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A Life in Obedience to the Voice
Episode #461
October 4, 2015
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Special Guest: Carole Nelson
This is the continuation of a series of Podcasts started in Episode #459.
(Martha) He is so fascinating, because I think you quoted it to me in the last 24 hours, Carole. “My thoughts are not your thoughts. My thoughts are higher than your thoughts,” and that’s what’s so fascinating. To be content with your own thoughts or the enemy’s logic instead of the fascinating views of God, and in certain situations I’ll clap my hands and say, “I can’t wait, it will fascinating to find out how He, what His thoughts are about this situation,” because He is so far outside of our capacity to think.
(Carole) Chapter 55, Isaiah 55. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts.
(Martha) Oh, is it? Is it there?
(Carole) Your ways My ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” But even as you were speaking the message, and as I read that Isaiah 55 again, and seeing where He said, “Listen carefully to Me and eat what is good and let yourself delight in abundance and incline your ear and come to Me here and your soul shall live.” When you go to verse 11, it just struck me in a new fresh, like lightening. You know how lightening will flash, and there’s a… You see it, you see it. There was a new flash of light that came through on verse 11, because it says, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth. It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” But if I don’t hear it, that Word that goes forth from Him, His mouth, I will not see and experience and know the power and the accomplishment of His Word. And those things that He has said to me, very clearly in the way of promise that He has led me to in His Word, to speak that Word to me, with that Word and with listening to that Word comes the faith to believe that He is accomplishing that which He has spoken.
(Martha) I had an amazing insight not long ago about warfare. Ok, we know the offensive – oh, there goes a big truck. We’ve got the windows, the door is open on this beautiful fall day. It’s just gorgeous. Ok, it says, “Above all,” about warfare, “Lift up the protective shield of faith with which you an extinguish all of the flaming arrows of the evil one, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” We have begun consistently proclaiming and declaring what He has spoken in the Scriptures, and that is a, the only offensive weapon, Carole. We, that proclamation is a weapon against the enemy, and I never say it quite that way before. Is that – did you already know that?
(Carole) No, no. Please…
(Martha) Oh, that’s so exciting just to speak the Word that He gives you about a situation. It’s an arrow that kills the devil. It’s a sword that brings life to life and death to the enemy. It’s the only offensive weapon is His Voice in the Word.
(Carole) That gives the motivation and the zeal to proclaim, right there.
(Martha) Yes. Cause it can be boring and tiring. But we do it believing. And the more you proclaim, the more you believe it, but it’s the sound going out of His Word that just is the only weapon we have. It’s the only weapon we have, and it’s totally effective, because it is standing against the lie. The voice of the enemy, it’s basis is a lie because his basic character is a liar. So, it kills the lie. It kills the lie.
(Carole) It’s holding the ground. I just see it in the form of the battle, the troops on the ground, and it’s holding that ground absolutely from the enemy.
(Martha) And striking the offense, offensive move of the devil. Brother John is stoking his beard like a sage, so I’m asking Brother John, “What are you seeing?”
(J) On Get Along With God I wrote something recently about the obedience is life, easy and light and how we were discussing recently about the light burden, the light burden and the easy yoke, and that obedience is the easy and light burden and yoke.
(Martha) Yes.
(J) I was just looking back over that in the App and, but if you’re not listening, obedience is impossible, which seems, you know, “Well, duh,” you know? I mean, but it’s the fact that if you’re not purposed to listen, there’s no way you can be obedient. And if you’re not obedient and not listening, there’s no way to please God. Can’t please God by doing it your own way.
(Carole) John, it is not a ‘duh,’ because otherwise it is presumption. If we’re just going about and thinking that we know what His will is and performing what we think we know, then that is presumption. And I don’t know if this so, but Martha said there’s only two voices, and that kind of put things in a fearful reality.
(J) Absolutely.
(Carole) Frightening reality.
(J) Sure.
(Carole) Because if that’s so, and it is, then if it is not God’s voice and it’s presumption, then it’s another’s voice. And it’s Satan’s voice.
(J) Satan’s voice.
(Carole) Even if it sounds really…
(J) Really good.
(Carole) Really “good.”
(J) Umhmmm. Umhmmm. I wrote in the blog, “All Jesus requires of us is obedience, not work, not service. I would love to go into that. I would really love to go into that, because I really wanted to kind of spin off of the listening and go into the obedience and go into all the revelation that we had, because it was huge.
