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Under Authority and Over the Moon
Episode #552
July 2, 2017
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Special Guest: Carole Nelson
This is the continuation of a series of Podcasts started in Episode #549.
A new world opens up when you come under authority. The principles of authority carry God’s blessing within and a person’s life will change dramatically.
(Martha) I said to Carole earlier today before we did all of this recording that she was a military Christian. She takes whatever tasks you give her. She takes a place of servanthood. She doesn’t presume or… She’s just, she’s got it. She doesn’t even know that she’s got it. And the same is true of John. John will do… We watch him right now doing a tedious task of wrapping up fourteen wires and mics and all kinds of equipment, and he doesn’t complain. He takes the lowest road that is necessary, and he does what he believes God tells him to do. He follows the Lamb wherever the Lamb goes. Now when I get that written, and I get that spoken, it’s going to be really phenomenal to follow the Lamb. That’s, that’s incredible. That tape also will be phenomenal, the May tape about following the Lamb.
(Carole) I just, as we’re talking through this, I just keep thinking really the Holy Spirit has to break our will. When I came to the Lord, that was one of the first issues was the size of my will and I was, like I said, I was blind to it at that point. I remember one time Martha, I was on the phone with Martha and she says, “You have a lot to repent for,” and I’m thinking, “I don’t understand that.” I didn’t understand the size of my will. And that’s what this military, when you go into boot camp, that Sergeant is there in your face to break your will and make your will, cause your will to belong to something other than yourself – the military.
(Martha) It’s absolutely crucial to say, Carole, because it is nothing more or less than our will. And if we’re not in the military, God has to use whatever means He uses to break our will, so that our will is His. His. We have no will of our own. Actually that’s what it comes to. We have no will of our own.
(John) And He’s committed to getting us there.
(Martha) As you said, John, He’s up for the job. I remember one time early in my walk I said, “Lord, You know I trust You. It’s me I don’t trust.” He said, “No, you don’t trust Me. You don’t trust Me to be bigger than you are.”
(Carole) It causes me to see my whole life as so in Him, as so in His sovereignty, as so completely at peace, because He’s been about doing exactly what He’s wanted to do. I may have resisted at every point on some level, but it didn’t deter Him.
(Martha) This is my favorite saying by Stoney, “God dwells in cloudless rest about me in the satisfaction of His boundless thoughts.” He’s got it all in His hands. And we’re still free to say no. I think what we are seeing tonight is that God follows a pattern somewhat similar to that in dealing with His children, and the only thing that will take you through… I think the only thing that will keep you in the service, military service to the Lord is having experienced God to a degree that you love Him. That’s got to be how you endure, having seen Him in some way.
(John) Well, I can say one thing about authority and being rebellious. Though I didn’t start out under authority, He – and it would have been easier for me if I had, you know, bowed and had gone. He had set up a system so if I had bowed, it would have made it easier. And I made it more difficult for myself by rebelling. But He is up to do it and will take us to it and is committed to take us to it, because it is life. Authority is life. There’s just no other way of looking at it. You know, I know that people have abused it, the whole shepherding movement and, you know, all that kind of stuff. Yeah. But it is, He will take you through the training to make you a soldier, and He will teach you how to be submissive and how to bow to authority.
(Martha) I forgot to tell this. It’s the most important thing this young man said, this Marine. He said, “It used to be that you had a choice, the courts would give you a choice between going to jail or going into the military.” And he said, “So we got the dregs.” He said, “Now it’s the failures in society that end up in the military, because they can get that…” And he said, “But you know, it’s the same thing you’re talking about, Martha, because we can take the lowest dreg and transform them into a decent human being. And that’s the same thing that you’re talking about.” He said, “We can take the criminal, and we can change them into another entirely human being, and we can take the one who can’t succeed anywhere else, and we’ve got a system of where we can change your life.” Isn’t that incredible that he sees it that way, and that he related it to Christianity? It’s phenomenal. So, he’s like, “It is the same.” It does take discipline and chastening and regimen and order to make a human being functional for Christ or for the military. But that was the most incredible thing he said.
(John) There’s always hope. There’s always hope, and that’s the good thing. That even us as dregs, there’s always hope that we can be made into…
(Martha) It might take a million dollar investment in one form or another.
(John) Sure enough.
(Martha) But we can, and we can train soldiers under us if we’re, if we ourselves are in that…
(John) Under authority.
(Martha) …identity.
(John) Absolutely. Well, June’s Message of the Month (Military Christianity), I invite you to, if you’re not on the CD of the Month program or don’t get the mp3, I invite you to go get it. It was an amazing message, and it really had real life application. And it was very encouraging about being under authority with an example of this military man. He’s a man, sure enough.
(Martha) He really is a man. I knew him as a boy, and when he comes in, he’s a man.
(John) Absolutely.
(Martha) And he bears that essence. He really manifests authority.
(John) It’s an amazing thing to see. Authority brings dignity.
(Martha) Right.
(John) And it brings a…
(Martha) Self-respect?
(John) It does bring self-respect, but there’s a confidence and there is a royalness.
(Martha) Yes.
(John) There’s a presence…
(Martha) Exactly.
(John) That a man under authority bears.
(Martha) Umhmm, umhmm. That’s right. That’s well said, John.
(John) It’s a dignity. There’s an air of dignity and a reality of dignity that is in a man under authority. And to take someone from the dregs or to take a boy or to take a girl or to take prisoner or take… and to bring them into a self-respect and a dignity and an honoring of themselves and an honoring of their life and an honoring of authority, it’s beautiful. It’s truly beautiful. You become who you are. So, I invite you to go get that Message of the Month if you don’t already get it. It’s amazing.
Under Authority and Over the Moon – Episode #552 – Shulamite Podcast
A whole new world opens up when you come under authority, and the very air around you is changed. The principles of authority carry God’s blessing within and a person’s life will change to reflect those blessings so that all can see the difference.
