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
You're Not Who You Were: Understanding Your Identity in Christ
Imagine switching family lines, moving from an inheritance of death to an inheritance of life. That’s the transformation that takes place when we move from being “in Adam” to being “in Christ.”
In this episode of Followed by Mercy, we look at Ephesians 1:11 and discover the incredible truth of our inheritance in Christ. Being part of Adam’s family meant we inherited sin, guilt, and separation from God. But through faith in Jesus, we are born again into a new family and receive a completely different inheritance: righteousness, peace, acceptance, and eternal life.
Romans 5 and 1 Corinthians 15 remind us that it’s not about what we do, but about whose family we belong to. God’s love doesn’t rise and fall with our performance. Like a good Father, He loves us because of who He is, not because of what we achieve.
This truth frees us from the exhausting burden of trying to earn what is already ours. You are God’s beloved child, and your inheritance in Christ is secure. All that remains is to live out of the identity you’ve already been given.
Listen in and be encouraged to stop striving, rest in God’s love, and walk in the inheritance of life that is yours in Jesus.
Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
Well, welcome back to Follow by Mercy. I've got to quit saying well. I said that old time. Every time I start up, and I got uh I got kind of laughed at about that one time. But anyway, I'm sure glad to have you here. Anything good that we are followed by mercy. Uh, you know, I that comes from surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. And when David was on the run, and Jonathan and his best, excuse me, uh his son Absalom and his best friend uh Heathhophel are out to kill him. Instead of being followed by Heathhophela and by Absalom, he said, I'm followed by goodness and mercy. And that's where you live. Whether you realize or not, you're not being followed by bad circumstances. You're being followed by a God who loves you and cares about you all the time. Now, Robert, we Robert Canfield's with me again today. Thank the Lord. What a great co-host. And we're in Ephesians chapter one, and we're we're gonna go into uh verse 11 today and talk about it just a little bit in the inheritance that we have in Christ. But already coming through Ephesians chapter one, you have seen great and wonderful things. Um let you jump in and say some of the things if you'd like to, Robert. Now we'll just battle back and forth. What you got?
Robert:Well, no, I think you talk about inheritance back there.
Austin:So let's let's bring us up to the point where we are. Paul's writing to saints and faithful. Amen. Can help them understand what that means.
Robert:So a faithful and a saint is not something, it's not a title that we obtain through works of ourselves. It's a title that's been given to us through what Jesus has already done.
Austin:And see, it's like it's like this. It's like when I write a letter back in the day, Betty and I were dating uh uh almost 53 years ago. I used to write her letters, and I'd say, dear Betty, dear hot shot. That's that is what I called her. And and so when Paul writes this letter, this isn't the greeting. Paul just said, that's who you are. And by the way, uh I made this comment uh not long ago. Uh, you know the name you carry, you didn't pick that name, you didn't earn that name. That's right. Your mom and dad, Scott and Risa, they called you Robert. When you were born, now you tell me I'm Robert. Well, you're only Robert because somebody told you you were. They made me that. Huh? They made me that. They made you that, they told you that, and they gave you that. You didn't earn it. That's right. It's not it's not yours because they didn't, when you were born, they didn't say Robert. Uh well, they didn't say baby, if you'll do this, this, and this, we'll call you Robert. But now it is, we're gonna call you something else. That's right. And so here we're being called saints and faithful. And and and and you've been, we have been blessed with all spiritual blessings. We have been chosen in him, and he has chosen us to make us holy and without blame. He makes us holy and without blame, and he is predestined to the day. He is going to recognize us publicly as his son. He has made us accepted in the blood of he we have been redeemed. And now we get down to the verse 11. Go ahead. What were you going to start?
Robert:No, there's the word, he says that we have obtained inheritance. You know, inheritance, he uses it three times in this one passage in this in this chapter. He goes over inheritance. He talks about you have we have obtained an inheritance. So it's not something we're looking forward to, but right now it's even something given to us. And he states what he's given to us. We that do it. Why do you give an inheritance? Because somebody who has acquired something or has something has now given me something. You don't earn it? It's when when when Scott and Reese have, whatever they have, whatever they've accumulated over their entire life. Well, we divide it up between you three. That's right. Unless they leave you out of the will. I don't think so. I hope not.
