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When Work Becomes Divine
1 February 2014
Episode #374
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Special guests: Jennifer Wentzel and Jim Pierce
(J) If you’ve taken up your responsibility, and then you give your responsibility to God, that has so much more weight; does it not? It has so much more weight, because you have something to give; if you don’t take it up, you have nothing to give. So if you haven’t taken up your responsibilities and taken up the authority and taken up the vesting of your own being into the thing that you’re doing, it’s real easy to pitch it.
(M) I just can’t wait to say why you all do it. You’re losing your life for this ministry; you’re laying down your life for Jesus. It’s really not… That’s why you’re invested, both of you, why you are vested, both of you, it’s for Him. You’ve given your life to Him, and so you are responsible. That’s the difference. John’s always keen on the hireling. That’s what you two are doing; you’re losing your life; every day you lose your life for Christ in this.
(J) And see I know that you’re vested; (speaking to Jennifer) I can see your vesting because of the fact that you, ah, take the responsibility and you go further in the responsibility. If, it goes back to the chicken barn and, and all that stuff that happened in the chicken barn, basically, you see the task at hand, and then you have the authority, because you’ve taken it up, to actually perform it, and then to fine tune it. You’ve, you’ve literally gone in and you’ve said, ok, this is the way we do things, ah, I believe that it’ll work better if we, we curve it to do it this way; you literally are taking up the responsibility and then honing it, fine tuning it. If you weren’t vested you wouldn’t even see that there was a way to do it more efficiently. Do you see what I’m saying?
(Jennifer) Yes.
(J) I don’t know if everybody knows exactly what I’m saying, and I’m the only one that thinks I’m not saying it, but you know. So I mean there’s, there’s a streamline that she’s just picked up that I’ve been doing for years, the orders a certain way; and she’s just said, you know I think if we, we clicked it this way, this would work better. And she’s got a whole ‘nother system of how to do it, and I saw it, I was like, oh, that makes perfect sense, absolutely. It’s not, it’s not a logical way of doing it, but it is a functional, it’s functionally better. It’s more practical. I mean, you know, so I’m amazed.
(Jennifer speaks in background) No ones ever accuse me of being logical.
(J) Well thank God you’re not. (Jennifer laughs.)
(Jennifer) Well, in that, and I’m, I’m glad John said that, because I never would have put it so, so beautifully and so clearly. If I don’t take up my responsibility, then I have nothing, ah, to surrender. I have nothing to turn over in my day, that’s absolutely true. And uhm, there have been days when I have, ah, I, I have still cried, because I look at what needs to be done, and it didn’t get done. And that doesn’t mean that it’s not a work to at the end of the day put that on Him as well. And see I really, really, really wanted to do that, and I haven’t done that. And you know, I’m a kid, and when a kid, you know, doesn’t, ah, you know, is, is disappointed in some way, it’s not just saying the words, it’s not just ‘nawwwww’, it’s not a Zen thing, ok. It is a choice, as Carole said, there is absolutely a choice, but I don’t want anyone to think that it’s, it’s ah, that it is just a ‘ok, now breathe’, and give it over. You know, there are times when it’s, it’s tears; it’s tears, and you know, ‘grrrrrrah’, and there it’s an honest exchange with Him. Because He’s Real, and I’m, I’m a person and so is He. And it’s not… In the same way that if you’re in a relationship with somebody, you know, if you come home and you’ve had a rough day, and they say, ‘how was your day’? And you’re like, ‘oh fine, fine, fine’, well that’s not honest, and that’s not real, and there’s a difference between sharing your heart with someone and dumping a load on them. Ok, and the difference is whether you’re looking for someone to act as, as a trash can for your life, or whether you’re saying, you know, honestly, this was my day. And you’ve done the work to, to take it to Him, therefore the sharing of it is literally opening up and letting someone hear about it, as opposed to you taking it to somebody the way that you take it to God where you say, you know what, I can’t bear it, I can’t bear the disappointment of what I didn’t do, uhm, so I’m giving You that; I’m giving You that. I wanted this, and the answer was ‘no’, today, and ok; and getting through that and doing it. And, that is, that is also a work that He’s done, to give me a heart for the work that I do, because that’s not always easy, especially when what you do, as most of us, most of the people listening, to say that the majority of jobs out there, a place in an office, and that was years before I came to the ministry, was doing office work and there’s a lot of tedium and details and grunt work done in office stuff. And you know, the popular movies that depict this; depict the soul-sucking nature of it. That is, and that is not illegitimate, apart from God I think anything that you do, uhm, there is, there is the ability for that, for it to, you know, for you to not have the passion for something bigger and outside ourselves, we’re wired to have that, we’re wired to, you know, have communion with our Creator, which is God is bigger and more wonderful and outside of me. And I am now linked with something that is greater and bigger and more wonderful than me. And that imbues the tedium, the little things, with purpose beyond, you know, printing out three copies of something or sending out six e-mails. It’s not just that, it’s His work; this is what He has asked me to do. He has a purpose. And like I said, I didn’t see the purpose in all those years, I just thought well this is just a constant humiliation of me having a nervous breakdown in an office once again. You know, honestly I’m hirable by anyone at this point; I mean I’m a crazy person. Uhm, but there was purpose behind that; and I see it now, I see it now. So I don’t know five years from now what one e-mail response that I send out will do. I don’t know what one phone call that I have given to Him. So I have thirty minutes in a day where I don’t have thirty minutes, but He has thirty minutes for that person. I don’t know ten years from now what the result of that phone call will be; I don’t know. But I’ve given it to Him, that’s on Him, that’s on Him. And that changed everything, and it was a gradual change, but it makes even the smallest thing at my job not only worth doing, but a joy to do. And that makes all the difference, because my whole life I have looked for something ‘great’. I wanted a quest; I wanted something big; I wanted to do something that would matter. And I couldn’t see to find that. And the funny think is, I’m now doing something not terrible dissimilar from, you know, my first job when I graduated from college, and yet it’s night and day, because I’m not the same. So when I get up in the morning, I look forward to going to work. And when I leave, even after a very disappointing day, it’s still worlds better than any job I’ve ever done before. He’s the difference. And, I don’t know, I think I would, I hope that’s an encouragement to somebody out there, you know, you don’t have to work for a ministry to have your life mean something. You don’t have to be a missionary out in China, you don’t have to be a doctor saving lives everyday; what you have to do is accept your life where it is, and then He comes in and does something miraculous that you can’t even track. You know, I made that choice and I couldn’t tell you when the changes actually took place, I can only tell you that I love my job now, where honestly, two years ago, I didn’t. I didn’t; I didn’t love my life two years ago, let alone my job, and ah, He did it, He did that. And, and I love my life inexplicably. And if somebody said, well why do you love your life, what makes your life so great? I don’t know, (she laughs), Him.