(Martha) Well, we went through something about three weeks ago. And it seems like the Lord is so, the waters are so flowing, that that’s a long time ago. I hope we can recapture it. But it was a significant turning point in my life. So, before I tell about it, you have to remember that I’m a dumb sheep. Ok? Then as a dumb sheep I saw, and I was taking to the Lord… Well there are two kinds of people, the irresponsible and the responsible. Both have to be corrected. Let’s just put it that way, but you are one or the other. I wasn’t forced to be responsible as a child. I had a very free childhood, but I watched my parents work and love work had joy in work and so forth. Somehow or other I got a value system of being responsible. And I found myself several weeks ago very, very burdened and feeling overwhelmed, really for some time at the responsibilities that I have. And just saying, “Lord, there’s so much on my plate, and I don’t feel like I’m doing well at any of it.” And I wasn’t, because I was trying. I was trying to manage it all and see to it all, and I was failing miserably. And what He did was to simply say, “You have only one responsibility, Martha, to obey My voice. The rest of it is not your problem. All the other things that vying for your fixing and needing you, and that you feel obligated to do something about…” I’m always, I was raised on southern manners, and I’m still not dead to it. I tend to think in terms of decency and obligation, and He’s saying, “No. The only thing you have to do is My will. And the rest of it is not yours to be concerned about.” And it gave me a liberty that I’m still dancing over, that there’s only one… And how I got there, I think really, partly it was the devil, because I think he makes you think life is too hard, and God is too hard. If you think life is too hard, then you will come, you eventually will be like one who buried his talent, because it was just too overwhelming he couldn’t do it. So, he just buried it and said, “God, You demanded too much.” Well, that’s the devil’s, one of his favorite things to do to a worker, a servant or a leader, is just make you think it’s just too big. Carole’s told me, “Martha, it’s not too big. It’s just, it looks that way to you.” And it did because the task was daunting knowing myself. But when He reduced it to His will… It doesn’t bother me if I haven’t been able to get the garden done or the kitchen clean. It’s really changed my enjoyment of life. I’m only responsible for that, for His will one thing at the time. And it just sort of hit us like a blast, didn’t it, John, that revelation when I shared it with ya’ll, everybody was sort of set free if I remember.
(J) Oh, it was amazing, because you just literally, you boiled it all down, all of life to one thing. You just said, “You just have to be obedient in the moment. You don’t have to make plans. You don’t have to regret. You just have to be obedient in the moment,” and that is so liberating. It’s so freeing that I don’t have to, you know. Believe me, I can wrapped up in all the things that have to be done and laying out the plans of all, and it’s not like I’m irresponsible and say, “Well, I’m not going to have to plan.” No. But if I’m planning, it’s just out of obedience, God’s asking to do that, you know. This is what needs to be done this moment. That’s all I have to do. That’s all I have to do is hear this moment what He wants to do.
(Martha) And I have found, ’cause I’ve learned this lesson many times before, over and over again, but my old man is very responsible and believes in itself and believes that it can do everything that is assigned to it. So, I have to keep dying to that and going back to being a sheep that can’t bear burdens or do tricks or remember. So, it’s very liberating to be a sheep. I recommend it highly ’cause it’s reality. But I find that I really don’t know how to do, execute things. I really don’t know how to plan a project, because when He takes it up, and He begins to give me the steps, it’s utterly brilliant and more than I could ever dream. There’s a writing that Austin Sparks has called “Divine Order in Christ.” I believe it’s something like that title. I love that writing, because I really love order. I enjoy order, and I don’t feel like I do well in the middle of mess and chaos, but He’s showing me, “You certainly can if you’re not focused on it and worrying about it and fretting about it. You certainly can enjoy one deed at the time.” But then I see He develops His divine order. So I pray and pray, “Give me Your divine order. Let it come down in you.” Christ must have been so brilliant in the Father and so… He must have done the most amazing things. Well, they say there’s no amount of books that could tell it all. But I know He must have been brilliant and living practical life. He had a practical life. He was a carpenter. Hello! He lived in a village where people worked together and had to work together to produce enough food for the village. And so, He was very familiar with practical work and loved… He loves practical work now. When I let Him be Himself in me, He loves the chance to work as a human in me. I don’t know if you’ve experienced that or not, but… I know you have, Carole. And I know you have, John. But I don’t think it’s the typical Christian experience to know that Jesus is doing the work within you. And you’re getting educated and amazed all the time He’s doing it.
Thank you, thank you. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” Love, love, love all of you
oh I love this podcast, I needed it so very much!!!!!!! THANK YOU AND MAY LORD BLESS AS ALWAYS FOR YOU LISTENING EAR.
Listening about the only offensive weapon we have . . . I read recently (wish I could remember: blog, podcast, book? — not sure), I think it was in the book, “Destined to Overcome,” that [paraphrasing] whenever we memorize, quote, declare the Word of God, the reason it is so powerful and effective is because those very words were, at one time, in the mouth of God — the Bible being “God-breathed.”
That seems like such a basic, ‘well, of course’ kind of statement but it shocked and amazed me. Amen, Carole, it is a great motivation. And the more we practice this, with that reality, it’s very humbling. To realize that the very promises, truths, warnings, etc., that we declare from His Word, at any given time, are not from the Amplified or the Comlete Jewish Bible — they’re from the mouth of Almighty God! Jesus said “speak” to the mountain, not pray about it.
“. . . if you’re not purposed to listen, there’s no way you can be obedient. And if you’re not obedient and not listening, there’s no way to please God.” — WOW! that’s all I can say, John.
Thank you — this whole podcast was a feast!
Love
Carole’s told me, “Martha, it’s not too big. It’s just, it looks that way to you.” And it did because the task was daunting knowing myself. But when He reduced it to His will… It doesn’t bother me if I haven’t been able to get the garden done or the kitchen clean. It’s really changed my enjoyment of life. I’m only responsible for that, for His will one thing at the time…
I really heard that! Lovelove!
The Kingdom is not complicated. I chose whether to get into this river of living (*burning*) waters, with His own course, timing and hiding.
As you say… “not many know they have to get into the rive, flowing along its course and timing and hiding”. It is a life of contemplation. You just watch and be attentive… THEN you see and listen, because He speaks and lets Himself be known.
Yes, the old thinks he/she can do it, MUST do it and the world shall fall to pieces if he/she doesn’t manage to do it!
Talk about wild pretentiousness.
Love abounding in the Master’s Love,
Sam
Amen.