The Effective Prayer Strategy Podcast
Welcome to The Effective Prayer Strategy Podcast with Prophetess Felecia Carter Wade. Prophetess Wade is a powerful prophetic voice. This podcast is designed to create a hunger for the prophetic and prayer and to share with you effective prayer strategies.
The Effective Prayer Strategy Podcast
The State of the Body of Christ
Apostle Tony Wade joins us for a crucial conversation about safeguarding the body of Christ against the tide of false doctrines. Promising to untangle the complex challenges facing believers today, we tackle instances of misinterpretations like the relationship between Naomi and Ruth, underscoring the essential need for a strong, Bible-based foundation within church communities. Apostle Wade offers invaluable insights on how mature faith is key to resisting deception and why believers must adeptly navigate the scriptures to uphold their spiritual integrity.
Amidst a world teeming with diverse and sometimes misleading teachings, we highlight the importance of being rooted in scripture and aligning with a church that prioritizes Christ's teachings over cultural conformity. Drawing from biblical references like Matthew 24 and Timothy, we emphasize discernment, especially in these critical times. We also encourage believers to scrutinize their spiritual leaders and environments, ensuring their growth as true disciples of Christ. As leaders, our unwavering commitment is to nurture spiritual development within our congregations, steering clear of the temptation to prioritize numbers over biblical truth.
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Well, hello everybody. Welcome to the Effective Prayer Strategies podcast, where we're giving you tools for an effective prayer life, and today we have a special guest again. He's been on the podcast before and he's one of my favorite people my husband, none other than the Apostle Tony Wade. So welcome to the podcast once again.
Speaker 2:I'm so honored to be here.
Speaker 1:So today we're going to be having some conversations around what's happening in the body of Christ and the different types of doctrine, or the new doctrine that's circulating around social media, various teachings that are going out, and we're concerned as an apostle and as a prophetess, we are very concerned about the state of the body of Christ and so we're going to tell some conversations. We're going to talk about, you know, some of these doctrines and we're going to talk about you know what the word has to say about this day and age that we're living in, these times that we're living in, and how are we going to navigate these different doctrines, these new teachings that are out there. That is contrary against the word of God. So, apostle, give us some thoughts concerning the new doctrine. I'll just set it up.
Speaker 1:I heard of a doctrine that someone was teaching recently that stated that Naomi and Ruth were lovers, that stated that Naomi and Ruth were lovers, that Naomi and Ruth were actually lovers and that they were not um, you know it wasn't a mentee, mentor type relationship, uh, and I was so grieved in my spirit when I heard that.
Speaker 1:So I don't know what type of conference this was, but I do know there were people in the audience. It was a live platform, and when the person commenced to say what he was saying that Naomi and Ruth were lovers the audience began to amen what this person was saying. So that really grieved my heart, because I realized that this person was in front of a lot of people who did not know their Bible, who didn't understand the word of God or didn't know the scriptures concerning Ruth and Naomi, and so there are other type of doctrines that's going on that we won't really get into, but the reality of it is is we're in that day, we're in that hour where there's going to be a lot of false teachings. The Bible says it, so I'd love to get your take on where we are, the state of the local church, and where we are as a body of Christ.
Speaker 2:Well, we're in the day that Jesus said we would be. In One of the scriptures, in Matthew, chapter 24, jesus said the signs of the last days would be. One of them would be deception. And also in Jude, he tells us. The word of God tells us that we are to contend for the faith that was once delivered on to the saints and that many that came out from us. They are going out bringing about all of these false doctrines, these heresies. But also what needs to happen is the fivefold ministry gifts that Jesus has given to his church need to equip the church with truth. They need to equip the saints to do the work of the ministry and edify the body of Christ. But the key part is that we be no more children tossed to and fro with every wind and doctrine and the cunning craftiness. So there's a lot of cunningness, there's a lot of craftiness. There's a lot of deception. But it's a lot of craftiness, there's a lot of deception, but it's hard to be deceived when you're mature. It's hard to be deceived when you know and understand the word of God.
Speaker 2:Well, we're now in a day where a lot of people they don't believe in submission, authority, accountability to true spiritual leaders. So a Bible-based church. A lot of times, what has happened? A lot of people have began to join churches for different reasons. The choir was good, the worship is good, my friend is there, or it's the new hot thing but we don't listen to the word of God. The main entree is the word of God, what you're being taught, what is challenging you to be conformed to the image of Christ. And so the Bible tells us those that are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish. And so, because we don't have true accountability in the body of Christ, good, strong spiritual leaders, deception becomes rampant.
