Host David Joannes interviews Glenn Bleakney of Awake Nations Ministries. Topics covered include: a national/cultural backdrop that obscures our understanding of God’s kingdom, how the Christian digital space impacts missions, a powerful description of what discipleship truly is, how the apostolic and prophetic giftings set a blueprint for revival, and how to be like Jesus.
Kingdom Community TV Podcast
Glenn Bleakney on Missions Pulse
(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Welcome back to Missions Pulse, where we encourage you to know God's heart and join his mission. Man, I'm excited that you're here. I'm excited we've been continuing to have a bunch of great guests on and talking about God at work in the world, the kingdom of God, what does it look like? What does discipleship look like? What does discipleship beyond our borders, beyond the local context look in a foreign field? And you'll hear that kind of response from many different guests who some are missionaries, some are pastors, some are Christian leaders. All different roles to play in the body of Christ. I'm really excited today with our guest because he's someone that is constantly talking about this, all those things I just mentioned, specifically the kingdom of God. Let me give you a quick bio of Mr. Glenn Blakeney. Glenn Blakeney is the founder and president of Awake Nations Ministries and the Kingdom Community. He's married to Lynn, and together they traveled to the nations of the world, preaching the gospel of the kingdom in the power of the Holy Spirit with signs and wonders following. Glenn is also extensively involved in leadership training across the globe through conferences, personal mentoring, online learning cohorts, and the kingdom community equip sessions, which we're going to be talking about, and I hope you join. Glenn Blakeney's teachings are heard around the globe through television, radio, social media, and the kingdom community streaming platforms. You can find out more about Glenn at kingdomcommunity.global and kingdomcommunity.tv. Glenn, I'm really excited that you're joining today and look forward to our conversation. Hey, thank you, David, an honor to be with you, and wow, that was quite an introduction. I hope I can live up to it. Well, I always wonder about those bios. Did you write that really, or did someone else, or got to put something spicy on our websites, right? Right, that's for sure. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's great to be with you, thank you. No, I am looking forward to this conversation because we've been following... When do we first meet, Glenn? We've been talking now online for about a year or so, it seems. Yeah, at least. At least. COVID messed up my time zone timeline here. Yeah, I think realistically, probably a year and a half or so. Yeah, maybe a bit longer. Well, I've been blessed to be on your show and been following what God's doing. Super excited about that. Why don't you catch people up? They're not familiar with awake nations and who you are. How did you come to faith? What's your story? How are you here now today? Oh, wow, yeah, thank you. Well, hey, when I was very young as a child, my mom got saved and came to Christ in what was known as the Charismatic Renewal, lived in the Toronto, Canada area. And she started taking me to church, but not only to a local church, but different meetings like full gospel businessmen meetings and we would go to these Italian Pentecostal churches, went to Catherine Coolman, different people. And so I saw an amazing amount of miracles and in fact, as a child, I had severe allergies and while I was at a Catherine Coolman meeting, I think I've been in three of our meetings throughout the years. And I was healed of these allergies and it was awesome. So for me, that left an incredible, deep, really indelible impression in me in terms of seeing the power of the Holy Spirit. And so many miracles happened even when I was a child. I prayed and I saw God do incredible things, answer my prayers. And so that was kind of how I was impacted and brought into the kingdom. Teenage years got away from the Lord and got messed up in the world and did things I shouldn't have done. And then probably when I was about 18 and a half, 19 years of age, I just started to really have this awakening really where the Holy Spirit was convicting me, pointing me back to the cross. And so at that time, I was in college and I met a young lady who's actually now my wife and she had never heard the gospel. And so I just was like, man, God's doing a work in my life. But it wasn't just running to the Lord like, oh, Lord, here I am. It wasn't like that. So what ended up happening is I took Lynn, my wife at that time, my girlfriend, my new girlfriend to my parents' home and she ended up meeting my mom. And my mom began to share the gospel with her, but she started to pray for us. And she felt very strongly that the Lord said that we were called the ministry and that we would be married. And so she just continued to pray for us. And the rest is history. We ended up giving our life back to Christ and responding to the work of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God that was drawing us. And when on that journey, I started having home meetings, home prayer meetings. When we first got married, we lived in a city in Canada called Hamilton in Ontario. It's pretty, has a history of being a rough city and, you know, it's a steel town. And we lived in like the worst part of the city. We were doing outreach and ministry on the streets and home meetings, home group meetings, that kind of thing just saw a lot of people come to Christ. A lot of miracles take place. And that was kind of it. And then went to Bible school, came out of Bible school and started pastoring. And, you know, kind of did the youth pastoring thing for a while. And then just went on this journey over the years where I just started to realize that I had this passion to see obviously the Holy Spirit manifest in power, but also just to go to the nations. And really that ties into when I was probably about 20 years of age, I was kind of missionary by the name of Mark Bontain to India. You know, he's ministering in North India and he came to the church and ended up, spoke over my life and just said, Hey, you know, Jeremiah 1 5 is the scripture for you. And it's about being a prophet to the nations. Well, you know, I had been to the United Kingdom as a little kid because my mom was from Scotland. I had been to the United States a couple of times, but that was it. And, you know, I really just hadn't even traveled to most parts of Canada. And really not much outside of the city that I lived in. So long story short, that word came to pass and God has opened the doors. And we've been able to preach the gospel and many nations. We lived in Australia for a while pastored. We were involved extensively in Southeast Asia before COVID. Also, obviously a lot of time in the Caribbean in Africa, Europe and other places. So just an amazing word and how God brought that to pass. There's so much more that happened on the journey. I can tell that I can tell that's synopsis and the short version. I