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Power To Live
Episode #217
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
(M) I didn’t find it; I was looking for the scripture that says in the end time’s men’s hearts will fail with fear. And I believe that the increase of governmental dominion…
(J) Right.
(M) …is going to evoke us into the fear of not having what we need, not having a future, etc. etc.
(J) Of tyranny.
(M) Yeah, of tyranny. There are many, many things right now to make us afraid. And it’s interesting what the Lord is giving us to counter that, John. You’re getting it powerfully; it’s the sovereignty of God. You quoted a verse this morning that He rules absolutely over everything. And if that is so, then everything is His instrument. And if it is not so, we have no security. We have to know that He is sovereign. We have to let the Holy Spirit reveal that to us, that He’s in absolute control of everything. And that’s what He’s teaching you, that He is behind every leader. He’s behind what’s happening in the Middle East.
(J) Hmhmm, I’m aware of that.
(M) He is ruling it. And one of my favorite verses is, “The wrath of man shall praise Him.”
(J) Hmhmm.
(M) And it says, “the rest of wrath He will wrap around Him as a belt.” He will use wrath; wrath will praise Him, and wrath will serve Him, will come under Him. And that’s absolutely ludicrous to believe because the evidence of it is not visible.
(J) Right, right.
(M) It’s only visible by faith. Don was telling me something recently, and it was kind of staggering. He said, “When you meet a person with great authority, spiritually, they are terrifying.” Remember, you were there when he said it?
(J) Hmhmm.
(M) He said if you meet a person who has enormous spiritual authority and connection to God, they are frightening people.
(J) Right. Because you’re facing God when you’re facing them. They’re wearing the ring and the robe, and they carry the authority of God, and act as God.
(M) And he said that to him it’s visible. He knows it, he said he knew it when he met. But what God did for Israel was put the terror and dread on the nations around them.
(J) Hmhmm.
(M) And I don’t think we understand that fear will defeat us; fear will make us, as I said, capitulate. We will save our lives if we are afraid.
(J) Right.
(M) Fear cannot be tolerated. Anytime we are aware of it, or we see it, or the Lord begins to show us, we have to confess it and renounce it as sin. But there is really no remedy except to reckon yourself dead.
(J) Right.
(M) Because the old man, the old ‘self’…
(J) Will always fear.
(M) Will always fear. Yes, always, and will always go to strength.
(J) Always go to power, and always be angry.
(M) Yeah, uhuh. There’s, that is the human condition. And there, you can confess it all day long, but you will not change, you’ll just be forgiven. The only remedy is to put the old man in the grave, reckoning him dead, because Christ did it already, that’s why the command is a fact.
(J) Right.
(M) If, if the scriptures give you, if the Holy Spirit points out a command in scripture, it means that it is done in Christ.
(J) Which is mind-blowing.
(M) It is. And then if that’s what it means, it is past tense. And if you’re commanded to put aside malice, then in the new creation you can do it instantly in power. The power that comes is the power to be ‘in Christ’ I’ll say; the power to obey, the power to submit, the power to receive, that’s the power we want. And those powers are given in absolute dependence. So…
(J) Because Christ’s life does them.
(M) Yes. He has done it. He has overcome the world. “In the world you’ll have tribulation, but be of good cheer,” good cheer, “I have overcome the world.” That statement of Jesus, at the end of His life, is staggering to me. I want to know it, I want to experience it, I want to have it, I want to be in, I don’t want to overcome the world, I want to be in His overcoming of the world.
(J) Hmhmm.
(M) The world.
(J) Hmhmm.
(M) The world, the whole system of which Satan is, has been god.
(J) I think that’s the only way that we’ll make it through, ah, hard times.
(M) Absolutely. That’s the only way. We’ve been watching Corrie Ten Boom, “The Hiding Place” again. And her sister had lived in such enormous grace, and such enormous new creation resurrection life. Corrie, herself, did not; she didn’t have that at that point. But her sister did. And there’s no way to have that except to have died. Ah, one book that one person among us has discovered is Don Colbert’s “Deadly Emotions”. Don Colbert is a doctor, if you don’t know, and he does a lot. This book is very dear, so I’ve only gotten to page seventeen. But he relates what fear, stress, anxiety do to the body physically. And this is just one statement he makes. It’s really fairly shocking what buried emotions, some of which are fear and anger. And stress, so much of stress is really about fear.
(J) Hmhmm.
(M) He says, “If left unchecked, the perpetual release of stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol, can sear the body in a way that is similar to acid searing metal.”
(J) Ooo.
(M) And he talks about how much, I won’t go into it anymore, but it’s quite a stunning book, and it’s one of the things the Lord is using to show us the damage that fear, stress, anxiety, worry, fretting can do. And I’m also in, back again in the parable of the sower. And there are three problems. One of them is the deceitfulness of riches, and the worries of the world, will take the word from you. And the other one is, in persecution or suffering, you lose the word. So there are two of the three, one is the devil, stealing the word. The other two have to do with stress and fear that cause you to lose the word that He has planted in you. So the heart that can receive the seed, accept the life of it, and bear fruit, is the heart that does not worry about the world, and does not get upset in persecution. When Matthew five says, “Rejoice and be exceeding glad when you are persecuted for His Name’s sake”, the real translation means: leap for joy when you are persecuted.
(J) Hmm.
(M) I had one very vivid experience of that in the Spirit; I can’t say that I have that consistently, but I do know that it’s possible in the Spirit. And that we are command… That’s another command, “Leap for joy, because your reward is great.” If you care about the reward there, then it will be a source of joy that it’s increasing. And that’s, that’s really contrary to human nature.
(J) One thing about the “Deadly Emotion’s” is, I just was looking at the cover and it’s got a skull and cross bones, and I was thinking how fear is really faith, right? Like you said.
(M) Yes.
(J) Ok. And fear is faith in death. It’s faith in evil. And so basically you’re laying your faith on something that’s dead, and it kills you. It’s… At the core it’s very simple.
(M) Hmhmm.
(J) In, in your fears, and you allow your fears to control you, then you’re literally giving your life and gaining death for your life, out of that faith. But when you have faith in Him, that’s where you’re gaining your power. So no wonder, out of all the stresses and fear and anxiety and all the stuff, no wonder you get all sorts of disease. It’s very simple. I mean really.
(M) It is.
(J) I mean it’s just very simple.
(M) I want to say frighteningly so. (Martha laughs)
(J) It is frighteningly simple.
(M) Well, I think he goes to that point that people literally die from varied fears, anger, emotion, stress. And, you know I think of instances, I read this the other day. When Jesus appeared to John on Patmos, and John fell down on the ground at the sight. And the Lord said, “Don’t be afraid.” And so many times with the disciples, in the most terrifying situations, He would say, don’t be afraid, and the angel would say to Paul, don’t be afraid. That’s an incredible thing, that you could meet such a heavenly being and not, not supposed to be afraid of that.
(J) I’m sorry. (John’s laughing)
(M) I would fail that test.
(J) I, I fear that I would fail that test.
(M) But I just want to say it’s really a subject for prayer and commitment and listening, because I believe the Lord wants to alleviate fear. He has given me specific promises that address these eventualities, and what, what He will, will do. So fear takes you from God, to become subject to what you fear, and that will be death; because the enemy is right there, in death.
