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The Energy of the Spirit
Episode #250
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Special guests: Julie and Jacquelyn
(M) The energy of the Spirit is not human. It’s way beyond human, way beyond human. And to let that energy take you over is the leap. To let that energy take you… I, after reading this book, I am just passionate about this group of people that I live with, that you all would throw out your barriers, like you just did with me. I did not know that I had assumed a limitation because of my age. And I put that on myself, and I’ve explained things by the fact, by that fact; it’s irrelevant to me, it’s irrelevant. Whatever He gives me to do, He gives me His power to do it. And it doesn’t mean there won’t be staggering fatigue. Or as Paul said, “Often in the water, discouraged but no cast down”, all that list in first Corinthians four. But I want us to put no limit on what God can do in ‘you’, just you. I want to put no limit on what He can do in me, spiritually, physically, emotionally, mentally, in every way. It’s like yesterday He set it up so that I would break through the barrier of what I believed I could do in one day, and what I could do… And I suffered last night from pain, but its gone today. Who knows but what that leap beyond yourself gets you to the place you never dreamed you could go. So I could, I could weep buckets right this minute, of desire for each of you to charge for greatness for the sake of the Lord. That’s what this man says, by humility; I’ll have to read the sentence to you in there. I think I read it in the CD of the month, I don’t remember. Do you all remember the quoting it? (In background someone says… “Yeah”) Ok, the statement, I don’t have it in front of me now, but the statement is in the CD of the month, “that by humility and incredible determination and hope.” So he places in there a few little words like spirit, faith and hope, and love. I don’t know, he’s not writing to a religious group, but he has those words that make the difference in there. Any person of any age, thank You Lord, can achieve greatness. And that doesn’t mean notoriety or fame, not necessarily at all. We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses. It’s like the older I get the more I’m aware of the cloud of witnesses. They’re real to me. They watch our race. Who knows what they do to encourage, and pray for us. I don’t know, I just know there’s a cloud of witnesses. And that we are a testimony before the angelic host. We’re told that. So that greatness may be like Brother Lawrence. I think he means so much to me because he lived such a restricted, simple, sparse, obscure life. And God promises to His children, the faithful, that He will cause us to be remembered on the earth. And that’s not my goal, it’s just the assurance that what you do is lasting on some ground, as God ordains it, as God treasures it. He can cause anybody to remember anybody. He can do anything. So, I think what… I’ll just say what I think He was really telling me. That He was pushing me in my garden physically that I might do the spiritual work that lies ahead. That physically I will have to be very fit. And He’s given me a place of love and joy and bliss in which to build a strength that it will be phenomenal. He doesn’t to that with everyone, some people He lays them down in green pastures. But ah, He has promised that we will be ‘green’ in our old age. He’s promised that to all believer’s; that it is accessible to those who fear the Lord.
(J) Hmm, hmm.
(M) “The young lion’s do want, but they who fear the Lord will lack no good thing.” So the lion stands for human, animalistic strength, and they will go wanting, but those who fear the Lord shall not lack anything, even physically. As Don said, for that which is His plan, there is complete presence and provision.
(Julie) As you were talking, I was thinking about my, about the work involved in being a disciple. That may not be the right way to say it, but my experience of discipleship with you; it always begins as it’s an issue of faith. If I see something in your life that I feel like the Lord is calling me to as a disciple to follow, at first it seems like, the work of it seems overwhelming, and I have to deal with… My first reaction usually, whether it’s flesh, or who I am, but I mean is, is laziness, and oh my gosh, that looks like so much work, and how would I ever come up to that standard. But what my experience has been is that it’s really, all God’s ever asked me for is just my faith. It’s not my ability, it’s not my strength, because if I will simply say ‘yes’ in faith, say yes, that, that is something You’re calling me to, that is a, a value I bear witness is You, Lord, then He always actually does the work. He works it out, and He works it out so that, uhm, well a whole lot is, is doable that I never thought was possible. I mean He’s continually working things out that I never thought were possible, and He makes it to where it’s not, it’s not as overwhelming as it looked like.
(Jacquelyn) Is it just presenting your body a living sacrifice?
(M) Yes, exactly. If by that you mean that you surrender to anything. If by that you mean, not meaning you, Jacquelyn, but if you present your body… I know many people that have presented their bodies and never really exhibited the miraculous presence of the Lord. If you mean by that You can have my body to indwell, take me wherever You want me to go, I will be whoever You want me to be in this body. If, if… It’s all in what you mean by that. I don’t mean you of course. What do we mean by I present my body? Sometimes it’s to… In many cases its just words, not commitment. I think what Julie’s talking about is the leap. The leap of a yes, so… It wouldn’t be the crisis for her if her yes weren’t so genuine. The presence of a crisis is the realization that the yes is big. And it will mean accountability, and it will mean a change of life and thought. Her yes to her was a crisis, to another it’s just ‘oh yeah, sure Lord, sure’, and now I’ll go back to do my thing. Do you know what I mean? Yes, that is exactly the issue. What you’ve stated is, and that I’ll be going into in the next CD too; Roman’s twelve, one.
