The Kingdom Cowboy

The Awakening - Who is it for? #14 / Part 2

Summary:
It is really important that the church wakes up to what God wants to bring on the earth at this time. The Awakening is happening now, just like what happened when Jesus came on the scene with the religious organization of that day. We can all be partakers of this Awakening, but we must shake off the old traditions that have been holding us back. It’s through our opening up to being born again and being baptized that we are able to see, and start experiencing, this new Awakening and the Kingdom of God that is springing forth on the earth.
 
Show Notes:
The church should be a moving, changing, evolving organism, but unless a church has apostolic influence somewhere along the way, they’ll set up camp, and that’s where they will stay. That’s who they will be. That’s why we need the five fold ministry operating.
We baptized more people in 2023 than we had probably baptized in any 5-6 year stretch. Other churches in our area are experiencing the same thing. That is one of the big signs of people coming into the Kingdom of God.
Tradition is not a bad thing unless it’s standing in the way of what God wants to do. For instance, in Jesus’s day, religious tradition wasn’t just a bad thing, it was the most evil thing there was. It was what was hindering Jesus from doing what He was supposed to do.
In baptism, we identify with the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord. We go under that water immersed, and we come out of the water to a new life. So, water baptism is really important. John baptized with water, but Jesus baptizes you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
The Awakening is not here in it’s fullness yet. It’s going to depend on what the church does with it. So Leaders, wake up, get your focus on the Lord, and listen up. At that point, He’ll give you instructions and what, how, when, and who, and all that, to do in your house. It’s going to look different everywhere.
 
Quotes:
The ministry of the apostle sees where the church needs to go and has a good understanding of where the church is now; and then God gives practical steps on how we get from where we are to where we’re going. Sometimes it takes a real blast of some kind to get the church off high center, but I think that’s happening in today’s church atmosphere.
There’s one church. We are all part of it in Christ. There’s neither Jew nor Greek, slave or free, male or female; and we can carry that on to Baptist or Pentecostal. So, we are all one in Christ.
If you want God to do something in your church, first off, let Him start to do something in you. And if everybody will do that, then this Awakening won’t be just one or two people. It’ll be that whole body of Christ.
God wants the Awakening to last all the way until Jesus comes back, but it depends on what the church does with it. So the church has to come out of its traditional mindset, elements of tradition that is keeping us from being what God wants us to be.
The Word says to believe and be baptized. That was what signified someone who had made a decision in their heart to trust and follow Jesus, so the first step of obedience that we take is to be baptized.
The Awakening is God moving on the hearts and spirits of mankind. Your purpose and your life wont’ be fulfilled until you lock onto what God’s purpose for your life is.
 
References:
Galatians 3:28
Acts 1:5
 
Takeaways:
The Awakening and the Kingdom of God are coming forth, whether we are aware of it or not. That’s why it is so important for the spiritual leaders of this day to wake up and get focused, so that they are able to bring their groups into this new day that the Lord wants to bring now.

The Awakening - Who Is It For? #14 Part 1

Summary:
This teaching on the Awakening is both practical and simple. It is bound to bring changes to what the church has been used to doing for so long, and none of us should miss it. Therefore, the church, especially its leaders, must wake up, or the churches they are pastoring and leading could very well miss what God wants to do in this hour.
 
Show Notes:
The Lord has given Andy the ability to speak to a group where everyone in the group feels like he is talking directly to them.
This podcast series starts out with just two people talking, and then is handed off to others who have different roles to help produce this, but if there is anything good about this podcast, it’s the Holy Spirit doing that.
We all are gifted in different ways and it’s up to each of us to figure that out, so we can find our place and how we fit into the whole body.
There are so many folks around who can throw a lot of stuff out there that is so deep spiritually that no one can understand, but the Lord spoke this recently, “I’m about to bring the prominence to simplicity that it has always deserved”.
When asked if the church is ready, I have to say, “NO, not even close”. But it seems to be coming closer.
 
