Breaking Deceit: Ep 2: Recognizing the Serpent's Craft: Anchoring in God's Truth

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Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Diary of a Black Woman podcast.

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I'm your host, Connie Morris, and I'm so grateful to have you joining me today.

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We're starting a powerful new series titled Breaking the Deceit,

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Walking in Spiritual Vigilance.

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This series is all about exposing deception, staying spiritually alert,

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and aligning our lives with God's truth.

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Today's episode is called or titled Recognizing Deception.

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We'll dive into how deception begins, how it impacts our lives,

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and how to stand firm against it by anchoring ourselves in God's word.

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We can see the theme for February is deception.

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So to understand how deception works, we have to go back to where it all began in the Garden of Eden.

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Genesis 3.1 says, Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord had made.

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He said to the woman, Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden?

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You notice that the evil one knew what God said, but began to question Eve's

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ability to understand what God says.

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So it says, did God really say?

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And how often have we questioned what God says?

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We know what he said. We heard what he said. But when we have a little delay

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on being obedient, we ourselves begin to question what the word of God says.

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And so instead of Eve just taking a pause saying, hold up, wait a minute.

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This doesn't sound quite like what God says. I might have got it twisted.

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Let me go back with God and let me stop talking to strangers in the bushes.

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Hello. Let me go talk to my husband, Adam.

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Right. So that's what we can do as powerful Christians. We can go back to the

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word of God. We don't need an immediate response.

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When you feel pressure, when you feel rushed, you know that's not God.

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So let's read this again. It says, now the serpent was more crafty.

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So he's been around a while. So he's very crafty.

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Than any of the wild animals the Lord had made.

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So we see that God made a note that these are kind of crafty.

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And so we know we have friends that are pretty crafty. And if we're not aware

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of their craftiness, we often get got, right?

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And so we pay attention to how do we get got?

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You ever got got before where you're not paying attention to details and you

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get ripped off, you know? So, but he said to the women, did God really say,

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what did God really say to you?

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So just a little pause in the devotional here, just to note when God speaks

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to you, write it down right away.

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Don't say, I'm going to wait a minute. I'm going to write it when I get home.

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If you have an app on your phone, a little notepad, text it to yourself,

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write it down immediately.

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Notice how the serpent starts with a question to plant doubt in Eve's mind.

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He didn't outright lie. He distorted to truth.

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Another thing, know who you are in Christ.

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Right there, did God really say? She had to say, well, I heard what God said.

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We don't need to hear anything else from you.

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But she allowed to entertain it. You ever entertain a lie and then you get caught up in the story?

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You know, you ever like listen to gossip and then you start to believe the gossip

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when you, if you really just stopped the noise right there, you wouldn't have

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to entertain that lie. Come on, y'all.

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When people start to say, you didn't hear about this. You'd be like,

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no, I don't want to hear about it.

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My friends be like, Connie, you don't even know, you know, you shouldn't,

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I don't need to know because how do I know you know the truth?

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I don't know if you know the truth. I don't want to hear any gossip about anybody because what?

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I always ask this, what does it have to do with me?

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Well, we're going to pray about it. No, you pray. I don't want to know the details

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because how do we know if that's really true?

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So in order to get rid of all that little gossip stories, you just nip it at the bud right there.

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So if you learn how to nip that at the bud, But you can nip Satan at the bud

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when he starts questioning, did God really say?

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When you know in your heart what God really said.

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Come on, I'm holding on to that thought so much because that is powerful right

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there. Did God really say?

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You must not eat of any tree in the garden.

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She took a moment and she entertained a lie.

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How many of us has entertained a lie or been part of a lie? And we have gotten got.

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Now the serpent starts with a question to plant doubt in Eve's mind.

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He didn't outright lie. He distorted the truth.

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This is how deception often begins. not with a blatant untruth,

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but with a subtle twisting of what we know to be right.

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Deception thrives when we don't have a firm grasp on God's word.

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And I call that God's truth. So deception thrives when we don't have a firm grasp on God's truth.

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That's why knowing the truth is crucial.

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In John 8, 32, Jesus says, then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

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And Galatians have said, get free and stay free. So when you get the truth, you are free.

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Knowing God's word protects us from the enemy's lies and help us to recognize

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deception when it appears.

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Not only recognize it, but avoid it and not entertain it. What type of deception

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is happening in today's world?

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Deception isn't just a thing of the past.

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It's alive and well today. It shows up in our cultural norms,

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our media narratives, and even in our own heart. We see that it was in Eve's

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heart to just be curious.

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You ever been curious about something.

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That curiosity, we know, we hear that. It said it killed the cat.

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And so we don't want to end up on the other side of life because of our curiosity

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to entertain a lie or get caught up in some things.

