February 18, 2025 • 64 mins
What if our understanding of love is all wrong? In "The Essence of Love," we explore how love is often misconstrued, looking beyond the surface to uncover its true nature as a divine gift rather than a mere human emotion. We promise that by the end of our discussion, you'll gain a fresh perspective on how love, guided by the Holy Spirit, can transcend selfish human inclinations and societal norms.
Throughout our conversation, we shed light on the pitfalls of relying solely on emotions in our relationships and decision-making. With insights from scripture and personal stories, we unravel how faith can lead us to a more authentic expression of love. By examining the consequences of choices driven by feelings, we underscore the importance of seeking divine wisdom, especially in an emotionally turbulent world, to nurture healthy and faithful connections with others.
In our final reflections, we apply these principles to the context of marriage and relationships, exploring God's blueprint for a thriving union. By embracing selfless, sacrificial love as shown by Jesus, couples can nurture relationships that mirror the sacred bond between Christ and the church. Whether you're preparing for marriage or navigating the complexities of a current relationship, our discussion offers spiritual tools to align your heart with God's will, fostering love that is both fulfilling and enduring.
Ready to dive deeper? 🎧 Join us on YouTube for the full video podcast where we explore faith, love, and relationships through a Christian lens. Whether married, single, or seeking spiritual growth, our episodes offer practical advice and profound insights to strengthen your walk with Jesus. Don’t forget to subscribe and hit the notification bell so you never miss a powerful episode. Let’s grow together in faith and purpose!
👉 Watch the full episode on YouTube now!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Walter (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of Stepping in Faith,
where, together, we explore theimportance of having a
relationship with God and howthat relationship with God can
impact the relationship you havewith others.
I'm your host, walter.
I'm joined here alongside mylovely wife.
Shania.
This is episode 12.
What's the title of this week'sepisode?
Shanea (00:23):
The Essence of Love.
The Essence of Love.
Walter (00:25):
The Essence of Love.
All right, so we are believers.
We love to start these podcastsout in prayer, and it is 12
o'clock in the morning, so I amgoing to hand it over to my wife
, since I prayed last week orlast week episode.
Okay, babe, could you open usup in prayer?
Shanea (00:45):
Sure, I was about to say the Lord's Prayer, no.
Walter (00:51):
God help my wife.
Holy Spirit.
Shanea (00:54):
Holy Spirit, help us, father God, we thank you.
We thank you, Father God, forallowing us to be a vessel for
your word.
I pray, father God, that youwill Holy Spirit work through us
tonight.
I pray, father God, that youwill Holy Spirit work through us
tonight and provide those ortoday listening with a word from
the heaven that will touch them, that will bless them.
(01:16):
In Jesus' name, we pray amen.
Walter (01:20):
Amen, amen.
So the essence of love.
So we went through this lastweek.
Why are you laughing?
Shanea (01:32):
Because the size.
Walter (01:35):
Tired.
Yes, so we went.
God was dealing with me on lovelast week and I was praying
again this week and I'm like,okay, God, what do you want me
to discuss?
And love kept coming to me, andso don't know why you did that.
Shanea (01:51):
I didn't know.
Walter (01:52):
You got to be real careful with that, because
that's going to hit in the audio.
So I'm like okay, love, and wejust kind of just started
downloading stuff into my spirit.
I began to look at scripturesand just revelation just began
to flow.
(02:12):
So, love, I think it's a wordthat we utilize so freely.
I think it's a word that weutilize so freely and we don't
(02:33):
really think about what we'resaying when we use it.
What do you mean?
Like people that say I lovepizza, I love my car, I love my
house, I love my job, it's so,it's used so freely.
But we don't understand.
And even the way that weapproach love is really kind of
(02:54):
selfish, selfishly based.
You know, it's a more it's notabout typically, when you
approach love, it's not aboutwhat it's approach love, it's
not about what.
It's about what the person cando for you and it's kind of
about what you do for thatperson or it's about what you
can.
It's it's more so about what theperson does for you than it is
(03:16):
about what you do for thatperson right I did this for you
and and you know we talked aboutthis before love is
transactional right, it's whatyou can do for me, or how you
make me feel.
Based on what I do for you fromthe perspective of like okay, I
did this, so I expect this fromyou.
Shanea (03:36):
Yeah, I guess I mean, when you look at it as like a
material thing, it's like peoplelove their cars.
Walter (03:43):
I mean.
But when you think of it from arelationship perspective,
that's how people approach itright.
When you're sitting incounseling and your marriage is
not going right or yourrelationship is not going right
for those who get counselingwithin relationships, I don't
know, but that's their businessyou sit there and say I do this,
this, this, this, this and thisfor this person and they don't
(04:05):
do anything for me.
They don't give me the thingsthat I need.
So God was really dealing withme on the the essence of love,
or what love really is, becauseof course, love is a fruit of
the spirit, and so that alreadylets us know.
It's something that when youapproach love, the way God is
(04:27):
intended for love to beapproached it's supposed to be
approached from the perspectiveof the spirit of God, kind of
giving you the power to loveyeah, well, I mean, that's why
most of us don't reallyexperience love, or how to give
love or receive love, because itis based off the fruit of the
(04:48):
spirit of god yeah, and I'mjumping ahead.
But, matter of fact, let's justget started, okay, because I'm
gonna just jump all over allright.
So the foundation of love in thespirit, right?
Um, the biggest thing is and wetalked about this just before
love is not something we canproduce on our own, but it is a
(05:11):
result of the holy spirit's workwithin us.
One of the things that, um,when I was going through my
conversion and, like you know,god had me in my wilderness
experience, he kept telling meto love you through him.
And it didn't make sense, like,what do you mean?
What do you mean love herthrough you?
(05:33):
And he was essentially sayingthat the only way that I can
truly love you is by the powerof the Holy Spirit.
Yeah.
Outside of that, it's impossiblefor me to love you from a
selfless place.
Shanea (05:48):
Yeah, because you would be expecting something from me
that I possibly can't give toyou.
Walter (05:54):
The world teaches you to expect, or the fact of the
reality is, even in those, thoseinstances, right Based on your
world experiences and yourworldview, you didn't even know
who you were.
Shanea (06:07):
No, or you would be loving someone in a way that
they aren't able to receive, oryou're loving someone,
consistently expecting somethingback in return.
Walter (06:16):
So as you do what you do , once again it's transactional.
I'm doing this because I wantthis from you.
Right.
I'm not doing this because it'scoming from a selfless
perspective.
So the biggest thing, theexample, and I like this God's
design for us to love throughhis spirit.
(06:36):
God's design for us is to lovethrough his spirit, not from our
soul, which is our mind, willand emotions.
And the world teaches us thatyou should go, you should love
someone based on how you feel.
Yes, right, but that's not god.
Shanea (06:54):
That's based on how you feel how they treat you.
I mean how they treat you to acertain extent, it's based on.
Walter (07:04):
It's based on, like when you think of love, even when
you think of some of the mostpopular love songs, it's all
based around or based on likefeelings and emotions how the
person make you feel yeah, butwe know that feelings are
fleeting, like it's here movedby our feelings because it's.
It's here today and it's goingtomorrow yeah there's times that
you're going to wake up and youdon't feel as if you don't feel
(07:27):
like doing something.
The bible teaches us that we'renot to be moved by how we feel.
We'll be moved by faith in theword of god.
And the key thing is I was kindof working through all of this
uh this is so good.
The soul is connected to thefallen world, which makes it
inherently wicked.
Right and jeremiah 17 and 9,which is one of the first
(07:51):
scriptures that we're going togo to tonight or this morning,
and this is New King James.
Let me see, this is the NLT.
It says the human heart is themost deceitful of all things and
(08:14):
desperately wicked.
Who really knows how bad it is,but the Lord searches all
hearts and examines secretmotives.
Shanea (08:29):
I give all people their due rewards according to what
their actions deserve, right,which is really really good,
because I, the lord, search allhearts and examine secret
motives motives what.
What came to me is you knowwhat we talk about.
All the time is when you aresearching for that someone, you
(08:53):
can't do that in your ownstrength because you don't know
everything about their heart andyou don't know what their
secret motives are.
Walter (09:02):
You don don't know your heart.
Shanea (09:03):
You don't know, you don't truly know this person.
Walter (09:08):
So it digs back into what we're talking about this
week.
How can I love if I don't knowwhat's really inside me and I
don't know what's really insideyou it's impossible for me to do
, which is why peopleconsistently talk about how they
change and they evolve.
You're trying to do somethingfor someone that is doing
nothing for them, or because,once again, unfortunately, the
(09:31):
world teaches you to go basedoff of your experiences, even a
lot of the church will teach youGo out and date, date as many
people as you can date.
Find yourself through datingpeople.
So by the time you get to thismarriage, or whatever it may be,
even if it's a marriage thatwas designed by God, you are a
broken person that has leftpieces of yourself and all of
(09:52):
these different people, and youhave created what you think is
best for you based on thoseexperiences.
Now you bring it to this personand saying I have these 10 other
people I've been with, or fiveother people, or 15 other people
I've been with.
I need you to encompass all 10,15, five of those people and
(10:15):
love me that way.
Shanea (10:16):
But you try to define your identity by those
experiences.
So it's like no, I'm not goingto do this.
I don't like this.
I don't want this.
Walter (10:24):
This is not going to happen, based off of your
experiences which is why itfails once again, because we're
trying to love from a fallenstate and it's impossible to do,
because we have to understandthat, just as god has a plan and
the design for love, the enemydoes too, and it's just the
(10:45):
reality of what it is.
Yeah, so going from there,right, this digs into or this
kind of I like this.
It says God intended for us tolove, and I don't think I I
didn't speak on this.
God intended for us to lovefrom the spirit, not the
(11:06):
brokenness of our soul.
And unfortunately, because ofhow we approach relationships,
even as believers, by the timewe get into a marriage or by the
time we think that we're whereGod has called us to be because
sometimes we're not we arebroken.
(11:27):
We are very much so brokenbecause you went through losing
relationships, you went throughpeople hurting you, you went
through people mistreating you.
All of this stuff hurt people,hurt people.
You have trauma from yourchildhood, have rejection issues
, you have abandonment issues.
You have all of these thingsand you get to this person and
(11:50):
you don't know how to lovebecause you're already broken,
you already have a misconstruedworldview and you're trying to
love from that perspective oryour view of love is not good.
Shanea (12:03):
It's abuses, trauma, it's all those things so you
shut down to it completely.
Walter (12:10):
Yeah, which is why transformation begins when we
allow the holy spirit.
We gotta allow the holy spiritto renew our minds and our
hearts.
You have to, prior to evengoing through this process and
saying I want to, whatevergetting married or whatever the
case, you have to go throughtransformation.
Your mind has to be renewed.
(12:30):
You have to go through theprocess of allowing God to peel
back those layers, becausethere's very few people out here
.
It's what we're teaching andwe're getting pushback for it,
but there's very few people outhere who live life in such a way
where it's like I'm going towait Right.
I'm going to wait.
Shanea (12:45):
Right, I'm going to wait to experience this no, because
people tell you that you shouldgo out and date and you should
go out and date you like howwill you, and first, how will
you even meet this partner?
Walter (12:57):
if you don't go anywhere , yeah, you gotta go and you
gotta look for them.
Yeah, you gotta figure out whatyou like, what you enjoy but
that's not true, because that'sour story.
Shanea (13:06):
We weren't out looking, no, I met him at the mailbox
yeah, he was waiting on me thatis a lie.
You were there first he waswaiting on me but anyway, ladies
, you don't have to go outanywhere, you could stay in your
house and god will bring yourhusband to you have him stay in
(13:27):
the building a building overfrom you for like an entire year
or two years, and you don'teven know it.
No, never drive by their carevery day walk past them and
don't even know but, but this isgood, right?
Walter (13:41):
um, we have to understand that and that's what,
as God was kind of just reallydownloading stuff in my spirit,
it's like it's so simple, butit's so true.
We keep trying to love from abroken state and the world
teaches us to love that way.
Shanea (13:58):
Because they don't know how to do it.
Walter (14:00):
No, you're all trying to figure it out.
Shanea (14:02):
Because they don't know God.
They don't know God or Jesus oryou equate love and I'm.
Walter (14:06):
I'm jumping ahead to emotions.
Yeah.
When love is a decision.
So let's move on, understandingthe role of the soul and
emotions Okay.
So we know this the soulconsists of the mind, will and
emotions.
That's what the soul is.
It consists of the mind, willand emotions.
These elements of the soul areinfluenced by our worldview and
(14:36):
are shaped by a fallen world.
So this is so good, as I waskind of working through all of
this.
Trying to love from a brokensoul creates more brokenness.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, trying to love from a broken soul creates more
brokenness.
Walter (14:45):
Yeah, trying to love from a broken soul creates more
brokenness.
Shanea (14:48):
Yeah, because what lives in your soul?
That's why hurt people, hurtpeople because, you're being
influenced by something wicked.
You're being influenced by thisworld, that trauma, that abuse,
(15:09):
and satan does what he comes tokill, steal and destroy and the
.
