Running with Horses: Navigating the Times

0:00:00 – (Steve Gray): Many Americans find themselves worn out by life and broke and trying to make ends meet and get through the holidays and do, you know, pay all the bills. If that’s you, I’m going to teach you how to run faster and faster and faster on the next More Faith, More Life podcast. Hello, everybody, and welcome again to another More Faith, More Life podcast. So glad we could be together along with my wife, Kathy. Kathy Gray’s with us again today, and she’s going to be helping us get through some very, very important things.

0:00:29 – (Steve Gray): You are in a, you are a history maker, whether you know it or not, Kathy, people are history makers. You know, I’ve said this before, when people are making history, they don’t say, I’m making history, you know, and so, and I don’t know how people feel this many years later about the it became a movie. But originally, remember when Jesus Christ Superstar came out and it was just music at the time, and it was big controversy like that. But one of my favorite lines in it, and I, I wasn’t a Christian when I first heard it, so I got to tell you what it did to me as one God was working on it, was pretty good for me and actually playing the part of Jesus later for me. But anyway, one of the lines, and if I get it right, is the apostles are singing about what’s going on and everything, and they drink this wine and what’s happening to us, we’re falling asleep. And then they tell that. And then when we retire, we’ll write the Bible and they’ll all think about us when we’ve died.

0:01:32 – (Steve Gray): And I think, you know, of course, that’s a ridiculous line. It’s clever because obviously they don’t realize they’re going to write the Bible when it happened. But we don’t realize we’re making history. And I don’t mean just us, all of us in a tremendous time of cultural shift.

0:01:47 – (Kathy Gray): Yes.

0:01:48 – (Steve Gray): And you and I were big time right in the middle of a culture shift because we got to see it as it was. We got to be in the middle of it and then particularly me, but we got to walk out a culture shift. And you want to talk about that a minute? I mean, you and me, we’re going to talk about something else, but can.

0:02:11 – (Kathy Gray): We just talk about that culture? Yeah, let’s talk about that culture shift.

0:02:14 – (Steve Gray): Okay. So I have an older sister, you’re the oldest in your family of kids, but I have an older sister. I have two older sisters, but the one several years older. And so the culture in the nineteen early sixties, when we were just very young, grade school, you know, first, second, kindergarten, you know, third grade. It was different. Right. In the early 60s and it was still 1950s oriented home. And I don’t know, it was safe and it was different.

0:02:46 – (Steve Gray): Well then in 1963, of course, two things happened, significant when John F. Kennedy was assassinated, along then later with the other assassinations. But that started it. It changed our country and it felt different, especially that day, but it also kicked in. Oh, and also there was the Bay of Pigs incident where people. We almost got into a nuclear war with Russia. And at that time then, remember kids and some adults and young adults got the idea we’re all going to be blown up anyway, so our attitude about life is going to change. And we had new phrases come up and one of them was this, if it feels right, do it. If it feels good, do it.

0:03:32 – (Steve Gray): If it doesn’t hurt anybody else, do it. And all of a sudden culture began to change. And then you and I had a wonderful talk just two weeks. In the last two weeks, we, so we. So 1963, President Kennedy’s killed. We’re almost in a nuclear war, really. And then you turned on the Ed Sullivan show in. It was 63, wasn’t it?

0:03:58 – (Kathy Gray): I believe it was. I don’t think it was 62.

0:04:00 – (Steve Gray): I think it was 63.

0:04:01 – (Kathy Gray): Yes, that was a cultural shift for.

0:04:03 – (Steve Gray): It was either right before he was assassinated or after.

0:04:05 – (Kathy Gray): So it’s all happening right? Right. In that whole shifting time. Yes. Well, the Beatles came to America and they were on Ed Sullivan. And so I was about 10 and my sister 8, and we had never even heard of the Beatles. I mean, we’re just little girls, you know, but so we turned on our old black and white TV along with the blonde.

0:04:30 – (Steve Gray): Or the rest of the country, all of.

0:04:32 – (Kathy Gray): All of America. And they were, they came on and they started singing and all the girls in the audience there were screaming real loud and everything. And you know what? The minute all those girls started screaming, my sister and I started screaming and just jumping up and down and screaming our heads off. And we had no understanding why in the world are we doing this? But we couldn’t stop. But it was just something about history was being made right there, right then in music and in the hearts of, you know, fans.

0:05:07 – (Kathy Gray): And we just jumped right into it. We got swept into that cultural shift. We didn’t stop to think, we just screamed into it.

