Stepping In Faith
Stepping In Faith is a podcast that deepens your walk with Jesus each week by exploring the heart of faith, love, and relationships from a Spirit-led perspective. Each episode focuses on building intimate relationships with Jesus Christ, strengthening marriages, providing guidance for singles, and fostering healthy, God-centered connections.
Stepping In Faith
God's Sent vs. Distractions
The spiritual battlefield of our hearts is often fought not between obvious good and evil, but between God's perfect will and seemingly good alternatives that lead us astray. In this powerful exploration of discernment, Walter and Shanea tackle the subtle difference between divine appointments and dangerous distractions.
When the Oxford Dictionary defines distraction as "a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else," it perfectly captures how even good things can pull us away from God's purpose. The hosts carefully distinguish between what God sends versus what merely distracts, revealing how our unhealed traumas create a distorted lens through which we view potential relationships, career choices, and life decisions.
Perhaps most challenging is the revelation that the enemy's greatest desire isn't to prevent marriage altogether but to prevent us from entering God-ordained marriages. "The most dangerous distractions are those that seem perfectly fine," Walter notes, challenging listeners to examine whether their comfortable relationships might actually be keeping them from God's best. Shanea adds that "your trauma will make decisions for you that you don't even realize," highlighting how childhood wounds unconsciously drive adult choices.
The solution, they explain, lies in healing, renewed mental frameworks, and complete submission to God's timing—even when it means facing difficult truths about our current situations. For those wrestling with important life decisions, this episode offers both compassionate understanding and courageous challenge to pursue God's perfect will above all else.
Ready to dive deeper? 🎧 Join us on YouTube for the full video podcast where we explore faith, love, and relationships through a Christian lens. Whether married, single, or seeking spiritual growth, our episodes offer practical advice and profound insights to strengthen your walk with Jesus. Don’t forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you never miss a powerful episode. Let’s grow together in faith and purpose!
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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 relationship you have with others. I'm your host, walter. I'm joined here alongside my lovely wife.
Shanea:Shanea.
Walter:This is episode 15, right, let me adjust this.
Shanea:I guess so Is it.
Walter:Yes, 15. 15 episodes, I guess. So Is it? Yes, 15. 15 episodes, wow, okay. So I guess the first thing we can do is open it up with prayer. You prayed last time, right? Mm-hmm.
Walter:All right. Father, god, as we come before you this afternoon, we thank you for your love, your mercy and your grace. We thank you, father, that you are in full control. We submit to you, we surrender to you, we yield to you and ask that your spirit will guide us. Allow your spirit to lead us in all that we do. Holy Spirit, we yield to you. We thank you for your presence flowing through. We thank you for your glory falling down like never before and allow this podcast episode to reach those that you've called for it to reach. Open their ears, their spiritual ears, open their spiritual eyes to hear and see what it is that you have to say. Father, we thank you even now for everything you've done and everything you're going to continue to do, and it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen.
Walter:Okay, so we say this every episode. We are believers, right? Yes. We say this every time, so we're going to say it again we are believers, believers, believers, believers, and in this week's episode, the title is God Sent Versus Distractions. God Sent Versus.
Shanea:Distractions Okay.
Walter:I don't know what I was doing when it came, but it came, was it last week? Yeah, you didn't even tell me. No, it was when we was up super late and I woke up and God just started speaking to me.
Walter:And I started writing everything down. So, yeah, I did not tell you my bad, but I think we had fell asleep. We woke up, you was in here either reading your Bible or praying or something, and I was in there, the bedroom. God just began to speak to me about distractions and it just went from.
Shanea:There.
Walter:Okay, so God sent versus distractions and it became something I didn't think it would become. What do you think of when you think of that, without looking at the notes?
Shanea:God sent versus distractions without looking at the notes God sent versus distractions. Well, at first I thought you were talking about, you know, like relationships like when we're talking about counterfeits and how God can send you something and the devil can send you something, but when he sends you something it's to distract you or to get you off of the pathway of God's perfect will for you.
Walter:So yeah, it's just. I think this episode we're digging more into distractions. I guess you could counterfeit.
Shanea:You mean distractions like like tedious, being busy Like tedious?
Walter:being busy, Distractions like we don't think of, whether it be relationships or whatever the case may be. It distracts you away from what it is. The Bible talks about having a sober mind, so it moves you away so.
Shanea:I guess it could be, seen as a counterfeit, but we're digging more into the distraction of it because you said god sent yes versus distractions right.
Walter:So if it's not god sent, then it's a distraction or a counterfeit, but let's dig into it. So, um, I was looking up what distraction meant the Oxford Dictionary, right, and it says a thing that prevents someone from giving full attention to something else, and extreme agitation of the mind or emotions. So the biggest thing with distractions it shifts our focus, like even when we think of, like, if you're watching tv a lot, if you're playing your game a lot and you have things to do, your focus shifts because all you're thinking about is what you're doing outside of what you're supposed to, and so the thing about that is agitation.
