This is for my fellow believers who have recently awakened to the truth about this world or want to travel wholeheartedly more closely with God. This is also for believers in Christ who have received the Holy Spirit and are unsure of why things may seem to be changing in your life. This is also for you who want an encounter with God, or to simply learn how to discern and hear His voice more clearly. This is both a testimony and a push to wake up and take the remaining time you have on this earth more seriously. This is a lengthy process and will take time. Please read this in the order you would like to. No two seasons will look alike. God takes us through different processes, but this one was mine. I pray that the words I wrote, both convict you, encourage you, and challenge you to look more closely into yourself. I pray that you can find it in your heart to share this with someone you love who might be in the need of Christ Jesus or with someone who has lost hope. This journey is for anyone who can receive and understand this message. Many are called but few are chosen. This is not the end, it’s the beginning. Let’s get started.
Repent
More than likely there has been a life altering event or even simply you’ve come to the realization that Jesus is the only way and time is running out, that brought you to repentance. Either way, I’m grateful you have arrived at the door. Now it’s time to pour out. If you are at the door of repentance, you recognize that you’ve got sin in your life and that you need grace, mercy, and deliverance. If you are at the door, you truly want to see what this Jesus thing is all about. If you are at the door you’re back just might literally be backed to a wall with few options to turn to, so you’re crying out. Regardless, Jesus wants you to know that He’s here and He always has been.
As you look over your life and contemplate all of the things you’ve been through, think about all the times you probably should have died but for some odd reason, you made it out of that situation alive and in one piece. Why is that you think? It’s because God has strategically purposed you for a time such as this. If you are still here on this earth, He still has a mission for you. There’s a line in one of Jhene Aiko’s songs that says, “you don’t get to die until you get it right, He said, I envy the dead.” Ponder that for a moment…. He has called you to draw closer to Him so that He can walk you through this thing called life.
First, you must reconcile yourself to Him. You must truly have a contrite heart and be sorry for all of the negativity and sin you’ve put out into this world. Once you’ve done that, you’ve now allowed Him to really start His inner work in you. Contrite is defined as: feeling or expressing remorse or penitence; affected by guilt. Seeing that God looks at the heart, I caution you to be truly sorry for the sin you’ve committed. God does not care about your pretty words, but cares for the guilt you hold inside that should be offered up to Him.
The Isolation Period
Whew!!! This is a tough one so buckle up!!!
One of the biggest signs of spiritual elevation, is the isolation period. This is the period where God will literally cause you to be completely alone for a period of time where He can work on your inner man. Typically, you are bright to this period as a result of something drastic happening in your life that may bring you to your knees, or you may just have had a period of awakening (but not in all cases). For some people, it may be impossible for you to be completely alone physically because of your living situation. In some instances, it will be a spiritual isolation where you sense a separation from those around you who are not quite “awakened” yet. It may be that there is a period where people that were once close to you realized that you are changing and becoming different, and different doesn’t necessarily fit into their lifestyles, so they will vocalize that you’ve been acting weird and they will voluntarily distance themselves from you. Depending on how many people you keep in your circle, this might happen multiple times in a short period of time. For this reason, I caution you my brothers and sisters, to guard your hearts because this is literally going to be one of the most painful pruning phases of the process of your refinement in Christ.
This phase is where the enemy will literally come in with his heavy hitters to try to send sneak attacks. Satan loves to attack when you’re all alone and vulnerable, because you won’t have the right type of person around to help you up. Notice I said the right type of person. The people you’ve been pruned away from were not the right type of people to help you up when you fall. When they helped you up in the past, they ushered you right back into the slumber you just woke up from (Satan also uses people to achieve his agenda). I caution you to be very observant in this portion of the process. Recognize people’s fruit. What type of energy do they give when you’re around them? Do you consider them to be a follower of Christ? Are they always reaching out to you to go party?
Might I also caution you that despite what the masses feel, just because you are choosing to change your lifestyle and walk the straight and narrow, YOU ARE NOT CRAZY!! You are simply waking up while others are so caught up in this 3D matrix system and in love with the things this life offers that they can’t even fathom what’s really going on in the world or with you. Not to get on a tangent on the people around you but just a caveat, people that are not yet awakened are very much vain and caught up in the day to day luxuries, social media trends, Hollywood celebrities, the newest music, the list could go on and on and on. Once you awaken you will realize that most of these things will start to become less and less important and/or meaningful to you.