Speaker 1:Wow. So we're going to dig a little bit deeper into what you just said about rightly dividing the word of truth. Yes, because that is the beginning of deception when you don't know the word, when you don't understand the word of God, you don't know how to rightly divide the word of truth. Because there are so many babies in the body of Christ that don't know how to divide the word of truth. They don't know how to unpack the scripture. Plus, they don't go to a church where unpacking the scripture is priority, and so let's talk about what does that mean? So if someone is listening to this podcast and they don't know that they're not, all they know is I got saved and I'm at a church, so they don't know that they are not getting the substance or not getting the tools to be able to rightly divide the word of truth, for instance. For instance, I had um. I saw a video, and this video, um, was a video of a young person who just got saved, and they had great influence in the world, right?
Speaker 2:So they had great influence in the world right, oh my god so they had great influence in the world.
Speaker 1:Then they get saved and get baptized and it's very public, so people know about this person's transformation. But there was a video that she did and she did an interview and on that interview she was dressed very provocatively and so on the interview she says you know, I have on this, I have on this short skirt, I have my little thigh out, I have this, and it doesn't matter because this is between my relationship with God, jesus and Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2:That's not correct.
Speaker 1:So what this tells me is is that she's a new believer. Maybe she doesn't have anybody in her life to help her understand. There should be a difference between when you got saved and what you should look like on the other side of your salvation.
Speaker 2:Well, I think the biggest problem has been we have allowed the world to bleed into the church. We have allowed the world to bleed into the church.
Speaker 1:Come on now.
Speaker 2:And so we begin to dilute what it means to be a part of the body of Christ. It's a body, and so, part of being in the body, discipleship should take place. You're in community, so being in discipleship, being in community, there's accountability, there's followership. So to be a follower of Christ, a disciple, means you're a learner and a follower. So that means someone that has been in the faith for a while, who has the fruit of the faith. Yes, they're walking you through, they're teaching you the do's and the don'ts, how to navigate being a believer of Jesus Christ, because salvation is just step one in our journey with the Lord. You get born again and you're saved, but now you got to learn how to live saved. That's for anything. If you join a gang, you got to learn how to be a gang member. Right.
Speaker 1:If you get a new job, you get a new job.
Speaker 2:You got to learn the culture. You got to learn how to operate on that job. That's good. If you become an airline pilot, you go to your trainings, but then you got to learn how to fly and do all of those things Well, discipleship is a missing piece. There was someone in our congregation that I called them on yesterday and I said to them I don't like what I saw on you Sunday. What's going on? This is what I see. That's accountability, that's helping them to be accountable. Help them to grow and they begin to open up with me and I begin to give them some instruction, because that is what the body of Christ is about.
Speaker 1:So what about those who are in a megachurch, who don't necessarily have a leader who can look in their eyes, because there's thousands of them? And so thus the importance of have somebody who you can be accountable to, a disciple, somebody who can disciple you, somebody who can call you accountable, somebody who can really be honest with you and look at you and say you know, you're not looking right, are you okay? So that was just the point that I wanted to make.
Speaker 2:Well, the point is this it doesn't matter whether you're a mega church or a church of five people, 10 people or a hundred thousand people. It's about the culture of what the body of Christ is. It should be a discipleship culture. So, even if the pastor cannot see everyone, the church has created a culture to nurture and develop people, and that is what the reality of what walking in Christ is all about. That's right, and so I just happened, because that's just how I am. I'm always looking at the flock, I'm always wanting to know the state of the flock, which the Bible commands us. And then we have created systems that help us to nurture and disciple and watch for people. But people have to also want that. That's exactly right, because what has happened? We have created a church culture. That's just about. Just give me a quick word, one hour service and I'm in and out.
Speaker 1:So the body of Christ has basically transitioned into this quick culture where there's no accountability.
Speaker 2:It's culture Christianity. It's not Bible Christianity. Bible Christianity we do life together, we walk together. We hold each other accountable. Just like you know, you remember we did a series called Don't Judge Me. So you get a lot of believers.
Speaker 2:Ain't nobody supposed to judge me, but God. That is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible tells us that if you have one in your fellowship, that if you have a brother or sister that is a fornicator, that is an adulterer, a liar in other words, they practice in sin and you go to them and they don't want to repent, you're supposed to isolate them out of your fellowship so they can see I'm out of order, so they can come back into order. If they don't choose to come back into order, they're supposed to be isolated outside so it can keep shining a light on them that I'm not doing what is right. That's Bible Christianity.
