Training A Wild Horse In An Hour

00:00:01

This one horse is about to find out

00:00:03

exactly who it is and what it's worth.

00:00:07

If you watch his transformation today,

00:00:09

the same thing can happen for you.

00:00:10

How do you break a horse in an hour?

00:00:13

That's why Todd is here.

00:00:15

Todd Pierce, welcome to Crossroads.

00:00:17

– Thanks, Brian.

00:00:18

– You have a crazy gift with horses.

00:00:25

Tell us about that. Why? How?

00:00:27

– The reason you asked

00:00:28

how can you break a horse in an hour?

00:00:30

I don't really know that

00:00:31

you can break a horse in an hour,

00:00:33

but you can see a transformation take place

00:00:36

because the horse realizes that he's just now

00:00:38

been caught up in something to where,

00:00:40

one, there's somebody super powerful and,

00:00:42

secondly, that he's kind.

00:00:44

And so when you watch what a horse will do

00:00:47

in response to that type of presence,

00:00:50

it's why we can see things happen

00:00:52

at such a rapid pace.

00:00:54

– So I got to spend some time,

00:00:55

extended time with Todd out west.

00:00:57

And I just found that he lit me up.

00:00:59

I found that there was things that

00:01:00

I was learning and seeing and feeling

00:01:02

that were really, really fresh.

00:01:03

I said, "I've got to get this guy to Crossroads.

00:01:06

I've got to get him to pour in to people

00:01:08

in a language that only he has to offer."

00:01:11

It's really good stuff.

00:01:12

And just give us like a little snippet of your story.

00:01:15

– I grew up in Idaho in a small town and became

00:01:20

the stereotypical teenage wild, crazy partier.

00:01:24

And I had seen just enough of religion

00:01:27

to know that I didn't want anything to do with it.

00:01:29

Had an encounter one day

00:01:30

walking across a college campus

00:01:33

and a guy grabbed me and said,

00:01:34

"Hey, did you know that God loves you

00:01:36

and has a plan for your life?"

00:01:37

I couldn't unhear that.

00:01:39

So I came back to him, one thing led to another.

00:01:42

I gave my life to Jesus, but was kind of

00:01:44

like with a condition that, "Jesus, I love you.

00:01:47

I don't want anything to do

00:01:48

with Your church or Your people.

00:01:50

And so I believe it was His kindness

00:01:52

to use horses to actually start mentoring me.

00:01:55

Because as I was interacting with the horses,

00:01:58

all of this language started coming

00:02:00

that He wasn't trying to put me in a smaller pen.

00:02:03

He was actually trying to set me free

00:02:05

to where the addictions and the lifestyle

00:02:08

were no longer the things that were ruling me.

00:02:10

– So how about you?

00:02:12

Do you know who you are?

00:02:13

Do you know what you're worth?

00:02:15

Don't keep going through life alone.

00:02:17

What does a horse have to do with that?

00:02:20

Let's find that out right now.

00:02:24

– I don't know what gives a man

00:02:26

the right to speak into another's life.

00:02:29

I do know that the greatest teachers

00:02:30

that I've encountered have all walked

00:02:32

through their own pain and hopelessness,

00:02:35

but they've come out the other side

00:02:36

with the love and compassion

00:02:38

that drives them to a place

00:02:39

of such deep desire to help others,

00:02:42

that I could literally feel the weight

00:02:43

of their words as they spoke.

00:02:47

Now, with all the love and the power

00:02:50

that I possess, I want to take you on a journey.

00:02:53

A journey of one of the world's most

00:02:55

powerful animals as he learns how to be free

00:02:58

and discover what he was created for.

00:03:01

This is my story. It's the Gospel.

00:03:04

This is the living hope.

00:03:16

I don't have a church or a program

00:03:18

or some religion that I want you guys to join.

00:03:22

I don't ever want to get disqualified

00:03:23

as one more person that's coming in trying to fix you.

