Who Deceived You?

[00:00:01] When the world is closing in on me and it gets so heavy. [00:00:09] Hey there. Welcome to Grace and Grit podcast, and I'm your host, Shanna Williams. So what is this all about? [00:00:19] Grace and Grit is a faith filled journey designed to empower you with spiritual strength and resilience. Each episode, we're going to delve into biblical topics, offering insights and teachings to help you overcome life's mental and emotional challenges. We're going to use scripture. I'm going to tell you stories. It's going to be a blast. I can't wait to see you today. [00:00:48] Well, welcome back. I'm so excited you are here with me that I get to speak, like 20 or 25 minutes with you every week, talking about whatever the Lord puts on my heart to share with you, just to encourage you, to equip you, to keep you going. You know, we are living in, I would say, perilous times. Perilous times. [00:01:14] And whether you think we're living at, I don't know, at the beginning of the end or if we are almost to the end, it certainly feels like when you look at scripture, you see just so many things, so many prophecies getting fulfilled. It seems like almost daily, some of the things that Jesus prophesied, some of the things that the prophets in the Old Testament said would happen, some of the things we saw, John, that he saw in the book of Revelation, we're just seeing things. They're happening so fast and so quickly. And, you know, what's really been on my heart is deception and how to not be deceived. Because here's the deal. We are living in a day and time where there is so much deception out there. [00:02:11] I was just. This. This is. I'm recording this right after the Olympic, the Olympic, Olympic debacle that happened a few days ago, where the Olympic, the pre game show that they did. And, you know, there's a lot that happened that seemed to be a mockery of the Last Supper, whether you agree with that or not. I personally think that it was a stab at Christianity. [00:02:40] And then, you know, on the backside of it, when they. A lot of these people saw the backlash, they decided to change the narrative and make it look like it wasn't. But I believe that it was. And there was a lot of, you know, just lifestyle. [00:02:57] There were a lot of stabs taken at just what we would consider being a normal. [00:03:06] A normal family, a normal christian life, just being a person who is a heterosexual who believes in marriage between a man and a woman. I mean, they were taking stabs at that. And they had drag queens there, and there was a lot of LGBTQ agenda, to say the least. I mean, it was something else. It was a spectacle to behold. And really, what their intent was, I believe, is to offend christians so that we would act. Act in our flesh and say things that maybe we're not led by the Holy Spirit. I mean, so that's not really why I'm coming to you. I'm not going to talk about what we should and shouldn't do. My concern is more of what are you believing to be true or false? [00:03:54] What is your belief system, and what do you really believe is true in this day and time? Because what I'm seeing is so many christians arguing about what is right and wrong when the Bible is so clear about certain lifestyles, certain behaviors that Jesus says, you know, people that are. Paul says, people that do these things will not inherit the kingdom of God. [00:04:18] And, you know, that's not something that I'm saying or Bible teachers are saying. That is what scripture teaches. So either we believe the whole counsel of God, or we. Or we pick and choose what we want, then it becomes just every whosoever, whatever you want to believe, every man for himself. You make up your own rules, and there is no God because that's where this leads to, right? Is everybody just kind of doing whatever they think is right in their own eyes and picking and choosing parts of the Bible that they want to obey. And so I want to come to the people whose hearts are like, Lord, I want to. I want to believe the truth. I want to know the truth, and I want to walk in the truth, and I want to be a person who stands for truth, because that is the bride of Christ. The bride of Christ does not compromise. [00:05:09] Does not compromise. Let's put this in a perspective that maybe makes a little more sense. Let's say that you. Let's just say, first of all, that we're all. Mendez, just, you know, make this a little easier or however you want to say it. I mean, maybe you just put this into perspective as if you are a woman. Let's just say you. You met the man of your dreams and. Okay, look, first of all, you're not married. Obviously. You met the man of your dreams, and you guys are so in love, and he has asked you to marry him. [00:05:41] He's asked you to marry him. Let me ask you this. Would you go out and you really love this man? You feel like you're supposed to be with him, like, forever? [00:05:49] Would you go out and. I don't know, live a lifestyle that, you know, kind of indicates that you're not really waiting for him. You're not really, I mean, like, you love him, but you're also kind of like, I still want to party. I still want to have a good time. I want to go get drunk all the time and maybe just have a few night, one night stands. I mean, it's not that big a deal, right? I mean, I still love