Quotes:
When I read the word, study the word, when I hear someone else teach or preach, it needs to be practical, something that people can sink their teeth into and then find an easy way to apply that to their lives.
The Lord has given me a gift of simplicity, to take something pretty complex and break it down and make it simple.
I want to be a good steward of what God has gifted me in, and allow the Lord to use that.
In my time with the Lord, I’m just saying, “God, I don’t know anything”. I’ve learned a lot, but I don’t know how to get us to the next place, to the next level, to the next juncture. It’s got to be the Lord and we have to be desperate for that.
Is the church ready for this Awakening that’s here? The Lord showed me that the church is asleep. I’ve spoken to groups outside of here about the Awakening, but it’s almost like it falls on deaf ears sometimes, because the church in America, and maybe around the world, is stuck in doing the same things that we’ve always done.
I’m not criticizing, but now’s the time to change what we are doing.
God always does it with unlikely people and unlikely groups. God loves to use the unqualified to do the impossible. We are just living proof.
 
Takeaways:
God wants to bring about new ways of thinking and new ways of doing things. A good portion of the church worldwide is not readily getting that, because they are too used to doing things the way they always have. God is using the message of the Awakening to literally wake up the worldwide church to what He wants to accomplish now, and not put it off for some future time.

What Is The Church #13

Summary:
 
The church is not just a building. “The church is an ever changing, ever evolving, supernatural, called out and victorious kingdom family of like minded believers in Jesus, working together and known for their love for one another, bonded together by the common thread of agape love and the unity of the Holy Spirit, who are commissioned and empowered by the Father with the authority to propagate and spread the good news by communicating and demonstrating signs and wonders to the world, and to carry out the perfect will of Jesus, to co-labor with Him as He establishes His Kingdom in the earth”. It is the Body of Christ, a many membered organism that carries out the full will of the Father.
 
 
Show Notes:
 
The most important question to ever be imposed to anyone is, “Who do you say Jesus is?” Peter said, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus’ reply was, “And on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it”.
God’s method of building the church is to build it through people.
When we are talking about the Kingdom of God and about the Awakening, we are talking about an emergence of all these conditions that we see in the world, both the negative side and the positive side. But you have to look with spiritual eyes to see what He’s doing.
Many people are wishing that Jesus would get down here and rapture us out. That may happen, which could be wonderful, but then we would miss spiritually what I believe is happening right now, and what has been escalating for the last few years.
At times, the church as it is now has hurt people and has not been the beacon of agape love that it is supposed to be. The legalism has made people feel like they couldn’t measure up to other’s expectations.
 
Quotes:
 
The Church is the body of Christ. It’s a many membered organism that carries out the full will of the Father, just like Jesus. We are the body of Christ, His hands and His feet.
Jesus said that by God’s own design, He won’t reach over the church today, or anytime, and do what He’s given the church the authority and power to do.
The church is not the kingdom, but the church is responsible for cooperating with God and Jesus to see the Kingdom come.
The Bible never once refers to the church as a destination, a building or anything like that. In fact, after the day of Pentecost, it was 300 years before there was actually a building known as the church building. It’s always been about the people.
For the guy who says, “I don’t need the church. I can be out on the pond with my fishing pole or out in the woods and that’s my church.” If that’s your mindset, if that’s your opinion about how that works, then it’s totally selfish, because you’re denying the fact that you are handpicked for this generation.
There’s no biblical reference for living the Christian life outside the community of believers. That’s why the church is that important.
There is a community, somewhere, of believers that God wants you to be a part of, where you begin to find your place, your area of gifting and anointing.
 
References:
 
Matthew 16:13-18
Acts 2
Ephesians 4:12
1 Kings 19:18
 
Takeaways:
 
The true church is the Body of Christ. It has been charged with cooperating with the Father and Jesus, to help bring about God’s Kingdom. The church is not a place, but it’s a body of people who want to bring forth all that God wants to do and accomplish here on earth. And, today, it is in the process of coming forth.
 

