CeCe Winans Shares The Importance of Being Part of a Church

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You're listening to the Charisma News Podcast. I'm Shelby Bowen. Division in the Church is

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running rampant. Listen to this interview with Cece Winans about why it's crucial for you

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to be involved in the local church. Read more stories on Spirit-Led Living when

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you subscribe to Charisma Magazine. Go to mycharismashop.com and enter in the promo

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code CPN to receive 10% off the price of the subscription. First, what's going on with the

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double award? How you're feeling? I mean, that's amazing. It's a huge achievement. Can you tell us

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about that? That's amazing. The double awards, I am still in shock over the double awards.

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I went this year just to support and have a good time. Last year I had won about three double awards,

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I think. When they told me I was nominated this year in those categories, I was like,

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oh, that's awesome. But then prepare a speech. Sometimes you never know if you're going to win,

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but you like to be prepared just in case. This time it was like, there's no way I'm winning.

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I'm just going to have a good time. When they called my name off, I was, which I think everybody

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could see, I was totally like, what? After the first one for Song of the Year, then Artist of

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the Year, I really knew that wasn't going to happen. That happened too. People are saying,

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oh, did you plan to sing to God Be the Glory? I was like, absolutely not. I said nothing else

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came to my mind. I hadn't prepared anything. When I got up there, I was just in shock. The only thing

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flooded my mind was to God Be the Glory. That's the only thing I can get out. I'm honored, I'm

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floored, I'm humbled, I'm excited. Yeah, it just means a lot to be acknowledged by your peers

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and to win an award like that. To me, every blessing comes a responsibility.

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Mm-hmm. I always go back and say, okay, Lord, you've allowed me to gain this.

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Why? What is this for? How do you want to use this for your glory? Because that's why we're all here.

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We use every gift and talent for Him. The double awards were amazing. All the awards that I've

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ever gotten up until this time, it's pretty mind boggling when I look back and see all

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that has happened in that arena in my career time. But again, every time He does it, it's like He

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gives me new ground so that I can walk on that and represent who He is. Such a beautiful perspective

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and really just a humble heart of wanting to be given all of these beautiful things. You're like,

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but God be the glory. I think that's such an amazing heart posture to have. You have a book

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coming out. Yeah. So that is super exciting. Can you tell us the name of the book and what it's about?

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The name of my book is Believe For It, Passing on Faith to the Next Generation.

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All I can say is I believe this book and where I am in life has everything to do with my past,

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my present, and my future. We talked about it earlier. God has blessed me with a lot

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of great accomplishments and everything that He's ever allowed me to have and everything that He's

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allowed to be poured into me, I think is for such a time as this. I was telling somebody earlier that

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this book is so important to me and this message is so important to me because I feel the

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responsibility to pour into the next generation as much as I possibly can to make sure

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they are ready to take the baton and run well with it. That's what this book is all about. It's about

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sharing my story of why I feel like I'm a strong believer, a strong woman of God, and also to

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motivate others, my age and older, really every age, because no matter how old you are, somebody's

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looking at you. You have some type of influence. It's important to understand the part that we play

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in making sure the faith of Jesus Christ never dwindles out. That is an awesome responsibility.

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That's what the book is about. We were talking a little bit before the recording just about

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the church attendance in America is declining. This is really so important that people are

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spreading the message of carrying on that baton and spreading the faith that we have in our

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lives. It's everything. Jesus came and died on the cross for us. It's a message that transcends time.

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People need this, especially in the time we're living in with the depression and anxiety.

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Maybe you could just speak a little bit to why this is so important in our current culture now.

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You're just encouraging people to step into that. Yeah. Well, like you said, it's so important.

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It's always been important, but in our current culture, I think it is a must. We have a lot

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of things at stake right now. We as believers, it's our time to stand up and believe. It's our

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time to be, this is not the time to blend in. This is not the time to back up. This is not the time

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to cool off, but it's really time more than ever to have that zeal to be busy about doing the Lord's

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work. First, starting at home. I share in the book where church is not optional. As believers,

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that's not optional. I know we went through the time of the pandemic and we had the, oh my God,

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to me that was the worst few weeks that we were out. We took going to the house of the Lord,

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as we took up a granny. God is serious about his house, about his temple, about us coming together

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as believers. The Bible says, forsake not the assembly of yourselves, but gather the more as

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we see the day approaching. Jesus is soon to come. This is not the time for us to be at home or to

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make our kids feel like, well, Sunday is not really that important. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

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We have to stand up because if not, we'll lose the next generation. I remember being on the show

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better together and basically I remember one of the women on the show saying how her parents told

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her that if we make it optional in our generation, then the next generation will demon unnecessary.

