Repent and Believe Podcast w/ Cynthia Smalls

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me today on the podcast as Peter challenges us: "As he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy” (1 Peter 1:15–16). This is serious. Peter allows no wiggle-room here! We can’t interpret this verse in a halfhearted way. Holiness defines God’s essence, and since God calls His people to be like Him, holiness isn’t optional for us!! The Holy One commands His chosen ones to be holy. No exceptions!! And if we have any doubts about the seriousness of Peter’s command, we should read Jesus’ equally serious words: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). Amen!

We will be taking a look at what is essential to our salvation?

🚩 OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST.

🚩 ENDURING to the END.

🚩 SANCTIFICATION.

🚩 REPENTANCE.

Our Heavenly wants us to molded and conformed in the image of His Son: Romans 8:29-30, "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified." Amen! The key thing is that we must be prepared to meet the Living God! Everything else we are striving in this world to accomplish and prepare for, well that must take a backseat! All that we do in the present, is temporal. Eternity waits for us all! We should be preparing to exist in eternity. Eternity has two destinations, the Kingdom of God and the Lake of Fire! Which direction are you headed? We must know that we are heading toward eternal life. That is why we all must examine where we are in the faith. And consider all the ways we take before the Lord! He knows it all. He sees all. And we will be judged by those things written in the books that are being recorded in Heaven (study Revelation 20). And those include all righteous and unrighteous deeds. And for those who willingly want to stay stuck in their unbelief and lust, their destination will be eternal destruction, if they do not repent; TURN from that way of thinking and turn to God!

Salvation comes through repentance. Because unless there is a change of mind & behavior where sin is concerned and denying thoughts to the validity of Jesus' existence in what He has done for mankind at the cross, there is no salvation...there is no blotting out of sin for that one. They have effectively and succinctly voiced their rejection of the only One that could have saved them! We must live an obedient life in Jesus as well. The Lord tells us we must produce fruit in keeping with our repentance. And this is not a work-based faith. This holy life of repentance comes about because we are being saved. This is called sanctification. We are being set apart from this "world" (Satan's perverted value system that opposes God) and consecrated unto God by the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Amen! 🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me today on the podcast as I ask the question: Do you know what we're supposed to be doing as we await Jesus' return? Answer: We are to be preparing ourselves to meet the Living God! We are to forsake this present evil world; renouncing all its evils, purging them from our lives! To put it succinctly, we shun this world and all of its paganistic rituals and practices. Beloved, you will be shocked at how some answer this question. For they think we are to be living our best lives now, totally enmeshed in this world's humanistic, sinful, value system - whose god is Satan!! Sad to say, ETERNITY is on no one's mind as it ought to be! We cry out like John the Baptist, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, 👉🏾Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight’” (Mark 1:3).

Like the herdsman and prophet, Amos: "Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel, and because I will do unto thee, 👉🏾prepare to meet thy God, O Israel" (study Amos 4:11-13). Amen!

So, let's bottom line some things:

Jesus says in John 14:15, “If you [really] love Me, you will keep and obey My commandments"... "21 The person who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who [really] loves Me; and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him [I will make Myself real to him].”Amen!

🚩 We have been commanded: Do not be conformed to this world, nor love it! (Study Romans 12:1-2; 1 John 2:15-17).

The power to overcome sin has been dealt with at the cross (study Romans 6)! Stop opening doors to allow your enemy Satan to get a stronghold in your life! The key is to REMAIN in Jesus Christ. Abiding in Him! Don't break communion with Him, by giving into your immoral desires that seems to be lurking within you! We know we have not reached sinless perfection, however, we strive consistently daily to pick up our cross, deny ourselves and follow Jesus! Don't grieve your sanctification with Holy Spirit, who is leading and guiding you in the ways of holiness and righteousness... preparing us to meet Jesus... the King of Glory! When you are tempted, when WE, I should say, are tempted to give into the lust of the flesh, we are given instruction in James 4:7 that tells us to, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

As children of the Most High God, we must, as Scripture directs us, "to consider ourselves dead to sin (and our relationship to it broken) but alive to God in Christ Jesus" (study Romans 6:11)! Our lives as we await to meet our risen King, should NOT and must NOT be characterized by willful, blatant, open, rebellious sin! We should avail our bodies to our Heavenly Father as living sacrifices, producing good fruit as we await the day of REDEMPTION! Amen! 🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me today on the podcast as I discuss: In order for your faith to be genuine, you must produce works/deeds of righteousness that will be evidence of your repentance. These are not works of the Law to earn salvation. These "works" are called good fruit (deeds) that comes from being saved. It should come naturally to those of us who longs to please our Heavenly Father! We CANNOT claim the Name of Jesus for salvation and still walk in habitual, deliberate, blatant sin! The Bible teaches that if we walk by the Spirit, we will not gratify the lust of flesh. Repentance is the act of changing one’s mind that results in a change of actions. Sincere biblical repentance involves turning away from sin both in thought and action; and turning to God in obedience henceforth.