00:03:27

But I am a man that's had his own struggles

00:03:30

with addictions and insecurity and fear

00:03:32

and violence and have damaged so many

00:03:35

of the relationships around me

00:03:37

that it was this encounter with working

00:03:40

with horses that Jesus revealed to me

00:03:43

what His world is really like,

00:03:45

what it's like to be a part of

00:03:47

a Kingdom of light instead of darkness,

00:03:50

that I wasn't trapped in the walls

00:03:51

and the bars that I thought I was trapped in,

00:03:54

that everything that I had learned

00:03:56

up until this point was mostly based on lies.

00:04:01

It invited me into this process

00:04:03

of being fathered by Him,

00:04:05

that I could call Him Abba,

00:04:07

it was Aramaic for daddy, like it wasn't

00:04:10

just dad in the sense that I understood,

00:04:14

it was super intimate.

00:04:17

And through the vulnerability

00:04:18

and the level of connection that

00:04:20

He continued to fight for in me,

00:04:22

I was set free.

00:04:25

Watch that played out in the life of

00:04:26

this horse as it interacts with me as its trainer.

00:04:30

Put yourself in the horse's position.

00:04:34

What is it that you're running from?

00:04:35

What is it that you're afraid of?

00:04:38

Is your way really working

00:04:40

or is it just exhausting you?

00:04:44

It's a whole new way for you to consider doing life.

00:05:01

Watch it in this horse.

00:05:03

See the fact that he didn't even know

00:05:05

anything was wrong, he thought

00:05:06

his whole life was about staying alive.

00:05:08

That's the only instincts that he's got:

00:05:12

eat grass, stay alive and reproduce.

00:05:15

He's living out of an instinct.

00:05:18

Most people live their lives that way.

00:05:21

And if you really look at what they're doing,

00:05:22

that's all they're trying to do is stay alive.

00:05:24

They're trying to find happiness.

00:05:26

They're trying to figure out a way

00:05:28

to have relationships.

00:05:29

We were created for so much more than that.

00:05:32

We get to enjoy those things,

00:05:34

but what if the future and the destiny

00:05:36

that you're carrying inside of you

00:05:38

is something that your mind

00:05:40

hasn't even possibly understood yet?

00:05:42

This horse will literally spend

00:05:44

its entire life running around this trash.

00:05:47

He'll spend his whole life

00:05:48

being influenced by the ones around it.

00:05:51

They can't help him.

00:05:53

I have to go after him.

00:05:55

And when I find him and he says yes,

00:06:00

everything will change.

00:06:02

Even with his instincts of wanting to

00:06:05

just go back and stay alive,

00:06:08

it's my commitment to him and his yes to me

00:06:11

that makes it to where this is a forever thing.

00:06:15

He said that He'll never leave us

00:06:16

and He'll never forsake us.

00:06:18

I want you to watch that played out.

00:06:20

It doesn't matter how this horse responds,

00:06:23

once he says yes, I'm all in.

00:06:27

And this isn't an empty promise

00:06:29

that comes from a religion or a person,

00:06:33

this is the creator, the author of Life

00:06:37

speaking in truth that He's got

00:06:40

the power of heaven behind Him

00:06:41

and all the resources of heaven

00:06:43

saying that I'm coming after you.

00:07:26

Well, it could have been worse,

00:07:28

but that's not the way to start the morning.

00:07:34

She is not happy about leaving home.

00:07:37

She's never been off this ranch, so,

00:07:40

not only this first time in the trailer,

00:07:43

but first time to leave this property.

00:07:49

And what she doesn't know is

00:07:51

she's got a date with destiny.

00:07:58

Until we're willing to step outside

00:07:59

the lines of our comfort zone,

00:08:02

we're trapped in our own reality.

00:08:06

Even if you don't like your reality,

00:08:09

not very many people are willing

00:08:10

to go through the challenge of change

00:08:17

to see what's better.

00:08:20

And that's -- this filly's going to have

00:08:23

a big challenge right up front

00:08:25

because everything's going to be brand new to her.

00:08:27

She's never seen anything that

00:08:29

she's going to see today.

00:08:30

She's never been handled this way.

00:08:35

She's never even had an opportunity for change

00:08:37

because up until now, she's just been fed

00:08:40

and taken care of and kept alive, basically,

00:08:47

but doesn't know anything about what she was created for.

