A Call to Boldness: Your Place in the Body of Christ | 008

 *This episode is dedicated to Charlie Kirk - a bold son of the Living God who will forever be remembered in our hearts for the truth for which he stood and the boldness with which he did it.  Well done, Brother, well done.  We will see you again!

Salvation is nearer than when we first believed… and you have a part to play in the body of Christ.

In this heartfelt episode, Lenee' Pezzano shares a raw and urgent message for believers: it’s time to wake up, step into your faith, and embrace your role in the body of Christ. 

Drawing from Scripture, she explores how every one of us—every “joint” in the body—has a purpose in advancing God’s Kingdom, growing in spiritual maturity, and standing firm in the face of fear, procrastination, and perfectionism. 

Learn how to feed the Spirit, walk in faith, and allow Christ’s nature to increase in you, so that together, the Church can rise strong in these challenging times. 

This episode is a call to lean in, dig deeper, and take one faithful step at a time. 

Scriptures Referenced: Romans 13:11, 1 Corinthians 6:2, Ephesians 4:15-16, Ephesians 6:12, 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, Isaiah 58:6, Hebrews 11:6 

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Transcript

A Call to Boldness: Your Place in the Body of Christ | 008

Today is a very sad day, and in light of the death of Charlie Kirk, I couldn't help but to come on here and just talk with you all about what's on my heart. I know that this platform is primarily shaped around the topic of God's grace and of perfectionism and getting set free from those struggles.

But I want to share my heart in a way that encourages you as a follower of Christ to understand how you fit into really the conversation.

And the urgency of where we are in our nation today.

We know it's a serious time in America. It's really a serious time across the globe. In Romans 13 verse 11, it says, besides this, you know the time 

[00:01:00] that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

I think we need to consider that for just a moment.

I find it interesting that Charlie's brand was called Turning Point. My prayer has been that this would be a true turning point for the body of Christ. I don't know if you are aware of this, but I assume if you're a Christian, you align with the reality that Jesus is returning.

What I don't hear talked about a lot is the reality that he's going to return through a people. I hear beliefs around things like rapture, which would suggest that Jesus himself is going to return and then He's 

[00:02:00] going to just take all the Christians with him and so that they can avoid war. And yet there are scriptures like.

1 Corinthians 6:2 that says, or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? Did you know that? Did you know that there is going to be a body of people through whom the Lord returns. And it is that body of people who are going to judge the world and in order for the Lord to return through a body.

He needs to have a body upon which he can put his head.

I talk often about Ephesians 4. It talks about speaking the truth in love, that we may grow up into him in all things, which is the head. Even Christ was talking about Christ being the head. It's talking about our need 

[00:03:00] to really grow up in him. And it says, from whom the whole body. So from whom? That's from Christ, the whole body. That's us.

And then it says, fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies. So He's the head, we're the body. He is wanting us to grow up in such a way that we are fitly joined together, right? That we're united and compacted. So compacted held together by that, which every joint supplies who's the joint?

It's you. It's me. Then it says, according to the effectual, that's effective working in the measure of every part. So in other words, if you are working according to the effective measure in 

[00:04:00] you, and I'm doing the same and we all continue to do this, it says it makes increase of the body under the edifying of itself and love.

And so imagine if all of us effectively worked according to the measure in us and continue to grow in that, then the collective unit grows also and we become mature. 

When the body of Christ operates as it should, then we can stand strong in the spiritual battles that surround us.

Of course we know we don't wrestle against flesh and blood.

We wrestle against the rulers and the authorities and the cosmic powers over this present darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Ephesians 6:12. So many of us, if we're not in the word, and if we are not allowing the Spirit of the 

[00:05:00] living God to produce his nature in us, then we are never any more than just carnal Christians.

Carnal really being more worldly in nature. We're not to be according to the world, we're to do things quite opposite though. We can't do anything God's way without God's nature in us. And that is why Paul talks about we have to decrease. He has to increase. If the world is ever gonna be reconciled to the Lord, if they're ever going to be introduced to him through us, it can't be.

That they're introduced through some intellectual introduction because we know 10 scriptures by heart. It's got to be because they encountered the living God through us in the way that we live and carry his spirit. It, and the weapons of our 

[00:06:00] warfare as stated in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5.

They're not of the flesh; they're to have Divine power to destroy strongholds.

And the weapons mentioned in those scriptures are prayer and fasting. And we know that prayer starts with actually conversing with the Lord. But do you know, it also has to do with the way in which we live? You've heard the quote, “preach the gospel, and if necessary, use words.” Prayer is the same thing.

I can live a praying lifestyle as well as praying by talking to the Lord, right? It's a form of intercession. It's a form of standing in the gap on behalf of the world and the lost, and that includes the enemy and fasting. Fasting starts with denial of the 

[00:07:00] flesh for the sake of hearing God more clearly. For the sake of sacrifice for the sake of ushering in Godly things. Isaiah 58:6 also talks about the fast that God chooses. It's to loose the bonds of wickedness and undo the straps of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke.

