Season 3: (Episode 5) Are You Spiritually Decieved?

Welcome to Pain, Passion, and Purpose. I am your host, Shakeeta Torres, where I share mental health education, biblical teachings, and tips to help you to heal on purpose so you can walk boldly in your God-given purpose.

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Hey, hey, hey, welcome back to my podcast. And so, as you know, I have been pulling over my Thriving Thursdays live video from my Instagram page or from my Zoom page or from, um, Facebook. Well, not Zoom page, but from the recording when I go live on Zoom. So I've been kind of playing around with it to see if I want to continue just to use Zoom or use StreamYard. I've had a lot of issues with StreamYard, so I think I'm going to stick with just going live via Zoom when I'm on Facebook. But I'm also doing it live on TikTok and also live over on my Instagram page. So those are the top 3 places where people follow me the most. But I turn all the videos into a podcast episode for those of you who are not really into social media or just prefer to hear the audio and not necessarily see it. And so today's episode is about being spiritually deceived. And in this episode, I share my testimony and my experience with me being spiritually deceived when I was, you know, still a baby in Christ, and ways you can discern whether someone is a false teacher or not. Because we live in a, in a time where there are false teachers everywhere, and I want you guys to be equipped. I know that my content is switching, um, over a lot more towards, um, biblical teachings. That's what God has put on my heart to do, is to really teach his word so you guys can be equipped. I'm still a life coach, so I still do life coaching. Um, I'm so just amazed at God and how he has just sent clients to me specifically to work with me because he knows exactly what they need, and I have that part that they need in their life during this, during this season. So I'm just humbled, I'm just honored. So if you're interested in life coaching, you can definitely, you know, sign up for a consultation. Um, the pricing and the link is on shakeetatorres.com. It's under, um, support— no, I think it's under life coaching for Christian leaders. So also, let me also go more in the detail about that. So oftentimes people say, well, I'm not a Christian leader. I'm like, yes you are. If you have influence over people, if you are, you know, ministering to others in any capacity, whether you're usher, whether you're at work, like you have influence over people's souls, so you are considered to be a Christian leader no matter your title, no matter where you work, no matter where you are at in ministry. So I work with people who are on different levels and do different types of ministry, whether they're a pastor, whether they're part, you know, the Fivefold Ministry, which is also the pastor, right? And then also for those who do marketplace ministry— I am a marketplace minister. I do marketplace kingdom work, and so I'm considered to be that under that category as well. So with that being said, if my podcast has blessed you and you want to sow a seed, you could definitely do that. It is absolutely no pressure. You do what you feel led to do, okay? Also, my certification for Christian life coaches is almost complete. I have been working on that for many, many months now, um, because I'm ready to certify people who want to be a certified Christian life coach. It's also on my website, www.empoweredpurposeacademy.com. I'm not going to go in great, great, great detail about it because it's very lengthy and very detailed on the site. Also, if you are interested in group mentorship with me, I have a group mentorship program that God put on my heart called Pain, Passion, and Purpose. And in this mentorship, you know, I'm sharing mental health education, um, biblical teachings, prayer, um, heal— we going through healing and deliverance.

You know, we're going to learn, you know, some trauma coaching.

I'm like, your purpose— you guys, this mentorship program is going to be so robust because I have acquired so much knowledge, education, and experience over the years. And I say that humbly, but I also know that I'm equipped to be able to help people to truly grow in their lives exponentially.

Okay?

And if you apply what I teach you, you will grow. All right? So thanks again for listening. Be sure to listen to the episode, and I will see you guys, talk to you guys next week.

Hello, you guys. Welcome to Thriving Thursdays. I am super excited about today's message.

Okay?