have to ask your Scottish mom. You still paying her like an dowry for her matchmaking skills. How's that? Is it anything or what do you guys do? Yeah. No, she was just quite something. You know, she really had an encounter with the Lord and gave herself to prayer and intercession. And I really count on that. I mean, there were times when I was not following the Lord and I would come home and my mom would say, "I was praying for you and this, I had a vision and this is what happened." And she would describe what had happened, you know, when I got myself in a precarious situation one time. Actually a dangerous situation and she described exactly what happened involved. And, you know, there was actually protection, supernatural protection that happened to me one night. And she ended up telling me when I went home, you know, "I was praying for you at this time and this is what I saw. I saw these angels kind of go all around you." And I was just like, "Wow, that was scary." I mean, it was the fear of God, right? Yeah. And that was the time before cameras on every corner, right? She can't be tracking you. She can't be tracking you somehow. Isn't that amazing how a mother's prayers are so powerful? As you say that story, I instantly think of the testimony of James Hudson-Taylor. I mean, his conversion story is his mother praying for him. I think he was like 40 miles away somewhere in England. And she's pouring her heart out to God and he stumbles across this book and gives his life to Christ. I mean, the mother's prayers are so powerful. I love how that aspect of, in this podcast, the mission's aspect is so familial. You know, it is a family on mission, is a place for all everyone. I think some people think, "Oh, well, you know, I just, I pray and I stay at home." And not realizing the power of their prayers, crossing space and time and no geographic boundaries to them. It's pretty powerful. Absolutely. Yeah, completely. And, you know, it impacted me in the sense that my life was not only, "Hey, I'm going to follow you, Jesus, but I gave myself to prayer and intercession." And out of that call and that place of just really getting to know the Lord, because my prayer times when I first got saved were long and they were deep and I was having just incredible supernatural encounters with God. And out of that actually came the call to ministry as well. And it was confirmed by, you know, others, leaders, pastors, even, but there was a supernatural call with the Lord, like Jeremiah had, like Moses had, you know, I had that happen to me. I sensed that apostolic and prophetic call. I think many people who watch your podcast, listen to your podcast, sense that as well. And we're going to be talking about that, I think in a minute here as well as discipleship. I really want to touch on those things. But I wanted to ask you this. I was just on Facebook the other day. I'm like, you know those Facebook top fans? I think I'm like your top fanboy or something. I don't know. I don't know. It doesn't say fanboy per se, but it says fan on Facebook. And so, but this is what I saw a recent post on Facebook. You wrote, "Jesus's kingdom mission is not about developing church franchises, but making true disciples who mirror the mannerisms of Christ and do his miraculous works." Tell me about these mannerisms. What are these mannerisms of Christ that we need to mirror? Sure. Yeah, obviously, you know, just alliterating a bit there. But the point I'm trying to make in that post is that my take, my understanding on the Great Commission is, as it says, Matthew 28, you know, to go make disciples. Make disciples is the actual imperative there. So, the commandment is to make disciples. We do it by going, obviously, by baptizing and teaching them to obey. But what? Teaching them to observe everything Jesus commanded. So, here's my view. And I'm a pretty simple guy in terms of how I approach life in the Scriptures. I just think we're supposed to do what Jesus said. Well, then oversimplifying things. Come on. I need a little bit more evangelical fluff. Right. Just being facetious. So, look, Jesus spent three and a half years with these guys developing them, getting them ready, discipling them to send them out. And, you know, one of the things that we read in the early church after Peter and John were threatened not to preach the gospel. It says basically, even though they were, and I'm paraphrasing, uneducated, you know, it says they took notice of them that they had been with Jesus and their boldness. Yeah. And so, there was this sense in which they reflected or mirrored the quality in the person of Jesus. And like Paul said in Romans 829, the reason why Romans 828 is fulfilled in our lives, meaning that all things work together for good for those who love God and those are called according to his purpose. The fulfillment of that is the next verse for those whom he foreknew. He predestined to be conformed to the likeness of the Son. So, everything we go through, when we submit ourselves to Christ, when we are teachable and in a good New Testament term, meek received with meekness, that implanted word, then what happens is it actually works together for our good. And then we become more and more like Jesus. And a lot of people pray for money. They pray for open doors. They pray for, you know, just God to do different things in their lives, to connect them with right people, that type of thing. And what the Lord showed me in a time when I was praying and fasting was he said, I want you just to focus on really getting to know me. And as you do, he said, the grace that is on your life will be evident. You know, and we know Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor, which is a word, grace with God and man. So, he said, you just worry about increasing in favor with me. And as you do, he said, the gifts will emerge in your life. The fact that I'm with you, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. People could see that on Jesus, right? No one spoke like him. Look at the miracles he does. Obviously, God was with him, I love Acts 1038, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit in power. He went around doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil. For God was with him. For God was with him. So, the Lord spoke that to me and he said, if you will just allow me to conform you to the image and likeness of my son. He said, I'll do my own advertising. People will see, they'll sense the anointing on your life. They'll see the grace on you. They'll be in favor that will open doors for you. They'll be a favor in terms of people that recognize who you are and what you carry. So, I believe that that's to be our focus is, it's not the size of our gatherings. There's nothing wrong with having large gatherings. But what if those gatherings are not resulting in the depth of true New Testament discipleship? That I think it's in vain. People ultimately, those we are discipling. And the great commission is about discipling people to obey everything that Jesus taught. And so, it's ultimately seeing them become conformed to the image and likeness of the son. So, that they live like Jesus did on the earth, which is