Today, we will be looking at the story of John the Baptist. In the wilderness of Judea, he began his ministry traveling the region preparing Israel to receive her Messiah, Jesus Christ. He went “preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3:3). John spoke severely, challenging those religious leaders’ spiritual pride and hypocrisy head-on! They needed to know that God’s judgment for sin was coming. Aware of their insincerity of heart, John said, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:7–8). Amen!

The believer’s ability to produce fruit in keeping with repentance depends wholly on our intimate fellowship with Jesus Christ, who said, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:4–5, NLT). The root will naturally produce fruit. Fruit in keeping with repentance is the evidence (as well as a result) of a changed mind, transformed life, and ongoing communion with Jesus. The key takeaway is that if you remain in sin, you are not remaining/abiding in Jesus Christ! 🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me today on the podcast as I encourage you: What to do in response when people reject the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Jesus says, “And if any place will not welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and 👉🏾shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them” (Mark 6:11). Don't take it personal, just do what the Lord told us to do! And He clarifies His meaning in Matthew 10: “Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town” (verse 15). Woe to they who reject and obey NOT the gospel (study 2 Thessalonians 1:7(b)-9)!

Those who reject Christ, choose to follow Satan, and they will follow him right into his ultimate destiny (see Revelation 20:10), in spite of all that God has done to save them from the fiery abyss!! God has reached out in a dramatic way to show us the way to Heaven. He sent His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die for mankind by shedding His blood to cover man's sin. For the most part, mankind has rejected Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior! THEY HAVE CONDEMNED THEMSELVES to that "place" "where there will be "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (study John 3:18; Luke 13:28). 😭😞🔥

When people vehemently REJECT the saving power of the gospel, we are to discern that we are casting our pearls before swine and giving what is holy (sacred) to dogs. In no disparaging way on our part, Jesus gives us this wisdom in Matthew 7:6. “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet."

We are to share the gospel, but, when it becomes apparent that the gospel is not welcome, we are to move on. Our job is not to force conversions or cram the gospel down people’s throats; there’s no sense in preaching the value of pearls to swine. Jesus’ instruction to His apostles on how to handle rejection was to simply go elsewhere. There are other people who need to hear the gospel, and they are ready to hear it! Amen! 🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me today on the podcast as I discuss: When Jesus began His three-year earthly ministry, He preached that “the kingdom of God is near” (Luke 10:9; cf. Matthew 4:17). Mark 1:14–15 gives a concise description of Jesus’ primary focus during His time on earth: “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel." Amen!

Romans 14:17 says that the Kingdom of God is a matter “of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” The gospel of the Kingdom is the good-news message of REPENTANCE, REDEMPTION, and RESTORATION offered by God to all who will receive Christ. Those who accept this offer become part of His eternal Kingdom (John 1:12). Those who choose to remain in their sin, cannot be a part of this Kingdom (1 Corinthians 6:9–10; Galatians 5:19–21). Although grace makes this offer available to anyone who will receive it, Jesus warned that it would be very difficult to enter His Kingdom and few would do so (Matthew 7:14)!

Those who receive the gospel of the Kingdom become citizens of Heaven and are freed from bondage to this world (Galatians 4:3–9). So, although we must live here until God calls us home, we are not to live for ourselves or according to this world’s value system. Those who have been bought by the blood of Jesus, have been given the right to live according to God’s value system. Citizens of the Kingdom of God live here on assignment from our Father the King. Living with a Kingdom mindset, empowers us to make wiser decisions as we invest our lives in furthering the gospel of the Kingdom. Amen! 🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me today on the podcast as I discuss: The age old question on the floor: is it possible to live a life without willful sin? And the answer is simply YES! It is doable solely because we love God, our Heavenly Father, Creator and Savior! We cannot and must not play with our salvation! We must put away ALL SIN FROM OUR LIVES! We simply can't keep blaming our wicked behavior on the fact that we still live in these mortal bodies. Especially when God has made a way of escape when we are tempted. This is not the hour to be playing with God, where sin is concerned! Let us never forget we will all stand before the Lord Jesus Christ on Judgment Day to give an account for the life we lived as a born-again followers. We are not looking to lose any rewards! We must allow the Holy Spirit to sanctify us and set us apart for God's purposes. If we grieve the Holy Spirit, we make the process of sanctification that much harder! We must grow into mature believers whose heart is in the harvest. We should be focusing on serving the Lord Jesus Christ in the recovery mission of the lost and not on the sins of the flesh!

