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Glory! The Glory of God’s Will
Episode #541
April 16, 2017
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Too many Christians believe that God’s will is terribly difficult. And when we serve Him with a reluctant heart, it’s easy to miss the glory of God’s will.
(John) Well, Martha, spring has sprung, and part of it’s sprung up my nose. And I’ve been sick for a couple of days with some kind of sinus-y, pollen-y thing. This is not normal for me, but I have that. So, this the sound of my lovely voice today. I wanted to tell something at the very beginning of this. I wanted to advise everybody of the update that we just released of the Shulamite App. We were having some issues with… It brought up an error message basically saying that it was going to slow down your iPhone or iPad. And it was something that happened with the last iOS update. And if you hadn’t updated, you probably wouldn’t have seen it. But there are several people that have contacted us and said, “Hey, we’re getting an error message.” Though it didn’t affect your phone as it said, it probably would have eventually. So, we went ahead and found a developer, and we have updated it, and it’s wonderful. The error message is gone. The code is a lot cleaner than it was, which means absolutely nothing to anyone but the developer. And to me knowing that clean code is going to make it run smoother, and that this update will last longer, because it will be compatible with the next iOS update. And that’s probably too much information for most people, but I could say the App works perfectly, and it’s faster now. So, this is a good thing. We’re also going to be working with this developer to bring some new features into an update that will come up real soon here. One of the things I’d like to do is I want to do push notifications, which basically if you’ve ever had an App on your phone that popped up and says there’s new content over here. We want to basically let you know when you should come back to the App and see the new content. So, we’re going to do that, and we’re hoping for some other new features that will be revealed in the coming weeks and months. So, we’re looking forward to that. So, I wanted to first start with that. I hope you use the App. It’s a wonderful resource we’ve made for everybody to be able to access literally every single thing that’s on the websites. In a one stop shop you can be anywhere and be able to do that. So, I hope that you take advantage of that and use it. It’s free. Now it’s completely compatible with your iPhone and iPad and iTouch.
Martha, you’ve been writing, I’ve been writing and you’ve been writing actually about spring. So, going back in, we’re sitting out here on a lovely day. The breeze is beautiful, and the sky is blue, and everything is starting to erupt from the ground. And it’s just absolutely gorgeous. So, tell me about this post that you were writing earlier today.
(Martha) I had been asking the Lord, as I said in the post, for a new fire. I realized I needed spring and resurrection. And I asked Him to give me a fire for Him. And it kinda started back some weeks ago. I got into Psalm 119 deeper than I ever had, and I was astonished how much the Psalmist wrote of his love for God’s law, precepts, commandment, all of which are God’s will. It’s just one of the… I’ll just read you a couple of things. “I have taken your testimonies as a heritage forever. They are the joy of my heart.” He talks about, “I lift up my hands to Your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on Your statues.” All those mean the Word, but it also means the will of God. “I will walk at liberty, for I seek and deeply long for Your precepts, Your will.” There’s such a love affair in this one Psalm with the will of God and with the commands of God. And that touched me. So, in asking the Lord for a new fire, I came to this book by Andrew Murray, which is not new to me, but I hadn’t read it in years, and I started reading it. And it just set my heart ablaze and put me in love with the will of God anew and afresh. I’ve always been on the will of God, because I think it came to me in my early days when I read and was so deep into the Beatitudes. I began, my foundation was the Beatitudes. And I became aware from that. The Beatitudes were about His will. But this one particular passage has always struck me with fear and struck me with desire. It’s Matthew 7. I’ve been particularly aware of this lately, because I know people and have known many who would fall into this category. He says in verse 21 of chapter 7 of Matthew, “Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father, who is in Heaven.” That is pretty stark right there. “Many will say to me on that day when I judge, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name and driven out demons in Your name and done many miracles in Your name? And then I will declare to them publicly, I never knew you. Depart from Me. You’re banished from My presence, you who act wickedly, disregarding my commands.” And I’m reading from the New Amplified, but the traditional translations say, “Depart from Me. I never knew you, lawless one.” The lawless one is one who doesn’t conform to His will, His statutes, His commandments, His truths. So, this book has ignited a little flame in me and a great recovery of the love of God’s will. Now, I remember also being so impacted by Jesus said in the Psalms, “Lo, it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O God.” Delight. And I know that and I put it in the post that we all humanly, we consider God’s will the worst possible of all possibilities the worst thing.
(John) I know I certainly have. The book that you’re reading is Andrew Murray, God’s Will: Our Dwelling Place. (Now titled Thy Will Be Done, same exact book) And we have carried it before at LivingChristianBooks.com, and then…
(Martha) We sold out…
(John) Yeah, we sold out, and we’ve not restocked it. But we’re going to get it in there by the time this podcast goes up in two weeks. We’ll have them in stock, and you can basically order those. And we’ll probably put a discount code for everybody that follows the podcast and be able to get a discount, a coupon with that. (Coupon Code for 10% off Thy Will Be Done: THYWILL10 )
(Martha) Well, it’s a book I read years ago, but Murray, it’s… I could spend the rest of my life on Andrew Murray. His writing is full of revelation, very high spiritual revelation. He is full of grace, love, mercy and he speaks in simple terms. I can grasp what he’s saying. And there’s so many things. My book has practically turned yellow I’ve highlighted so many things. But listen to this, and he’s quoting the verse I just read. “‘He who does the will of My Father which is in heaven will enter.’ Heaven is nothing but the unhindered manifestation of the working of God’s will. It is the outshining of His hidden glory and what He does. The inhabitants of heaven owe all their glory to God’s working His will of love in them.”