God has a mission for you that is much greater than what you could ever fathom. If you decide not to trust Him, you are only holding yourself back from His promise. The more you resist or fail the tests and trials He gives, the longer the process will become! I would caution you to get comfortable with being alone and enjoying who you are truly becoming. Though it all seems so odd and foreign, keep faith that it is to protect you and preserve you. God wants to draw you in a His own. Take this time to journal and reflect, check in with yourself often, fast and pray, and constantly reflect on your growth. You are aligning with what God has in store for you. It is time to wake up because God is calling His chosen ones home and this earth is far from that.
Trusting the Process
What do you do when you’re traveling through a wilderness season, and you can’t even see where you’re going? Literally, everything is foggy, you keep stumbling over branches and stumps, you keep getting attacked by pests, and the temperature outside is extremely hot or cold? You TRUST God! You have no idea what He wants to do through you. You have no idea that your promise land is right on the other side of your obedience. You have no idea that there may be a blessing if you endure, or a curse if you take matters into your own hands and veer off of the path that He has set for you. I know it’s uncomfortable not knowing what’s going to happen, I’m going through the exact same thing as I write these words. All I know is that our obedience through this process is key in achieving the keys to glory. The hardest part sometimes is that, once you fully decide to follow God’s path for yourself, it brings about some uncomfortable pruning away of things, people, and customs that used to bring you so much joy and comfort. Sometimes you have to have some uncomfortable conversations with those that are connected to you, and explain to them that you can’t do the same things you used to do because God is taking you in a different direction. You can either choose to follow God, or man. It’s honestly simpler than we make it out to be. During this process, if you choose God, He will reveal to you the shallow thinking and mindsets of those around you. He will show you the things that you finally woke up from as people around you will still be in their slumber. 1 Thessalonians 5:6 NLT tells us, “So be on your guard, not asleep like the others. Stay alert and be clearheaded.”
It may even become eerie as you will start to feel isolated because you are starting to go a different direction than the masses are going. Don’t worry my friend, you’re awakening. I caution you (be mindful of when I caution you, these were heavy hitters through my awakening period that could easily hinder a new or even seasoned believer from following the path God has aligned for you) to take this process as slow as God will allow you to so that you can catch all of the revelations He wants to show you.
As you go through your isolation period, you will feel very isolated but you will also begin to feel enlightened as things unfold around you and the veil is removed more and more from your eyes. I caution you, the people that are meant to stay in your life will stay, and the people that are meant to go will go. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT get caught up in the ones who are gone!! Once they’re gone, keep them at bay for your own salvation’s sake (even though some people were only meant to depart from you for a season and then return when they are whole, so seek God throughout this process).
Resisting Your Flesh
Man this hurts….. I mean truly…..it hurts. The more and more I resist my flesh, the stronger the attacks become. It is inwardly and outwardly painful. I literally can’t seem to catch a break. The fact that I’m resisting my flesh even in the face of so much going on in my life, is a testament of God’s strength through me. However, the stronger the attacks are, the tougher the decision making process becomes. That’s truly what led me here in the first place: poor decision making. Just like Eve, so easily deceived, and so easily trapped. I honestly feel like everything has been pulled away from me, even though I know that even more has been stored up for me in heaven. The new direction my life has began to take has been life-altering. This is the first time that I’ve fully surrendered all of my decision making to God and allowed Him to take the wheel of the direction of my life.
I understand now more than ever the saying, “for the spirit is willing but the body is weak” (Matthew 26:41). I’ve seen how much tougher I’ve gotten through this spiritual walk because initially it almost took me out, literally. Now looking back on the journey, the pruning of my flesh has been incremental and necessary in order to bring me through each phase in my refinement period through Christ. I never knew how strong one’s flesh could be until I started to fast from the things that I once fell victim to. I noticed how much I squirmed and buckled as the pressure grew. I realized how easily triggered I was by so much around me that I would have never otherwise recognized before. But now I have a peace that exceeds all of my understanding even in the face of my weak flesh. The battle is tough but now I can see things clearer and for what they are, and not for what I want them to be.
