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Gomer Bride and Resistance to Authority
Episode #713
08/02/2020
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
This the continuation of a series of podcasts started in Episode #711
A timely message with excerpts from our upcoming books. The Topics: Jesus and the Gomer Bride, And from The Sovereign Touch: Our resistance to authority.
John:
Well, I mean, you know, the amazing thing is that He doesn’t rub her nose in it.
Martha:
Oh, isn’t that grace.
John:
He’s not, He’s not about shaming her and rubbing her nose in it. All of us whores and Gomers, all of us! And unfortunately and fortunately, and you do know why it’s fortunate, none of us are…That is who He chose. That is, that is His choice, you know. He chose a Gomer bride because that’s all of fallen humanity. We are Gomer. It is who we are. But He looked at us and chose us and He didn’t choose the, the pure white and, and beautiful but He was going to make her that.
Martha:
That’s exactly I was about to say. They gave her fine white linen.
John:
He made her into that.
Martha:
Um hmm.
John:
So, see He will get the glory of even that.
Martha:
Exactly. He has, He has nothing but nothings.
John:
Nothings.
Martha:
And it doesn’t…He, He wants it that way so that all the glory can be of Him. And all that she is He will cause her to be for what He wants her to be.
John:
Whew! Yeah.
Martha:
And it’s, when you get in the scriptures it’s undeniable. I can’t wait to write about Esther.
John:
I can’t wait for you to write about Esther. Please, Jesus, please.
Martha:
Oh that’s…Thank you, John. That is amazingly…
John:
So that bears witness with you?
Martha:
Oh, it’s just so encouraging. I think…I’m so thankful for…It’s strange but I was thinking why do you need so much encouragement in a project like this that we, you, too, are on. Encouragement is like a lifeline…
John:
Um hmm.
Martha:
…to give you another infusion, intravenous feeding to keep going.
John:
Right.
Martha:
And it is.
John:
Well, everybody whose, whose birthing has a birthing coach…
Martha:
Oh.
John:
…you know? And we all need that because in the middle of it, it feels like death.
Martha:
Um hmm. It feels like you can’t do it.
John:
Number one you can’t do it.
Martha:
And, and you can’t.
John:
Right.
Martha:
A lot of it is waiting…
John:
That’s the death.
Martha:
…and praying. Yes.
John:
I can’t do it.
Martha:
Um hmm.
John:
And I’ve watched enough movies and, and documentaries about women having babies and there’s a point that the women, you know, unless they’re knocked out, the women say, “I can’t do this!”
Martha:
Um hmm.
John:
“…I cannot do this!” And, and then the doctor says, “Yes, you can. Let’s go.” And that’s kind of where we at right now.
Martha:
Um hmm.
John:
It’s already written. It’s already written.
Martha:
Well, and during these months where I’ve not been able to do much everybody has said, “But, Martha, you’re, you’re living the Bride that you will tell.” And it’s true.
John:
Yeah, that’s right.
Martha:
I have had to live out every bit of it to have anything to know or say.
John:
Jesus, Jesus.
Martha:
So…
John:
Please, please, please, please pray. Please, I’m begging you to pray. And I’m obviously, I’m standing and praying and I’m excited.
Martha:
Well, now I’m going to turn on John because he is, he’s doing an incredible thing because he’s giving out page after page of insight on life and Christ and current, it’s current, relevant, and this, this one he wrote I wept over.
It’s called Behind Resistance to Authority.
Every generation witnesses some degree of civil unrest. It seems to be the ebb and flow of humanity. And earthly authority can be a huge finger poke from God’s sovereign reign. But in light of the uprisings I’ve witnessed, I would like to share with you how I personally sought the Lord for answers.
My heart was heavy and saddened by the riots and corruption in our land. Lawlessness is rampant from the top down. Quite frankly, we have become a nation filled with lawless ones. One Nation under Lawlessness! (What a way to put it.)
One of the nights when there was an uprising, I had a disturbing dream. The dream was about aggressive, intimidating men, filled with strife and violence. I know it stemmed from watching news clips before going to bed, but I just couldn’t shake it. At one point during my dream, I walked into a room packed with men – actually, they were thugs who were ready to erupt. The clothes they wore were for urban warfare and they were seething for a fight.
The next morning, I turned to God to still my heart and settle my fears. He led me to Romans 13, which speaks of respecting authority because all authority comes from God.
Casting off the restraints of authority. The truth behind the anarchy of the world: In our hearts we have cast off the restraints of God, so now we are unable to submit to the human authorities He places over us. (You’re tracing the cause now. That’s awesome.) Lawlessness runs rampant because in the secret of each of our hearts, we resist God. These flash bombs, looting, broken windows, spray painting, and burning towns are not from resistance to man; they are from resistance to God.
I am talking about lawlessness as a whole, here, not as a single event or even one particular country. This is not about one person or even multiple people being abused by authority. I am speaking of the primal rebellion that set this scenario of human rebellion up in the first place.
Consequences result when we cast off the restraints of our God, rejecting His rule over us. And so I ask, just whose authority are we trying to shake off in our resistance?
But some of His people hated Him and sent Him their declaration of independence, stating that they had rebelled and would not acknowledge Him as their King.
Luke 19:14 TLB (The King was called not a king.)
John:
Jesus.
Martha:
I will have no ability to submit to God-given authority when I resent and resist God’s actual authority in my life. In this heart condition, rebellion, godlessness, anarchy, and unrest thrive. We are witnessing neither bad cops gone rogue nor rebellious youth in an uprising. We are seeing the result of man casting off his restraints. This is what it looks like when we are working to be free from God’s rule. This is the direct result of telling God to shut up. (Oh my!)