0:05:16 – (Steve Gray): Remember a funny thing about Ed Sullivan, which only old people will remember. He. He had so many famous people, but he couldn’t say the word Beatles. Really Beatles.

0:05:25 – (Kathy Gray): The Beatles.

0:05:25 – (Steve Gray): But anyway that’s hilarious. And then they went to the stadiums. My sister went to Kansas City and saw me. Well here in Kansas City when they went and came to the stadium. But from there you remember they had long hair, they dressed differently. Other groups were starting to do the same thing. And then they start working into songs and then TV shows moral changes which were unacceptable in our time. We would call it immoral but we alternate lifestyle starting acceptance.

0:05:59 – (Steve Gray): There’s some good came out because they did work on some of the racist, racist attitudes that prevailed on tv. But all the humorous sitcoms it all changed to liberal, liberal, liberal, liberal. And it’s just increased, increased. And then of course later everybody’s hair got a lot longer, including mine. And then drugs began to be talked about, then drugs began to be used about and things just start changing. Now what happened was a liberal agenda cultural shift came.

0:06:29 – (Steve Gray): We still had non liberal people. Churches still survived conservatives but there was a huge switch and then the protest to the Vietnam War became part of that liberal theology, liberal ideas. Yeah, well that is now that liberalism that started back then when you were in whatever first grade, whenever or the Beatles came on that started is what is still that liberalism today. Exaggerated to the max.

0:07:00 – (Steve Gray): But we see it back then one of the favorite sayings was everybody has a right to their own opinion. Today people were shut down in the last couple of years for having a different opinion or cancel culture and all that kind of stuff. So. So we live in some pretty historic times. When we are writing history, we are in. Here’s my point folks. We are in a culture shift now. Only this time it appears to be a conservative renaissance of family and values. And should we reconsider all this liberalism that’s happened since I was a kid and you were a kid and should we reconsider it now?

0:07:43 – (Steve Gray): And so I think we’re going to see a big shift. Why am I saying all this? Well, because it’s interesting. It’s interesting, but I’m saying it for another reason. Yeah, it’s very interesting because those listening, especially young guys and you know, they’re up and coming 20, 30 years old for you are in the middle of the culture shift that will take you into the next shift that will last years and years and years possibly.

0:08:04 – (Kathy Gray): Right.

0:08:05 – (Steve Gray): And so that means you don’t want to go against it, you want to get in it because it’ll prosper you. It’ll be good for business, it’ll be good for family. It’ll get families back on, you know, next thing you know, we’ll be eating dinner together again. And TV shows, they’re going to start changing. It’s just a renaissance of conservative values where we’re not judging really other people, but we’re getting back to where we get to be who we want to be without somebody telling us we’re wrong.

0:08:38 – (Steve Gray): We can be conservative, we can be married. We can be married to a man and a wife and have kids and not feel bad about it. So those preachers, evangelists, pastors, teachers, Christians that can understand where we are right now in history will become the next famous, can I use that word? Famous? You know what I’m saying? A well-known, influential, influential famous pastors and preaching of the next 20 years.

0:09:05 – (Steve Gray): They will also become probably the most prosperous and rich preachers in the next. But if they don’t catch this, they will die out just like churches died out. Guess what? In the late 1800s, we had a revival of holiness. It was, you read about it, it was really great. But as we came into the 1900s, there was a revival which we’ve talked about the power of the Holy Spirit. And lo and behold, Christians started speaking in tongues.

0:09:33 – (Steve Gray): And the churches that went and believed God said, this is what God is doing today. They have become the largest churches in the world today. And the largest churches in the world that day that rejected it have now faltered into just nominal sized denominations, struggling to even stay alive.

0:09:53 – (Kathy Gray): Right?

0:09:54 – (Steve Gray): So if you were at that point and you knew that the largest churches in the world in 60, 70 years, 50 years, and you jumped on that bandwagon, you could be a pioneer to the next move of God in this country. And you, or probably your kids, if you were in the 1900s, would be the pastors and leaders and spiritual leaders of the largest churches in the world today. But a lot of people rejected. Now, if you can grab what God’s doing now and start your shift.

0:10:29 – (Steve Gray): Start your shift to the conservative. Start your shift to family values. Stop making fun of preachers, teachers, start going to church. Start reading your Bible. Yeah, it won’t feel so strange when you see it’s going to start happening with many, many people. And if you start listening to Hollywood, you’re going to hear, I’m telling you, you’re going to hear superstars, stars and superstars are going to start edging into letting it know that they’re going more conservative. It’s safer, it’s happier.

0:10:57 – (Steve Gray): It’s just better for us all. All right.