The Awakening is here! #12

Summary:
 
The Awakening and the Kingdom of God already exist and are moving, but it takes a real spiritual awareness to see it manifesting in the earth at this time. As God’s people, all it takes is a desire and an obedience to see it start happening more every day. When Jesus was teaching the disciples to pray, He was loosing His Kingdom on earth, as it is in heaven. That means we don’t have to wait until we die to experience it, but we can start experiencing it right now, here in the earth.
 
 
Show Notes:
 
In Andy’s book, The Best Kept Secrets of the Kingdom, he brings out 20 keys that will help to get a realization of the Awakening and what it’s about. This book was written with the regular guy in mind, with short chapters that can easily be read in a short time.
The Awakening is happening at this very moment. If we are in tune with things that God is bringing (things like the Damar Hamlin situation on the football field, the Asbury Kentucky gathering, and the Michigan Wolverine football team- where 70 players got baptized this last year), we can begin to see that there is so much more to come as this Awakening progresses.
What is happening in India and Iran looks different that what we are seeing in America.
Preparation on our part is so important at this time, because the Kingdom of God is coming with you, or without you.
Everything is changing, and that’s hard for people who are in a religious mode. Today is just like what happened when Jesus was alive here on earth. The religious people were stuck in their traditions, and Jesus was bringing change.
When God starts to talk to you about the Awakening and the Kingdom, lean into it.
 
 
Quotes:
 
The Church is going to be a glorious organism (not an organization), which will have the answers for all of the negative things that we see our in the world right now.
The Kingdom of God already exists in its fullness and perfection, but it hasn’t completely manifested, or emerged into the natural realm.
Every time we forgive someone, pray for someone, or every little thing you do, the Kingdom of God is manifested in the earth.
As we give God access to our heart, He begins to do the work that needs to be done. He is conforming us into the image of Jesus.
The Body of Christ is never going to be what it is supposed to be, until all of us find our place in the body and function there. When we do that, there’s a supernatural anointing on us that’s above and beyond anything that we can do.
The Church is not the Kingdom, the Church is the facilitator of the Kingdom.
 
 
 
References:
 
Matthew 6:33
Revelations 3:20
Ephesians 4:11
Matthew 16:18
 
 
Takeaways:
 
God is moving and manifesting His Kingdom on earth right at this moment. However, as His people, we need to wake up and start connecting with the Father to be able to see it and start experiencing it right now.

Distractions - The Awakening #11

Summary:
 
God the Father wants so much to talk to us, but we have to have a real desire to hear what He is speaking. It takes time and a discipline to slow down long enough to connect with Him and learn how to enjoy His presence. In this podcast, we have been given some really practical steps on how to come into His presence, eliminate the distractions that come to keep us from hearing Him, and discover that it’s not the answers that He has for us, or the things we think we need from Him. The greatest discovery comes when we come to the realization that He, God our Father, is the real prize, that He is all we really need.
 
 
Show Notes:
 
We think it’s important that you hear the Lord, and there are a lot of practical things presented here that we can do to get our hearts and minds into a place where we can hear Him well.
The rule of 100 (this stands for 100 hours divided by the number of days in a year, which comes out to be 18 minutes per day) was devised to help all of us focus on a particular discipline to improve our skill. This really holds true when we are seeking the Father to hear Him speak to us.
Distractions are the biggest hurdle we experience when trying to hear the Father speak to us, such as our phone or our watch. When either of them ring, your mind automatically turns to them.
Here are some practical things to do when trying to hear God speak to us.
Make it a priority in your life.
Practice gratitude.
 A great starting place is to leave your phone and/or watch in another room when waiting on the Lord.
Keep a note pad close, to jot down things that you think God is saying to you.
 
This is something that you have to want to do, because you have to take the time to do it.
If this becomes a desire and drive for you, when you start to get a taste of Him you will want more.
Because of our desire to hear from the Father and all that God is beginning to do in the world, the enemy sees the move of God escalating, emerging and growing, so he will do all he can do to distract us. It’s so important for us not to fall for his tactics of distraction.
Hebrews 12:27 refers to everything that can be shaken will be shaken. So, when we see Him shaking the financial system, banking system, school system, and human system, then we are not moved by it.
 
