or you're being controlled or driven or guided by the prince of this world, the enemy, yeah, and everything that falls under him, the principalities, demons, all of that stuff rulers and that digs into lust, perversion, disc, uh, discord, uh, chaos, all of these different things yeah, um.

Shanea:

What was coming to me as we were reading was um um luke 9, 57 through 62, the cost of following Jesus. I think that a lot of times people misconstrue because you'd be using that word, the cost of following, of following christ and so when you don't have an understanding of what that looks like, you get a false christ yes you are following a false christ, because you don't know what following the real christ looks like, because everyone tells you it's okay for you to struggle with these things that you have been struggling with.

Shanea:

It's okay for you to struggle with these things that you have been struggling with. It's okay for you to still do things as the Romans do, the people in the world do. It's still it's okay for you to do all of those things. And it's like when you get really, truly, truly, really, truly, truly, truly, truly give your life to Christ. It is complete, total, utter surrender and the cost of following Jesus. Like Paul said and even Jesus gives a parable here, exactly saying what Paul said you have to leave everything.

Walter:

Yes.

Shanea:

You have to leave your former life. That means you have to leave your sinful nature, and your sinful nature could be your environment. You have to leave everything because those are decisions that you and the world made. Those are not decisions that you made with Jesus. You might have thought you were talking to Jesus, but you weren't really being led by Jesus. Jesus didn't lead you into this relationship. Jesus didn't lead you into that job. Jesus didn't lead you into this university. Jesus didn't lead you into a lot of areas in your life. And so when you think about the cost of following Jesus said that foxes have no dens to live in and birds have no nest, but the son of man has no place even to lay his head. And when I had read that, before the revelation came to me, was Jesus, he, he, following him? You don't know where you're going.

Walter:

No.

Shanea:

He goes where God tells him to go. You go where he tells you to go. That's why you don't have, you don't have a place, you don't really have a say. So like I can't buy this house because I want to buy this house and live here, I can't just live in Baltimore because I want to live in Baltimore, because I have to go where the spirit leads me.

Shanea:

Because foxes don't have any dens, they just live. And then when and this applies to me a lot is when the man said I want to follow you, but let me go bury my father first. And Jesus said no, you can't. If you want to follow me, Let the spiritually dead bury the dead, because you're dead to your former life, You're dead to your former self. You're dead to your customs.

Walter:

You're dead to your culture. You've taken upon the culture of Christ, the culture of the kingdom of God, and that's even Christ had to show the example of that with with Lazarus, you know, he had to show the example and he had to. Actually, in that moment, even though they wanted him to be there, he wanted to be there. He had to submit himself to the will of God, right Understanding that greater glory had to be shown.

Shanea:

Right and people don't really look at the characteristics of God and there there's things that God will tell you to do that doesn't make sense to other people. Just like in that instance, it didn't make sense for Jesus not to go and check on Lazarus' family. Even they probably were like why isn't he here? This doesn't even make any sense.

Walter:

But that's what comes with truly following Christ, and it all boils down to this. Anything outside of that is a false message, and so we have to look at it from this perspective, right, because we have two things being taught in the church. We have the church either teaching a gospel that emphasizes suffering, or the law is a way to righteousness. So there are those who believe that your suffering leads you to a more righteous life. Yeah.

Walter:

How much you suffer leads you to a more righteous life, or you following the law leads you to a more righteous life, right Rather than submission to Christ and sanctification, which is the true way to righteousness, which is a true way of having a closer relationship with Christ which is the true gospel.

Walter:

The true gospel is total submission to Christ by way of faith. It's total submission to christ. That means you pick up your cross and you follow him in every area, in every part of your life. Yeah, you submit it all to god. What were you about to say?

Shanea:

no, I was saying a lot of people, they. I just lost the word.

Walter:

Holy Spirit, help me.

Shanea:

They associate suffering with being Christian.

Walter:

Yeah.