0:10:59 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah.

0:10:59 – (Steve Gray): So I wanted people to get it. Now you’re holding something in your hand that goes right along with that.

0:11:05 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah. Your book If You Only Knew: A Guide for The Clueless Generation. And you wrote this several months ago now to try to focus people on what’s coming. Really. If we only knew. And just as you were saying about future pastors and leaders, if you knew, if you only knew, you would be moving with God.

0:11:28 – (Steve Gray): Yeah, you’ll move ahead.

0:11:29 – (Kathy Gray): You’ll move ahead. And so I’ve been looking at the different chapters and just amazed at the insight and the wisdom that you keep. You bring it forth and I get struck by it. And then I read a chapter again. And so I just read chapter three again.

0:11:45 – (Steve Gray): As you know, we have a major book coming out in a few months. J.D. king and I called Mighty Like Gideon. What do you know, the guy who writes a book can’t say it. Mighty Like Gideon.

0:11:57 – (Kathy Gray): Mighty like Gideon.

0:11:58 – (Steve Gray): It’s a major book. It’ll be in bookstores. You’ll be able to get it. It’s 18 chapters. So it’s really a great book. But now why I brought that up, because this is what I call a booklet. Why is that important? And why did I only write five chapters?

0:12:13 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah, because you wanted to get very concise and really hit home with what’s going on in our culture now and to help people wake up and respond.

0:12:25 – (Steve Gray): So if you’re not a big, big book reader, you don’t want to read 18 chapters of a book on Gideon. Get something, a booklet here, can you? Plus an intro, If You Only Knew: A Guide for The Clueless Generation and five chapters. And you will get insight and where God is going. We already kind of know where our government’s going. Now where’s God going? And that’s what this book is about. Anyway. You were talking about chapter three.

0:12:47 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah, chapter three. He’s talking about the prophet Jeremiah. And the key ver is this. In Jeremiah 12, verse 5, if you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? How can you compete with horses? You’ve lost the little foot races. You couldn’t even keep up with normal man running with just other men. But now when the horses come on, that’s a symbol of the really big, the challenge, the huge world shaking stuff. So this is the main reason for this whole chapter.

0:13:30 – (Steve Gray): And when I first read it, if you have raced with men on foot and they’ve worn you out, I Knew that it’s first, in my opinion, was first an instant reflection on the prophet, you know, Jeremiah, because he was getting persecuted, worn out and trying to keep going. And you know, he’d have questions and things like that. But as I began to dig deeper and deeper and read deeper into it, I realized it was a prophetic word, not just for Jeremiah, he was part of the crowd, but it was a verse for all of Israel that now we have a worn out Israel. And all they’ve done is just run with ordinary people.

0:14:10 – (Steve Gray): I mean, you know, they’re just. It’s regular. Regular life stuff, right? Regular life stuff.

0:14:16 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah.

0:14:16 – (Steve Gray): And some persecution against the prophet, at least I don’t know. I don’t know if the people were that. But Jeremiah was at that point, it.

0:14:23 – (Kathy Gray): Was kind of becoming a mess.

0:14:24 – (Steve Gray): Yeah, it was. It was becoming a mess.

0:14:26 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah, it was becoming a mess.

0:14:26 – (Steve Gray): And the people were already worn out. And so then the prophet prophesies and says, if you’re worn out just with the ordinary foot race, and a foot race is with you do a foot.

0:14:38 – (Kathy Gray): Race against a person with other guys with feet.

0:14:41 – (Steve Gray): Yeah, other guys with feet now. But he’s warning them, says, but you. If you can see what’s coming. What’s coming is a race with horses. And how. If you can’t compete with a man, how can you compete with a horse?

0:14:55 – (Kathy Gray): Right.

0:14:55 – (Steve Gray): So that means it’s their condition. It’s not. It’s not actual teaching where you need to go out and train with horses now and see if you can outrun a horse. It’s the idea that horses have big hoofs and you’ll end up getting trampled under that if you’re not more prepared. If you’re exhausted now by life, how are you going to a stand up to what’s coming? So Jeremiah, in his present condition was going to lose the race that was in front of him if he did not get his life closer to God and get his head on straight of who God is and that God is bigger than anything that is coming.

0:15:34 – (Steve Gray): And I think he did okay. But also then he’s trying to warn the other people. And that’s where our culture comes in. So. Right. Is a worn out culture. They were worn out. And we. Do you want to talk about. I mean, what about.

0:15:48 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah. In our culture.

0:15:49 – (Steve Gray): How would you describe it?