Resisting your flesh is important because it allows you to level up in your faith. It also allows you to increase your self control/discipline, which is one of the fruits of the Spirit. If you don’t learn to resist your flesh, it will overtake you, and when you’re faced with adversity, you will cave in at the first sign of pressure, and be defeated (in some cases).
So how do we do it you may be asking. I have a few tips for you to guide you through this process.
Set Boundaries
Be strategic in being specific on what it is that you are trying to resist and be more disciplined with. You can’t resist what you don’t know you’re supposed to be resisting from. If you are reading this post, I’m sure you are already personally aware of the things you need to be more self disciplined with our cut out all together.
Set a Timeframe
Be mindful that it is important to be specific in knowing if you are resisting for a period of time such as saving sex for marriage or if you are cutting something out completely such as adultery or stealing for example.
Know Exactly Why You are Resisting Your Flesh
We know that certain sin leads to death, but not all sin. But we want to be sure that we are not making a habit of sinning (1 John 3:9, 1 John 5:18, Romans 6:1-23). I feel that knowing the why behind resisting the flesh, will lead you to victory as opposed to resisting your flesh because God said so. A lot of the times, one sin can lead to another, which creates a domino effect and ultimately creates chaos in our lives. Once you are able to nip one sin in the bud, the more you will become resistant to other sin in your life.
Fasting and Praying
If you want to get feedback from the Holy Spirit and truly have a relationship with the Father and Son, this phase of the process is vital. “Relationship” by definition is: the way in which two or more concepts, objects, or people are connected, or the state of being connected. Notice that it’s a 2-way street and not a 1-way street. In order to grow closer to God, (here’s the fun part) you must know how to clearly discern His voice. In this phase of your refinement, you will be doing a lot of listening, squirming a bit, obeying, then repeating over and over again. But personally, this is one of the biggest parts (to me) that strengthens your faith. For me, it is so eye-opening when you start to hear God speak to you and give you instructions. You finally obey and move on His behalf, and then immediately after, He begins to bring you confirmation after confirmation and blessing after blessing. I can’t tell you how blessed I felt after receiving response after response that something prophetic I spoke or did spoke right to different people in such divine timing and gave them the confirmation they were awaiting. Your obedience to His voice will become so addicting that you will start to want to go deeper and deeper into your spiritual journey. Which brings me to fasting and praying.
Fasting allows you to deny your flesh (the part of us that easily lusts the things of this world with our physical eyes and bodies, causing us to trip and fall into sin). Fasting allows Holy Spirit to speak to you and lead you. This is the part of the process where I personally finally realized how squirmy I was when it came to letting go of certain things that I grew accustomed to in this world. Even though you are IN this world you’re not OF this world, but that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be easy to let certain things go, even if just for a short period of time. God knows exactly what you like and crave. Fasting from what you really really like is a big testament of your love for Him. The fact that you are physically showing Him that you not only say you love Him with your mouth, but you show Him that you love Him through fasting and praying is a true testament of your faith. I feel that’s the key factor you must remember in this process. One thing I always tell myself through a fast is, “if I can learn to tell myself no to this now, then when times get harder I will have that much more faith when faced with pressures of this world. Jacob’s Trouble (the pros before Jesus’s second coming AKA the last days we are living through now) is going to be the worst time on the earth like there never has ever been, “For there will be greater anguish in those days than at any time since God created the world. And it will never be so great again.” Mark 13:19 NLT Imagine being faced with being microchipped because you got a little hungry and you knew you couldn’t buy or sell without it. Because your faith was so weak or not tried through the fire hardly ever in your life, you gave in super easily and damned your soul to hell in an instant. Imagine that…. Moreover, imagine you took a fast seriously, and realized how weak your faith was and how easily you gave in to temptation. Imagine that…. He said to seek Him while He can be found (“Seek the Lord while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near.” Isaiah 55:6 NLT) so I caution you to grow your faith while times are not as tough right now. Soon there will be a famine of the word (“The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the Lord.” Amos 8:11 NLT) and that means God just may be in the process of finishing sealing his chosen ones and there will be no more delay, no more time to repent, no more time to get right, no more time to be saved, period.