00:08:55

[horse neighs]

00:09:06

She keeps going through this phase of where

00:09:11

"I want you, but I don't know if I can trust you.

00:09:14

I love what I feel when I'm around you,

00:09:17

but there's something calling me to keep moving."

00:09:29

Five minutes now,

00:09:30

every time hardships come her away,

00:09:32

she's turned away from me rather than turning to me.

00:09:36

So what we're looking for is

00:09:37

what she just did when she stopped,

00:09:40

she looked to me rather than looking over the fence,

00:09:43

trying to find a way to escape.

00:09:50

The most heartbreaking thing for me,

00:09:52

and I know that that's got to be God's heart,

00:09:54

is to see men that have been labeled

00:09:56

and they've labeled themselves

00:09:59

as though you're some sort of animal

00:10:00

or your sit number has something to do with who you are.

00:10:05

Who is it that gets to speak identity into you?

00:10:08

Is it your past and your story

00:10:09

that's telling you who you are,

00:10:11

or is there a higher truth?

00:10:13

Is there someone that you can get permission

00:10:16

to speak into your identity, that this is who you are?

00:10:20

"You are my beloved son.

00:10:21

My favor's resting on you.

00:10:24

You were created in My very image."

00:10:40

What would happen if you were actually free right now?

00:10:45

What would happen if you were partnering

00:10:47

with God himself and He began to teach you

00:10:51

how to navigate and gave you

00:10:53

all these new tools to where you carry His presence,

00:10:57

every word that He speaks is now directing your life,

00:11:02

that you can literally feel your mouth

00:11:05

and hear yourself saying the words of God.

00:11:08

He told us to guard our hearts with all diligence,

00:11:12

protected because out of it,

00:11:14

that's what the issues of your life are flowing from.

00:11:18

That's why when Jesus walked through a world

00:11:20

that was so filled with pride and hatred

00:11:23

and anger and fear and segregation,

00:11:28

Jesus walked in the middle with zero agenda,

00:11:31

other than I'm going to reveal to you a perfect father.

00:11:36

And when He did that, 2020 years later,

00:11:40

we're still sitting here having a conversation

00:11:42

on how is it that this power is still alive

00:11:45

and it's flowing inside of men and women

00:11:47

and it's making it to where

00:11:49

they don't have to be afraid of being

00:11:50

in prison or outside of prison because

00:11:53

it doesn't matter where they go,

00:11:54

they carry this power, this identity,

00:11:57

this hope, and a vision that makes them unstoppable.

00:12:03

– Crossroads is a movement,

00:12:05

and this weekly message is just the beginning.

00:12:07

For 25 years, God has used us

00:12:09

to change the world in powerful and profound ways.

00:12:13

And all of that is funded by people like you and me.

00:12:16

Want to fuel the movement?

00:12:17

Well, just take the Tithe Test.

00:12:20

We're a church that tithes, meaning

00:12:22

we take 10% of what God gives to us

00:12:25

and we give it back to Him.

00:12:26

It's a practice set up on the Bible

00:12:28

and it's one of the only places God says in the Bible,

00:12:32

"Test me, test Me and see if I'm good."

00:12:35

So we created a way for you to actually test God.

00:12:38

You sign up for the Tithe Test,

00:12:39

and if it doesn't work out,

00:12:41

if you don't sense God some way

00:12:43

meeting your needs and blessing you

00:12:44

in some way for the next 90 days,

00:12:47

we will refund your entire amount of money

00:12:51

because we're convinced that God is going

00:12:54

to meet you and we will go along with that test,

00:12:56

no questions asked.

00:12:58

So head to Crossroads.net/tithetest

00:13:00

to sign up now.

00:13:03

So what happens when you get the horse to look at you?

00:13:05

– The first time I get a horse to look at me,

00:13:07

I'm actually just looking for them

00:13:09

to stop looking at everything else.

00:13:11

The soul is revealed through the eyes.

