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with Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
(M) Twenty years ago the Lord gave me this statement, “I am not involved in any human conflicts, they have no reality; I am not involved in any human enterprises, they have no reality. I am involved with God, for He is the only Reality.” Now of course I didn’t understand it. I thought I did. And I lived it and I wrote it and I read it and I prayed it, because He said this is what I want you to know; human conflict, you are not to be involved in it. Entangled.
(J) Right, sure.
(M) Trying to fix it; that’s the chaos. Human enterprises, it was perfect because it talked about relationship and work, relationships and ambition. Human enterprises, it was interesting that He used that word; that’s the ambition, the labor, the effort, so it was perfect, it was both realms of human life. Of course I didn’t understand that at the time. And, but He gave that to commit to and to pray. Well it went deep inside me, and I hadn’t thought about it for a long time. But this is what He’s bringing me back to. Ok, so I prayed for this woman, couldn’t ever find what it was to put my finger on that could set her free. And it’s not that I didn’t seek; and I found lots of things, lots of aspects. Last week she wrote me in this tremendous suffering and torment, and being powerless, all I did was go to the Lord and say, “Lord, solve her.” But what I went to Him in, in the frame of mind and the beliefs is what I want to come to. The next day she wrote me and said, “Martha, what did you pray for me? I am free. I am free to be myself.” Next day she wrote me again describing this enormous freedom. So I had to think back, what did I pray? What did I pray that was so powerful? That all my other binding and loosing and carrying on and striving and…..
(J) Wringing.
(M) Yes, and wringing my hands and calling it prayer as I used to say. She said it’s like, she said this statement “It’s like 47 years of anxiety have fallen off of me.” And I said you’ve just given me the clue. I went to the Lord, finally with no anxiety about her. I went to the Lord in delight in Who He is.
(J) Who He is.
(M) Who He is without focusing on the problem. And I had one other experience of that too that I remembered.
(J) Pretty dramatic one, isn’t it.
(M) Yes, it is a dramatic one. Someone extremely dear to my heart, who’s just oh precious. And I just adore her. The Lord just one day invaded me with love for her. Well she was ill, seriously ill. I didn’t really focus on what was wrong with her, but I just looked at the Lord and I became enveloped in His love for her. I didn’t ask Him for anything. She was healed in that hour of what she believes was colon cancer. Further John, a neighbor that she loved, an older woman, had very bad symptoms and was healed also from her presence. And it was too easy.
(J) Umhum.
(M) It was just too easy. But see the order of the Kingdom is that He is God. He does everything.
(J) Well isn’t that what we saw in Christ’s life. I mean He just…. He went and was under the order and things just happened.
(M) Yes, exactly. Oh that’s… Oh that’s great, to relate it to Jesus. (Martha laughs) How wonderful. (Martha laughs and John joins her.) I’m trying to… Never mind. That’s how He lived. And though He did… His pathway looked like chaos but it was in perfect order. He goes to Samaria to the woman at the well. It’s wonderful. But the point is, God showed me, you cannot pray in anxiety, because anxiety is faith in the problem.
(J) How often do we go to Him… Isn’t our prayer life about going to Him to complain, to whine, to plead, to beg, to… that He would deal with whatever issue is in chaos.
(M) Ah, but it’s focus on the problem.
(J) Absolutely, that’s what I’m saying, ‘oh please, please, please, fix it, fix it.’
(M) This is the problem; not focus on Him.
(J) Exactly, umhum.
(M) And so.
(J) I’m seeing it very clearly; believe me I really am.
(M) And I’ve just gotten so excited about it because anxiety is faith in the problem. So it’s learning. It’s not so much learning… I fear to tell this because it might come out as something you can learn. It’s something you die into. Something you are brought to. It’s Zechariah 13, that scripture. He puts you in the fire and He brings you to know that He is God and that He answers your prayers. Poof, poof, poof. Now it’s not that He hasn’t answered great prayers in my life, He has. And it’s not that I haven’t touched this, but I’m seeing it as the way to pray. And here it is in the scripture; Philippians 4:4 “Rejoice in the Lord, always delight, gladden yourselves in Him, again I say rejoice.” See John, when you know He’s God, and it’s a process of your entire life, knowing that He is God and knowing how much He is God. That’s the process. The conclusion of anything is to ‘Oh, You are God.’ His dealings with Israel were ‘so that you will know that I am God, and there is no other’. So rejoice in the Lord is because you know He is Lord. And it’s delight; resurrection life is delight. Christ’s life was delight in the Father. It was absolute delight. “Behold in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I delight to do thy will oh Lord.” Then it says He delights in the fear of God. So resurrection life… Human flesh life is just heavy.