Austin:Okay. And so they're gonna give you all that. What did you do to earn it? I was just born in their family. Excuse me? I was just born in their family. Are you telling me you didn't have to do stuff to get it? No, I'm I'm their child. And because you're their child, they give you their inheritance.
Robert:You know, I have I've got two, I've got three daughters. I've got two that were born into my family, one that we've adopted. And you know what I tell them, all three of them? I said, when I'm done, each one of you guys get a third. And they're like, I third one. Exactly, exactly. But like that, but that's the point, though. I have two that were born naturally, and we have one that's adopted, but you know what? They're all my kids. That's right.
Austin:And I think, and they get even portions. Now, what I want to kind of walk us through, and everybody's listening, Robert, is I want to go to Romans chapter 5. Okay. And in Romans chapter 5, verse 15 and following, uh, you know, I'm saying you're looking at a Spanish outline, something I preached in Spanish church. But why do people die? Why do people why are people died separated from God? Why is that?
Robert:Because they were they got the inheritance from Adam.
Austin:That's right. And it's the transgression of one, it's the sin of one in verse 15, and for that one, so many of us die. But then God does something beautiful, he makes another family. It's about the grace and the gift of God, a new man, Jesus Christ. And it says in verse 16, do you have Romans 5, 16, 95?
Robert:What's it say? It says, not, and not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift. For the judgment. So is the gift, just like Adam. How did you say you were born in to a sinner family? It was a wonderful gift that's a horrible gift that Adam gave me.
Austin:It's that's the inheritance. And you know what? You are you are so much, we are so much like our father, and our father, Noah, and and Adam, and everybody else on the planet, we're like them. We inherited their traits, their willfulness, their rebellion, their do it my way. Go ahead.
Robert:No, I mean, I love Romans chapter 5, because you're in the part and you're talking about how Adam, it's just that it's an illustration of a truth that that Paul's already given. And he's talking about how in Adam there's death and there's condemnation and judgment in Adam. In Adam, and like there's a feeling of guilt and and like I can't do it, um, uh fear, all that stuff. But now in Christ, we have this grace. We have this grace.
Austin:Go ahead and read the rest part of verse 15. What's it say?
Robert:Uh verse part of the first uh, where were you? I was in um was it 17? 16. Was I 16? Um so is the gift, for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification. So in Adam, that gift that is given brings condemnation. Death, separation of God, rebellion, willfulness, world system. Now, and this this this gift that Jesus now offers in comparison, it brings justification.
Austin:Well, in verse 17, we'll read that in just a second, but uh, you need to understand in Adam, death reigns. That's right. Everybody in Adam dies.
Robert:That's why everywhere we go, there's a grain field. Go ahead. No. And so, like that justification, I think it's it's a word that we all need to know. It's a it's a big word. It's like uh a word that people use. Being made righteous. Yeah, and uh I people say being made righteous. I've I've heard it defined as being declared righteous. And I kind of like the word being declared righteous because it's not me declaring my own righteousness.
Austin:Yeah.
Robert:I mean, it's the God of heaven saying 2 Corinthians 5.21, what's that say? 521, it says, uh we who He made us right, the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. So it is in declaring, but he makes us righteous, not by what we do, by what he declares. Well, and he makes us. And I love because when I think declare, this is just for personal, this has nothing to do, but this is just me. Every, if God declares it, does it happen? Like in the beginning, when he spoke light, did it come to about sure. When he told the the land to come out of the sea, he used his words and he declared it, he spoke it, and it happened. And I always, and my my my Christian by lawyer's mind, every time he says something, I remember the the centurion that comes to him and he says, All you have to do is just but speak the words, it's gonna happen.
Austin:Amen.
Robert:And so I that's that's that's for me. But that's for me. And everything he says, it comes to truth.
