Your soul is saved. Your flesh still isn't.

That cigarette you just put out? The six-pack cooling in your fridge? The F-bomb you dropped when your kid spilled juice on your laptop? The lustful thoughts that invaded your mind during Wednesday night prayer meeting?

Yeah, I know about those. Not because I'm special—because I've been there. And so has every honest believer who isn't selling you prosperity gospel garbage.

Here's the brutal truth most pastors are too terrified to tell you: When you got saved, Christ performed spiritual surgery—separating your eternally secure soul from your still-sinful flesh. That altar call didn't magically erase decades of ingrained habits. Your body didn't suddenly receive the sanctification memo when your spirit was reborn.

And Scripture never claimed it would.

THE MATRIX OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY

In our latest episode of Manifest, Brandon and I rip off the comfortable bandage covering the festering wound of modern Christian mediocrity. We expose the biggest lie believers tell themselves: that salvation should instantly erase your struggles.

We're living in a carefully constructed matrix designed to keep you:

* Spiritually weak

* Physically depleted

* Mentally foggy

* Morally compromised

The processed foods pumped with seed oils that destroy your testosterone. The energy drinks ravaging your adrenal system. The pharmaceutical solutions to problems created by the very same corporations. All of it engineered to ensure you'll never have the clarity or strength to challenge the system.

And the worst part? We've brought this same mentality into our churches.

THE TESTIMONY TRAP

We've all seen it—the ex-drug dealer with tattoos and a powerful testimony elevated to spiritual celebrity status, while the lifelong faithful believer who never "had a past" gets overlooked.

But here's where we get it twisted: We expect the dramatic converts to instantly become perfect Christians. As if twenty years of heroin addiction should vanish the moment someone says "Amen." As if the alcoholic who found Jesus should never struggle with the bottle again.

This toxic expectation creates two equally devastating outcomes:

* Believers who hide their ongoing struggles and live in shameful secrecy

* New Christians who give up entirely when they discover salvation didn't automatically delete their addictions

Brandon gets brutally honest about his own 20-year battle with tobacco and alcohol after coming to Christ. It wasn't a one-and-done victory. It was a gradual, messy process of submission:

"I just swallowed the pill, man. I was like, 'Hey, if my friends want to stick around and my family wants to stick around, they'll accept me for what I'm going to be.' It was tough for me... I got to change everything in life. I was still smoking, chewing, and drinking."

SUBMISSION, NOT SURRENDER

The modern church loves to talk about "surrender" to Christ. But as we discuss in the episode, surrender is what enemies do temporarily when they're outgunned. They can still hate you while they're surrendering.

Submission is different. Submission means bringing your will under the authority of someone else. It means acknowledging: Your way is better than my way.

That's what sanctification actually looks like. Not instant perfection, but daily submission to a process that often feels like torture to your flesh.

THE MEDICINE YOU NEED, NOT THE ONE YOU WANT

While the world tries to medicate you into compliance with processed foods, energy drinks, and pharmaceutical solutions, God offers a different prescription:

* Personal responsibility

* Clean, single-ingredient foods (we dive into the seed oil conspiracy)

* Regular physical movement

* Meaningful work

* Authentic community

* Daily submission to His Word

Is it easy? Heck no. Is it comfortable? Not even close. Will you fail repeatedly? Absolutely.

But here's the difference between religious performance and authentic faith: God's grace covers your stumbling progress. He doesn't demand instant perfection—He demands honest submission.

As we say in the episode: "If keeping my salvation was based on me, I would lose it every single day. But thanks be to God that it's not about me. It's about what He did on the cross. The soul that touches will surely die—but when you get saved, a spiritual circumcision happens where Jesus separates your soul from the flesh. Your soul is perfect before a thrice holy God because of the operation that Christ performed through his blood."

The question isn't whether you'll struggle. The question is: Will you keep getting back up and submitting again when you fail?

Listen to our newest episode of Manifest now. Because passive Christianity isn't just weak—it's worthless.

LISTEN NOW

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