(J) Umhumm.
(M) Ever heavy.
(J) Umhumm.
(M) Ever tedious.
(J) Umhumm.
(M) But His life is full of delight. It’s like the, the filming of Matthew. Is it the TBS version?
(J) Ah no, it was “The Visual Bible” version.
(M) Ok, “The Visual Bible” version of Jesus in the book of Matthew is just a delight. A delight that because of our flesh we don’t comprehend is in God. But that’s who Jesus was. So if you rejoice in Him, and delight yourself in Him, that is resurrection life. And then it says, “Let all men know and perceive and recognize your unselfishness, your considerateness, your forbearing spirit; the Lord is near, He is coming soon.” It’s interesting; I don’t understand that verse fully. But here’s what I think; the prospect of your soon meeting Him makes everything in this life irrelevant. Even if you know, even if you live as though you could die at any time, which you can. Or if you live as we’re supposed to live, in the anticipation of His return, if you can get there. Life is supposed to be lived in the anticipation of His return, whether to take me home or take me up. And so, that makes every problem completely irrelevant. Every issue, where do I live? It doesn’t matter. What do I have? It doesn’t matter. The Lord is near. So your patience and forbearance is the Life of Christ, in the perspective that we don’t need anything but Him.
(J) You know we talk about this in “The Kingdom Of The Son Of His Love” CD series. And ah, I give a testimony in that one about The Kingdom. And actually someone just recently wrote about how that had really ministered to her. And ah, I was real grateful. But “The Kingdom Of The Son Of His Love” you’re talking about the scripture in Colossians, and it’s all about gaining that Kingdom focus. It’s a four CD series, it’s “Seeing The Kingdom”, “Seeking The Kingdom”, “Living In The Kingdom”, and “Bringing In The Kingdom”. And you literally speak about, and I just come in as an object lesson as I usually do (Laughter) to your message. (More laughter) Glad I could serve you, so umm. (Laughter) So you talk about how the focus has to be of a Kingdom perspective, and that if you’re focused ‘here’, you’re really, you’re in chaos and you’re in fear. But if you have that Kingdom perspective, with that view of Him coming, a view of ‘this isn’t the end, this is just the beginning’, then it is incredible the power that you live in because literally the Kingdom will dwell within you and control your circumstances. Though you may not feel every moment that they’re being controlled by the Kingdom, they will basically overtake your earthly kingdom, (Martha is saying yes, yes, yes, in the background.) and your earthly chaos, and your earthly. So. I just appreciate that whole series of messages; it was wonderful.
(M) You’re making me want to listen to it. But see you have the consideration and the forbearance, with the perspective that the only Reality is the Lord’s Return and the Lord’s Presence. And so everything falls into irrelevance and you are not ah, you’re not ‘praying the problem’. I don’t think resurrection life prays the problem. Though we can have a problem; it’s not some silly denial of reality.
(J) Right, sure.
(M) It’s coming to the Lord in worship until He is your delight and the solving of the problem is not your focus. You said this morning focus on the problem is worship, is idolatry I think you said.
(J) No, I said worship of the problem.
(M) Oh, ok, say it right.
(J) So I said, to focus on the problem is to worship the problem rather than God.
(M) And you know John…
(J) And enthrone it.
(M) Yeah, well I have seen the purpose. I think I did a tape of the month… We’re not really selling this morning but I did a tape of the month and I need to go back and hear it, or I need to read the transcript. It’s called “Gaze”.
(J) “Our Gaze”.
(M) It’s about keeping your eyes on the Lord. Well I’m going to do a follow-up to that, I hope, for the “Tape Of The Month” this month. But the whole agenda is to look at Him.
(J) Now I’ve got a question for you. Paul says, “Give thanks in everything.” Is this how you do it’?
(M) Oh I think it’s a major way to do it. Because it’s… You transcend the problem and the situation, and you go up into the reality that God is God.
(J) Because I’ve seen people respond to that scripture almost in a sarcastic way, oh, ok well, God I thank you for my flat tire, appreciate it. You know. (Laughter) But it’s kind of amazing, if you have a Kingdom perspective of it, it takes that flat tire up into the Kingdom and brings His Lordship over it and then somehow it absorbs it, takes care of it, and…
(M) Yeah, well it’s a sacrifice of thanksgiving and it’s crucial to this. I spoke from Hebrews 12 where it says ah, “Let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance of sin that entangles us.” And the sin is believing in the power of the problem.
