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
The Inheritance Beyond Our Failures: God's Unwavering Purpose
Have you ever wondered if your failures disqualified you from God’s plan? Maybe you’ve thought your mistakes derailed what He intended for your life. In this episode, we turn to Ephesians 1:11 and discover the freeing truth that God’s purpose for us isn’t built on our performance but on our position in Christ.
Robert Canfield and I talk about how God’s plan unfolds according to His will, not our ability to get everything right. When He adopts you into His family, He already has a destiny in mind, and no human failure can undo it. As Robert so beautifully says, “You cannot mess it up so bad that He can’t fix you, because He’s the one working in you.”
This is not permission to live carelessly. It’s an invitation to rest in the God who both begins and completes the work of redemption. From Adam and Eve to our own daily struggles, He has always been the one pursuing, restoring, and finishing what He starts.
We also look at the life-changing reality of our identity in Christ. You are chosen. You are accepted. You are reconciled and loved. The Father loves you as much as He loves His Son. That truth reshapes how we see our failures and empowers us to live from our true identity instead of our past.
If you’re carrying disappointment or just need a reminder that God’s purpose stands, this conversation will lift your hope and strengthen your faith.
Listen in as we talk about how God even takes what feels like “dirty diapers” in our lives and turns them into displays of His glory. And don’t miss tomorrow’s episode when David Gardner joins us to share how to live out the inheritance we’ve been given in Christ.
Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
Welcome to Follow by Mercy. And I have so had to have with me today, Robert Tenfield. God is working in our lives and growing us and that excites us. And today we are down to Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 11. I think we're going to move into another part of it. But Robert, I'm so glad you're helping me and we're working together to get this truth out.
RobertCanfield:It's my honor to be here. It's my honor to look that you guys would actually listen to a guy like me, and I thank you for letting me be on here, too. Let me be with you and host with you.
AustinGardner:It is a very great privilege. Ephesians 1.11 says, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance. We obtained it because of who we're in. We obtained it because of who we're in. And we are predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things at the council of his own will. You see, when you're in the family, they have a goal in mind. Now, let me let me just real quickly say, you know, my oldest son is 50 years old. My youngest son is just about to turn 40. And when they were born, I did have a plan. I had a plan that they would grow into adulthood, they'd know how to pay their bills and work a job and take care of their wife and take care of their husband and and live out the Christian life. And I worked towards a plan. But it wasn't as detailed as Christ, knowing.
RobertCanfield:Well, no, I think anybody that has anything that they love and they cherish, they have a plan for it. You know what I mean? So he has a plan. Yeah. And so he loves and cherishes us, and I know he has a plan for everyone that's listening today.
AustinGardner:And it's uh it's it's his own will, not yours. It's a counsel of his will. It's God in heaven saying, I'm I'm gonna do something with this guy. It's that abundant life that he promised us. Yes, it is. John 10 10. Well what he dug us out of a slimy pit of sin. Oh, yeah, and picked us up. We are all trophies of grace. It's like God looks in and said, What I can do with this.
RobertCanfield:Well, that's what he says at the end of the verse 11, right? He says that uh predestined accordance, the working of all things to his own will, verse 12, I'm sorry, that we should be praised of his glory.
AustinGardner:Yeah, he turns us in to the praise of his glory. That's fantastic. And it's all him. You don't earn it. He's got the plan. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden and rebelled and said they want to be who they want to be, they walked away. God reached down and said, I'm gonna get them back.
RobertCanfield:And he gave them a plan. He said, They're mine. He gave them a promise, I guess, of a plan, right? So that's what the promise was. It was promised that he was gonna produce a seed that would one day destroy the sin that's 315, that's right. And he was going to bring them something there. That condemnation was going to be wiped away.
AustinGardner:They were hiding, they were hiding in shame because when you're in Adam, you're in shame, and and they're trying to cover up what they've done. And he comes in, he says, I love you. That's right. By the way, it was always God love. Adam didn't go ask God, can I can we fix this?
RobertCanfield:Do you think I can do it? And he was he was not a God that was far away from them. He was looking for them. And he was and he invited them to see what he was going to do to bring and generate hope in them. That's what most people don't realize. That when you read the Old Testament and you see the scriptures of the Old Testament, that there's hope. That's why he's given us. He's giving us hope in this.
AustinGardner:And so in the middle of the chaos, in the middle of the destruction, in the middle of all the wicked stuff that everybody was doing, God gave hope.
RobertCanfield:Amen. And that's what he does. He's still doing it. That's who he is. And you know, I was talking to a guy, and he was something happened in his life. Something happened in his life that I don't know what happened, but it was he felt discouragement, despair. The words he said, I felt like nobody could, I know I'm no longer of any use. And this was a believer. And that's performance-based because God doesn't look at it that way.
AustinGardner:And I by the way, I don't care what you did yesterday, it don't matter what you did. That's behind you. We live in the now.
RobertCanfield:Yeah, and I don't know what I did, but I was there at the the place I was at, and I was talking and stuff like that. And he said, When I'm around you, he says, I feel like there's he can still use me. Oh, he can't. And I didn't. Can I say something? I I'm not I'm not boasting in what that says to me, but what I'm saying is that I don't know what I did. I have no clue. But something in and through me caused hope in that man's life. And I think that's what God does through all his believers. Like we are, we are the the that when when David is sitting down with the prophet Nathan and he's telling him all the things, you know what I mean, that that that he that he had planned for God. We are like Nathan that says, go and do it. Whatever's in thy heart, go and do it. And then I know in the story, God says, David, you can't do this, but I got something else for you. But the point is, is that in that I I heard a I heard one preacher say that uh one old preacher, he said, you know, we got to be more like Nathan to other believers, like bringing hope that, you know, yeah, go and do whatever God says. I'd rather be that than the guy that says, no, don't do this, don't do that, you've got to do this, this, and this. The guy that doesn't bring excitement and hope into people's lives. I think as born-again believers, that's what we do in encouraging and building people up.
