Podcast: Download (7.4MB)
Subscribe: RSS
Podcast (podcast-mp3): Download (5.2MB)
Subscribe: RSS
Struggle, Adventure, and the Life God Will Complete
Episode #704
05/31/2020
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Special Guest: Joan Wentzel
This the continuation of a series of podcasts started in Episode #693
“The one who calls you by name is trustworthy and will thoroughly complete his work in you.” And what an adventure we live as God fulfills this promise!
John:
I love this. I just looked at it in the Passion (2 Corinthians 1:20 TPT).
“For all of God’s promises find their ‘yes’ of fulfillment in him. And as His ‘yes’ and our ‘amen’ ascend to God, we bring Him glory!”
I love that! His ‘yes’ and my ‘amen.’ That’s amazing.
Martha:
What that ‘amen’ means is, “You will do it.” Not only, “Yes I, I bow to You,” but it’s saying, “I’m agreeing that You will finish me.” I don’t have my hands on the scriptures that, that, where He, He completes what He wants of us. He accomplishes what He assigns to us. But we, when we say ‘amen,’ we say, “I give You permission, invite You to take me over and form me into what You want me to be and what I want You to do for me. I receive that You will, You will give me a complete ‘yes’ to Your ‘yes.’”
I think that I need to write a book that quotes all the times that Jesus says He will do for you what He asks of you. But I did find one that’s fabulous.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 and I love the New American still because I like it that it’s the most accurate.
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely (Number 1). (Number 2) May your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, (Number 3) without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
That’s a big order. Could I do that for me? No!
“Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.”
Let me read that in the Passion.
“Now, may the God of peace and harmony…”
Woo, we’ve got to soak that in!
“Set you apart, making you completely holy.”
See the Bride… The most difficult thing I’m writing about, I think is about the holiness that He requires of the Bride. It’s called sanctification. It’s a process of becoming holy that is the gift of God. Next, he says,
“And may your entire being – Entire being now! – body, soul, and spirit—be kept flawless completely in the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Anointed One.”
He’s coming soon! He could come at any time and that’s what is meant. In the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ is when He comes for the bride.
“The one who calls you by name is trustworthy and will thoroughly complete his work in you.”
And there are many scriptures even in Proverbs and Psalms that He will complete what concerns us.
Joan:
This is one I was thinking of and it’s in the, I’ve memorized in the King James so that’s how I’m going to read it.
“Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
And He will complete it. Other versions say He will complete it. He will do it for us. He is willing.
John:
But unless I give my ‘yes, amen’ to that, it doesn’t happen. He, He, He does complete. He does fulfill but He doesn’t do it without my ‘yes’ choice. He doesn’t do it with my ‘want.’ He does it with my choice. And that’s, you know, it’s huge. It really is huge. We want to be the master of our own destiny. We, we are by our choice. He does, but we choose.
Martha:
I’m just thinking about what I always say, that it’s very, it’s not easy. It costs everything. I’m thinking of this song I’m listening to, this bluegrass song. It says, “Everything I’ve got is done and gone.” Oh, I can laugh at that? Yes! Good riddance! But I’ve been singing it to the Lord. “Everything I’ve got done and gone!” And the other part is done and pawned. So I’m going to take some things to Goodwill and call it my pawn. But it will cost you everything and you’ll have everything and more than you would ever imagine. God will pour out.
My life verse that I… I was all alone reading the scriptures and I’ve considered that this verse was the core of it all. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God,” Joan, what you mentioned, “and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.” And the, the things that you need to live and serve Him will be poured out. And the special outpouring is of His own holiness, His own purity, His power over nature, over man, over everything will be in place for you. It’s the most incredible… Don’t, don’t miss it! Don’t miss it by saying a sweet ‘no’ and then you go and do your own thing and call it Jesus. Uh uh! Don’t miss it, because there is a story He wants to write on your life of His own glory. But you will be swallowed up and carried with Him into His glory. And it’s not to be missed. It would be the greatest tragedy, greater than any tragedy that could happen to you would be to fail to say ‘yes’ to Him.
And it’s never too late. It’s never too late. Everything… If you say now, “Yes, Lord, a total ‘yes’ I am Yours. I will follow the Lamb wherever He goes.” Then all the years of your ‘no’ will be transformed into your story. And they won’t be lost of meaning.
Job’s life was full of suffering but in the end he saw God face to face, and he was greatly transformed and greatly treasured by God. And what he did was grapple, grapple with life. And but he also said, “Though He slay me yet shall I serve Him.” That choice was made in Job and it transcended all his suffering and brought him to a glorious end.
John just found this one: Philippians 1:6 in the NLT.
“And I am certain that God, who began a good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”
That’s so precious and so real.
John:
It puts the responsibility on Him to start it and to, to complete it. But that still doesn’t preclude – is that the word? – my choice. I still have to choose to be with Him. I still have to choose it. I still have to… He puts that responsibility on me and I love it, I love it. That’s my only part but it’s huge because the choosing is the hard part.
Martha:
Joan said this: In, in… It’s not easy but it’s simple. That’s what… I always think it’s complex. Your destiny is more complex than you can ever spiritually or mentally comprehend. I’m elderly and I really don’t comprehend the, so much about my own life. How… I can’t see it.
I think I realized a long time ago that humanity needs both a struggle and an adventure. And that’s two things we avoid. Adventure we’re got to have the courage to face. The difficulty requires a lot of character to face. But I’ve always felt that the incentive is you would not want to miss what He has planned for you. It’s a simple ‘yes’ and a very complex program of your life is being written, an adventure and a struggle, a fight. It’s in us to want to fight. And there is a legitimate fight. There’s the fight of faith.
But we, we are geared to be perfectly suited to that adventure because we need an adventure. There’s nothing worse than a boring life. That’s worse to me than sickness or anything else. But boredom… We’re not destined for boredom. I can’t keep up with Him. I can’t keep up with all He’s poured out. It is a huge outflowing from heaven, from Jesus. And the ‘yes’ receives it and the ‘no’ doesn’t even know it exists. The ‘yes’ is in the middle of it even not knowing what’s going on. Another has the rule. Another has the story. Another has the agenda and you’re taken with Him by that ‘yes’ to places that you didn’t plan to go – wonderful and terrible. And but it’s an adventure and it creates this, the correct situation for you to become.
Struggle, Adventure, and the Life God Will Complete – Episode #704 – Shulamite Podcast
“The one who calls you by name is trustworthy and will thoroughly complete his work in you.” And what an adventure we live as God fulfills this promise! There may be struggle and pain, but He will perform every task He assigns us to do. He promised.