amazing. When 1 John 2, 6 says, if anyone says he abides in him, let him walk, even as he himself walked. And then John 14, 12, Jesus said, the works that I do, because I'm going to my father, you will do an even greater works. And he was talking about miracles there. So, I really believe that our calling in life, first of all, is to be a disciple. And then secondly, we make disciples who become like Jesus. Think about that, if the world were to see Christians who love unconditionally the way Jesus does, who spoke the word uncompromisingly the way Jesus did. But who had compassion, but also were able to just impact people's lives the way Jesus did when you read the Gospels, the miracles. And I mentioned if we stepped into that as the church on mass, I mean, we could, we could, we would see transformation. And it wouldn't be our, the arguments and, and you know what, I believe, I believe in apologetics. Don't get me wrong, but apologists defend the word. Apostles demonstrate the word. Wow, okay, and, and I believe there needs to be a demonstration of the Gospel in power that's going to really change the nations and the generation that we live in. Amen. We have a bunch of career opportunities for you to serve it within Reach Global. Open positions include web developer, social media manager, graphic designer, short-term missions director, and more. We want to help you discover your unique God-giving calling to take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Help give Gospel access to people who have never heard of Jesus before. Go to withinreachglobal.org and click go. I get the impression you're not a cessationist and believe that the, the giftings and callings are still in use today. Yeah, well, before I even knew what the word cessationist meant, I was seeing people healed and miracles happen, you know, and it was just, it, it was like, well, that's what I saw. I saw it happen and I experienced it myself. You know, David, when I was a kid, one, one true story, like, I'm, I don't know, eight or nine years old or something. And I had what we would call warts back then on my hands. I don't know if it was because I was just, you know, didn't wash my hands enough or what as a kid. I remember I had 13 warts on my hands, seven on one hand and six on the other. And one night I was laying in bed and I was just, you know, falling about to go to sleep. And I had seen all these miracles and I just had this faith and I said, Lord, man, you know, I've been taking, putting stuff on this, trying to get rid of them back then. And I said, it's just not working. And I just said, you can, you can get rid of these warts. Lord, that's not a big deal for you. So the next day I wake up and I get up and I go about my daily routine. And at one point during the day, I happened to look at my hands and I noticed that every single one of them was gone and totally disappeared. And, and I have seen the Lord do miracles like that. Like obviously that wasn't a, you know, a fatal, a fatal disease. And I have seen God do healed people of terminal sickness and disease. But ultimately, to me, that was the Lord just showing me his compassion and his intimate care, even for something that somebody would say, well, man, you just need to watch your hands more or whatever it would. Yeah, well, I love that. And I agree, man. And I do feel that this is part of the aspect of why many nations have remained unreached or gospel deprived, even though they have had such long histories with Christian missionaries. If we are to mirror those things of Christ that you, those mannerisms, the like night, like Christ likeness of Jesus. Man, that's the things that we're going to see transformed, which brings me to the kingdom of God or the thoughts of the kingdom of God Jesus talked about this. Luke 4 18, he says this, he plainly states his mission by saying, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty, those who are oppressed. And it goes on. I want to ask you this, has the church deviated from this message of the kingdom? This is not always what we see. Have you seen the deviation of some kind? Yeah, absolutely. But I think, I think, you know, the good news is we're getting back to it. And, but let me also say, on the other hand, I feel there's currently a real lack of, it's, it's almost like kingdom has become, it's become cliche. And we have people, they call their ministries kingdom this kingdom that and, and yet when you talk to them about the kingdom, they really don't understand what it is. And, and I, I feel it ties in with the apostolic, it ties in with, you know, missions and discipleship, all of those. So, but Jesus came to proclaim and bring the kingdom to the earth, right? And in allocate one, it says that he was going around the 12 were with him. There was also women. These women were supporting him from their finances. Who were they? Well, Mary Magdalene was one of them. There was a wealthy aristocrat. And what ends up happening is it says in, in the old King James, it says that Jesus was preaching and chewing the glad tidings of the kingdom. The new King James says preaching and bringing the gospel of the kingdom. So there is declaration, but there's also demonstration in every where you look in the ministry of Jesus, you can read this in the gospels. We see this in the book of Acts as a continuum. There was a proclaiming of the kingdom. I believe it's actually Matthew for 23 where he says that Jesus went and he preached the kingdom. And he taught the people in the synagogues and he healed the sick and he cast out demons. So there's always that coupling. It's, it's always happening, you know, in together that this proclamation of this kingdom. First of all, we don't even preach that. Jesus said in Matthew 10 as you go preach and say the kingdom of heaven is that we don't even do that. Yeah, but I was going to say, don't you find that it's hard to preach the kingdom when we live in I'm speaking as an American in a democracy, right? Or we live in these different paradigms that don't share kingdom aspects. For example, I live in the kingdom of Thailand. This is a monarchy here in Thailand, it acts very differently from a democracy, as I know it so we've, would you say that we've lost that along the way do simply the cultural backdrop. Yeah, I think it's ultimately is the our traditions as Jesus said have made the word of God of none effect. So I think we have been schooled in a religious paradigm. The gospel is, but we need to get back to the, the message of the kingdom, which is not just a word, but a power. You know, 1 Corinthians, 420 says that the kingdom of God is not in word it's not in logos, but it's in power and so there, there is, you know, a sense in which this power has to be manifested so part of part of it is we don't understand kingdom we. Yeah, I mean that's a deep subject to, but we definitely. Yeah, we definitely are Western nations in particular are more individualistic I have my personal rights, you know, Jesus is my personal Lord and Savior. Sometimes you're home boy right as some people said. Right, but we don't understand the concept of what it means to be living in a kingdom together with other