Walter (15:12):
The interesting thing is , satan always worked through us
by way of trauma, the.
The thing that he always triedto do with us is expose us to
trauma yeah, that's how thatseed is planted.
Shanea (15:24):
He always tried to expose us to trauma.
Walter (15:25):
Yeah, that's how that seed is planted.
He always tried to expose us totrauma, always, always, always,
and so trying to love from abroken soul creates more
brokenness, and, unfortunately,majority of us are dealing with
some type of brokenness.
(15:46):
Yeah, you go and you get.
Shanea (15:47):
You go and get counseling, but counseling don't
heal the brokenness no, becauseyou don't even know where it
came from most of the time nobut it starts in your childhood
for the most part but you and wetalked about this before
counseling only places aband-aid on it.
Walter (16:05):
Counseling isn't bad, no , but you need healing
spiritually.
You need.
Shanea (16:10):
Counseling is a good tool.
It's like a survival kit, butyou have to get to the root of
the problem and it has surgeryuprooted.
Walter (16:21):
You gotta have surgery you have to have surgery Now.
Once you have surgery, we canlook at counseling as like you
have to go through physicaltherapy or something of that
nature to learn how to, becauseeven once God heals you, once
you go through deliverance andyou're healed, you still have to
have your mind renewed.
Yes, which is where counselingplays in.
Shanea (16:43):
Spiritual counseling Under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, under spiritual guidanceof the Holy.
Walter (16:45):
Spirit, under the guidance of the.
Shanea (16:46):
Holy.
Walter (16:47):
Spirit counseling from like a spiritual place.
Yeah.
Not just regular counseling.
Shanea (16:51):
No but they have a rhema word for you.
Walter (16:53):
Yes, and they're being led by the spirit of God as they
walk you through counseling.
Or we talked about this when wewas heading back from Charlotte
that one time instead ofcounseling.
Look at it, looking at it froma perspective of discipleship.
Yes, Well yes.
Discipleship, mm-hmm.
So we have the soul.
(17:16):
We know what the soul is.
Now we look into the emotions,because everybody is moving
based on their emotions,everybody.
Mm-hmm.
You want to read thatdefinition of emotions back.
Shanea (17:29):
The definition of emotions.
Emotions are feelings thatarise from experiences, thoughts
or situations.
They can range from happinessto anger, influencing our
behavior.
Everything we do, unfortunately, is influenced by our emotions.
Walter (17:49):
Everything we do is influenced by our emotions and
the danger of that right isemotions can be influenced by
the prince of this world yeahprince of this world being satan
, yeah, and they are often nottrustworthy guides for making
decisions, right?
So when we think about this, wethink about 2 Corinthians 5 and
(18:11):
7.
2 Corinthians 5 and 7 says thisand this is NLT For we live by
believing and not by seeing.
Or a New King James Version forthose who like to read it.
It says for we walk by faithand not by seeing.
Or a New King James Version forthose who like to read it.
It says For we walk by faithand not by sight, for we walk by
(18:32):
faith and not by sight.
Romans 10 and 17 says this.
So then, faith comes by hearing,and hearing by the word of God.
This is a New King Jamesversion.
Nlt says so.
Faith comes from hearing, thatis, hearing the good news about
(18:55):
Christ.
So I think, when we look at itfrom this perspective, right, we
have to understand that we'renot to be moved by our emotions,
but we'll move.
We'll be moved by the word ofgod, the word of god being the
word of god, and the word of goda rhema word, the word of god.
(19:16):
We have to be moved by thatbecause outside of that, we will
fail right.
Shanea (19:23):
And when you have those emotions because god does give
us emotions for a reason we haveto go back to God and say God,
why am I feeling like this?
Is this of God?
Walter (19:32):
But you should never make an emotional decision or
you should never go based uponemotions because, once again, we
have to understand youremotions can be influenced
either by God or by the enemy.
Right we see Eve.
I always go back to Eve andAdam because it's where it began
.
It was her emotions that wasinfluenced.
The enemy he enticed her.
He enticed her.
(19:54):
That was an emotional response.
Yeah.
And that's why it's so importantthat we are taught, or that's
why we're taught.
You can't be moved by how youfeel.
You have to be moved by theword of god.
We saw adam, we saw abraham and, uh, sarah, yeah, god gave them
a word and they were moved bythe emotion, so they tried to
(20:15):
create ishmael because they feltas if it was something that was
impossible.
Right, whenever you get,whenever you are moved by your
emotions, you will get yourselfin trouble.
Yeah.
Your emotions will lead youdirectly into disobedience to
God.
Shanea (20:31):
Yeah, and it's not easy.
Walter (20:33):
Oh, it's not.
Shanea (20:34):
You have to go to God every single time you have these
emotions.
It's like God.
I know I heard this word fromyou, but I don't see it
happening.
Walter (20:44):
You have to go through the process of dying to self so
you learn to understand thatyour emotions are there, but
your emotions don't dictate whatyou do and so I think that is
the biggest thing.
And so I think that is thebiggest thing, and as we move
(21:10):
further, I'm like we're movingquickly.
This is what you want, but okay, faith.
Shanea (21:16):
Is what I want.
Walter (21:17):
Yeah, you was like this is going to be 30 minutes, this
is going to be like a 30-minuter.
Yeah, so everything ties backto faith, so I was writing
everything down, right.
And what came to me is theimportance of faith.
It's by faith that you are ableto operate within the fruit of
(21:43):
the Spirit.
It's by faith that you're ableto trust that the Spirit of God
can produce these said fruit inyou.
And love is a part of the fruitof the spirit.
So in order to love, I have tofirst have faith, to believe
that God can create in me thevery essence of who God is.
Because when we think of thefruit of the spirit, we know the
fruit of the spirit of whatcharacteristics of God.
Shanea (22:06):
So it's taken upon the DNA or the characteristics of
God, right of the spirit, ofwhat characteristics of god
right, so it's taken upon thedna or the characteristics of
god, right presence of god,literally.
Walter (22:11):
So it's shifting what the world has created within you
.
And now what's downloading, oryou're downloading or allowing
to be downloaded into you, theactual characteristics of God,
which are the fruit of thespirit.
So faith is essential foraccessing the fruit of the
spirit right, and without faithwe cannot love the way God
(22:35):
intended for us to love.
So faith in God's wordstrengthens us to live by the
spirit, and it's through thespirit that we are empowered to
love others.
Say that again Faith in God'sWord strengthens us to live by
the Spirit.
Paul talks about this all thetime.
It is by the power of theSpirit, it is by having faith,
(22:58):
it's by believing in the Spiritto help you move forward in the
works of God, and by doing that,or through doing that, we are
empowered to love others.
Not only love others, yet alsolove God, which is God's desire.
(23:18):
For us is to love God and loveothers.
And so what do you think aboutthat, babe?
I'm putting you on the spot.
Shanea (23:31):
Why are you putting me on the spot?
Walter (23:34):
That's what we're doing.
Shanea (23:35):
I don't know why you're putting me on the spot right now
, because I'm over here lookinglike a deer in headlights.
Walter (23:43):
Why are you looking like a deer in headlights?
Shanea (23:45):
Because it is 12 o'clock in the morning.
Almost 1 o'clock, almost 1o'clock.
Walter (23:51):
Oh, listen, I'm in it now.
Shanea (23:52):
And the spirits are spiriting right now.
Walter (23:54):
I'm in it right now, Like I am.
I'm in it.
Shanea (23:57):
The spirits are spiriting right now.
Walter (23:59):
Why?
Because you're tired?
No, because it's it's.
It's witching hours.
Shanea (24:07):
Oh, we ain't worried about that.
That's listen.
Walter (24:08):
Look, everybody ain't like me I know, but I'm saying
like this there's a hedge ofprotection around this house
there is a hedge of protectionwe're gonna get this work in and
get this word to everyone Iknow, but while you was over
there talking about um, wherewere we?
We're talking about, um,everything ties back to faith.
I was talking about theimportance of having faith in
(24:29):
God's word.
Oh, segment three right.
Shanea (24:30):
Yeah, yeah, while you were over there talking about
faith in God's word, I was overhere praying.
Oh.
Okay, so you put me on the spot, but I was in the spirit realm,
okay.
Walter (24:44):
So we're talking about this.
What are your thoughts?
Shanea (24:48):
Faith in God's word strengthens us to live by the
spirit, and it's through thespirit that we are empowered to
love others.
Well, jesus said he was goingto send us a helper.
Walter (25:03):
The Holy Spirit.
Shanea (25:03):
Yes, the Holy Spirit, and that's what he does.
The fruit of the spirit is whatlove, joy, patience, peace,
kindness, gentleness we can onlyright, we can only do that
through the power of the holyspirit yeah, the bible says it's
by way of the spirit.
The spirit produces these typeof fruit right in your life
(25:24):
right and it gave a starkdifference in comparison to your
flesh and it produces the fruitin your life, not just in
yourself, but in everything thatyou touch and everything that
you're around.
So when you're being led by theHoly Spirit, he helps you renew
(25:47):
your mind so that you willbecome more like God, more like
Jesus, right Taking on thecharacteristics of God, but then
in making decisions that alsoproduce the fruit yeah, like
your partner or your job.
Walter (26:06):
Because in everything you're doing, you're being led
by the spirit of God.
Shanea (26:09):
So you will see those fruits.
Are you joyful?
Do you have peace?
Is everyone around you kind?
Are they gentle?
No, am I quarreling in thisrelationship?
Am I quarreling at work?
Walter (26:26):
Is it the spirit of God producing those fruit?
Shanea (26:29):
or is it your flesh Right?
Is it something you have tocontinue to keep doing Now?
I'm exhausted and I'm burnt out.
Walter (26:35):
Mm-hmm.
And now?
So that's a perfect segue intowhat God has designed for love
to truly look like.
Because we can I think we.
We can talk about what, and I'mdigging someplace else, but we
(26:57):
know how love in the world look.
Right, if we had to sum up lovefrom the perspective of how the
world approaches it, how wouldyou sum that up?
What do you mean?
Shanea (27:15):
The way the world teaches us to love.
The way the world teaches us tolove is selfish.
Walter (27:21):
We love selfishly, even when we think we are doing the
right thing, we're still lovingselfishly, even when we think
I'm giving of myself to you.
I'm doing this.
I'm doing that.
Shanea (27:31):
It's still with an expectation of something back,
because you will start to feellike you're not appreciated or
worthy, because you're notgetting what you think you
deserve.
Walter (27:48):
It's because you're doing it in your own strength.
Shanea (27:57):
But, God says he will give them what he thinks they
deserve, and in that scripturethat you gave us earlier, which
was, was that Jeremiah 17, nineand 10.
The Lord specifically says Iwill reward you based off of
your actions.
Walter (28:14):
And I don't want to jump ahead because we see the
perspective of how God lovelooks like.
First corinthians 12 right butessentially, simply put, when
you're loving from the world oryou're going based off of a
worldview, it's the opposite ofthat right, yeah so, for example
(28:39):
, agape love.
agape love is selfless,unconditional and sacrificial.
Agape love is selfless,unconditional and sacrificial.
We see these examples in Christand God, god the Father and God
the Son.
The Bible says For God so lovedthe world that he gave his only
begotten Son.
(28:59):
That he gave his only begottenSon, that's.
John 3.16.
We've seen that jesus in thegarden of gethsemane I think I
have an example here yeah, I do,and I'll get into that in a
second um that he literally gaveup his life.
Even though he was likestruggling, his flesh struggling
(29:23):
, he still made the decision togo forward with what God told
him to do, even though he knewthe people were rejecting him
and they were rejecting him.
Yeah, so it's the love that Godhas for humanity and the love he
calls us to show others.
Yeah, that's agape love.
It's the love that God has forhumanity, and not only the love
(29:47):
that he calls for us to showothers, but the love he also
calls for us to show him too,it's a selfless, unconditional
and sacrificial type love, andthe only way that we can show
that love is through the powerof the Holy Spirit, because,
outside of that, show that loveis through the power of the Holy
Spirit.
Shanea (30:06):
Because, outside of that it's impossible, because we are
born into this world selfish.
Yeah, we're born into thisworld with expectations.
This world is based off oftransactions.
Walter (30:16):
Yes.
Shanea (30:16):
It's all transactions.
Walter (30:18):
But from the demonic perspective, it is based off of
transactions.
Shanea (30:22):
Yeah you have to give something yeah you know it's all
transactionally based where godis more so about relationship
well, it's all transaction based, because the only way the enemy
can have access to your life isif you give him something yes,
so he's always trying to get youto give him something or take
(30:43):
something from you because whenyou give him something, that
means you giving him access butsome people would say, oh well,
being there, having arelationship with god, is
transactional.
Walter (30:53):
It's different it's no, it's a difference between me
saying he's your creator andit's like it's god's relation.
It's like it's God's relation.
It's about relationship.
It's about relationship.
It's about relationship withGod.
Shanea (31:10):
Yeah, and it's about your heart posture that I was
just thinking about.
