The Miracle of Right Now: Finding the Father’s Heart in the Valley

“God is not a boss watching your every mistake; He is a Father who loves to hear you talk.”

After five decades of missionary work and pastoral leadership, Austin Gardner found himself in the fight of his life against Stage 4 cancer. But the greatest miracle wasn't just physical survival—it was a radical change of mind about who God is.

In this episode, Austin pulls back the curtain on his health battles and his theological shift from "Performance-Driven Christianity" to "Rest-Driven Faith." He shares how the darkest days of his life led to the sweetest fellowship he’s ever known.

Key Takeaways:

• Why we preach a "man-centered" Christianity and how to stop.
• The difference between being a servant and being a friend of God.
• How to live from grace rather than working for it.
• A reminder that you are the "Beloved" of the Father.

Connect with Austin:
Visit waustingardner.com for more resources, books, and mentorship opportunities.

Full Article: The Big Leap of Faith ➡️ https://waustingardner.com/the-big-leap-of-faith-believing-god-loves-you-exactly-as-you-are/

Daily Podcast: https://waustingardner.com/podcast/
Weekly Newsletter: https://followedbymercy.beehiiv.com/
Deep Dives on Substack: https://waustingardner.substack.com/

Connect with me:
Website: https://waustingardner.com/
X/Twitter: https://x.com/waustingardner

Ministries:
Alignment Ministries: https://alignmentministries.com
Sociedad de Mentores: https://sociedaddementores.com

Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

Transcript

Walking Prayers And Right Now

Austin Gardner 0:26

I'm excited to talk to you as I always am. I wanted to discuss with you the Father I Never Knew and talk to you about my miracle of life and grace. This is kind of the Austin Gardner story. I don't know how long I'll take today on this. Uh aiming for at least five minutes, that's all. But I'd like to talk to you about the miracle of right now. You see, I was out walking this morning. I don't make a long trip, but I go out for about five minutes and I do it all day long. About once an hour, I walk and I just talk to my father. I have found out that biblically, you know, he already knows what I'm going to ask for. He already knows what I need. He knows it before it can leave my mind to get to my mouth. He knows because he's my creator. But he loves to hear us talk because he loves us. And he it's the relationship with him that's important. And so I just talk. I just walk and talk out loud, just me and him. And he's listening. And uh here's what I really didn't expect to be here now. I thought I was going to die. I thought I would continue to get progressively worse from the cancer. You know, I have cancer. It's a pretty severe case of cancer. I mean, I've lost a testicle, both adrenal glands, and a kidney. And uh I thought, you know, and I would mean I a few years ago I was extremely sick. And uh, there were times I had diarrhea 15 times a day. I couldn't even make it through the day without messing my pants,

Cancer Survival As A Miracle

Austin Gardner 2:01

and and I was miserable. I was so exhausted, I could hardly move. And so my life is a miracle. It's a miracle, and I didn't see this miracle coming. So one of the things that's probably the greatest in my life right now is how I realized so I was so wrong about our father. Um, you know, uh, I grew up and I I didn't know at all that I was legalistic. I I would have, I did not always have. Um you see, all I knew was that at home I never measured up. And I I kind of felt like God had this uh thing like my dad did. You're doing good, maybe some rewards you're doing

Growing Up With A Scorecard God

Austin Gardner 2:50

bad, maybe some not. And I kind of lived with the idea I shouldn't preach on soul winning unless I've been out soul winning because God won't bless it if I do. And if I hadn't prayed as much as I ought to pray, God won't be happy about me preaching on praying. And it was always like tit for tat, trying to make sure I was pleasing uh God. No one, I'm not blaming anyone. I'm not leaving Christianity, that's for sure. I love God like I never have loved him before in my life. God is not letting me die, he's keeping me alive. And so I was walking, I just told him I said, Well, Lord, if you're not gonna take me, which there for days I woke up every day thinking this is the day, I will be gone. This is it. I'm there, I not long ago, I just I passed out. I just fell on the floor. It scared Betty, scared me. I was like, good night, what's happening? Just take me. If you're gonna take me, take me. But then I said, if you're gonna leave me, I'm just gonna start telling nobody how good you are and how wrong I've been. You realize we preach such a man-centered Christianity. It's always about what you're doing, what you're supposed to do, what's expected of you. Now we don't preach that about salvation. We're clear, we preach salvation is by grace, accept the gift. But once you get saved, you better. And buddy, we can preach it hard. The gospel is an announcement of what God did.

