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The Shepherd Transcends Death
January 25, 2015
Episode #425
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Special Guest: Carole Nelson
(J) Well, Psalm 23 is the Shepherd’s Psalm, and you cannot be a shepherd and not be… I’ve discussed that, that you cannot be a shepherd and not be involved, actively, personally, intimately involved with the sheep. So that’s why, that’s why the crook, and that’s why the hook, and that’s why the coming near, because of the fact that He’s being a Shepherd. In His transcendence He’s being a Shepherd. He’s drawing near in transcendence and being a Shepherd, because He’s so intimate. That’s why in the valley, that Valley of Achor, that valley of trouble when you are cast, when you are in such need, and when you are in such desperation that He is the closest, because He’s so intimately involved at that moment. Well, I know we’ve probably talked about it where there was a baby, who’s name was Kenneth, and he had been shaken and…
(M) Go ahead and tell it. It was…
(J) It was…
(M) Somebody shook him.
(J) Someone shook this little baby boy that I was really fond of and three quarters of his brain was killed and the… He was shaken so violently that the retinas of his eyes were detached. And during the time, you know, they were thinking, you know, he’s going to be dead. He was going to be brain dead. They were, you know. And I had a faith for him the whole time that was God. It was totally God, but during that time it was so… Probably prior to my salvation experience with God, that was the closest I’ve ever been with God to that point, and it was in the middle of great trouble and great crisis. But I, it was like His breath was on my skin. I could feel Him during that time. And it was, for me, I loved that child. I had such a love for that child. And the whole situation was so traumatic to everybody obviously around. But I had a; I had this great, great faith for that child, and they came in, and they had said, you know, he was dead. Basically he was brain dead. Three quarters of his brain is gone, just dead. And I had an emphatic, obnoxiously, determined “NO” about it, and it wasn’t just like, “No, I’m not accepting that.” It was, “No. That’s not true,” because God gave me a fervent, passionate, absolute “No” and He… I’m telling you, I could feel like the warmth of His body and His face and His breath with me, and I just, there was absolutely no way. And I was so adamant that I told the grandmother and the grandfather and the mother to shut up in the middle of this whole situation, which is so obnoxious, but they were all saying, “Ok, well let’s prepare this baby to be buried.” And I said, “NO,” and I told them to shut up. And I don’t why. It must have been totally God, because they listened to me. And they just stopped doing all those plans. And I would go to that… There’s was a chapel in the hospital, and I would go there, and I would just wait, and He was so there. And not only was He there for me and the baby and the family, but I was actually having something inner personal being dealt with. There was a whole shepherding move in my personal life that He was dealing with some co-dependent issue during that whole thing. There was a grand revelation about co-dependence, and I was like, “Wow, this, You are so all over this place.” And Kenneth actually came back. His brain wasn’t dead. His eyes were healed and the only thing that was an outcome of that whole entire episode was that he had to wear glasses. And so, pretty big for being brain dead and retinas detached to just wearing glasses. So, I haven’t any more contact with him for years and years and years. I would love to know where he is now. But anyway, that, to me, is the shepherding movement of God that is seen in His transcendence. God was transcendent over that whole entire situation, because He was a Shepherd. You would think that transcendence would be above. You wouldn’t think that transcendence would be throughout. But transcendence is not only above but it’s in and around and…
(M) In the middle of the death of it.
(J) It’s everything.
(M) Yes.
(J) Transcendence is everything.
(M) Is everything. Yes. Everyplace and everything.
(J) You would think that it was just like an umbrella, that it would be over, but it’s not.
(M) His transcendence was in and for every person. And I keep thinking of his poor parents, whoever shook him was freed from…
(J) Nothing happened with that either.
(M) Yeah. See, that’s the whole another side of it.
(J) Umhmm. DFACS could have easily come and taken the child, but they…
(M) Oh, and if the child died there would have been…
(J) Whew. But it didn’t happen.
(M) It didn’t happen.
(J) That didn’t happen either. And this is a transcendent thing. He was supposed to come and stay with me the night that he went to the hospital, so it would have been on me. But he didn’t.
(M) Ohhhh.
(J) At the last minute they said, you know, something happened so that he wasn’t coming to stay with me. But if he had come…
(M) You would have been accused.
(J) I would have been accused, and that would have destroyed me. That literally would have destroyed me.
(M) Whoa. Goodness, that’s huge.
(J) So, but transcendence, transcendence is complete, total involvement to the molecular level. I love that! That takes sovereignty so much higher and so much nearer.
