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There’s No Separating Choice from Love
Episode #584
2-11-2018
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
This is the continuation of a series of Podcasts started in Episode #581.
“When you’re praying your choice before God, the motivation is love.” One way or another, love is behind every choice we make, love for self or love for God.
(Martha) Someone asked me how this worked. And I said, “When you are in His love, you want what He wants. Build your life on love. Pray, if you don’t have that foundation. If your light’s going dim sometimes, as mine does, I have to stop and pray, “I have to have Your Love. That has got to be the wind in my sails. I have to have Your Love to do this.” So that prayer is the most basic, essential prayer. “Give me the love of God that the love of God for the Son will be in me, the same.” The last verse in John 17. That prayer means it can be. And so if the fire is burning, then you have the passion to pray. And then the transaction is made between you and God and He’s off! He’s, it’s not that you give Him permission, you don’t. But when you say yes to Him, He has the right. You’ve given Him the right to do whatever you ask for in your life. And that’s— If I have a secret, if it matters, if my life…
(John) It matters a lot.
(Martha) (laughing) That is my secret. Choose you this day who you will serve: life or death.
(John) Well, in doing that, you’re giving people the power of, amazing power to direct their life.
(Martha) Yes.
(John) People that feel powerless in their life, you’re saying, you’re giving them power. Not that you’re doing it, but you’re talking about God’s…
(Martha) …response to us. We respond to Him and He responds to us.
(John) Wow.
(Martha) He responds to us with power. Now so I’m not, I’m not choosing what, anything but His will, in those days. I was only choosing. If I would read something in the scriptures that I wanted, that I felt like the, that was being, I didn’t know it was the Spirit at the time but the Holy Spirit… Now I understand when the Holy Spirit lights on a verse, that’s what He wants for me, from me, to give to me. And so it wasn’t that I was praying my will at all. I didn’t need to. His will was more fantastic than anything my will could come up with.
(John) (Laughing) Yeah, that’s true. That’s so true.
(Martha) And things happened and miracles happened and… So I’m, I felt… Thank you, John. I felt like I wanted to give that practical way of doing it.
(John) It’s amazing. This is really wonderful.
(Martha) It’s like putting your plug in the socket and your lights come on, but you do have to pick it up. You don’t have to do it, praise God, you don’t have to do it. I tried that for 45 years. You don’t have to perform it. You give Him permission when you say yes and choose, then He has permission to do everything for you, through you, in you, to equip you, to strip you, to make it possible. To make it happen!
(John) Do you think that the enemy has a major assault on that choice to make you feel like you’re powerless?
(Martha) Exactly. And to make you doubt it and to make you… That’s why love is the power. Love is the power the enemy can’t really put out. So when you’re, when you’re praying your choices before God, the motivation is love. And so it’s not easily distracted or attackable. It will be, but the choice is not under attack. How you’re moving through it and life makes you sometimes second-guess it. “What’s going on here? I thought I was going this way.” And see everything then becomes the possibility of a choice. If you read in Romans, for instance, which I’ve been noticing this one phrase, “The mind of the flesh is opposed to God. The mind set on pleasing self is death. The mind set on pleasing God is life and peace.” So I say, “Okay. Oh God, I choose to please You. I want to please You. Do it in my life. Show me what pleases You. Make it possible in me to please You.” So I’m praying what I’m getting from the Spirit. He highlights a word, and that becomes an option. That’s the presentation of a choice. “This is what God wants to do. He wants you to live to please Him and that will be so wonderful.” So I pray that, and it comes from the Scripture, from life, wherever the Holy Spirit nudges me. And see, I didn’t need to know it was the Spirit. I knew it was God. And because I didn’t have any training, I didn’t have any method, I didn’t have any 1-2-3… I had only that simple, basic thing: to get on my knees and tell Him my, what I wanted to do and be for Him. Is that clear enough?
(John) That’s amazing. It’s really, I mean, I’m blown away by it. Hmm. Because when you’re unsaved, there is a powerlessness that you have. Yes, it doesn’t matter, you’re choosing regardless if you’re saved or unsaved, okay. But there is a powerlessness that you have, whether it’s generational curses, whether it’s situational things. You feel powerless, and…
(Martha) It’s just flesh.