Shanea:Agitation.
Walter:I didn't look that up. The agitation is a state of anxiety or nervous excitement, the action of briskly stirring or disturbing something, especially a liquid. But we'll look at that anxiety or nervousness. So when you think of distractions, it put us in a situation where we're just constantly going, going, going, going, going.
Walter:Your mind is consistently going, and your mind is so important because, of course, that's how you interpret what God speaks to you what God gives to you, what God speaks to you, what God gives to you, and so, when we think of distractions, the biggest thing about it is that it can cause us to lose track of our purpose, and assignment from God.
Walter:And so, or it is shift our attention and make us react impulsively rather than patiently waiting on God's timing. So when you think about distraction, distraction digs into seasons. When you're distracted, you aren't able to properly understand the seasons and how God operates in seasons. We think about Jesus. Jesus was moving, always having an understanding of timing. He never moved before his timing. He never allowed his emotions or his feelings to get him into a position of moving before his timings, his time. So what do you think about that?
Shanea:I think that, um, the the purpose of the enemy keeping you distracted is to, yeah, lose track of time. I mean, when you get distracted when you're supposed to be doing something, what do you do? You lose track of time.
Walter:Time flies.
Shanea:Yeah, so like I can want to clean the house all day, or like I have plans to clean the house, clean this room, do the laundry, but if I'm on my phone I'm being distracted and I If you're scrolling on Pinterest, yeah, don't put my business on like that.
Walter:Well, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to convict you.
Shanea:No, there's no conviction. I mean, I scroll on Pinterest so that I can find recipes to cook you dinner, so-. I'm just saying distraction, but yeah, but anyway it's a distraction, so like I lose an hour or two or three that day? Yeah, depend not. I mean not like in a row, but sometimes maybe, yes, in a row. But that's anybody or you like. You know, when you scroll on youtube looking at camera stuff well, we use the camera stuff. Uh-huh.
Walter:But yeah.
Shanea:So we lose track of time.
Walter:So it causes delay. It does, and that's the enemy's desire. And we're looking at it from the perspective of just stuff that you do on a day-to-day basis. We're not looking at it from you making a decision to be with someone, or you making a decision to choose a particular career path, or you making a decision to choose a particular career path or live in a particular area that God hasn't called for you to live, and how that can be negatively impactful.
Shanea:No, seriously, because you'll be in a relationship or in a job for X amount of years and then when you get out of it you're like dang, I wasted my time exactly.
Walter:So I have one here, john 11. Right, because we are we're trying to gain an understanding of everything happening in god's timing, and so the the thing that we have to understand in Genesis 1 shows us this right. The Bible says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and we talked about this before and it's right there in front of us. It says and I'm in an NIV, let me go to NLT it says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty and the darkness covered the deep waters.
Walter:It says so. The biggest thing and this is something that God was dealing with me on before is that when we think of time, god created time to maintain this universe. Because of the to maintain this universe, this entire universe that we have, it's held up by time, it's all held up by time, and so God created time to maintain this universe. Yet we already know God exists outside of time, he exists outside of, he exists in eternity. So there's no time. He sees everything as it is. He sees the beginning and the end and the middle, all at the same time. He sees all of the different ops.
Walter:It'd be almost like a superhero movie. I think U-verse is a prime example or not encouraging people to look at Dr Strange, but Dr Strange actually is a better example because there's so many different alternate options realms and so many different things happening within all of those different realms.
Shanea:Right, but they're all happening at the same exact time, but in different times. So past, present, future or different dimensions, and they're all happening at the same time.
Walter:So God sees eternity as it all, just being so with Jesus. Jesus operated within this time frame as well, as he operated in both. He operated within eternity.
Walter:in this he understood how to operate in both, which is something that we have to seek out. Learning to do is operate in both in eternity and within this timeframe. Of course, that's only by the power of God, the guidance of the Holy Spirit. So I have on here the story of Lazarus, right, and when we look at, I think that's John 11, it's a lot here. Read it. We read this before.
Walter:Jesus heard about Lazarus being sick, right, verse 4 says but when Jesus heard about it he said Lazarus' sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God, so that the Son of God will receive glory from this. So although Jesus loved Martha, mary and Lazarus, he stayed there. He stayed where he was for the next two days. Finally, he said to the disciples let's go back to Judea, further down. He said verse 9,.
Walter:Jesus replied there are 12 hours of daylight every day. During the day people can walk safely, they can see because they have the light of this world, but at night there is a danger of stumbling because they have no light. Then he said verse 11, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but now I will go and wake him up. And so you read this entire story. Jesus knew what happened to Lazarus. He knew he was sick. He could have went and healed him, but he stated no, I can't go and do that, because it's a greater glory that God wants to receive from this, so he has to die. It's a greater glory that.
Walter:God wants to receive from this, so he has to die. And so this is an example of Jesus understanding time.
