Exposing the Counterfeit Churches Bride : Ep1: The Whisper

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Music.

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Welcome to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast with your host,

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Connie Morris, where healing has a voice and truth is no longer silent.

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Father God, like Jabez, we cry out that thou would bless us indeed.

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Bless every woman listening beyond trauma, beyond limits, beyond what she thought

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was possible. Enlarge her territory.

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Expand her purpose. Let your hand be upon this moment.

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Saturate every word with oil and truth. break cycles, cancel every curse sent

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to silence her. This isn't just a podcast.

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This is holy ground. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Welcome, family, to the Diary of a Black Woman podcast, Church Chronicles.

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We're starting episode one, The Whisper, Counterfeit Churches.

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I'm your host, Connie Morris, and today we're going to begin a series that has

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been burning in my heart. The Lord whispered into my heart a couple of days

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ago, and he said to me, counterfeit churches.

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And so, you know, when the Lord whispers something to you, it usually shakes

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you awake, but it also allows you to take notice.

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First of all, the word that stood out to me was counterfeit.

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And then the second word was churches. And before I went to bed,

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I remember watching a news article, which I shared with you in the first episode

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regarding what was happening with the church.

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We know the church, most of the churches are being shaken. If it wasn't shaken

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during COVID, it's being shaken again right now.

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And from 2020 to now, churches have been shaken.

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And so when the Lord whispered to me, counterfeit churches, I wasn't thinking

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about anything. I was just rolling over.

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And just slowly waking up and I just heard this whisper. But then as I started

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to understand what he was saying, he wanted me to realize that counterfeit churches,

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they look close enough to the real thing to be deceptive, that they can deceive you.

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And remember the Lord said that even his elect would be deceived.

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And so we have to be aware of the church that we're in.

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What church do you belong to? And so we're going to go through the next,

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I think it's 13 episodes.

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And I want you not to just be suspicious, but I want you to turn on your discernment

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so you can see what's going on in your church.

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Do your church fit the holiness of God? Does your church fall underneath the

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counterfeit or does it fall under the real?

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That's something you're going to have to understand as we continue on.

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And that's something that will turn on your discernment. It will get you in your Bible.

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So let's get started. Because I want you to understand that the counterfeit

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looks close enough to the real thing that it can deceive you.

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It wears the clothes of holiness. It speaks the language of faith.

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But at its core, it lacks the substance of Christ.

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Matter of fact, it lacks the oil of the Holy Ghost.

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So God is pulling back the veil to expose what has been hidden in plain sight.

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The title of this series is Removing the Cover, Removing the Cover.

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So when God starts removing the cover, you think of a bride,

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usually a bride, when you walk down the aisle, they usually cover themselves,

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you know, the old time brides.

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Now, a lot of things you see in the new brides, they are really exposed too

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much to really be a bride. But hey, that's another topic.

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But under Church Chronicles, you know we're going to cover it if I haven't covered

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it already. But I want to stick to the holiness of church.

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And the main topic of this series, you'll hear me cry out because that's how

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it felt when God was crying out.

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It's like, where is my bride?

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And you know how if you've ever been married and your husband calls you his

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bride, there's something about that.

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There's something unique about that. But God is calling out his bride.

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He's calling out his bride. But first, let's go to the word of God.

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So listen to this, Ezekiel 16, 36, 37, and let me slow down a little bit.

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It says, this is what the sovereign Lord says, because you poured out your lust

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and exposed your nakedness and your promiscuity with your lovers.

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Therefore, I will gather all your lovers. I will strip you in front of them

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and they will see all your nakedness.

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Now, you know, God is a father, right?

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First of all, he's a father. He's our Abba father, but he says the sovereign

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Lord. So when he's the Lord, he's getting ready to do some checkmate.

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He said, you're going to act a fool? I'm going to show you who's the Lord.

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And so we're seeing this in public display of people, pastors who have big churches

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going to jail and all of their business being exposed. Let's go to Nahum 3.5.

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It says, I am against you, declared the Lord Almighty. I will slip your skirts

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over your face, and I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame.

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So you embarrass God in front of his people.

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He will embarrass you in front of your people. And finally, we hear the words of Jesus in Matthew 15.

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These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

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Whoa, whoa. Oh, so God exposes not to shame, but to heal.

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But it sounds like he's shaming some folks right now.

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Because you shaming him. You said kingdom of God, but nothing about your kingdom

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is of God, at least not of the holy God, the holy one of Israel. Let's get that right.

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You're representing something else, but it ain't the God, the Lord God almighty for sure.

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And so let's keep going. He said he lifts the cover, not to embarrass his people,

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but to call us back to himself.

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His cry is not the cry of an angry judge. It's the cry of a wounded bridegroom

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who longs for a faithful bride.

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So today we begin with the whisper, counterfeit church, counterfeit churches.