you. [00:06:14] Yeah, that's. That's what this is. So it is a big deal. It is a big deal that we remain pure before the Lord. As a matter of fact, a couple years ago, I released this song called Holy Fire. Maybe it was just last year. You can find it on anywhere you listen to digital music, iTunes, even Spotify, whatever. So I released this song called Holy Fire, and it came out of singing at the prayer room that I was involved in because I started feeling like this burning inside of me, of I want to be pure before the Lord. So, lord, you know, send your holy fire, and I want to burn in every season. I don't want to just burn. You know, in the beginning, like so many christians start out, they're burning hot. But then as time moves on, they start to compromise. They start to let things slip. They start to get more and more and more, kind of just what I would say. [00:07:10] I'm just going to jump on the fence for a while. I mean, there's so much grace, right? They're just like, hey, I just live in God's grace. It doesn't really matter if I sin and all this. And that's not even the point. I mean, yes, of course, Jesus died and we live. He died so that we could be received by the father, and his blood covers our sin. But we're not, you know, Paul talks about we're not supposed to live in this continual sin again. That's not who we are. That's not what it was for. And if you live like that, I even got to ask you, do you really even know the Lord? I mean, because why would you want to continually hurt someone who did something so amazing for you and just trample underfoot the blood of Christ, right? Ay, ay, ay. So that's where I'm coming from today. And I hope that I don't come across as being judgmental. That's not what I'm trying to do here. I'm just saying, hey, we're supposed to be the bride of Christ. That means we're sold out to him. He's the one we love. He's the one we're waiting for. He's the one. We are purifying our. He's purifying us. Bye, him. We're allowing him to do it. We're partnering with the Holy Spirit. This is who we are. And we are not a bride of compromise. We are not living a double life. And, hey, Jesus, I love you, but I'm going to go out and live this other life, you know? And I'm sure you'll still be here when I get back. That's not what this is. And my heart just is kind of grieved because I'm seeing all of this conversation on social media, which at the time, you know, I'm kind of like, you know, I think I just want to get a off of social media because I'm so tired of what I'm seeing. It grieves my spirit. And then I almost find myself getting angry, which is, obviously, I don't want to get in the flesh, right? I mean, it's so easy to get in the flesh and get offended, which is exactly where the enemy wants me. But staying in a place of conviction of my own sin and staying right before the Lord and admitting the sin and repenting, because that is part of being a Christian. And I think that repentance has become a four letter word in the church. You know, I mean, you. You have to repent, right? You have to say, lord, I messed up. Lord, I did something I shouldn't have done. If you can't repent, you can't enter into the kingdom of heaven at all. And I'm thinking about that story where Jesus is talking, and he's saying, hey, unless you come like a little child, you can't enter into the kingdom of heaven. He's talking to the rich man, and the rich man is like, well, but I've done all these things. I've done this, that, and the other. And Jesus said it would be easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. Well, I have researched that and heard some scholars teach on that, and that is not exactly what we thought. Like, the eye of the needle was some kind of entrance into the city that the camel would go through. It would have to get on all fours and have to take absolutely everything off of its back to crawl through this little space to get through. And that's what it's like when you become a Christian and you walk this life. And by the way, you don't just repent the one time every time, you know, that you did something you shouldn't have done. Just like if you were in a marriage relationship with my husband, I wouldn't, you know, if I did something very painful to him, I transgressed or I hurt him in some way, I wouldn't just not apologize. Right? I mean, how ridiculous is that? The same goes for him. If he did something to me and he didn't apologize for it, I'd be like, I'm sorry. Are you not sorry for that? Like, that's wrong. Are you not going to admit that that was wrong? I mean, we have got to realize we are in a living, breathing relationship. And yes, there's grace, but we still have to own up to the things that we do. We have to ask for forgiveness, we have to repent. We have to turn from our ways. We cannot stay in the flesh because that's what the flesh does. That is not living according to the spirit. Right? And so I wanted to read from Galatians five. I've been really just loving the, looking at the fruit of the spirit and what it is and how beautiful it is. But I saw this verse today. This is Galatians five and verses. I'm going to start with seven. And Paul's kind of chastising them. He's talking about, hey, you know, who's been lying to you because you were doing so great and then you started believing some lies that you need to