And so, um, hey to Instagram, thank you guys for joining. If you're able to stay, please stay. If not, I will leave up the replay. Welcome, welcome, welcome, sis. Hello, hello. If you are on Facebook and you decide to leave a comment or anything, you have to grant StreamYard, um, access to be able to, um, leave a comment so that way I can see who you are. So you can leave a comment technically on Facebook, but I won't know who you are, okay? I am on StreamYard today. It worked good for me. Hello, hello everybody! So before I get into today's message, I want to make like 2 or 3 announcements. Um, so one is, um, my Faith and Mental Wellness Summit is officially open for registration. So if you visit www.faithandmentalwellness.faith you can go up there and you can, um, see, um, some of the speakers we have so far, um, what the, what the summit is about. And it's also virtual, so I'm super excited about what God is doing. The summit is not till March of next year, but I am having like an early bird special for those of you who want to get your tickets now and get a discount, okay? So go to that website, check it out. I'll start, you know, posting more about it in the upcoming weeks. Um, about what to expect, about the speakers, and all that good stuff. Um, also, if you're interested in mentorship with me, um, I have clients that I see one-on-one, but I also have a group mentorship program. So if you're interested in that as well, you can go to shakeetatorres.com, my first and last name, and you're able to see the summit, you're able to see information about, um, my services and all that good stuff. All right, so the title of today's message is, are you spiritually deceived? Are you spiritually deceived by false leaders, by false prophets, by people who claim to be of the Lord? And are you deceived by some of those people? Um, but this is actually a message that has been like on my heart to talk about for a few months now, to be honest. Um, because, um, some of, some of you guys who were in the Lord, you know, you might already know what deception is But the word of God also says that even as believers, we can be deceived. Even the very elites can be deceived. All right, so before I go into it, I want to say a quick prayer before I start. So Father, I just thank you right now, God, for your word. God, thank you that your word anchors us, your word corrects us, your word edifies us, your word just teaches us, Lord God. It just, uh, provides healing and comfort. So Father, I pray, God, as I press forth to deliver the word that you have given me, God, for your people today. God, that God, it would not fall on deaf ears, that it will fall on soft hearts and not hearts of stone. And so, Father, I just thank you, Lord God, that you're going to speak through me, that you're going to have your way, God. God, just continue to give me revelation and things of what to say during this time. In Christ's name I pray, amen and amen. And so, uh, I'm gonna go back a little bit to tell you, you know, what led up to this message for me. So for me, you know, as a believer, um, I've been in the Lord for quite some time now. And I say that not to say, oh, I'm, you know, I know everything, but I have learned a lot. I have learned a lot over the years. Um, I have been really in the secret place for many, many years, um, just allowing God to process me, to heal me, to teach me, and all that good stuff. And one of the things that I struggled with also was deception. I was deceived before by false teachers, false leaders, uh, by those who claim to be prophets and all, all of that. And so what happened for me, just my testimony, I had been deceived and hurt so much by so-called leaders. But let me tell you why. One reason was because I was a baby in Christ for a while, right? So when you're a baby in Christ, you'll eat anything. You you're hungry, you're on fire for God, and sometimes you will come across people who really don't mean you— mean you well. And you don't always know because you love people, you know, you really just want to serve and all that good stuff. Um, number 2, I was not in my word like I used to— like, you know, well, not in my word like I should be, okay? And so this is why it's so important to read the word of God. Read the word of God because the word of God is your sword, okay? It is one of your, um, pieces of, of equipment to be able to fight the enemy, to be able to push back darkness in your life. And so I had to really discipline myself, really press in to really get into God's word so I can learn these things for myself. Many people are so dependent on their leaders to, to learn, or dependent on books or whatever you want to call it, to really like understand the word. But God himself wants to speak to each and every one of us and give us revelation, give us clarity, and all that good stuff about the word of God. Okay, and so early this spring One, somebody that I knew had brought to my attention, um, this woman of God, this person of God, and was like, hey, you know, I follow this particular person, like, what do you think, right? And I had never heard this person before at all, okay? She showed me a picture of her and like a short clip of her, and I said, honestly, I don't feel drawn to her. I don't know her. I don't know this woman. And so it's kind of hard for me to say what my thoughts are because Who am I? I don't know this woman. And so I kind of like dismissed it and didn't think anything else of it because I didn't feel drawn to her video. And so someone else that I knew who was a friend called me and said, Shakeeta, she's like, I have been following this particular person, apostle, okay, and the Lord told me to stop following her because she was a false apostle. And I don't fully understand why. So at that point, you know, my antennas just went up, like, okay God, what's going on? You know, who is this person? And, um, I feel like God was just really pushing me and unctioning me to go dig a little deeper and go look into this person to see who she is. And so I did. So I spent literally like hours on and off looking at videos looking at— oh my gosh, y'all, it was horrible— TikTok, Instagram, YouTube at this person's profile, okay? And this person has 290,000 followers on YouTube and almost 100K followers on Instagram. And this person is going from place to place, city to city, park to park, delivering trying to deliver God's people. So because I'm— because I know and understand the fivefold ministry, because I know I understand, you know, what it takes and what it looks like to be called by God, and the endurance and the sacrifice and the blood and the sweat and tears— I didn't see any of that on her. Nothing at all whatsoever. Nothing. And I came across a particular video, and I'm not gonna say her name, you guys, because I don't want to really get into all the name dropping. If you want to know who it is, send me an inbox and I'll be happy to send you the person, who she is. And so I began to dig a little bit deeper, and this man of God had this like a 2-hour video of him breaking down who this person was, why she was false, and the things that she had done, and her being ordained by another false apostle in Africa, okay, or Nigeria, one of the two, I'm not sure. And so this person who had ordained her, you could clearly see this man is like a demon, okay. You can clearly see that this man was not a man of God. And when he ordained her, he pretty much told her to come to America to show America who the true Savior was, which was him. And she came into agreement with what he said over her. She was so hungry for power that she ate anything. And that's some of the things that we do as believers, especially babies in Christ. She's a baby in Christ. She's a baby, baby in Christ. How you go from being a baby in Christ to being an apostle? That makes zero sense.