Speaker 2:That's Bible Christianity that we are to judge. We's Bible Christianity that we are to judge. We are to judge. We are to judge those that are in. We're not to judge those that are out. We're not to judge the world because the Bible said they are already condemned, they are already guilty, but we're to judge our own and because we have not subscribed to the Bible and we have allowed this motivational, speaking, inspirational Inspirational make me feel good crowd drawing type of. We try to call it Christianity, but it's not. It's a cultural Christianity. It's not Bible Christianity, it's a cultural Christianity, it's not Bible Christianity.
Speaker 1:Now, we're beginning to reap the harvest of what the church has sown for the last 20 years, and so it's important to understand that. The inspiration on Sunday mornings, you know, that's fine and dandy, but you have to balance that and go deeper in your study of the scripture Because, yes, you need, you know, leave church feeling good, repent, get everything together on Sundays, but when you leave church, you need to be able to go deeper so that you can grow, so you can develop, so that you can be discipled, you know, so that you can go and disciple someone else, you know, so that you can go and disciple someone else, instead of living off one high, off another high, from Sunday to Sunday and never really going deeper.
Speaker 2:You never grow in your relationship with God, you never become a disciple of Christ and Jesus. He talked about it throughout the scriptures in the gospel If any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. If anyone going to be my disciple, he must hate his own life. He must hate mother and father. Was he saying, hate them. He's saying in comparison to me and following me, it'll feel like hate. When you're going to choose to follow me, you're going to have to kill and get rid of these things in order to be the follower that I am requiring, anything that'll come in between my in between relationship with me and my word and what I said, because his standard is very high, but because when the church growth movement came in, everybody want to grow their church.
Speaker 2:So to grow their church, you now got to begin to cater, to flesh cater, to seeker friendly cater, to unbelievers. Instead of Holy Spirit drawing people, our systems draw people. So instead of us making disciples of Christ, we're making disciples of culture and disciples of man.
Speaker 1:So the church is not preaching on the hard subjects such as sin. They're not teaching the Bible. Subjects such as sin, they're not teaching the Bible. So basically, in order to keep the crowds coming. And so it's producing a church filled with immature people. Or, if they're Christians at all, right, because you can go and get inspired and never be inspired to come to Christ and lay down your old life. But the ones who are in that predicament or under that type of teaching or influence are the very ones who are going to be easily deceived. Those are people who would be easily deceived, easily take the mark of the beast which we're vastly approaching, that season where you know there's going to be more pressure on the church. And so, with these false doctrines coming in, the deception is coming in the church. The Bible talks about over in Jude I believe it was Jude, you mentioned early in Jude how we should contend for the faith and it talks about how these certain people creeped in.
Speaker 2:Unnoticed.
Speaker 1:Unnoticed.
Speaker 2:In other words, we ain't been paying attention to them.
Speaker 1:So the gatekeepers were not doing their job.
Speaker 2:They were not active.
Speaker 1:They weren't listening to the messages that was going forward. They weren't.
Speaker 2:They're not calling out things that need to be called out.
Speaker 1:Exactly. The generals of the faith are not standing up and tapping people on the shoulder and saying you're off on this hyper grace message.
Speaker 2:That is not. That's not the grace of God.
Speaker 1:That's not God's grace.
Speaker 2:You twisted the scriptures, you twisted a truth which we talk about. This all the time. There are great men of god that we used to follow that we no longer listen to. Right, they're off. They're off. They're off in their teaching. It's no longer biblical doctrine. They'll be. They've. They've given over to the culture and we respect them highly. We love them. They are brothers and sisters in Christ. They are our colleagues. But your doctrine has now become leavened.
Speaker 1:Last days there are going to be many who fall or many who are deceived because of the itching ears and the doctrines of devils are going to be so prominent. And the thing is is that because people are not accustomed to truth, the doctrines of devils does not seem like anything's wrong with it. You can be easily deceived.
Speaker 2:When you think about this, the Secret Service are responsible for investigating counterfeit bills, but when they go and Find out and study and how they're able to recognize a counterfeit bill, they don't study false bills, they study real bills. So they are so in tune with what is real that fake automatically stands out. So what has happened is people don't stay in the word of God and engulf themselves in truth. They go and pick all these different things and they put all these things in their spiritual mouth. So now your foundation was confusion. You didn't start a foundation of strictly truth because you weren't just a Bible person. You love to listen to everybody, regardless of what they say. Very dangerous, very dangerous.