(Carole) Molecular and as well as the, for lack of finding the word, the universal and eternal. So it goes down to the molecular in the intimacy way up and beyond to the heavens.
(J) It fills every single void, period. And without God, we’re void. So it fills every void. There’s nothing left untouched with transcendence. Nothing. You’ve really, you’ve blown sovereignty up for me. Whew.
(Carole) It’s increasing as we’re sitting here. It’s exploding.
(J) It, absolutely. So I really appreciate that, because I can see sovereignty so clearly, but I can also see how you could become cast and you could be a martyr to sovereignty.
(M) And miss the whole thing.
(J) And miss the whole thing.
(M) Umhmm.
(J) But when you take the sovereignty and transcendence, whew!
(M) The Valley of Achor, I’m still staring at Isaiah 65. And by the way, you all are exploding it for me too. It goes on to say, “For My people who seek Me.” That’s what will happen to My people who will seek Me. “But, you who forsake the Lord, who forget My holy mountain, because I called, you did not answer. I spoke, but you did not hear. You did evil in My sight. Therefore My servants will eat, but you will be hungry. My servants will drink,” (transcendence) “but you will be thirsty. My servants will rejoice, but you will be put to shame. My servants will shout joyfully with a glad heart, but you will cry out with a heavy heart.” And the choice is not so much God’s as ours. They didn’t hear His voice. They rejected Him. They didn’t listen to Him. They went to things other than Him. They chose not to surrender, because to hear you have to really surrender. And many times if you don’t intend to obey it, you won’t even hear. But that’s the difference. It’s set out right there in Isaiah 65. It’s horrific, shocking, but the transcendence… Oh, it’s why those who surrender… See the, one of the strangest things in of the Bible is when Nebuchadnezzar invaded Israel, and Jeremiah said, ‘you go under Nebuchadnezzar, and you’ll be safe. You go to Egypt to save yourself, you’ll die.” And it happened exactly like that. Imagine being told to surrender to a tyrant, a fierce, ruthless king like Nebuchadnezzar, rather than save yourself. You’ll be safe if you surrender, but you’ll be in danger if you save yourself. That is a paradox of transcendence right there. And Daniel is the quintessential picture of transcendence, where in the restrictions and the terrific crunch and terror of that regime, he just kept rising. He kept winning until he ruled over the whole thing, and then he ruled over; in prayer he ruled over Israel being returned to the homeland.
(J) I’m just amazed that you’ve used the word transcendence, and I’ve heard that word over and over and over, but it never brought nearness to God. It never brought His intimacy to me.
(M) It’s the Holy Spirit.
(J) Whew.
(M) The Holy Spirit is on this revelation this morning with us, and that’s why we’re all being blown out of the water. It’s the Holy Spirit who is using that word to describe the Life of Jesus.
(J) It’s amazing!
(M) Isn’t it amazing?
(J) Oh, my gosh.
(M) You can just, I can just, I want to take the whole Bible and see it like I’m seeing it with Daniel.
(J) Whew.
(M) Nebuchadnezzar put them in the fire and they transcended right out with not even a smell of smoke. That’s the kind of life, if the times get hard, John and Carole, that’s the kind of life I want to see and live; that is absolutely transcendent over anything politically, anything naturally that happens.
(J) It must be the Holy Spirit, because the transcendence word before now was almost a ‘get out of jail, free’ card for me. It was like, “Oh well, He’s transcendent. It’ll all pass over because He’s transcendent.” But I’d never seen the…
(Carole) I’m just seeing it as such a reality, a place, a destination not only… Destination is future. It is the destination of where… I just had a thought. Is it the ‘secret place of the Most High, because as we were going through some of these things and we were praying and proclaiming Psalm 91, I knew that the secret place of the Most High was right there, but I watched and experienced through that watching the transcendency of the Lord. I didn’t know it was the transcendency until we’re talking about it, so I wasn’t thinking on those lines, but I have watched His transcendency take place. I have watched Him rule, reign, live in and through you, Martha, through you, John; through, I believe through us all, and it is a… I don’t even know the words.
(M) That’s why He can reveal it, because we’ve experience it. That’s why the word has an explosion to us, because we have experienced it first, and now we have the revelation of Jesus. That’s the fruit of the Valley of Achor is the revelation of God.
“Revelation of God” – Amen! This is the kind of thing that happens when you [as Martha, many years ago, ended a teaching with] “don’t touch the Ark.”
Love.
Speechless.
Love!
me too.
xxx
pure gold.
“Refined” is the word you are looking for. The “refined gold” of the Lord.
Love!