AustinGardner:Yeah, I just want you to realize that no matter what you did, you failed yesterday. Listen to me. Girl, listen, you failed yesterday, but you are already forgiven, and you are not identified by your failures. God doesn't look at you and say, You blew it. God looks up and says, I already covered that up, already fixed that. I already repair by the way, there's no embarrassment of your father. He has already paid that debt. He doesn't want you lowering your head, he doesn't want you beating on your chest, he doesn't want you to talk about how bad a person you are. He wants you looking him in the face and saying, Thank you, Jesus, for cleaning up everything.
RobertCanfield:Well, that's he writes an entire book of people's failures and him's redemption. That's the whole story. Every human being's a failure. I think it was, I think it was Except for Pharisees. I don't know which president, yeah, except for the Pharisee, yeah, in their own mind, right? Legends in their own mind. I forget which president's wife stated that is, but she said, the world's worst day in history and the world's greatest day was only separated by three days. And that's a powerful thought whenever you think about that. Like the worst day and the greatest day was only separated by three days. And so what looked like was over, God in heaven comes down to earth and then is crucified in front of everybody, and everybody turns their back on. Three days later, now it's a day that we all remember and rejoice and we celebrate, and the whole world knows that Jesus resurrected from that sin and that death that he took upon himself, that he became, he overcame it, and we worship, we're like, praise God for that day because it brings hope into us, and that's what he has now. He still has a plan and he's still working through us, and it brings hope, it births hope in people.
AustinGardner:So God has a purpose for your life, and he never you cannot mess it up so bad that he can't fix you, because he's the one that's working in you. And uh, I want to remind you that he started the good work in you in Philippians 2 13. And the God that started it is the God that will finish it. And you messed up because you honestly think that God started it and I gotta finish it. Yeah, that is we want to pick up and do when God said, I started it, and I'll finish it. I like Hebrews 22. He said, Okay, I'm in Jesus, the author and the finisher. He said, I wrote the plan, I finished the plan.
RobertCanfield:You guys just accept the gift. I like how was it Colossians? He says in Colossians 2, he says, As you received him, so walk ye in him. So how did you receive God? Did you receive him like by working something, by him obtaining favor? Like, I mean, did you do something that was so great?
AustinGardner:Speaking of a gift.
RobertCanfield:Yeah. All I did was by faith. I trusted him and what he did on the process. And then, so how are you gonna walk out? I just live by faith, trusting in him that he's gonna work it out in my life.
AustinGardner:Yeah, I want you to, I want to give you a verse here. Questions chapter one and verse 29. Uh here, here's Paul uses the term because we do it work. I mean, we work is trying to get good Christians, but he said, I labor, striving according to his working. I I'm working at what he's working at, which worketh in me Bible. I really want you to take that home. That did that struck me most in Spanish, because in Spanish it says he uh he is acting powerfully, God is moving powerfully. So you might have messed up and you want to live holy, but you know why you want to live holy? Because he wants you to.
RobertCanfield:And so what he wants is what you want. Amen. And you brought up, was it was that 1 Corinthians 1 29, it labor working him. Another verse that I think about was 1 Corinthians 15 10, where Paul says, I am, but by the grace of God I am what I am. And his grace that was bestowed upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all. And then he ended the verse, he says, Yet not I, but it was the grace of God which was with me. So that whole time, it's always been God's grace working in and through us and gifting us, and it's always been that.
AustinGardner:Well, I want you to know that God is at work. Uh God is at work in our lives, and God is doing great things, and God is showing himself in major power in your life. And uh, I would like to realize that a way apart from him, John 15, 5, separate from him, uh, cut off from the the branch from the vine, you can do nothing. It is the Lord God working in you. And uh I hope that you're catching on to what we've said in Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 11. And that is that it's in Christ, and God has, let me tell you, you messed up, but that didn't change his plan. You boot your diaper, but he's gonna teach you to be body training. Amen. You fell down walking, but he's gonna teach you how to walk. You messed up in your Christian life, and you can live in that the rest of your life. You can wear a dirty diaper around your neck on the day you die, trying to say, look at me, I messed up, or you can just say, No, he let me through it all.
RobertCanfield:Or you could sit in the corner and beat yourself and say, I pooped my diaper, I pooped my diaper, woe was me, woe was me. Or you can realize that he takes those dirty diapers and he turns them into something glorious.
AustinGardner:And God's let me I you listen to me. You feel beat up today, you feel like because you did wrong, and you did wrong. No one is trying to justify that we failed. We failed, however, his forgiveness is bringing our failure. And you know how you identified we're in Ephesians 1. Can we go back over how you're identified? You're identified as a saint, as faithful, as chosen, as accepted, as reconciled. What else am I missing that's in there? Ephesians 1 is full of loved.
RobertCanfield:Does he say beloved?
AustinGardner:Yeah, you're loved. All of this, that's who you are. And right now, the father loves you as much as he loves the son. Nothing's changed. You can't mess it up. Amen. Well, I want to thank you for listening today. I'm going to take tomorrow, and uh we'll be joined by we'll be joined by uh David Gardner. We'll be joining Robert and I, and we will be talking about how to find in him how this inheritance that is mine. I live it out in my life. And so I can't wait for you to hear that from all of us. Thank you so much for listening. I've found it a great privilege that you listen to Follow by Mercy. God bless everyone of you.
