Welcome to Equip the Next—the podcast where hungry believers learn to study the Bible with clarity, see Christ in every passage, and grow into confident disciples.
If you’ve ever wanted to go deeper in God’s Word but felt overwhelmed—or sensed a call to disciple others but didn’t feel equipped—you’re in the right place.
Our focus is simple: Grow in God’s Word. Lead boldly. Live with purpose.
Each episode blends practical Bible study tools, Christ-centered interpretation, and clear discipleship guidance—rooted in clarity, context, and spiritual depth that makes Scripture feel accessible and transformative. Whether we’re walking through a passage or tackling a spiritual growth topic, you’ll find steady encouragement and biblical clarity to help you stay anchored and confident in your faith.
Meet Your Host:
I’m Latoya Morris — a story-driven, Christ-centered Bible teacher helping believers understand Scripture with clarity, confidence, and real spiritual depth.
For over a decade, I’ve coached leaders, guided women in faith and purpose, and taught the Bible in a way that makes it come alive—through narrative clarity, context, and Christ-centered insight. With a B.A. in Marketing Communications, 12+ years of coaching experience, and seminary training, I bring together practical wisdom and solid biblical understanding in a way that feels steady, clear, and grounded.
I created Equip the Next because believers deserve clarity, not confusion. My mission is simple: help you understand the Word, see Christ in every passage, and grow into a confident disciple who can lead with truth and purpose.
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https://equipthenext.com/freebie/
It’s the perfect next step to start studying the Bible with clarity.
P.S. Have a question, comment, or just want to say hi? Email me at: hello@equipthenext.com
Has disappointment left you wondering whether it’s worth continuing in your faith? In this episode, we talk about what it means to keep following Jesus when people have hurt you, relationships have changed, or your trust has been shaken. Through Revelation 2 and the words of Jesus, you’ll learn why returning to your first love matters, how to keep other voices from defining God for you, and what can reignite a faith that feels dim. If hurt has made you pull back from Scripture or question where you stand, this conversation will help you take your next step toward Christ.
💡 Don’t just listen — live it. Want help studying Scripture in context? Grab your free guide: Bible Study Guardrails → Get Your Copy Here
Connect with Equip the Next:
• Email: hello@equipthenext.com
FYI:
Equip the Next provides biblical encouragement and spiritual guidance and is not a church, pastoral authority, or counseling service. This content is consumed voluntarily and does not replace involvement in a local Christian community or professional care.
This is episode 147, and I'm your host, Latoya. And this is Equip the Next, where you get equipped to lead, disciple, and move the mission forward. So are you ready to move forward? You don't want to miss this? Listen, before I start, um, we'll be talking about choosing to move forward or choosing to keep walking. So if you are new, I typically like to do a set topic for the month and have like a string of episodes and lead up to a final episode and then go on to a new topic. So if you are just now coming into this and you're like, okay, you might want to check out episode 144, where it all starts, because this month we talked about following Jesus through disappointment. And so today we're going to talk about choosing to keep walking, moving forward. After we've kind of unpacked a lot of stuff, we have to have a point of okay, now what? And so that's what we're going to be talking about. I'm going to be shifting through a couple of um verses as I'm looking here. I'm looking at my notes and um just trying to see how we can smooth this along. Um, because I think it's very important that now that we have all of these little nuggets that we've had over the couple of weeks we've been talking, that we now can move forward. So I want to share what this all is, you know, what we're gonna be talking about or diving into. So I always like to have a focus. And I want to remind people that disappointment may affect our journey, but it doesn't have to stop us from following Jesus. It's going to affect our journey. You're gonna have hiccups in the road. We call them life be life in, right? Life is gonna life, but it doesn't have to stop us from following Jesus. It doesn't have to stop us from depending on him. And so I want you to ask yourself this question: what would it look like for me to keep following Jesus? Maybe you're good in that area. Maybe you're struggling, maybe you've been hurt too many times and you're like, you feel like giving up. What would it look like if you just followed him? That's what we're gonna be talking about a little bit today. Um, and so I want to read.
I'm getting a couple of devices because I think it's better to get it first, but I'm gonna go to um Revelation 2. Um, I'm gonna read uh probably a couple of verses. So um we know this is about the church in Ephesus. It says, To the angel of the church in Ephesus, right, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands. I know your works and toil and your patient endurance, and how you cannot bear with those who are evil, but have tested those who call themselves apostles, and are not, and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake, and you have not grown weary, but I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore, from where you have fallen, repent, and do the works you did at first. I'm gonna pause there. Because and we did, oh my gosh, maybe a couple years ago, we went through the entire book of Revelation. The entire book. I think it was like a four-month teaching. So I strongly encourage you, if you want to have moments like that and you want to know the Bible for yourself. Um, we did a Bible, um, how to study the Bible. It was an eight-week teaching. I encourage you to um reach out. You can either connect with us and have a little freebie, which is the Bible study guardrails, or you could just simply email me at hello at equipthenext.com. There's really no excuse, right? Like if you want to know the Bible and you want to know the word, connect with a community. If not me, connect with someone to so you can learn the word. So we're here. But um I want to highlight that, I wanted to highlight that because again, and I've been stressing this throughout this series. Don't allow those around you to deter you from who you are and what you love. Remember your first love. Your love for the Lord should always be greater than the world or people around you. Always keep that in mind. Because at the end of the day, he did not come to make us feel good. Open air quotes. He came to die for us, which is so much better. I'm gonna summarize. So Matthew and Luke have this um the same kind of passage, and I'm gonna go to Matthew first, verse 10, and 34 and 35,