Shanea:

They associate suffering with Christ, not literally with Christ, but they associate their suffering to Christianity.

Walter:

And while you do, in instances, suffer from being a Christian or a believer, once again we have to see what that entails.

Shanea:

We take this back to Peter.

Walter:

Yes. What type of suffering is it? Is it suffering because of your disobedience? Is it suffering because of decisions you've made? Is it suffering because of your sin? Or is it suffering because you're doing what Christ has called you to do? There's a distinct difference. There's a distinct difference. There's a distinct difference. Yet it's not your suffering that makes you righteous. It's your faith in Christ Jesus and submitting to him that makes you righteous. It's your submission to the Holy Spirit that makes you righteous. It's you picking up your cross and following him. It's you choosing to submit to the will of God so that he can guide you into a life that is more holy, consecrated and sanctified. And abundant.

Walter:

Exactly Because even Jesus submitted himself to the spirit of God when he was here in flesh form, which is why the scripture says that he was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the enemy and fast for 40 days and 40 nights. Jesus didn't go to the wilderness because he wanted to People who just want to fast, because you want to. He was led by the Spirit of God and he began to teach us the importance of being led by God in all we do. He always submitted himself to the Father.

Walter:

Yeah, once again right, because we're talking about false Christ and the dangers of false Christ. We have to understand right, that faith alone is not enough and there's a teaching that teaches that faith alone is enough and does not require a life of holiness, consecration and sanctification. I'm sorry, but that's wrong. It is not enough to just believe. We talked about last week the importance of faith and obedience, that faith without works is dead. Faith and obedience was still to submit to a life of consecration, was still to submit to a life of holiness, was still to submit to a life of sanctification. So this is a lot. This is a lot, and we touched on that before.

Walter:

Oh my gosh, I'm trying to get through all of this. It's a lot of good stuff. So this I think we was talking about this the other night, right, what was placed in my spirit is, when you create an idol out of Christ, like a false Christ, it literally can set you up to be more open to the Antichrist. Yeah, it literally leads you away from Christ and, unknowingly, it can lead you directly into the hands of the Antichrist Because you don't know Christ. Right.

Shanea:

You have no understanding of who Christ is and if you think you'll know who the Antichrist is when he comes, which you won't because the Bible says that you won't, because he comes directly from the church the only way you will know is through the Holy Spirit.

Walter:

You have to have discernment. And you have to already have a relationship with Christ.

Shanea:

Yes, Because if I never have a relationship with you, I don't really know who you are. I might, could have read about you, and but if I don't really know who you truly are, like what your characteristics are, and that's key is the fruit. That's why the Bible lets us know the fruit of the spirit. That is how you will know that that is, in fact, godly.

Walter:

And we have to remember that Christ did life with the disciples. They did life with him for three years. How can you gain an understanding of who Christ is if you're not doing life with him, which goes back to relationship? You have to do life with him. You have to do life with the Father.

Shanea:

You have to be married.

Walter:

You have to do life, you have to develop a relationship and you have to understand that it should consistently be leading you closer to Christ. It should be consistently leading you closer to the Father, and if it's leading you to closer to the Father, you will begin and we touched on this before. You will hate what the Father hates and you will love what the Father loves. And the Father is holy, he's sanctified, he's one that's for consecration being set apart. I'm sorry that that means your life won't look like everybody else.

Walter:

You can't do what everybody else does no.

Shanea:

And that is the suffering for Christ in.

Walter:

Christ.

Shanea:

Christ's name, because people will persecute you.

Walter:

Because you're not doing what they're doing, because you're not doing what they're doing. You're not bowing to King Nebuchadnezzar as everybody else is.