None.

Yes, she did a little bit of ministry here and there, but there was no evidence. There was no, like, trail. Most people you come in contact with who are in higher leadership, they have a trail. You can go back and research them and learn more about them. With her, she didn't have any of that. And once again, the video shook— told it all. He wanted her to come here bring his ideologies, bring his doctrine here. And not only that, she's operating in healing and deliverance by herself. Nowhere in the Bible do you see even Christ like walking by himself. His disciples were always there with him. Now mind you, now Christ, he is the— he's our Savior, he's the Messiah, he has all power and all authority. But in my experience, in my training and things that I've seen, I've never seen one person operate how she's trying to operate in the body of Christ. No, it don't work like that, okay? Demons are strong, demons have authority, and you cannot fight them demons by yourself, okay? And so, you know, I had asked God back in the spring, I'm like, Lord, I really, you know, want to talk about this, you know, at some point because It's sad. It really broke my heart. It really did, because I'm like, God, these people are going to her and they're coming out worse than what they were when they went in. But she also has testimony, you know, of, you know, of people saying, oh, I feel much better, God healed me through her, I feel so much freedom, and all of that, all that good stuff, right? And so of course, you know, to most people it seems like it is Okay, I even see Christian celebrities that are following her, that are engaging with her, okay? And I'm just like, my God, Jesus, help us, Lord. Father God, help us, Lord. And so she has been warned time and time and time again through leaders, through prophetic voices, that what she did was not of God and she needed to repent from it. Now she did go back into the video saying, oh no, wasn't like that. But the thing about it is she's still trying to uphold, okay, this so-called mantle that she has to operate under, the mantle that he placed over her, which is a demonic mantle. It is not a spiritual— it's not from God. It's that strange fire, okay? And I know about strange fire. I know about those things. I've endured those things, okay? So it's a difference. And so we're going to go in today a little bit more about deception and for you guys to truly understand and look for signs of deception. Okay, so hey you guys, thank you so much for joining. Hello, hello, hello. And so, um, the scripture that— the first one that came up to me was Matthew chapter 7 and verse 15, and it says, watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus by their fruit you will recognize them. So I'm gonna break this down a little bit more for, for you guys today. So, go to my notes. So it says here, the first verse says, watch out for false prophets, they come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. So sheep are typically lowly, they are more humble, they have humility, um, they just, they're just sweet beings, they really are. And so wolves, you know, are known in scripture to, you know, be— you know, I'm not scripture, but known here on earth to have a keen sense of smell and strong hunting capabilities. Okay, so I was like looking at that, I said, God, give me some more, you know, give me more revelation about what you're saying about this particular scripture right here. And what the Holy Spirit was showing me, he said, the people need to know that a wolf can smell a baby or can smell someone who was immature from like miles and miles and miles and miles and miles out. Okay, I had not officially shared all my testimony, you know, up here before, uh, with people. People who know me know some of my story about how I've been deceived or attacked by the spirit of Jezebel over and over again, but some of that happened because of my own, um, immaturity. Because I was spiritually immature, because I had mother wounds, because I had father wounds. But I had all these wounds that needed to be healed. I was vulnerable. And so like, the more vulnerable you are, this makes wolves want to hunt you down. They