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Receiving the Great Exchange
Episode #759
6/20/2021
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
A mystery is a secret hidden but intended to be revealed. The exchanged life is Mystery of the Gospel.
John:
So, Martha, I was telling you the other day that several people have contacted me about my book The Great Exchange. And I was actually kind of shocked by the response and what they told me. Actually, Joan told me something else that’s was really amazing, too.
So, they told me that they would make it through the book, they would be coming through it and they would have to stop and then they would look to the Lord and trying to help with the revelation. And then they would turn around and then they would either start over. One person told me that they started over and went back and ended up on the exact same page.
And I told them I said, “You know, when I first listened to your message from the Spirit and the Wind CD series called The Mind of the Spirit”… I don’t know if I told this story or not, I think I have, but I’ve told individuals regardless and so when I was listening to the Mind of the Spirit, I listened to it over and over and over again and every time I would get to the end of the message I would go, “What did I just hear? What was I just listening to?” And then I would rewind it, I’d play it again and I’d listen and I come to the exact same position. I would be like, “What did I just get. What did I just hear?”
And so finally after fifteen, twenty times listening to it and finally said, “God, what is the problem here?” And He said, “You don’t have the mind of the Spirit.” I said, “Oh!” So, I did some dealing with Him and worked with Him and prayed and then He said, “Now go listen.” And I did and the message was (POW) huge. So, this is back in the nineties.
But I was amazed at you couldn’t get it and the Spirit ministering to you the message. It doesn’t matter how easy it was delivered. The Mind of the Spirit from what I remember, I need to go back and listen to that, it was a very straight forward message. It was beautiful. But I could not get the revelation of it. I didn’t even know what was said at the end of it. I was going, “Wow.” And I could have just gone on with another message but I realized that there was something there that I was supposed to get and I wasn’t getting it. And so that kind of what I told this one person. I said, “That was my experience and I’m wondering if that not the experience you’re having with the book. That you’re literally hitting a wall and that the Spirit really needs to do a work in your heart to go beyond that wall.
Is that what you were wanting me to kind of kick this off with?
Martha:
Yes! Because I know exactly what that’s about.
John:
Oh, please tell me.
Martha:
The Great Exchange is Christ in your life. He takes your life and gives you His life. That’s it, ok.
In the eighties the Lord gave me a revelation about Moses.
John:
Oh, ok.
Martha:
The Lord said, “Moses spoke to me face to face, he has miracles but he could not go into the Promised Land.”
John:
Um hmm. Oh yeah, I remember that revelation.
Martha:
And he showed me another. Joshua represents, Joshua/Jesus represents Christ that only he can go in the Promised Land. And then I still didn’t understand because I knew He meant that I had to have the life of Christ to go in but I couldn’t understand how to get that.
John:
Um hmm.
Martha:
So, some time went on and a man named Major Ian Thomas from Great Britain came to speak at our church. He had a message so compelling but I didn’t understand a word of it. I knew that there was something there so great and I couldn’t see it. I had the same sense that there was a wall there.
John:
Wow, wow!
Martha:
I think his book is called Not I but Christ. I read that. I still couldn’t get through the wall. And I would listen to his taped message and I did like you. This was before I knew what you learned.
John:
This was a long time ago.
Martha:
Long, long time ago.
John:
This is before I ever came. This was before I was even saved.
Martha:
Right.
He had a tape and he gave several illustrations of what he was saying that it’s Christ. But I mean I could not get it and I began to pray. When I was thinking about this this morning I remembered when Jesus said to the disciples,
“Who do the people say that I am?” They said, “Oh, Elijah and John the Baptist raised from the dead.” He said, “Who do you say that I am?” And Peter said, “You are the Christ the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my Father in heaven.”
Peter got it…
John:
Oooooo….Wow.
Martha:
…because the heavens opened and the Father showed him what it meant.
John:
Oh my gosh.
Martha:
And he was the only disciple who answered out of the twelve.
John:
You just connected that scripture to this. Woe.
Martha:
And so that’s exactly what was going on with you and what was going on with me with Major Ian Thomas. I knew there was a magnificent something there and I wouldn’t rest until I knew what it was.
I listened to that tape so many times that I would often say it out loud with him.
John:
Yeah, I get it. I could do the same thing with The Mind of the Spirit.
Martha:
So, eventually I understood.
I want to start with this: In the NT there’s a word that repeated quite often and it has always intrigued me—mystery.
Jesus said,
To you have been given the mysteries of the kingdom but not to them.
So, He would say this and that is a mystery and I was always intrigued. I looked up the word mystery in the Hebrew or the Aramaic which ever language and it means a secret hidden but intended to be revealed. That’s a mystery. It’s available but somehow it has to be revealed. You can’t just logically, mentally access that mystery. It has to be given to you as a gift of sight and revelation.
