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The Wind of the Spirit Shepherding Us
Episode #779
11/07/2021
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
With special guest: Joan Wentzel
This the continuation of a series of podcasts started in Episode #778
The Holy Spirit wind blows and His wind will go this way and then will turn directions and go the opposite way as He shepherds us.
Martha:
I was thinking this morning all of the places that He put us; Slovakia, France, Spain. We never asked for any of it. In Spain for a while, we had a family there. They considered us part of their family.
But He sometimes goes through situations and He ruins everything. And that’s ok because the situations are His and He can do as He pleases. But that is true Lordship when you will move when He says move, when you will go when He says go. And you live a life of obedience moment by moment. Not week by week but moment by moment. And some of it is inexplainable. Most of it is until you get through to the end of the story and then you find out, wow, He knew what He was doing.
So, we are married to a mystery. He is the mystery. Part of the mystery is He is following His heavenly Father second by second and He does nothing until the Father moves. And that was what I had to do yesterday. He didn’t move. He wasn’t moving. I have the message usually pretty full. This time there was nothing there. And I had to just stop and say, “I don’t know what You are doing. Ok, I will go with no message. Or I will go with this one thing, Follow the Holy Spirit second by second voice by voice.” You see me do it. I will stop and grab somebody’s arm. He’s here and I’ve got something from Him.
So, Joan said you are here to be disciplined to my discipline. That’s not quite how you said it. Is that ok Joan?
Joan:
Trained.
Martha:
Trained to my life. And that’s what it is. It is unpredictable. I like you one day. I don’t like you the next day. That’s what John’s always…Oh dear, here we go…
But the ministry of condemnation had glory. How much more the ministry of righteous abound in glory?
If we will be that obedient to the Lord, we will see His glory. We will see Him and know Him. I know Him intimately because of the way He lives in me. I learned who He is by watching Him in me and watching Him take the message that she knew my life so clearly. To me it’s just my life; I’m not particularly aware enough that it needs to be addressed or taught. No, Joan has taken the lesson to heart and to life and she understood it in me so she could present the issue. You are here because He called you. I didn’t approve but I obeyed. I said, “God, this is terrible. What if they are up six times in the night trying to see if we are having a meeting? I’ll never do this again.” He said, “Really. Do we ever say that, Martha?” “No, we never say that. We never say that we will never do something.” Because He will be there.
What would you have to say to us, John? You have lived this.
John:
As far as relationship I was thinking when you were saying about relationship “Some days I like you and some days I don’t” it’s like Jesus’ path through Israel. He was completely able to flow with the Spirit and that’s how you have to be even in a relationship. And so, one day you are like, “Wo whoo” and the next day you are like “Errr.” And that’s great because that’s shepherding. That’s the way shepherding works. When I’m out in the field with the sheep, if they are over there sucking on some poison weeds… “Grrrr.” If they are just sitting there munching then we are all good.
So, He maneuvers back and forth through shepherding. And that’s what He’s doing with us. And He’s going to shepherd us into bridal.
Martha:
Wow.
John:
I mean that’s how we’re going to be shepherded. We are going to be…
Martha:
I’ve got to say something. There’s one scene of John’s shepherding that I will never forget. We had the sheep in this pasture, maybe 40, in this field that had a fence. He had to move them across my backyard to the other field on the other side of my house.
John:
Through your yard…
Martha:
Through my yard with no fences.
John:
Right.
Martha:
So, John set it up as best he could. He said, “You go to the highway and if they start back to the barn scare them.” And so, I watched him from the road that I could see clear what he was doing. He took the dog, Pyrenees.
John:
Bunker.
Martha:
Bunker, our beloved dog. And he took the dog to help him. The sheep were delighted. They were going from one tree to another munching and they would spread apart so there wasn’t a flock anymore. There was just a bunch of ones. And so, John was having to heard them all the way. And I did have to chase them to the barn at one point.
John:
Because they ran out into the highway and were about to run down the highway.
Martha:
Yes. And so, I had to scare them. And God does that, too, does He not?
So, he finally gets them over to the field and we are both tired because we had to pat them this way and pat them that way. They would turn this way and we had to gently get them back that way and that’s how the Lord does us. “No, you are going the wrong way. Come on this way. Turn this way.” It was so graphic a picture of us as sheep because we wander.
I’m looking here at the scripture and God says to Israel, “You just would not obey My voice. You just would not obey. I would have kept you. I would have given you everything if you had just listened to me.” And that’s sheep.
John:
Well, it’s the chickens, too. Like when you’re trying to get a chicken back into the pen that they got out you can’t just run at them. You have to be three steps ahead of them so you’re guiding their little small pea brain; and with the sheep, too.
Martha:
So we’re experienced with a lot.
John:
With shepherding pea brains.
Martha:
You are especially.
So, many times I’m sitting here in this chair and I look at this tree out there and I see the wind blowing in it and I think of the Holy Spirit and the wind will go this way and then will turn directions and go the opposite way. You can watch the breeze but you don’t have any idea where it’s going or what it’s going to do next and what’s going to happen. Sometimes it’s terrific wind and that’s light. Sometimes there’s a force after us. I think there was a force after me yesterday from the enemy; plus, my own whatever it was; attack and trouble; I was deeply troubled.
And I think in part it was because of this message. He was turning me even though He had to push pretty hard He was turning me to this message. I had to experience the frustration of “I don’t know what to do. There’s a meeting today. I’m supposed to have a message. I don’t have it. The Holy Spirit is not blowing on me at all. What do I do?”
The Spirit blows on Joan and she was absolutely anointed with total insight that I needed. It solved me and the day and the message and the group. I would have had no idea but she was able to see the picture by seeing how I live for these however many years; twenty, thirty. And knowing that is the way of the Spirit.
We live that way if we are walking in the Spirit. You go here. No, I’ve got to go there. I’m to go in the path the Lord has. And that’s where you are in His will in that manner. His will is like the Spirit. Go here and now turn.
So, He has caused me to accept and appreciate what He has done for me and not what He hasn’t done He’s not interested in.
John:
And it’s offensive.
Martha:
It’s offensive, yes.
Well, got you up at six to look and see if there was a meeting. And I was already to say, “Oh God I’m such a rotten leader. I’ll never do that again.”
The Wind of the Spirit Shepherding Us – Episode #779 – Shulamite Podcast
The Spirit wind maneuvers back and forth through shepherding. And that’s what He’s doing with us. He’s going to shepherd us into bridal.
“Where would we go, You have the words of life.” Richard Wurmbrand: “I wanted to tell God: “You may do everything in your power to destroy my trust & love towards you, but you will not succeed.” “Don’t let words take the place of reality.” “There are words of ours whose aim is not to impart truth but to lift men into the realm of mystery.” He spoke this in the most dire circumstance. I can look at the pittance of my situation as offensive?! That God deals as “now I like you, now I don’t”…as He Shepherd’s…(me) unruly, running off being ‘ones’…& vulnerable beng taken into mystery that isn’t understood till the end of the story. Stick to the path He leads on…stop, wait, follow, turn. “Trained to His life.” This discipline, needed for this sheep, my heart, my bumbling feet running where I shouldn’t. Shepherding is green pastures where He is. And when needed, it’s the crook of the staff. The Lord is present. We lift up holy hands…open to God, grasping nothing…no idols of something or someone. “He has caused me to appreciate what He’s done for me & not what He hasn’t done He’s not interested in.” What a needed message!