seek for people like that in order to take advantage of them. Like, think about the people who want to get healing and deliverance. Like, they're hungry. They're ready for a change in their life. And wolves will take advantage of that, okay? And so also, you know, people of God, whether they are prophets, teachers, whoever they are, should always be pointing you back to Christ and not themselves. And this woman who was ordained by this, you know, false apostle was pointing everybody back to himself, kept saying that I'm the true Messiah, Messiah, you don't need Christ to get to Jesus. I, I had the answer, make my ministry known. And she came into agreement with that, to make the ministry known. And so many people are deceived. And I, I really— oh God, this message, y'all, I really hope and pray that it just set at least one person free. At least one person free. Because this is ridiculous. It's so ridiculous. Okay, so it says Verse 16: By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Okay, so the fruit in this scripture God is talking about is Galatians chapter 5, verses 22 to 23. And the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So these are the fruits of the Spirit that God is saying that his leaders and his people should possess. And of course, you know, we all have areas where we're stronger in, where we weak— where we weaker in, but we should always, always, you know, be striving to possess these fruits of the Spirit. Okay, and before I go a little bit further, I want you guys to keep in mind, right, I see on social media, on Instagram, how people are always accusing, you know, leaders who are not false leaders of being false, and they're this and they're that, all because they don't like what they look like, they don't like their voice, they don't like the message, they don't agree with it's a big church or a small— like, the thing that— the fruit of what you guys is looking at is not according to scripture. It is not according to the word of God. You are going off of your own opinions and your own thoughts. This is why it's so important to have the Holy Spirit for you to be able to discern a thing, to be, you know, to be able to know whether this person is of God or not. It doesn't matter about the platform, how big or how small it is. You need the Spirit of God to show you who they really are in him. So don't, don't do that. To me, it's like, you're supposed to be a believer. You sitting here beating your own brother, you know, brother down in Christ. Pray for them. Pray for them. God show you what area about somebody that's like, they're what they're kind of weak at. And they aren't false, pray for them. Pray that God will heal them. Pray that God will show them areas where they're weak so they can, can continue to grow, because they have influence over other people's souls. So that's the mindset you should be having. That's the mindset I have. I don't, I don't, I don't rejoice whenever I see somebody stumble or fall. Like, it really breaks my heart because there are people attached to that person who was watching them, who was following them, who who was listening to them, okay? So don't, don't judge people's fruit by what you just see in the natural, okay? You need the Holy Spirit to show you, okay? All righty. And so when the scripture says that we cannot pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles, the example that came up to me, um, was once again this woman of God Well, not woman to guy. This woman, this apostle, quote unquote, went to this other, you know, apostle to be ordained. His fruit is pretty much rotten. And so people who follow her, they've seen this video and they're saying, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, um, she said that she doesn't, you know, agree with him. Oh no, she is not like him. Oh no, um, she, you know, she— it really worked, I got healing or whatever. And I'm like, this scripture explains what God is saying. You're expecting to pick grapes from the thorn bush. He is a thorn bush, okay? She is like— well, quote unquote, she's not a grape, but people think she's a grape and she's not. She is not a grape, okay? She is not.

Hello, hello.

