Followed By Mercy
The Followed By Mercy Podcast
Real Grace, Honest Hope
You might notice a new name and a fresh look, but the heart behind this podcast is the same. After years as the World Evangelism Podcast, I sensed God leading me to a deeper, more personal path centered on His relentless mercy and the kind of honest hope that can reach into every hurting place. That’s why this show is now called Followed By Mercy Podcast. The format may shift, and the tone may be a bit more personal, but my mission hasn’t changed: I still believe the world desperately needs to hear the good news of God’s love in Jesus Christ. You are welcome here if you’ve been with me from the beginning or just found us now.
What if God’s love is more personal, stubborn, and relentless than you ever imagined?
Welcome to The Followed By Mercy Podcast, where we get honest about pain, hope, and the kind of grace that finds you right where you are, five days a week. This isn’t about religious performance or church routines. It’s for anyone who’s ever felt worn out, unseen, or unsure if they belong in the story of God’s love. Every conversation is rooted in this reality: God loves you right now, just as you are, and He isn’t giving up on you.
Here’s what you’ll find in every episode:
Experience God’s Relentless Love
Every show starts by reminding you that the Shepherd knows your name, cares about your story, and isn’t offended by your failures or questions. This is personal—it’s about God’s unwavering affection for you.
Find Your Place in His Heart
Once you grasp how fiercely you’re loved, sharing that love with others doesn’t feel forced. It becomes the most natural thing in the world. Real grace overflows.
Prayer That Changes You
We pray together—not just for the world “out there,” but for the battles and hopes you’re carrying right now. These prayers are honest, rooted in Scripture, and meant for hearts that need a gentle touch from the Shepherd.
Discover Your Unique Role
Whether you’re called to go, give, serve, or show kindness in your corner of the world, God’s mercy meets you where you are. You’re not just a bystander. You are His beloved, invited into the story He’s writing.
When life knocks the wind out of you, this is a place to catch your breath. You’ll hear the encouragement that meets you on your hardest days, and your honest questions will be welcomed. No pretending, no heavy-handed advice—just the reminder that your Shepherd is right there with you, walking every step with you, even when you feel like giving up.
Why does this matter? Because some days, it feels like nobody sees you or cares what you’re going through. But the truth is, you have a Shepherd who never takes His eyes off you, lets you slip through the cracks, and never gives up on you. That kind of love can put you back on your feet, and it might be the hope someone else is waiting to see in you, too.
If you’re longing for more than just religious talk—if you want to know you’re not alone and that God’s mercy is following you all the way home, you’re in the right place. Whether you listen in the car, on a walk, or in a quiet moment, let every episode remind you: God’s mercy is after you right now, ready to bring real grace and honest hope.
Subscribe today and join a community to discover what happens when loved people become loving people. The journey’s just beginning, and there’s a place for you here.
Followed By Mercy
Seeing Beyond the True to the Truth
Have you ever felt boxed in by your circumstances, like the pain and problems in front of you are all you can see? If you’re nodding your head, you’re in good company. In this episode, we’re talking about what it means to look beyond what’s obvious, to see past the immediate facts, and to discover a deeper, unshakable truth.
There is a difference between what’s happening in your life and what’s ultimately real. Your struggles, your disappointments, and even the betrayals you’ve faced are real. I would never tell you to deny that. But that’s not the end of your story. The Bible recounts many people who faced the raw, gritty reality of pain yet still found unshakeable hope.
Take David, for example. While running for his life, betrayed by his own son Absalom, David could have given in to despair. Yet, in those darkest nights, he wrote Psalm 23, anchoring his heart not to the chaos around him but to the unchanging goodness of God. Or think of Joseph, thrown into a pit by his brothers and sold as a slave, enduring years of injustice and isolation. Thirteen years later, Joseph saw that what others meant for evil, God was weaving into something good and purposeful.
This isn’t some shallow call to pretend everything is okay when it is not. It is not about stuffing your pain down or putting on a smiling face. We are talking about spiritual vision—the kind that admits you are in a valley but refuses to lose sight of the Shepherd walking right beside you. You have a choice. You can keep staring at the pit or start looking for the purpose. God promised to walk through trouble with us, though He never promised to spare us from it.
Let me ask you this: What if you stopped letting others write your story based on what happened to you and instead started living according to the identity God gives you? What if you could trust that even now when the picture is unfinished and the paint is still wet, the Artist has not put down His brush? Whether your pain comes from illness, broken dreams, strained relationships, or the secret battles nobody else sees, there is a deeper truth holding you steady.