Austin:Okay, and so in Adam all died, and Christ all live. In Adam all died, and Christ won't live. So it's it's really a question of what family you're in.
Robert:Would you go ahead? No, and that justification brings about a whole bunch of stuff because he says earlier in the chapter, he says, we're justified by faith, and we have peace. With Adam, it's a grace and peace. And this is crazy because he's gonna even talk about grace and Adam, it brought condemnation, guilt, strife, fear, hard work. With justification, it brings peace. And it says this, by whom also verse 2, too, in in Romans 5, he says this we have access by faith unto the grace wherein we stand. Yeah, that's a good point, too, by the way. We stand in it. It's like we have total acceptance, we just live in it. Yeah, and like see, you live in the family. Oh, you and you think about this. That's that's what that's what Jesus does. That's the inheritance that we get. And you think the inheritance that the law has, you think about like things that when the law was given in Exodus 19, what did Moses tell the people to put around the base of the of the mountain?
Austin:Put a fence out there.
Robert:Why was that? Keep them away. Because as soon as they touched foot in it, they were to be dead. They're stoned to death or died, right? And who was meeting with Moses on that mountain? It was God. And what was God giving? The law. And the law brings what condemnation. That's right. And it brings a sense of like, I can't do, I can't do. But when God brings Jesus, God in the flesh, down to the earth, and now he offers us a righteousness that we can't obtain through our own works, but only through faith, he says, Let's remove those boundaries. You just come to me. You can you can come before the throne of grace where you can get that mercy in time of need. Like it's like everything's been removed, and then in this heritage that we now have, it's not that it's not that we can come and say, God, God, you do you think I could come before you? Yeah, we're not earning we're we're not making a checklist.
Austin:No, but I thought I do want to read verse 19. Go for it. I'm sorry. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. When you are in and you are made a sinner, you say, I didn't say it. I don't know why it's like that. Because it's the family we were born in. So by the obedience of one, shall many of you make righteous. It's again, I don't earn my righteousness. I didn't earn my beginning sinners. I was made in sin.
Robert:And so your inheritance is righteousness, and with that righteousness comes grace and holiness and joy.
Austin:Everything we've actually gone over in Ephesians 1 is all a part of the righteous.
Robert:Oh, our it's our inheritance. That's what that's what we obtain. And we we don't have, it's not that we're asking him for it. He says you stand in it, you're in it. You have every right to claim it. That's part of your inheritance, that's part of what you get with being with the family.
Austin:Okay, I really want our listeners to understand that see, it's not about who you are, it's or or what you do. It is who you are because what family you're born in. You know, we were all born in Adam. We're born again in Christ. And so everybody needs to understand it does come down to what you are given. I want to I'm gonna I'm gonna take this over to first King's 15 here in a second, but let me I'm gonna throw this at you. Now, Kelly was a Perkins. I remember that. I was at your room.
Robert:You were, you're part of it.
Austin:Uh and I I would just say to you, um, is she is she a Perkins now or a Canfield? No, she's a Canfield. And how long has she been a Canfield?
Robert:This year we're coming up on 18 years.
Austin:And you know, here's the deal. When you married her, she was a Perkins. But her name was changed, and she didn't earn it. And you didn't earn her, she didn't earn you. It was both love that brought that together. But you know what? As as she has been in the Canfield family, just living, she had it affects you. When you know your family and you love your family, it changes you. And so Kelly, I know Kelly Kenfield. I don't kill her, because I remember she's Kelly Canfield, and she's just like you. It's four things. But my point being, I'm in Christ now. When I was in Adam and I was in that old man, that was one thing, but I'm in Christ now. And I have a new life, and I want to know about my dad, my father, and I want to be like him.
Robert:Amen. And that's that part of that new life is total acceptance. It is grace, it is rejoicing, it is it is uh it is a life that's filled with the Holy Spirit who now generates his own fruit in and through us. I mean, that's what that's we're we are sealed by him. And now he's we're waiting. We are being predestinated. That's that's really weird. You talked about the inheritance. We're being predestinated. Like in the moment, we are being changed and conformed and made.