Like, if you have, if you're anemployee and you have your boss
, like you want to build arelationship, not so that you
(31:31):
can get a promotion, but justbecause you want to be close and
you will learn things from them, right, you become a mentee,
it's, it's, and people, peoplewill know your motives, right?
So if I'm a boss and someone'scoming to me and they always
want to be around me, I'mlooking to see well, what do you
want from me?
Yeah, why are you here?
Are you trying to get somethingfrom me?
You know, and so that's.
(31:52):
I believe that's how God seesus.
It's like, why, why are youhere?
Walter (31:56):
Are you here because you love me Right.
Shanea (32:10):
And you just want to know me, or are you here because
you're trying to get somethingright and we have to be careful,
because we're taught to be thatway.
We're taught to be that way.
We don't know anything else?
Yeah, and, and when you weretalking earlier, um, about agape
love and how it's selfless andunconditional and sacrificial,
and you say that you said yousaid that the enemy makes love
the exact opposite right, and sowhat came to me was 1
(32:32):
Corinthians 13, 4, where love ispatient and kind.
Love is not jealous or boastful,or proud or rude.
It does not demand its own way,it is not irritable and it
keeps no record of being wronged.
It does not rejoice aboutinjustice, but rejoices whenever
(32:53):
the truth wins out.
Love never gives up, neverloses faith, is always hopeful
and endures through everycircumstance, and so when that
came to mind, it really put intoa perspective that when we love
(33:13):
, it is the complete opposite ofwhat I just read.
Most of the time, you'reimpatient.
A lot of people are impatient.
They're like, oh my gosh,you're taking too long to
acknowledge me, or you're takingtoo long to marry me, or you're
taking too long to fulfill myneeds, or I'm demanding
(33:36):
something from you I want it myway and I'm not getting it my
way, right, and so you getirritated.
And then you start to keeprecords and tabs of who did what
who didn't?
do this Right, exactly, you getoffensive, and that is
definitely not a fruit of thespirit.
Walter (33:58):
Yeah and well, I think.
Unfortunately, it's just onceagain.
It's what we're taught.
It's something that came to me,but I forgot it.
It'll come back.
Shanea (34:09):
I saw you over there.
Walter (34:10):
Yeah, it was something that came to me, but it'll come
back.
Holy Spirit, I thank you forbringing it back, but you did
actually dig into the notes andwe're touching that again.
But yeah, the love that theworld teaches us to have is the
opposite of what god teaches usyeah it's very self-based yeah
like it, it keeps records it'syou.
(34:32):
You says you should give methis.
Yeah, I deserve to have thisright, and if you don't give me
this, I'm gonna take my lovefrom you by the time.
Shanea (34:40):
I want it from you.
I shouldn't expect and see thisfrom you if I'm doing this so
that's good.
Walter (34:51):
The world is just the opposite of what first
corinthians 12 is.
They teach you the opposite.
Yeah, literally, or you act asif this is something that you're
doing, but it's all based offof getting something in return.
Yeah.
So it's still not pure.
No.
And so we touched on this, right, mm-hmm.
(35:13):
The ultimate example ofselfless love is what God did by
sending his son to die for us,even though we didn't deserve it
.
Right, that's John 3.16.
And Matthew 26, 36 through 44,.
This touches on the Jesus beingin the garden of Gethsemane and
(35:38):
the Bible saying that his soulwas just crushed almost to the
point of death because he wasstruggling with the fact of
having to go through everythinghe was going to almost to the
point of death, right.
Because he was struggling withthe fact of having to go through
everything he was going to haveto go through.
And so Jesus exemplified agapelove in the Garden of Gethsemane
(35:59):
, submitting his will to theFather Despite his emotions and
the pain he would endure.
So agape love is about choosingto love and obey, even when
it's difficult or goes againstpersonal desires.
Dying to self, agape love isliterally you die to your own
desires.
Yeah.
And you say I'm going to dowhat's best for this person.
Shanea (36:25):
Yeah, it's unconditional .
Walter (36:28):
There's no conditions, there's nothing attached.
Right.
There's nothing attached to it,and this goes into Christ's love
for the church.
Christ's love for the church isunconditional.
It's so unconditional that whenhe sat on the cross, he said,
father, forgive them, for theyknow not what they do.
They were literally mocking himand he said, father, forgive
(36:53):
them, for they know not whatthey do.
So now, men and we've read thisbefore and it's very
challenging to do, but this isthe type of love that God has
called us to have Ephesians 5,verse 25.
It says For husbands, this meanslove your wives, just as Christ
(37:15):
loved the church.
He gave up his life for her tomake her holy and clean, washed
by the cleansing of God's word.
He did this to present her tohimself as a glorious church
without a spot or wrinkle or anyother blemish.
Instead, she would be holy andwithout fault.
In the same way, husbands areto love their wives as they love
(37:37):
their own bodies, for a man wholoves his wife actually shows
love for himself.
No one hates his body, butfeeds and cares for it, just as
Christ cares for the church.
So, with that being the caseright, it's important to
understand the importance ofloving the way God designed for
(38:00):
us to love, and I think I heardTim Ross say this before.
But men, when we get married,we show up to our marriage or
our wedding day, we show up todie.
Yeah.
You die to your own desires.
You die to whatever it is youwant.
Yeah.
(38:20):
You show up to die to self.
Shanea (38:23):
Yeah, you get married to die.
Walter (38:25):
Yeah, it's as simple as that.
Shanea (38:27):
Well, I mean, it's the same thing with Christ.
I mean, when we get married toChrist, when we become his bride
, we have to die.
Walter (38:34):
Yeah, and so the thing that we see right and this
becomes you become a masterservant when you think of
Ephesians 5, 25, 29,.
I love this.
This means embracing humilityand servitude, putting the needs
(38:58):
of your spouse above your owndesires.
So, in a sense, you become amaster servant.
As men, we become a masterservant to our wives.
We submit to our wives, whichis where men struggle because
they're like oh, when you getmarried, you have to submit to
me.
Shanea (39:15):
Well, you submit to your wife first yeah, well, they
struggle because they are tryingto love from a worldly
perspective.
Yeah.
Which is selfish.
Walter (39:28):
And I think loving the way God designed is impossible
outside of a relationship withhim and they will look at you
like you're crazy for doing it.
Yeah, but the only way.
Because once again the Biblesays For God so loved the world
that he gave his only son.
The Bible teaches us that Jesusdied on the cross for our sins.
(39:50):
The Bible shows us that Jesusactually washed the feet of his
disciples.
Jesus was always serving thepeople.
He was always accepting themwhere they were, meeting them,
where they were walking throughlife with them and doing life
with them.
He was always concerned withthe needs of the people as he
did the will of the Father Right.
(40:13):
So loving the way God designedis impossible outside of a
relationship with God.
For men, it's you having arelationship with God that
teaches you how to love.
For women, it's you having arelationship with God that
teaches you how to love.
Shanea (40:32):
Yeah, and we said this, and I don't remember what
episode it was but you can'tlove outside of Christ.
No, it's impossible If youdon't know Christ, because
because christ, he is theepitome of what love is.
He shows us the epitome of whatlove looks like, and if you
don't know him, then you can'tpossibly know what love is well,
(40:55):
you can love, but it's notgoing to be something that's
sustained or sustainable.
Walter (41:00):
It's going to be something that's going to be
fleeting.
Shanea (41:03):
It's here today.
No, it's going to feel likewhat you think love should be.
Walter (41:07):
Sometimes you're going to hate them Sometimes.
You're going to be this.
I don't want to be bothered,and it goes into the next point.
Many marriages fail becausethey are built on worldly
definitions or the worldlydefinition of love, rather than
God's framework of sacrificial,selfless love.
Many marriages fail becausethey are built on worldly
(41:31):
definition or a worldlydefinition of love, rather than
God's framework of sacrificial,selfless love.
That's the reality of what itis, because when you approach
that marriage, first of all,when you're in a marriage that
was designed by God first acovenant that was designed by
God and then you approach thatmarriage the way God designed
(41:56):
for you to approach it you havetwo people essentially that are
showing up and dying.
Yeah, you have two peopleessentially that are showing up
and dying.
Yeah.
The husband shows up and diefirst, which in return would
show the wife.
Shanea (42:14):
He become the example to the wife, because Christ became
the example to us as a church.
Well, I think it's easier to gothrough this process prior to
meeting or looking for a spouseand we were talking about this,
about being in your wildernessseason so that you can know
God's voice, know what God lookslike, know what he's telling
(42:36):
you to do, know your purpose,and so it's easier to continue
out that plan even when you havea so-called distraction,
because you're so used tofollowing God's word.
It's like in your DNA.
Yeah, and I mean so dying toself is like it's hard, but it's
(43:03):
not something that you're justlearning how to do because now
you're in a marriage.
Walter (43:07):
Yeah, and I wouldn't say marriage is a distraction.
I know Paul said that, yet Paulalso did not want to be married
.
Yeah, and people use Paul tojustify the things that they do.
Paul was saying this is mespeaking, not god.
I believe marriage is adistraction because I'm not
married and I don't think youshould be married yeah, and I'm
(43:29):
not saying marriage, I'm notcalling marriage a distraction.
I'm just saying in general.
I'm speaking on engine becauseI know no it came up.
Shanea (43:34):
It came up also when I said distraction, I'm like dang
paul, but what I was saying wasthat there are there are a lot
of other challenges that cancome along with being with
another person.
Walter (43:47):
Yeah, yeah.
It's the perfect example of thereflection of Christ in the
church.
Ultimately, your marriageshould be an example of Christ's
marriage to the church,christ's marriage to the bride,
which is the church.
Your marriage should be anexample of that.
It should literally, which iswhy you would want to be, and we
(44:08):
recommend people being in godlymarriages, because it leads
people back to Christ.
That is the ultimate goal, forthat.
One of the things you should bedoing is leading people back to
Christ through the reflectionof your marriage.
It should be a light in peopleback to christ through the
reflection of your marriage.
It should be a light in thisworld full of darkness.
Shanea (44:29):
Your life right and your marriage should be a light so
when you do have thosechallenges, it's a reminder hey,
we got to do this god's way,not how we think we should do it
not.
I'm going to try and get you tofollow God's way, but you guys
are already on the same pageLike, hey, this, this is, this
(44:50):
is not God.
Walter (44:51):
Yeah.
Shanea (44:52):
We got to stop.
Walter (44:53):
That's the only way that you're really going to be have
a fulfilling marriage is bydoing it the right way.
We other episodes we touched on.
You know God actually leadingyou to that person, but even
before that, you go through thewilderness experience.
You have your experience withGod so you can learn God's voice
.
All of these things areimportant, which leads to the
point of you being here andunfortunately, we are in a world
(45:15):
where a lot of people date.
So even when you have yourconversion or you have your
encounter with God, you've dateda lot.
So you need to be healed, youneed to be delivered, your mind
has to be renewed, you have tolet go of those things because
you develop an appetite that isnot of God.
Shanea (45:33):
Or you have developed habits.
Walter (45:35):
That is not of God.
And you want to carry thosehabits into this relationship
that you're trusting that God isgoing to bless you with this
husband or wife, that God isgoing to bless you with this,
this husband or wife that God isgoing to bless you with, but
you want to carry in thesehabits that are not godly, these
desires that are not godly.
So you have to go throughoutthis whole process.
Shanea (45:52):
It's a process you have to go through a pruning process,
Because the rest of the worldis like that's normal.
Walter (45:57):
Yes.
Shanea (45:58):
You should feel that way .
Walter (46:05):
But you will fail because you are a believer and
you are not to be moved or gobased on the world.
We talked about this before.
The church allows the world toset or dictate the culture in
the church and the church shoulddictate the culture in the
world.
Shanea (46:16):
Oh, absolutely, that's how it was supposed to be.
Walter (46:19):
The world should look at the church, which is being led
by the kingdom of God.
They have a kingdom mind, theyhave a relationship with God and
be like, okay, what is it thatyou have?
But in many cases,unfortunately, the world look at
the church and say I don't wantthat, because you see something
wrong with you.
Shanea (46:37):
Right?
You look just like me.
Walter (46:39):
And you look worse because you're supposed to have
it together and you don't.
So I might as well just livelife the way I'm living it.
Why?
Shanea (46:46):
would I come and do what you do, right, because you're
over here praising the Lord.
So I think, and still in thesame places that I'm in.
Walter (46:57):
Exactly.
Shanea (46:58):
And but you're, you're condemning me for the things
that I'm doing, just because Idon't go to church and pray and
do all those things.
But you're doing all thosethings and doing the same things
I'm doing.
You're no different.
No.
Walter (47:12):
You're worse?
Yes, because you're in church.
And you're being disobedientand you should be set free from
this, and you're not, and you'retrying to judge me.
Speaker 4 (47:27):
So we, that's, so I that.
To wrap this up, it's as simpleas this.
Walter (47:29):
When we try to love on our own terms, we fail to
reflect god's true love for usand others as believers.
That's as simple as it is.
When we try to love on our ownterms, we fail to reflect god's
true love for us and others andwe are to be the example yeah we
are to be the salt of the world.
