The Kingdom Cowboy

Summary:
 
It’s through being born again, reading the Bible, allowing the Holy Spirit to come along- side as our helper, and using the measure of faith that God has given, that we are able to grow, become mature in the Lord and find our significance in the Body of Christ. For most of us, it’s not being religious about reading the word, but it’s about enjoying what we are reading that makes us reach in for more.
 
 
Show Notes:
 
Andy talks about the first book that he wrote, Reading Your Bible For All It’s Worth.
Most people prefer to read books with shorter chapters so they can feel some sense of finality without having to read 25 to 35 pages to get there.
Most of us really want to hear from God, and one of the key ways is through reading the Bible.
To be able to understand the Bible, it’s very important that you be born again.
The Holy Spirit is our teacher and starts to give us the mind of Christ, because the Spirit of God lives in us. He’s always there to help and comes along side of us.
We all have been given the same measure of faith, the same measure of faith that Billy Graham has. It’s whatever you do with that faith that dictates whether it grows, or whether it lays there dormant. You have to use it or it has no effect in your life.
Quotes:
 
God’s gifted all of us in certain ways. One of the ways God has gifted me is to take some pretty complex scriptural issues and make them really, really simple. So that’s what I’ve done in the book.
So my book, Reading Your Bible For All It’s Worth, has no chapter more than three to four pages, so you can pick it up anywhere, thumb through it and find a tip that will help you.
People are not going to read their Bible if they don’t enjoy it.
If we are going to find our significance and find our place where we can function in the Kingdom of God, we have to get into the word until the word gets into us.
When we get this awareness brought on by the Holy Spirit that we need to be born again, then it’s a simple matter of just receiving it.
Most people have a spot in their life where they really felt like God drew them. No man comes to the Father, unless He draws him. It’s not our doing, it is the Father’s doing through Jesus with the help of the Spirit. All we have to do is just cooperate with the plan of God.
References:
 
Romans 12:3
Romans 10:17
 
 
Take Away:
 
“Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). It’s only by us enjoying God’s word and desiring to grow and become what it says, are we going to mature and find our place to function in the Body of Christ.
 
 

Summary:Learning to read and grasping an understanding of the Bible opens up that ability to starthearing God’s voice, the reality of becoming one of God’s sons and coming to knowGod as Father, and not just about Him. So you can see how the Bible becomes thegateway to just about everything that God has for us.
 
Show Notes:• Andy explains how he started reading the Bible.• He prefers the book of John as a starting place because it refers quite a bit moreregarding the Father than the other three gospels.• Andy has made hearing from God a huge priority for many years.• He encourages beginners to not to read a lot at one time. Better to read just achapter at a time.• We are encouraged to meditate at times on the word, in that you just read to let itsink in a little.• Understanding that God is Father and starting to relate to Him as such sets everyother thing, both spiritual, and non spiritual in perfect perspective.
 
Quotes:• After being asked questions, I’d look in the Bible, I’d look, look, look, look, look.That’s how I learned my way around the Bible.• I think it’s really, really important that you get an early-on understanding of graceand the new covenant is that you start in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark,Luke and John, but first in the book of John. John refers to the Father quite a bitmore.• All scripture is given by inspiration from God.• I’ve never heard the audible voice of God, but that’s not the only way that Godspeaks. He’s got all kinds of ways of speaking to us. And one of the key ways isthe word of God.• The word says that the Holy Spirit is our teacher. And He lives in us. Hequickens and makes alive the words that we read• Prepare your heart, get in the moment and deal with the distractions.• When we hear God, you gotta at least assume that there’s more to it than what youfirst understand.• Learning to come into our sonship is one of the key elements of the Kingdom life.• A key thing in the kingdom life is learning that we’re a handpicked son, which isnot gender specific.• A key thing in the kingdom life is learning that we’re a handpicked son, which isnot gender specific.
 
References:Book by Dallas Willard, “Developing a Conversational Relationship with God”.Romans 8:14Acts 17:26Galatians 4:6
 
Take Away:Learning to read and grasping an understanding of the Bible opens up that ability to starthearing God’s voice, the reality of becoming one of God’s sons and coming to knowGod as Father, and not just about Him

Summary:
 
It’s having a relationship where you start to hear the voice of God, and the many ways that the Father can speak to you. It’s so important to set aside quiet time, where it’s just you and Him. There is no substitute for getting to know the Father through spending time with Him, to learn His voice.
 
