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Trusting in His Sovereign Touch
Episode #794
2/20/2022
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
This is a continuation of a series of podcasts started in Episode #793
In His sovereignty what we have seen as abuse can become blessings. This is the Sovereign Touch.
John:
“True worship is not simply smiles and joyful singing. It is a ruthless demand with no compromise that our flesh bow to God as sovereign.”
Martha:
What page is that?
John:
Page 51. When I’ve been going through it with Pauleau, I’ve been highlighting things and saying, “That’s amazing.”
Martha:
Tell them about reading the book with other men who requested it. I think it’s a most unique request.
John:
He just wanted me to read it with him and discuss it with him. Yeah, he wanted to walk through it. And he actually wants to do the same thing with The Great Exchange. So, I’m looking forward to doing that, too. It’s neat to literally, as an author, witness someone experiencing your book as they are reading it. So, that’s been a real precious gift to me.
“God writes all our stories because they are really His stories.” If you can come out of this book and not be at peace with or on the path of receiving and accepting the sovereignty of God, I don’t know why because I know that the Spirit did this and I know how He laid it out and I think it’s absolutely beautiful.
Martha:
It is. I’m going to read from the backside. “There isn’t a person alive who hasn’t had a question about the sovereignty of God. But why? Why is the issues of God’s ultimate power and rule so provoking to our hearts? Now John has given a raw and honest answer. Deep down in our core we know that if God is truly sovereign then we have to face the truth that things happen that hurt us.” And you have faced it squarely and you have addressed it. So, it is a treasure!
John:
And it’s not like I don’t share my own pains…
Martha:
Exactly!
John:
…and my own situation. It’s not like I’m just saying “Oh, Joe Blow over there and Sally Sue over here. I literally am talking about it in my life and showing it in my own life.
Martha:
That’s why I love the title The Sovereign Touch. You tell how God touched you; sovereignty overriding everything. What is that scripture that says, “We did not honor Him as God?”
John:
Romans 1. Or give Him thanks.
Martha:
Or give Him thanks. This book when I read it, I said, “John, you have reversed that. You have written a book that honors God for who He is.
John:
And it deals with the thanks; giving Him thanks for being God.
Martha:
Yes, it definitely does. That’s the miracle of it to me. It’s just a magnificent manuscript.
John:
Here’s a statement: “In His sovereignty what we have seen as abuse can become blessings”
Martha:
Can I read?
John:
Absolutely, read anything you want.
Martha:
“True worship is not simply smiles and joyful singing. It is a ruthless demand with no compromised that our flesh bow to God as sovereign.” A short statement but boy is that powerful. “Our flesh bow to God as sovereign!” And then heaven comes down, doesn’t it, John?
John:
Absolutely.
Martha:
It’s a tough battle.
John:
I take it to every arena of your life from your own body to your own parents and family into your own bosses, teachers, and influencers and government, and world. I take it to every realm and then back to Him as sovereign.
“If He can control our bodies, He can control our lives and our world.” That’s what you read about Moses. I said, “If God can’t be sovereign over my body, then the likelihood of Him being in control as sovereign over my world is unlikely. If He is not sovereign of our bodies, then I probably won’t believe He is sovereign my world.”
His sovereignty and our bodies there is a collision course right there to believe about our bodies because nothing can push me into a frenzy or a fear-based stupor than something going wrong with my body. All of a sudden, I am like freaking out. And if He is able to be sovereign over even that, that’s pretty big. “I am over your body. Your body is under My control.”
Martha:
That’s getting very personal and evasive isn’t it, John? I am amazed that you even addressed it.
John:
I did. “Not your circumstance, not your dominance for I wield your body as My instrument to make Myself known.” That’s what God told me. That’s what He literally told me about my own body. But I wrote it in here.
Martha:
So, He was speaking to you along with the journey of writing this all down.
John:
Absolutely, I heard that, I literally heard that. And it was about my body but it was also addressing those that would read this.
Here’s quote from page 83. “God does not shy away from things that might cause me pain. He perfectly uses them to bring me to Himself.”
Martha:
Here’s a section that I don’t remember reading and I am so intrigued. You call it The Healing Balm of Sovereignty. And you say, “As for you, meaning the enemy, you meant evil against me but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive. From Genesis 50.”
John:
That Joseph! And Joseph’s life if any life in the Bible shows sovereignty and God’s Lordship and control over the pains of our lives, it’s Joseph. Joseph over and over and over received abuse after abuse after abuse but He was sovereign.
Martha:
Unrighteousness.
John:
Total unrighteousness. And God used the entire thing to bring about the salvation of an entire people.
Martha:
Yes.
John:
It’s amazing.
Martha:
That’s how big this is.
John:
It is huge. It’s absolutely huge. If we will do the journey with God and really do the work of accepting His sovereignty, He will bring blessing out of even our worst curse.
Martha:
Yes! He has a purpose beyond our imagination.
John:
Absolutely!
Martha:
And if we are in our imagination, we will not like Him very much.
John:
No, absolutely, we will be bitter against Him.
Martha:
There are so many points in our life where we have to trust God and that’s all we have; to trust that He is God, He is as good as He claims.
John:
Absolutely.
Martha:
There is huge reward for it and you give that too. It’s so refreshing to have a living witness to the reality of God’s sovereignty; the revelation of it. You have to have a light turned on to see it and to see how it works and where He takes it.
John:
I am one of the most unlikely people to have this message come through. I mean, really, sure enough.
Martha:
Well, tell us why.
John:
Because I didn’t come to this easily and I for so long, so many years of my life I resisted God’s Lordship, God’s choice, God’s will; I resisted it, I hated it; I despised it. And I pushed against it and I fought it and I ran away from it and I’ve just realized He overtook me and He persuaded me through deep wooing. Sometimes that wooing wasn’t gentle hands and snuggly kisses. It was rough!
But His firmness is so loving compared to the aggression and abuse of man. But He uses the aggression of man. I would tell you on a regular basis when somebody was abusing you, I would say, “They are just paying your price.” “They are paying your price to make you ready to be the Bride of Christ.” They are paying your price. They are literally preparing you for an eternity of wonderful. And that’s a hard one to accept and receive.
Martha:
Your constant bringing me to that standard and that solution and that being of God made me endure. So, this book will cause you to endure the suffering that is necessary.
Trusting in His Sovereign Touch – Episode #794 – Shulamite Podcast
True worship is not simply smiles and joyful singing. It is a ruthless demand with no compromise that our flesh bow to God as sovereign.
On recent podcasts you asked for response.
What my response is that what has been passed on in revelation by Martha and John, in books, podcasts, CD of month has been like being in military training. Getting the experts to train, observe, and give new instructions to the “troops”. The Body at large.
Personally, if I hadn’t had the exposure to such rich, challenging, insights and training thru you both for fifteen plus years I wouldn’t have survived the last two years. The Yes to the Lord in these places has been transcendent.
Since my husband’s passing, it’s literally been like crawling after life in the Lord, told Him so, so often. Then yesterday He showed me that the “military training” in the spirit for years prepared me to literally crawl in the mud to not only survive but to be in a stance of surrender to His ground placement. On my face, weakness as Martha calls it, and keep moving forward, backwards, sideways…ever learning to keep in step with Him! Ever watching His feet to go the distance with Jesus as you John keep telling us. Even the freezing, holding still times are important to Him. Have learned so much in these days of leaning into Him in the spirit.
Blessings and love,
Nancy