Where is My Bride: Ep 4: The Counterfeit Bride: Polished Outside, Empty Inside

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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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Hello, and welcome back to the Diary of a Black Woman's Podcast.

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I'm your host, Connie Morris, and we are continuing our prophetic series, Where is My Bride?

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That's a cry from the bridegroom. And we are on episode four,

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the counterfeit bride, looking the part, missing the heart.

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We've already covered the cry of the bridegroom, the stains of sin,

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the wrinkles of compromise.

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And today we're going to talk about something that might be the most dangerous

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of all, becoming a counterfeit bride. Picture this, okay?

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A mannequin and a bridal shop window.

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Dressed in a flawless gown, perfectly styled, radiant to the eye.

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But if you touch her, you'll realize something. She has no heartbeat.

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She looks alive, but she's lifeless.

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Now that's the danger of a counterfeit church. outwardly polished, inwardly empty.

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We know the right songs. We use the right church phrases.

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We look the part, but we don't have the heart. But God sees deeper.

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He is not coming back for a mannequin bride.

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He's coming back for a bride clothed in righteousness, live in spirit.

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And full of intimacy with him. So let's go to scripture, Matthew 23, verses 27 through 28.

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It says, woe to you, teachers of law and Pharisees, you hypocrites,

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you are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside,

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but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.

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In the same way, on the outside, you appear to the people as righteous.

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But on the inside, you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

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We say that God sees the heart, but we also see that he sees everything else

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that's operating inside of us. Let's go to Revelations 3.17.

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It reads, Say I am rich, and I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.

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But do you realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked?

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We see here that God sees that a lot of times we reach a certain status and we think we've made it.

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But God says, you're missing the whole point. These verses cut deep.

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Jesus isn't impressed by outwardly grudy titles or numbers.

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He is not fooled by appearances.

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The Pharisee looked righteous, but the hearts were corrupt. The Laodicean church

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thought it had everything, but in God's eyes, it had nothing.

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The counterfeit bride values image over intimacy, performance over purity.

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Platform over holiness.

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And here's the danger. People may applaud her, but Christ will not recognize her.

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Outward success, big buildings, large followings, polished branding means nothing

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if the heart is not surrendered.

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We see that we love beautiful things and God created that in us because God

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loves beautiful things, but he doesn't want beautiful things to have us.

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So we see here that spots represent sins and wrinkles represents compromise.

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But when we refuse to deal with either, we become counterfeit.

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Looking the part while missing the heart. Let's pause here for a second.

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Spots represent sins. Wrinkles represent compromise.

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But when we refuse to deal with either, we become counterfeit.

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Looking the part, missing your heart, just like the mannequin.

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The mannequin is not going to ever marry anyone.

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The mannequin is just posing to get you to buy that dress.

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Will that dress look good on me as it does the mannequin?

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And God says, I'm not looking for a mannequin. I'm not looking for someone without the heart.

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I want the whole person, not just the performance.

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And it says, so an example of a counterfeit bride is this.

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Churches that preach positivity but avoid repentance.

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Believers who speak Christian fluence will live in hidden sin.

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So there's a Christian language that Christians speak, but they're hardly in it.

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You have heard someone that always quote the Bible in one breath and then curse

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it in another breath. you know, it's like, you know, or they appear to be super

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Christian-y, but yet there's no fruit falling from the tree.

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Leaders are more concerned with branding than shepherding.

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And then finally, congregation measures success by money and numbers instead of holiness.

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Remember, we get stuck on that. We get stuck on this outward appearance.

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And then we see God sees way past that outward appearance.

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And when you start to look at only outward appearance, God begins to call you what you are.

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You are a counterfeit. And a counterfeit looks like the real thing,

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but doesn't handle the real, doesn't know.

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Well, what is counterfeit? It looks like the real thing, but doesn't,

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can't do what the real thing does. You got a counterfeit $100 bill.

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Yeah, it looks like the real thing. Can you go buy stuff with the counterfeit?

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You can't. You're just faking and shaking.

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You got all these dollar bills in your hand, but you just as broke,

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like it's monopoly money in reality, right?

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So the counterfeit bride may fool people, but it cannot fool Christ.

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When he comes, he will not lower his standard.

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He is looking for authenticity.

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Authenticity, appearance. But here's the hope.

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God exposes the counterfeit, not to destroy, but to awaken.

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This is his mercy calling us back. So those scriptures was hard,

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but God speaks to the heart.

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And he says, you know, if you're going to be a counterfeit bride.

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I just want to give you a warning.

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I'm not coming back for a counterfeit bride. I'm coming back for the true bride who's intimate with me.

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So God always keeps it real. He tells you what he's looking for.

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So when he shows up for what he's looking for, you can be disappointed if you

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don't get chosen in that path, right?

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You just can't say, well, I didn't get picked.

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God's mad at me. God says, I'm looking for a true bride without spot or wrinkle.

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So if you don't address your spot or wrinkle and still try to cover those things

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up, then he says, you are now a counterfeit bride because you're no longer addressing what I like.

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You're trying to make sure that I don't see it, which I see it.

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You're trying to make sure everyone else doesn't see it and maybe they don't see it.

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And so you're fooling people into believing that you're the right church and

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really actually you're the wrong church and you're the wrong bride.

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And that's why you have this image of the bride standing in front of the groom with her head down.

