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Being a Disciple is Our Choice
Episode #559
August 20, 2017
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Fresh revelation about Martha’s new devotional, The Mystery of Discipleship: A 91 Day Epic Voyage as a Disciple, and the role of choice in following Jesus.
(John) This week’s podcast is a little bit different. We’re just coming off of an amazing conference, The Road That Leads to Life. I hope that you enjoyed it if you were there. But if you weren’t able to make it, I hope that you’ll get the messages. I’m currently editing those now, and we will be getting those all out to you, so that you can hear it and listen to it. But the amazing news that we have today is The Mystery of Discipleship will be shipping this coming Monday, which is August the 21st. If you’ve read any of the blogs lately, one of them was “Strike While the Iron Is Hot,” and this is a perfect example of that. I was sitting on the floor of my kitchen, and I was just kind of having a quiet time just sitting on the floor, and Martha came in, and she was talking to me just before we were leaving for the conference. And I looked at her and I said, “I’ve got something amazing.” And so, I just started talking about, The Mystery of Discipleship, which is the new book that’s coming out. And I just was bubbling forth, and I ‘struck while the iron was hot.’ And this podcast contains the fruit of listening to the Lord and striking while the iron was hot. I just got so excited about the message that’s coming out. And I just wanted to share it with you. I know that I played it at the conference, but the sound quality wasn’t that great, because I was playing it from my computer. But I just wanted to share it with anyone that doesn’t know about the amazing news that The Mystery of Discipleship is done. It’s out, and it’s shipping tomorrow, if you’re listening to this on Sunday. And we really hope that you’ll get a copy of it. It is a “Epic Voyage as a Disciple.” This is just kind of a game changer book and a devotional, and I pray that everybody that will read it and get it will do the “91 Day Epic Voyage.” That you literally will take the 91 days and move through it slowly, and move through it deliberately, and move through it, as I say in this podcast, “You exercise the muscle as a disciple.” So, I hope you enjoy it, and next week’s podcast will be a little more typical of what you find here. But I really hope you enjoy this one, and I hope you get a copy of your book. There will be a link at the very bottom of this: ‘Buy Now’ link to be able to purchase the book at LivingChristianBooks.com. And you could just click that. It’ll take you right to your shopping cart with it in there, and you can buy it and get it shipped tomorrow. So, God bless you and thank you for listening, and here it comes.
The Mystery of Discipleship is a book about how to be a disciple. And you don’t just say, “These are the steps. These are what you do to be a disciple.” What you do in this book is you literally show how to be a disciple. You walk someone through how to be a disciple. You don’t just say, “Here’s the knowledge that you need to be a disciple.” You say, “Let’s walk in the path of a disciple.” And what you do every single day, you’re making a choice. Every single day you show that there’s a choosing for Christ. And that’s how we become a disciple, and that’s how we stay a disciple. Today I’m on Day 3, and it basically says something absolutely amazing. It says, “God gives salvation. He ‘makes’ His children by supernatural birth from above, but you make YOURSELF a disciple.” It’s a choice. You’re choosing. Jesus went to the shore’s edge, and He said, “Come and follow Me. I’ll make you a fisher of men.” And they had to make the choice now. They had to make that choice. And they got up and they walked. And so, the amazing thing is what you’re doing is you’re walking me through, you’re exercising the muscle, the literal muscle of choosing so that I can be a disciple.
You’re literally saying… Ok, you know, when we live in this world we can atrophy in choice. We can just kind of go ‘willy-nilly’ and just be swept by the sea of humanity to bleed and look and hear everything that’s out there, that wave of, drone of humanity, and of sin and of complaint and of… It’s just endless. It’s endless. Turn on any TV, you can see it. But what you do in this is you say, make that daily choice, come to that daily choice, and see what it is to be a disciple. And you begin to exercise that atrophied muscle of choice, choice for Him. And I believe that this book is supposed to not be just run through, even if the chapter is small, even if it’s just, you know, three small paragraphs or a hundred words. I think that every single one of these has to be gone though, because what you’re doing is exercising that muscle daily of choice. And I know that this book is phenomenal. The Spirit will use this book.