(Julie) But this is what I guess… And this is why for me it’s a sense of discipleship, because I’m watching you ahead of me to do it. And I see that sometimes, like my daughter observed, you will take on these huge, huge, ‘gi-normous’ works; sometimes it’s even just in getting involved in somebody’s life that needs the Lord. But you’ll take on these huge, huge things because it’s like you, you fundamentally expect Him to meet you and do it. I mean, that’s the only way you can go into it.
(M) Exactly. I believe He can. If He calls me, I believe He can. That, that has come from a lot of years though.
(Julie) But that’s when in, in discipleship that’s always, that’s the good I guess I’ve learned, and if I can, if you’ll help me… I want to be able to say this, because it would encourage people, that when He puts a work before you, you don’t have to look at it in terms of your own ability or your own strength; it has to do with, do you believe that He’ll meet you in it and He’ll perform it. And that’s why, He always, I mean we can testify, He always comes through with the strength and the performance Himself. So it’s really only an issue of faith.
(M) Yes.
(J) That’s “The work of faith, the labor of love.”
(M) Uh-huh, yeah, that’s it. The work is of faith. That’s what, yeah, that’s what you’re describing.
(Julie) Which goes into that scripture too that when they asked Jesus, “What do we have to do to do the works of God”, and He said, “The work is to believe in the Son He sent.” And I see that in the most practical, practical things, even if it’s being out in your garden and shoveling dirt, which people can’t even imagine how hard it is, what you’re really… She always makes things really light, like it wasn’t that big of a deal, but she’s talking about huge amounts of dirt. And even if it’s something as practical as that, it’s you have a core belief in your life, of the Son that was sent to fulfill everything for you. And that’s why you can go into this work.
(M) Yes! Yes. And that came from over and over obeying Him, scared to death, but in most tiny flicker of faith, and watching Him be faithful every single time. And so now I know. And I’m just telling you that even that was a work, to come to the absolute faith that… And still, still, I’m still being challenged. It’s not like…I mean He takes you bigger and bigger and bigger.
(Julie) When I first, when I first came to walk with you, this is so precious to me, and I told you this in tears the other day, about this particular CD of the month. I am passionate about this, this teaching, this message that you’re saying right now, because this was the salvation of my life. Because it was the courage to ah, believe Him… The integrity that I see in you, you trust Him to help you in every single role that He’s placed you in, every single calling, the most common place of being a mother, being a mother of children at all different kinds of ages. Because it’s not the same, it’s not even the same faith to be the mother of a teenager, as it took to be the mother of a pre-schooler, or the mother of a child, an adult child going through a crisis. And I see you in the most ah, practical level… And I love this because to me this is a part of the gospel that has been so lost. We separate out spirituality from our daily lives so much, and yet yours is so meshed together, of trusting Him, Him, trusting Him to meet every single requirement of every single demand, every moment. And so then it is like Don said, the whole thing becomes a relationship.
(M) And, and you get there because, by being nothing, not by being something. The irony is that when you know you can do absolutely nothing, then everything is His. And He has spent some tedious years teaching me that I am nothing and can do nothing. And that’s the ground on which my faith is built; which is funny, it’s a great paradox. You never know… And Don’s years he mentions of working, were not wasted, they were there to prove to you that you needed Him, and that He wanted you, and so its, its, it’s perfect. Because it takes a long time to convince us, me, it took a long time, and many, many issues and circumstances to teach me that I have absolutely nothing, so everything has to be faith.
(J) Hmmm.
(M) “The just shall live by faith.” The justified, the forgiven, the redeemed shall live by faith. And so everything has to be faith, because I can do nothing. And I almost have stopped reminding Him of that, as though He didn’t know it. (Martha and others laugh.) So when He challenges me I don’t go, ‘noweeeuknow’, I can’t do it, You know I’m nothing. I don’t remind Him anymore, because He, He reminds me. But I want you to know that. I want anybody that hears this, this great adventure… And see, it’s all about knowing Him too. The labor of love is, you labor out of love, for love, unto love, because you’re loved. That’s why you labor.
(J) Wow.
(M) That’s what I’m going into next, is that… And I’ve said it, I think in the first CD, fleetingly. But why would you take on anything, other than to know Him?