be circumcised in order to be saved. Right? So, and I'm not really talking about that, but he does go on to say a circumcision of the heart is what, what we have now. But I want to read to you what he says in five, seven. Before you were led astray, you were so faithful. Who has deceived you so that you have turned from what is right? [00:12:07] I want to say that again. Who has deceived you so that you have turned from what is right? [00:12:15] And that's my question to the body of Christ right now. Who has deceived you so you have turned from what is right? Come on. You know, some of these things are wrong. You know, they're sinful behavior. [00:12:28] I mean, you, you have to know it. Romans talks about, hey, God's given everyone basically what he's saying. God's given everyone a conscience so that they know what's right and what's wrong. But then God gives them over to a depraved mind because they won't repent. And so then they start to believe or they just embrace the lie that whatever they're doing is okay. Because there's grace to cover it. And then it says they even drag other people into the lie. So it's not enough that they just go down this depraved road, but now they want to drag other people into it as well. This is scary stuff. So who has deceived you so that you have turned from what is right? And I just want to send out a call today. If you're listening to this, I just urge you to search your heart, as I am doing as well. Like, are there things that I have, I have been engaging in that I know are not right? And I'm going to tell you right now, I have been convicted because I have. I have been watching things I shouldn't have watched, which is a doorway, right, for the enemy to come in and just start to sow lies and things like that and darkness into your home. I think I talked about this last week a little bit. [00:13:43] But are you willing to search your heart and your mind to say, what am I believing? Why am I turned from what is right and then allow the Holy Spirit to show you what it is? Because I'm feeling church. We are, like, moving away from truth, and that's scary. Then in verse eight, he goes on to say, the one he's talking about, Jesus, who enfolded you into his grace, is not behind this false teaching that you've embraced. Don't you know that when you allow even a little lie into your heart, it can permeate your entire belief system? [00:14:23] Now, that is where I want to hang out a little while. So don't you know that even when you allow a little lie, just a tiny, tiny lie into your heart, it can permeate your entire belief system? And this is how the enemy works. And this is how he's been working. And the people of God and the saints of God, he's starting with these tiny little lies and he's saying, hey, it's okay if you compromise just a little bit of. Just a little bit right here. But what's happening is that, is that one compromise is permeating the entire belief system. And if you know, the way that God has constructed us, the way our brains work, really, our mind, is that everything our behavior can be traced back to what we believe, right? So what happens is it is a trajectory, right? So you start with believing something like, oh, maybe this one thing is not that bad. You know, maybe this thing that I have been convinced of my whole life to be not okay with the Lord, you know, maybe a sinful behavior that I have all of a sudden decided, because there's so much pressure from the media and from the world to embrace whatever this behavior is, which is what's going on right now. Right. I. The Olympics is a great example. Right. What we just saw. Hey, you guys, we're going to pressure you to embrace this because you have no right to disagree with this. Well, you know what? The word of God tells me that I do, and the Holy Spirit tells me that I do. I have to believe what the Lord says. And so there's a pressure in our culture to do and to believe what the world is telling us is right and wrong, even though the Bible is clear about what's right and wrong. Right. So once we believe that lie, okay, we start to compromise in that area. We start to allow things we wouldn't allow before. And before you know it, the belief turns into behavior. [00:16:26] Right? So then we start to do things that we would have never done before because, well, we believe differently than we believed before. Right. Your belief is what makes you act a certain way or not act a certain way. [00:16:42] And so I am just feeling really convicted myself about this. And I feel the Lord. I feel him just pulling me back to righteousness, pulling me back to what he says is right and wrong, what he wants me to do, what he. What his measuring, what his standards are, what his measuring stick is, not what the pulse of the culture is telling me, not what everyone else in, not Hollywood actors telling me what's right and wrong, not anyone else but him and what he has said in his word. And I am so stirred by this right now, I'm sure you can probably tell. And I just want to invite you into this and pray about it, and I just hope that you are seeing what I'm seeing. And really what I'm trying to do is be a watchman on the wall, and what I'm seeing, seeing, and then saying, hey, church, this is what I'm seeing is going on in the spirit. [00:17:46] We need to be careful. [00:17:49] This