Walter:This is an example of Jesus operating within eternity and within, was struggling with the fact that Lazarus was sick, and he grieved over the fact that Lazarus was sick as well. The point that this is making right. Jesus understood, of course, both the internal perspective and the timing within the present moment, and so this comes from an intimacy with God. There was a level of intimacy that Jesus had that, even though his flesh wanted to do something different, he still submitted himself to the will of God. He still submitted himself to saying I know that God is going to heal Lazarus. Yes, I know God is going to heal Lazarus. Yet I understand that I have to wait on God. Yeah, I can't make this happen when I want it to happen. Yeah.
Walter:I have to allow God's perfect will to be carried out. And so I think a lot of times with us when we think of distractions we've talked about this so many times in so many different episodes the greatest things that distraction does, or the greatest thing that it does, is put us in a position of trying to rush God. And when you try to rush God, that's when you get caught up and get set up with quote unquote a counterfeit.
Shanea:Well, I don't even think it's even rushing God, it's. You want what you want. You want it because the world tells you that you can have it.
Walter:But it's also rushing him because he's going to give it to you and you know it's there for you, right?
Shanea:I mean, as long as you know what his perfect will is for you.
Walter:Yeah, well, I mean in the context of marriage. We know that.
Shanea:God has called us to be married. Yeah, we know. God has called us to be married.
Walter:Yes, we know that God has called for us to work somewhere.
Shanea:Yes.
Walter:We know that God has called for us to live somewhere. We know that God called you to be a multimillionaire, whether he's called you not to be one, whether he's called you to live in a quote unquote mansion estate or a regular house or apartment or condo, we know these things are the case.
Shanea:But if you don't ask God, he's not going to tell you.
Walter:And even when you do ask, sometimes you rush it or you go and do what you want to do because you want it right then and there.
Shanea:Yeah, because you know. The bible says you know, a man who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the lord. But you have to wait on god to help you find that wife. You can't just go out and do it on your own.
Walter:Exactly galatians 5 and 25. So here's the challenge, right? We don't understand that. We talked about obedience. We discussed obedience so many Exactly Galatians 5 and 25. So here's the challenge, right? We don't understand it. We talked about obedience, we discussed obedience so many times. Obedience is submitting to God's plan, even when it contradicts our desires, emotions or understanding. The way that you don't allow yourself to succumb to distractions is by once again again dying to self. Jesus showed the example of this with Lazarus.
Shanea:Yeah, he wanted to go. Yes, that was his friend. He loved Lazarus.
Walter:Yes, the Bible says that he loved him. He wanted to be there, but he knew he could not, even though he knew that Lazarus was going to die and it was going to cause a great amount of suffering to lazarus sisters yeah, and the relationship between him and his sisters, because they're looking at it like, okay, you're jesus, you're healing everybody else yeah why weren't you here for your friend?
Shanea:yeah, you're like family. Why weren't you here? Do you not care?
Walter:and so I think, when we think of distractions, or even when we're looking at obedience, right that's I think that's one of the biggest issues that we struggle with, what if you desire to be married, you're 30. You're a woman, you know you have a certain time period, technically, where you want to be, you want to have a child. No prospects are coming. How obedient are you going to be in submitting to the timing of God, understanding that he knows what's right, or even as a man?
Shanea:It's hard because you have people telling you that you are on a time crunch. You also have telling people that you know something must be wrong with you because you're not married.
Walter:Or you're getting old.
Shanea:Or you don't have any children, or something must be wrong with you.
Walter:Yeah, and these are some of the things that we struggle with Must be wrong with you. Yeah, and these are some of the things that we struggle with. These are even within your career options. Not submitting it to God and just knowing for men. I know we struggle with providing resources, so the biggest thing that we look at when we're going to look for a career path is what is going to bring us the most money, not what is it that God has called us to what's going to make us the most financially secure?
Walter:What if God has called you to a life of challenges? What if God don't want you to be as wealthy as you thought you should be or think you should be, or as wealthy as society says you should be?
Shanea:Or he doesn't want you wealthy until you're like 40, 50 years old.
Walter:Exactly, and now you have to struggle with the fact of understanding that, and so these are the things that we deal with.
Shanea:Yeah.
Walter:Yet I want to get into this right the role of trauma and past hurt and distractions.
Speaker 3:Mm, hmm, the role of trauma and past, hurt and distractions.
Walter:So a lot of times trauma will distort our perception of God's will for our lives. Childhood trauma, trauma from relationships. What it does is it distorts your lens, it distorts how you look at life, it distorts how you view life. What are your thoughts on that?
Shanea:life. What are your thoughts on that? I believe that it distorts you your perception of what choices and decisions you should be making for yourself, which means you make those decisions for yourself based off of your experiences. So it's like I'm not really gonna go to god and ask, because this has already happened. So I know like, in order for this not to happen again, I gotta do this, or I gotta do this, or got to be in a certain place.