 
Quotes:
 
If you spend 100 hours a year working on a particular discipline by practicing it 18 minutes per day, you will be within the top five or 10% of people in the world with that knowledge and understanding.
If you are not hearing the Lord, the chances are pretty high that the problem is not on His end.
Most of us have gotten pretty good at hearing the Lord on the run as we go through our day, but there’s so much to be said for taking a time where it’s just designated for hearing the Lord.
Any good communication is two way; talking and listening. I have learned that to listen has been more beneficial to me than the things I need to ask for.
When we spend time with the Father, it’s not the thing that the Father gives, does, or says. The real prize is His presence.
There is a shaking going on right now and at the same time, there is an awakening. Think about what happened with Damar Hamlin at a Buffalo Bills game in the NFL. Another one is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that happened at Asbury College in Kentucky.
 
 
References:
 
Psalms 100:4
Isaiah 5:20
Hebrews 12:27
 
 
Takeaways:
 
We are discovering that it’s not what God can do for us, or the things that we think He wants to talk to us about. The testings and discipline that He puts us through, and the time that is required to eliminate the distractions so that we can really connect with Him, are to create the bottom line. The bottom line is that we discover that God Himself is all that we really wanted all along; to be with Him and to just enjoy His presence.

Distractions - Using the Calm App #10

Summary:
God, our Father, has a great desire to talk to us and commune with us. The problem for us is getting to a place where we are able to hear Him. This podcast is geared to help us get to that place, by using simple tools like the Calm App to teach us how to get past and/or eliminate distractions that keep us from really hearing what He has to say to us.
 
 
Show Notes:
God speaks in all kinds of ways, if we can get our receptors out there and pay attention. The key to this is putting a real priority and a high value on hearing the Lord.
When you start listening to these people talking about health, fitness and nutrition, so many of these folks put a pretty high value on meditation to help you into those disciplines. And we aren’t talking about Transcendental Meditation, spirit guides, or those kinds of things.
Meditation has gotten a bad reputation among Christians, because of these Eastern philosophies, but it is spoken of at least 20 times in the Bible.
Using the keys on the Calm App helps you get mindful and helps you to get in the moment.
If you set some time aside to get with the Father, don’t you think it’s important enough to do all you can to eliminate distractions, like your phone, watch, or other things that tend to pull your attention away from Him?
The Calm App takes you through different steps, like deep breathing and relaxation by focusing on different parts of your body, which helps us on how to discipline our mind and deal with stress, so that a lot of these distractions can be eliminated.
The Calm App also guides you in your meditations by using calm music like ocean waves.
 
 
Quotes:
What we are going to talk about today are distractions that will cause you to miss some of the biggest things that you could have for your life.
It’s not hard to hear the Lord, but a lot of people struggle with just the thought of that.
First off, make it a priority to get your heart and mind into a good place when you are going to take this time to spend with the Lord.
It’s just possible that what the Lord wants to speak to you is more important than your Instagram, your Snap Chat, or your Facebook feed. So, those things are really, really distracting. Do you want to sit and talk to the Father, or do you want that time with other people?
 
 
References:
1 Peter 5:8
 
 
Takeaways:
This podcast offers some great tools to help us when we are trying to spend time hearing from the Lord. It really points out how much distractions can rob us from getting into a place where we are able to hear Him and what He wants to speak to us. The enemy uses distractions against us. Because of that, we have to make it a real priority and have a drive to push those distractions out of the way, so that we can be successful in our walk with Him.
 
 

When God Is Silent #9

Summary:
When it seems like God has withdrawn from us or is being silent with us, it is seldom because He is mad at us or that we have done something wrong. As we get deeper into our relationship with Him, He starts speaking to us in various ways. But when we go through a time of not feeling His presence or hearing His voice, we can start to get very introspective. It is likely that God just wants you to get closer to Him by spending time with Him and/or spending more time in the written word (the Bible). We all have to remember that the most important thing is not what God says to us or what He gives to us. The most important thing is HIM, and just enjoying His presence, being with Him.
 
