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with Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
(J) We at Shulamite ministries have really appreciated the listener-ship we’ve had over the last year. Next week is a special broadcast for us because it’s our one-year anniversary. We as of next week will have been broadcasting our weekly broadcast for one year. And we’re really excited about it, and we’re going to start the celebration, we’ve got a special podcast, a Happy Birthday podcast, that’s going to start this week and go through next week. And we hope you enjoy it, and enjoy the special message that Martha and I have brought you.
(J) Martha, back in podcast #46, I mentioned that you did a, back in May, you did a Happy Birthday Martha’s birthday podcast, and like all good Hobbit’s, you gave the gift. It’s not the typical format of the podcast, so what I’d like to do is, I would like to do is, I would like to listen to that, but insert comments; because what you say in that about Enoch, is really so wonderful, and powerful, and so I wanted to go through that and do that.
(M) And it’s relevant to what we’re going through now, in the podcast, and all the things we’re learning.
(M) John, today’s my birthday, and you’ve given me a wonderful, new piece of luggage; a bag to carry my computer in. And I want to give you a birthday gift, like all true Hobbits do on their birthday, they give gifts instead of receive them. Because I know there’s something that God said to you early in your walk that means a great deal to you, but has been sort of a question in your life. You know what I’m talking about, so tell me. (J) I do. In the very beginning of my walk, the Lord said that I was going to be like Enoch. And I had no idea what that meant, and then, ah as I read into the scriptures about it, I realized that Enoch was a man that everybody thought was crazy, because he walked around and talked with God all the time. And he had a really neat relationship with God. And so I really don’t know all that means, and what it’s going to look like. But I’ve kind of held that in my breast pocket and wondered. So I’m looking forward to what you have to say about it today.
(M) This is your birthday gift. I read something from T. Austin Sparks in a book, “The On High Calling”. I read it this morning, and it does not mention Enoch, but really it’s all about the thing that Enoch possessed. And to me it shows me that Enoch had the essence, there’s nothing about him, except one prophecy, in the book of Jude, a phenomenal prophecy of judgment that Enoch is quoted as saying. I don’t think it’s quoted anywhere else in the Old Testament. But his life is, by it’s small recording is rendered enormous importance, because it is the essence. It’s the essence of what God wants; it’s the essence of what it is to know Him. So I was reading in Austin Sparks this morning, and he quoted Heb. 3:1. It says, “ Therefore holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus the apostle and high priest of our confession.” And then he quotes Heb. 3:14 “For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end.” And he takes the word partakers, which I’ve always felt meant the indwelling life. He goes at it a little different way. “Our first thing to do is to consider the one word, which is going to stand over all our meditations. It is the word which occurs in each of the verses sited above, the word partakers. T he Greek word occurs five times in the letter to the Hebrews. And I’ve looked at those five times, they’re not always translated partakers. In Luke 5:7, the word is translated partners, and in other translations, fellows and companions. There are also other variations of the word or root. And having looked carefully into the original meaning and came to the conclusion that its truest and deepest meaning is companions. Therefore I have taken this to define and govern all that we will consider in these chapters. ‘Companions of Christ’, ‘Companions of a heavenly calling’.”
(M) It always touches my heart that Jesus said, I don’t call you servants I call you friend. And I remember it now, and I’m bringing it to you with great joy because I know you are His friend. And it doesn’t mean that you don’t have times when you don’t like Him. But you never leave Him. And I expect that’s where I’m going.
(J) That is where you go.
(M) Really?
(J) Yeah, at the very end that’s where you do go. But though He was a servant of all, He called everybody else friend. That’s amazing to me.
(M) I never thought of that.
(J) They were companions, but think about it, He called Himself servant. I will serve all. I don’t call you to be a servant I call you to be a friend.
(M) And as a friend, as a true friend, then it is to partake of His nature, and to become a servant.
(J) Yeah, well, ultimately you become, well, just like the last pod cast we said, I said, so basically we can’t do anything. Well, we can’t do anything. So does servant-hood not come out of friendship, out of the cross.
(M) And it’s got to be out of relationship with Him. So if you displace the relationship with Christ, then you have lost servant-hood.
(J) I can’t be a servant unless I’m a companion, right?
(M) Right. Exactly.
(J) Let’s continue to listen.
“Everything that is official, in relationship to the Lord, there is always the personal element.” And then it sites Abraham, Abraham served the Lord faithfully, but the deepest thing about Abraham was that he was God’s friend. I think of Abraham in connection with faith.
(J) Hmmm
(M) But in Isaiah, I think it’s 41:8, that carries with it the idea of a companion of God, God spoke of him as ‘My friend’.
(J) Right, right.
(M) Ok, Moses was a great servant of the Lord, and the Lord spoke of him often as servant. But we know there was something deeper in it than that. The Lord spoke unto Moses face to face, as man speaks unto his friend.
(J) Martha, does all servant-hood come out of some form of relationship, whether lover, friend; is that the only place? Think about all the servants of God. They all had a place with God, in relationship. Now, you can be a servant of God and not be in relationship. (M) But that’s not true servant-hood.