(47:51):
We are to be the light of theworld.
Our light is dim right now.
So we we touched on this before.
I think we I said I talkedabout this in the comment
section.
Marriage is an institution thatwas designed by God.
You saw the first example ofthat with Adam and Eve, and so I
(48:16):
trying to create a covenantoutside of God's love and
framework leads to failure.
Yeah.
Marriage was designed by God.
So trying to access thisoutside of God, you will fail.
(48:42):
First Corinthians 12, fourthrough seven we touched on that
.
This is the way God designedlove and relationships,
particularly in marriage.
It's outlined here.
Without following that model,failure is inevitable.
But the thing is and this wasso good as I was writing it and
(49:04):
I can't take credit and I giveit to the Holy Spirit the
problem is this right here, manycouples mistake failure as the
norm in marriage.
Shanea (49:14):
I know it's what keeps people in bondage and keeps
people up in arms in our commentsection.
Walter (49:22):
Mm-hmm.
They mistake failure as thenorm.
They look at failure inmarriage as success.
Shanea (49:30):
Yes, it's like oh, your marriage isn't successful
because you guys don't gothrough it.
Walter (49:36):
You ain't got no problems.
You're not arguing, you're notbickering, you're not going
through not being happy.
Speaker 5 (49:43):
That's marriage.
This is the way marriage issupposed to look Really, is it?
Yeah?
Should you not be happy withyour spouse?
Should your spouse not be ableto speak life into you?
Should your husband not be ableto recognize what God has
called you to?
Should you, as the woman, bepraying more than me as the
husband?
Should you be the watchman ofour family?
Right, should you be be prayingmore than me as the husband?
(50:03):
Should you be the watchman ofour family?
Right should you be in churchmore than I'm in church?
Shanea (50:08):
should the woman be the watch.
Speaker 5 (50:09):
Should I not be at church with you?
Shanea (50:11):
right?
Are you at home watchingtelevision while I'm out?
Speaker 5 (50:16):
should I not be in my word exactly in which they
should go should I not be in myword just as much as you're in
your word?
Should I not?
Walter (50:24):
be able to see and recognize the plans of the enemy
.
Shanea (50:26):
No, because Paul said you can be with an unbeliever
and be in an unequally yokedmarriage.
Walter (50:32):
Paul was speaking to Romans.
Shanea (50:33):
But he also did not say that?
Walter (50:36):
What book is that in?
What book is that in?
That is, in Romans.
People have to look at whatpeople in Rome was doing.
Shanea (50:45):
Right?
Well, the thing is, Paul wasgiving people advice based off
of the fact that they were notfollowing God's original design.
Walter (50:59):
He's like look, if this is what you want, to do, sure.
And he said clearly, with thatyou don't have to.
Shanea (51:02):
Yes, sure he said clearly with that you don't have
to.
Yes, you could possibly changea believer, change an unbeliever
to a believer, but who reallyknows?
Walter (51:11):
because god is the only one that can change people's
hearts but the fact, why even gothrough it, exactly, why even
put yourself through it?
Shanea (51:20):
bothers it, really bothers me that people are up in
arms in the comments trying toargue us down about being in an
unequally yoked relationshipMarriage.
Walter (51:32):
It's weird foundation will always be follow God.
And for those who are inmarriages that are in bondage
and that you're being abused andyou're being mistreated and the
church is telling you that youhave to stay in that marriage, I
(51:52):
will tell you any day of theweek that that is not of God.
Shanea (51:55):
No, because there's so much warfare when you are just
in general, because the enemyhates us.
Walter (52:03):
He don't like humans at all You're going to deal with
warfare anyway within yourmarriage, but it's even more
greater when you're dealing withwarfare from within because you
created a covenant.
Yeah, you knew that dude was nogood.
You knew that woman was no good.
Right, you women, women do thismore than men.
Shanea (52:25):
You get with men and you think that you can change them
right, or you get with men whoclaim to be christian but they
don't know god, and so theybarely go to church what I was
saying was it's it's hardbecause you don't have any
protection there.
Speaker 5 (52:40):
There is so much warfare that you can't see with
your natural eye or, moreimportantly, he or she is
bringing warfare directly to you.
Yes, you are battling withinyour home.
Walter (52:53):
You already have to deal with outside sources and
outside people trying to come atyou from the outside Right.
You already have to deal withthe enemy trying to come at you
already.
Shanea (53:06):
Right or now.
You were an unbeliever and nowyou are a believer, and now your
marriage is going to hell.
Right now.
Walter (53:18):
And at that point you got to pray and ask God to give
you wisdom, because there areinstances and we're not saying
it's not there are instanceswhere you can be two unbelievers
and God bring you together.
He did it with us, but then healso actually separated us to
take me through a process ofbeing everything he called me to
be, then brought us backtogether, though.
So we're not saying that youcan get married and be married
(53:41):
to the person God has called youto be with and both be
unbelievers, but we're sayingthat when you are going in and
approaching it from thatperspective, you're going to
deal with a lot of challengesthat you may not have to
necessarily deal with.
Shanea (53:52):
Right, especially because one or both of you can't
see what's going on.
Walter (53:56):
Yeah, and it's even more challenging when the man can't
see what's going on.
Shanea (54:01):
It's even more challenging.
Walter (54:02):
Because he's the leader, because he's the leader.
So that's even more of achallenge in that perspective,
because now, as a woman, youhave to operate in a role that
you were never intended tooperate in Exactly so, it's a
lot.
Yeah.
And so I think how we approachthis is we have to recognize
God's design for marriage as acovenant based on love,
(54:25):
servitude and faith, and this iscrucial in order to overcome
any challenges that you may face.
The way that you're able to besuccessful in a marriage is
doing it God's way from thebeginning and throughout it.
That is the only way thatyou're able to be successful in
a marriage is doing it God's wayfrom the beginning, yeah, and
throughout it.
(54:45):
Yeah.
That is the only way that you'regoing to be successful, because
failure in marriage comes whenwe stray away from God's
blueprint, and true success isfound in living out his love
through faith.
Shanea (54:59):
Right, and that starts with a foundation, if your
foundation is rooted in god'slove it has to be.
If it's rooted in anything else,it's going to fail because
we've been through some stuffyes, based on cost, based on
decisions that we made, we wentthrough a lot of things that we
didn't necessarily have to gothrough yeah, and we we've gone
(55:22):
through a lot of stuff rightearly in the beginning and was
able to deal with it, but onlythrough the power of the Holy
Spirit.
So it's like now, going forward, we have a blueprint, we have a
framework, we have a foundation.
Speaker 5 (55:39):
Yeah.
Shanea (55:39):
So when things start to crumble and get down to the
nitty-gritty we have, we alwayshave that, that foundation to
start back at one.
Walter (55:50):
Well, it's recognizing that part of the reason that you
deal with those things isbecause of decisions that you
made outside of god, which iswhy we try to encourage people
not to make decisions outside ofgod yeah not to do what you
want to do, because when you dowhat you want to do, you Because
when you do what you want to doyou will set yourself up for
failure, you will set yourselfup for attacks and you're
literally telling the enemy I'mgiving you legal access to this
(56:13):
area of my life to do whateveryou want to do, right To raise
hell.
Shanea (56:17):
And your father loves you.
He has an unconditional lovefor you.
Yet you still have to deal withthe consequences.
Walter (56:25):
Yes.
Shanea (56:26):
And even just loving people in general.
You can unconditionally lovesomeone, but there are still
consequences to their actionsand how they treat you.
Walter (56:36):
Yeah, why would you want to be I'll say it like this why
would you want to be in arelationship with someone God
never designed for you to bewith?
Because it's going to beimpossible for that person to
love you the way that Goddesigned for that person to love
you.
Because they're not meant foryou.
Right.
(56:56):
You're trying to make somethingwork that's not meant for you,
and at its worst, they couldliterally damage you well,
people tell you that you shouldwork at it yes I don't
understand because you'retalking low sometimes am I too
low?
Shanea (57:16):
am I too low or am I too loud?
Walter (57:18):
you'd be too low sometimes okay, I can't continue
.
Shanea (57:21):
People tell you you should work at it.
I would say that you shouldn'tget in and get in an.
Walter (57:22):
You'd be too low sometimes.
Okay, I can't tell People, tellyou you should work at it.
I would say that you shouldn'tget in it in the first place.
No, you shouldn't be dating.
It's too many situations outhere.
There's too many people outhere who are manipulative, who
are controlling, who areconniving.
Shanea (57:44):
But you, even yourself, might be controlling and
manipulative and don't even knowit yeah.
Which is why you really have togo through the process of
having a relationship with.
God, because you only find yourtrue identity in Christ.
You don't really know who youare.
Speaker 5 (58:07):
so you're coming to a relationship where you don't
know who you are and you don'teven know who this other person
is yeah, so it's blind leadingblind, blind dating the blind
yeah
Walter (58:16):
yeah.
So I think, a few points tomake before we end this, and I
don't think it was this longthis time.
First, true love begins withintimacy with God and following
his guidance through the HolySpirit.
Marriage and all relationshipscan thrive when we love with the
(58:41):
God.
We love the love that reflectsGod's character.
So faith in God renews ourminds and the guidance of the
Holy Spirit empowers us to lovethe way God intended for us to
love Outside of that isimpossible.
Outside of that, it'simpossible.
(59:03):
Outside of that, it'simpossible.
You are experiencing somethingthat will not sustain you or
that marriage, even if you arewhere God has called you to be.
Right.
You will fail.
You will fail, you will fail.
(59:28):
You will fail without God.
I don't know what you're saying.
Shanea (59:35):
It's okay.
So you will fail without God,so anything that you want to
leave us with um no, I think umhas people listened to this,
(59:59):
that they will reflect on thedecisions that they have made,
and I just hope that thisencourages people to build a
deeper relationship with God sothat they know who they are and
who they should be with, andwhat that person looks like.
Walter (01:00:23):
Yeah, are, and who they should be with, and what that
person looks like, yeah, andeven in your relationships with
friends.
This all is important for youto even be able to love them, to
love your brother in the faith,to love your sister in the
faith.
This is all important becauseall of these relationships
should be approached from aselfless type perspective.
Speaker 4 (01:00:41):
What All of these relationships should be
approached from a selfless typeperspective.
Shanea (01:00:48):
What, what?
You keep tapping your ears, isit me?
Walter (01:00:51):
No, I'm tapping my ears because the earpiece keep coming
out.
Shanea (01:00:54):
Oh, okay, I thought you kept signaling me.
Walter (01:00:57):
No.
Shanea (01:00:58):
And that's why I'm like over here, confused I'm like
adjusting, I'm adjusting my ear.
Walter (01:01:02):
I'm like adjusting, I'm adjusting my ear.
Shanea (01:01:04):
I'm like adjusting my mic.
Walter (01:01:05):
Because my earpiece is coming out, that's all.
No, I'm not.
If I'm saying you're too loud,I'll do this.
I touch the mic, I don't do theear thing.
Shanea (01:01:13):
Oh, because you kept tapping your ear.
I was tapping my ear becausethe earpiece was coming out.
Oh, that's what you was asking.
Walter (01:01:20):
Yes, you should have just asked no, I was literally
adjusting my earpiece.
Speaker 5 (01:01:24):
Oh.
Walter (01:01:25):
For those who aren't looking at the actual episode.
My wife is talking about thefact of me adjusting my earpiece
.
Anyone that have these in-earmonitors know that, as you see,
singers and all they'reconsistently adjusting them and
you know doing all of this stuff.
Shanea (01:01:39):
My bad, I thought it was like a secret code or something
.
No, it's not.
Walter (01:01:43):
It's literally just adjusting it, pushing it back in
my ear.
So, okay, that's a great placeto leave our listeners.
Hopefully this has been ablessing to you all.
Ultimately, sum it up, when youthink of love, you have two
(01:02:07):
ways to approach it.
You're going to either approachit from the perspective of what
the world teaches you, oryou're going to approach it from
the perspective of what Godteaches you.
In our experience, we'velearned that when you approach
this from a godly perspective,it will lead to you being
(01:02:27):
successful, and it's so muchless stressful.
Shanea (01:02:32):
Yeah.
Because, you're not relying onyourself?
Walter (01:02:35):
You're like okay, god you got it.
Shanea (01:02:37):
Even when we get into it , it's like all right, God,
that's your son, you know him.
Walter (01:02:42):
And then when you have the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit
kind of keeps you.
He will tell you when you'rewrong.
Shanea (01:02:51):
Or stop you.
Walter (01:02:52):
Or stop you from saying something you shouldn't say, and
so I think that's so importantand you're reminded of what love
is, even if it's something assimple as the Holy spirit
telling me you have to die toself.
You have to die to self.
You know you have to love herthrough me, and so I think
(01:03:18):
that's a good place to stop.
Yeah, uh, thank you all.
We appreciate you all forlistening in this week.
We pray that this has been ablessing to you and we will see
you next week.
Is anything else you want tosay, babe?
Shanea (01:03:31):
no, that's it like comment, subscribe.