My suggestion would be to learn how to do “listening prayer”. Solomon said, “As you enter the house of God, keep your ears open and your mouth shut. It is evil to make mindless offerings to God. Don’t make rash promises, and don’t be hasty in bringing matters before God. After all, God is in heaven, and you are here on earth. So let your words be few.” Ecclesiastes 5:1-2 NLT It is important to hear from God more than you babbling on and giving Him your requests. He knows what you need and our lives were already laid out for you long ago, so your words don’t hold much weight anyways (“Everything has already been decided. It was known long ago what each person would be. So there’s no use arguing with God about your destiny. The more words you speak, the less they mean. So what good are they?” Ecclesiastes 6:10-11 NLT) so learn to listen to Him more than you speak.
One good practice is to call God’s name or Abba Father or even Jesus or Holy Spirit, then say speak Lord, your servant is listening. Then, YOU LISTEN!! Let me caution you that there will be a period that you won’t even hear anything at all and your mind will start to wander and you will easily become distracted. But take heart and know it is a process. We live in an instant gratification world but that is one restriction you cannot I repeat CANNOT put on God! His timing is not our timing so He will allow Himself to be heard when He feels you are ready.
Soon after your persistence of seeking Him, He will speak. It may be just one or two words you get and it may take a while to hear more again but take heart, it will become easier to hear His voice before you know it. One thing I did in the beginning of my journey was to write down what I heard. I even went as far as to ask Him to repeat what He said, wrote it down again and it was identical to the previous list.
Another helpful tip I can give you is to study the word as much as possible!! Read each scripture slowly and let it speak to your current situation as if it was meant directly for you (because it is) in that moment. Replace yourself with the characters in the Bible and actually learn the characteristics of God (because there are many). This will allow you to learn how God speaks, what He speaks, and the way He sounds. This is going to sound very cliché but hear me out. His voice is a still, quiet, voice. When he speaks, it’s like peace comes over you. If you could imagine being in the middle of nowhere in the outdoors with God, it is so calm and still, maybe a soft breeze can be sensed but for the most part, everything else around you ceases to exist. Hear me out, I’m trying to describe this the best way I’ve experienced. When you start to hear from Him you will recognize that nothing else matters in that moment but God. You will start to feel vulnerable and protected. If your isolation period was anything like mine, many times the emotion of your current state and finally being at the presence of your Abba Father’s feet, you may cry. I cried/cry A LOT!!! And still do…. And the crazy thing is, I rarely EVER cry. My family and significant other is probably the only ones who’ve seen me cry. Like it’s RARE. The presence of God is simply overwhelming.
When I experienced this presence, it became more addicting than anything else I’ve ever been addicted to. I was addicted with my whole body and soul and not just addicted with my cravings. I began to go to my secret place and pray multiple times a day and honestly WANTED more and more solitude and isolation from the world because I wanted nothing more than God.
One tip I have if you are a fellow sister in Christ, if you are praying in public wear a head covering. I’ve also gotten into the habit of doing this at home and I feel it has aided me in hearing from God. “But a woman dishonors her head if she prays or prophesies without a covering on her head, for this is the same as shaving her head. Yes, if she refuses to wear a head covering, she should cut off all her hair! But since it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut or her head shaved, she should wear a covering.” 1 Corinthians 11:5-6 NLT
Another tip on prayer I have is to have a secret place you can comfortably go to to talk to God. Literally close the door behind you so that you have no distractions and are not ashamed about how you look while you pray and cry out to God. “But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father, who sees everything, will reward you.” Matthew 6:6 NLT
Through my isolation period I realized how vulnerable I was when I was with God in prayer and I didn’t want anyone to be able to take our intimate time or any emotion away. So naturally I closed AND LOCKED my door when I prayed and still do. I don’t want any opinions nor do I want any distractions around when I go to my Abba Father. You will begin to recognize how strong your prayers are after you begin to do these things. The atmosphere in your home and everywhere you go will begin to change just because you are there and because of the prayers you prayed. That’s nothing but God. It will become contagious to those around you, and slowly but surely because of your faith they will begin to become convicted about things in their own lives. Naturally, they will begin to wake up and change too (“Don’t you wives realize that your husbands might be saved because of you? And don’t you husbands realize that your wives might be saved because of you?” 1 Corinthians 7:16 NLT)
One last tip I will give is to journal or as much as you can. Take note of the questions you have for God and the revelations that are revealed to you throughout your journey. I feel it’s also important to journal about your dreams (a dream journal if you will) and be as specific and detailed as possible. Notate the way you felt in this dream, what you sensed, the characteristics you felt about the key players in the dream, and why you feel you had this dream. After you do this for a while you will start to see a pattern and you will also be able to tell if it’s a demonic dream or one from God.