(Luke 19:14. This is the Holman. This is the one I’m used to.)
“We don’t want this man to rule over us!”
Luke 19:14b HCSB
We are watching rocks thrown at God, cars and buildings set on fire to spite God, and the murderous abuse of God-given power on the part of human authorities. If there is no authority that is in place but by God’s own direction, then God is to blame. Our fight is with God!
We want authority and sovereignty to be about man, not God. I can fight, spit at, and revile a man, but God? My rocks cannot reach Him. The reality is that our world is burning from our resistance to God as God. We have clothed ourselves in the garb of war against God. It is His rule we are fighting against in our hearts.
The entire climate of our world is the result of man being mad as hell that God is actually God. We are infuriated that He has the audacity to reign in our lives. We are witnessing daily the fruit of a culture that has been so blessed by God that now we feel we do not need Him, nor do we want His meddling influence in our lives and choices.
Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.
Romans 13:14 NLT
Authority is a vital subject we each must face with honesty and clarity.
Here’s another of his blogs about Authority called Cursing Delegated Authority.
Consequently the one who resist authority is resisting what God has set in place. And those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.
(That is Romans 13.2. We’ve talked about it so many times, John.)
Reviling authority is no joking matter. If you look in the OT cursing authority results in leprosy, plagues, the earth swallowing one who curses, and other means of death to name a few. In the NT blindness, degradation, and dropping dead results on cursing authority.
(Woo, if that doesn’t put the fear of God. Why, why are we not concerned about this?)
John:
I don’t…
Martha:
Because we don’t read the word.
John:
Because?…Well, that and it’s not preached. It’s not being preached.
Martha:
That’s… We don’t hear it.?
John:
We don’t hear it, really.
Martha:
When humans curse authority is a win-win for Satan, why? Because either the devil wins by hindering God’s delegated authority or he wins when revilers of authority reap destruction in their lives. We humans cannot curse authority and avoid reaping disastrous consequences. Cursing and reviling take the offense so much further than murmuring. To complain about authority is bad enough but literally to speak curses against those to whom God has delegated authority is to unleash a whirlwind of destruction back on our own lies.
(And this, this doesn’t even mention murdering cops…)
John:
Yeah.
Martha:
…and such things.
John:
Yeah. But it’s all del, about delegated authority and it’s about the result. And the result is, you know, you can look at these, these scenarios out there that’s going on right now and then you realize if you, you know, you can just get mad and say, “God, you know, level them.” But these, these are individual souls that are literally sowing into their lives seed that is going be, oh my goodness…
Martha:
It’s going to reap.
John:
It is going to be really bad.
Martha:
And sit’s inevitable.
John:
It sure enough is.
Martha:
The devil achieves his goal of devouring, stealing, killing, and destroying God’s beloved humans when we curse authority.
And he’s got these references: 1 Peter 5:8, John 10:10.
Satan loves to involve God’s own creation in bringing about in implosion and reviling authority is a debacle of destruction; everyone loses except the devil.
Exodus 22:28
You must not revile God nor curse the ruler of your people.
In his book Spiritual Authority Watchman Nee writes whenever there’s rebellion and reviling among us, we shall lose the presence of God.
John:
Right.
Martha:
Woe.
He also says no one can reject God’s delegated authority with one hand and receive God in the other hand. This is frightening because it means the progress of a man’s spiritual life is halted when reviling is present. Again Satan wins!
You know what John? Your book on sovereignty-this is a chapter from your book The Sovereign Touch…
John:
These are two, yeah, two chapters you’re pulling from here.
Martha:
And in order to understand the judgment that comes on reviling you have to know that God is sovereign and He is in charge.
John:
Right.
Martha:
And if there is a authority that’s abusing, we can, we can cry out for that but we can’t take matters in our own hand.
John:
Uh.
Gomer Bride and Resistance to Authority – Episode #713 – Shulamite Podcast
John and Martha look at 3 writings from our upcoming books. First Jesus’ Gomer Bride. Jesus chose us from fallen humanity. We are each Gomer. Then an exposure of our response to earthly authority which can be a huge finger poke from God’s sovereign reign.
A huge thank you for giving us a taste of these longed for books! Somehow David became prayer for what he prayed for…our longing is deep to prayer.
So much in every arena is man taken to man; where man thinks he wins. The Holy Spirit comes to reveal Christ. We’ve been nudged, encouraged, brought to choice, through Shulamite, by all you’ve lived-written. And leveled, and stunned at the sight of Him!
John, we can only be on God’s side with these God sent messages…there’s no ‘other side’ to be on. Rare voice, true to His Voice.
Martha, you give us…to…Him. He’s in view, & when He is the view, there’s choice to be made. A dangerous place, if refused. But a glorious place, you make clear, in its welcome…HE enters our glad surrender!
How deeply encouragement is needed…I’m convinced that too will bring a deeper heart awareness within the message, to await the Spirit’s leading always. HE will attend to what is His.
His passion to reveal Himself both intimately & dynamically is at the forefront of all He gives through each of you. This may be a strange way to put it, but, there is no plan ‘B’, no back door with God…no man pleasing…you…take the ‘risk’ He takes, in bringing the reality of choice, which is to say, GOD as GOD. (risk?!)
ALL Power and Authority belongs to GOD!
How extraordinary in Giving ALL, God is. Lavish beyond words! Release this message, “for such a time as this” to your Church Lord!