Austin:Well, predestined, by the way, shouldn't it doesn't need to be a scary thing. You're about to build a house. Yes, sir. Predestined is you got a plan and you're working a plan.
Robert:Oh, yeah.
Austin:And well, so when you're building this, do you already have uh a house? No, but you got house plans. Yeah.
Robert:As long as the government tells me I can do it.
Austin:Yep. And so the whole deal is you have a plan, you know exactly what this house is gonna look like. Do you know when it's gonna look like? Yes, I do. And and say you're predestined doesn't mean that God said, I'm gonna send you to hell, send you to heaven. It just means when you're in him, he's got a plan to get you to fulfill his purpose. We'll get to that in a minute because we've got a break for today. But I want to go to 1 Corinthians 15, and I want to get through this part about the fact that we're in Christ. And in Ephesians chapter 1, over and over you're seeing in Christ, in him, in Christ. But in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, it makes it a little bit more clear. There was a first Adam and a last Adam. A new Adam, a second atom. There was a first, uh uh, what's it say? If you got first Corinthians 15, 45, open there over.
Robert:I got 45. Okay, go. It says, and so it is written that the first Adam was made a living soul. The last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit, you want me to keep on going? Yeah, go read verse 46. Howbeit, that was not the first, which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. So we were natural first, Adam, we're spiritual second, Christ. The first man is of the earth, earthy. The second man is of the earth, the second man is the Lord from heaven, Jesus. As the earthy, such are they that are earthy. So if you're in Adam's family, you act like Adam. Yeah, you are. As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And so if if you're in Jesus, you sort of act like Jesus. Keep going. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, so shall also bear the image of the earth.
Austin:And so he is in the process of taking us all the way through to being conformed to the very image of Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 8, verse 29. Verse 49 said, we have born the image of the earthly. And in verse 50, he said, and guys, flesh and blood does not get into heaven. That's right. And so we gotta be in Christ. Now we're gonna break for today, and and we'll be back tomorrow. But I need you to understand something. Robert, you can go ahead and make some further comments. But in in Adam, you've got an inheritance. Death and shame and hatred in Christ, you've got an inheritance, life, and victory, and love in Christ. And so you need to understand it's not about what you do, but it's about who you're in. You want to say word for that?
Robert:No, that's that's that's the inheritance, that's a great truth. That it took me a while. And I didn't get it at the time of my salvation when the Lord's worked and he revealed himself to me, but something that he's grown me in and showed me that it's not about what I do. And whenever we do the the doing part, it brings just only condemnation and more frustration.
Austin:Because you can never, ever do enough. And everybody, if you're listening, as long as you can't live by to do this, get you here while it's gonna blow people's eyes. You think this until you're reading your Bible, God loves them just as much. That's right. And if they read double one day, he still knows when you say them out. Because his love doesn't change. By the way, let's not strange. When your baby messed a diaper, you didn't love the baby less.
Robert:That's right.
Austin:And when the baby got body trained, you didn't love it more. That's right. Because the love is not based on what the person's doing, it's based on the character of the lover. And our God is love. And I'm his child. I am his child.
Robert:And he made that.
Austin:And what is this in 1 John 3 1? Man, can you believe what a wonderful thing that he would call us the children of God?
Robert:You got I'm popping it up.
Austin:1 John 3 1.
Robert:Uh I'm saving this thing to God. Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us. He, you know, that he would call us. That he should call, that we should, that we should be called the sons of God.
Austin:Can you imagine that? He loves you. So I'm glad you're with us on Followed by Mercy. You are Father by Mercy. And I want you to know you're in a new family. Live like it. Just be who you are. Just let Jesus be Jesus in you. He's living in you. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. You're not I, but Christ lives in me. The life which I live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It's all Jesus living in us. The Father loves you, Jesus is living and working in you. I pray you'd keep on. Now, tomorrow we'll be back with a little bit more about what it means to be in Christ and take this inheritance a little bit. Thank you so very much.