John:
That makes sense. Ok, yeah.
Martha:
So here is the mystery.
Well, it says in Colossians:
Jesus existed before all things and in Him all things hold together. He is the controlling, cohesive force of the universe.
Is that the mystery? No, that’s plain. He did these things. He holds the universe together. We can understand that. This is not said to be a mystery. It’s an explanation of who Christ is.
And then in Colossians 1:19:
For it pleased the Father for all the fullness [of deity—the sum total of His essence, all His perfection, powers, and attributes] to dwell [permanently] in Him (the Son).
Is that the mystery? It doesn’t say so. It doesn’t say that’s the mystery.
In Colossians 1:25 Paul is speaking and he is saying,
In this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship which God entrusted to me for your sake, so that I might make the word of God fully known [among you]—
Paul had an assignment, a stewardship. This is always something I looked up because I saw that I had the stewardship and you have it, too. But it is that treasure of the mystery.
John:
A steward of the mystery.
Martha:
A steward of the mystery.
And the steward means you are a caretaker, a protector, a overseer of that treasure.
God entrusted to me for your sake, so that I might make the word of God fully known [among you]—that is, the mystery which was hidden [from angels and mankind] for ages and generations, but has now been revealed to His saints (God’s people).
John:
Wow.
Martha:
That’s a great mystery…
John:
Um hmm.
Martha:
…because God deliberately hid it for every generation up to this one.
But has now been revealed…
Martha:
It has to be revealed.
…to His saints (God’s children, God’s people).
God [in His eternal plan] chose to make known to them how great for the Gentiles…
You understand he didn’t speak this to the Jews yet. He was speaking this mystery to the Gentiles.
John:
Wow.
Martha:
…how great for the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in and among you, the hope and guarantee of [realizing the] glory.
Now we’ve read that. There’s no Bible student that hasn’t read that a dozen times if not a hundred. And we don’t get it…
John:
Right.
Martha:
…even though we read it because we have only our mind engaged with that verse. But if you get a sniff of the mystery which you did and I did the mystery become something that you want that you know is realer than real. And that’s only explainable by the Holy Spirit. Christ in you.
We proclaim Him, warning and instructing everyone in all wisdom [that is, with comprehensive insight into the word and purposes of God], so that we may present every person complete in Christ [mature, fully trained, and perfect in Him—the Anointed].
Our stewardship is to make known that mystery for it is the maturity of the saints.
For this I labor [often to the point of exhaustion], striving with His power and energy, which so greatly works within me. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you.
His struggle was the stewardship of that. He wanted to be able to tell the mystery. And when you have the revelation, you have the responsibility to pass it onto the other saints.
John:
Wow! So, his entire thrust of his ministry was all to be a steward of the mystery!
Martha:
Exactly.
John:
Wow.
Martha:
And then he goes on to say,
[For my hope is] that their hearts may be encouraged as they are knit together in [unselfish] love, so that they may have all the riches that come from the full assurance of understanding [the joy of salvation], resulting in a true [and more intimate] knowledge of the mystery of God, that is, Christ…
And this is Christ:
… in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge [regarding the word and purposes of God].
Receiving the Great Exchange – Episode #759 – Shulamite Podcast
The Great Exchange is Christ in your life. He takes your life and gives you His life. This is a mystery hidden but intended to be revealed.
Here is the power of today’s Podcast:
John said:
“And so finally after fifteen, twenty times listening to it and [I] finally said, “God, what is the problem here?” And He said, “You don’t have the mind of the Spirit.” I said, “Oh!” So, I did some dealing with Him and worked with Him and prayed and then He said, “Now go listen.” And I did and the message was (POW) huge.”
So, here is are the 2 Keys:
1.) Even getting to the place where a Believer longs to go deeper into his/her relationship with our Triune LORD.
2.) Recognizing that we must give up our surface-skimming, worldly-focused prayers to God, and, instead, go to Him and pray the deep prayers of how to “know” Him better (praying the deep prayers is how we get TO step 1, as well/ God inspires) — then sitting, like children, at His feet eagerly waiting for His Voice to speak His Truth into our spirits. (This is done via the Holy Spirit, gifted to believers.)
We are gifted the Holy Spirit when we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior—WE MUST ACTIVATE THE HOLY SPIRIT—i.e. actually agree to receive this awesome gift! Sadly, too many Christians never do this.
TODAY’S PODCAST TELLS HOW TO ACTIVATE THE HOLY SPIRIT WITHIN—ONCE THERE IS THE NOT-TO-BE—QUENCHED DESIRE TO BE IN DEEP COMMUNION WITH OUR LORD God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
WE MUST GO TO THE LORD WITH EVERYTHING!!!
Thank you, Martha and John!