(John) Umm, umm.
(Martha) And that’s the other thing about Murray. It’s always undergirded with love.
(John) And grace, major grace.
(Martha) And major grace. He is just exceptional. And his revelation is so high. “To live in the will of God is the only thing that can make us well pleasing to Him. The one and only object and proof of true consecration is doing the will of God.” It’s funny. I happened to see this book at Carole’s house, and all of a sudden the Holy Spirit lit it up and I went to find mine. And I don’t think I’ll ever have a year again that I don’t read this book to remind me of the issue so prevalent in our lives of being in God’s will. And so, I’ve been in the book, and the other day I was… Before I got the book I was kind of driving a couple of hours, and I was brooding on the fact that being in the middle of God’s will opens the heavens. He taught me many years ago… Do you remember the incident that I’ve told you about? You were not there because you hadn’t come yet. I went to speak at a church in Rome, Georgia, and there was a woman there who let out a blood-curdling scream. Do you remember, John?
(John) Yeah. Actually I’ve looked for that tape, because I wanted to hear it, but I’ve never been able to find it.
(Martha) Well, it was a blood-curdling scream. And she went running out of the sanctuary. And the church members caught her and subdued her on the sidewalk outside and called an ambulance, and they took her to the psych ward of a hospital—all because of me. It was a terrible thing. And the pastor blamed me. He said, “Martha, we don’t treat our people like that.” “I don’t know what I did, sir.” But before it was over, he had turned his heart toward me. And in the end they took her to the psych ward, and I remember Jacquelyn holding up a cross over her on the sidewalk, rebuking demons.
(John) Well, they were certainly there!
(Martha) Uh huh! They were. And it was a demonic scream. It was unearthly. But it rattled me to my bones. I got through the teaching episode. It was a weekend on prayer at this church. But on the way home the Lord was… Others were driving, I was sitting in the backseat, and the Lord was saying to me, “You believe that My will is the worst possibility, and that this is the evidence. My will gets you here, and you were blamed, and it’s terrible, and it’s a terrible experience for you and for all the church and for that woman.”
(John) That the will of God is always a “mell of a hess.” It’s just always, and really, you know, it’s very unfortunate, but I mean, I’ve done that. I’ve heard other people talk about it, how they always believe the will of God is the absolute worst possibility, that if you’re going to be in the center of God’s will, that you’re going to be in misery and difficulty.
(Martha) Difficulty. And it’s true many times, but the issue of His will’s will, His purpose in it, is glory. But in any event, several weeks later they called me and said, “Martha…” Oh, it was a couple of months, I believe. They said, “This woman considers that her life was turned that day on the sidewalk and credits you and your people with her liberation from darkness. And she’s become the hungriest woman in the church. She comes to every meeting including the staff meetings if she can, and she’s growing and learning.” So, God’s will was vindicated. Whatever I said, and I think it was really about obedience. I think I was speaking about obedience. But anyway, that was when the Lord corrected me on the way home in that car. And what He said was, I don’t know that I can find it in Deuteronomy. But He said, “If you do not serve Me with a joyful heart…”
(John) Oooo, yeah, umhmm.
(Martha) “I will put an iron around your neck and you will serve your enemies. I want you to serve me with gladness of heart.” And it was a huge correction, because it… And I believe this is the human condition from the Garden of Eden. We’re suspicious that God has withheld something we need. And so, we’re not terribly in love with His will. But this Psalmist in 119 is totally in love with, and enraptured with the will of God. And so, Deuteronomy 28:48. How does it read, John? Ok, here’s the NIV version. “Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.”
(John) You know, but so this is… The weird thing is, we believe that. We believe that that is exactly what the consequences for not loving and doing it with joy are what we believe it is if we did it. Do you see what I’m saying?
(Martha) Oh, I do. I’ve never seen that before. Oh, my goodness.
(John) Like I believe that it’s the worst-case scenario. He’s going to send you to a ‘ahboogadeedoogabe,’ and you’re going to have to, you know, eat bugs and stuff like that. That’s my belief. And the human belief is the consequences for not being in the will of God.
(Martha) And it’s true. So, it gave me the fear of God for being so suspicious of His motive and His will, and say, “Oh, here we go again, now a woman screaming.” And in the end He was vindicated, and I was vindicated. And the woman was set free.
(John) It was all glory.
(Martha) It was all glory in the end, and it was all for His purpose. All was sovereign, and He sent me there for that to happen.
Glory! The Glory of God’s Will – Episode #541 – Shulamite Podcast
Want to take advantage of the offer John mentioned? The book Thy Will Be Done by Andrew Murray, (formally titled: God’s Will: Our Dwelling Place) is available at LivingChristianBooks.com for an additional 10% off. Use Coupon Code: THYWILL10
Too many Christians believe that God’s will is difficult. We really believe that God is going to put us in the most miserable situations possible! And when we serve Him with a reluctant heart rather than a joyful one, it’s easy to miss the glory of God’s will.
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