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And we go through this. As we go through this, I want you to hear not just my

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voice, but the heart of God crying out for his church.

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Where is my bride now

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you have to understand how God works before

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he embarrasses you in front

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of the world or even for he

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has spoken to these folks before he has taken them aside and told them to get

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their act together but they refuse or maybe there weren't his in the beginning

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and they couldn't hear from him because he says his sheep hear his voice and

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you know God's presence is powerful.

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And so if you ignore that presence, then you are not one of his. Amen.

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Let's go. Let's go. The whisper, counterfeit churches.

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Let's go. The Lord whispered to me, counterfeit churches. It was not with anger in his tone.

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It was with grief because what looks alive on the outside can be dead on the inside.

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We judge a book by his cover. I'm going to go to the big church.

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Or some people say, I don't want to go to the big church. I'm going to go to the small church.

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Either or, we want God in the big church and we want God in the small church. You want God.

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Wherever you go. Amen. A counterfeit is dangerous because it looks close enough to truth to deceive.

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That's why Jesus warns us in Matthew 24, 24, the false Messiah and false prophets

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will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even elect.

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They have counterfeit churches sing the songs. They host the conferences.

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They pack the pews, but they do everything a real church do.

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I told you, they're so close to the real church, they can be deceived.

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But inside, they replace intimacy with image.

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They exchange holiness for height, and they have traded the cross for the crowds.

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You see, the counterfeit hides behind appearances.

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It appears to be worship, but it's driven by entertainment.

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It appears to be ministry, but it's built on manipulation. It appears to be

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community, but it thrives on control.

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And here's the heart of God in all of this.

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Where is my bride? Not the polluted, not the faithless, not the sleeping,

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but the bride who is pure, faithful, and ready.

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The Lord says in Revelation 3.1, I know your deeds.

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You have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. Now,

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when the Lord start quoting scripture to you, which he is the word,

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then you need to go pull out your word and make sure that you understand what he's talking about.

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He's saying that I can see through all that. I can see here.

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I can see that I know what you're up to. I know your deeds.

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I know you have a reputation for being alive. I know you have a reputation for being alive. Why?

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Because I'm looking at your Facebook feed. I'm looking at your YouTube feed.

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I'm looking at your Instagram feed. But secretly, you ask me.

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You did. Family, how many churches carry the reputation of life,

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yet in heaven's books, the bridegroom calls them dead? This is not a game.

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God is stripping away the costumes. He's lifting the veil so that his people

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will no longer be deceived because every counterfeit that goes unchecked becomes

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a chain around the necks of his children.

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And the Lord is saying, enough.

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My people perish for lack of knowledge and I will not let my bride be devoured.

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That's the heart of God right now.

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Not shame, not exposure, not destruction, not deliverance. His cry is, where is my bride?

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The one who won't boucher greed, the one who won't sell her soul for applause,

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the one who lives only, lives wholly even when no one is watching.

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Family, The counterfeit is loud, but the authentic bride, she's rising.

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And when the bridegroom comes, he will know her by her purity,

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her faithfulness, and her readiness.

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So how do you recognize a counterfeit?

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Remember, I told you they come so real. Many times, you know,

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like I said, I'm a retired police officer.

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You don't study the fake money. You study your real money because you can identify a fake a mile away.

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So you don't have to study the fake. you study the real what's in a real church.

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You will know it by its fruit.

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So let's go. So let's bring this closer to home because the danger of a counterfeit church is not just.

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Out there in the headlines. It's that we might sit in it, serving it,

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and even defend it without realizing that we've become a part of it.

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So how do we discern a counterfeit from the real bride?

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Wow. So let's back it up a little bit. We kind of went through episode introduction,

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found out there were people that were considered armor bearers, which is a church term.

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They considered they were serving God as they were working the call center.

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But when did that become odd? When they weren't being fed, they weren't given

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their basic needs. What's their basic need?

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Food and water is the basic need. Food, water, shelter is the basic need.

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And then they were manipulated and they were abused, all in the name of serving the Lord.

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So we need to be aware that that's happening in your church.

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That should not be happening in your church. That's all I got to say.

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So if you feel something pricking in your heart that this is not right, then it's not right.

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Go to the Lord. And I would say

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run. But let's go over how to discern a counterfeit from the real life.

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That's why God is coming in such a flurry. He's not angry at his sheep.

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He's angry at the shepherds. And he is coming to protect his sheep like he said

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he would. And so I'm telling you, if you're a shepherd and you ain't got your

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act together, you better watch out because God is not happy with you.

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You better go to Ezekiel and just read your Bible.

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So let's go to the first one. How to discern a counterfeit from the real bride.

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Watch the fruit, not the flash. Jesus said in Matthew 7, 16,

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by their fruit, you will recognize them.