00:13:13

When I have eye contact with a horse,

00:13:14

he's seeing something inside of me that

00:13:17

he never would have noticed at first

00:13:19

because he would just see me as a threat.

00:13:21

Now he's seeing that there's something

00:13:23

kind in me that is drawing him towards me.

00:13:26

And the eye contact is really just,

00:13:29

"Now what am I focused on?"

00:13:31

I think people say that I just need

00:13:32

to live a life that's more focused on Jesus.

00:13:34

I think it's deeper than that.

00:13:36

We're not just reading scripture.

00:13:38

We're not just going to church.

00:13:39

We're not just trying to stay in a place of meditation.

00:13:42

It's just that our heart, we long for what He longs for.

00:13:45

And this horse immediately is going

00:13:46

to be asking the right questions for the first time ever.

00:13:50

He's going to ask me, "What do you want from me?"

00:13:52

And he's going to be really surprised

00:13:54

when he finds out the answer is not,

00:13:56

"I want you to be broken.

00:13:59

I've got stuff for you that I want to give you

00:14:01

that you've never even dreamt of."

00:14:03

– So if he's running around,

00:14:04

it means he's trying to get away from you?

00:14:06

– Yep.

00:14:07

– And if he comes towards you, it means?

00:14:09

– "I'm curious.

00:14:10

The horse running is very symbolic that I want my freedom.

00:14:14

I don't want to be told what to do.

00:14:16

I don't know you. I don't trust you.

00:14:18

If the horse can actually turn and face me

00:14:21

and lock eyes with me, something magical really happens.

00:14:24

There's a transition that takes place

00:14:26

and you'll see it in the horse.

00:14:29

So the horse has a higher purpose in life,

00:14:31

it just doesn't know it.

00:14:33

I think that's the way we are.

00:14:35

There is a higher purpose,

00:14:37

but we don't know what it is

00:14:38

and we don't know how to get to it.

00:14:40

How do we figure it out?

00:14:41

– Horses above any other animal,

00:14:44

discover their purpose in connection.

00:14:48

So apart from me, the horse is only going to do so much.

00:14:51

With me, it's going to do a thousand fold.

00:14:54

So its purpose is never going to be found apart from me.

00:14:59

Horses do better when they're

00:15:02

under the authority of a kind person.

00:15:05

– So when we don't know who we are,

00:15:08

how do we go through the rest of life?

00:15:10

– I think everybody's got an identity

00:15:12

based on something outside of themselves.

00:15:15

Mostly it's been their upbringing

00:15:16

and it's been the culture that they've been exposed to,

00:15:18

it's what people have told them they are.

00:15:21

"Here's your little box.

00:15:22

You're never going to get outside of that."

00:15:24

Jesus walks on the scene of every person

00:15:26

He encountered and He just blew it all up.

00:15:28

And he said, "Your identity is

00:15:30

you get to become one of my sons

00:15:33

and you've never even dreamt

00:15:34

of what it is that you're capable of.

00:15:36

Our identity becomes one of the sons of God.

00:15:39

And that's why I believe on Father's Day weekend,

00:15:42

what a beautiful time for us to celebrate

00:15:44

the fact that fathering,

00:15:45

whether it's from your natural father

00:15:47

or it's just from a man that you've chose

00:15:48

to model your life after and connect with,

00:15:51

that us as sons and daughters of God

00:15:54

being fathered by God is the answer

00:15:57

to everything that ails humanity.

00:15:59

– So once you let God in, you'll be able to see

00:16:02

His power and His compassion, things start to change.

00:16:07

That's we're going to see next.

00:16:16

[music: Lay Down by Josh Garrels]

00:17:11

– We're going to go storm the gates,

00:17:13

like we're going to charge these mountains.

00:17:15

We're going to go after people.

00:17:16

We're going to be a part of the solution.

00:17:18

We are going to become the lights

00:17:20

that the world gets to see.

00:17:22

There's no longer anything that gets to hold us back.