Walter (01:03:34):
It's not for us, it's really just more so for you
share it if this has been ablessing yeah, and go back and
listen to the other videos,because everything has been kind
of, or the other episodes,because everything has been
tying together.
Shanea (01:03:44):
Yeah, going to tie all together and if you have any
experiences or questions oranything?
Just leave us some comments.
We'll get to you, yeah.
Walter (01:03:52):
It'd be a lot of.
One particular video has beenhaving a lot of comments on it,
Like it's something that's socontroversial.
Shanea (01:04:00):
Yeah, it's not really spoken on very much.
Walter (01:04:04):
People and their feelings, but it's okay.
Okay, until next week, godbless.
Yes, we'll see you then.
All right, bye-bye.
All right, bye.
Welcome back to another episode of Stepping in Faith,
where, together, we explore theimportance of having a
relationship with God and howthat relationship with God can
impact the relationship you havewith others.
I'm your host, walter.
I'm joined here alongside mylovely wife.
Shania.
This is episode 12.
What's the title of this week'sepisode?
Shanea (00:23):
The Essence of Love.
The Essence of Love.
Walter (00:25):
The Essence of Love.
All right, so we are believers.
We love to start these podcastsout in prayer, and it is 12
o'clock in the morning, so I amgoing to hand it over to my wife
, since I prayed last week orlast week episode.
Okay, babe, could you open usup in prayer?
Shanea (00:45):
Sure, I was about to say the Lord's Prayer, no.
Walter (00:51):
God help my wife.
Holy Spirit.
Shanea (00:54):
Holy Spirit, help us, father God, we thank you.
We thank you, Father God, forallowing us to be a vessel for
your word.
I pray, father God, that youwill Holy Spirit work through us
tonight.
I pray, father God, that youwill Holy Spirit work through us
tonight and provide those ortoday listening with a word from
the heaven that will touch them, that will bless them.
(01:16):
In Jesus' name, we pray amen.
Walter (01:20):
Amen, amen.
So the essence of love.
So we went through this lastweek.
Why are you laughing?
Shanea (01:32):
Because the size.
Walter (01:35):
Tired.
Yes, so we went.
God was dealing with me on lovelast week and I was praying
again this week and I'm like,okay, God, what do you want me
to discuss?
And love kept coming to me, andso don't know why you did that.
Shanea (01:51):
I didn't know.
Walter (01:52):
You got to be real careful with that, because
that's going to hit in the audio.
So I'm like okay, love, and wejust kind of just started
downloading stuff into my spirit.
I began to look at scripturesand just revelation just began
to flow.
(02:12):
So, love, I think it's a wordthat we utilize so freely.
I think it's a word that weutilize so freely and we don't
(02:33):
really think about what we'resaying when we use it.
What do you mean?
Like people that say I lovepizza, I love my car, I love my
house, I love my job, it's so,it's used so freely.
But we don't understand.
And even the way that weapproach love is really kind of
(02:54):
selfish, selfishly based.
You know, it's a more it's notabout typically, when you
approach love, it's not aboutwhat it's approach love, it's
not about what.
It's about what the person cando for you and it's kind of
about what you do for thatperson or it's about what you
can.
It's it's more so about what theperson does for you than it is
(03:16):
about what you do for thatperson right I did this for you
and and you know we talked aboutthis before love is
transactional right, it's whatyou can do for me, or how you
make me feel.
Based on what I do for you fromthe perspective of like okay, I
did this, so I expect this fromyou.
Shanea (03:36):
Yeah, I guess I mean, when you look at it as like a
material thing, it's like peoplelove their cars.
Walter (03:43):
I mean.
But when you think of it from arelationship perspective,
that's how people approach itright.
When you're sitting incounseling and your marriage is
not going right or yourrelationship is not going right
for those who get counselingwithin relationships, I don't
know, but that's their businessyou sit there and say I do this,
this, this, this, this and thisfor this person and they don't
(04:05):
do anything for me.
They don't give me the thingsthat I need.
So God was really dealing withme on the the essence of love,
or what love really is, becauseof course, love is a fruit of
the spirit, and so that alreadylets us know.
It's something that when youapproach love, the way God is
(04:27):
intended for love to beapproached it's supposed to be
approached from the perspectiveof the spirit of God, kind of
giving you the power to loveyeah, well, I mean, that's why
most of us don't reallyexperience love, or how to give
love or receive love, because itis based off the fruit of the
(04:48):
spirit of god yeah, and I'mjumping ahead.
But, matter of fact, let's justget started, okay, because I'm
gonna just jump all over allright.
So the foundation of love in thespirit, right?
Um, the biggest thing is and wetalked about this just before
love is not something we canproduce on our own, but it is a
(05:11):
result of the holy spirit's workwithin us.
One of the things that, um,when I was going through my
conversion and, like you know,god had me in my wilderness
experience, he kept telling meto love you through him.
And it didn't make sense, like,what do you mean?
What do you mean love herthrough you?
(05:33):
And he was essentially sayingthat the only way that I can
truly love you is by the powerof the Holy Spirit.
Yeah.
Outside of that, it's impossiblefor me to love you from a
selfless place.
Shanea (05:48):
Yeah, because you would be expecting something from me
that I possibly can't give toyou.
Walter (05:54):
The world teaches you to expect, or the fact of the
reality is, even in those, thoseinstances, right Based on your
world experiences and yourworldview, you didn't even know
who you were.
Shanea (06:07):
No, or you would be loving someone in a way that
they aren't able to receive, oryou're loving someone,
consistently expecting somethingback in return.
Walter (06:16):
So as you do what you do , once again it's transactional.
I'm doing this because I wantthis from you.
Right.
I'm not doing this because it'scoming from a selfless
perspective.
So the biggest thing, theexample, and I like this God's
design for us to love throughhis spirit.
(06:36):
God's design for us is to lovethrough his spirit, not from our
soul, which is our mind, willand emotions.
And the world teaches us thatyou should go, you should love
someone based on how you feel.
Yes, right, but that's not god.
Shanea (06:54):
That's based on how you feel how they treat you.
I mean how they treat you to acertain extent, it's based on.
Walter (07:04):
It's based on, like when you think of love, even when
you think of some of the mostpopular love songs, it's all
based around or based on likefeelings and emotions how the
person make you feel yeah, butwe know that feelings are
fleeting, like it's here movedby our feelings because it's.
It's here today and it's goingtomorrow yeah there's times that
you're going to wake up and youdon't feel as if you don't feel
(07:27):
like doing something.
The bible teaches us that we'renot to be moved by how we feel.
We'll be moved by faith in theword of god.
And the key thing is I was kindof working through all of this
uh this is so good.
The soul is connected to thefallen world, which makes it
inherently wicked.
Right and jeremiah 17 and 9,which is one of the first
(07:51):
scriptures that we're going togo to tonight or this morning,
and this is New King James.
Let me see, this is the NLT.
It says the human heart is themost deceitful of all things and
(08:14):
desperately wicked.
Who really knows how bad it is,but the Lord searches all
hearts and examines secretmotives.
Shanea (08:29):
I give all people their due rewards according to what
their actions deserve, right,which is really really good,
because I, the lord, search allhearts and examine secret
motives motives what.
What came to me is you knowwhat we talk about.
All the time is when you aresearching for that someone, you
(08:53):
can't do that in your ownstrength because you don't know
everything about their heart andyou don't know what their
secret motives are.
Walter (09:02):
You don don't know your heart.
Shanea (09:03):
You don't know, you don't truly know this person.
Walter (09:08):
So it digs back into what we're talking about this
week.
How can I love if I don't knowwhat's really inside me and I
don't know what's really insideyou it's impossible for me to do
, which is why peopleconsistently talk about how they
change and they evolve.
You're trying to do somethingfor someone that is doing
nothing for them, or because,once again, unfortunately, the
(09:31):
world teaches you to go basedoff of your experiences, even a
lot of the church will teach youGo out and date, date as many
people as you can date.
Find yourself through datingpeople.
So by the time you get to thismarriage, or whatever it may be,
even if it's a marriage thatwas designed by God, you are a
broken person that has leftpieces of yourself and all of
(09:52):
these different people, and youhave created what you think is
best for you based on thoseexperiences.
Now you bring it to this personand saying I have these 10 other
people I've been with, or fiveother people, or 15 other people
I've been with.
I need you to encompass all 10,15, five of those people and
(10:15):
love me that way.
Shanea (10:16):
But you try to define your identity by those
experiences.
So it's like no, I'm not goingto do this.
I don't like this.
I don't want this.
Walter (10:24):
This is not going to happen, based off of your
experiences which is why itfails once again, because we're
trying to love from a fallenstate and it's impossible to do,
because we have to understandthat, just as god has a plan and
the design for love, the enemydoes too, and it's just the
(10:45):
reality of what it is.
Yeah, so going from there,right, this digs into or this
kind of I like this.
It says God intended for us tolove, and I don't think I I
didn't speak on this.
God intended for us to lovefrom the spirit, not the
(11:06):
brokenness of our soul.
And unfortunately, because ofhow we approach relationships,
even as believers, by the timewe get into a marriage or by the
time we think that we're whereGod has called us to be because
sometimes we're not we arebroken.
(11:27):
We are very much so brokenbecause you went through losing
relationships, you went throughpeople hurting you, you went
through people mistreating you.
All of this stuff hurt people,hurt people.
You have trauma from yourchildhood, have rejection issues
, you have abandonment issues.
You have all of these thingsand you get to this person and
(11:50):
you don't know how to lovebecause you're already broken,
you already have a misconstruedworldview and you're trying to
love from that perspective oryour view of love is not good.
Shanea (12:03):
It's abuses, trauma, it's all those things so you
shut down to it completely.
Walter (12:10):
Yeah, which is why transformation begins when we
allow the holy spirit.
We gotta allow the holy spiritto renew our minds and our
hearts.
You have to, prior to evengoing through this process and
saying I want to, whatevergetting married or whatever the
case, you have to go throughtransformation.
Your mind has to be renewed.
(12:30):
You have to go through theprocess of allowing God to peel
back those layers, becausethere's very few people out here
.
It's what we're teaching andwe're getting pushback for it,
but there's very few people outhere who live life in such a way
where it's like I'm going towait Right.
I'm going to wait.
Shanea (12:45):
Right, I'm going to wait to experience this no, because
people tell you that you shouldgo out and date and you should
go out and date you like howwill you, and first, how will
you even meet this partner?
Walter (12:57):
if you don't go anywhere , yeah, you gotta go and you
gotta look for them.
Yeah, you gotta figure out whatyou like, what you enjoy but
that's not true, because that'sour story.
Shanea (13:06):
We weren't out looking, no, I met him at the mailbox
yeah, he was waiting on me thatis a lie.
You were there first he waswaiting on me but anyway, ladies
, you don't have to go outanywhere, you could stay in your
house and god will bring yourhusband to you have him stay in
(13:27):
the building a building overfrom you for like an entire year
or two years, and you don'teven know it.
No, never drive by their carevery day walk past them and
don't even know but, but this isgood, right?
Walter (13:41):
um, we have to understand that and that's what,
as God was kind of just reallydownloading stuff in my spirit,
it's like it's so simple, butit's so true.
We keep trying to love from abroken state and the world
teaches us to love that way.
Shanea (13:58):
Because they don't know how to do it.
Walter (14:00):
No, you're all trying to figure it out.
Shanea (14:02):
Because they don't know God.
They don't know God or Jesus oryou equate love and I'm.
Walter (14:06):
I'm jumping ahead to emotions.
Yeah.
When love is a decision.
So let's move on, understandingthe role of the soul and
emotions Okay.
So we know this the soulconsists of the mind, will and
emotions.
That's what the soul is.
It consists of the mind, willand emotions.
These elements of the soul areinfluenced by our worldview and
(14:36):
are shaped by a fallen world.
So this is so good, as I waskind of working through all of
this.
Trying to love from a brokensoul creates more brokenness.
Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah, trying to love from a broken soul creates more
brokenness.
Walter (14:45):
Yeah, trying to love from a broken soul creates more
brokenness.
Shanea (14:48):
Yeah, because what lives in your soul?
That's why hurt people, hurtpeople because, you're being
influenced by something wicked.
You're being influenced by thisworld, that trauma, that abuse,
(15:09):
and satan does what he comes tokill, steal and destroy and the
.
Walter (15:12):
The interesting thing is , satan always worked through us
by way of trauma, the.
The thing that he always triedto do with us is expose us to
trauma yeah, that's how thatseed is planted.
Shanea (15:24):
He always tried to expose us to trauma.
Walter (15:25):
Yeah, that's how that seed is planted.
He always tried to expose us totrauma, always, always, always,
and so trying to love from abroken soul creates more
brokenness, and, unfortunately,majority of us are dealing with
some type of brokenness.
(15:46):
Yeah, you go and you get.
Shanea (15:47):
You go and get counseling, but counseling don't
heal the brokenness no, becauseyou don't even know where it
came from most of the time nobut it starts in your childhood
for the most part but you and wetalked about this before
counseling only places aband-aid on it.