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The fruit of the spirit. You have to go there. Galatians 5 or 6, go buy their fruit.

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Don't be fooled by stages, lights, or titles.

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A true bride bears fruit in holiness, humility, and love.

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A counterfeit bears fruit in greed, control, and

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control, and abuse. So watch the fruit.

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Number two, check who's being glorified. If all the attention points to the

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pastor, the brand, or the building instead of Christ, that's a red flag.

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Colossians 118 says, Christ is the head of the church.

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When man takes that place, the church has already gone counterfeit.

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I told you that's the word when God says counterfeit church,

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counterfeit churches, guess what? That stood out to me.

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Counterfeit is fake. It's not real. It looks real.

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It kind of want to be real, but actuality is fake.

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Look at how people are treated.

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Number three, the bride of the church lifts up the broken, the weak,

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and the vulnerable, but counterfeit churches exploit them.

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James 1.27 states that true religion is to care for orphans and widows.

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If a church consumes the weak instead of covering them, that is not his bride. Let's go to four.

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Discern the message. Is the word being preached about the cross,

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repentance, and holiness, or is it only about money, blessings, and breakthroughs?

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Galatians 1.9 warns us, if anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what

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you accepted, let them be under God's curse.

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The Bible, first of all, discern the message. In order to discern the message,

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you have to read your Bible.

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The Bible is full of the good, bad, and the ugly.

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There is about money. There is about blessings. There is about breakthrough,

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but it's a whole lot about obedience.

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It's a whole lot about discipline.

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It's a whole lot about how to get your act together too.

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It's a whole lot of stuff in there, how to get you right, but it's not always

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about bless me, bless me, bless me.

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And so you need to know how to discern the message.

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Now, this is not about being critical.

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It's about survival. Because when the counterfeit church flourishes, God's people suffer.

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And the Lord is crying out, where is my bride?

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The bride is who humbles, who is holy, humble, faithful, and watchful. This is why he exposes.

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This is why he uncovers. Because he loves us too much to leave us deceived.

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So we ask ourselves today, am I sitting under a counterfeit covering or am I part of the true bride?

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That's the question heaven is asking right now. Let's pray.

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Father, we come before you humbled by your word.

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Thank you for loving us enough to whisper truth, even when it hurts.

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Thank you for exposing what's counterfeit.

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Thank you for exposing what's counterfeit, not to shame your people,

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but to heal and restore your bride.

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Lord, forgive us where we have been blinded by appearances.

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Forgive us by exalting man over Christ, for chasing blessings over holiness,

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and for calling counterfeit churches holy.

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Father, open our eyes to see, open our ears to hear, and open our hearts to obey.

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We lift up every soul trapped in deception right now. Lord, rescue them.

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Break every chain of manipulation, every spirit of control, every lie of the

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enemy that has them bound.

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Surround them with your truth and set them free in the mighty name of Jesus.

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And I speak this decree. We decree that I will not be deceived by counterfeit churches.

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We decree we will not test every spirit and measure every word against the word

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of God. We decree that my heart will stay, that our hearts will stay faithful,

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pure, and ready for the bridegroom.

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And we decree that the true bridegroom of Christ will rise with holiness,

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with power, and with discernment in these last days.

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The name above all names, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

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Family, this is just the beginning. The Lord whispered counterfeit churches,

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and he is asking, where is my bride?

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Not polluted, not the faithless, and not the sleeping. but the pure,

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the faithful, and the ready.

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As you reflect this week, take inventory.

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Ask the Holy Spirit to show you where you've settled for counterfeit covering

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and where he's calling you back to purity and truth.

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Remember, God exposes not to shame, but to heal. But after a bride,

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He's after a bride who will be ready when the bridegroom come.

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Thank you for joining me today on the Diary of a Black Woman podcast, Church Chronicles.

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If this message trusts you, please share with someone who needs to hear God's heart for his church.

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You can always connect with me at the website, DiaryOfBlackWomanLLC.com,

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or by email, DiaryOfABlackWomanPodcast at gmail.com.

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And don't miss the next episode in this series, the head, Christ replaced with man.

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We'll discuss what happens when pastors and leaders take the place of Christ

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and why God is calling his church to return to the true head, Jesus.

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Until next time, remember, healing, truth, and faith is found in Christ alone.

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This is your host, Connie Morris, signing off with love, strength, and a touch of class.

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I'll see you on the next episode. Thank you for listening to this episode.

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And before we close out, I want to speak a word of promise over you from Jeremiah 29, 11 through 14.

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Father God, you declared, I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper

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you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

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So today we receive that truth.

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You said when we call on you, you will listen. So we pray. You said that when

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we seek you with our hearts, you will be found, so we pursue.

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You said you will restore us from captivity, so we declare freedom over every

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place where our listeners feel stuck, silenced, or small.

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Thank you for always drawing near when we show up in faith. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Music.