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Because remember, if she wasn't prepared, because she is counterfeit,

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she wasn't trying to get prepared.

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She was trying to fool people into believing that she was ready, but she wasn't ready.

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You ever met someone, and this could be a girl or a guy, and they come across

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as having it all together.

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And then as you get to know them, they can be just a friend or someone you're

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dating or just somebody you met and you might just be associate with them or a colleague.

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And they come across as put together.

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And over a period of time, you start to notice just some compromise and just

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some of the skeletons start coming out.

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And some of the things that you thought was real was fake. Maybe they had a

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Gucci bag and you found that Gucci was fake. and you get to know them,

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they say, girl, I don't even carry real Gucci. This is fake.

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And then you see that maybe it's a cover that, you know, everything about that

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person was not authentic at all.

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And so what you put on this pedestal turned out not to be real.

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And that's what happens in real church life.

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You know, you have a pastor or you may have the pastor's wife or you might have

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an image of a church that seems to be growing on the outside,

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but secretly inside is not productive as it portrays on the media.

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Or the social media, whatever their website is, right?

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Why? Because they have began to compromise. They have began to loosen the reins

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regarding searching for the real Jesus, preparing for the real Jesus,

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and they just became more of a counterfeit.

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No longer searching or being the real thing.

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They've just become just dead on the inside, just like the mannequin.

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So something to think about here is, am I focused on how people see me or how

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God sees me? You know, remember, God sees your heart.

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And if you allow him, he will get it right.

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He will allow, he won't allow you to like walk into a brick wall because you

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can, I like to say, fake it and shake it, but you have became.

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A counterfeit over time? Because you don't want nobody to see the real you,

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so you just put on some fake stuff.

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People around here are like, yeah, there's some things happening. Let's go on.

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Do I hide behind mask of religion while secretly wrestling with compromise?

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I remember just recently, sometimes with me, I say what's on my mind,

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and a lot of times people don't. right?

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So when you are a person that can speak your mind and not really care,

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you don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. I'm not saying it to be rude or nasty.

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Sometimes I just say what comes up in my mind.

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And sometimes maybe you need to be said or maybe not.

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As you get older, you really don't care. But sometimes it needs to be said.

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And people go, whoa, dang, you just said what was on your mind.

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I sure did. You should not say that. Well, I just out now.

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So let's not play with it. And then you don't have to back it.

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I don't apologize for what I just said.

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It's out now. Let's fix it, right? Let's just be honest, you know?

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Let's just be honest that what you were doing was false.

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And let's not put that on like me because I said that it was false and want

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me to take it back to cover you back up with your compromise, right?

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You know how people make you feel guilty for telling the truth.

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And number three, what areas of your life look polished outwardly but need healing inwardly?

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You know, God will heal you, but sometimes it won't happen in your own home,

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won't happen in your own little secret life. Sometimes you might have to go up to the altar.

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Sometimes you might have to seek prayer.

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Sometimes you just have to humble yourself, right, so that you can get free.

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I remember I was suffering with this digestive challenge, you know,

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and I'm not one to run up to the altar, but it got so bad that I just want,

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I'm praying, Lord, just heal me. I don't want to go to the altar.

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I don't want this. But every time there was an opportunity to go to the altar and I would not go.

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And finally I said, forget it. I'm going to go to the altar.

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And then I finally got it.

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I went up there and lo and behold, no more stomach challenges.

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And it all began to start another layer of healing.

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Remember, sometimes one healing means another and another and another because

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it could be physical pain.

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It could be emotional pain and spiritual pain. But many times it may happen

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in your home privately, but it may not happen.

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It might happen publicly, which would cause you to not to be in a space where

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you are forced to compromise, where you're smiling outside and you're not kind

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of getting healing on the inside.

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You know, you're not, God's going to put you in a space where you might have

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to go up to the healing altar. You might have to go in a prayer line and ask for help.

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You know, nothing wrong with that. Remember I told you, get ready.

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Get ready now. so you don't have to prepare.

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Prepare now so you don't have to rush and get ready because Jesus is coming for church without.

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Church, and a bride without spot or wrinkle.

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So I want to close out with this prayer. Father, remove every mask from our lives.

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Forgive us for the times we've chosen image over intimacy.

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Strip away coverings and clothe us in your righteousness.

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Help us to live authentically before you and others, real, holy,

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and ready for our bridegroom. Let's decree.

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We decree that we We will not be a counterfeit bride, and we will walk with

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God and we'll be genuine inside and out.

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We are clothed in righteousness, clothed in spirit, filled with the spirit,

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and prepared to meet our bridegroom.

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In Jesus' name, amen. Wow, that was personal.

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God wants us healed and whole in whatever it takes to not be that counterfeit

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bride. You know, not to be the faking and shaking bride, not to be the mannequin bride.

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God wants us to be real before him, but also real before the people.

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Why? Because there's going to come a time when the people will come to your

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church and you're going to meet someone who may be experiencing the same thing

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you're experiencing and you can help them get free and stay free. Amen.

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So thanks for joining me today on this Diary of a Black Woman podcast.

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This was episode four of our series, Where Is My Bride?

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Next time, we'll talk about the sobering moment when the bride is exposed,

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when outward experience can no longer hide inward emptiness.

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We'll talk about the shame of standing for the groom prepared.

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Until then, stay authentic, stay surrendered, and keep your heart close to the bridegroom.

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And 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 received 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.