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Merry Christmas and a Word for the New Year
Episode #577
12-24-2017
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
A very Merry Christmas to you from Shulamite Ministries! As we move into a new year, Martha has a word for what’s to come and the challenges we face.
(John) Well, Martha, this podcast is coming out on Christmas weekend. And I know you have a subject that you’re really wanting to get into, but I didn’t want to go through this holiday without just telling everybody how grateful we are for everything that happened this year. This was quite a year. This was an amazing year of two books and a conference. And the second book, Altogether Forgiven, is what Jennifer calls the magnum opus. It’s like your, you took it… Okay so it’s forgiveness, but it’s like your entire life in a book about forgiveness, that reveals your life and forgiveness and every revelation really that’s been through the booklets and been through the books. And it’s just, it is so grand. And people are commenting on Facebook and through email and just telling us how they’re just so deeply impacted, and how… Well, a lot of people have said that, you know, “Oh, I’m about 2/3 of the way through…” or “I’m about a third of the way through…” because it’s so rich and it’s so deep that people are just going through it slowly and methodically and allowing it to impact them. So it’s really neat.
And then we did The Mystery of Discipleship, was absolutely a phenomenal devotional. I mean, to me, it is the quintessential disciple’s book. And for discipleship. Because it literally takes you through the choices, the path, the prayers, and everything, of being a disciple. So I think it was totally, divinely inspired and orchestrated. And then we did the conference, The Road That Leads to Life, and you know, the funny thing is, is it doesn’t feel like the last conference. It feels– You know we’ve been doing a series, and they’ve literally built one upon another, and your, yeah…
(Martha) Yes, I’m gonna tell today what I’m working on for the next conference, so… And book!
(John) Ooooohhhhhh! So we’ve got a lot, we have a lot coming and a lot going on, and… But I want to thank everybody on this Christmas weekend, for their prayers, for their support, for their love, for their encouragement, for… I mean, really we’ve been carried by their encouragement and their prayers and their support. And it’s been so much work! We’ve done, we’ve done, you know, what has taken years to do we’ve done in a matter of months. To release two books and to have the conference. It’s just been mind-blowing, of the work. I mean, you usually, it takes years for you to do a book. And we did two! It’s just, wow! So I just want to thank you. I just want to thank you for listening. I want to thank you for your prayers. I want to thank you for encouraging us about the books and about the conference and coming to the conference and buying the book and sharing the book with others. I know there’s several people who bought like 25-30 books and they’re sending them around everywhere, which we’re really, really grateful for. It’s such an important message. Altogether Forgiven is one of the most important messages. So anyway, as far as that goes, God bless you and have a Merry Christmas! But Martha’s been loaded like a cannon all day, and is ready to pop! So we’re gonna go, we’re gonna send this on through the new year, this will carry us through the new year, this message. So, Martha, tell us how that fuse is burning!
(Martha) Well, I’ll tell (laughs)… I’m glad you mentioned Christmas because I’m not in it. (Laughs) It’s something…
(John) I get it.
(Martha) (laughing) …I have the cards to hand out and a little gift but I am really not in Christmas. Somebody said, “Are you ready for Christmas?” And I wanted to say, “What Christmas?!” I am not in it for some reason. But I am in something else that’s SO my passion and my spirit is in, on fire about. It’s really about the coming year.
(John) That’s exciting.
(Martha) And that as we come to the end of this year, we are one year closer to the return of the Lord. And we put out a feeler and said, “Would you like a book of The Bride is Ready?” And we got good response from that, and that is what I have the anointing to work on. I just finished a new part, and I’m very excited about that. And again, ask your prayers and support. I could, at this moment I could weep over the people that have prayed. And some have fasted. I didn’t and I couldn’t fast this year but others did. And I’m, thank you for mentioning that, John. I share with you to give great thanks to God for the gift of our church. But I’m on next year because we have to stop, I think… We look at His birth – and I’m gonna get in that and I’m gonna love it and I’m gonna have all my movies and all my songs and I’m going to enjoy Him. It’s not His birthday; that was actually in spring but we’ll celebrate that He was born and I’ll get there!
But I am on the enormous emphasis in the New Testament on the return of the Lord. And on the preparation for the return of the Lord. We’re closer than we’ve ever been; it could come at any time. It looks like some of the two things that are left… One of them is every person, the Gospel go to every place in the world and that’s almost, if not already, happened. And, but I’m mindful of the scriptures and I think we… In considering the new year, the great thing to consider is to read the scriptures about it and stay with the Lord. And begin to be ready for His return. I’ll start with 2 Timothy 3, starting with verse 1. And I’m reading from the new Amplified, the new revised Amplified. Actually I like the other Amplified in this passage better but this has a word in it I want to emphasize. He says, “But understand this, that in the last days dangerous times [of great stress and trouble] will come [difficult days that will be hard to bear]. For people will be lovers of self [narcissistic,” – no other translation mentions that word, narcissistic, and it is the word of the hour – “self-focused], lovers of money [impelled by greed], boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane, [and they will be] unloving [devoid of natural human affection, calloused and inhumane], irreconcilable, malicious gossips, devoid of self-control [intemperate, immoral], brutal, haters of good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of [sensual] pleasure rather than lovers of God…”
I’m gonna stop right there and say that we are lovers. We are created to be lovers. And in this last days, we will be the lovers of anything but God. And the lovers of God will be few. The true lovers of God will be few. I want to be one!
(John) I want to be one! Tell me what that scripture was?
(Martha) Oh, that’s 2 Timothy 3 in the revised Amplified.
(John) What verses did you read?
(Martha) I read 1-4 and I’m going to read 5 now, and then I’m gonna read on past that.
(John) I’ve got something that I’ve been writing actually, for weeks about narcissism and that’s very interesting. That scripture fits absolutely perfect with it so…
(Martha) Wow…I can’t wait…
(John) …thank you very much.
(Martha) I can’t wait.
(John) Thank you.
(Martha) But I’m very, I’ve been really reading up on narcissism lately. And I am absolutely astounded what the secular world understands about it. By the study of this selfishness to the level of near insanity. And it is hideously demonic. I won’t get into that but I want to hear what you’ve gotta say. It’s a madness of selfishness. The next verse is “holding to a form of [outward] godliness (religion), although they have denied its power [for their conduct nullifies their claim of faith]. Avoid such people and keep far away from them.” Avoid such people and keep far away from them! “Just as Jannes and Jambres [the court magicians of Egypt] opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, unqualified and worthless [as teachers] in regard to the faith. But they will not get very far, for their meaningless nonsense and ignorance will become obvious to everyone, as was that of Jannes and Jambres.”
So that’s what kind of people the difficulty of the day is gonna be the kind of people that we will be with and that we are seeing. Selfishness is at the root of all the violence that’s going on. Rebellion is at root of all the opposition to God’s choice for president and on down the line. And I’ve never seen anything like it! I’m 77 and I’ve never seen anything like this and it’s a level of hate and violence and rebellion that is sweeping this country and the world. And that’s gonna be the condition. We’re living in what this describes. We are living with these people. And it is a warning against them. A solution of what to do if you have those people in your midst, and we will!
Merry Christmas and a Word for the New Year – Episode #577 – Shulamite Podcast
A very Merry Christmas to you from Shulamite Ministries! As we move into a new year, Martha has a word for what’s to come. We are so grateful for the prayers, support, and love that poured in this last year and even more excited for what God has for us next!
