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Working Out Salvation in Deliberate Choices
Episode #636
2-10-19
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Special guest: Joan Wentzel
This is the continuation of a series of podcasts started in Episode #632
The Lord calls us to “work out your own salvation in fear and trembling.” And no small part of doing that is grappling with your life and making choices.
Martha:
The Lord said, “Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling.”
John:
Right.
Martha:
Because it is so serious. I said it on the first tape about our salvation. It’s a responsibility to be born again. It is such a huge gift but it is also enormous responsibility to, to live it out.
John:
Was that from So Great a Salvation?
Martha:
Yes!
John:
That was amazing. And it is, it’s a tremendous responsibility and the repercussions and the consequences of that or taking it up or not taking it up are so huge.
Martha:
And in Moses’ challenge it had to do with your descendants.
John:
Oh, gosh!
Martha:
“Choose this day life for you and your descendants.” And that doesn’t mean children. It means grandchildren, great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren on down the generations.
John:
Well, think about how many people are out there that are really fighting against the choices of their…
Martha:
Yes! Forefathers.
John:
Forefathers. I mean it makes it difficult.
Martha:
Yes.
John:
It, it’s like binding your feet and you have to overcome things that have been handed down to you.
Martha:
That’s right, John. That’s a good point.
John:
And so, you know, you know we’re supposed to sling our children forward to give them a…
Martha:
To be better than…
John:
…better than us, a leg up, you know. And if I’m not dealing with my choices with God, I’m literally tying their feet.
Martha:
Yeah. And I think, too, it’s… A young precious believer told me not long ago, “Martha, you have disciples you know nothing about.” And I think when we, when we have a witness and a message and a testimony that’s available, we really don’t know. So if… My life will affect them, because my life choice – of life, “then choose the words from God” – and it is an inheritance for whoever listens.
John:
Well, absolutely! And, and, you know, it says that the heritage is not from blood or choice, you know, of man. You know, it’s not because I was born into that. I can come in and I can have your forerunner ministry in my life. And say my parents didn’t make those choices and made bad choices, because I’m in the kingdom of God and because I’m a child of God I can come in and…
Martha:
Right.
John:
…your choices can free my…
Martha:
Right.
John:
and make it a forerunner.
Martha:
And even in working with people privately…
John:
Yep.
Martha:
You can… It affects everything in your life whether you’ve chosen life or death. It affects all of your choices beyond that one choice.
John:
Right.
Joan:
It takes you to the sovereignty of God. Choosing life takes you to the God is sovereign over your life. And it’s, it’s choosing a yes to His sovereignty.
John:
Yeah.
Joan:
To choose life is to say, “Yes, You are sovereign. I will agree. Not just with the word but with the life You have given me.”
John:
Wow! Yeah, wow. That’s really wow!
Martha:
I choose my life.
Joan:
I choose my life. I want to live the life You have given me and only, I feel like, by choosing life is that a yes to the sovereignty. Because to say no to life is really saying no to my life and to You, God, as God over my life.
John:
Oh, yeah.
Martha:
Wow. Amen, Joan.
Joan:
But in saying that, that’s not to say we’re not going to struggle and grapple with our lives and that God allows for no humanity. That’s, that’s to, to take the information and misdirect it. God is so patient with our bungling, bumbling.
Martha:
He knoweth we are dust.
Joan:
He knows we are dust.
John:
Yeah, thank God.
Joan:
And so it’s not to say, “Well, I’m just going to make this blanket statement of ‘I’m just gonna say yes.’” It’s to really get down and grapple with it but at the end of day, “I want to live the life You’ve given me.” And then He takes it from there. He, He just, He’s so big, He just, He takes over that choice.
Martha:
I think of this always, that when the Lord called me to write and made it very clear, I didn’t want to do that with all my being. It was the last thing. “I will go to Africa. I will go to Guatemala. Don’t ask me to write.” But I was so afraid that I would walk my way out of it that I got on a plane and went to Dallas to a seminar. I determined to say, “I will write” even though I knew I couldn’t (and I couldn’t). It was an act of my will to say yes and then He met me with every provision and taught me that He could write. He wasn’t asking me to write. He was asking me to choose to live that out.
So it’s, you can say yes to what you really don’t want to do and He will pick you up and by the time I came home from Dallas I was on the track, ready to go.