Walter:

No, you're not living in Babylon like everyone else, even as they're threatening to throw you into the fiery furnace, you still refuse to bow because you've submitted yourself to the Holy Spirit, you've submitted yourself to Christ, you've submitted yourself to the Father, and so I think this is so important right Now, as we wrap up, because we've touched on a lot and I think we're doing really great with time. What would you say to everyone, babe? What would you say to everyone, babe, matter of fact, is there anything else that you want to touch on?

Shanea:

um, no, I mean, we obviously can go deeper, but I think this is a good place to start. Yeah, for people who um are getting to know christ, wanting to know christ, the thing is is that you have to continue to keep seeking and reading and learning his voice so that you will know what the antichrist looks like and and don't get us wrong, the spirit of antichrist is already here yes the actual antichrist is currently being ushered in, but the spirit of antichrist is already here.

Shanea:

The actual Antichrist is currently being ushered in, but the spirit of Antichrist has been here since Christ. Yes, we see that with the Pharisees, that spirit is always here, directly tied to religion.

Walter:

Yes, it teaches a different version of Christ. It pulls you away from the true gospel. It pulls you away from who christ really is and what he's always called for us to live, or how he's always called for us to live our lives.

Walter:

That is what the antichrist is anything that does not look like the characteristics of christ is an antichrist but you have to understand when paul was touching on it and we read that in the scriptures, right they when he touched on those who was teaching a different christ, they were still teaching christ right, they were teaching a false christ exactly so I think this is so important because once again you just said that before and we've said this on multiple occasions you're looking for the antichrist to be the.

Walter:

Antichrist. So you're looking for an Elon Musk to be the Antichrist. Yeah. But you don't realize the Antichrist is coming directly from the church.

Shanea:

Right, it's going to look like Christ, walk like Christ, but it's not going to be Christ.

Walter:

They're going to misconstrue who Christ really is.

Shanea:

They're going to say this is who Christ is.

Walter:

Exactly.

Shanea:

Which they're already doing.

Walter:

It's already being set up.

Shanea:

It's already being done in the church. That's why, the things that we are teaching, people come to us and are like, are you teaching a different Christ? And I'm like, yeah, the one you learned was not the Christ, the Christ that I know, not the Christ who just delivered me.

Walter:

Not the Christ who died on the cross? For our sins.

Walter:

It's a different Christ. It's slightly misconstrued. It's not like they're going to like. Even when you look at Jesus not Jesus even when you look at Adam and Eve, when they dealt with the serpent, what did the serpent say? You won't surely die? He slightly twisted the word, even when he came up against Jesus, when he was tempting jesus in the wilderness. He's, he knows the word. Yes, he knew the word. That's why it says that the enemy will come as an angel of light, disguised as an angel of light. Yeah, so.

Walter:

So here's the thing it will look like, right what I would say is this really examine your lives and see if there's any areas in your life where you may have been following a false Christ or a message of a false Christ, or even if you've been attracted or drawn to leaders and teachers who teach a message that is not of Christ or is slightly different from the things of Christ, and if so, really pray on that and ask God to help you in those areas and we have to gain a better understanding of what grace is.

Walter:

We do, we have to gain a better understanding of what grace is and we've got to stop misconstruing it. In its simplest form, grace isn't there to allow you to continue on doing what you want to do. Grace is there and there's different versions of grace. But when we touch on sin, grace is there. For when you do make a mistake and fall short, grace is there to catch you and lift you back up, but grace is not there for you to continue to fall short. Grace, in its most powerful way, gives us the ability to be free from sin the power of sin.

Walter:

And so that's what I would say. That's what I would say, and I would also say we touch on this all the time it's so important that we submit every area and every part of our lives to God, to Christ. It's important that we surrender to him. So, babe, anything else you want to add before we recap? No, I don't have anything okay, so how about you do the recap, the key points there? Okay, I'm sorry, i'm'm hungry.

Walter:

It's fine, me too. Okay, so just to recap the dangers of following a false Christ and the importance of mind renewal and submission to the Holy Spirit.