Realize that as you level up spiritually, your spiritual attacks will become stronger and more frequent. Resist the Devil and he will flee (“So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 NLT). The more and more you resist, the harder and harder it will be for the Devil to attack you while you are awake, so he’ll try to attack you through your dreams and steer you off course. It’s because you are becoming so strong in the Spirit that he has to attack you while you are asleep and helpless.
Growing Pains
Ouch!!! This is another tough one…
In order to reach new heights you must be willing to go places, do things, and say things that you never have before. When the time comes, you’ll know. You’ll be faced with a choice each time your headed to another level in your spirituality. The tough news is, after you’ve drawn closer to God and have dwelled in His word, the Holy Spirit will begin to teach you right from wrong. You’ll literally feel convicted about certain things, and it’ll start to happen more and more until you finally start to obey and prune these things away from yourself.
When faced with a tough decision, you will have an inner knowing of the right path to take. The hardest part is actually making that tough decision. A lot of the time, the decisions you decide to make in favor of God are going to drive people away from you or at least have them question where your head is. As soon as they realize you’re going against the grain of what your lifestyle USED to be, they will let you know that you’re acting different. My sister/brother, you are acting different because you are different. It is going to be tough to hear these things and experience the pain of those drifting away from you that you once thought we’re your ride or dies. Conversations will cease, visits will become less frequent, and the relationship (if it’s not centered on God) May completely fall apart. Prepare yourself for that my friend, it’s coming. But, growth is on the other side of the door. Once you take out the trash (for a lack of better words) you have a fresher cleaner home to work with, so keep striving and cleaning, pushing, and clearing.
This is only the beginning of your journey. This is a vital part of your spiritual journey because in order to step into the promised land, you must grow from a boy to a man or from a girl to a woman (“When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things.” 1 Corinthians 13:11 NLT)
Growing Your Roots
I actually had a vivid dream about this and made an illustration for the dream. Growing your roots in Jesus is going to be imperative in the coming days. We are only experiencing the first of the birth pains now. Recognize that birth pains get stronger and stronger and closer and closer together the closer the mother is to deliverance. “But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come.” Matthew 24:8 NLT Those who choose NOT to grow their roots in Christ Jesus will simply be uprooted along with their very short roots, and no further attention will be given to them, nor will they be able to survive once severed from the vine (Jesus being that vine of course). The ones that choose to ignore the call to repent and return to God will be the ones that say everything is going to go back to normal and are literally ignoring the birth pains going on around the world now (if you know what I mean).
If you do decide to grow your roots deep down and transform yourself by the renewing of your mind in Jesus, you will not be harmed by the second coming (“Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. Whoever is victorious will not be harmed by the second death.” Revelation 2:11 NLT) Growing your roots down means a lifestyle transformed by Christ. It means the complete tearing away little by little of things that don’t serve Him, nor you. It means that you keep yourself covered in Him safely by learning His word, prayer and listening to Him, fasting and denying your flesh, worshipping Him, sacrificing your old ways to make room for the new, living a life of humbleness and having a repentant heart, and honestly living a true godly lifestyle. This all will begin to become second nature to you.
As the days go by, time will literally seem to slow down as you start to feel more and more convicted about different things in your life that need to be pulled away. The more and more you study the word, the more Holy Spirit will convict you of the things that speak directly to the situations in your life.
I caution you to look deeper into the things that you are unsure about. Get more comfortable with referring to the dictionary on words you are unsure about in the Bible. Words are so powerful and as you seek deeper meanings, you will begin to reveal more and more revelation. I caution you, your lifestyle is going to rapidly change and there will be times you will ask yourself, “what is happening to me?!” Take heart sister/brother, it’s only the beginning of your refinement, but in order to reach your promised land, you must be obedient. You must continue to make the decision time and time again to keep going through this refinement journey and don’t give up because you don’t understand your current evolution period.