kingdom. I don't even like the term citizens. I know the late Miles Monroe used to use that term a lot in his writings, but I, I love I use the term subjects, because that's what I'm talking about. That I'm sorry to cut you off there but that's what I'm talking about I think we have this aspect that yes, we are we are all citizens of the kingdom of God that's true. But if you live in a monarchy here in Thailand, I act and do things and my behaviors are starkly different than those of Americans because I live under the ruling reign of a monarch of whom you don't speak ill of. And I would say as an expat in this country, more so, a Thai person, they are a subject, they're a subject of the king, and it takes on a different dimension mentally. Yeah, and if we can transfer, like you said you understand that living in Thailand, but we need to get that no matter where we live in the world. You know, it says in Acts two when Peter preached on the day of Pentecost after the Holy Spirit fell, he preached Christ and he said that he. God has made him both Christ Lord and Christ. And so, you know, that whole idea of Lord is king and the anointed one and so he's the anointed king and he demands lordship he demands obedience Jesus said in Matthew 28, 20 teach them to obey everything I've commanded. So guys, I don't know where we get this kind of false dichotomy where Jesus is my Savior but he's not a Lord but my Lord but I don't see that anywhere in the Scriptures in the New Testament. Gospel privilege provides the keys you need to unlock your full potential as an effective witness of God's kingdom power. This resource will inspire change in you as you read testimony after testimony of people who use their gospel privilege to bring the kingdom message worldwide. As author David join us testifies, gospel privilege is the soul saving, culture shaping, world changing message that's come into the world through the person of Jesus. It is an unearned spiritual advantage with eternal consequences meant for every human being. Buy the book on Amazon or visit gospelprivilege.com to download a free chapter today. Well, well said and I appreciate the graciousness from through which you speak this. I think people need to come to that understanding of themselves as subjects in the kingdom of God's citizens as well but subjects. But we also have a pathway which we're on in following Christ and I appreciate the graciousness from which you say that in relation to that. We're surrounded by un-print unprecedented distractions, divisions, and yet it's imperative that we hear and understand the voice of the Holy Spirit in our day in all our evangelistic efforts in our lifestyle, missional lifestyle. How do you just mentioned a moment ago the apostolic, the prophetic, how do the apostolic and prophetic giftings kind of set a blueprint for reformation or revival, the one that we've always been looking for? Sure. Yeah, well, I mean, I would like to say first of all that as someone who obviously believes, I'm not a cessationist, I'm a continuous. I believe that apostles and prophets are still around today but not in the New Testament sense, not as obviously authors of the scriptures. So when you read Ephesians 2 and it talks about the church being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, look, I understand those who would say that means that the church is built on the scripture, the Old Testament, the New Testament, I get that. And I would agree with that, certainly we have, that's our ultimate authority, and when someone proclaims something is a God, it must line up with the scriptures ultimately. However, let me also say this, Ephesians 4 is very clear that God gave apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to build up the church to prepare the saints for the work of ministry. And it talks about that happening till we're at a place where there's, we're conformed basically to the fullness of the Statue of Christ. There's this unity of the faith, and we see the whole, we see the church, because he says it twice in Ephesians 4, 11 through 16, he says the body of Christ, which is the church, and then he says the church, which is the body. So, he's saying that the church is the body of Christ. Now, a lot of us, we have never moved to that place where we recognize what part we play in terms of, you know, the piece of the anatomy that we are. There are people that like, okay, where do I fit in as a body? Well, ultimately, that's what he's doing. And so there has to be this work of seeing us be, you know, come to the likeness of Christ, the fullness of the Statue of Christ, as kind of like really the Greek speaking of like one man, one body. And then he talks about how that unity happens, and it's an organic unity where we function together and flow and operate as a body on the earth. And so he's the head of the church, where the body, Paul talks about that repeatedly in Ephesians and Colossians also. And we actually need to represent Jesus on the earth. So even though he's seated at the right hand of the Father now, we are his body on the earth. And the apostolic and the prophetic, ultimately, I believe, tie into, you know, Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1228, and he wasn't talking just about his time, as some would say, because my argument is, has the church come to that point where we have no longer need to be, you know, see the saints equipped to do ministry, you know, to be conformed to the fullness of the Statue of Christ to become a body and, you know, have the unity of the faith, that type of thing that he talks about, obviously not, we still have a long way to go. So we still need all of the fivefold. And really, I think it's pretty shabby exegesis for us to just turn around and say, well, we have teachers, we have evangelists and pastors, but we don't have apostles and prophets. Because, I mean, I understand that people say, well, it's that the canon is a scripture is completed. I get that. But we still need the role in the specific function of apostles and prophets today, not in the sense of the apostles who were with Jesus as the 12. I get that. We see other apostles, you know, we, we see in the New Testament, we Silas was called a prophet in Acts chapter 15, it talks about Silas and, and I think there was another guy that was with him as well. They were both called prophets. So what are, what is the apostolic and the prophetic? Well, ultimately, it's 1 Corinthians 1228, God has sent the church. First of all, apostles, secondary prophets, and the word proton, right, which talks about rank order and sequence. So there's a place in which we see in the New Testament, again, just following the example of the of the apostles that they were the ones who went first. It's not about hierarchy in the sense that they're more important, but it's about priority. And I believe it's about foundation, because Paul said that he would lay the foundation of Christ as an apostle who he spoke of himself and 1 Corinthians 3 was a wise master builder. And so, which, you know, comes from, we get our word architect from that Greek term. So the idea is there, we need apostles today who recognize how they