Shanea:

So, recapping what we touched on is the dangers of following the false christ, the importance of having our mind renewed and the importance of submitting everything we have to the holy spirit. Oh, that's how you wanted me to say that yes? Oh well, I didn't write it.

Walter:

So it's fine and it's important that we understand that there has to be a true transformation and that transformation is found by way of Christ, but that is actually evident through a changed life, not just you saying that you are a Christian. That's not enough. I'm sorry. That's not going to be what leads you into heaven. That's not going to be what leads you into heaven. When you truly experience and encounter Christ. You can never go back to the way that you lived before.

Shanea:

No.

Walter:

It's impossible to do that.

Shanea:

Even if you try, you will go through so much hell.

Walter:

You will so examine your relationship with God, examine your relationship with Christ, and please learn the importance of truly living by the power of the Holy Spirit, and that it's not just about signs and wonders, but it's what really allows you to live a life that's been transformed.

Shanea:

Yeah, it's having peace.

Walter:

Yes.

Shanea:

Literally peace, grace and peace. I don't even know how to explain it, because once you stop doing the things that you used to do, you don't really want to go back, because you didn't really have peace.

Walter:

Well, the Bible calls it this. It says it's peace that surpasses all understanding. Right, I can't even explain the peace and that doesn't mean that you won't have trials and tribulations, no, that doesn't mean that there won't be challenges, tribulations? No, that doesn't mean that there won't be challenges, but the thing is that you can't go back.

Shanea:

No, because the peace comes from knowing that you aren't your own boss, you aren't your own God, and that you have this huge support system. You have a kingdom of support system system, you have a whole system of support yeah, I think, and that is that, that that brings me peace I think simply put the song comes to mind.

Walter:

It is well in your soul. Yeah, it becomes well, yeah, it well. As you deal with everything you deal with, it becomes well. You learn to let go and say God, this is yours. Yeah. I'm submitted to you in every area of my life.

Shanea:

Because, as long as you're in God's perfect will, there's provision, and that provision brings you peace because you're not doing anything outside of what god's already called you to do. Therefore, the enemy doesn't have any legal rights to take from you or um disrupt what god already promised you yet even if he does, you can become he will try you can become, even if he does.

Walter:

you can become like like Nebuchadnezzar I'm not Nebuchadnezzar. You can come up like Shadrach, meshach and Abednego, with King Nebuchadnezzar. Yeah. What he said to him, that we believe our God will save us. But even if he does not, we still won't bend our knees and worship you. We still won't bow to you. That's the place that you want to get at, that's where you want to be. That's peace that surpasses all understanding, that I believe my father would save me. But even if he don't, I still submit to him.

Shanea:

And that power is your weapon.

Walter:

Yes, yes.

Shanea:

So, babe, you want to end this out with what comments, all that stuff well, we thank you guys for listening and tuning in with us. Um, hopefully this has been a blessing to you. If it has, please share it with others. Um, yeah, that's really it. I don't have anything else? I just comment, I just want you guys to um, if you can, you know, share um some of your testimonies or share how your walk with god has been, since you've been listening to this podcast.

Walter:

Um, yeah yeah, and hopefully it's been a blessing. Uh, this is all about him. This is not our podcast.

Shanea:

We say it all the time, so carefully I also want to shout out to um the followers who, like, have been with us since day one, who have consistently been posting. We can't repost anything because it's not our podcast.

Walter:

He won't let us.

Shanea:

He won't let us, if we could, we would so we really do appreciate you all for your repost and your comments and we really do appreciate it and I wish we could show you more love.

Walter:

There's one specifically that comes to mind.

Shanea:

Our name is Leah. I think it was Leah, okay. Leah something I don't have it right here, but.

Walter:

We see you, and then there's another girl. We see you all and we appreciate you.

Shanea:

Yes, we see you all, we do, we do.

Walter:

So that is it. That's the end of this week's episode. We will see you all next week. Be blessed and goodbye.