(John) Yeah, and because it’s flesh touching flesh, living flesh, it’s just sloppy. But when you are born again, and you’re given the power to actually choose the life of Christ, that’s… I mean, isn’t that it?
(Martha) Wow.
(John) And you know, you may feel like a Babar the Elephant, where you’ve got your, you know… But once you are born again, that chain on your, on your leg…
(Martha) On your will.
(John) …and your will is broken.
(Martha) Exactly! Well said.
(John) And then Christ says, “No, no, now I am going to do it! All you have to do is tell Me what we’re doing. And we’re gonna go!” And that’s amazing. That, wow! That’s really big. And so you live in that dialogue of choice, continual choice with God. You’re like literally living in that.
(Martha) And it’s like He holds up a chocolate bar, I’ll say. And He says, “Come follow Me, this is where we’re going.” He holds up something so wonderful and beautiful. Isn’t beautiful when you reckon others better than yourself. That’s beautiful in a person if you see it. So He holds up something beautiful to you and says, “This can be yours.” It may not come in that verbiage. It may not come that way, but you have a— You see! That’s what happens. You see something. I saw. Many, many years ago I talked about pleasing God. Now it’s new. This is 2018. Everything is new. And so that word pleasing God and pleasing the Spirit, oh, that’s sweet to me. The Spirit makes that, “Oh, I want that! Oh God, I will. I choose to please You, to live pleasing the Spirit. I want my mind to be set on pleasing You.” And then He has – it’s not that He needs permission but He needs the choice in order to respond.
(John) He just needs you to turn your rudder.
(Martha) Yeah.
(John) And then the enemy’s gonna come, of course he will, and say, “You’re not worthy of that. You can’t do that.” Blah blah blah, whatever.
(Martha) But when you know it works, you forget it. You pray and you forget it. It’s on God now.
(John) Ah!
(Martha) So it’s absolutely… To live responsibly, for making your choices sets you free from the false responsibility of performing it and being something. You can be nothing.
(John) Wow.
(Martha) And just choose.
(John) Wow.
(Martha) And then God does His amazing things quite apart from you. He doesn’t need you anymore. You’ve given Him what He needed from you.
(John) He needs the choice.
(Martha) He simply needed the choice to, or the agreement, whatever you want to call it – the yes! The “I will.” And then you don’t have to worry about it anymore.
(John) We have to get that Ravi transcription. I want it transcribed because this directly correlates with that. And it talks about the love and the free will and how much He loves us by giving us free will. And when you take that free will and choose Him, it’s an explosion. It’s an explosion. Wouldn’t that just… You’re giving Him what He wants!
(Martha) Yes!
(John) So it’s got to make Him…
(Martha) The only thing He wants from you!
(John) …pleased and…
(Martha) The only thing you can give Him!
(John) Golly, this is good.
(Martha) And it moves mountains.
(John) Wow.
(Martha) When I realized I was not a good forgiver, I said, “I want to be a, an expert in forgiveness.” That was a choice, John. And many people have said to me, and it’s in the book. Altogether Forgiven is the culmination of that. And I didn’t even realize it when I started the book many years ago. But I just said, “I want to be an expert on forgiveness. I’ve been an expert on bitterness and now I want to be an expert on forgiveness.”
(John) And not only were you wanting, you know, because we can get stuck in our ‘want.’
(Martha) Exactly.
(John) You said, “I’m actionably purposing. That’s where I want…”
(Martha) “That’s where I want to go.”
(John) “That’s where I want to go.”
(Martha) And He put me through an awful lot (laughs) to learn it.
(John) Yeah He did, absolutely. Sure enough.
(Martha) But! I love it. So it’s almost like, when you’re just dealing with a choice, you’re dealing on the level of a child. You’re just, the mother says, “Come get in the car, we’re going to the circus.” And you skip and hop your way to the car and yes, go. I don’t, that’s not very good but I’m just trying to covey that it’s childlike. It’s a lamb who can do nothing who follows. “I will follow You.” And some of the choices are gut-wrenching. But “I will follow You there.”
(John) Yeah, it’s not all, “I receive that present! I receive that loveliness!”
(Martha) Exactly. It’s not. But He’s always fair to say, “This is where I want you to go. I’m sending you out as a lamb among wolves. Take no purse, no sandal, nothing extra. But you’ll find Me there.” And the yes has to be to everything! And then the miracle is over everything.
