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Death and Life within God’s Sovereignty
Episode #644
4-7-2019
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
This is the continuation of a series of podcasts started in Episode #642.
Just as our God holds the keys to life and death, His sovereignty contains both the hand of wounding and the hand of healing. What a paradox for us!
John:
And I do, I mean, I do have to say thank you, Martha because, your whole deal when you were at the Abby and God basically took you into your, your mother’s early death when you were 14 years old and where you had to passionately-charged deal with Him about something that was so crushing to a little girl, to watch your mother die of cancer. That… Your experiences fueled mine and I’m really grateful for that and I’m hoping that mine will fuel others because it wasn’t just little stories you were telling. It was encounters with a sovereign God and your encounters with a sovereign God. It is impossible for us to encounter the living God and not be changed. It’s impossible! And not only was it changing into your life and transformative in your life, because of me being under you it was transformative in my life. And He’s, you know, He’s gone in and it’s amazing, ok, it’s just amazing.
So I’m hoping that ya’ll will, will get it and enjoy it, and, and love it as much as I have because meeting the sovereign God like this has changed everything.
Martha:
I’ll just say just very briefly that what I met in God as He took me to my mother’s death and all the suffering of that, He said to me, “I hold the keys of hell and of death.” Meaning, “I am sovereign.” I didn’t know that was the word. “Now thank Me.” So I thanked Him and then He healed my soul and memory of those days of her death. So He had me come under His sovereignty first so that He could give me the healing of His sovereignty. It was His sovereignty that healed me and I walked out of that Episcopal Abby changed.
John:
It was His sovereignty that wounded you and it was His sovereignty that healed you. And if you can’t embrace the wounding hand of God, you will never experience the healing hand of God. That’s the tragedy. That you can remain, you can remain affixed to the wound and never come into the healing. And I don’t want that to, I don’t want that to be anyone’s experience. Oh, my God, please!
Martha:
You know, John, we talked about one more factor that we were going to discuss and it is that in God’s sovereignty… His, His… The Tree of Life is transcendent over the Tree of Death. In fact, life is so LIFE that it swallows death and that’s what that experience was for me. He will… He has… The scripture is full of it: Joseph, Job, Paul, Daniel. Suffering that God transcends and turns a person into someone that they’ve never been for His purposes, for His sovereign purposes.
Joseph is a picture of Christ and he was put through what he was put through for a sovereign purpose that he didn’t know. But because he accepted the wounding and he got the vision that his brothers meant it for evil but God meant it for good. And that’s the story of every story.
Yes, there is evil out there. Yes, there are wrongs. Yes, there are abuses to children, adults, everyone. But having a just a speck belief in His sovereignty will bring His sovereign purpose and swallow up the pain and everything. That’s what He did about my mother’s death. I carried that pain for twenty years and when He put me in the crucible and I cried out to Him, He, He caused me… “Here’s how you solve it, Martha. I hold the keys to hell and death. No one does. No man, no Satan, no devil, nothing. I hold the keys to hell and death. Now, thank Me.” And I mean, I was a transformed person because He did something in the Spirit in me and, and it’s… That’s just the way of the Tree of Life. His sovereignty swallows every pain, every horror, every nightmare, every problem, every sin. His sovereignty… Thank God, He is sovereign; that He’s powerful enough to take all of it and make it as He did for Joseph and Job. Job in the end saw God and was melted.
So you have made that clear because of your own healing along with way. That’s why the book is powerful. It’s not a doctrine. It’s not the doctrine of sovereignty. It’s the experience of the touch of sovereignty. And I, I am so grateful.
John:
Again that’s, that is why the cover is what the cover is to me. It is because it’s, it’s a touch. It is a reach – touch. And it’s an experience. This book is an experience, you know. I said that about the, the booklet I did, Where Are You, God? – my testimony book – and I said, you know, “This isn’t just for me. This is, this is an interactive book.” Well, this book is the same. And maybe that’s because that’s how God wants to speak through me. And I’m, I’m grateful. I’m grateful that that’s how He speaks through me. I’m grateful that, that that’s how He chooses to speak, because that’s the God I’ve always looked for is that interactive God. I want a God that’s touchable, tangible, reachable. I’m not interested in, in a God that’s head knowledge and theology and creeds and you know. Though, though all of that theology and doctrine is not something that I’m throwing out, it’s just there’s something behind all of that. You’re talking about some-thing. I’m talking about some-one. And, you know, doctrine and theology is leading you hopefully to someone.
Martha:
You know, John, there’s an incredible statement in Romans 8. “All things work together for good to those who love Him according to His purpose.” And that statement… We look at it and we think, “Yeah, yeah, right.” But it’s true. God gives you the love for Him that enables you to let Him have His own story in your life. And He would in time explain to me exactly why He put me through suffering and neglect and loneliness and grief.
I had found an old letter I’ve found recently where I wrote to someone and said, “Please help me. I miss my mother so much.” And I knew that that person never answered that nor could they give me the comfort I needed. Only God could! And strangely, I was very isolated following her death but my point is… Oh, ok here it is. The Lord said to me, “You will never minister to anyone except from that little girl. She is your connection to the pains of humanity.” I can always associate with certain pains in life because I lived it. And I was formed in the crucible but made victorious in God’s love. God’s love swallowed it all up so there was no pain and He turned it to the good of causing me to have a heart of compassion.
So sovereignly it was perfect what I went through. Couldn’t have been any other way if I was going to have any empathy for humanity. There is a purpose for every suffering and He wants to transform it. Transform you into… He molds you through all that you experience in life with specific design in mind so that all things come together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
Death and Life within God’s Sovereignty – Episode #644 – Shulamite Podcast
Just as our God holds the keys to life and death, His sovereignty contains both the hand of wounding and the hand of healing. What a paradox for us! And a truly difficult dealing for everyone He calls. But what a reward awaits them when they do!