00:17:25

If you've said yes, if you're in and it's game on,

00:17:29

then every one of us become brothers

00:17:32

and we get to lock arms

00:17:33

and we get to hold each other up

00:17:35

and we get to inspire each other

00:17:37

and we get to have words that come from heaven

00:17:39

that flow through our mouths,

00:17:41

because now we're like living testimonies

00:17:45

of what it is that God can do with a life.

00:17:53

When Jesus said, "That if you've seen Me,

00:17:55

you've seen the Father," it makes it to where

00:17:58

now we get to look at this man, Jesus,

00:18:02

walking around on earth, perfect, without sin,

00:18:06

tempted in every way,

00:18:08

walking right into everybody's mess.

00:18:11

He would walk into the most dysfunctional lifestyles.

00:18:16

He would walk into demonic situations.

00:18:18

He would walk into religious situations.

00:18:21

And nothing changed inside of Him.

00:18:24

He kept the same heart posture toward,

00:18:26

"I represent truth. I embody truth.

00:18:28

I love people. I don't judge them.

00:18:33

I'm not afraid of their sin."

00:18:36

And I can see, no matter how somebody acts,

00:18:38

no matter what's going on in my life,

00:18:40

that His heart posture towards me,

00:18:42

His feelings towards me, His words towards me,

00:18:45

nothing ever changes. He's constant.

00:18:48

And He just continues to remind us of who we are.

00:18:51

You can see all of the violence

00:18:53

and all of the anger and all the fear,

00:18:57

He doesn't run away from it.

00:18:58

He stands right there in the middle of it

00:19:00

and waits and says, "Peace, be still."

00:19:03

And when we're done throwing our fits,

00:19:06

He's still waiting.

00:19:22

What if there's a love that's so perfect

00:19:24

that no matter what you've done,

00:19:27

whether it's good or it's bad,

00:19:29

His view of you continually stays the same?

00:19:36

As we partner together,

00:19:37

he becomes so sensitive to my ways

00:19:41

that he's going to look at the entire world

00:19:42

around him differently because

00:19:44

he's now seen himself differently.

00:19:46

He's actually caught up in this eternal thing

00:19:49

that makes it to where not only is he partnering

00:19:51

with something that he doesn't even fully understand,

00:19:53

he just knows that it's good,

00:19:54

that he's got a really, really good father

00:19:59

and that this one that he's become one with

00:20:03

is now taking him to places

00:20:04

that he never would have dreamt of.

00:20:07

That there is actually greener pastures,

00:20:09

there's great works to be done,

00:20:12

that he was built to do things that

00:20:14

he didn't even know he was capable of doing,

00:20:16

gifts that were locked up inside of him

00:20:18

that he could never release on his own.

00:20:22

Incapable of fixing himself, he's now inherited

00:20:26

this eternal perspective to where

00:20:29

for generations after him are going to be able

00:20:32

to eat of the fruit of his life,

00:20:35

that his life is now leaving a legacy.

00:20:39

Everything that he's doing in his life now

00:20:41

is going to last forever.

00:20:43

It's not just the works of man,

00:20:45

it's the works of God.

00:20:48

It's to where our lives get to echo.

00:20:51

And the echo is not going to sound like

00:20:52

pain and hurt and fear and convict.

00:20:58

It's going to be overcomer.

00:21:00

It's going to be the beloved ones.

00:21:03

It's going to be hope carriers,

00:21:05

ones that walk around lit up to where

00:21:08

they become the light of the world.

00:21:11

Jesus said that He came as the light of the world,

00:21:14

and then he called us the light of the world.

00:21:17

He said we can't hide our lives anymore.

00:21:20

Now He wants to put us up on high places

00:21:22

to where we'd be like a city on a hill.

00:21:25

People would be drawn to us,

00:21:26

not so that they could honor us,

00:21:28

but we could point them to the King of Kings

00:21:30

because we can't become their source.

00:21:34

We can point them to the source.

00:21:37

You're going to cause a revival, a revolution.

00:21:39

It's going to be a revolution

00:21:41

that's so filled with love and compassion,

00:21:43

all the differences are going to go away.

00:22:32

In a world that is mostly void of good fathers,

00:22:38

Jesus invited us into the most intimate way

00:22:41

of addressing God, in Aramaic the word was Abba.