Your present trouble is not the sum of your life. God is not done. The brush is still moving, and there is more to your story than you see now. That is not just a hopeful thought. It is the truth that holds you when everything else falls apart.
In this episode, you will hear stories from Scripture and real life that show what happens when people dare to trust God for what they cannot yet see. I challenge you to name what is true about your situation and then ask, “What is the deeper truth God wants me to see?” It is about embracing the Shepherd more than the shadows, finding purpose even in the pit, and learning to see brokenness as where healing begins.
If your heart is heavy or you feel stuck, this message is for you. This message reminds you that your story is not over and that God never wastes hope. Remind someone that their life offers more than their present pain.
Thanks for listening and for letting me walk alongside you. I pray this episode gives you real courage to trust the One who is still painting your story.
Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
I hope that you are getting straight how you think. I hope that you're learning to look at what the Bible would say and not about what you perceive. And that brings me to the point of today's thoughts and meditation that you and I can work through. I call this seeing beyond the true to the truth, beyond what's true to what is the truth. True and truth are not necessarily the same thing. What's true is what's on the surface, the immediate, the tangible. But truth is deeper. It's eternal, it's unshakable. What's true can change, but the truth never changes. So I want you to think through life with me. See, life can be brutal Pain, loss, betrayal, hardship. They're real, they hit hard, they leave scars and can break even the strongest among us. It's easy to get caught up in what's happening and to see only the harsh realities of now or the wounds of the past. No one's asking you to deny what's true. The sufferings you've endured, the injustices, the broken dreams are real. But there's something deeper than what's true. There's the truth. You see, true is different than truth. Let's get it straight. They're not the same.
Austin Gardner:What's true is on the surface, it's the immediate, it's what's happening. Truth is well beyond that. Absalom's army is ready to attack. They have run King David out of the kingdom. He has slept with King David's wives. He has publicly humiliated him, calling him all sorts of names, telling people he was not a good king and he wasn't interested. That's all true. But David saw something beyond what was true. He saw something beyond his circumstances, beyond what he was suffering, beyond what was true. He saw something beyond his circumstances, beyond what he was suffering, beyond what was happening. He saw truth. That truth is the 23rd Psalm the Lord is my shepherd. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want and he goes all the way through that. The truth, beyond what was happening, was that God had delivered him in the past from lions and bears and giants, and they weren't gone. It wasn't like they're happening no more. It's just that he could see beyond what's immediately dangerous. He could see, beyond the betrayal to the truth, that God is in control. He wasn't blind to the threat. He just knew that what's true isn't all there is. It's true.
Austin Gardner:Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery, they betrayed him, they falsely accused him or actually Potiphar's wife did and they left him to rot in prison. He spent 13 years suffering. That could have left him bitter and broken and done for. But it didn't, because Joseph didn't see what was true. He saw what was truth. God was with him. God was for him, even if he was in the pit, even if he was in the prison. Joseph told his brothers later you know, you guys meant to hurt me, but God meant it for good. That's not denial, it's seeing beyond.
Austin Gardner:Now, what are you going through right now? What are you suffering right now? I know you're hurting. I know that maybe you've gotten a bad medical report. I know that maybe your church and ministry aren't doing as well as you had dreamed of and as well as you had hoped. And I know that there's something screaming inside sometimes that God's not pleased with you.
Austin Gardner:But let's get beyond that to what's true. You see, the Bible's not asking us to deny reality. It's just asking us to see beyond reality. Nobody's asking you to pretend. It's not about faking it or shutting your eyes to pain.
Austin Gardner:Bad things happen, people fail you, life turns upside down. All that's true. But if you stop there, you'll miss everything God is doing beneath the surface. See, god never promised us a life free of trouble. He promised his presence in the middle of it. The truth is not everything's fine, but the truth is that God is working, even in the mess. Not all things, not in some things. In all things, in all things, god will be at work.