Show Notes:
When we start entering into a relationship with God, He wants to speak and commune with us in many different ways.
A lot of Christians tend to experience a small still voice when God speaks to them. It is a voice that you hear in your heart and mind, but you don’t hear it with your natural ear. There are, however, some people who do actually hear the audible voice of God.
When it seems like God is silent toward you at times, it is so easy to think that you have done something wrong, and are being punished for it. In most cases, that is not true at all.
When you are in a time of not hearing God that much, it’s so easy to think that you have to get busy and do something, when all the time God just wants you to stop and just enjoy His presence.
Asking God when you really, really need to know something isn’t bad, but you might find that when you go to the Lord without an agenda, and you are not there for anything, your list of wants and needs greatly decreases. “I’m just here for You, Lord”.
 
Quotes:
The average person out there who doesn’t go to church, when they hear someone talking about hearing God, they can automatically think that the one talking is hearing the audible voice of God.
Sometimes God will withdraw the tangible evidence of His presence and His voice to cause you to draw closer to Him.
Let’s not forget that God does speak to us through the written word, and maybe that silence is to drive us back to the Word, back to the Bible.
As we grow and deepen in our relationship with the Father, these are some of the things that we begin to understand, that even if we have messed up, He still wants to talk to us.
 
References:
Hebrews 13:5
John 11:27
Isaiah 55:8-9
Romans 12:1
 
Takeaways:
As we grow in our relationship with the Father, we start to sense Him and hear Him more. We get used to feeling Him close to us, but there are times when He seems to withdraw His presence and His voice from us. When this happens to us, it is natural to think that you have done something wrong, or made God mad you in some way. Most of the time, that’s not the case at all. In most cases, God is just pulling us into a deeper place with Him, and is wanting for us to press into the written word (the Bible) more.
 

Can Anyone Hear God? #8

Summary:
 
God created everything for one simple reason; to have a people that He can love, commune and talk with, and have a close relationship with. There has never been a more important time than now to develop a relationship with the Father and learn His voice.
Having a drive to be close to Him and making it a priority in our lives makes God happier than any of us can understand at this point.
 
 
Show Notes:
 
It’s so important to make it a priority if we want to hear God. The secret is getting in the mode of listening for Him to speak to you.
The first thing I always tell people on the subject of hearing God is to learn to relate to God as Father, which sets everything else in proper perspective.
The love that the Father has for us and the relationship that He wants to have with us is probably the very most important thing in life.
God loves it when you take the time to be with Him and come without an agenda. That allows the Lord to tell you what your agenda should really be. That’s hard for some people, because they have all these things that they really feel like they need to hear the Lord on.
There’s coming a time when everything that can be shaken will be shaken. That’s why now it more important than ever to get a close relationship with the Father, and learn to hear His voice and what He wants to speak to you in this season that we are in spiritually.
 
 
Quotes:
 
“Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God”. So that just says that the sustenance for our life really comes from the things that God says.
I’ve been on a mission to help people know that they can hear God.
I think you can make trying to hear God too hard. It’s really pretty simple. One of the most important things is to stay in the mode.
I’m a huge proponent of taking time where it’s just you and Him, but we can also hear God on the run, in our daily lives.
I told the Lord recently while waiting on Him that He always shows up. In a still small voice He told me, “I never show up. I’m always here. You’re the one who shows up”. There’s never a time that God doesn’t have time for you.
Anytime you want to get together and spend time with the Lord, He’s always game for it. There’s never a bad time for it. It’s always a good time.
 
 
References:
 
Matthew 4:4
John 6:44
Romans 3:23
Romans 6:23
 
 
Take Away:
 
There has never been a more important time than now to develop a relationship with the Father and learn His voice. All that God created boils down to one thing; that He have a people that He can love, can commune and talk with, and have a close relationship with.