It should be the goal of every follower of the Lord Jesus Christ to “sin no more,” although we recognize that, while we are in the flesh, we may stumble still, but God’s desire for each of us is to be holy as He is holy (1 Peter 1:16). Sin is no longer a lifestyle choice. When we fail, we can come to God and ask forgiveness. And if we are truly His children, He will correct us, disciplining us when we need it. His work is to conform us to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29)!

🚩 Judgment begins at the house of the Lord. God’s desire is that His people learn to walk in holiness and fellowship with Him (Romans 8:29). As any loving parent would do, God will bring unpleasant consequences upon His children for rebellion. He expects the ones He has redeemed by the blood of His Son to set the example for the rest of the world. If the Church is not in pursuit of holiness, the world sees no need to change its allegiance. So judgment begins in the household of God, with His own children, as He teaches us to live like Jesus. Amen! 🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me today on the podcast as I exhort the Body of Christ: You wanna know the quickest way to go straight to a burning even if you are a believer: stay in habitual sin! Folks listen, we must be aware that tares are growing up with the wheat! These are they that claim they are a "Christian" and that "we all still sin!" They don't like the word "Follower" because that connotes you must follow Jesus and obey His righteous commands habitually! They will argue, fuss, and literally fight you when you preach holy living! THEY HATE THE WORD REPENT! THEY DON'T LIKE TO BE TOLD "STOP SINNING!" The Lord Jesus Christ tells us the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew 13, "30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”

Beloved, we will always have the tares (the false brethren) among us. These are they who claim that Jesus "knows their hearts;" giving the impression that we can stay in willful, deliberate, blatant sin and God will usher us into the Kingdom ANYWAY! That we can keep on sinning because God "understands" we live in this flesh body! Their problem is that they do not love God, nor fear Him! They make light of the shed blood of Jesus by the way they choose to live in opposition of the command we were given by Jesus to "Go, and sin no more" (John 8:11). Scripture is unanimous, the unrighteous will not inherit God's Kingdom! We cannot be deceived, we cannot let anyone lead us astray, especially false teachers and false brethren! The false brethren loves to pull from Satan's playbook that "we all are sinners STILL," that "we all commit sin STILL" and that Jesus "knows I'm trying!" Do not let anyone trick and fool you into thinking that "once you are saved, you are always saved!" That is a doctrine straight from the devil! God commands for us to be holy and perfect in Christ Jesus!

There is no wiggle room for sin! It is not to be tolerated, it is not to be defended, it is not to be excused, but most importantly, it is not to be practiced! John summed it up in his letter in 1 John 3, in which every true follower of Jesus' must get this understanding: 👇🏾 "6 No one who abides in Him [who remains united in fellowship with Him—deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin. No one who habitually sins has seen Him or known Him...." 9 No one who is born of God [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, because God’s seed [His principle of life, the essence of His righteous character] remains [permanently] in him [who is born again—who is reborn from above—spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His purpose]; and he [who is born again] cannot habitually [live a life characterized by] sin, because he is born of God and longs to please Him. 10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are clearly identified: anyone who does not practice righteousness [who does not seek God’s will in thought, action, and purpose] is not of God, nor is the one who does not [unselfishly] love his [believing] brother." Amen! Be holy. Live clean. Consider all your ways before the Lord! Be in eager expectation of the soon return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ! 🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me today on the podcast as I discuss: Just how dangerous the Hebrew Roots movement truly is. It will cause you to lose faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ at the cross! It puts your focus on keeping the Laws of Moses (namely tithing, Sabbath-keeping, the ten commandments) rather than placing your faith in Jesus Christ ALONE for salvation. Bearing in mind, we, Gentiles, were not commanded to keep the Law. It was never given to us, it was given to ancient Israel by Moses at the foot of Mount Sinai. This faction causes dissension within the body of Christ. They teach false doctrine and promote heresies. Their sole agenda, even if it's not clear to them, is to pull you away from the Christ! For they themselves are deceiving and being deceived! They are blind guides; they serve not our Lord Jesus Christ! And you would do well to come out from amongst them!

The premise of the Hebrew Roots movement, is the belief that the Church has veered far from the true teachings and Hebrew concepts of the Bible🤦🏾‍♀️. The movement maintains that Christianity has been indoctrinated with the culture and beliefs of Greek and Roman philosophy and that ultimately biblical Christianity, taught in churches today, has been "corrupted" with a pagan imitation of the New Testament gospels🤦🏾‍♀️🤦🏾‍♀️. And it is their mission to get us "back on track" with "original" Bible teachings/commandments 🤦🏾‍♀️!