Walter:Oh, once again it makes you impulsive.
Shanea:Yeah.
Walter:And when you become impulsive, you become. You get into a place where you're making decisions that aren't aligned with God or his will, and you turn blessings into distractions.
Shanea:Yeah Well, the enemy likes to keep you in your past, Even when you convert over to this new life that God has promised you, that Jesus has promised you, even if, as your new conversion as a believer, the enemy will try to get you to think about your past, shame you so that you don't even make decisions that God wants you to make. You know, share your testimony? No, I can't, because this happened to me in my past.
Walter:You become fearful. Yeah, you become very fearful.
Shanea:No, I don't want to get married, because I already did that before or because I saw what my, my family went through. Right my parents went through a marriage so he can, through your trauma, deter you from god's purpose, because he altered what god's original plan and intent was. So a lot of people don't want to get married because they see what people have gone through in their marriages.
Walter:Or he can put you into a situation where you get into this place where you don't want to submit to God because you don't realize it, but you have mommy and daddy issues and so you don't know how to submit that and you start making decisions on your own, putting yourself directly in the same situation that you grew up in.
Shanea:Or you have church hurt. You have church hurt and you associated the people with the church, with the characteristics of God.
Walter:Yeah.
Shanea:And then you don't submit to him at all.
Walter:That's true.
Shanea:And completely puts you out of God's plan for your life, your purpose. Everything just kind of just goes out of the window Because you are reminded, staying in your past, from the enemy, reminded of things that happened to you.
Walter:These are all serious issues that we deal with, which is why, once again, we have to go through the process of being healed. And renewing our mind and renewing our mind and the scripture. That comes to me right, or that what came to mind when all of this stuff was kind of being written down John 14 and 30. Do you want to read that NLT?
Shanea:If you already have it pulled up, go ahead.
Walter:So Jesus said I don't have much more time to talk with you or talk to you, because the ruler of this world approaches. He has no power over me, but I would do what the father requires of me so that the world would know that I love the father. Come, let's be going. We touched on this before. Yeah, jesus said he had no power over him. The reason why it's so important that we go through the process of healing from our past wounds, being set free and delivered, is so that when the enemy comes, he has nothing that he can find in you. Other translation says that he had nothing that he could find in Jesus. There was nothing he could find in him.
Shanea:Yeah, so that the enemy won't use your past hurt to either shame you or fear you.
Walter:Hold you in bondage.
Shanea:Yeah, out of doing what God called you to do because you're fearful or because you're shameful, and so digging further into this right Out of doing what God called you to do because you're fearful or because you're shameful, you know?
Walter:And so digging further into this right.
Walter:Samson we don't have time to read it, but Judges 13 through 16. What people don't and God used it but what people don't realize is that we knew that God had already made Samson's mother aware and Samson's father that Samson was to be set apart. He couldn't eat certain things, he couldn't do certain things because he was holy and he could never cut his hair. The strength of God lied within the hair, but it was a covenant that God made. As long as no one ever cut his hair, Samson would be extremely strong, and so that covenant is what kind of kept that power in place, their obedience to that said covenant.
Walter:We all talk about Delilah, but we don't talk about the fact that Samson got married prior to Delilah and there was a woman that he was taking to be his wife. Let me see, we'll go there. It's Judges 13. There was a woman that he initially met that he wanted to be his wife with Saul, and he talked to his family, or his mother and his father, about her being his wife. They made him aware that she was unclean because she was a Philistine, and he did not want to listen.
Walter:He wanted to do what he wanted to do, and so he pressed them for her to be his wife. Yet what ended up happening is they used that the ph encourage him to share his secret. He shared his secret with her because she kept nagging him. They used that against him to basically solve his riddle, and he ended up destroying the man.
Shanea:Well, he figured it out. He didn't tell them what happened.
Walter:He didn't, he didn't tell them right no, he tricked them he knew, like he knew, it was a setup he knew it was a setup, but he did still tell her. Oh, he did tell her, and so he told her what it was and he figured out, once they knew because it was no way that they could have ever solved the riddle outside of them finding out from her and he, he approached them about it and he destroyed them. But the thing that we saw was the same thing take place with Delilah. Well, they did the same thing, they. The only difference is with the young lady. They were telling her that they was going to destroy her entire family, burn everything up if she didn't help them Delilah. They offered to pay Delilah. And so the reason that's so important and you can go and read it, everyone can go read it.
Walter:Judges 13, chapter 13 through chapter 16. The thing that I wanted to focus on there and what was coming to me is how Samson's comfort with deception, beginning with his first wife right and then Delilah, was a major distraction. His own fleshly desires led him to disregard God's purpose, which led to his downfall. So sometimes with us, we don't realize that we fall into a pattern and the enemy would use that very pattern to keep us in bondage or destroy us.
