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The Place of Overcoming Anxiety
Episode #821
8/28/2022
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
It’s called Overcoming Anxiety. The first time I read it that night I went to sleep and I had no anxiety.
Martha:
This morning we have something so special. John has completed another booklet. I’m just overwhelmed about it because it is rich and true and liberating and wonderful and poetic. This book is called Overcoming Anxiety and we’ve been living it a long time.
John, this became a special message that you have received from the Holy Spirit and it is so powerful. It’s called Overcoming Anxiety. The first time I read it that night I went to sleep and I had no anxiety. I woke up the next morning and realized that it had affected me already. No to be anxious. You have put the rich treasure of the word in here, John. I could just go on and on raving about it. I just want everybody to have it. It’s the disease of the day. What we learned is it is infecting to everything and especially to the body’s health. Stress tears us down and cuts us up.
How did you come to such enormous revelation?
John:
The Spirit has over the last thirty years of walking with you has infused this message into me. I came in the mid 90’s and I was an anxious, hysterical man. I had a lot of fear. My walk and life was based on a lot of fear. I had a lot of stress. Your very first words to me were, “Get off the merry-go-round.” And I was on a merry-go-round. I was trying to earn my way. I was trying to push my way through life and gain things that only the Father can give. I was anxious, I was completely anxious. My childhood traumas made me anxious; my life choices made me anxious. I was just an anxious man.
When I came to you and you started praying for me, I really started to have that anxiousness wash off of me with His shalom. And I had His peace. You infused that into me. You were such a peaceful person. Your voice is peaceful; your delivery is peaceful. You came in calmness and shalom. That transformed my life; dynamically transformed my life.
As I walked it out, I just really coveted…I no longer wanted to be the anxious man; I no longer wanted to be the man that lived in problems. I no longer wanted to worry and fret and doubt and be in fear. I didn’t want any of that. I wanted to live in peace, in shalom, in absence of chaos.
It took a while to do. I think we spoke this message. One of the parts of this, the prayer and at the end there are several little sections in here that I pulled out of an audio message that we gave in Lubbock, Texas. I spoke to a group of ladies, beautiful woman and that was my challenged is to lay down the anxiety.
I talk about in this booklet the hysteria of the soccer mom and how it eats our bodies like meth; it’s a drug and it keeps us going. We are motivated to do life with that anxiety as the force pushing us through rather than the Spirit. It kills us. It destroys our heart; it destroys our life; it destroys our being. Ultimately it will hull us out to be an empty shell; our joy and our happiness and our spiritual living will be annihilated.
Martha:
What’s astonishing about this book is it gives you everything you need to overcome anxiousness. John brings in rich scripture that says, “Fret not.” And we are commanded to not fret. What I realized early on was that when I was fretting during the night my body registered that I had worked. My body took it as effort and I would get exhausted. But you went deeper than that, John. You went into the very soul of man and woman. What is shalom?
One scripture is:
Philippians 4:6 NIV
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
You have written that anxiety is fear and fear is faith in something other than God. Without faith in God, it is impossible to please Him.
I’m just reading scriptures and insights that John has put in this treasure; it’s really a treasure. I would have loved to have known these things twenty and thirty and forty years ago. Thank you, John, for your agony of birthing this message because you lived it.
John:
It wasn’t an agony to do this. This was a celebration. What this booklet is is a celebration of my overcoming anxiety. Sholom is to break, destroy the authority that binds us to chaos. It’s a binding to chaos. Anxiety ties our hands and ties our feet to chaos. This is a celebratory book. This isn’t a how-to. I am not giving you 1-2-3 steps even though there are steps to get out. It’s about celebrating the life that is free from anxiety. I clearly give what it means, what it looks like, how to get rid of it.
Martha:
The issue that John goes into is so astonishing because here’s a quote from what he has written:
This is a statement that is shocking and true.
“The title of this book is Overcoming Anxiety but it’s not a 1-2-3 booklet. It’s a work of the Lord.”
“Defeat and internal thief killing our joy and life.”
There are other statements like this that are quite shocking; the effects on us-killing our joy and life. That is your statement. Tell us more about killing us.
John:
I go in here and talk about the wracking of our body literally by anxiety and what it does to our body and the stress. I have seen and I know and I talk to people about it regularly… I have a friend who has just been diagnosed with prostate cancer and I said, “Listen, the stress in your life, you can’t have that stress because all that’s going to do is exacerbate the problem. You are needing peace; you are needing rest; you don’t need that stress.”
I have seen that anxiety and stress will wrack your body; it will really hurt you just as much as lack of sleep. Unfortunately, anxiety usually leads to sleeplessness. When we are anxious, we are sleepless. When we are sleepless we are not gaining the energy and the strength that we need to restore our bodies with deep sleep and REM.
This book is about the stronghold of anxiety and over the years that anxiety will devastate your physical body.
Martha:
And that’s where you are taking it. You have such passion about this John, because you have walked this path.
John:
I have had anxiety wrack my body. I’ve had all kinds of issues in my body based on anxiety and stress.
Martha:
The amazing thing you do is you uncover all the evils of anxiety but then you leave us with hope.
John:
This is not a hopeless book that’s for sure.
Martha:
No, it’s not. It’s so beautiful.
“Anxiety can cripple even the strongest of us and is no respecter of persons.”
I could go through this and read it and be satisfied. The comment on this is not rich enough. The book is richer than I am able to express.
You say this shocking statement:
“The fear of anxiety twists us on the inside and out. Ultimately it overshadows our beauty.” You really mean even visibly.
John:
You literally will take it on physically. It will show on your face.
Martha:
You take it to the end and to the bottom. And then you give us the word to conquer it. You’ve got all the scriptures about.
John:
When I told people I was doing a booklet on anxiety, they were like “Ok, can I be first to get it?” They were like, “I realize I live in anxiety. I realize I have an anxious heart and I know that need to get rid of it and I need a way out.”
Martha:
You say in the invitation in the first part of the book, “Anxiety kills our life and joy. It is an epidemic. Of all diseases this is the worst because it’s everybody. “It is an epidemic that is plaguing our world. But is it something we can be free of? Absolutely yes. regardless of circumstance, we can live free of the fear of anxiety. Anxiety-free living is possible, and what’s more is required by God.”
There is the hope. God calls it forth and now we can move to be free. We can follow His love. He comes to rescue us from this.
The Place of Overcoming Anxiety – Episode #821 – Shulamite Podcast
This booklet is a celebration of overcoming anxiety. This is a celebratory book celebrating the life that is free from anxiety.