Walter (16:05):
Counseling isn't bad, no , but you need healing
spiritually.
You need.
Shanea (16:10):
Counseling is a good tool.
It's like a survival kit, butyou have to get to the root of
the problem and it has surgeryuprooted.
Walter (16:21):
You gotta have surgery you have to have surgery Now.
Once you have surgery, we canlook at counseling as like you
have to go through physicaltherapy or something of that
nature to learn how to, becauseeven once God heals you, once
you go through deliverance andyou're healed, you still have to
have your mind renewed.
Yes, which is where counselingplays in.
Shanea (16:43):
Spiritual counseling Under the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, under spiritual guidanceof the Holy.
Walter (16:45):
Spirit, under the guidance of the.
Shanea (16:46):
Holy.
Walter (16:47):
Spirit counseling from like a spiritual place.
Yeah.
Not just regular counseling.
Shanea (16:51):
No but they have a rhema word for you.
Walter (16:53):
Yes, and they're being led by the spirit of God as they
walk you through counseling.
Or we talked about this when wewas heading back from Charlotte
that one time instead ofcounseling.
Look at it, looking at it froma perspective of discipleship.
Yes, Well yes.
Discipleship, mm-hmm.
So we have the soul.
(17:16):
We know what the soul is.
Now we look into the emotions,because everybody is moving
based on their emotions,everybody.
Mm-hmm.
You want to read thatdefinition of emotions back.
Shanea (17:29):
The definition of emotions.
Emotions are feelings thatarise from experiences, thoughts
or situations.
They can range from happinessto anger, influencing our
behavior.
Everything we do, unfortunately, is influenced by our emotions.
Walter (17:49):
Everything we do is influenced by our emotions and
the danger of that right isemotions can be influenced by
the prince of this world yeahprince of this world being satan
, yeah, and they are often nottrustworthy guides for making
decisions, right?
So when we think about this, wethink about 2 Corinthians 5 and
(18:11):
7.
2 Corinthians 5 and 7 says thisand this is NLT For we live by
believing and not by seeing.
Or a New King James Version forthose who like to read it.
It says for we walk by faithand not by seeing.
Or a New King James Version forthose who like to read it.
It says For we walk by faithand not by sight, for we walk by
(18:32):
faith and not by sight.
Romans 10 and 17 says this.
So then, faith comes by hearing,and hearing by the word of God.
This is a New King Jamesversion.
Nlt says so.
Faith comes from hearing, thatis, hearing the good news about
(18:55):
Christ.
So I think, when we look at itfrom this perspective, right, we
have to understand that we'renot to be moved by our emotions,
but we'll move.
We'll be moved by the word ofgod, the word of god being the
word of god, and the word of goda rhema word, the word of god.
(19:16):
We have to be moved by thatbecause outside of that, we will
fail right.
Shanea (19:23):
And when you have those emotions because god does give
us emotions for a reason we haveto go back to God and say God,
why am I feeling like this?
Is this of God?
Walter (19:32):
But you should never make an emotional decision or
you should never go based uponemotions because, once again, we
have to understand youremotions can be influenced
either by God or by the enemy.
Right we see Eve.
I always go back to Eve andAdam because it's where it began
.
It was her emotions that wasinfluenced.
The enemy he enticed her.
He enticed her.
(19:54):
That was an emotional response.
Yeah.
And that's why it's so importantthat we are taught, or that's
why we're taught.
You can't be moved by how youfeel.
You have to be moved by theword of god.
We saw adam, we saw abraham and, uh, sarah, yeah, god gave them
a word and they were moved bythe emotion, so they tried to
(20:15):
create ishmael because they feltas if it was something that was
impossible.
Right, whenever you get,whenever you are moved by your
emotions, you will get yourselfin trouble.
Yeah.
Your emotions will lead youdirectly into disobedience to
God.
Shanea (20:31):
Yeah, and it's not easy.
Walter (20:33):
Oh, it's not.
Shanea (20:34):
You have to go to God every single time you have these
emotions.
It's like God.
I know I heard this word fromyou, but I don't see it
happening.
Walter (20:44):
You have to go through the process of dying to self so
you learn to understand thatyour emotions are there, but
your emotions don't dictate whatyou do and so I think that is
the biggest thing.
And so I think that is thebiggest thing, and as we move
(21:10):
further, I'm like we're movingquickly.
This is what you want, but okay, faith.
Shanea (21:16):
Is what I want.
Walter (21:17):
Yeah, you was like this is going to be 30 minutes, this
is going to be like a 30-minuter.
Yeah, so everything ties backto faith, so I was writing
everything down, right.
And what came to me is theimportance of faith.
It's by faith that you are ableto operate within the fruit of
(21:43):
the Spirit.
It's by faith that you're ableto trust that the Spirit of God
can produce these said fruit inyou.
And love is a part of the fruitof the spirit.
So in order to love, I have tofirst have faith, to believe
that God can create in me thevery essence of who God is.
Because when we think of thefruit of the spirit, we know the
fruit of the spirit of whatcharacteristics of God.
Shanea (22:06):
So it's taken upon the DNA or the characteristics of
God, right of the spirit, ofwhat characteristics of god
right, so it's taken upon thedna or the characteristics of
god, right presence of god,literally.
Walter (22:11):
So it's shifting what the world has created within you
.
And now what's downloading, oryou're downloading or allowing
to be downloaded into you, theactual characteristics of God,
which are the fruit of thespirit.
So faith is essential foraccessing the fruit of the
spirit right, and without faithwe cannot love the way God
(22:35):
intended for us to love.
So faith in God's wordstrengthens us to live by the
spirit, and it's through thespirit that we are empowered to
love others.
Say that again Faith in God'sWord strengthens us to live by
the Spirit.
Paul talks about this all thetime.
It is by the power of theSpirit, it is by having faith,
(22:58):
it's by believing in the Spiritto help you move forward in the
works of God, and by doing that,or through doing that, we are
empowered to love others.
Not only love others, yet alsolove God, which is God's desire.
(23:18):
For us is to love God and loveothers.
And so what do you think aboutthat, babe?
I'm putting you on the spot.
Shanea (23:31):
Why are you putting me on the spot?
Walter (23:34):
That's what we're doing.
Shanea (23:35):
I don't know why you're putting me on the spot right now
, because I'm over here lookinglike a deer in headlights.
Walter (23:43):
Why are you looking like a deer in headlights?
Shanea (23:45):
Because it is 12 o'clock in the morning.
Almost 1 o'clock, almost 1o'clock.
Walter (23:51):
Oh, listen, I'm in it now.
Shanea (23:52):
And the spirits are spiriting right now.
Walter (23:54):
I'm in it right now, Like I am.
I'm in it.
Shanea (23:57):
The spirits are spiriting right now.
Walter (23:59):
Why?
Because you're tired?
No, because it's it's.
It's witching hours.
Shanea (24:07):
Oh, we ain't worried about that.
That's listen.
Walter (24:08):
Look, everybody ain't like me I know, but I'm saying
like this there's a hedge ofprotection around this house
there is a hedge of protectionwe're gonna get this work in and
get this word to everyone Iknow, but while you was over
there talking about um, wherewere we?
We're talking about, um,everything ties back to faith.
I was talking about theimportance of having faith in
(24:29):
God's word.
Oh, segment three right.
Shanea (24:30):
Yeah, yeah, while you were over there talking about
faith in God's word, I was overhere praying.
Oh.
Okay, so you put me on the spot, but I was in the spirit realm,
okay.
Walter (24:44):
So we're talking about this.
What are your thoughts?
Shanea (24:48):
Faith in God's word strengthens us to live by the
spirit, and it's through thespirit that we are empowered to
love others.
Well, jesus said he was goingto send us a helper.
Walter (25:03):
The Holy Spirit.
Shanea (25:03):
Yes, the Holy Spirit, and that's what he does.
The fruit of the spirit is whatlove, joy, patience, peace,
kindness, gentleness we can onlyright, we can only do that
through the power of the holyspirit yeah, the bible says it's
by way of the spirit.
The spirit produces these typeof fruit right in your life
(25:24):
right and it gave a starkdifference in comparison to your
flesh and it produces the fruitin your life, not just in
yourself, but in everything thatyou touch and everything that
you're around.
So when you're being led by theHoly Spirit, he helps you renew
(25:47):
your mind so that you willbecome more like God, more like
Jesus, right Taking on thecharacteristics of God, but then
in making decisions that alsoproduce the fruit yeah, like
your partner or your job.
Walter (26:06):
Because in everything you're doing, you're being led
by the spirit of God.
Shanea (26:09):
So you will see those fruits.
Are you joyful?
Do you have peace?
Is everyone around you kind?
Are they gentle?
No, am I quarreling in thisrelationship?
Am I quarreling at work?
Walter (26:26):
Is it the spirit of God producing those fruit?
Shanea (26:29):
or is it your flesh Right?
Is it something you have tocontinue to keep doing Now?
I'm exhausted and I'm burnt out.
Walter (26:35):
Mm-hmm.
And now?
So that's a perfect segue intowhat God has designed for love
to truly look like.
Because we can I think we.
We can talk about what, and I'mdigging someplace else, but we
(26:57):
know how love in the world look.
Right, if we had to sum up lovefrom the perspective of how the
world approaches it, how wouldyou sum that up?
What do you mean?
Shanea (27:15):
The way the world teaches us to love.
The way the world teaches us tolove is selfish.
Walter (27:21):
We love selfishly, even when we think we are doing the
right thing, we're still lovingselfishly, even when we think
I'm giving of myself to you.
I'm doing this.
I'm doing that.
Shanea (27:31):
It's still with an expectation of something back,
because you will start to feellike you're not appreciated or
worthy, because you're notgetting what you think you
deserve.
Walter (27:48):
It's because you're doing it in your own strength.
Shanea (27:57):
But, God says he will give them what he thinks they
deserve, and in that scripturethat you gave us earlier, which
was, was that Jeremiah 17, nineand 10.
The Lord specifically says Iwill reward you based off of
your actions.
Walter (28:14):
And I don't want to jump ahead because we see the
perspective of how God lovelooks like.
First corinthians 12 right butessentially, simply put, when
you're loving from the world oryou're going based off of a
worldview, it's the opposite ofthat right, yeah so, for example
(28:39):
, agape love.
agape love is selfless,unconditional and sacrificial.
Agape love is selfless,unconditional and sacrificial.
We see these examples in Christand God, god the Father and God
the Son.
The Bible says For God so lovedthe world that he gave his only
begotten Son.
(28:59):
That he gave his only begottenSon, that's.
John 3.16.
We've seen that jesus in thegarden of gethsemane I think I
have an example here yeah, I do,and I'll get into that in a
second um that he literally gaveup his life.
Even though he was likestruggling, his flesh struggling
(29:23):
, he still made the decision togo forward with what God told
him to do, even though he knewthe people were rejecting him
and they were rejecting him.
Yeah, so it's the love that Godhas for humanity and the love he
calls us to show others.
Yeah, that's agape love.
It's the love that God has forhumanity, and not only the love
(29:47):
that he calls for us to showothers, but the love he also
calls for us to show him too,it's a selfless, unconditional
and sacrificial type love, andthe only way that we can show
that love is through the powerof the Holy Spirit, because,
outside of that, show that loveis through the power of the Holy
Spirit.
Shanea (30:06):
Because, outside of that it's impossible, because we are
born into this world selfish.
Yeah, we're born into thisworld with expectations.
This world is based off oftransactions.
Walter (30:16):
Yes.
Shanea (30:16):
It's all transactions.
Walter (30:18):
But from the demonic perspective, it is based off of
transactions.
Shanea (30:22):
Yeah you have to give something yeah you know it's all
transactionally based where godis more so about relationship
well, it's all transaction based, because the only way the enemy
can have access to your life isif you give him something yes,
so he's always trying to get youto give him something or take
(30:43):
something from you because whenyou give him something, that
means you giving him access butsome people would say, oh well,
being there, having arelationship with god, is
transactional.
Walter (30:53):
It's different it's no, it's a difference between me
saying he's your creator andit's like it's god's relation.
It's like it's God's relation.
It's about relationship.
It's about relationship.
It's about relationship withGod.
Shanea (31:10):
Yeah, and it's about your heart posture that I was
just thinking about.
Like, if you have, if you're anemployee and you have your boss
, like you want to build arelationship, not so that you
(31:31):
can get a promotion, but justbecause you want to be close and
you will learn things from them, right, you become a mentee,
it's, it's, and people, peoplewill know your motives, right?
So if I'm a boss and someone'scoming to me and they always
want to be around me, I'mlooking to see well, what do you
want from me?
Yeah, why are you here?
Are you trying to get somethingfrom me?
You know, and so that's.
(31:52):
I believe that's how God seesus.
It's like, why, why are youhere?
Walter (31:56):
Are you here because you love me Right.
Shanea (32:10):
And you just want to know me, or are you here because
you're trying to get somethingright and we have to be careful,
because we're taught to be thatway.
We're taught to be that way.
We don't know anything else?