0:15:49 – (Kathy Gray): Equally worn out. You know, that pandemic thing, really, apparently it just wore out all of humanity, especially in our American culture, and just wore out people for their support of Jesus and their love of the kingdom of God and, and concern about going ahead and becoming successful in life. It was just snatched away from people. And then, you know, after that, then now has come economic grief and businesses shut down and new laws and things imposed on people and on their hearts that have nothing to do even with our nation or with the kingdom of God.

0:16:33 – (Kathy Gray): But our people are worn out. Moms are worn out trying to figure out how to get some food on the table. Dads are trying to take two and sometimes three jobs. And this wears out people physically, mentally and emotionally. And that’s where we are right now.

0:16:49 – (Steve Gray): Yeah, A lot of, I hear it in like people that have both husband, wife, work.

0:16:54 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah.

0:16:55 – (Steve Gray): And one paycheck goes just to pay for their house. Now they have to have one paycheck to do everything else. And it’s really tough. That’s why some of them getting double jobs, even double wives and husbands. And so coming out of the pandemic, we came out pretty good here. It depends on the state you lived in and who your governor was and who your other politicians were. We came out pretty good. But other countries and other states, it was really, I mean, forced, closed down. Everything.

0:17:22 – (Steve Gray): Everything where even people that went outside, some of them got arrested. And then when you finally come out of that and we get to take the masks off and we’re trying to get back into the swing of things again, now everything costs more and there’s just a hanging over kind of a dread or a fear that everything’s going bad. Now we have a little bit of a respite because with the new election, there is a, like I said, this conservative renaissance.

0:17:47 – (Steve Gray): There is a hopeful, happier atmosphere in the air, but we need to grab that and that, you know, this is just me talking. It’s not in the book, it’s not anything we’re doing here. But let me tell you, if we can grab that, that probably, and we have to. I’ll explain how we grab it, but if we can grab that, then we can stop and stand up against any trampling horses that would try to ruin our country. What Jeremiah is saying, first of all through God is they are coming.

0:18:21 – (Steve Gray): He’s not saying you’re okay if they don’t come, but if they do come, then it’s not going to go well. He’s saying, he’s saying we ran against men, were worn out or didn’t do well. Horses are coming and they have giant hoofs. You have to kinda think of the Clydesdales trampling in the, you know, the Budweiser commercials. Oh, you don’t watch those, do you? No, I don’t. But those Clydesdales that we have in St. Louis and trampling them and says you’re not going to be able to.

0:18:50 – (Steve Gray): But there is a hopeful.

0:18:55 – (Kathy Gray): Thank you, Lord.

0:18:56 – (Steve Gray): Yeah. A gratitude. And there’s a new atmosphere in the. Yeah, okay, but here’s the problem. Politicians are catching it. Parents, school systems that didn’t want all this other junk in the schools, they’re catching it. But churches aren’t. Yeah, churches are doing nothing different. And it’s not just me saying that. Others, even politicians are saying, where are the churches in all this? Where is the voice of the church that is rallying the troops of America like a new president would do, a new cabinet will do?

0:19:27 – (Steve Gray): Where is it person, the voice or voices, I like to say voices of the spiritual side that takes us and leads us politically, economically, and what about spiritually? That just takes us to that new place and God, not the old way, where maybe we were in stadium singing just as I am and coming down. Okay, that was good for then, but now horses run. We got to learn to run faster and harder because as this book says, tragedies and trouble. I’m talking about national now. Yes, not personal, are preventable.

0:20:07 – (Steve Gray): And that’s what Jesus is saying. If you only knew, I could teach you how to present, prevent what’s coming to your country, to the nation of Israel, which was enemies, which were going to kill them and trample them. This is preventable. The thundering hoops are coming. And Jeremiah said it. Jesus predicted it also, but he wanted them to win it. But they weren’t going to win it either in Jeremiah’s time or in the time of Jesus.

0:20:36 – (Steve Gray): None of the battles that they were going to face that were going to destroy them were going to be won in a fist fight or a street fight. They were going to win it by reuniting, connecting their faith. What we’re trying to do on this podcast, their faith with God, and they have a revival of the spirit where people got interested. They don’t want to compromise. They want real. They want real people. They want to know what the Bible says.

0:21:04 – (Steve Gray): They don’t want to be treated as a victim. They don’t want to be treated like they’re visiting Sigmund Freud and doing psychotherapy in church and, you know, in groups. They need to know truth the way, the truth, the life, and accept it by faith. So go there. People need to go there. And then that’s the battle that will win this for you. It’s not really a Military battle facing the United States, although there is a lot of threats there for war.

