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Shaking the Power of Darkness
December 21, 2014
Episode #420
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Special guests: Jennifer Wentzel
(M) I’m looking for… I don’t know if anybody listening reads the devotional, but I put this in my Bible and quoted Milton, which, I guess, Jennifer says probably John Milton wrote “Paradise Lost,” but listen to what He says. “They shook the power of darkness with the irresistible power of weakness.” And strangely enough love makes you utterly weak and vulnerable, and it’s not just the power of weakness. I don’t know how to describe it, because I talk about it all the time that He calls us to weakness. But the weaker you are, the more you love, because you have no resistance to God’s love taking you over. So, to me, weakness is becoming synonymous with love, because to love you have to wear your heart on the outside. You have to be pierce-able and hurt-able, and on the other hand, completely resistant to that. So I think that we shake the power of darkness with the irresistible power of love in weakness; and if you aren’t willing to be weak, you will not love. You agree, Jennifer? Love is vulnerable.
(Jennifer) But even there I did not want to be weak, and I even said, “God, help me, I’m so sorry, I don’t want to be weak. I would rather fight. Please make me a fighter.” I don’t want this. I don’t want this. I don’t want to be a martyr. I’m scared. I don’t want to go down praying. I want to go down swinging a sword and taking a head with me. I’m sorry. That is what’s in my heart. And He can change your heart. I’m not saying that I don’t still have a bit of a vengeful bite, but it’s really changing. It’s really changing, because once upon a time I wasn’t willing for any of it, and He will. And you’re very right. If you’re not willing… The farthest I was willing was to say, “I’m willing to be willing, but I haven’t got it in me.” And that was enough. He can come in on that.
(M) Yes, He can.
(Jennifer) So don’t be discouraged if you don’t particularly like being weak and don’t want to be, because you’re not alone. But He’s undaunted by that either. If you’re willing to want what He wants, then that can be enough for Him to come in and change your heart. He will. And that’s a miracle too.
(M) I don’t know if John will keep this on or not nor if we should, but I swim. I’ve only been swimming three times this whole year. We’re supposed to go twice a week, but anyway. I always swim in the lane with this older man, because all of the lanes are full and he and I are slower. And I just love him. I don’t know him. I think I know where, what city he lives in, but I just… And I was thinking this morning as I was swimming in there, and I said, “I don’t want to crowd you.” And he said, “You’re not crowding me. I like you being here.” And I said, “I like being here too.” But as I was swimming, I thought this whole lane is filled with the love God. It’s not possible for him not to feel that. He said, “Make it a habit,” to come swimming, he meant. We go to Ingles after we swim, and we’ve been doing that for a couple of years. And when I couldn’t go, John would say they keep asking about you, and I was just amazed. So we went today, because I love Ingles. I love all the people in Ingles. And one of the ladies in the deli section said, “You’re back. It’s good to see you.” Now she hasn’t seen me but three times in a year. One time was several months ago, and she said, “You look more rested than you did the last time.” I went, “You remember that?” She said, “Oh, yeah.” She said, “How is your husband?” And I said, “He’s a miracle.” She said, “Our God is good.” But she remembered me. She remembered my husband was ill, and she remembered how I looked months ago, and thousands of people go through there. I’m just, I’m just kind of struck by that simple life thing; how much love, how powerful it is. John has had a number of little things happen; finding things that he had wanted that couldn’t be found in the right color and the right thing and some comfortable things he wanted to wear. And I said, “It’s because you’re loving these days. You’re loving cooking, so God gave you this thing to cook with. You’re loving wearing this particular brand of shirt. You’re loving, and so it’s all coming to you. I said, “Right now I don’t love cooking, so I’m not getting anything for cooking.” And this was a very special item that God gave him. It was not available on the internet, and it was given to him at half off at Marshall’s or whatever; some marvelous thing. I’m quite envious of it, but I don’t love cooking, so I don’t have one. But love changes everything. And if you walk in love, you reap love. I said to someone very strongly, “You so hate; don’t you know that you reap hate?” If you walk in love with the Lord; and I got just this three words today. I sort of, because I’ve been through a lot this year, I have kind of new eyes. And I’ve had cataract surgery, so I do have new eyes. But I have strange new viewing of the Word. And I was, landed in John 15, and it said, “Abide in My love.” And then He says, “As I abide in My Father’s love.” And that just became so rich I don’t have words for it. But if I can abide in His love for me and His love for all, all the people I’m around; the man in the pool, the lady in the deli. It’s like a net cast out, Jennifer. I never thought of that. And it’s not anything that you can humanly do. It has to be God’s love. It has to be the “Kingdom of the Son of His love.” But it just, it’s a miracle life in the most simple pathways. And He doesn’t give it for everybody. He doesn’t give it me for everybody at all. It’s not this universal, goopy, good stuff; this, “I love you,” sugary… No.
(J) And it doesn’t mean there’s not confrontation. It doesn’t mean that there’s not dealing. It doesn’t mean that being in the truth and the light that you’re like, “Oh, everything is fine. It’s ok. No problem. No.”
(M) Thanks, John. That’s the balance to it, and there’s someone in my life now that I’m finding very, very difficult to love, and it’s not flowing, because there’s such resistance and such walls. And I know that there are times when God gives you the unction of love, and there are times when He calls you to be committed. And commitment is love. And many years ago I had a difficult person in the family, and I would say, “God, You’re just not giving me love for her. I’ve asked You and asked You and asked You. I can’t stand her. You haven’t given me love. He said, “What you have for her is commitment, and that is love.” And He said, “You are praying for her salvation, and nobody on this earth is. So that’s what, I call love commitment.” And when He calls me to somebody, I am committed until He releases that commitment, and most of the time never, ever does, no matter what. There’s still His love. But that shocked me, because I always associate love with feelings, and it’s not always the case. It’s answering a calling of God to be committed. He calls that love.
Thank you dear Shulamites once again. For the last several days, and particularly strongly today, I have been longing to hear Martha’s voice. This message is so awesome, it has moved me to tears. For a long time now, I have been really weak (physical), and yet I have never felt so close to my Lord, and this just kind of gave me comfort that I am in the right place for this particular time. I love you all, and wish you God’s best blessings.
This podcast was an answer to prayer. Last night, I lay awake for hours trying to figure out how to handle a situation with a narcissist in my family. Exhausted, I told our Father how I would wait to hear from Him…and I LET go. I needed to hear this about love being a commitment not a feeling; and the word ‘confrontation ‘ is rarely used in conjunction with love–but it was an affirmation of the word I had.
Thank you, Lord Jesus, for you faithfulness through Shulamites.
Just excellent! Oh to flow in the river of His delights!
aaaaaah. God’s timing is so always perfect …..your spoken words quieted my spirit and brought peace into the unspoken cries of my heart ….thank you ….
“But that shocked me, because I always associate love with feelings, and it’s not always the case. It’s answering a calling of God to be committed. He calls that love.”
Ha… bless YOU!! Oh, so beatiful… I also was quite shocked with the “Abide in My love as I abide in My Father’s love.”
May the love of our precious Saviour be shed in your hearts… “ungoopingly”.
I am so touched by your fellowship, and the overflow of it. Only His love can do it.
Be so very blessed.