Grace First Ephesians Reframes Faith

Austin Gardner 4:16

I'm in the book of Ephesians where I'm preaching right now, two churches. It's amazing how he spends three chapters, and all it is is about how good God is. That's the entire story. God's done this for you, this for you, this for you, this for you, this for you. God's done this for you, this for you. Then in chapter four, God's given you gifts and and and all. And basically it's like, uh, well, why don't you just walk like who you are? Figure out who you are and walk like who you are. So Bible preaching is more about what he did that I don't deserve than what I'm supposed to be doing. Jesus died and was buried and rose again. It's about his work, not ours. It just kills me. I love it. In Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10, he makes this bold statement. Uh verse 8 and 9, he said, not by works of righteousness. That's Titus 3, 5, not by works of righteousness, which you have done. And he said, but in Ephesians 29, he said, not by works, but by grace. Because I don't want any of y'all bragging. And then in verse 10, he brags and says, actually, you're my work, I'm not your work. So we've spent too much time berating people from the pulpit. We've spent too much time, uh, you know, getting saved is a happy thing. Living saved is often not so happy. God's on a rescue mission to rescue us, and uh we're failures, and God's saving us and changing us. And so uh I have moved away from the God is a boss and God is a judge, God is a referee. I was almost like the eyes of the Lord are everywhere, watching you, they're beholding you. They see the good and they see the bad, and like God's watching you. He's not watching me. He is watching me. That's in the Bible, but that's Old Testament, New Testament, you're not watching me, he's living

From Judge To Abba Father

Austin Gardner 6:20

in me. So every move I make, every thought I have, he knows all of it. But he's uh I've I saw myself so long as a servant. But Jesus, I don't call y'all servants, I call y'all friends. Hmm, that's crazy. He calls us friends. He says, You don't just work for me, I love you. And you know, when Jesus is explaining how his father is, he talks about the older son, and the older son's like, uh, I'm not like the prodigal son that left and went drunk and wasted all your money. I'm your slave. That's the word he actually uses in the Greek. And you had to even let me have a kid to have a party, and you're a hard man. In a lot of ways, I think of a lot of us see God like that. We're like his servants, and we're always uh unworthy servants. We've not done enough. Or then we see him as a judge. He'll get you for that. What you fear will come on you, what you sow you'll reap. God's going to destroy you. But then I see him as a father, and I see him as Abba. And I think it totally radically changes the way I see God. And totally radically changed the way I even see myself. We're called to respond. Now let me say this: the Bible is very clear you ought to repent. But repent means a radical change of mind from thinking I know what I'm doing to knowing God knows what he's doing, to thinking I can make decisions, to knowing God can make decisions. It's a turning from me to a turning to him. We make it so much about sin, but you know what the major sin is in the Bible? Breaking fellowship with our father. Like the prodigal son did when he ran away. Well, he didn't run away, he just walked out with his daddy's money, went out and figured out a way to live like he wanted to. That's the epitome of sin, everyone going their own way. So we are called to a response, and we are called to get things right, and we are called to repent. There's no doubt about that. But the repentance is a radical change of mind. It's not just stopping sinning. We're so big on you, can't be doing that. It's a changing of your mind about who God is. And we're no longer employees. We're children of God. We're his child. None of us want our children living in guilt and fear. You know, dodging when your dad comes near, ducking, thinking you're gonna get hit. That would say something, wouldn't it? Your dad goes to lift his hand and you go to duck. We're not working for a paycheck, and we're not working to keep ourselves safe so God won't take us out. We're not trying to earn what he's given us. I went through a time in my life, I remember as a kid, I was being told, He's done so much for you. What are you gonna do for him? How are you gonna pay him back? You cannot pay him back. We're just recipients. And so you're gonna say, Yeah, but Austin, you've so much grace, you're not talking about how we're gonna live. But you see, we don't live to get the grace. We live different because we got the grace. We live from the grace. We live from the love. We live from what he's done. It's kind of like the slave girl getting married to the prince. She moved out of her old life and she takes off the old clothes and she puts on the new clothes and she changes the way she thinks. We see a lot of it, and it's illustrated in the story of Ruth and Boaz. You know, Ruth was uh basically, she's a Moabitist, so she's not in the people of God, and she's um