Beloved, do not be deceived! This is nothing more than a cult! This a teaching, a movement, of one Christ Jesus never prescribed for His followers! As well meaning as folks may be, don't let ANYONE lead you astray! Run!!

🎯 THE BOTTOM LINE: The influence of this movement is working its way into our churches. It’s dangerous in its implication that keeping the Old Covenant law is walking a "higher path" and is the only way to please God and receive His blessings. Nowhere in the Bible do we find Gentile believers being instructed to follow Levitical laws or Jewish customs; in fact, the opposite is taught. 💥 Romans 7:6 says, "But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code." Amen! Christ, in keeping perfectly every ordinance of the Mosaic Law, COMPLETELY fulfilled it. Just as making the final payment on a home fulfills that contract and ends one’s obligation to it, so also Christ has made the final payment and has FULFILLED the LAW, bringing it to an END for us al!! Amen! 🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me today on the podcast as I discuss: To live a righteous life, is to walk with Christ. Followers of the Lord Jesus Christ who live for righteousness, reveal the Holy Spirit within them and give evidence of the work God is doing in their lives! We no longer live for selfish pleasures, but we desire to live for the things that pleases our Heavenly Father! We live for righteousness when we humbly ask God to create in us a clean heart and to renew a right spirit within us (Psalm 51:10). We spend time in His Word and pursue the character of Christ, our Lord and Savior. We want our actions and our entire lives to be molded by Christ alone.

Beloved, when you and I place faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit indwells us and empowers us to live for righteousness (Acts 2:28). As we “walk in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:16, 25), He produces fruit in our lives that reflects His character. We are “filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9–11). God’s people are called and enabled to live for righteousness, which brings glory and praise to God. As Proverbs 15:9 says, “The LORD detests the way of the wicked, but he loves those who pursue righteousness.”

Therefore beloved, we must live sensible, upright and godly lives before the Lord (considering all the ways we take) as we know the Day approaches in which He will return to this earth, "...In flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel" (study 2 Thessalonians 1:7(b)-9)! This earth, as we know it, along with its wicked inhabitants, are on a collision course with the Living God! It will all burn up with fervent heat! This is all the more why we continue to be faithful to Lord Jesus; living lives producing fruit in keeping with our repentance! God's grace which teaches us to reject all ungodliness and worldly immoral desires, trains us to stay the course and endure until the end, as we await our Redeemer! Amen! Be holy. Live clean. Love the brethren. 🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!

Glory be to God! ** 🙋🏾‍♀️ STAY TUNED UNTIL THE VERY END OF THIS EPISODE! ** 🚩TUNE IN EVERY 2 TO 3 DAYS FOR NEW EPISODES! Follow me on Facebook under AuntCynthia Whitaker 😊💥 Join me today on the podcast as I discuss: A belief (another "gospel") running rampant throughout the Body of Christ. Many in the Body are being deceived by what is called the “prosperity gospel.” Prosperity theology developed in America (and now has spread around the world) in the last century and has been called a "baptized" form of capitalism. It is a false teaching that in essence says, "If I am a Christian, God promises to bless me with great health, wealth, and prosperity" because of MY tithing and MY faith. This teaching is a great danger to those who believe it. It is damnable! What happens is people place their hope in what God gives, even over and above God Himself!

This damnable gospel goes by many names: "Word of Faith," "Health and Wealth," "Name It and Claim It," "Blab It and Grab It." Do not be deceived, this is nothing more than New Age!! For this camp, it is all about calling those things into existence that are not now! Naming & claiming stuff, supposedly in "The Name of Jesus," without having to see it first! It is a misplacing of one's faith! Scriptures are deceivingly, deceptively, and constantly taken out of context (as we will learn today) to "proof-text" your "right" as a "King's kid" to DEMAND God keep His promises of so-called entitled "wealth, health and prosperity" to the one who stands in supposedly "great faith!"

Listen beloved, God has provided every spiritual blessing we would ever need: THE LORD JESUS CHRIST! WE ARE ALREADY BLESSED! We are taught by Lord Jesus that we cannot serve both God and money! Do not be deceived by charlatans, tricksters and liars in the pulpit! Nowhere in Scripture is it EVEN implied that God gives financial blessings to the wicked, that's Satan's area! Come out from amongst these wolves-in-sheep's clothing! DO NOT BE DECEIVED! 🎯 REPENT and BELIEVE and TURN back to God!