And so I wanted to just set the table this context of, one, obviously the urgency and it's time for the body of Christ to wake up. God is giving the world over to the enemy so that the church will rise up. And the new kingdom, the new Jerusalem, the scripture talks about can be formed.

But that's going to take an army of people and it's gonna take them fighting, not according to the 

[00:08:00] world's ways. There's no worldly approach you or I could take that will be sufficient or that it will ever be enough. There's no amount of guns that you can have. That'll be enough. That's no amount of food that you can store away, that will be enough. This battle will only be won when the power of the living God returns through a people.

Now we know that the word says in Hebrews 11:6 that without faith it's impossible to please him. And I just think about the power when you and I practice now stepping in faith in ways that before we were afraid to, and really this does tie into the perfectionism conversation, right? Like, how many times have I shrunk back or decided to procrastinate or not take that next step 

[00:09:00] because of fear. If you've heard other episodes of mine I've said it where fear and unbelief are some of my greatest sins, and yet with faith as small as a mustard seed, we can move a mountain. So individually, when we step just one tiny step in the direction we used to be afraid of, we chip away at that mountain and then we take another step.

And we chip away again and we start to feed the Spirit in us, and we start to give him permission to increase his nature and do away with the mountain so that it becomes an anthill and eventually becomes dirt and nothing. So that we eventually now carry his power in a very real way because we gave him permission to remove the mountain of our own fears and insecurities.

[00:10:00] And that is the process. That is the way in which we as a joint in the Body, begin to give the supply we were destined to supply. And if you and I and others begin to walk in the supply we've been given, now the body of Christ is growing. And now it's being fitly joined together so it can actually operate as a whole body, and it's being held together by His strength and grace and glory.

It's such a powerful reality and yet and it allows for Him to then put His head on it, right? He can still be the head and then we stay connected to Him. But if we're not operating in faith, if we are allowing the perfectionism and the procrastination and the imposter syndrome and the 

[00:11:00] independent pride trying to do life without Him, if we allow those things to reign we're not actually feeding the Spirit of the living God, we're feeding the fleshly nature.

 In other words, we are not providing our supply to the body, and the body can't operate at full strength. If any part holds back, we have to rise above the nature in us. That is actually designed to be against the Lord. We were born with the nature that doesn't want to follow the Lord.

Paul said to the Galatians that he was in anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. Thank God for men like Paul who carried this need in them to give birth to children of God. He was a father in the faith and he carried the heart of 

[00:12:00] God and this desire to give birth to the children of God until we come to a maturity.

That's how he lived his life. He knew Christ was meant to be formed in us.

I just want you to know how special you are. If you're hearing this message. I want you to know how real these times are and how you were born for such a time as this and the heart of our God picked you. Of all the people He could have picked that could have been made from the combination at conception, He chose for you to be conceived 

and there's a place for you. He honors a seeking heart. And I encourage you to not be held back by the symptoms and behaviors of perfectionism and religion and 

[00:13:00] law and the rules we think we had to follow so perfectly to be a part of His kingdom, but to really get into the word of God and begin to see what it says about.

You as part of the kingdom and about the fact that his powers made perfect in our weakness, It was his bloodshed that we know paid the price for us and his grace that made a way where we would not have been able to do it ourselves.

And that grace wasn't just for salvation at the moment. It's for the salvation that's nearer than when we first believed. It's for every day we get closer to the return of the Lord, that grace is still giving to us today, that blood is still speaking on our behalf and that power is accessible if you are in the body of Christ and it is intended to equip you with the ability to overcome the nature in you, that is against the Lord and to usher in the nature that is His.

[00:14:00] So until Christ is formed in you, he's building a body. He wants you in it, and it is that body that will introduce the world to Jesus. So I just, I had that on my heart. I hope that you're blessed by it. I hope you are encouraged to dig in, lean in, dig deeper, and know and accept by faith that you are a part of that body and he wants to form his nature in you.

He doesn't expect you to be able to do that yourself. And I am cheering you on, and I'm cheering me on, and I am trusting that we put one step in front of the other just for today. Follow that nudge just for today. Take that next step, and every time you do it, you build. You're bold. I always say you build your bold.

So build your bold one more time. Build your bold again tomorrow. Build your bold again the next day. And every time you do 

[00:15:00] that, you are permitting the Lord to increase his nature in you and your nature to decrease so we can become the body we're meant to become. Friends, I bless you in the name of our Living God, Jesus, and let me know how you're doing. I'm rooting for you. I'm cheering for you, and I'm trusting that the Lord is anointing the message and it's getting down deep into your heart and soul.

Bless you, my friends, until we talk again.