because he's talking about, you know, he ain't come for peace but a sword. Um, so I'm just gonna kind of read a little bit of it. Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace but a sword. And then he talks about against father, mother, daughter, you know, all that stuff. And then you see that again in Luke 12, 49 through 53. I'm gonna summarize it. He's not saying like that God didn't come to separate people from their families, okay? Jesus didn't come for that. So that that's not what that means. What he's saying is that sometimes when you follow Christ, you know, and other people may not believe that, or your family or friends, or whatever, there might be a separation. People might be uneased. It might not work out so well because ultimately you should have allegiance to him before anybody. And of course, you honor leadership, you honor your spouse, you honor um your parents, of course. But God and Jesus, the Holy Spirit, like that that comes first. Jesus is first, and if someone is doing something contrary to your beliefs, you have a right to examine that. You have a right to set boundaries and so forth. I'm just kind of summarizing it. A lot of times we have a tendency to form allegiance with people who are flawed, and then when they hurt us, we blame God. And we have to understand that, again, people are flawed. We are all flawed because we live in a fallen world. My husband always shares this proverb, um, I don't know, Chinese proverb, whatever. He that expect he that expecteth nothing is never disappointed. Now, of course, you should expect some things and that, you know. But I think we put too much stock in people. And we, especially in the world that we live in, it's getting very crowded with all different types of opinions. And if you're not careful, you can fall victim to listening to every every type of doctrine that's out here. And you will depend, I'm saying you, I'm just saying general, you will depend on what people say about the Bible instead of what you read about the Bible. One thing I learned in seminary is how to critically think. How it's okay to ask questions, how it's okay to maybe not agree with everything that someone says. That doesn't mean that they're bad. It's just okay. I'm really that's their view on that. As long as we agree on the gospel and we live
it out, that's important. But you have to choose to keep walking. You have to remember your first love. You have to remember why you, if you were baptized, why were you baptized? You gave your life to Christ? Why? What what what was your why? What happened in your life? Hold on to that fire. Don't allow anyone or anything to take you away from the fire you had. Listen, fires, um they get weak at at some point. I've never been camping, but I'm I'm assuming that that's what happens, okay? Just walk with me. Um but they they get they get um weak at some point. But I think with oxygen, it can it can grow mighty. Unfortunately, there are a lot of wildfires around this time. Actually, they probably died down, I think, but in the summer, in the United States and um parts of Canada, unfortunately, there are a lot of wildfires. And if we look at that in our spirit, we should have that fire for the Lord, and it should never die down. Now we want the fire, the real wildfires, we want them to die down. Okay. But if we just look at that and use that as an example, we want that fire of God to stay in us. And sometimes it takes someone of a community to push you. Sometimes it takes a reminder, maybe this podcast to remind you to get in the word. Because it might be hard for you to open it up, you know, you maybe collecting a little dust. That's okay. Wipe off the dust and open it back. Start with a small book. Remember a
book that you were like, man, this is man, I love this book. Start with that. Not just a couple verses, because you don't want to take anything out of context. Start with a book. A letter is good, an epistle. Start with that, but choose to keep on walking. Don't allow disappointments and people and what they say about you or what they've done to you to separate the relationship you have. Imagine, I'm pretty sure you've let people down, hurt people's feelings, but you really cared about that person and you wanted to continue having a friendship or whatever with them. How would you feel if they separated themselves completely from you without knowing who you are? Maybe you've changed. Now, of course, God is um holy, but I'm just using that as an example of how we can't allow disappointments to determine the outcome and the relationship we have with Jesus. We have to turn return to our first love more than ever now. It's so important. So I want you to examine yourself. See, Jesus sees both faithfulness and failure. He sees both. He sees the hurt that that people have caused you. He sees all of that. Cling to him. And we already know, just like I mentioned about the fire, that love can grow cold. Especially if you've been married a long time. You know, you you gotta rekindle that. It's a process. We're human. But I don't want you to think that returning is impossible. Returning is always possible. Look at the prodigal son as a great example. Returning is always possible if you open up your heart and believe. And continuing with Christ includes continuing to be shaped by his word. Through the Bible, of course, his word, through um uh godly counsel, through a godly community, whatever, so that you can open up your word. They should be pointing you to Christ. Whatever you do, whenever whoever you're around, they should be pointing you to open that Bible up and be like a Berean. When we look at the Christ thread, we see the perseverance and the return and the faithfulness of his
love. I'm gonna pray. I feel led to pray. I don't have anything down for that, but I just feel led to pray. And then I want to challenge you like I always do. Father, I just thank you for allowing me to have an opportunity to connect with people who are listening now. I don't know what's going on in people's lives. I don't know somebody might be listening and they might be going through disappointment, hurt, pain, rejection, and they don't know where to turn, and they don't know even how to approach the Bible. Maybe they've gotten a distorted view of you. Maybe they're afraid. And Father, I just ask that you remind them that you love them, remind them of how you see them, not how people see them. Cover them, Lord God. Touch their heart. Show them, Father, in your word, give them a desire to know who you are. Give them a hunger to seek your face. Forgive us for putting our stock in man instead of trusting you. And lead these people, and this whoever's listening, lead us all down a better path of greatness when we open this word. We just forget everything that might have been taught to us in error. We forgive. We forgive those people who might have also been taught things in error that have hurt us along the way. We ask that you replace it with your truth and your peace. In the name of Jesus, amen.
Listen, I want to challenge you to take one intentional step towards renewing your walk with Christ through his word. Like I said, it could be reading a chapter, um, reading a book that you really, really love. Have a different view on it. Open up with a clear mind. Don't leave everything you thought at the door. Invite the Holy Spirit in and he will show you. But take that initial step, that intentional step towards Christ through his word. And be and be blessed until we meet again. Well, that's it for today. Thanks for listening to the Equit the Next podcast. If this episode blessed you, I'd appreciate it if you leave a review and share it with someone who can use a little encouragement. Now grow in God's word and lead boldly.