is the tactic of the enemy, and I don't want you to fall into that. I don't want you to be snagged up and trapped, because the intention of the enemy is to snag you up and trap you and get you into a lifestyle that is hard to escape from, you know, or belief system that takes you down the wrong road. And before you know it, you have this type of Christianity that's nothing at all like what the scripture says it should be. [00:18:23] Right? Like you've moved. So it's almost like it's like progressive Christianity. You know what I'm saying? Like, we're trying to modernize Christianity and make it more palatable and acceptable in our culture. So, hey, let's skew some words here. Let's change this up a little bit, because it's too harsh. It's too harsh to say the truth. It's too harsh to take a stand on things that we know God has said are not okay with him. [00:18:55] And here's the thing. We live in a country. If you're listening to this and you're in America, we are a frequent free country at that. We live in a country where we're allowed to say, oh, we have freedom of speech. We're allowed to say what we want. And so I'm gonna take advantage of that. And I would just say to you what the enemy is doing right now. [00:19:16] And he is trying to convince us that because we're christians, we don't, we shouldn't say anything because we'll offend people. Right. Well, I don't know about you, but when you look at some of the stuff Jesus said to people, he didn't sugarcoat things. Sometimes, if they lived in sin, he didn't condemn them, but he sure didn't just play along with it and act like nothing was going on because he wanted him to be free. [00:19:44] That's the thing. You do it when you really love someone. You tell them the truth. You tell them the truth. So if somebody wants to believe that they're a cat and it's an imaginary world, I'm not doing them any favors by agreeing with them and living in this fantasy world with them. If a man wants to think that he's a woman and God's not made him that way, I'm not doing him any favors by agreeing with him and saying, hey, you know what? You can be whatever you want, because you can't. And because I love you enough to tell you the truth, that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to tell you the truth. [00:20:20] You know, I mean, and I don't mean that in a judgmental way. I just mean we have got to be honest and we have got to start speaking, but we have got to do it from a place of being led by the spirit. And that's where it gets tricky, I think, for a lot of us, is, how do I do this and do it in a spirit led way to where I am not letting my flesh take over and I'm jumping into kind of a self righteousness or a place of complete judgment of other people, right? So, Lord help us. Lord help us. Because we don't even know how to do this, right? [00:20:56] I don't. I don't know how to do it, right. Because somebody could listen to this podcast and say, I'm so offended at her that she said that stuff. And, you know, she's just judging me. But then you would misunderstand my heart. My heart is that you'd be free. My heart is that you'd be free because you're not free. If you're living in that kind of lifestyle, you are not free. You might think you are, but you are not. And you don't really know who you are. [00:21:20] If you really knew who you were, you wouldn't live in that kind of way. God has something so much better for you, but you are trapped in a prison of lies, right? You're trapped in a prison of lies. So don't you know that when you allow even a little lie in your heart, it can permeate your entire belief system? [00:21:45] So that is. Those are such powerful words. And that's where I want to leave this today. [00:21:53] This podcast is called grace and grit. [00:21:56] This week is grit. Right. Grits, not always fun. Grit is a little more tough. And I think we need a little tough love right now in our. In our Christianity. We need to, first of all, examine our own heart. What have I believed in? Our lies? What am I putting up with that the enemy has said to me? Or where am I compromising? But also, Lord, teach me how to stand up for the standard. I live in a free country. You have given me the right to say the things that you tell me to say. I'm blessed enough to live in that kind of culture, and I just want to challenge you to do it. To do it. But do it in love. Do it in love. So I just pray that we all learn how to do that. So, the Lord, help us learn to speak from a place of love and not a place of judgment or condescension toward the rest of humanity, Lord, because we all need you, and we know that. But we want everyone to experience the freedom that we have. So I hope that this message, gosh, I hope that you feel better, not worse. [00:23:04] So, as always, make sure you subscribe to my podcast so that you don't miss an episode. Whatever platform you're listening to, you should be able to hit the subscribe button. I also love to get reviews. Hopefully they're good reviews. And because it helps me bolster this and so that more people it will see them. They will see it. Sorry. They will see it in the ratings. And hopefully, when I listen to it, I pray that you're blessed this week and until next week. I pray that you have a fantastic week full of grace and that you have some grit. [00:23:40] God blessed.