Walter:There was a pattern that Samson had. First of all, it started because Samson was disobedient to God. He was never supposed to marry the first young lady. He wasn't even supposed to be looking her way like that. His parents tried to forewarn him even though god utilized it as a way to get him to destroy the philistines, he still was disobedient to god original covenant for him yeah, well, samson, he had a, he had a lust problem heavily because he like.
Walter:No matter what his mom and dad said. He said I don't care what you say, I have to have this woman no, he want what he want.
Shanea:I mean he even slept with a prostitute.
Walter:Yeah, after this and so I think this is so important. Right and people may not like this. We have to be careful not to let comfort with the wrong person become a distraction for God's design. Mm-hmm.
Shanea:Yeah, because that's all it was Well, and it's feeding your sinful nature, your natural desires to become a distraction. Mm-hmm your natural desires to become a distraction. So your desire for attention, your desire for love, your desire for pretty much almost anything, money will keep you distracted from what God has called you to do, or from what he's trying to show you.
Walter:And the greatest thing is this right here, we don't realize that when doing so right, we don't realize that when doing so right um suddenly for the wrong person or the wrong relationship can cause us to miss out on god's true will for our lives. It can call. It calls us to abort assignments that god had given to us, that he wanted us to complete.
Shanea:Or delay.
Walter:Or delay those set assignments. And I think I have this in here and we talked about this before the greatest deception of the enemy is making us think that his greatest desire is for us not to get married. It's false. It's not his greatest desire for us not to get married. It's false. It's not his greatest desire for us not to get married. His greatest desire is for us to not get married to whom God called for us to be with.
Shanea:Right, because people always say Satan hates marriages and it's like he don't hate marriages, he hates God, he hates humans in general.
Walter:But he hates God-ordained marriages, right, because when you have a God-ordained marriage, it takes it back to the beginning, when the Bible told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply. So he wanted them to create other people like them, children like them that worshiped and walked in close in community with God Right, they had an intimate relationship with God. Right. Create children that learn how to love me, do life with me, walk with me and move the way I've called you to move and populate the earth with that.
Shanea:Right, he doesn't want more population of godly people, of chosen people.
Walter:Yes, because it's a direct slap in his face, because he despises how much god loves us. And so that's the challenge that we deal with, because we think, oh, I got married. The enemy don't want me to get married, so I'm blessed. Now you might be in a situation in many cases, you are in marriages that God never designed so you are in a situation where you're walking in disobedience to God, exactly what the enemy wants you to be yeah, or you think that your attack on your marriage is from the enemy, when in fact it's not.
Shanea:It's just the consequences of your actions well, the challenge becomes right.
Walter:We get into relationships and marriages. It's so easy to know that a marriage is not of God when you are dealing with this person who's being abusive to you, who's mistreating you, who's cheating on you and all of these things. The greatest challenge is what about those marriages where everything seems fine? Right marriage is where everything seems fine, right. What about those marriages that you're in where there's no problems outside of like normal?
Shanea:disagreements. No, but you're not walking your purpose. You're still trying to find your identity.
Walter:Yeah, and you never submitted it to God. You never came to God and said God, is this where you want me to be? And there's a bunch of marriages out there where people are just kind of living and being comfortable in not truly knowing who God has called them to be doing what God has called them to do, and they're not submitted.
Shanea:You're content with the behavior of your partner and now you're fine. Your relationship's fine. It was rocky in the beginning, but now it's fine because you have settled for their behavior.
Walter:They're not going to like that. They're not going to like that. But you have to really look at this and understand that the greatest thing that the enemy can do is get you outside of the perfect will of God. And if God would send a Delilah to Samson, why would I mean not God? If the enemy would send a Delilah to Samson, why would the enemy not send you one, a male version or a female version of Delilah?
Shanea:Well, that's because I'm in Christ, no weapon formed against me shall prosper.
Walter:By all accounts, Samson was raised up to submit to God.
Shanea:He was.
Walter:That don't mean anything.
Shanea:Samson was, by all accounts, a believer. Yes, he was, he was a believer.
Walter:You have the Holy Spirit, yet it still doesn't stop the fact that you still do what you want to do, because you have a choice, right exactly. God don't force himself on you.
Shanea:Right, and God's not going to stop what's going to happen, because you chose to do it.
Walter:So why do you think that you are free, or there is this freedom that you don't have to worry about a Delilah being sent your way? Delilah, by the time she was finished, the Philistines used her to cause I mean, at the end of the day, she caused Samson to fall out of covenant with God, which took away the anointing that was on Samson's life, the grace, the glory that was upon his life. Samson ended up being blinded and chained and in bondage. He ended up becoming weak. This man that was great, doing the things of God, all of that was taken away just like that, simply because he decided to accept a Delilah in his life.