iving From Grace Not For It

Austin Gardner 10:06

poor, and life is over for her and for Noah, Naomi, if you think about it. They're widows, everything's gone, even lost the land. Boaz is gonna have to redeem it all, and and and so she goes from one day being a servant in the fields picking up what is left over and what's just accidentally dropped until he tells her to drop it on purpose. She goes from that position to being the wife of a great or famous rich man, a happy man. I mean, it was in love with Jesus, in love with God. And so we need to learn to believe who God is. I wish I could get across to you how we've got to change what we think about God. It's, it's, it, it, it's, it, it, it, it, it's one thing. I used to wake up and say, God, I know I'm no good. I know I blew it, I know I failed. I used to end every day saying, God, forgive me. I know I didn't live up to what I ought to today. And it's because uh it's because I looked at God differently. I I even think now I'm a dad and a granddad and a great-granddad, and I think about if my children were to come in and say, Dad, I'm no good, I stink. I know I don't live up to it. I would hate that. I want my children to feel loved and embraced. I want my children to know that I believe in them and I look to them. And you don't think our Heavenly Father does more than that? He actually makes the comment. You know, he makes the comment. He said, if your kid asked for bread, you wouldn't give him a rock. If he asked for fish, you wouldn't give him a snake. If you think you're a good parent, what don't you think I'm a better parent than that? Sure, he is. So we change our behavior in response to his mercy and his grace. We live a new life because we've experienced loving kindness. We have experienced God's sweetness. And holiness is being separated. You know, holiness, we we we've we've come to almost play a game about what holiness is. It's almost like it's the attitude of, I live pure. But holiness is separated unto God. And it's like a wife is holy to you. She is separated from all the other men to you. So I'm not going to quit. Until he takes me home, I'm going to tell you over and over until you're ready to shoot me that he loves you. And he is a good God. And I live in a miracle time. My body is a miracle. I'm physically a miracle, I'm emotionally a miracle. God is just doing great. But he's a better God than you think he is. You need to learn to trust your father. He has been with me through all of this, but the sweetest thing is I have gone through some of the worst times of my life and getting to be totally alone so I finally know who he is more than ever have. Hesed, loving kindness. It is God loving us and he loves you. Can I remind you that you were saved by grace and you know that? Can I remind you you can never live up to it? Actually, what you do is just yield and surrender. Give your life over and let him live through you. That's what we do. So I want to thank you for listening. But I was just walking and thinking about, I was just walking and thinking about, I don't know why you don't take me. I feel good today. I feel good most every day. People look at me and say, you don't look like you got cancer. I'm like, I know, I don't figure it out either. There was a time I was so tired I could already make it. And now by the time you hear this, I'll probably be in Utah. We'll go trip out, see a friend, preaching in church, and go see some of the Grand Canyon, things I've never done. God's just good. God's just good. So as I close, let me just say this to you. You have a father who loves you. He adores you. He looks at you and says, You're his beloved. You're his beloved. He says that he is very pleased with you. And he does that because we're in Christ and because Christ changed us. Because Jesus took all of our sin and put it on him. Our sin, past, present, and future. He put it on himself and he died on the cross.

You Are Beloved In Christ

Austin Gardner 14:24

Then he took all of his holiness, all of his perfectness, and put it on us. By the way, it wasn't like the Father was angry and Jesus paid our price. No, God was in Christ, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, and he loves you and he's paid the price. And so I just want you to know he loves you. I want to thank you for listening. Sometimes I don't know if anybody's listening, but I just want you to know that you are loved. And he doesn't expect anything from you except for you to receive his love. I usually would have said, you need to love God. You know, now I say you need to understand God loves you. Boy, it's harder to it's easier for me to love God than it is to accept that he loves me, isn't it? So you have a good day. And you meditate on this, that you are loved and adored by your Father. He cares about you. And he cares about you more than you care about your children. I love my children. I can't explain it. They are my life. God loves us. And he loves us more than that. Would you give us a like? Would you subscribe to the YouTube channel? Would you subscribe to the podcast? Would you share it with some other people? Would you leave me a comment? I'd love to hear from you. How do you think about the Father? Do you think he loves you? Do you think he loves you? He likes you? Do you? Let's talk about it. God bless you.