00:22:46

It was like Daddy.

00:22:49

Addressing God as your own father.

00:22:53

Not like an earthly father,

00:22:54

but this beautiful picture of what Jesus

00:22:58

displayed of love, joy, peace and patience,

00:23:04

kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control.

00:23:08

That this is the type of father we have.

00:23:47

Jesus was a straight shooter.

00:23:50

You've watched as we've interacted

00:23:51

with all these horses,

00:23:52

every one of them is unique,

00:23:53

but they all had the same problem

00:23:55

and they all have the same solution. T

00:23:57

hey had to decide if they're going to turn away

00:23:59

from doing things their own way

00:24:01

and running around in circles

00:24:02

looking for some way to get out.

00:24:05

Or they can turn and they can trust,

00:24:07

and in that they become free.

00:24:12

Sin is the problem.

00:24:13

It's not the bad things we're doing,

00:24:15

it's something inside of us that's separate from God

00:24:18

and Jesus fixed that.

00:24:20

And every one of us get to make this decision.

00:24:23

And today is your day.

00:24:24

You're either going to say yes or you're going to say no.

00:24:27

Jesus didn't play around with it.

00:24:28

He said, "You're either for Me or you're against Me."

00:24:33

Either allow me to teach you and become one with you,

00:24:38

help you understand what you created for,

00:24:41

or turn away and you can keep pursuing

00:24:44

every other direction.

00:24:46

There's thousands of directions that you can go

00:24:49

to serve the world and to serve yourself.

00:24:52

There's only one way to the Kingdom.

00:24:54

There's only one way that we can come

00:24:56

into oneness with God and allow Him to be

00:24:59

this Father that's just continuing to pour out

00:25:01

this extravagant love on us.

00:25:06

It's Jesus, he said, that "I am the way,

00:25:08

the truth and the life,

00:25:11

nobody can come to the Father except through Me."

00:25:16

This is the greatest invitation

00:25:18

that can ever be extended to mankind,

00:25:20

that you and I get the right

00:25:21

to become sons and daughters of God.

00:25:25

Jesus, we put our full trust in You

00:25:28

and thank You for Your sacrifice

00:25:30

and for the ability to be forgiven.

00:25:34

We invite your Holy Spirit to fill us,

00:25:37

that through the blood of Jesus

00:25:38

that You can make us a new creation.

00:25:41

My life is yours.

00:26:26

– It is a crazy thing to see something that large

00:26:29

and that untamed come into control

00:26:32

in such a short time for their benefit,

00:26:34

for their future, for their future power.

00:26:38

That's what we're like. That's what you're like.

00:26:40

Until we come to see God as the one

00:26:42

who is more powerful than us and cares for us

00:26:44

more than anything we can possibly imagine,

00:26:46

there will be a lid on our life.

00:26:50

Maybe you want to come under His tutelage right now.

00:26:53

Maybe you want to receive Him, receive Christ right now.

00:26:58

It's really pretty simple.

00:26:59

We just have to look at Him.

00:27:00

Just have to look at Him

00:27:02

and you have to pray something like this.

00:27:04

God, I want to come to You

00:27:07

and I want to come under You

00:27:09

and I want to be unleashed by You.

00:27:13

I ask forgiveness for all of my wildness and craziness.

00:27:16

I'm sorry for running in circles.

00:27:19

Help me be the person You've created me to be

00:27:21

and I'll follow you the rest of my life. Amen.

00:27:25

Hey, if you just prayed that prayer, welcome to the herd.

00:27:28

We believe that God has a plan for your life

00:27:31

and this is just the beginning.

00:27:32

Crossroads is here to help you on

00:27:34

the adventurous life that you're made for.

00:27:36

So if you want to get started,

00:27:37

go to Crossroads.net/getstarted right now

00:27:41

and subscribe to this channel

00:27:43

and check out more videos like this right here.

00:27:46

Todd, this has been fantastic today.

00:27:48

Thanks for taking us on an adventure

00:27:49

and bringing us all to a new place.

00:27:51

– You bet.

Recent Series