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Oh, wow. That's really good. And that's danger. That's dangerous right now. And so I'm praying

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that we understand what's at stake because we're all here because the disciples understood the

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importance of spreading the good news. They understood they were willing to lose their lives

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and most of them did lose their lives in horrific ways for the gospel of Jesus Christ. So we have

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to understand that it's our turn now. Yeah. You know, and the culture, people are hungry,

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they're hurting, they're broken and the harvest is ripe. And if they don't get a chance to see

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Jesus in action, then they won't be able to come to know who he is. And so this falls on our shoulders,

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all of us as believers, every generation to stand up and be people of faith so that faith can be

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continued on to the next generation. Amen. It's so powerful. And this will be my last question

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because I know you have to get going, but you carry such a fear of the Lord and reverence for God and

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carrying on his word. What would your message be to the young worship leader or person who

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worship leader or person who is maybe tempted to kind of like try to adhere to culture and blend

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in and try to just be popular and, you know, kind of blend in with the world, but also worship,

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you know, you carry the fear of the Lord. What would your message be to them?

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My message would be to fear the Lord. Yeah. You know, fear the Lord. The Bible says the

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fear of the Lord is beginning of wisdom. It opens up your eyes to fear the Lord is to understand

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who he is and whose he is and to understand that he requires all of our heart, not part of our heart.

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I always tell people I'm a worshiper. I'm a believer who happens to sing. And I think

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sometimes those who are coming after us, those who know they have a gift, they begin to look at that

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position and that gift more than the creator of the gift. The creator is always most important.

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Like, for instance, it was a season in my life when God spoke to my husband and I to start a

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church where I wasn't singing. You know, I wasn't going out on the road. I wasn't doing that because

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he had me for me in another area of life. And so I'm open that if he says tomorrow,

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Cece, don't sing, but I want you to go and minister this way. I don't belong to myself. And so you have

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to understand that God not only desires all of your heart, but he requires all of your heart.

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And the Bible says, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and everything else will

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be added. I am definitely walking to everything else being added, because if you be consistent in

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keeping your eyes on Jesus and allowing his character to be developed in you, then whatever

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stage that you find yourself on, that means God can trust you to understand that it's for him,

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it's through him, and God will bless his people because of that.

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Amen. It's very powerful and just something that's super important for people to hear,

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really at all ages and all walks of life. So I appreciate your time today. It went by so fast.

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I'm like, this is so powerful. I'm like, praise God. But really, I mean, I would just love to

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hear your final thoughts on what you feel like the Holy Spirit is saying to you in what's happening

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in the world today and just a message that's important for the body of Christ. You know,

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I've been asked to speak. I have to speak on Sunday and actually I'm preparing for a lesson now and

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I'm just, ooh, putting lessons together has never been easy for me because it's like, it feels like

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there's so much I want to say and it's like, no, you want people to walk away with something.

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But I do believe this message is so important and it's about having a zeal for the house.

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So many times, us as believers, we feel like, you know, we want God to use us and we focus on

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everything else besides him. And we can see all through scriptures that when we focus on him,

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then it allows him to move and do the impossible. I think we've come to the,

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we've tried to win the world our own way. And the Bible says, not by power nor by might,

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but it's by my spirit, saith the Lord. So you can have, I think we run after strategies opposed to

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being led by the spirit. The spirit knows all things. So we need a zeal for God and for his

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house again, because the Bible says that unity demands a blessing. When we come together as the

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body of Christ and begin to pray and begin to be faithful again to our church attendance, not just

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for the sake of checking it off, but actually going to the house of God to do what the house of God

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has been prepared for us to do. And that is to pray. It's supposed to be a house of prayers.

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It's supposed to be a house where miracles happen, where we learn how to be disciples of Jesus

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Christ so that when we walk out into the world, we'll be light, you know, because people are dying,

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literally dying, and they need to see the light that's in each one of us.

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We do. Amen. Amen. What a powerful message. Thank you so much, Cici, for your time. I just honor you

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and everything that you're doing for the Lord. Thank you for listening to Charisma News. To read

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