(J) No.
(M) That wouldn’t be true servant-hood.
(J) No, that’s just.
(M) A worker.
(J) Yeah, but all, but God uses you. Ok, ok. We know people who have zero relationship with God, but they are definitely self-proclaimed servants of God.
(M) Hmmm.
(J) But, I’m wondering, ok, is there servant-hood, they’re used as a tool, just like Satan’s used as a tool. Satan is the servant of God.
(M) Ultimately our sovereignty is not sovereignty.
(J) Right. So Satan is the servant of God. Those that do not have relationship are the servants of God. They are tools in the hand of God to do something. Do you see where I’m going?
(M) Yes but I think the scripture would not call them servants.
(J) I wouldn’t, ok, I wouldn’t call them servant either. But, but they usually call themselves servants. But it’s like a roll in from servant to tool.
(M) Yeah. I think the servant of God, we’d have to understand it from the ones who are called His servants. Like Jeremiah, who did His will, who walked with Him through thick and thin, who anguished with Him. To me, someone that wants to proclaim they’re a servant and use God for their ends would not be called God’s servant, even though ultimately God will use everything for His purposes.
(J) Can you make a definitive statement, one of those definitive statements that I always love? About servant-hood, versus being a tool? There’s a definitive statement here somewhere.
(M) I think it lies in this: the earth is the Lords, and the fullness thereof; and they that dwell therein. Everybody belongs to God. Now whether they enjoy the function of that, as His real servant. That’s not the definitive statement yet.
(J) Well let’s keep on listening, and see if we find that, but there’s, I see it, I see it, I just don’t know what it is. There’s a definitive statement about being a tool, or being a servant in relationship with the Lord. Well let’s go on.
(J) So both Abraham and Moses were the friends of God.
(M) Yes. And we don’t remember them necessarily for that word. Ok, there was a very intimate relationship between God and Moses, and Moses and God. In reality, Moses was a companion of the Lord. I knew that about the only insight about Enoch that I remember was that when Enoch went to the grocery store, he took the Lord with him.
(J) Hmm.
(M) That he was aware of the Lord in the common, in the ordinary, of his walk. He walked with God. And so he was aware of Him, wherever he went. It’s one of the great failings and strivings and frettings of my life, is that I can go along and forget the Lord. And say suddenly, oh please, You’ve got to keep me aware of You.
(J) You get sucked into all the ‘mishigosh’ of the world, and doings.
(M) Yeah. But Enoch took Him in the most common things of his walk.
(J) He was where the common feet hit the ground.
(M) Right. And in the walk around our house.
(J) Right, right.
(M) So, ok. What about David, there are many things said about him, but the greatest was that God said he was a man after my own heart. In Acts 13:22 “That is the meaning of a companion of the Lord. When the Lord Jesus came onto this earth, He chose His disciples and apostles on the basis of companionship. Call them disciples if you like, those who had to enter the school of Christ and be taught. Call them apostles, those who were to be sent forth. But the deepest thing in their relationship to Him was that they were His companions. Toward the end of their time He said: “You are they which have continued with me in my temptations.” Lk. 22:28 They were His companions in life, and His companions in suffering. He said: “you are my friends”. Jn. 15:14 Well, in the deepest relationship with the Lord, it’s a heart relationship. “They were His companions in life, and His companions in suffering, and in glory”, Sparks writes. “Having said a word about the idea of companions, let us go on to think of the purpose of companions. The Bible is a book of one purpose, and that one purpose lies behind all its stages and phases. It lies behind creation, behind divine foreknowledge, behind election, behind the persons whom God chose, behind all the movements of God through the Bible, behind all the figures and all the types and behind the three main sections of the Old Testament, priesthood, kingship, prophets. Those three sections comprise the Old Testament, and this one purpose lies behind everything in the Old Testament. God is revealed in the Bible as a God of purpose, and every movement in His sovereignty is governed by this one purpose. What is this one purpose in and through all? It is centered in God’s Son. In all things, God had His Son alone in view. The ‘all things’ is a very comprehensive term, but it is all comprehended in God’s Son.”
(M) Ok, got it John. I would’ve stated it differently, but that is the definitive statement. All things will serve, in the end, the Son of God.
(J) Its funny, but I was getting it too.
(M) Did you get it too?
(J) Yeah, but I was just about to stop and say, ok.
(M) What would you say the definitive statement is?
(J) No, I, the reason I didn’t stop it yet is because I was still thinking; but, all things will serve God. It’s your choice whether you will serve Him in relationship, or you will be a tool that He uses to purify His Bride. You’ll either be His Bride, or be the tool that purifies the Bride.
(M) Wow.
(J) There’s the definitive statement.
(M) There it is.
(J) You are going to be used by God. You will serve God in your life, period. There is no way that you will not serve God.
(M) His purpose.
(J) Yeah. There’s some way; you’re either going to be a purifying factor for the Bride, or you’re going to be the Bride, being purified. And there’s where you have to release your hand, and open your hand, and trust, that everything that He’s using around you, that you may be up in arms about, that He’s using it. Really, He is using it.