It says, likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. So pretty much, when this man ordained her, he ordained about 7 or 8 different women at the same exact time as apostles, okay? So these are literally fruits and offspring of what he is promoting. He literally imparted into them demonic entities. Not the Spirit of God. He imparted strange fire, okay? It wasn't from the Lord. Verse 18: A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Like I just said, you can't— it's like you can't expect to think that someone can change, and you see it like that, you know, the tree is just rotten, the tree is just, uh, just not a good tree. Okay, and it says, behold, um, nope, wrong one. Let me go back a little bit. Okay, and so verse 20, thus by their fruit you will recognize them. That goes back to Galatians um, chapter 6, no, 5:22-23. So again, God is always pointing us back to the fruit. I've seen this woman ask for money saying, okay, if you put, you know, seed in the ground, God's gonna heal you. If you put seed in the ground, God's gonna do that and God's gonna do this. And then in another video she says, oh, I've never asked anybody for any money before, any money before. Okay, and so this is what God also— God gave me, okay. So the question I get from people is, why is it so easy for Satan to deceive people? Okay, and this is what God gave me. He said, my people forget that when I kicked Satan out of heaven, so did his gifts went with him. Okay, the thing that God gave him, the authority that God gave him, it didn't change. It didn't change, and he took a third of God's angels with him. He seduced them to come with him as well. And so the scripture he gave me, y'all— oh my God, it was so good— Romans chapter 11 and 29. It says, for God's gifts and his calls are irrevocable. So wherever you encounter people who you see is gifted, oh, they're doing miracles, signs, and wonders, they're prophesying to you, but they're telling the truth, or all these different things— now that's a teaching all by itself, it doesn't mean that it's God, you guys. These are all gifts, okay? They're all gifts. But who are their gifts submitted to? I even came across video of, you know, of people that I'm like familiar with who are getting teachings under people that I've seen on YouTube and social media that are false teachers. And I'm like, my God, and I can clearly see and hear when they're speaking They're false teachers. They're talking about everything else but Jesus, okay? That's a clear sign, number one, that it— to me, according to scripture, that they are not from the Lord, okay? It's, it's bad. And what breaks my heart even the more is the fact that people will hear this message, they will hear about deception, and they will still choose to follow into the path, into deception, from other people because they refuse to go to God and ask God questions and they get in their word for themselves. The word of God is your sword. The word of God anchors you. The word of God will help you have more discernment. Okay, so I wanted to bring up this scripture and look at it in different, you know, different versions of the Bible, which is Romans 11:29. For God's gifts and his calls are irrevocable. So it says, okay, um, in NLT it says, for God's gifts and calls can never be withdrawn. Okay, English Standard Version says, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. And another one, because they all sound very similar, okay, the Amplified Bible says, for the gifts and the callings of God are irrevocable, for he does not withdraw what he has given nor does he change his mind about those to whom he gives his grace or to whom he sends his call. My God. So Satan got power, y'all. He, he got power from the Lord, but God didn't take it back from him. He didn't. And so then if you look at 2 Corinthians chapter 11, um, verse 13, it says For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising then if his servants, the third of the angels that Satan seduced, also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve. My God, my— whoo, my God, it's plain. Like, it's plain right there in scripture that they're going to be among us. If you go right now and say, uh, show me scriptures about wolves, show me scriptures about deception and deceit, you will see rows and rows of just scriptures in the Bible talking about deceit, right? And so There's people who really just don't know no better, who have fallen into deception. They have no clue, they have no idea. I didn't, I didn't. So how do you discern deception and false teachers? Number 1 is pray and ask God and expect for him to answer you. Y'all, I promise you, if you get before the Lord, if you get into your word, if you begin to study, Holy Spirit will begin to highlight people to you who are false, false teachers. Whenever I began to study this thing years and years and years ago, the Lord began to highlight to me people who I follow, follow, who are false teachers, who were actually dibbling and dabbling on witchcraft, dibbling and dabbling in New Age practices. Dibbling and dabbling all type of things that was not from God. I'm like, wow, I had no idea. I had no idea. Number 2, getting your word, read the scripture. And what I love about God is whenever he's showing me somebody, or you know, I encounter people and I can feel like, God, something, something's not right, he would tell me deception, or I would hear witchcraft, or I would hear this certain word, but the words would be like will like come from the word of God. God will highlight in my mind the scriptures so I would know, okay, this person is this, this person is that. He'll let me know, hey, the person right here is only in error. Any of us can fall into error. Error is pretty much like looking at scripture and not being able to rightly divide the word of God with truth. That person needs training. That person