From My Heart to Yours

Transcript S3E1

From My Heart to Yours

 [00:00]

Hello, I'm Tony Kostas, and welcome to Led Into Love.

 This is the first episode of this podcast for 2026. Having made the very first one in October of 24, it's now been 15 months.

Some of you have listened faithfully to each episode since then. Some of you might be listening for the first time. But I'd like to share a bit more personally with you at this stage of things, after 15 months of let Into Love and as we embark on a New Year. 

 And particularly for those of you who don't know me, because even though some of you know me well, personally, to others I'm just a voice. And even more so if you're only listening for the first time, I'd like you to know a little bit more about me and about why I'm even making this podcast.

 [01:06] 

I've just had my 84th birthday, and even though I've been in Christian ministry of all kinds for the last 60 years … it's … I didn't really expect at this time of life that I'd be sitting here in front of a microphone talking to people, some of whom have never met me – because so much of my involvement in my ministry has been working with people personally.

Some of you who are listening to this right now have known me for over 50 years, and I know you very personally and you know me. 

So it was a surprise when God began to lead me in the direction of doing this, and even more so when He made it clear to me that, unlike anything I've ever done before, He wanted me to give from my heart to the extent of not having a prepared theme or anything specific that I was going to, in a structured way, talk to you about.

So, I want to emphasize that the Led Into Love podcast is not about Bible teaching. It's not about any kind of normal preaching or public approach to presenting the things of God that I know of – other than it's very much like the thing that I feel most comfortable with, and that's just being who I am and sharing what's in my heart.

 [02:35] 

God called me a long time ago as a young man to represent Him. And over the many, many years since then, the thing that … I guess the prayer I prayed the most, has been that I should faithfully represent Him.

So when I knew to my surprise that God was leading me the direction of this, and I knew that for the first time ever I'd be in a position like I am right now in front of this microphone where I would be speaking to people that I don't even see… 

I love eye contact. I love knowing the people I'm speaking to as much as possible. And I love that interaction that takes place.

People say we're social creatures, but we are made by God for relationship. You know, even in the Bible, when it talks about us being face-to-face with Jesus, you know that verse which talks about us, like, looking in the mirror, but not looking in the mirror and seeing ourselves, but looking in a mirror and seeing Jesus. How when we are looking at Him, we are changed from one degree of glory to another into His image.

There's something that happens when … not just when people are face to face. Yeah, there's always a sense of something about when you're in someone's presence. I know even if I'm on FaceTime or a video call of some kind – especially if it's someone I haven't actually met in the flesh – you know, you know what the person looks like. It's far more real than if you're just on an audio call or something like that. But there is something, I think any human being feels when they're talking or when they're in the presence of someone, and when you're communicating … even if it's someone you've just met.

[04:24] 

Because God has given me this privilege to share myself with you in this way, even if I don't know you, even if you and I never meet this side of Eternity, that what is in my heart will be communicated to your heart – assuming that what you desire is the same thing that I desire.

And that leads me onto why I'm doing this.

I'm doing this because I know from my own experience of having become a Christian at the age of 17 and having gone through so much of the normal things that people go through (and I've talked about them quite a bit in my earlier episodes) – I know that the very essence of God's desire for this world, world, for the people that make up his church, and for his purpose, for Eternity, comes right down to individuals. 

 You know, when Jesus came here as the Son of God – the first time that God ever came into this world as a man – I to give himself and eventually lay down His life for people in this world. And Jesus was so focused on individuals. It seems ridiculous when you think of it. Here is God. He could have arrived in this world with all the fanfare and all the power and all the most impressive things you've ever seen.

But not only did he come – as we've just remembered, with another Christmas having gone by – as a baby, but as a man at 30 years old, when His father, by His Spirit led Him then to begin to make Himself known for who He really was.

He would seek out individuals and He invested Himself in them.

[06:13] 

It still amazes me when I think that even though Jesus ended up often speaking to crowds of thousands, yet what He really did … what He really achieved in the lives of people … was in the lives of individuals.

