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The Principle of Holiness
October 26, 2014
Episode #412
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
(M) I want to share something that happened that’s really wonderful, and it was, it holds some really sweet principles of the Spirit. But to tell the story I have to go back and talk about what terrible repentance we’ve been going through.
(J) Ummmm
(M) Oh, my goodness. I’ve prayed for it, and it has come, and we have just had some really deep repentance for weeks, now. Right?
(J) I believe it’s been the most intense and most consistent repentance that we’ve had the entire twenty years I’ve been here.
(M) Really? Wow, John. Well, it’s been extremely deep. The Lord has dug very deep… and inner healing and…
(J) Deliverance.
(M) But it’s been an intense time, really..
(J) It’s sometimes daily or twice a day, some major situation.
(M) And the Holy Spirit would come in such power and outpouring, and it was glory, lots of glory and lots of tears and lots, lots involved. But during this, about five days ago the, what do you call it on my SUV, the hatchback? Or the…
(J) The tailgate.
(M) Tailgate. Ok. It’s broken, and it comes down, and it fell on my head.
(J) But you were on a slant when you did it. You were parked kind of on a hill.
(M) Oh, was that right?
(J) Yeah. And you were going at it
(M) I was going into the…
(J) …and you weren’t looking, and that’s what happened. It wasn’t..
(M) I collided with it. It started hurting my neck. So, anyway, the next day I went to the doctor, and he said you could have had a mild concussion, and he x-rayed it and saw my neck that that one side of my head was affected. And I had just constant headaches. Really, was very sick; kinda down for the count for days
(J) Umhumm.
(M) And so yesterday John was going to fix a sandwich for me and he told me to sit down, and so I picked up a book of his, and I read this prayer. It’s the book.. We were on this, and did podcasts on it, “The Believer’s Secret of Holiness,” and we were quite impacted by this book by Andrew Murray a couple of years ago. We have it now, but the title’s been changed? You asked me. “The Path to Holiness.” But, anyway, it’s the same book. And this is about, this chapter’s on holiness and humility. So, this, Andrew Murray gives the most wonderful prayers. I love to just pray his prayers. He says, “Oh, Lord, You’re the high and lofty One, Whose name is holy. And still You say, I dwell in the high and holy place and with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit.” And I realize that’s where I’ve been, contrite and broken kind of spirit. “Yes, Lord, when the soul takes the low place and has low thoughts of itself, when it feels it’s nothing,” which is where I have been, “You love where I am. You love to come and comfort, to dwell with it and revive it. Oh, my God, my creature nothingness humbles me. My many transgressions humble me.” You agreed.
(J) Umhumm.
(M) I did too. “My innate sinfulness humbles me, but this humbles me most of all; Your infinite condescension and the ineffable indwelling You so graciously offer.” Murray just knows grace like few. “It is your holiness in Christ bearing our sin, and your holy love bearing with our sin.” And the Holy Spirit did something. Something entered me of faith that I had Christ’s holiness. In a very real way I felt holiness. I felt holy. It was the Word going in and becoming reality. “It is Your holy love bearing with our sin and consenting to dwell within us.” And then he goes on and says, “Holy, Lord God I pray You to humble me, and You know I have no humility which I can bring to You and my blessed Savior who humbled Himself in the form of a servant. I hide myself in Him.” Because, you know, we don’t even have… humility has to create that. But God works in us, “to will and to do His good pleasure.”
(J) Uhm, Uhm, Uhm.