needs to just humble themselves down and really be taught and hear God and take, you know, and really take in true teaching. And so, but they like, they isn't the same as like operating in a spirit of deception. These are people who know what they're doing, who are like intentionally deceiving people for personal gain, for personal gain. Some are in, some of them are in broad daylight, they don't care. And you have some that are sneaky, okay, they are sneaky and wise like a serpent, okay. I'm getting me a little bit of water. Number 3: deal with the issues of your heart. Sometimes our pain, our unresolved trauma, things we experience in life, our mother wounds, our father wounds, they can truly cloud our judgment. This is why I encourage people to heal on purpose. Heal on purpose. Because the more you heal and the more you, you give to God, you know, if you go to counseling, therapy, deliverance ministry, all that good stuff, and allow God to deal with your soul, like, you won't be as deceived. Because like, these spirits, our pain, things we endure, it changes how we think, how we see situations, our expectations of people. And all of the above, okay? And for me, when I first got into, you know, into ministry and began to truly serve, and I was deceived a lot because I had mother wounds, I had father wounds, I had these different things going on that I needed to heal from. And so because of that, I was looking for someone or a place of community, you know. I was looking for it hard, okay? I wanted God, I wanted Jesus, but I also want a community. Okay, and so I was preyed on a lot, a lot. But once I got delivered from that stuff and I healed from that, it has like pretty much decreased by like 95% because, um, your girl, no, we ain't doing that. No, no. Mm-mm. Number 4: Don't worship people, only worship God. Leaders are vessels used by God, and many have different levels of authority due to the call on their lives. And the— and, and as far as like— and also them, you know, fasting, you know, truly just surrendering their life to God. Like, we look at the Apostle Paul— my God, Lord have mercy. I mean, if you ever read about Paul, you know, in the beginning he was Saul. He used to hate Christians, and God just transformed his whole entire life. But that came with a great sacrifice for him. And so because of that, his anointings increased, his gifts increased. He had a lot of authority. And so it's the same thing here on earth. Like, we have authority, and And there's different levels according to your anointing. And then on the flip side of that, the question I think people say, well, if this person is a false deliverance minister, how come the people are like manifesting? It's the same thing. People forget that Satan tries to duplicate what God does. He wants to duplicate what God has created and make it his own. So if God has his kingdom and his like different levels of angels, his people, us, with different callings, different anointings, different things like that. So the Satan, he got different types of angels, he got different types of authority. Like it's the same thing, he tries to mimic what God does because he wants to be God. Okay, number 4— no, number 5: do not listen to a lot of people at once. You cannot sit here like you can't take in and take in and take in and take in everybody else teaching and you're not sitting here getting in your word for yourself, right? Like, you're not going to grow that way because you got a little bit here, you got a little bit there, you got a little bit there, you got a little bit here, you got a little bit there, you got a little bit there, okay? Ask God who you should follow in this season. And seasons change. I know for me, over my, you know, for the past, you know, over 10, 15 years now That's how God tells me, okay, this season, follow this person, connect to this person, connect to their teachings. Because when you have all these voices in your head, it can confuse you. And also, God wants to spend time with you. Like, God is no respecter of persons, okay? The revelation that God's given me, he can give it to you too, all right? I'll give you a baby in Christ, I'll give you been there forever in the day. God wants to talk to you. He wants to reveal things to you too in the secret place, but you got to put that time in, you got to put that energy in. But many people don't want to go through that. They want the shortcut, they want to go through the back door to learn things, which is like listen to everybody else teach them. Teach— getting your word for yourself, getting your word for yourself. Uh, number 6, I just said that Satan tried to duplicate and pervert everything that God has created. Um, number 7, um, don't always look at their works. Don't look at what they're doing with their hand. Don't look at, you know, what they're saying with their mouth, but look at their fruit. Their fruit, as I was saying before, which is patience, kindness, love, all the above, right? You know, as I was saying earlier, a person can be a believer and not have all these fruits, but if they are supposed to be a leader and you're following them and they're not portraying or showing some, you know, showing these fruits, then I would say run the other way. Pray for them, but go the other way. Because like, this, this is what I've learned. We see things in the natural at the surface level, but based on how God showed me things about situations and people, he showed me at a deeper level, okay? That even with that, even when we see it at a deeper level it's still like 100 times worse than what we see. So if someone always gossiping about people, always talking about people, like, that's a clear sign that, okay, you need to leave them alone, okay? Pray for them, but go. Because if they're gonna sit here, talk about, talk about somebody else to you, they're gonna beat you down