So much so that after Jesus had left His disciples, after three and a half years of public ministry, there were just 120 left in this world that could be identified as followers of Jesus. That's the number that were together on that day of Pentecost in Jerusalem when God sent his Spirit. And those people in turn were filled with the Spirit. And God worked through them to reach many others.

But listen, when Jesus Christ called people to follow Him, He called them to be disciples. And when he left those 12 men … well, by the time He left them, you'll recall that there was only 11 because Judas was no longer there. So let's say those 11 men … Jesus told those men to go and make disciples of all nations.

[07:25] 

Now, I am speaking to you, heart-to-heart. If God had given me the privilege – whoever you are that I'm speaking to now – if I could be with you now, face-to-face, person-to-person – that would be my heart's desire for you. But seeing as God has given me this commission, this privilege, to be making this podcast … the only reason and the only thing in my heart is what's in God's heart. I want what is in my heart to touch what is in your heart. And by that I mean I don't want to give you more Bible teaching. I don't want to give you something to impress you. I don't want to share great testimonies to wow you.

I want you to discover what it is to be everything God made you to be. And – this may or may not surprise you, but unlike what some people might say to you – not for your sake but for His sake. Because your ultimate fulfillment and your ultimate purpose isn't in how much you succeed in getting God to do in your life. It's how much God succeeds in being seen and known and glorified in your life.

That's our whole purpose. It was the purpose of Jesus. And it's your purpose.

[08:52] 

Great things that God has done, even in history … throughout history. How many times – if you know your Bible alone – how many times did God choose a man to effect great change in a great number of people and to achieve great things in his name?

And the danger with that always is that these people are held up as outstanding – like one-offs that are head and shoulders above everybody else. It was never meant to be like that.

When God first put His hand on my life, I had no idea what it would be like to know Him, let alone live for Him. But God's had to change a lot of things in me. And God's had to draw me – and He has – into an intimate love relationship with Him. That is the most amazing thing. I could never have imagined it if God had not done that in my life. 

But it makes Him more and more beautiful and more and more wonderful all the time.

But it makes me want to live for Him and to glorify Him in my life for as long as I live. And it gives me the desire of my heart to say to you that if you abandoned your life to God – you make your life available to Him whoever you are – if you have a desire in your heart for God, don't let anything limit the expression of that desire.

It doesn't depend on you having great ideas. It doesn't depend on you having great talents. It doesn't depend on you doing something unique or coming up with something impressive. It entirely depends on you seeing God for who He is.

[10:47] 

Unfortunately, even in today's whole Christian setting, where we have so many contemporary churches, that call themselves churches to the extent that so much that that goes in the name of Jesus is more run more on a corporate model. And there's a whole system that is geared towards getting a lot of people together – giving them things that make them feel good … have a sort of … have a God emphasis in it, and have what they call a successful church or a successful number of churches. But this has nothing to do with God's kingdom and it's nothing to do with what Jesus died for.

[11:29] 

God has always sought individuals. When God made the first man, Adam, He made an individual.

We can think of a mass of people. We can think of a great crowd of people. But for me, even though God first led me to people and people to me, 50+ years ago – and because of my responses to God or what God gave me to do – many of these people that I once knew as young people are now older people. A little bit younger than me, but I'm old so they're not that young anymore! (Some of them are listening to me right now.)

But what matters to me as far as God's concerned, let alone for me personally – which is wonderful – is that these people are specific human beings. 

I don't look at a bunch of people … I don't look at a mass of people … and say, “Well, God gave me a ministry that's affected these people”. And when God looks at the whole human race …

One of the verses that I love so much is that verse that talks about God's eyes running to and fro throughout the whole earth. God's eyes constantly scanning the earth.

[12:49] 

Now look, God can see everything that's going on in the world. But I want to say to you, it's not that He only can see it, He doessee it.

God not only can know everybody on the face of the earth at any given time, He does know them.