Walter:And that came from the fact that Samson didn't deal with the issues that was already there that set him up in such a way. Samson didn't deal with the sin that was knocking at his door, as Jesus told Cain in the beginning. He didn't deal with this fact. The sin was right there at his door. It started with the young lady that he saw that he wanted to marry. It only grew into a point to where they ended up destroying them and, even though Samson eventually grew his hair back, asked God for one last time to destroy the Philistines and he did. Samson also still ended up losing his life. He died blind. He did take out quite a few Philistines.
Shanea:Yeah, he did.
Walter:But still he didn't go out the way that God called him to go out.
Shanea:No, I mean God still used him.
Walter:He did use him.
Shanea:But Samson had to deal with the consequences.
Walter:Yes.
Shanea:Of his actions.
Walter:Yes.
Shanea:So just because you get into a relationship and people say, well, god can turn anything around and turn it around for his good, yes, he can use your situation for good, but that doesn't mean you're blessed.
Walter:At the end of the day.
Shanea:That very much means that you're still going to deal with the consequences.
Walter:At the end of the day, we have to understand this. There is no way around looking at it from the perspective that if you are somewhere God has not called you to be, you are in direct disobedience to God.
Shanea:And even after your conversion and you say you know what I'm going to give my life to Christ, you still got to deal with those consequences of the decisions that you made prior to walking in the light again.
Walter:And you have to ask God, god, am I? You got to take that to God, something that we don't want to do, because the church speaks against divorce. Right, and I get it, and there's going to be people that's going to spew me down with this or argue me down. It is what it is. Yet, when you think of divorce, when Jesus was referring to divorce, he was referring to in the context. He said what God put together what.
Walter:God put together, not what man has placed together. This has nothing to do with the covenants you made, which is why we consistently try to encourage people stop making covenants outside of God. We got to get back to understanding that marriage is something that's very serious, that you don't walk into lightly, that you don't walk into prior to having a relationship with God. You need to know without a shadow of a doubt that you are where God has called for you to be, that this person is whom God has called for you to be with. If you don't have a relationship with God, you just got to deal with the consequences.
Shanea:Yeah, because marriage is not just about you and your husband.
Walter:No.
Shanea:And your kids. It's about your kids' kids and your kids after that.
Walter:Generations to come.
Shanea:We're talking about generations of people.
Walter:And.
Shanea:A whole bloodline.
Walter:I think it's just ultimately because this, let's make this clear this is for believers. This is not for people in the world, Unless you have a tug in your heart of coming to God. And if you do everything when you come to God, you have to submit everything to God. Jesus told the rich young ruler. You have to sell everything you have, Give it to the poor and follow me. You literally have to die to self. The problem that we have in this society is that people don't want to die to self.
Shanea:That's why they become so distracted because you don't want to die to your own self well, I think your own desires world, and they could be in the world and not in the world at the same time.
Walter:Well see, we got to really touch on this right, Because you have to understand the most challenging distractions, that we have to be careful with, distractions that we don't recognize as distractions, because it seems okay.
Walter:That's not just in marriage, that's in ministry, that's in your business, that's in your finances, that's everything because it seems okay. But is it a distraction? Is it pulling you away from God? Is it pulling you away from the will of God? Is it pulling you away from the will of God for your life, god's purpose for your life? We have to dig into this and understand that the most dangerous distractions are those that seems perfectly put Like there's no problem, we got no issues.
Shanea:But I never submitted this to God, I just did what I wanted to do. Well, I think the thing that the dangerous thing is that distractions could be exactly what god called you to so before it's time yeah, before it's time. Um so, yes, you know god wants you to get married, but now you got married to somebody without consulting with God first. That's a distraction, or you got married to the person.
Walter:God called you to get married to, but you got married to them before time. Yeah, that's a distraction. It can still become a distraction because you are outside the timing, the will of God. God wanted Lazarus healed. Yeah. If Jesus would have went prior to God telling him to go, that's still disobedience.
Shanea:Yeah, and I mean his glory wouldn't have been shown.
Walter:No, it would have acted as a distraction towards the will of God for Lazarus life and for that situation. So we also have to be careful with being in situations where you've moved before God, whether that be in your marriage, your career, your ministry. So we also have to be careful with being in situations where you've moved before god, whether that be in your marriage, your career, your ministry, right or you got a prophecy.
Shanea:You know you're a prophet and god's called you to start going out and prophesying god's called you to ministry, but you started before he called you to go, and so now you're. You're moving outside of his will, doing things on your own, and now you got to maintain it on your own actually so, sometimes even in marriages.
Shanea:people get into marriages before God has called them with the people that God has called them to be, and they go through hell yeah, you're trying to maintain something that either wasn't the time for you to start or you weren't called to that marriage at all. But you're trying to maintain it on your own, and the way that you do that is listening to people in the world doing what people in the world do, or listening to people in the church that don't know God, that don't have a relationship with God Because they listen to people in the world.
Walter:Yeah.
Shanea:When it comes to relationships.