too, okay? It's only an example that I'm giving you, okay? And so, you know, I will share a little bit about my testimony, a little bit about, you know, how I was received by this woman of God. And so back in 2013, I remember when God was really dealing with me about my call and who I was, I had a hard time receiving that because I was like, I knew that it came with a lot of warfare, I knew that it came with a lot of responsibility, and I didn't think I had it. I'm like, God, I can't do this, this is, it's not for me. So to be honest with you, for a whole year I like ran from God. Like, I was saved, but I, I would say yes, I'm like, no, I'm not doing this. Like, God, you can have this back. Because this is too much. And I asked because I was in a ministry where that particular, you know, office or mantle existed. So I knew them personally, so I knew some of the things they were going through. But looking back now, I know why God allowed me to be in their space, for me to kind of be familiar and know that, hey, this is what comes with the territory, okay? So I kept saying, God, I need a mentor. God, please send me a mentor. God, please send me a mentor. I kept saying it out loud. Praying about it. God, send me a mentor. Now at this time, you know, I'm young, this is like 2013, and I am, you know, at home with me and my younger daughter. And out of the blue, some woman come and like knock on my door. She knocks on my door and she said, hello, my name is so-and-so, and the Lord sent me here to be your mentor. And I got excited. I didn't taste the fruit, I didn't ask God, I just was like so excited. Okay, and so as I begin to like spend time with her and get to know her, her fruit was not really there. Yes, she could prophesy. Yeah, she could even pray, but I'm telling you, the rest of the fruit— she was impatient, she was controlling, she was manipulative, she was doing like doing too much. Her leader, her apostle that I ended up meeting, God had showed me that he was like into some stuff. And I asked her, I said, I had this dream about your apostle that, you know, this happened. So, oh no, that's 'From God? Oh no, that is just from the enemy.' So I'm like, 'This don't seem right. This don't— it don't seem right.' And so, I mean, she worshiped this man. She worshiped him. I'm like, 'God, that's strange. Why is she worshiping this man?' And so as time went on, God began to, you know, begin to reveal to me more and more and more about who she was. And so eventually I had to like cut ties with her, and I definitely experienced backlash because of that. I experienced a lot of warfare because of that. And during that season, I was surrounded by a lot of false teachers that I didn't even know it. So it was like God allowed for me to be entangled with her so that I can learn firsthand what to do, what not to do, what to look for, and what— and what the signs are. And so not only that, I wasn't fully healed from some of my trauma either. I still had unresolved trauma that I wasn't even aware of. And so as the couple years went on, I still dealt with a couple of other false teachers pretty heavily. And so until I got the lesson— until— this is what happened— until I picked up my sword, which was the word of God, and I dug in the word for myself, like really dug in the word— I'm reading the Bible, but until I really dug in the word and began to study more about false teachers and begin to study the word of God and begin to study the signs and all this good stuff, begin to spend time with the Holy Spirit, pray, fast, all the above, I became more sensitive to people like that. And while I'm around people, I can definitely tell for sure. It don't take me long to figure it out. It does not, because I have spent so much time with the Lord. I have invested so much time with him that he will let me know. And like, if I don't catch it right then, eventually he'll just tell me, period. And I'm not saying that to make anybody feel afraid to talk to me or communicate with me, because that's, that's not what I'm saying. But it is to protect me, to protect my heart, to guard me, because I'm a very nice person, okay? I'm very nice, I'm very approachable, okay? I love people, and people— and wolves, wolves, they see that, they see that. And they prey on that. And so, you know, what the Lord has really been talking to me about lately is that the spiritual maturity— people have to wake up and become spiritually mature. And you have to do that by getting in your word, getting in the word of God for yourself. That's the only way. It's time to like stop drinking on milk and get to the meat of the word and get to the meat of who God is. That's what God is pretty much saying. But it's sad because many will still be deceived. Even the very elite will actually be deceived. So this particular person I was talking about earlier, you know, she actually have fooled people who were true men and women of God. And some of them figured it out and they cut ties with her, and some of them, they didn't.

They didn't.

And based off of what I see is because she has this like celebrity status. And oftentimes, like, if you haven't dealt with your greed and dealt with your pride and dealt with the, you know, the issues of your heart, you'll be attracted to that, okay? You'll be attracted to that, and then the enemy will deceive you to make you think, oh yeah, this person's cool, oh, this is okay, when it's not. It's not okay. So that's all I have for today.

Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. Our prayer is that this this podcast episode has blessed you. Don't forget to go and subscribe and leave us a raving review. If you would like to sow into this ministry or to this podcast, Pain, Passion, and Purpose, you can do so at anchor.fm/painpassionandpurpose or Cash App, dollar sign, Shakeeta Torres. Thank you so much, and I will talk to you next time.