God is way beyond anything you can ever imagine. Don't just settle for some kind of ‘packaging’ of God that kind of presents God to you as someone who is there to make everything right in your life, to give you a great life, to make you happy, to get you to Heaven after you've died.

God is the king – the Creator of the whole Universe. You read in the book of Revelation the way He revealed Himself to the disciple John. You read the way He revealed Himself to the prophet Isaiah, to the prophet Ezekiel, to the prophet Daniel, and you see a God that is mind-bogglingly greater than anything that the human mind can take in. 

And that is the God, the one true God. God Almighty.

[14:00] 

Now, He is the God that I personally know in the most intimate way. I would never have imagined that was possible, and yet this is the same God … this is the God I'm talking to you about.

I'm not talking to you about a God who's going to make things better for you. I'm talking to you about the God who created you for Himself, without whom your life would be aimless.

If you're … I was going to say, if you're a Christian, but actually, if you're not even a Christian and you're listening to this, you know as well as I do … you know more and more you cannot escape the fact that this world is spinning out of control.

The reason why the world is spinning out of control is that this world, by and large, either turned its back on God totally or has modified God to such an extent that it's not the real God anymore.

[14:55] 

Without the living God – the God who created the Universe, the God who sent His Son Jesus for you – without Him having you as His own … without you being abandoned to Him … your life, anybody's life, has no meaning. There is no meaning. There is nopurpose in life without God. He is the Creator of life, the Author of life.

Without God, there is no life. That's why Jesus could say, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” He is. God is.

Now, that's the God that I want to talk to you about as we go on through this year. I want to share not in a way that's to just give you more knowledge or not. Not in a way that's … that's going to make you feel good even.

I want to share with you the wonder of what is there for you to live in so that you, in turn, can glorify God with your whole being. If you don't succeed in doing that, then ultimately life is without purpose.

[16:10] 

You know how empty and purposeless life feels more and more these days. Even though life is fuller on the face of it, for most of us. Life is more full and more complex than it ever was, and yet people's lives are emptier. People are more frustrated … alone, sad, unfulfilled.

And that's … it's not that that needs putting right. What needs putting right is that God needs to be put back where He belongs. Oh, I don't even like saying that, actually, because He's never been moved from where He belongs. The human race needs to go to the God who is there waiting for them. More than that, I want to speak to you personally. I don't want to be talking in big general terms.

If you're hearing my voice in your ear, then please take it as if I would be saying this to you if it was just you and me, because that's what's in my heart.

[17:13]

And also, I want to encourage you – if you don't know this already – if you're listening to this on Spotify, then you can go to my website, which is called ledintolove. That's just one word: ledintolove.com.

On my website, you'll find all these podcasts. You'll find a written version of every one of them. Not just a transcript but a written, fully written, version. And you'll also find the Led Into Love YouTube channel of myself and my son Simon, talking about a whole range of things that matter a lot to us, as we move into this year.

I want you to know me and the things that are on my heart and the things that are on God's heart for you more than you've ever had an opportunity to.

And I don't only mean that with regard to me. More than you've ever had a chance to before, I want you to see my God.

[18:09] 

The only thing … the best thing … the only real thing that any one of us have to give to anybody, that is worth anything, is the reality of what actually exists between each one of us and God.

I have nothing to give you except it's the reality of the living relationship that I have with God.

When Jesus said, “He that believes on me, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water,” that's the living water that should be flowing out of each one of God's people. It can only happen when there is a source of that water inside you. And that only happens when you are living and being led by the Spirit of God.

[18:57] 

I know that what is in my heart between God and me is real. It is not kind of a stagnant amount of water for me to drink from. It's living water that God has placed in my heart that I want to share freely with you.

Not because I've got any great idea about anything, but because this is the reality of life with God that God wants you to live in. It doesn't matter what it costs you. It doesn't matter where it takes you. Because it's all about God.

[19:30] 

Now my prayer, as we go into this year together, is that as I share my heart with you and as you listen to what is on my heart, that you will be listening always with a heart – not open to me, but open to God. And take what I share with you as something that God is wanting to speak to you about.