Walter:We have to get back to the basics. We talk about this all the time, and so here's the thing, right, and I think is this scripture in here Because I think it's so important? Yes, so we talked about 1 Peter 5 and 8. 1 Peter 5 and 8. And I don't think the other scripture I want to look at is in here too. 1 Peter 5 and 8. And I don't think the other scripture I want to look at is in here too. 1 Peter 5 and 8. 1 Peter 5 and 8, it says and this is NIV it says be alert and of sober mind.
Walter:Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. The greatest thing with distractions is it places us in a place where we can't recognize the attacks or schemes or plans of the enemy. We can't even hear from God when God is trying to forewarn us. You know, even in our situation I know for me specifically, the last situation I was in God tried to forewarn me on multiple occasions from so many different people.
Shanea:He didn't try Stop.
Walter:He did. He even used my pastor at the time to say bruh, bruh, don't do this, this ain't it. I can't even do this with y'all Don't. And so, as I look back on all of that, I'm like God, you were so good because you kept trying to forewarn me and I didn't listen. Whether it be the unction in my spirit, whether it be that what people would say, a bad feeling or don't have like a peace about it, just a concern and just knowing that this is not something that should be done.
Shanea:Right, or you're thinking about things that's going to happen in the future based off of what's happening right now in the present.
Walter:Yeah, and so that's why it's so important. But my trauma, my lack of healing, the demonic forces I had that was within me was literally working against God trying to keep me and save me. Yeah. Because I didn't have a sober mind. I was distracted by so many other things that I walked myself right into something that negatively impacted my life.
Shanea:Or kept yourself distracted from dealing with what it is that was actually going on which was even more of a distraction.
Walter:It took time, it took all of these things.
Walter:It created all of these other issues that could have been avoided if I would have just been in a different space to really hear God, which is why we tell you all it's important that you be in that space. This is why it's so important that you have this relationship with God. This is why it's so important that you clear everything out when you're making major decisions like this. When you have a desire, hey, let that be submitted to God. If you feel like you're focusing so much on getting married and all of those things, you need to take a step back. That shouldn't be your focus. Your focus should be your relationship with God.
Shanea:Right and healing.
Walter:Because it's very dangerous. The enemy, he will mess your life up. He will mess your life up, and so I think there's a few mentions here. Right, there's because there's power in living the distracted free or a distraction free or distracted.
Shanea:Is it Distraction?
Walter:Distraction free, a distraction free life. So there's a few things we have here. Right, we have John 2, 1 through 4. That's when Jesus turned the water into wine through four.
Walter:That's when Jesus turned the water into wine and specifically within that scripture, he made mention to his mother that it wasn't his time yet, once again showcasing that Jesus understood seasons. He understood how to operate within this time constraint as well as within eternity. That's first. We have john 7, 25 through 30. Uh, they wanted to kill jesus, but they couldn't because it wasn't his time yet right and so the point that it was making is that there's divine protection despite opposition.
Walter:When operating in a distraction-free life, you automatically have divine protection because you're where God has called you to be, when God has called you to be there, and nothing is hindering your focus from the assignment. Jesus was operating within the assignment. Right.
Walter:Jesus was operating within the assignment, so there was a particular moment in time that he did have to leave. He did have to go through the crucifixion, the death the burial and the resurrection. He had to fulfill a prophecy, but because of where he was in God, his relationship in God, his understanding of time, his understanding of living life in such a way where he was completely submitted to the Father, obedient, not allowing anything to distract him, even when Peter was like coming at him.
Shanea:I don't want you to die on the cross.
Walter:Get thee behind me, Satan. Yes.
Shanea:Even though and people will look at that's innocent Peter just didn't want him to die. But at the end of the day, peter was used as a distraction. How many people do you have in your life saying, no, don't do that, I don't want you to do that, that's not going to be good for you. I don't think that's a good idea. And you're like you know what. You're right it's probably not a good idea.
Walter:And it messes you up. Right. Because once again, let me say this again, there's divine protection, despite opposition when you live a distraction free life and you and you're able to understand the seasons and the timing yeah, so you don't move outside of no matter how you feel, that's the ultimate thing.
Walter:that's why we can't become distracted, because it takes our time. The enemy wants your time because we talked about this before. The enemy also exists outside of time. He understands eternity. He existed outside of time prior he did. The fall from heaven happened before God created the heavens and the earth.
Speaker 3:The war in heaven happened before he created the heavens and the earth.
Walter:The war in heaven happened before he created the heavens and the earth. This happened before and so that was something else. That's what God was dealing with me on. The enemy was there when all that was created. He knew all of that was created. We have to be really careful because we don't understand how conniving the enemy is, how cunning the enemy is.
Shanea:How smart he is, how smart he is and all the other fallen angels and the fact that he's been here for quite some time. I mean if he could convince two-thirds of heavenly angelic beings to turn against the Creator. You don't think he has control or influence over your decisions.
Walter:Which is why you have to. Paul said don't think so highly of yourself. That's what Paul said. And you have to consistently submit yourself to the spirit of God.