(J)So if the snowing under, being snowed under is an invitation, and then you’re picking up the responsibility is the inviting Him into the situation, I mean that’s just, it’s amazing to me. He really does, He does want to be a part, and does want to, ah, to do it, and everything that we have to. And we’re falling short by it.
(M) Think I’ll quote this accurately. My daughter has quotes, famous quotes all over her shop, and one of my favorites is, “Greatness has a price, a high price, the price is responsibility.” That was Winston Churchill. And I feel like he was saying you build on little responsibility. Anyway, responsibility involves a lot of tedium.
(Jim) Isaiah fifty, you mentioned it, you spoke about Isaiah in, ah, brother Princes sermon on proclamations. And at the end of that, uhm, with the proclamation that he and his wife said, and it’s really cool because I’ve never, I don’t know how I missed over it, but, when they read the line so “that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater”, that just sounded funny to my ear and it stuck in there. And it doesn’t say that in all the translations, it’s just NIV and maybe a couple others. But after that, “So is My word that goes out from My mouth, it will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire, and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Then this part, and this is what you get, because of all the things that you do, “You will go out in joy, and be led forth in peace, the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Instead of the thorn bush will grow the pine tree, and instead of the briars the myrtle will grow; this will be the Lord’s renown for an everlasting sign which will not be destroyed.” It’s just right there!
(Jennifer) Thank you Jim, because that’s the explanation for why.
(Jim) This is actually Isaiah 54 that you were actually talking about. So my question is, after… My Bible, Isaiah 54 is titled, “The Future Glory Of Zion”, and Jennifer started in verse ten, uhm, and it’s hugely, wonderful promises, just beautiful to read it, and then He says, as it comes before then, three or four verses before “no weapon formed against you”, it says, “If anyone does attack you it will not be My doing. Whoever attacks you will surrender to you.” Thank You Lord. Then this part, “See, it is I Who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its work.” And this is, “And it is I Who have created the destroyer to work havoc; (Jim says, ‘semi-colon’) no weapon formed against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you; this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from Me.” He’s just telling us not to be afraid, He created this. He has power over everything; we have nothing to fear.
(M) Psalm 91, I’m back in Psalm 91, because it, the conditions of being in Him, which you and John and Jennifer are describing, and if this is true, there’s absolutely no place or permission to have fear, because He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and He will keep you from the deadly pestilence, He will cover you, and you will not be afraid of the terror by night, or the arrow that flies by day, and the, or the pestilence that comes at noon time. And the Amplified in that is just awesome. So I’m memorizing it in the Amplified. I’m about on verse two. (Someone speaking in background.) Well just this, John’s doing NLT of Psalm 91, and we’re doing Ephesians in NLT. But it’s just that the Amplified in this particular one is, is rich enough to be worth the trouble. But you will not be afraid, no evil will befall you; when you know Who He is, you have no fear.
Very interesting and so true!
Responsability is the main frame of God’s work. There is NOT any other! Not responsability as a “work to do” but as a “Person to be known.” (Thank you Lord Jesus for this!) And curious enough, that Responsability empowers you to fit the “natural responsabilities” in place (this is the boring office work that fills our world.) But… how do you get to do those responsabilities? If you set to know Him, then Love will take control as Jennifer said!
I have come to see love is the actuator and motor and drive of this Universe, one way or another. I have realized that all human beings do in this life is out of love. Even EVIL is the outcome of love. To hate God you have first to love evil! To hate God you must engage in many other loves that fill you. I am coming to see evil powers and principalities engage in human love. You cannot hate something without a previous strong love for something else that oposses the first thing.
It can be the Love of God or any other kind of love… but we are so driven by what we love!!
It is amazing, and it is so liberating to know you CAN BE DRIVEN and POSSESSED by what you love. And it is not a “work to do”… it is easy to love because we cannot refrain from it! Love is the drive in the Universe.
All this I am saying now I think Martha talks about in some booklet….