(M) And there was work in us, numbers of us. There was a work going on in us that He was doing, and the result was holiness. And I’ve said it before that when I prayed for church, I never dreamed what a holy standard God has for church. And I didn’t dream that holiness would be His first priority, and that’s what He’s done in repentance and confession and all these years. But then I was sitting there, and I said to John, “I’m just going to claim God’s healing for my head. I’m just gonna, I’m gonna receive it.” And the Lord gave me a simple command. He said, “Get up and walk to the kitchen.” And I didn’t feel good enough to do that. And I certainly didn’t feel good enough to do any cooking in the kitchen. But I went, “Ohh, ohh, I don’t feel like walking..” But I got up and went and nothing happened, and I wiped the counter or something and went back and sat down. And the most peculiar thing came upon me. There was, it was like the Lord was touching my head inside my head, and I can’t describe what it felt like, but it was like a circle around the back of my head. And there was, it was something living going on. I could say it was tingling, but I really didn’t feel like that. There’s no way I can describe it. There was an action going on inside my head, and I knew it was His healing, that He was healing my head, and that it was probably my brain He was healing. And it was a strange sensation. It went on and on, and I didn’t want to move. I was sitting in the same position, very carefully. It must have gone on for about ten minutes. And I said, “I can’t move.” The Lord said very clearly, “This healing is not fragile.” Isn’t that funny? And again He said it. “This healing is not fragile.” So, you know, if it was a concussion, there’s a little something damaging to you brain. It’s not good to have a concussion. I don’t know if I did. But anyway, I have a purpose for telling all this. But it went on for about ten minutes, and you said to me something, and I said, “I can’t talk.” You went about your business.
(J) I went out and went ahead and got the eggs from the, you know, barn and everything like that and came back, and you’re still sitting in the exact position.
(M) But this healing was not fragile. (both are laughing!) I was still scared to move, and it just went on and on. And this very strange living sensation of something inside my head. But, when it began to cease I felt entirely different, but I thought about the issue of holiness. What I experienced was that… what phrase he said, “It is Your..” his, the prayer of Murray was, “It is Your holiness in Christ.” And at that moment the Word became alive, and I believed in the holiness of Christ within me in a fresh way. I have believed in His righteousness, and I have believed in His holiness, but this the power of the Word going into me. And I believe I was healed, because I believed in His holiness. It was like He came through that faith and holiness. There was no obstacle to His healing if I had Christ’s holiness. Now we’ve been through all this repentance seeing so many things, so much sin, and so much, so many deep things and subtle things, and yet after all that repentance He could give me the holiness that was an open door for His Spirit to come in and heal my head. And I felt like that was such a principle of God that our unbelief in the gift of holiness blocks so much of what He would do for us. And I don’t think about holiness. I haven’t thought about holiness as such in a long time. But holiness is His gift, so that He can connect with us. It’s crucial. We need to go back to this book and get into it, because holiness hasn’t been on my mind or agenda or prayer or anything, but He achieved it through this deep repentance we’ve been through. That repentance was for holiness, John.
(J) Umhmm.
(M) The result of it is supposed to be purity.
(J) Umhmm.
(M) And I knew that it was a pure heart and purity, but it was holiness. Holiness is so high. And it’s interesting. The Holy Spirit moves if we will just need Him as much as we need Him. He moves in, “Before we call, He answers.” That was the scripture God gave us tonight. And I had been on with you that passage in First Corinthians 1:30, “Christ is made unto us righteousness, holiness, sanctification and redemption.” Something like that. I used to ponder that years ago. “I do not understand what that means.” And it follows the statement of Paul that “look around, you don’t see anybody noble, see many noble, but God chooses the foolish things, the things that are not, the base things, the despised things.” And then He says, “And Christ is made unto us holiness, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.”
“And Christ is made unto us holiness, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.”
HALLELUJAH
Thank you for sharing your walk with Him.
Thank you for sharing the living journey continually in honesty and power. It never ceases to encourage me and strengthen my hope…moving from the old and entering the new. There will always be seed time and harvest. Times when most of what I see is the darkness that the light is exposing but there are times when the harvest of His work, in Holiness and restoration begins to be seen and it brings a renewed joy and strength. It is difficult to not be connected in a loving body such as you all . I know that it is the Lord’s desire and plan to restore true Shepherds to His children as He assured me in Jer. 33 yesterday. For now He is using you all to feed many of His sheep.