know how to build according to the pattern of the blueprints of the New Testament. We need prophets who understand and hear the voice of God, who have revelation from the scriptures to be able to speak into the church. And let me, let me just say that the lines are often blurred, because when we read in Acts 13, you know, there were prophets and teachers in the church and it mentions Saul and Barnabas and the others. And then later on, Paul is obviously recognized as an apostle. He even says he was called it to be an apostle with the Lord Jesus directly in Galatians. So, you know, and then in some of his writings, he mentions he's a herald. He mentions he's a teacher and also an apostle together. So, so the lines are often blurred and they overlap even in, but we definitely need that and ultimately the very word apostle means one who sent. So it has to do with advancing a kingdom. It has to do with going to the nations and taking the gospel. Jesus didn't call the apostles just to stay put. And when they got too comfortable, we know there was a persecution that happened in the book of Acts. Even though the initially the apostles were not, they didn't leave. They stayed put. The believers were released, ran with the gospel to the Gentiles ultimately. And then we know after that, though, the apostles did go out and they did go to other nations. We know about that Thomas went to India and all this other places. So, as you're describing this, this almost, I'm hearing it as an epic, right? The apostles and the prophets at the forefront. And I'm sorry to keep making this cultural. I think what I mean by doing this and asking this next question is that I think people's paradigms have had experience where they've experienced something other than what you described. And you just described makes sense. I'm seeing, okay, the apostle spearheading this movement or this direction, the prophets speaking into it. But when you say the word apostle, when you say the word prophet or apostolic or prophecy, those words conjure up images or imagery that perhaps are pejorative for many people. And I think that may be part of the aspect here. I think that's not what you're describing whatsoever. But those paradigms may be thinking of those things. Oh, completely. And unfortunately, at the word kingdom also is pejorative in many instances. Sure. How did we come to that? How did we come to that place? Can you speak on that a little bit? Sure. I think I think it's culture again, you know, going back to our culture. Now the kingdom of God is obviously not a subculture. It's a counterculture. And yet we have in the church, really what we would, we might call it Christian culture, but it's really just a subculture. And it's not the kingdom culture, even though we might use the word kingdom, and we might talk about apostles and prophets and so on. But ultimately, it's not the kingdom culture. And I think there's, we have a long way to go. And David, what I believe in, and I know the statistics in terms of how many people are, are, you know, gospel deprived and unreached people groups, UPGs and UUPGs. I've studied those stats and it's heartbreaking to realize there's still billions of people out there. But ultimately, I think it's worse than even the stats say, because here's, here's the deal. Jesus said in Matthew 24, 14, the gospel of the kingdom, you know, this gospel of the kingdom, he said. So meaning the gospel, he was preaching and demonstrating this one, this gospel of the kingdom. He said, will be preached as a witness or a testimony throughout the world to all the nations. And then the end will come. We know nations speaks of the peoples, the ethnic groups, you know, again, looking at, you know, depending on what stat you look at 16,000, 17,000, 13,000 different ethnic groups in the world. But ultimately, he said this gospel, the kingdom. Now we've been preaching. I won't say it's a false gospel, but I'll say it's an incomplete gospel. Not even since anemic in some ways. Yes. So I think that the gospel that Jesus preached, we need to go back and embrace that. And so we have people who on one end of the spectrum, don't believe in the power. And we have people on the other end, those who are more charismatic, they do believe in the power and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but they're just keeping it to themselves and they're not advancing the kingdom to the nations of the earth. They're not preaching the gospel of the kingdom to the nations. And I'm writing a book right now where, basically, if I were to subtitle it, I would say something like what the Charismatics, you know, they have this part right. The evangelicals have this part right, but each one of us, by and large, is missing. The evangelicals need the power of the Holy Spirit. Read the book of Acts. How can you deny the work of the Holy Spirit? Read the Gospels. Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit and did miracles. On a bad day when Jesus went to Nazareth, it says he wasn't able to do any mighty works, one of the synoptics, gospel say. And that word mighty works is Dunamis, which in the NIB is translated miracles. And yet, we see others who talk about miracles and prophesying, but they have no passion, no burden, to reach the lost. And, you know, I saw you posted something somewhere recently where you were talking about nationalism and how we just in certain Western nations, you know, I've heard it. I remember pastoring and people, because I always I always talked about missions. We were active in doing missions and giving to missions and going. We took teams out and there were some people that just said we just need to focus on our own country. And because we have unsaved people here and we have lost people here. Well, I get that. But the problem with that is that's not what Jesus told us to do. It doesn't resemble the this gospel of the kingdom of which he spoke. I'm reading a book right now. Jesus and John Wayne. I'm not even going to go down that path right now because we're not talking about Christian nationalism right now and and patriarchy. And, but I am reading that book. And there are it's bringing to the forefront of my mind the discrepancy of what the kingdom of God is meant for. I think what you're getting at for the advancement of the gospel until, like you said, and this gospel, the kingdom will be preached and all the world is testimony to every single tribe and people and tongue and Gentile. And then what happens, the end will come, the whole point is to see the return of Jesus here. How Lindsay painted it in a bad light, right, becoming Armageddon. And we know it is, and they'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth, but the culmination of history of what we're looking forward to man is Revelation 79. White robes, people from every nation surrounded, surrounded and thrown, praising and worshiping. On that note, Glenn, how are you witnessing pastors, leaders, missionaries, catching a fresh vision for global evangelization just talked about maybe some of the downsides of things that we have a long way to go. Are you seeing some great advances or some new fresh fire in some amazing way? Right. Well, first