Austin Gardner:I could stop here and give you story after story. It's true that Elisha is surrounded by great armies of enemies that are attacking him, but he sees beyond to the truth that God is with him and protecting him. It is true that they are giants, massively larger, and they do see the Israelites as grasshoppers, but Joshua and Caleb saw beyond that, that God was with them and God was going to take care of them. It doesn't matter what you see with your eye. It matters what's beyond that, that you can only see with the eye of faith. You see, you've got to understand. It's beyond what you can see. It's beyond what you understand. It's beyond all of that. You got a choice. You can stick in the past. You can be anchored to your pain, you can hold on to the bitterness and regret, or you can move forward into what God has for you. Pull up the anchor, get out. You aren't meant to stay in the storm. God has made something out of the wreckage and you will be able to see beyond.
Austin Gardner:Yes, I know you have experienced abuse. I know someone abandons you. I know you're struggling financially. I know it's scary to hear the doctor talk. That's all true. But that doesn't define you, who you are in. Christ defines you. He calls you beloved, loved. God calls you his. He calls you the redeemed. That's the truth. Your past doesn't have to hold you and your present doesn't have to trap you. God isn't done. All things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose. You know that, being confident of this very thing, that he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. He's not leaving you halfway. God's not done shaping you, using you, loving you. Don't stop at what's true. Press on to the truth, press on to the truth, press on to the truth.
Austin Gardner:You know, abraham spent years wanting a son, promised a son, and the truth was that sarah was too old. The truth was he was never going to have children. It looked that way anyway. But he saw beyond the truth, beyond true to truth. He saw that god would give him a son when God told him to sacrifice his son. He saw beyond the truth. To the truth. He said even if I had to sacrifice him, god would raise him up. He was seeing beyond. That's what God's calling you to do See beyond what's happening.
Austin Gardner:God is not asking you to run from reality. He's not asking you to deny reality. David wrote even though I walked through the valley of the shadow of death, he saw the danger, but above the danger he saw the shepherd. Joseph didn't forget what his brothers did, he just saw God's hand in it. He rose from slave to ruler because he didn't let the true blind him to the truth. You can see the valley or you can see the shepherd. You can see the pit or you can find the purpose.
Austin Gardner:Faith isn't blind, it just sees beyond. Faith doesn't recognize or excuse me, doesn't ignore reality. It sees beyond it. It sees the deeper reality of God's presence, his power, his promise. Faith is what you have, that you walk through the fire and believe that you won't be burned, not because the fire isn't real, but because God is bigger. You can know this.
Austin Gardner:God never wastes pain. He never abandons his people. What others mean to harm you, god will turn to good. But you have to trust that the story isn't over yet. So refuse to settle for less. Don't settle for what's true. Don't get stuck in facts. Get stuck in faith when the truth is still unfolding.
Austin Gardner:God's truth is bigger than the circumstances, stronger than your pain, deeper than your fear. You are not what happened to you. You are not the mistake, the failure, the victim. God's declaration determines who you are. You are loved, called, chosen, held. Let go of the bitterness, release your fear. Let go of the false belief that your life is defined by what's been done to you. That's not true.
Austin Gardner:Love and hope. Beyond the hurt, it's not naive to have hope. Hope sees the brokenness but believes in healing. Hope sees death but believes in healing. Hope sees death but believes in resurrection. Hope sees a cross, but it believes to see and hopes to see an empty tomb.
Austin Gardner:This is not about ignoring your pain. It's about refusing to be ruled by your pain. It's about lifting your eyes higher, seeing beyond what's true, to the truth of who God is and what he's doing. The deepest truth that you can learn is God loves you. He never leaves you. That's the foundation and it will not change. When everything falls apart, when people betray you, when dreams die, his love stands. You may not see the full picture yet, but you can trust the artist. He's still painting, the brush hasn't stopped moving.
Austin Gardner:So see beyond what's true to the truth. Live by faith and not by sight. Hold on to God's promises when everything else around you is saying something different. Believe in the light, even when you're in the dark. Don't get stuck. Don't cling to what's familiar. Be trusting God, who called you and sees beyond. So lift your eyes. See beyond the betrayal to the blessing, beyond the loss to the gain. See beyond the sorrow to the joy. See beyond the truth to the truth, because the truth is God's not finished with you and that changes everything.
Austin Gardner:So in Psalm 23, you know what you have. You have David saying I know they're about to kill me, I know it seems to be over, but God did promise. And I see beyond that and I will focus on the Lord is my shepherd. I call you to go to that very spot. I call you to think like that so that you'll have it square in your mind. You'll have it square in your heart what God is doing with you at this very instant. I love you. Thank you for listening. I hope it's encouraged you Share it with somebody today.