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You ever watch, I like the first 48 hours where I watched this girl,

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she was like 18 years old and you've probably seen it.

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And she just believed this guy all the way.

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And she was ride or die, you know, where she was going to stand by her man and

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ended up in jail doing like about 10 years because she wouldn't tell on her man.

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Found out her man had another man, another girlfriend. Then she wanted to talk,

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but she got caught up in doing a robbery and the robbery ended up only robbing this man for $6.

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Don't matter on robbery is on robbery.

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No matter if it's a dollar or zero, you're going to jail for armed robbery.

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But if you're a part of it, a conspiracy to commit armed robbery is just as

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bad as armed robbery. But at 18 years old.

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Just because of your curiosity or your commitment to a lie or have truth,

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because you think this guy loves you.

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What did Eve have invested in Satan or the devil at that time?

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She had no investment in him. She had more investment in God than she had in the devil.

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She had more investment in Adam than she had in the devil. But her curiosity

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caused an eviction from the Garden of Eden.

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You see what I'm saying? So that little bit of curiosity, that little bit of

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compromise got her in trouble.

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So let's talk about self-deception for a moment.

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Galatians 6, 7 warns us that do not be deceived.

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God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Sometimes we convince ourselves

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that our actions have no consequences, or we justify behaviors that don't align with God's will.

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This is a dangerous form of deception because it blinds us to the truth and

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keeps us from growing spiritually.

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So how do we recognize deception? We recognize deception by anger.

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Three steps. You know God's word. God's word.

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Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

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Psalms 119, 105. God's word will light it up for you.

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It will say, wait a minute, that doesn't line up with my word.

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And so knowing God's word is a light.

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When we immerse ourselves in scripture, we can spot when something doesn't align with God's truth.

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It'll light it up. It will light it up. Seek the Holy Spirit guidance.

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But when he, the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. John 16, 13.

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The Holy Spirit helps us to discern right from wrong and guides us against spiritual

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confusion, spiritual confusion.

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So even if you take a pause and say, I'd rather wait.

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You ever got out of trouble, you know, back in the day when you were hanging

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with your friends and something told you,

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you know, it's time to go home and you go home, but yet you hear of your friends

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getting in trouble or even arrested, but you went home because you obeyed the Holy Spirit.

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You probably wasn't even in church, but you heard from the Lord to go the other way.

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And number three, stay in prayer. Watch and pray so that you will not fall into

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temptation. Matthew 26, 41.

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Prayer keeps us spiritually alert and sensitive to God's leading.

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So how do you recognize deception? You know God's word.

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You seek the Holy Spirit guidance. Just pause.

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Sometimes you don't have to pause. Holy Spirit will just sing.

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You'll have an alarm right in your spirit. Nope.

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And if you override that alarm, guess what? You're going to be in trouble.

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And then number three, stay in prayer.

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So take a moment to reflect. Are there areas in your life where you believed

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a lie or justified actions that don't align with God's word?

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You can just sit down and just be honest with yourself. we all

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have been there that we justified a lie

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we had justified a lie and we

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just we knew it didn't line up but we

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was like it's something god forgive me and we're gonna do

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it and get in a whole bunch of trouble so always always just knowing that god

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will get you out bible says he will make a way of escape but you got to follow

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that way right don't go all the way into the lie just when you feel that alert, just stop.

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Don't follow it. Just stop and go the opposite way.

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So what lies have you believed and how have you replaced God,

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placed them with the truth?

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And sometimes it could be one or two things. And sometimes we're really deep into the lie.

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Remember, this is about deception. How deep are you into this deception?

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You know, how deep are you in this deception?

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So let's just do some declarations. And hopefully this will kind of wake you

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up and get you moving forward towards truth so that you can be free from the lie.

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And if you don't know you're in a lie, ask the Holy Spirit, like, where have I missed it?

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And he will begin to show you.

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Let's decree. I decree that I'm rooted in God's word and lies or distortions will not sway me.

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I decree that the Holy Spirit leads me into all truth, and I have discernment

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to recognize deception.

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I decree that I walk in the light of God's truth, and his word is my guide.

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Let's close out in prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for being the source of all truth.

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Help us to recognize and resist deception in every form.

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Teach us to know your word deeply and to walk in the light of your truth.

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Holy Spirit, guide us and guard our hearts and mind.

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May we live with spiritual vigilance, permanently anchored in your promises. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Thank you for joining me on this powerful episode of the Diary of Black Women podcast.

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This message encourages you to share it with someone who needs it.

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And don't forget to subscribe to more episodes in our Breaking the Deceit series.

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If you want a copy of this devotional, it's on the website of my website,

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www.diaryofablackwomenllc.com.

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Until next time, stay vigilant, stay anchored in God's truth, and be blessed.