Shanea:Because you have Christians walking around. Oh, I don't have no problem. There's no problems in my life. I don't have no demons.
Walter:No, I understand that you do.
Shanea:Yeah, but you don't have any problems. It doesn that you do. Yeah, you don't have any problems. It doesn't seem like you have any problems because he already has you.
Walter:And I don't think people understand how your body is a temple and how that works. You got to understand the tabernacle and they're like okay, well, I have the spirit of God living in me. There's no way that I can be under the influence of demons too.
Shanea:You got to understand what the temple looks like.
Walter:And where the spirit of God resides. There are different areas of the temple and the difference between the spirit of God and your soul, and so, and that's we, get carried away.
Shanea:Yeah, that would be too deep.
Walter:Yeah, so to just kind of wrap everything up. Or would you want to wrap it up?
Shanea:Why do you want me to wrap it?
Walter:up. I can wrap it up.
Shanea:I mean, what do you mean?
Walter:I'm thinking, I see what's there and what I'm thinking. Oh so, when we think of distractions, let's go back to this point, and I have this here, I have my notes here too. First, let's remember this the right person, situation or move can be a distraction if obtained in the wrong season. We also have to understand seasons, we have to understand how to operate in both eternity and the constraints of time simultaneously, and we also have to look at it from this perspective. Just to kind of end this up Trauma, deal with your trauma, get healed. Deal with your trauma, get healed, be delivered and set free, renew your mind, because if you don't, your lens is tainted, and so every single decision that you make in your life, you're making it, as you view your life, through a dirty lens.
Shanea:Right and we talked about this before is who's influencing your decisions, and the only way you can know that is what have you been feeding yourself and who have you been around? That all influences your decision. Yeah, so if you've always been around trauma, you will make decisions based off of your trauma. Yeah.
Shanea:If you have been in God's presence more than you've been in the enemy's presence, you will make decisions based off of the wisdom of God and not the wisdom of this world, but the only way to get rid of your trauma and some people don't even know they have trauma.
Walter:There's so many things that you can deal with and we won't dig into because it is just extended. But rejection come in different forms.
Shanea:Depression comes in different forms.
Walter:Oppression comes in different forms. Depression comes in different forms.
Shanea:Oppression comes in different forms.
Walter:We're all functioning people, something as simple as your mom and dad saying no to you as a child could be something that created rejection. The way the enemy enter, the way the enemy enter your life and the plan that he has and how he enters your life, is through trauma. That's how those spirits attach to you is through trauma.
Shanea:And it starts when you're young. That's why we have to become a new creation.
Walter:Our minds have to be renewed and we have to go through the wilderness experience, so every single thing can be chipped away that is not of God. But once again, let's say this again Deal with your trauma, because your lens is tainted if you have not dealt with your trauma.
Shanea:Right, and you go to God and you say God, I want to be cleaned, I want to be cleansed. If there's anything in me trauma that I don't even remember that I had, because I know for me there was some things that happened to me that I didn't even know that had happened, that God had revealed back to me and brought back memories and I'm like dang, I didn't even know.
Walter:But God is so amazing that he revealed it to you.
Shanea:So I made decisions based off of memories that I didn't even remember I had. Yeah.
Walter:Yeah, that's why it's so important that we deal with our trauma, submit it all into god before we start making decisions that can negatively impact our lives yeah because that's what the enemy wants. And remember we say this all the time you are always being influenced by something. Every single decision you make in your life, you're always being influenced by something. We see that it started in the beginning, with adam and eve. It started there. So, um, babe, you want to close this out?
Shanea:with what part?
Walter:no, just like you know no, I mean.
Shanea:I. I mean, I think I said what I needed to say. I think the most important thing is renewing your mind, but you can only do that in Christ, when you are thinking about making big decisions like what are you going to do with the rest of your life?
Walter:The biggest is who you're going to get married to. Who?
Shanea:you're going to get married to.
Walter:Don't be out here just dating to date people. It's not good. You will mess your life up.
Shanea:The biggest thing you can do, or the most important thing you can do, is go to god first. Yes, make sure he chips away anything in you that will make you, that will have you make a decision that will keep you out of his perfect will yeah that will keep you away from him.
Walter:Yes, and that is what we're going to say. We'll leave it there. We will leave it there because we'll keep going, and so we hope this has helped you. We appreciate you. Let us know how this is being a blessing to you. Any questions you all definitely feel free to reach out. If this is blessing you. Share it, like it, comment, subscribe. Listen to the other podcasts. Hopefully, those can be a blessing to you. Listen to the other podcasts.
Walter:Hopefully those can be a blessing to you as well. The other episodes, yeah, and we are so appreciative for everyone that's been following and kind of sharing their testimonies and sharing their stories.
Shanea:Yeah.
Walter:So until next week.
Shanea:See ya.
Walter:Bye.