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In the Name
May 11, 2014
Episode #388
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Special guests: Carole Nelson and Jim Pierce
(Martha) You can enjoy the presence of God alone, but in church life you enjoy sort of a different manifestation of His presence. And what I’m passionate about is we, above all, want His presence, both individually and in corporate life. He promises that if we’re in His name, meaning in His life, indwelling Him, born-again, in His ways, His way. His will is Body life, but His way is how He operates within Body life. And I’m glad that people have caught on to that this is Body life. This is church. And I’m glad that we can somehow demonstrate a bit of what that is, but I want the dynamic, revolutionary presence of the Lord because we are meeting in His name, now. It may be a few, but it’s His name, and I’m asking and passionate for a tremendous experience of His presence. He is in our midst. I want to give Him freedom to be Himself in our midst. I want to see that. I ran across a file. It happened to have been a couple of years ago, I think, when Vicki Harris was here, and I was alone with the Lord in my house. And the Holy Spirit so fell on me to reveal a revelation to me that I called everybody to come to my house. And we were weeping and bowing over this revelation, and it was a revelation about how everything that is against God is the murder of God. And I was just ripped apart by it. And I… So, church gathered spontaneously. The wonderful thing that God has created here that really is that church is spontaneous. It can be… I’ll meet with Jennifer and the Holy Spirit will come, and we’ll say, “We’ve been at church. We’ve had church.” So, two or three are always constantly in the function of His church. So, you can’t come to a meeting and see who we are. You really can’t. There’s so much that takes place outside the meeting that church is going on almost all the time. Somebody wanted to come and see how we live, and I thought, oh, that’s wonderful, wonderful. But I don’t know how you could see how we live unless you just… You’d probably have to come for two weeks to get any clue, because we really don’t know. We really don’t plan. Right now the meetings have to happen when they can. And that’s not often. But nevertheless, church goes on. It even goes on on the phone. So, church is the Body of Christ, which, of which we are a part of His Body.
(J) Church is the Body of Christ living. That’s what church is. It’s the extension of His life seen in His individual members living life under His Head. That’s church. That is church. That is the definition of church.
(Carole) Ok, this morning I was on something else, but I went back to this scripture that I go to probably frequently. II Corinthians 10:3-6. And the word obedience in verse 5 is hupakoe, Strong’s number 5218, from hupo, means under, akouo is to hear. The word signifies attentive hearing, to listen with compliant submission, assent and agreement. But the whole scripture is, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the …obedience, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.” So, a stronghold has been attacked with the weapons of God’s warfare, and we’re praying as a Body is that that thought and that stronghold that has been smashed and destroyed through God’s weapons, and is brought into the obedience of Jesus Christ. And it was brought into… The obedience, there again, is, and I had not seen this before. I probably read it, but I didn’t see it, it didn’t ignite with me that it is both hearing attentively and coming under the submission of Jesus Christ.
(Martha) That’s what makes Body life. Without that, there is no Body life. Ok. Then it’s fascinating to, ok, that two, “If two or more are gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” Next verse, guess what the next verse is? Peter said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? (laughing) Up to seven times? Jesus said, I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” There is Body life described. Right? And then He gives the parable of the slave that owed a million dollars, was forgiven, and he went and threw somebody in jail for owing him 30 cents or some such ridiculous difference. And the Lord of that slave said I forgave you a huge amount, but you wouldn’t forgive a little amount, so you’re thrown in prison. Anyway, the result of Body life is the work of corporate forgiveness, and sometimes it’s not so much the battering ram against the stronghold as it is the forgiveness for the stronghold. Because this is the verse of Body life: If you walk, if we, we, not you. I said you, but I was wrong. It’s, “if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light..” In other words, if we are coming before Him in private and in corporate, we’re in the light. We’re coming to the light, who is Christ. The light is a person. All light in this world came from him. “Then we have fellowship with one another.” First, we come to the light. Second, the result of the light is fellowship. Third the blood of Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. “If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Isn’t this, isn’t forgiveness the movement in the Body of Christ? We now, this morning, have a corporate forgiveness to give. I’m convicted, personally, of that by this passage. To me, this is what Body life is. It’s not keeping anything dark in your life and not allowing somebody else to keep something dark in their life. If you come under the light, you get seen. You get identified and named and labeled and accountable, but the result of that is forgiveness. And I can’t remember the name of the man who said, “If you forgive, it lifts the burden of guilt enough, so that perhaps the person can face it…as guilt.” So, the big function of the Body life is forgiveness, mutual forgiveness.
(Carole) Forgiveness is ‘holding the ropes.’
(Martha) And what does that mean, Carole?
(Carole) Well, I’m not sure. I just know that one of the great pastors of the 1900’s, Moody, would go to preach and there were two people, at least, that preceded him and went in to basements, underground so to speak, and prayed and ‘held the ropes’ for the people. And when you prayed for someone violently, you know that he was forgiven.
(Martha) Yeah.
(Carole) ‘Holding the ropes’ so that they had an opportunity to be released from Satan’s grip…through unforgiveness?
(Martha) Lack of confession.
(Carole) Which means he wasn’t…
(Martha) He wasn’t forgiven because they didn’t ask for forgiveness.
(Carole) But the ropes were… That’s what I’m seeing by what you’re saying. I’m just, I’m just bounding off what you’re saying. That’s all I’m doing.
(Martha) Body life.
(Carole) And that that ‘holds the ropes.’
(J) Ok. I’m seeing something, and I don’t know how to say it. But if Body life is the extension of Christ’s life as seen through the Body under the Head; if that’s what Body life is, then when there’s places in your life that are separate from Christ. Of course those items would have to be brought to the light, because you’re coming as the Body into light, and you’re coming… Do you see? I don’t know how to say it, but it’s… Ok, so I can just see it. I can’t, I can’t say it. Well, I just see like a, you know, a dark area in my heart or a dark area in my body. When I’m submitted and I come under the Body, of course the Body will address the dark area because it’s not under Christ. And when under Christ, everything is Christ’s. So, immediately you get, ‘that’s not under Christ.’ Do you see?
(Martha) Umhumm.
(J) The light exposes because when you come under Christ, everything is under… Christ’s Body is unified. So, if there’s a dark area that’s not under Christ, it’s out of order. So, it’s just natural. It’s just so natural. I mean, it may not be any great revelation, but I’m visually seeing it, and it’s just a natural progression.
(Carole) I’m seeing that we as a Body, when there is, we’re together, there’s light. When there’s a dark spot, everything in the Body turns to that, that dark place, that weak place. I mean, is that part of what? I mean…
(J) Yeah, because you’re not
(Jim) A paper cut? When you have a paper cut…
(Carole) Your focus, your focus, you’re drawn to the… Because we’re in the light, we’re drawn to the place to put it out, to light it up.
(J) Right. Exactly. That’s it. To bring light to that dark place.
(Martha) It just happens.
(J) It naturally will happen.
(Martha) That’s what you’re saying.
(J) Because there’s light everywhere. All of a sudden you go, wait a minute, what’s that dark?
(Martha) Well, we’re the light of the world. That’s a big statement. Jesus said, you, and that’s a plural you, not an individual you. The funny thing about our English language is, it can be talking about plural or single and you don’t know which until you go into the Greek and Aramaic. But anyway. It’s plural, you all are the light of the world.