(John) This is really, really, really cool.
(Martha) I appreciate you validating it, John. I felt like the Lord wanted me to share that, what I did, because instinctively the Spirit within me took me there.
(John) Yeah this is cool because it’s like, I wrote a blog post today about saving your life and losing your life. And that’s a life verse. That’s a verse that I first got when I was like three or four years old from Him. And but what He’s doing is He’s taking these things and He’s bringing new life to them, new energy and light and life into these things. And so this is something that yeah, I’ve heard you say this but this is… Right now this is new to me. And even though, even though I’ve heard this it’s new. It’s not, it’s not the same, and I think that, you know, here we are in January and it’s the beginning of the year and it’s like He’s bringing things that are brand new. And I haven’t had that happen for a while now, where there’s been something that’s been completely new, a fresh wind, fresh breeze over things that He’s said prior. Or, you know, so that you literally are like, “Wow! That’s doesn’t even, doesn’t even feel like I’ve ever seen it before.” You know what I mean?
(Martha) I know exactly. And Sparks says when God brings something back around, it has to be new and it has to be as though you’ve never known it. And He brings it around and round ’cause these things are essential. They’re basic. They are things we have to be reminded of. That’s the Spirit’s job, to remind you of what you already know.
(John) It’s funny ’cause this is, when I’m hearing this, I’m like saying, “Well this isn’t something that I’m saying, ‘Oh my goodness! That’s just so AH! So wow!’” But it is like that.
(Martha) Yes.
(John) It’s, I know these things.
(Martha) It’s new light on it.
(John) But it’s totally new light so that it is like a bright shine. Wow! But it feels basic. It feels like these are the basics. Of course, those are the things that, you know…
(Martha) And see, so my identity is in decision. ‘Cause years later, you know the story, that I said, “Oh Lord, what is my lovely name in heaven?” He said, “Decision.” And I went, “Oh…” (laughs) Really? But that’s a beautiful word because that’s my assignment. That’s my revelation. That’s my life force. That’s why I was trained by the Holy Spirit in my twenties and thirties. For ten years, how to decide and what to do with your decision and how to find the decision to make. And it’s not just anything. It’s what God gives to you. So you’re making me see it new. And God’s been showing it new to me.
(John) Yum, yum, yum.
(Martha) What I’m seeing all through the scriptures, oh my goodness! Choice is everywhere. And the call to choice is everywhere. I know a little woman – I say little because she is in stature but she’s mighty in spirit – the only thing she ever chose was, “Lord, I just want to know You as You are.” Boom. And I’ve written about her before. She’s known as one who knows Him. And when there’s a little question, she’s who they go to because she knows Him. She’s seen Him.
(John) I know someone like that.
There’s No Separating Choice from Love – Episode #584 – Shulamite Podcast
How we choose is our response to the Lord, and once we choose, He will respond to us as well. “When you’re praying your choice before God, the motivation is love.” One way or another, love is behind every choice we make, love for self or love for God.
Oh the protection and provision in that great love of God♡. Coming under His authority. It helps us, me, cooperate with Him in all things. Like just falling in step last night with our local police,authority, last night to help capture a burglar that came in our yard. He tumbled over our back fence, setting off our light sensor, so saw his face plainly. So when police needed me to go identify him, it just seemed the purposeful thing to do, help the authorities do what they needed to keep us all safe. Am amazed at how protected felt thru it all. Husband with me, the Lord directing, keeping the people safe here. All in His hands. So appreciate the insights the Lord gives you to live in His world unafraid. He has delivered me from much fear in the past and He continues to fulfill His word from 2 Timothy 1:7, “He has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind”.
unAHHH, I too know someone like that, John. Praise God !!!!!!! Oh this podcast and your posts and devotions seem all new to me. This is so spectacular and I don’t have to feel left out if I’m not there yet, where you all are. It is God’s responsibility to take this “little lamb” into his arms and get me there. May all my decisions be in HIM and about HIM and through HIM. So grateful for this new revelation that is so clear and concise and relevant for my life. They say to me as the Holy Spirit has promised: “You will hear a voice say,’This is the way, walk in it’ May the LORD abundantly bless you all for your faithfulness and your hearing ear, and your shedding abroad HIS love…….
Bless you and love you Sue! Thank you for commenting and for so receiving the message, messengers, and Author! ???