of all, COVID-19 has obviously set us back in terms of being, sending, not as many, a lot of nations still, you know, people have never left their nations going on two years now. And so I, but on the other hand, I've heard some leaders, pastors say things like, well, you know, the Lord's using this because he wants us to focus on our own nation. Meaning, COVID-19 is kind of a let's relay the right foundation, let's go back to our own nation and focus on the lostness we have, you know, inherently in our boundaries. And I understand there's some truth to that, but, you know, I think the enemy, obviously, is behind all this, every good and perfect gift comes from God and he doesn't want the gospel that came to go to the nation. So that's the short answer. But so I see a lot of, a lot of ministries that still are focused on their own country. And, and again, we do have Gen Z, perhaps the first, you know, post modern, post Christian generation in our Western nations in particular. And it's, it's even impacting other nations now, obviously because of media, social media, et cetera. But I think that even though that's true that they're by and large, you know, don't know the Lord. We've had this conversation before. There's still, that still does not nullify our responsibilities, take the gospel to the unreach. And so we have to get back to that point, but as I travel, so I'm not a pastor anymore. I travel and I, you know, minister in the United States. I'm starting to go back out to other nations now. I'm headed to Brazil in a couple of weeks, but the, the truth is there is a great need to really get the church on board and pastors. So there's, there's fire. There's passion on a, on a remnant. But I think unfortunately, by and large, my kind of understanding and report is the church is still not getting it. I remember when COVID-19 hit and the reposts on social media that said the church is outside of the building and, and, you know, at one point, I don't know if I actually did this. But I'm just like, the church is not out of the building, the church is locked out of the building. And that was when there were lockdowns and still in some countries in Canada. There's still lockdowns, church is not allowed to meet right now, but in parts of Canada. So, you know, I get that, but ultimately we need a huge shift in terms of getting back to the gospel, the kingdom, what Jesus preached, all nations advancing the kingdom. You know, preaching the gospel and the power of the Holy Spirit, making disciples. And, and so I think we have a long way to go. And I think now with obviously with the whole hybrid church thing with being online, we have to be intentional, strategic, even with what we do online. And, and so one of the things I just did recently, David, just to kind of give you an idea of, of my heart is, I did a post on a particular social media platform and I boosted it to a particular nation in the world, where it's one of the most unreached nations in the world, that we're going to show the Jesus film online in their language. And, you know, we didn't spend a lot of money, maybe $100, but we had thousands of people actually in, you know, because we targeted that nation. And we had thousands of people come and comment and we had many people said, Hey, I watched this and I've given my life to Christ. And so, so we can be, we can be strategic on what we've reached and reached. A lack of gospel access is the greatest injustice known to humankind. We're looking for monthly donors who will help us combat gospel poverty by funding our locally led missions movements. When you give to within reach global, you give gospel access to people who have never heard of Jesus before. Set up your monthly donation today at withinreachglobal.org/donate. I love that I didn't realize that and that's really exciting. That's a new paradigm I think we need to talk about a strategy in online tech and Christian content speaking of which I mean I just mentioned a moment ago that you can find out more about you Glenn at Kingdom .globalkingdomcommunity.tv. You are kind of this, this, this tech guy. Shall I use the word guru guy guru. I'm a visionary. That's maybe it. You know, I've got a vision to, I believe in online. I mean, look, before there was Facebook live or periscope, you know, periscope came out before Facebook live. I was doing live streams on Facebook, you know, it was a big ordeal to be able to do that. You're a avant garde, man. But yeah, so, you know, that's true in a sense, but, and we're active, very active. We have the Kingdom community and we gather regularly online and we do discipleship and training. We have people from literally all the continents of the earth. And, and it's cool. And we do training and discipleship. We just did two courses that we completed in, in December on what it means to truly be apostolic and we're redeeming the apostolic. It's not the, the big capital, a apostle such and such, but in the scriptures, we read Paul and apostle and that's a big difference. And then also, what is the gospel of the Kingdom? So we do this training stuff where we're doing equipping every person needs to be equipped in the body of Christ to become like Jesus and to know to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to be able to manifest and walk in. They're calling and their gifts, their purpose. You know, we're doing things now with people in the business sector and helping people in marketplace to really, you know, we want to stand with them. And we see those guys like they're so important in what they're doing, but it's not just like, well, they're raising money and to help the missionaries. That's true. And that's important. But they also have a mission and an assignment. So we're, we're doing that. We do a lot of different things, but it's all about connecting training and sending the body of Christ. Those are really our three core values. And what I'm finding like had a conversation yesterday with a lady who's originally from South Africa and she lives in Australia and she said to me, you know, these online training sessions are so helpful. They're convenient. I work. We own a business. We work long hours. I come home at night and, you know, I can join one of these training sessions. And she said it. It's so much. It's so convenient. Now, saying that we're reaching a ton of people, a lot of people, we're doing a new course launching this Wednesday. And I already have, and this is on zoom. So it's not like, you know, these are people that are just going to sign up passively. They actually have to show up and we have about 200 plus people registered. And, and this is all about healing emotionally, physically, spiritually. So, you know, and how we, the Lord wants to not, he wants to heal us. And there's a lot of people been struggling as a result of what we've been through in the past couple of years. But he also wants to use us to facilitate Luke for 18 and 19 that you've already mentioned. So, so we're doing it online. However, let me say this, it's not a substitute for the in person, local church. We need that. I mean, we need to be able to minister to people that way. And we need to gather. I believe in the local church as well, but, but this is a supplement and unfortunately, and, and I don't mean this in a condescending way, but, you know, there are a lot of churches that are not equipping. So we need to get back to, to equipping the saints. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Well, that definitely answers my question. It's guru, not guy. I was going to read this. I actually just took this from a recent post to you. You talked about. I think there's an actual recent interview. He did. Recent article on Forbes.com stated that although church attendance is following by as much as 50% during the pandemic, some believers claim that their faith has been strengthened as a result of online church services as a result. Christian leaders of various denominations have plans for a hybrid future with permanent online ministry. The same article says that venture capital findings for Christian apps have increased from 6.1 million in 2016 to 48.5 million in 2020. And then 175.3 million in 2021. So here's my question for you because you just asked, you just answered a moment ago, what are the ups and the downs, the positives, the negatives. What do you as Glenn Blakeney? What do you as kingdom, community.tv or global hope to accomplish? What's your greatest dream to see in the tech online Christian space? Right. Yeah, first of all, the context of that, what you just read that report was the United States per se. So that's important to take note of. Thank you. Well, for me, the truth is we want to see people obviously come to know Christ and then to be discipled into Christ's likeness so that they live like Jesus, they act like Jesus, they talk like Jesus, they love like Jesus. And they do miracles like Jesus did on the earth, they pray for the sick, they see healing, you know, as you go preach the kingdom is in hand, but demonstrated heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, all those things. And so we want to raise up the body, each and every person to be a member of the body. Everybody says, well, we are a member of the body when we're born again. Well, this is the way I put it. And I said, a lot of us are body parts, but we're not part of the body. And, and we'll say, Oh, well, this is who I am, you know, I'm, and God has called me to this. This is my gifting or whatever, but we're not connected to a real kingdom community. And that involves the local church, but it does not stop there. I think we're in a time in a season now where we need to come together. We need to collaborate and now more than ever, we can do things like what we're doing right now talking about this online. You know, this is going to go international, obviously. So that's, that's a huge thing. So the importance of the digital platforms is huge. So discipling people preaching the kingdom and seeing the gospel go forth. So what we're doing, like on kingdom, community.tv, you can watch teachings and videos, 24, seven, it streams, but we also have, you know, various individuals on there. We are not bringing on these platforms that, you know, how I say this respectfully, the same old charismatic message on faith on prosperity on healing or whatever. We want kingdom content. And so we're actually trying to configure. It's kind of configure the church to, to a kingdom paradigm. And so that's what we're doing. And the training we do in kingdom, community.global. When you go there, you create a membership, you become part of our community. You can support financially, but we also have a free membership. We offer training. We offer more. There's lots of different opportunities, but it's all about understanding, shifting into the kingdom, the gospel, the kingdom. Which ultimately is this that Jesus didn't just save us so we can go to heaven, but he saved us ultimately so we could advance the kingdom on the earth. And, and so seeing people become like Jesus and really operating in that capacity. So that's, that's what we're trying to do by the grace of God. We are doing people are changing. I get people comment to me all the time. The one person I was speaking with recently said, I've been going through this training. I just started back in July of last year and has changed my life. I think differently. I have a kingdom perspective now on things, you know, and, and it's kind of challenges you to not be able to go back to kind of the old paradigm where you just are a passive person. You know, you just show up and sit in a church service and you don't do much. Maybe give some money and serve a little bit, but where you're getting activated now and really advancing the kingdom and the marketplace. You know, wherever you are. Yeah. And yeah, so, so that's our goal ultimately. I love that. And man, you have mentioned the word kingdom gospel of the kingdom discipleship so many times. I can't even count off to go back and pause and count how many times we've talked about this. I obviously see that laser focused theme in your life. A moment ago, I don't want to end on this because I know we're coming to a close and spend almost an hour, but you were talking to me about discipleship and a paradigm for discipleship. That was really exciting. Before we started recording here, I wanted to ask you that. What is discipleship? Can you reiterate again what you were telling me what is discipleship as some of the context you've been reading scripture. The discipleship ultimately is becoming like Jesus. He's the teacher where the disciples. Luke 640 says the student is not above the teacher, but any student who's been perfectly trained would be like the teacher. Jesus said that himself. Now discipleship also is a process. So what we recognize, and Lord, show me this one time a few years ago, is the word that is translated in the new King James, you know, it says in Ephesians 4 11 and 12, he gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, then it says to equip the saints for the work of ministry and so on. The word equip. There's a derivative. And I may not be pronouncing exactly right, but my basic Greek in seminary, but, you know, Carter Teeds Moss and then there's Carter Teeds Oh, and that's the word the verb is Carter Teeds Oh, is what is translated in English and Luke 640 perfectly trained. So interestingly, that word is translated in Matthew for 21 Jesus is walking along the seashore and he sees James and john sitting there, mending the fishing nets. It's the same word. So the word that's translated equipped perfectly trained is also translated meant. And what ends up happening is Jesus, of course, calls them to leave the nets behind and come and follow him and talks about making them fishers of men. And that word implies process make what ends up happening. I noticed this in the gospels. There's two stories, two narratives where Jesus performed a supernatural miracle that had to do with catching fish. And the first one is in Luke chapter five, kind of in the beginning of his ministry, the early stages. And, you know, here he is he, he sees Peter and then he gets in the boat and he tells Peter Peter to launch out into the deep. And then let down the nets. And he does so. And there's this amazing catch of