Yeah, and, and when you weretalking earlier, um, about agape
love and how it's selfless andunconditional and sacrificial,
and you say that you said yousaid that the enemy makes love
the exact opposite right, and sowhat came to me was 1
(32:32):
Corinthians 13, 4, where love ispatient and kind.
Love is not jealous or boastful,or proud or rude.
It does not demand its own way,it is not irritable and it
keeps no record of being wronged.
It does not rejoice aboutinjustice, but rejoices whenever
(32:53):
the truth wins out.
Love never gives up, neverloses faith, is always hopeful
and endures through everycircumstance, and so when that
came to mind, it really put intoa perspective that when we love
(33:13):
, it is the complete opposite ofwhat I just read.
Most of the time, you'reimpatient.
A lot of people are impatient.
They're like, oh my gosh,you're taking too long to
acknowledge me, or you're takingtoo long to marry me, or you're
taking too long to fulfill myneeds, or I'm demanding
(33:36):
something from you I want it myway and I'm not getting it my
way, right, and so you getirritated.
And then you start to keeprecords and tabs of who did what
who didn't?
do this Right, exactly, you getoffensive, and that is
definitely not a fruit of thespirit.
Walter (33:58):
Yeah and well, I think.
Unfortunately, it's just onceagain.
It's what we're taught.
It's something that came to me,but I forgot it.
It'll come back.
Shanea (34:09):
I saw you over there.
Walter (34:10):
Yeah, it was something that came to me, but it'll come
back.
Holy Spirit, I thank you forbringing it back, but you did
actually dig into the notes andwe're touching that again.
But yeah, the love that theworld teaches us to have is the
opposite of what god teaches usyeah it's very self-based yeah
like it, it keeps records it'syou.
(34:32):
You says you should give methis.
Yeah, I deserve to have thisright, and if you don't give me
this, I'm gonna take my lovefrom you by the time.
Shanea (34:40):
I want it from you.
I shouldn't expect and see thisfrom you if I'm doing this so
that's good.
Walter (34:51):
The world is just the opposite of what first
corinthians 12 is.
They teach you the opposite.
Yeah, literally, or you act asif this is something that you're
doing, but it's all based offof getting something in return.
Yeah.
So it's still not pure.
No.
And so we touched on this, right, mm-hmm.
(35:13):
The ultimate example ofselfless love is what God did by
sending his son to die for us,even though we didn't deserve it
.
Right, that's John 3.16.
And Matthew 26, 36 through 44,.
This touches on the Jesus beingin the garden of Gethsemane and
(35:38):
the Bible saying that his soulwas just crushed almost to the
point of death because he wasstruggling with the fact of
having to go through everythinghe was going to almost to the
point of death, right.
Because he was struggling withthe fact of having to go through
everything he was going to haveto go through.
And so Jesus exemplified agapelove in the Garden of Gethsemane
(35:59):
, submitting his will to theFather Despite his emotions and
the pain he would endure.
So agape love is about choosingto love and obey, even when
it's difficult or goes againstpersonal desires.
Dying to self, agape love isliterally you die to your own
desires.
Yeah.
And you say I'm going to dowhat's best for this person.
Shanea (36:25):
Yeah, it's unconditional .
Walter (36:28):
There's no conditions, there's nothing attached.
Right.
There's nothing attached to it,and this goes into Christ's love
for the church.
Christ's love for the church isunconditional.
It's so unconditional that whenhe sat on the cross, he said,
father, forgive them, for theyknow not what they do.
They were literally mocking himand he said, father, forgive
(36:53):
them, for they know not whatthey do.
So now, men and we've read thisbefore and it's very
challenging to do, but this isthe type of love that God has
called us to have Ephesians 5,verse 25.
It says For husbands, this meanslove your wives, just as Christ
(37:15):
loved the church.
He gave up his life for her tomake her holy and clean, washed
by the cleansing of God's word.
He did this to present her tohimself as a glorious church
without a spot or wrinkle or anyother blemish.
Instead, she would be holy andwithout fault.
In the same way, husbands areto love their wives as they love
(37:37):
their own bodies, for a man wholoves his wife actually shows
love for himself.
No one hates his body, butfeeds and cares for it, just as
Christ cares for the church.
So, with that being the caseright, it's important to
understand the importance ofloving the way God designed for
(38:00):
us to love, and I think I heardTim Ross say this before.
But men, when we get married,we show up to our marriage or
our wedding day, we show up todie.
Yeah.
You die to your own desires.
You die to whatever it is youwant.
Yeah.
(38:20):
You show up to die to self.
Shanea (38:23):
Yeah, you get married to die.
Walter (38:25):
Yeah, it's as simple as that.
Shanea (38:27):
Well, I mean, it's the same thing with Christ.
I mean, when we get married toChrist, when we become his bride
, we have to die.
Walter (38:34):
Yeah, and so the thing that we see right and this
becomes you become a masterservant when you think of
Ephesians 5, 25, 29,.
I love this.
This means embracing humilityand servitude, putting the needs
(38:58):
of your spouse above your owndesires.
So, in a sense, you become amaster servant.
As men, we become a masterservant to our wives.
We submit to our wives, whichis where men struggle because
they're like oh, when you getmarried, you have to submit to
me.
Shanea (39:15):
Well, you submit to your wife first yeah, well, they
struggle because they are tryingto love from a worldly
perspective.
Yeah.
Which is selfish.
Walter (39:28):
And I think loving the way God designed is impossible
outside of a relationship withhim and they will look at you
like you're crazy for doing it.
Yeah, but the only way.
Because once again the Biblesays For God so loved the world
that he gave his only son.
The Bible teaches us that Jesusdied on the cross for our sins.
(39:50):
The Bible shows us that Jesusactually washed the feet of his
disciples.
Jesus was always serving thepeople.
He was always accepting themwhere they were, meeting them,
where they were walking throughlife with them and doing life
with them.
He was always concerned withthe needs of the people as he
did the will of the Father Right.
(40:13):
So loving the way God designedis impossible outside of a
relationship with God.
For men, it's you having arelationship with God that
teaches you how to love.
For women, it's you having arelationship with God that
teaches you how to love.
Shanea (40:32):
Yeah, and we said this, and I don't remember what
episode it was but you can'tlove outside of Christ.
No, it's impossible If youdon't know Christ, because
because christ, he is theepitome of what love is.
He shows us the epitome of whatlove looks like, and if you
don't know him, then you can'tpossibly know what love is well,
(40:55):
you can love, but it's notgoing to be something that's
sustained or sustainable.
Walter (41:00):
It's going to be something that's going to be
fleeting.
Shanea (41:03):
It's here today.
No, it's going to feel likewhat you think love should be.
Walter (41:07):
Sometimes you're going to hate them Sometimes.
You're going to be this.
I don't want to be bothered,and it goes into the next point.
Many marriages fail becausethey are built on worldly
definitions or the worldlydefinition of love, rather than
God's framework of sacrificial,selfless love.
Many marriages fail becausethey are built on worldly
(41:31):
definition or a worldlydefinition of love, rather than
God's framework of sacrificial,selfless love.
That's the reality of what itis, because when you approach
that marriage, first of all,when you're in a marriage that
was designed by God first acovenant that was designed by
God and then you approach thatmarriage the way God designed
(41:56):
for you to approach it you havetwo people essentially that are
showing up and dying.
Yeah, you have two peopleessentially that are showing up
and dying.
Yeah.
The husband shows up and diefirst, which in return would
show the wife.
Shanea (42:14):
He become the example to the wife, because Christ became
the example to us as a church.
Well, I think it's easier to gothrough this process prior to
meeting or looking for a spouseand we were talking about this,
about being in your wildernessseason so that you can know
God's voice, know what God lookslike, know what he's telling
(42:36):
you to do, know your purpose,and so it's easier to continue
out that plan even when you havea so-called distraction,
because you're so used tofollowing God's word.
It's like in your DNA.
Yeah, and I mean so dying toself is like it's hard, but it's
(43:03):
not something that you're justlearning how to do because now
you're in a marriage.
Walter (43:07):
Yeah, and I wouldn't say marriage is a distraction.
I know Paul said that, yet Paulalso did not want to be married
.
Yeah, and people use Paul tojustify the things that they do.
Paul was saying this is mespeaking, not god.
I believe marriage is adistraction because I'm not
married and I don't think youshould be married yeah, and I'm
(43:29):
not saying marriage, I'm notcalling marriage a distraction.
I'm just saying in general.
I'm speaking on engine becauseI know no it came up.
Shanea (43:34):
It came up also when I said distraction, I'm like dang
paul, but what I was saying wasthat there are there are a lot
of other challenges that cancome along with being with
another person.
Walter (43:47):
Yeah, yeah.
It's the perfect example of thereflection of Christ in the
church.
Ultimately, your marriageshould be an example of Christ's
marriage to the church,christ's marriage to the bride,
which is the church.
Your marriage should be anexample of that.
It should literally, which iswhy you would want to be, and we
(44:08):
recommend people being in godlymarriages, because it leads
people back to Christ.
That is the ultimate goal, forthat.
One of the things you should bedoing is leading people back to
Christ through the reflectionof your marriage.
It should be a light in peopleback to christ through the
reflection of your marriage.
It should be a light in thisworld full of darkness.
Shanea (44:29):
Your life right and your marriage should be a light so
when you do have thosechallenges, it's a reminder hey,
we got to do this god's way,not how we think we should do it
not.
I'm going to try and get you tofollow God's way, but you guys
are already on the same pageLike, hey, this, this is, this
(44:50):
is not God.
Walter (44:51):
Yeah.
Shanea (44:52):
We got to stop.
Walter (44:53):
That's the only way that you're really going to be have
a fulfilling marriage is bydoing it the right way.
We other episodes we touched on.
You know God actually leadingyou to that person, but even
before that, you go through thewilderness experience.
You have your experience withGod so you can learn God's voice
.
All of these things areimportant, which leads to the
point of you being here andunfortunately, we are in a world
(45:15):
where a lot of people date.
So even when you have yourconversion or you have your
encounter with God, you've dateda lot.
So you need to be healed, youneed to be delivered, your mind
has to be renewed, you have tolet go of those things because
you develop an appetite that isnot of God.
Shanea (45:33):
Or you have developed habits.
Walter (45:35):
That is not of God.
And you want to carry thosehabits into this relationship
that you're trusting that God isgoing to bless you with this
husband or wife, that God isgoing to bless you with this,
this husband or wife that God isgoing to bless you with, but
you want to carry in thesehabits that are not godly, these
desires that are not godly.
So you have to go throughoutthis whole process.
Shanea (45:52):
It's a process you have to go through a pruning process,
Because the rest of the worldis like that's normal.
Walter (45:57):
Yes.
Shanea (45:58):
You should feel that way .
Walter (46:05):
But you will fail because you are a believer and
you are not to be moved or gobased on the world.
We talked about this before.
The church allows the world toset or dictate the culture in
the church and the church shoulddictate the culture in the
world.
Shanea (46:16):
Oh, absolutely, that's how it was supposed to be.
Walter (46:19):
The world should look at the church, which is being led
by the kingdom of God.
They have a kingdom mind, theyhave a relationship with God and
be like, okay, what is it thatyou have?
But in many cases,unfortunately, the world look at
the church and say I don't wantthat, because you see something
wrong with you.
Shanea (46:37):
Right?
You look just like me.
Walter (46:39):
And you look worse because you're supposed to have
it together and you don't.
So I might as well just livelife the way I'm living it.
Why?
Shanea (46:46):
would I come and do what you do, right, because you're
over here praising the Lord.
So I think, and still in thesame places that I'm in.
Walter (46:57):
Exactly.
Shanea (46:58):
And but you're, you're condemning me for the things
that I'm doing, just because Idon't go to church and pray and
do all those things.
But you're doing all thosethings and doing the same things
I'm doing.
You're no different.
No.
Walter (47:12):
You're worse?
Yes, because you're in church.
And you're being disobedientand you should be set free from
this, and you're not, and you'retrying to judge me.
Speaker 4 (47:27):
So we, that's, so I that.
To wrap this up, it's as simpleas this.
Walter (47:29):
When we try to love on our own terms, we fail to
reflect god's true love for usand others as believers.
That's as simple as it is.
When we try to love on our ownterms, we fail to reflect god's
true love for us and others andwe are to be the example yeah we
are to be the salt of the world.
(47:51):
We are to be the light of theworld.
Our light is dim right now.
So we we touched on this before.
I think we I said I talkedabout this in the comment
section.
Marriage is an institution thatwas designed by God.
You saw the first example ofthat with Adam and Eve, and so I
(48:16):
trying to create a covenantoutside of God's love and
framework leads to failure.
Yeah.
Marriage was designed by God.
So trying to access thisoutside of God, you will fail.
(48:42):
First Corinthians 12, fourthrough seven we touched on that
.
This is the way God designedlove and relationships,
particularly in marriage.
It's outlined here.
Without following that model,failure is inevitable.
But the thing is and this wasso good as I was writing it and
(49:04):
I can't take credit and I giveit to the Holy Spirit the
problem is this right here, manycouples mistake failure as the
norm in marriage.