You know, your book, Adoration… I was saying that your book, Adoration, you didn’t just say, “Here, this is what Mary thought, and this is what Mary did, and this is what Mary, you know. Let’s learn about Mary and how she braided her hair.” No. What you’re doing is you’re saying, “I’m bringing you to the feet of Jesus. I’m bringing you to the feet of Jesus with Mary.” And the Spirit just uses it to ignite your heart, that your worship and… I don’t know how you do it other than it’s the Spirit of God, that He wrote these books. Because they literally are invitational, but they’re also very, very practical. And your messages are not practical. Your messages are messages that we have to ‘flesh out.’ You give me a message, and you say, “Here, ‘flesh it out’ with your experience. I’m not telling you, ‘You have to do A, B and C to become godly.’” You literally are saying, “Here, this is the message. Flesh it out with your own life, because every single one of us is individual, and every single one of us, it’s going to look different.” But the element in discipleship that you have captured is choice, the momentary choice to choose Christ over yourself. And you’re giving us an opportunity to walk that through. And the choices that we’ll make, not only that we will choose… Not only— You’re not exercising, you’re exercising it with the choices that we do have to choose as a disciple. So, this is why this is a “91 Day Epic Voyage as a Disciple.” You’re literally, you’re taking the choices that the disciple has to make in order to become a disciple of Christ.
And the Spirit of God, I just believe He’s going to do a wave for all those who read this, they’re going to be amazed. They’re going to be exercised. And what you will have at the end of this book, and the end of the 91 days, you will have either a life of a disciple, or you will know that you’ve chosen not to be a disciple and just to be a believer. That’s what you’ll have. You’ll know. You’ll know that “I don’t want to make that choice,” and that is our prerogative. We have the free will choice to choose not to be a disciple. He doesn’t force it. He doesn’t force us to be a disciple. He says, “Will you be a disciple? Come. Come and follow Me. I’ll make you fisher of men.” Ok, I have the opportunity to say, “I don’t want to be a fisher of men. I don’t like men. I want to stay with the fish. Ok, I’m fine with my nets and my father and my boat and the… I’m fine with that. I don’t want to go there. That’s too costly.” Ok, well, you’ll know it, and that’s fine. We’re allowed to make that choice. He gives us that choice, and I can’t fight that choice in anyone, because He doesn’t fight that choice. This is an invitation. “Come, Come and follow Me. Come and watch Me. Come and see My Life. Come and experience My Father.” That’s what He’s doing in this book. This is what He’s doing in this life is He’s saying, “Come.” So, I bless every single person that’s going to read this, because this is a phenomenal book. It’s not the Word, ok? I’m not elevating it. I’m just saying this a tool that God is going to use, the Spirit of God is going to use to give us an amazing exercise to be a disciple. And I think we need all the tools we can get in these days.
Being a Disciple is Our Choice – Episode #559 – Shulamite Podcast
“God gives salvation. He ‘makes’ His children by supernatural birth from above, but you make YOURSELF a disciple.” With this piercing quote, John gets fresh revelation about Martha’s new devotional, The Mystery of Discipleship, and the role of choice in following Jesus.
John, I was on day 3 yesterday, and I had the same amazing hit about her revelation that “you make yourself a disciple”. I never saw that before and I made the choice for myself but I have such a desire to lead others to want to be disciples also. I still remember Martha saying in one of her conference, “come and follow me to Jesus”. The kinda funny thing is I wanted to just keep reading but I had a check in my spirit. No, take this slow, chew and digest each day so that it becomes reality.
May I just say to Tammy, how I missed seeing you at the conference but i have no way
but here to tell you that. May the LORD bless you in your daily walk and prayer life for HIM!!!!!
So glad you are enjoying it and taking it slow. It fascinates me that the Spirit orchestrated the like that. I love Him for it! Bless you Sue!
Oh John! How I love your exuberant enthusiasm! In everything I’ve read of Martha’s, there is no doubt that she is an inspired “scribe” of God. I’m so looking forward to receiving this new book. I continue to pray for writings still in the works and for all of you that work so tirelessly to get them to us.
Much Love!
Bless you Tammy, I truly know you are standing with us and I am so grateful. We missed you at the conference very much but understand. Hoping things are better! Love you Tammy! Thanks for celebrating with us.