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Prayers Powers by the Mind of Christ
Episode #602
6-17-2018
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
This is the continuation of a series of Podcasts started in Episode #601.
When we are united under the Headship of Christ, our prayers are powered by the mind of Christ to serve the purpose of God. What powerful prayers those are!
Martha:
So I went through this experience for two and a half years of weakness for the Body. Yes, I was chastened in it. Yes! But it was… And He told me, “There is a purpose for this, that when you see it, you will be happy.” And I am. But it’s so much bigger than I ever dreamed. And it’s right here in 2 Corinthians. When I, we were taping the series about my illness and the resurrection life, I kept referring to people who prayed and I never adequately said it, what I meant by that. But now I can say it. This verse explains it in 2 Corinthians 1. And sometimes I get embarrassed by telling my own stories and telling my own secrets many times. But this what Paul is doing here in 2 Corinthians (1:6-9). He did it in 1 Corinthians, too. But he says, “If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.” Now I said on there, there were a number of people, I don’t know how many, some prayed for me every day for my health. Some, some were not terribly close on an everyday place with me but they shared in my sufferings so they can share in my victory. Suffering is just one side of victory. And then he (Paul) goes on to give this testimony: “We want you not to be ignorant, brothers, of our, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death.” And that so perfectly describes that two and a half years. “But this was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.” Ah, that’s it! It was to, it was so that I had no choice but to rely. The Amplified (Classic) puts it this way: “We felt within ourselves that we had received the [very] sentence of death, but that was to keep us from trusting in and depending on ourselves instead of on God Who raises the dead.” We’re not just depending God but a God who raises the dead and brings resurrection life. And that’s what He did for me in that experience. So those who prayed entered in somehow in the body to what I needed. And he, this says in verse 11: “You must help us by prayer though, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” And that’s what happened. The prayers, it took the prayers of many. It took so much prayer from this little Shulamite Body of Christ and they suffered with me. They wept over me and agonized for me and prayed for me more than I know. Only Jesus knows what it put them through for me to go through this. So then I had mentioned on the podcast that I’d love to know what that conference looked like.
John:
Then you got an email from someone responding to the podcast about the conference, The Road that Leads to Life.
Martha:
Yes! This was just amazing. This is someone really precious in the Lord: “Dear Y’all!” I guess she’s southern like us! “And you are all dear. I read today’s podcast about how empty you felt during the last August conference. I thought I would review my fifteen pages of notes from the conference.” I don’t think I had fifteen pages written myself.
John:
Fifteen pages of the actual conference, yeah!
Martha:
Right! This is so funny in a way. But it was very discerning. “I remember seeing Martha approach the podium and thinking, ‘She’s got nothing!’” (Laughing) Oh, so true. “I remember feeling a little fearful like ‘Uh oh what’s going. Did she not prepare? Is she well enough? Let her sit. She looks so weak.’ So I prayed a short arrow-like prayer: ‘Help her.’ And a wonderful thing happened. Right before my eyes, your stature strengthened, your voice settled into its source of power, and we were off! From my notes I’m reminded pray for zeal for the scriptures. I am a little child and all that means to live like one. The Way rests in the person. He makes the changes He requires.” And so she went on to share with her, her notes. But that was so encouraging because that’s what I experienced, and she was one who comprehended the entire thing. But she took her responsibility to pray. “Help her!” Perfect, perfect, perfect!
John:
She joined in with all of us. We were all literally praying and she just literally…
Martha:
Got in the stream…
John:
Got in the stream.
Martha:
…of the Spirit. Ohhhh.
John:
One mind. She got in that mind and that mind was wanting to bring that message through.
Martha:
Wow!
John:
And so she as brother-sister-mother, she literally came up underneath the will of God and was able to pray the mind of God for the purpose of God. The whole thing was the will of God. It was so cool. It was so cool because we all joined into His mind. We see that in the podcasts a lot. We’ll see that we’ll all come together and we’ll all have something that we’re sharing and bringing and it’s all unified and it brings one solid message out of all the different parts.
Martha:
Well, see that’s happening right now, John, because in my going into this podcast, you have brought in an aspect that we didn’t plan. And the podcast is never planned. So you brought in, by the mind of Christ, the meaning of the impartation and fortified the revelation that I got from scripture. So it’s just wonderful.
John:
He is the grand orchestrator of the whole thing.
Martha:
He is the Master of the orchestra. And He wrote the song and sings the song. So I did finally come to say, “Thank you for your prayers,” but I felt more than that. I felt that the power… In the middle of all that, there was a great deal of warfare and a tremendous attempt of the enemy not to get that message out. It was one of the cruelest forms of warfare that we’ve experienced. But through the prayers of the Saints who cared about my suffering and were not selfish and self-centered, “I want a message. What is this woman coming up here with nothing!” (Laughs) But one who would take the responsibility that we all have to pray for where there’s a weakness in the body. And I know that this woman, this dear woman will get riches.
John:
Well this is the, this is the way it is not only with our podcast but it is with every single conference. It’s Body life. If you’re coming just to receive and to suck off, you’re gonna miss—
Martha:
You’ve missed it.
John:
You’ve missed it because it’s about the Body, engaged Body.
Martha:
Right! And one prayer I always pray is “God, before this conference is over, make us Church.” And Jennifer mentioned that. In the last podcast she said, “Sometimes we start as Church but in this conference (this last one in August), we were Church at the end. We had one mind about things that the Lord was bringing.” And that is the unity so powerful that for us to invest in the Body of Christ and receive from the Body of Christ is the constant flow of His life among us. And it’s just incredible if you ever see it.
Prayers Powers by the Mind of Christ – Episode #602 – Shulamite Podcast
When we are united under the Headship of Christ, our prayers are powered by the mind of Christ to serve the will of God. And what powerful prayers those are! Neither distance nor time can impede the prayers of the Body of Christ when we’re following the Spirit.
Mighty, mighty testimony of God’s goodness and how precious you are to Him!
Must confess that we did not have a big part in this kinship because we had no idea the extent of your physical [complete] weakness or anything; just that you were going to be giving a conference, which we could not attend. Even as we had committed to pray one week before (during, of course) and one week after, we really had no specific direction as far as how to pray. We could have done the generic, I suppose, but waiting to hear what was on God’s heart, when we came together to pray, we both had the same sense. It was not lengthy or profound or any of that. What He gave us was simply: “YOUR Kingdom: Come!” And that’s all we prayed for that entire time.
So thankful that you did (and continue to) gain strength; mostly, that He did have His way and surely was glorified both by the impartation at the conference and by the prayers of all the saints for a little child who simply said, “Yes.”
His love to you all!
(And, John, thank you for being a spiritual father to me, to so many of us – Happy Father’s Day!)
Reading this I was overwhelmed to see more clearly how “the fellowship of His sufferings” are so steeped in love. At the conference Martha was sharing in Christ’s sufferings and, from that, so many others were entering into those sufferings as well. Thank you for being an example of how His sufferings, and our body fellowship in that, ALL flow from His Love. John 15:12-14 goes to the heart of that. Once again, thank you Shulamites.