 
Show Notes:
 
When we should make it a priority to spend time with the Lord. It’s just making time with Him and focusing on Him with no agenda.
When starting out having quiet times with the Father, it better to do it in short increments of time, where you can really focus on Him.
The more you practice these things, the easier it gets to get past the distractions and really focus on the Father.
In Philippians 4:8, it talks about meditating on things that are pure, lovely, noble right, admirable and excellent.
God can and does speak to us in so many different ways in including our circumstances, audibly, dreams, and visions,a word of wisdom and knowledge, but the two that stand out are that a small still voice and through God’s written Word.
When starting to read the Bible, you don’t have to read a lot. Find a place with some words that Jesus spoke would be great.
 
Quotes:
 
I don’t have a certain set time or day that I spend time with Him, but I do have some times during the week, several times during the week.
If we experience nothing more than His presence when spending time with the Father, that’s enough.
When reading the word, start with some of the words of Jesus would be great.
It’s always just you and Him. That’s the kind of commitment that God has made with us. And He’ll never leave us nor forsake us...
Don’t over try. Meditate, think and get in the moment and just listen. It’s simple.
 
References:
 
Philippians 4:8
Hebrews 13:5-6
Matthew 24:24
Proverbs 3:5
 
 
 
Take Away:
 
God is always here with us. It’s up to each of us to give Him time where He can speak to us and guide us every day. There is no substitute for getting to know the Father through spending time with Him, to learn His voice.
 
 

Summary:
 
Relating to God as Father brings you much closer to Him than just relating to Him as God up there somewhere. So many people have a conceptual knowing that God is a Father, but not nearly as many folks really know Him as Father. If we can get past the distractions and start spending time with Him, we will come to realize that the prize is not what God gives, but the prize is God Himself.
 
 
Show Notes:
 
There are many who had a dad who was not there or one who was critical toward them. God said that He would never leave us or forsake us and He is always good to us.
In Luke 11:1-2, “Our Father”, Jesus gives us permission to relate to God, just exactly like He relates to Him as Father. It’s something we should take full advantage of.
When spending time with the Father, the prize isn’t what God will give to you, but the real prize is God Himself.
 
Quotes:
 
God is not looking for a congregation, He’s looking for a family. If He is looking for something other than a family, He would have called Himself something other than a Father.
It’s just a gamble of trusting God as Father and calling Him Father, Dad, Daddy, whatever, just starting that process, and engaging in the relationship.
It’s a stretch for some, but it’s the only fix for fatherless people or an orphan mindset.
Somewhere along the way, as I read and studied, He began to reveal Himself as Father.
You don’t have to have had a good father to be a good father, but you don have to be a good son to be a good father.
There is no substitute for time with the Father. I’m going to the Lord with no agenda.
My time with the Father now, and all the revelation that is coming, is from sitting in my living room by myself with no agenda. I usually tell the Lord, “I don’t know anything.”
Let Him speak if that’s what He wants to, or let Him not speak if He doesn’t want to, but enjoy the presence of the Lord.
 
References
 
Hebrews 13:5
John 5:39-40
Luke 11:1-2
Psalms 34:8
Philippians 4:6
 
 
Take Away:
 
Learn to relate to God as Father, rather than a God who is somewhere out there who is not attainable. Coming into an intimate, close relationship with the Father becomes all that you ever really wanted out of your walk with God. It’s not what He gives to us that matters as much as what He becomes to us as we walk with Him.
 

Summary:
 
This is an introduction to the Kingdom Cowboy podcast and insight’s into Andy Taylor’s life. Andy talks about his
 
salvation experience, his rodeo career, and how real a walk with God is to him..
 
 
 
Show Notes:
 
Introduction to the Kingdom Cowboy Podcast with Andy Taylor.
Andy gives us insight’s into his salvation experience.
He tells stories about his rodeo career.
Andy has had many opportunities to speak into many of his rodeo friend’s lives.
The Word of God became very real to him by sitting around the kitchen table with his pastor.
As time went on God reveals Himself as Father to Andy.
 
 
Quotes:
 
...I felt the Lord dealing with me, so I walked all the way from the back row and the to the front and gave my life to the Lord.
I knew something happened. I didn’t know what and I’m still after all these years learning what happened to me…
So I had for 10 years between 1974 and 1984 what I would call a disposable relationship with the Lord. .
..Still crying and prayed this prayer word for word, “God if You’re out there, You got to help me”, and He did.
So I had opened the book and made myself a real student of the Word.
Pastor, I think the Lord’s calling me to preach. And in his deep voice he said, just forget it!
But along the way, within the next five or six years, the Lord began to show me who He was as a Father.
God is what He is, but Father who He is.
Knowing that He is Father is different knowing as Father.
 
Take Away:
 
Andy talks about his life, his rodeo career and how much God has meant to him as his Father.