0:21:32 – (Steve Gray): But the actual deliverance, as Jesus was saying, if we can get a nation to get on track spiritually, we’ll be too powerful. Not only in military, not only emotionally, not only in our, you know, our perseverance, but we will spiritually be strong people that can stand up and believe with all our heart that God is going to rescue us. And when we get in trouble or it starts looking bad or the battle goes the wrong way, we know how to talk to God and get a God turnabout.

0:22:01 – (Steve Gray): And our Bible is full God turnabouts.

0:22:04 – (Kathy Gray): Yes, it’s God turnabouts.

0:22:06 – (Steve Gray): It’s full of trampling horses coming at us and not being able to defeat us. And the church remains strong. Israel obviously survived and is very strong. And now as individuals, individuals, we need to know that there are still people in this country that want to trample people like us, at least pastors, churches, church folks underfoot, bring their agendas in, change our schools, change our morals and our ways of thinking without asking us or our opinion.

0:22:40 – (Steve Gray): And so it’s time to stand up to this a little bit with get some faith, get some life, and get this, so great things can start happening. Get into the swing. If you knew what was coming, it’s the old saying, like, if you knew McDonald’s when we were years ago, if somebody knew what McDonald’s was going to do, you’d have bought them restaurants all over town, you’d buy their stock, and you’d be billionaires by now.

0:23:05 – (Steve Gray): But we didn’t know. But we’re trying to tell you, this is what’s coming. It’s a revival of spiritual things. If you’re a believer and you’d like to graduate to a higher level in God, get on it, get on board. You may have a pastor or leaders in town. They’re just nominal. They’re still treating you like victims and poor old you and psychotherapy and just giving you words of inspiration, you know, keep going and God loves you. But if you want to be on the cutting edge of something, you grab this and start speaking out.

0:23:35 – (Steve Gray): We need a spirit spiritual revival. We need a spiritual renaissance in America. Yes, that goes along, and it should. That goes along with the conservative renaissance that is taking our nation right now. And let it, let’s hope, my opinion, of course, I want to. I want to, you know, to keep, keep going. So the first thing we got to know is disaster, war, all it’s preventable. How do we prevent it? Not by electing a different president.

0:24:00 – (Steve Gray): Although that helps. It is important. Politics are important. Laws are important. Education is important. Okay. But so is spiritual things. The spirit. You are spirit, soul, body, you have three parts to you that need feeding. Feed your spirit. And so in my opinion, we are still on the edge, especially in other countries, of whores with pounding hooves would like to come into our country.

0:24:29 – (Kathy Gray): Yes.

0:24:30 – (Steve Gray): And trample down what God is trying to do.

0:24:32 – (Kathy Gray): Yes.

0:24:33 – (Steve Gray): Well, if God’s going to try to do. If God’s trying to do something, then the only people that can get it done is God’s people. You can’t expect anybody else to get it done. And that’s, in my opinion, that’s what’s missing. It’s the dull, stuck in the mud, church leadership and people that just are coasting along while our government, our politicians, our influencers and even movie stars and athletes watch what’s happening.

0:25:02 – (Steve Gray): They are moving ahead into that spirit of release and freedom that God is giving us. Church is still stuck in the mud. So God raised up voices and we can turn this around.

0:25:14 – (Kathy Gray): We don’t need to be trampled and raise up runners.

0:25:17 – (Steve Gray): Runners that can outrun any problem, any circumstance, anything going on. Right.

0:25:22 – (Kathy Gray): Yeah.

0:25:23 – (Steve Gray): So we had a whole lot more in that chapter three, but they can still download that book and go to More Faith, More Life. Download it. It’s free. Or buy it if you want to. And we’re still sitting around. The last thing we’re going to do with the new book coming out is I’m thinking about you helping me expanding this from five chapters. Maybe we should probably double it so it’s a little bit more significant.

0:25:45 – (Steve Gray): And some people will take it more serious. Some people. The booklet’s just fine. So go to More Faith, More Life. Tell your friends about it. Get the book. Get more people following. You need to hear this stuff. I don’t know if you’re hearing it someplace else. I don’t know about it. So tell everybody, because this could. This can save our country from war, trouble, famine, disasters. If we can get the spirit of God moving in, a great revival in America. You agree with me on that?

0:26:14 – (Kathy Gray): Yes, sir.

0:26:15 – (Steve Gray): All right, say bye then.

0:26:16 – (Kathy Gray): Bye.

0:26:17 – (Steve Gray): Till next time.