You may lose your taste for certain music you once loved, certain places you once frequented, the people you’ve always hung with, the list goes on. It may be a period of self enjoyment and hopefully intimacy with God. This for me was the time that I heard most from God and the Holy Spirit. As I look back on that period, I recognize how important every single phase was in the refinement journey in Christ was and why they were all each individually necessary.
Love
God commanded us to love. He didn’t ask us He commanded us. That means it’s important. Love is mentioned 361 times in the Bible. Why? Because it’s important. I’m not going to lie to you, through my refinement period God worked with me through themes. He would direct me to certain scripture, certain books of the Bible, and there would be people around me and things around me that repeated the same exact things He was teaching me in those moments. And He wouldn’t allow me to move on until I got it. I mean REALLY got it. Sometimes, I would even question God like, “really God?! I just read this book of the Bible like 5 times in a row!! What is it?!” And God would still tell me to go back and review it. It’s crazy that each time I read it again I would still get a new revelation I didn’t get before. That was God pruning me. One of those themes He drilled me on was love. Even though I thought I was good in that department, the Holy Spirt sent conviction after conviction my way. Sometimes, when God won’t allow you to move on from a theme it’s because there’s still something He wants to reveal to you that you haven’t quite gotten or understood. I urge you through each theme He gives you, ask Him questions like, “which book of the Bible do you want me to listen to (I have a busy lifestyle so I typically read the Bible by listening to it from a Bible app in the car in between destinations or even at my destination in my downtime, or I’ll slowly read it on my own when I have more free time), which scripture do you want me to read,” etc. You will start to be able to point out the key words in the pattern He wants to teach you about. For me, some of the themes He really had me focusing hard on was: false teaching/prophets, fasting and praying, love, forgiveness, fear and doubt, repentance, the body of Christ, etc.
I encourage you to press deeply into scripture about love and also when you do, look through the lenses of the characteristics of How God loves and shows it. This exercise will allow you to uncover so much about God’s Grace and mercy and will also allow you to understand Him so much more, which will DEEPLY enrich your intimate relationship with the Father.
False Teachings
At the time of me going through this part of my refinement period of my journey with God, I didn’t quite understand why He wanted me to take heed to it. False teachings….. I will be honest with you, there will be some themes (this one was mine) that God is going to teach you that you aren’t going to completely understand the significance of it in YOUR life at that time. It will later be revealed to you why you had to drill down so hard on it and you will know it when it hits you. I understood the significance, but to be honest with you this one bored me because I didn’t understand the significance as it pertained to me right then. I had to be honest with myself…. I don’t really visit a lot of physical churches and I don’t run into many prophets, so I didn’t know why this theme had to happen and why it had to go on for so long. You ever been in a class and you are ready for class to be over so you could get to PE or lunch?! That was me through this theme. But God’s ways are not our ways (praise God), and He sees things that we don’t see. Our days were laid out literally before we even got here so He has a reason for each season He’s bringing us all through.
So, I told you that the people connected to you will start to change and want more of what God has for you, for themselves naturally right? I kid you not, my son said to me last weekend, “I don’t know why but all I want to do is watch Bible stories. Like I haven’t even been wanting to watch the other things that I used to watch.” Glory be to God!!! My son is 9 years old!!! Anyways, we were watching a kid’s Bible story and there were a few of them that my son and I literally made eye contact on because we both knew ourselves from reading the Bible FOR OURSELVES, and knowing exactly what was said and done in the Bible. Why is it that there were some of the stories that we skipped over after seeing certain parts that didn’t align with what the Bible said?! Literally things were added that never happened in the Bible?! It’s a beautiful thing when your 9 year old son asks you to look something up to clarify because he doesn’t remember them saying or doing that?! It’s a beautiful thing when you can start to question the shows you watch that depict Jesus and you are able to point out the things that don’t align. There’s a specific reason why God doesn’t want us associating with stuff like this. There is and will be so many deceived. God said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” Hosea 4:6 KJV. So I caution you brothers and sisters to learn as much as you can!!! There will soon be a famine of the word and you won’t get that opportunity ever again. Study and show yourself approved (“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” 2 Timothy 2:15 KJV
I was just giving you an example that made it real for me, but in the last days false teachings will drastically increase. I caution you not to take anything I’ve said lightly. I pray I see you on the other side someday.
“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Romans 12:2 KJV