Speaker 2:And then this is another big thing that we have allowed to happen. Into the body of Christ, the Bible says lay hands suddenly on no man and be not a partake of their sins. So what he's saying is don't be quick to release someone into their spiritual authority without them being proven, because now you release them, you're giving them influence, you're giving them authority and now you're becoming a partaker with their sins, because now they're causing shipwreck of many people's faith. And that's one of the things that social media has done. It has given people access and they have influence with their voice and they don't deserve influence because there's no one holding them accountable to what they're teaching and preaching.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I agree wholeheartedly. And so, going back to the rightly dividing the word of truth, what do you recommend for a new believer and how do they rightly divide the word of truth? I know for us when we first got born again, we read the word that was our primary.
Speaker 2:That's the main foundational thing read the word.
Speaker 1:That was our primary. That's the main foundational thing. And then we will couple that with um proven generals who had written books, such as kenneth hagan.
Speaker 2:Uh, I highly recommend his books he has amazing he has foundational teachings that will help give you a foundation in your salvation in terms of writing a divine well, I think the main thing for a baby believer is they need to find a mature believer that has the fruit of Christ in their life, that they walk it, how they talk it and ask them to disciple them. That's good. Instead of them trying to figure it out by themselves, they need to see someone that they like what they see in their life and say can you help me grow in my relationship with God Along with being a part of a strong local church?
Speaker 1:Absolutely, church Absolutely, and that way someone is helping you navigate the process and you're not just figuring it out on your own. Amen, that's good. What else would you like to add? Any scripture, anything you would like to add to give the people who are watching this an idea of how to navigate this world that's filled with so many doctrines, so many teachings other than what you just said. I think those two things were great Strong church and great discipleship.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean scriptures like Matthew 24, where Jesus is talking about signs of the last day, is deception. First, timothy 4, second, where all of Timothy yes.
Speaker 2:Chapter one and two and all of Peter and Jude. Jude and Timothy and Peter are basically the same type of writings that you're going to hear and they deal with deception all the time and part of the last day church, we're contending against deception. So those books Revelations 21 and 8, when he talked about the cowardly, the abominable all of these people are going to be cast into the lake of fire. So I encourage you to surround yourself with people that don't compromise, not being very sensitive believers that if you try to correct them, they easily offend it. If you're around those type of people that call themselves that type of believer, what is going to happen is it's going to weaken you because they have gotten engulfed in the culture.
Speaker 2:Any preachers that you hear that are trying to stimulate your ears and it doesn't challenge you to bear the fruit of Christ, they are a cultural Christian. They are a cultural preacher. So all of these type of things you have to be aware of and you need to evaluate the church that you are part of. What is your pastor, your apostle, your prophet is? Whatever their title is, what are they teaching? Are they challenging you to be a follower, a true disciple, of Christ, or are they stimulating your feelings, your emotions, your gift things? And we believe in all the gifts, we believe in the prophetic, we believe in the apostolic, we believe in all of those things. But more than anything, we should be like Jesus, we should be his church that the gates of hell would not prevail against his church that the gates of hell would not prevail against.
Speaker 1:And so, you know, as pastors, apostle and I, we feel like we are. You know, we always want our church to grow, but we made a decision that we don't want our church to grow at the expense of souls being at risk of going to hell because we refuse to teach truth. We were because we refuse to, uh, tell people what God does, says the Lord. So we have made a decision that that's not going to be our case. We're going to want, we want people to grow, develop in their relationship with Christ. Our goal is that all people hear well done. We want to hear well done, and we want our congregation to hear well done. And so I brought this podcast to you today, because we feel like we are voices in this last day.
Speaker 2:Amen.
Speaker 1:And that we have a mandate from God to be gatekeepers for the body of Christ, to be gatekeepers for the body of Christ, to speak out against the injustices of our society and to bring truth to God's people. So we just wanted to make sure that you are aware today, and that we give you these tools to help you understand that there's a great deception that's going to happen. The Bible says that there's going to be a great falling away. In other words, that there's going to be a great falling away. In other words, there's going to be a time where so many believers turn away from the faith. There is going to be, and that time is coming upon us even now.
Speaker 1:And so it's imperative that you work on your foundation, make sure your foundation is sure, because the Bible says that if your foundation is built on sand, when the winds and the storms come, great is going to be the fall of that building and so. But if your foundation is on a strong, steady foundation, when the storms come and the tests come for you to deny Christ, then you'll be able to stand, having done all stand. And so we just wanted to bring that truth to you today. We pray that this has blessed you this podcast and we'd love to hear from you. So be sure to comment, let us know what your thoughts are, and if you have any questions concerning these false doctrines that are out here false teachings we'll be glad to help you where we can. So God bless you all. We'll see you next time here on Effective Prayer Strategies podcast. Thank you.