fish. And it actually says the nets tour. Now, the devil's not the only one in the details God is in the details. And I think this is an important detail because fast forward after Jesus death and resurrection when he appears to his disciples again. In John 21, same thing, kind of deja vu, you know, they, they had been fishing. You know, these guys were commercial fishermen. Jesus is gone. What are we going to do Peter says, let's go fishing. So they go fishing. They don't catch anything, just like in Luke five. And then Jesus calls out to them from the, the seashore and he asked them if they caught any fish. She said, no, nothing. So he says, okay, well let down the net on the right hand side of the boat. So he does. And they do. And wow, there's this amazing catch of fish. And it actually says the nets began to break. They had to call for help. And then the comment is made. There were 153 large fish, but yet the nets did not break. So the first time the nets broke, the writer Luke is careful to document that John is careful to document 153 large fish. The nets did not break. Now, St. Jerome says that represented the nations of the earth 153, but the bottom line is whether that's true or not. That was a lot of big fish. And that was an abundant, you know, catch a fish. So what happens is he says the nets did not break. So I began to look at that. And I realized, I said, look at, you know, to me, what I felt the Holy Spirit says is this implies the discipleship process. Again, remember that the word translated equip cardotid, so is the word that's translated meant. So basically, there's this process that Jesus wants to bring us through as his followers, his disciples. And that is, he brings us into a relationship with him. He shows us, you know, no matter how gung hole we are about doing certain things for the Lord, there's, there has to be a work of preparation in our life. And Peter, of course, was a professional fisherman, but on his own with his own resources, his own powers own intellect and all of those things he was not able to catch fish. So that shows the human inability to do what God has called us to do. Hence, we need acts one eight. I will give you power from an eye, dunamis, which can also mean divinability, supernatural ability to do what I've called you to do because what he's called us to do is not only difficult, it's impossible, and in our own strength. So this process is, hey, guys, let me mend your life. Come and follow me in over three years. He begins to mend the torn net, so to speak. And it's all about preparing them because why do you mend a net going back to the picture of James and John, right? It's not so you hang it up on the wall and say, look at our nice fishing net. We have many churches that are like that. Right. And we, and we talk about what we've done in the past and, and, and you know, we look back in time, but ultimately, we have to mend so we can send. Yeah. So God wants to mend us of our brokenness, our misery. He wants to do that work in us, conforming us the image of Jesus, you know, filling us with his the fullness of who he is. And then ultimately releasing us because when at the end of those three plus years we see the net doesn't break, which interestingly, then launch out into the deep so go deep. And then at the three and a half years later, John 21, the right hand side, which is authority. Jesus is, of course, seated at the right hand of the Father, which speaks of resurrection and ultimately what Jesus did at the cross ultimately. But we have to also say that there was a process of preparation the disciples had to engage in. So I believe discipleship is all about that. God says, I want to take you where you are. I want to mend you. I want to prepare you. I want to make you whole. I want to give you a fishing net to work with others. We're not a fishing pole just to do it on our own, but to be part of a body and a fishing net. And so you can go out and you could advance the kingdom and can become a fisher of men. So just sitting back and doing nothing, you know, we have churches that talk about you come here and will heal you, but ultimately that discipleship process doesn't release people into the apostolic. And you know, as Jesus said, as the Father sent me so send you in that word, apostelos, from which we get apostolic, the church needs to become apostolic. We need to become a sending church. And so there's a place for that. Then we have other ministries and churches that talk about sending people, but they don't have an adequate preparation process and they're, they're not mending people properly. The discipleship element is missing. And what ends up happening is they go out and they try to, you know, catch men and the nets tear unfortunately. So that's kind of something the Lord has showed me about the discipleship. Yeah, I would encourage people to pause that, rewind a little bit and watch that and listen again because that is powerful. Powerful take on what discipleship is probably very different from other places you're going to hear it. But I'll tell you what, Glenn, that is really, this has been an excellent conversation. I appreciate diving deeper into kingdom, the gospel of the kingdom discipleship expounding on some of these ideas and issues. And man, what a joy it is. I think people are going to be blessed and encouraged to pray that they do sense that reparation and mending process as you just described it. But lastly, as we get ready to close. Now, I wanted to ask you, we've already mentioned a couple websites. How can people follow you, follow awake nations and get in touch with you. Sure. Well, like you, I have a podcast and you can go to either. Well, probably the best one is just look for kingdom encounter. Well, major platforms, but you can go to podcast.awakenations.org podcast.awakenations.org on social media, Glen Blake me. My, my name, the spelling obviously is different than it sounds, but they've seen your lower thirds here. So don't worry about it. Right. Right. So, yeah, and you know, kingdom community dot global is it's the other community website. And if they go to the kingdom community dot global forward slash connect. There's a little video and explainer video there that talks about who we are. It's like a two minute video. And that's a good way for people to really kind of connect, but yeah, I'm on social media as well. So, and I do travel full time. David and I always open to coming and ministering and teaching and training and equipping and some of the things we've talked about. It's really my life message. So, absolutely. Well, I actually just took your bio from the book Glen Blake knee page. So that's a shout out for you book Glenn. Hey, Glenn, I so appreciate you taking the time and this conversation has been powerful and riveting in many ways and eye opening. So, thank you so much for taking the time. I pray that people are going to be blessed by your words today. Thank you. An honor. Thank you so much for the opportunity. Missions pulse. No God's heart. Join his mission. This podcast is powered by within reach global. Subscribe, watch and listen on YouTube today. Visit missions pulse.com. You [BLANK_AUDIO]