Shanea (49:14):
I know it's what keeps people in bondage and keeps
people up in arms in our commentsection.
Walter (49:22):
Mm-hmm.
They mistake failure as thenorm.
They look at failure inmarriage as success.
Shanea (49:30):
Yes, it's like oh, your marriage isn't successful
because you guys don't gothrough it.
Walter (49:36):
You ain't got no problems.
You're not arguing, you're notbickering, you're not going
through not being happy.
Speaker 5 (49:43):
That's marriage.
This is the way marriage issupposed to look Really, is it?
Yeah?
Should you not be happy withyour spouse?
Should your spouse not be ableto speak life into you?
Should your husband not be ableto recognize what God has
called you to?
Should you, as the woman, bepraying more than me as the
husband?
Should you be the watchman ofour family?
Right, should you be be prayingmore than me as the husband?
(50:03):
Should you be the watchman ofour family?
Right should you be in churchmore than I'm in church?
Shanea (50:08):
should the woman be the watch.
Speaker 5 (50:09):
Should I not be at church with you?
Shanea (50:11):
right?
Are you at home watchingtelevision while I'm out?
Speaker 5 (50:16):
should I not be in my word exactly in which they
should go should I not be in myword just as much as you're in
your word?
Should I not?
Walter (50:24):
be able to see and recognize the plans of the enemy
.
Shanea (50:26):
No, because Paul said you can be with an unbeliever
and be in an unequally yokedmarriage.
Walter (50:32):
Paul was speaking to Romans.
Shanea (50:33):
But he also did not say that?
Walter (50:36):
What book is that in?
What book is that in?
That is, in Romans.
People have to look at whatpeople in Rome was doing.
Shanea (50:45):
Right?
Well, the thing is, Paul wasgiving people advice based off
of the fact that they were notfollowing God's original design.
Walter (50:59):
He's like look, if this is what you want, to do, sure.
And he said clearly, with thatyou don't have to.
Shanea (51:02):
Yes, sure he said clearly with that you don't have
to.
Yes, you could possibly changea believer, change an unbeliever
to a believer, but who reallyknows?
Walter (51:11):
because god is the only one that can change people's
hearts but the fact, why even gothrough it, exactly, why even
put yourself through it?
Shanea (51:20):
bothers it, really bothers me that people are up in
arms in the comments trying toargue us down about being in an
unequally yoked relationshipMarriage.
Walter (51:32):
It's weird foundation will always be follow God.
And for those who are inmarriages that are in bondage
and that you're being abused andyou're being mistreated and the
church is telling you that youhave to stay in that marriage, I
(51:52):
will tell you any day of theweek that that is not of God.
Shanea (51:55):
No, because there's so much warfare when you are just
in general, because the enemyhates us.
Walter (52:03):
He don't like humans at all You're going to deal with
warfare anyway within yourmarriage, but it's even more
greater when you're dealing withwarfare from within because you
created a covenant.
Yeah, you knew that dude was nogood.
You knew that woman was no good.
Right, you women, women do thismore than men.
Shanea (52:25):
You get with men and you think that you can change them
right, or you get with men whoclaim to be christian but they
don't know god, and so theybarely go to church what I was
saying was it's it's hardbecause you don't have any
protection there.
Speaker 5 (52:40):
There is so much warfare that you can't see with
your natural eye or, moreimportantly, he or she is
bringing warfare directly to you.
Yes, you are battling withinyour home.
Walter (52:53):
You already have to deal with outside sources and
outside people trying to come atyou from the outside Right.
You already have to deal withthe enemy trying to come at you
already.
Shanea (53:06):
Right or now.
You were an unbeliever and nowyou are a believer, and now your
marriage is going to hell.
Right now.
Walter (53:18):
And at that point you got to pray and ask God to give
you wisdom, because there areinstances and we're not saying
it's not there are instanceswhere you can be two unbelievers
and God bring you together.
He did it with us, but then healso actually separated us to
take me through a process ofbeing everything he called me to
be, then brought us backtogether, though.
So we're not saying that youcan get married and be married
(53:41):
to the person God has called youto be with and both be
unbelievers, but we're sayingthat when you are going in and
approaching it from thatperspective, you're going to
deal with a lot of challengesthat you may not have to
necessarily deal with.
Shanea (53:52):
Right, especially because one or both of you can't
see what's going on.
Walter (53:56):
Yeah, and it's even more challenging when the man can't
see what's going on.
Shanea (54:01):
It's even more challenging.
Walter (54:02):
Because he's the leader, because he's the leader.
So that's even more of achallenge in that perspective,
because now, as a woman, youhave to operate in a role that
you were never intended tooperate in Exactly so, it's a
lot.
Yeah.
And so I think how we approachthis is we have to recognize
God's design for marriage as acovenant based on love,
(54:25):
servitude and faith, and this iscrucial in order to overcome
any challenges that you may face.
The way that you're able to besuccessful in a marriage is
doing it God's way from thebeginning and throughout it.
That is the only way thatyou're able to be successful in
a marriage is doing it God's wayfrom the beginning, yeah, and
throughout it.
(54:45):
Yeah.
That is the only way that you'regoing to be successful, because
failure in marriage comes whenwe stray away from God's
blueprint, and true success isfound in living out his love
through faith.
Shanea (54:59):
Right, and that starts with a foundation, if your
foundation is rooted in god'slove it has to be.
If it's rooted in anything else,it's going to fail because
we've been through some stuffyes, based on cost, based on
decisions that we made, we wentthrough a lot of things that we
didn't necessarily have to gothrough yeah, and we we've gone
(55:22):
through a lot of stuff rightearly in the beginning and was
able to deal with it, but onlythrough the power of the Holy
Spirit.
So it's like now, going forward, we have a blueprint, we have a
framework, we have a foundation.
Speaker 5 (55:39):
Yeah.
Shanea (55:39):
So when things start to crumble and get down to the
nitty-gritty we have, we alwayshave that, that foundation to
start back at one.
Walter (55:50):
Well, it's recognizing that part of the reason that you
deal with those things isbecause of decisions that you
made outside of god, which iswhy we try to encourage people
not to make decisions outside ofgod yeah not to do what you
want to do, because when you dowhat you want to do, you Because
when you do what you want to doyou will set yourself up for
failure, you will set yourselfup for attacks and you're
literally telling the enemy I'mgiving you legal access to this
(56:13):
area of my life to do whateveryou want to do, right To raise
hell.
Shanea (56:17):
And your father loves you.
He has an unconditional lovefor you.
Yet you still have to deal withthe consequences.
Walter (56:25):
Yes.
Shanea (56:26):
And even just loving people in general.
You can unconditionally lovesomeone, but there are still
consequences to their actionsand how they treat you.
Walter (56:36):
Yeah, why would you want to be I'll say it like this why
would you want to be in arelationship with someone God
never designed for you to bewith?
Because it's going to beimpossible for that person to
love you the way that Goddesigned for that person to love
you.
Because they're not meant foryou.
Right.
(56:56):
You're trying to make somethingwork that's not meant for you,
and at its worst, they couldliterally damage you well,
people tell you that you shouldwork at it yes I don't
understand because you'retalking low sometimes am I too
low?
Shanea (57:16):
am I too low or am I too loud?
Walter (57:18):
you'd be too low sometimes okay, I can't continue
.
Shanea (57:21):
People tell you you should work at it.
I would say that you shouldn'tget in and get in an.
Walter (57:22):
You'd be too low sometimes.
Okay, I can't tell People, tellyou you should work at it.
I would say that you shouldn'tget in it in the first place.
No, you shouldn't be dating.
It's too many situations outhere.
There's too many people outhere who are manipulative, who
are controlling, who areconniving.
Shanea (57:44):
But you, even yourself, might be controlling and
manipulative and don't even knowit yeah.
Which is why you really have togo through the process of
having a relationship with.
God, because you only find yourtrue identity in Christ.
You don't really know who youare.
Speaker 5 (58:07):
so you're coming to a relationship where you don't
know who you are and you don'teven know who this other person
is yeah, so it's blind leadingblind, blind dating the blind
yeah
Walter (58:16):
yeah.
So I think, a few points tomake before we end this, and I
don't think it was this longthis time.
First, true love begins withintimacy with God and following
his guidance through the HolySpirit.
Marriage and all relationshipscan thrive when we love with the
(58:41):
God.
We love the love that reflectsGod's character.
So faith in God renews ourminds and the guidance of the
Holy Spirit empowers us to lovethe way God intended for us to
love Outside of that isimpossible.
Outside of that, it'simpossible.
(59:03):
Outside of that, it'simpossible.
You are experiencing somethingthat will not sustain you or
that marriage, even if you arewhere God has called you to be.
Right.
You will fail.
You will fail, you will fail.
(59:28):
You will fail without God.
I don't know what you're saying.
Shanea (59:35):
It's okay.
So you will fail without God,so anything that you want to
leave us with um no, I think umhas people listened to this,
(59:59):
that they will reflect on thedecisions that they have made,
and I just hope that thisencourages people to build a
deeper relationship with God sothat they know who they are and
who they should be with, andwhat that person looks like.
Walter (01:00:23):
Yeah, are, and who they should be with, and what that
person looks like, yeah, andeven in your relationships with
friends.
This all is important for youto even be able to love them, to
love your brother in the faith,to love your sister in the
faith.
This is all important becauseall of these relationships
should be approached from aselfless type perspective.
Speaker 4 (01:00:41):
What All of these relationships should be
approached from a selfless typeperspective.
Shanea (01:00:48):
What, what?
You keep tapping your ears, isit me?
Walter (01:00:51):
No, I'm tapping my ears because the earpiece keep coming
out.
Shanea (01:00:54):
Oh, okay, I thought you kept signaling me.
Walter (01:00:57):
No.
Shanea (01:00:58):
And that's why I'm like over here, confused I'm like
adjusting, I'm adjusting my ear.
Walter (01:01:02):
I'm like adjusting, I'm adjusting my ear.
Shanea (01:01:04):
I'm like adjusting my mic.
Walter (01:01:05):
Because my earpiece is coming out, that's all.
No, I'm not.
If I'm saying you're too loud,I'll do this.
I touch the mic, I don't do theear thing.
Shanea (01:01:13):
Oh, because you kept tapping your ear.
I was tapping my ear becausethe earpiece was coming out.
Oh, that's what you was asking.
Walter (01:01:20):
Yes, you should have just asked no, I was literally
adjusting my earpiece.
Speaker 5 (01:01:24):
Oh.
Walter (01:01:25):
For those who aren't looking at the actual episode.
My wife is talking about thefact of me adjusting my earpiece
.
Anyone that have these in-earmonitors know that, as you see,
singers and all they'reconsistently adjusting them and
you know doing all of this stuff.
Shanea (01:01:39):
My bad, I thought it was like a secret code or something
.
No, it's not.
Walter (01:01:43):
It's literally just adjusting it, pushing it back in
my ear.
So, okay, that's a great placeto leave our listeners.
Hopefully this has been ablessing to you all.
Ultimately, sum it up, when youthink of love, you have two
(01:02:07):
ways to approach it.
You're going to either approachit from the perspective of what
the world teaches you, oryou're going to approach it from
the perspective of what Godteaches you.
In our experience, we'velearned that when you approach
this from a godly perspective,it will lead to you being
(01:02:27):
successful, and it's so muchless stressful.
Shanea (01:02:32):
Yeah.
Because, you're not relying onyourself?
Walter (01:02:35):
You're like okay, god you got it.
Shanea (01:02:37):
Even when we get into it , it's like all right, God,
that's your son, you know him.
Walter (01:02:42):
And then when you have the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit
kind of keeps you.
He will tell you when you'rewrong.
Shanea (01:02:51):
Or stop you.
Walter (01:02:52):
Or stop you from saying something you shouldn't say, and
so I think that's so importantand you're reminded of what love
is, even if it's something assimple as the Holy spirit
telling me you have to die toself.
You have to die to self.
You know you have to love herthrough me, and so I think
(01:03:18):
that's a good place to stop.
Yeah, uh, thank you all.
We appreciate you all forlistening in this week.
We pray that this has been ablessing to you and we will see
you next week.
Is anything else you want tosay, babe?
Shanea (01:03:31):
no, that's it like comment, subscribe.
Walter (01:03:34):
It's not for us, it's really just more so for you
share it if this has been ablessing yeah, and go back and
listen to the other videos,because everything has been kind
of, or the other episodes,because everything has been
tying together.
Shanea (01:03:44):
Yeah, going to tie all together and if you have any
experiences or questions oranything?
Just leave us some comments.
We'll get to you, yeah.
Walter (01:03:52):
It'd be a lot of.
One particular video has beenhaving a lot of comments on it,
Like it's something that's socontroversial.
Shanea (01:04:00):
Yeah, it's not really spoken on very much.
Walter (01:04:04):
People and their feelings, but it's okay.
Okay, until next week, godbless.
Yes, we'll see you then.
All right, bye-bye.
All right, bye.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com