Wow! I looked down and here is Psalms 39:1. “I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin. I will put a muzzle on my mouth as long as the wicked are in my presence.”
I think it’s Psalm 101 where David makes statements of his choices. They are incredible statements he has grappled out, Joan. He’s grappled with this and he has decided how he’s going to live and what he’s going to do with his life in accordance with God’s character. “I will sing of Your love and justice. To You, O Lord, I will praise. I will be careful to lead a blameless life. I will walk in my house with a blameless heart. I will set before my eyes no vile thing. I will have nothing to do with evil. Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret him will I put to silence. I will not endure whoever has haughty eyes. My eyes will be on the faithful of the land. Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land. I will cut off every evil doer from the city of the Lord.” Those are enormous! And he did it. It’s obvious he did it. He wrote many songs of love for his – and justice – for the Lord. He did come to a blameless heart. It wasn’t an easy or sinless route but he did it because first he chose it. And the Lord pointed out to me one time, “Ok, Martha, you do this. You make these commitments, make these choices.” I choose what I will listen to and what I will not listen to. And who! I choose who I will listen to.
Joan:
And our choices are so basic. They are as simple as yes and no. It’s not something huge and big and…
Martha:
Complicated.
Joan:
Complicated. It is yes or no!
Martha:
And we do make it.
Joan:
And we do make it.
Martha:
We do say! I’m going to ask that all of you who are listening help us. Show us what you’ve learned. Write us a comment of your choices and let’s make this ongoing conversation. This is, I believe this and the issue of love are my directions for the year. I want to move mountains with His words. And so we’ll be telling stories about amazing things I’m confident.
John:
It’s our choice.
(They laugh.)
Working Out Salvation in Deliberate Choices – Episode #636 – Shulamite Podcast
The Lord calls us to “work out your own salvation in fear and trembling.” And no small part of doing that is grappling with your life and making choices. Like David in Psalm 101, we make deliberate choices that affect every aspect of the life God gave us.
I hope each of you heard podcast 637, we celebrated your responses. Big love to each of you and thanking God for you!
Yes! Words! The Holy Spirit has lately very much not allowed me to ignore the weight of words… The ones I choose to think, speak and listen to have become shockingly revealing to me of my choice of Him or not! And when I choose His words, it is always a bending of my knees to Him as Sovereign… Just like the choice of forgiveness… If I am having a hard time with that, it shows me I’m struggling with His sovereignty… It becomes overwhelming sometimes to see that my rebellion runs oh so deep… Still, I desire to see Him as Sovereign and to relate to Him as such!
Martha! I am one of those disciples “you know nothing about”!! I have been following you for over 10 years already and the place you lead me to, again and again, is Jesus Himself! Dear woman, I am a witness to your love for Jesus! That is why I have found Him here, like nowhere else! And so I need to say, if God ever shows you that the Portuguese speaking church needs to hear the words He has given you, I am here…
Thanking God for you (all of you)… Much love…
This message blessed me and helped me to understand Phil 2:12,13 more. In the King James version Paul uses the word will, but, I can see now it can be translated choose. That helps me to understand more thoroughly the meaning of what he is saying. I was meditating on a scripture this morning before I listened to the podcast and it is from John 10:17; “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life (my choice), that I might take it again (my choice). As I read this I remembered a quote from Fredrick Faber, “Choice is the Highest act of Love.” That phrase speaks volumes doesn’t it. Thank you Martha and Family for enriching our hearts Godward!
Oh Steve I love that quote! “Choice is the Highest act of Love.” WOW! As you’ll hear on the next podcast we loved it! Thank you so much for commenting and sharing!
thank you for this message ….this past Friday and Saturday I attended a gathering of folks who have a heart for the world and who every now and again come together in worship and intercession ….one of the directives from the Lord very early on at the gathering was “watch your words” ……and so instead of focusing on all the dark areas, we deliberately chose to lift our eyes and focus on the Lord Jesus … we chose to focus on His Kingdom ….and speak His promises …… and it is my desire to carry this into all my moments ….and that is my choice …..
Choices…
1) Christ as my Savior
2) Believing The Holy Bible is entirely the inspired Word of God
3) Knowing He is Sovereign
Wasn’t sure if you wanted this in discussion form or just bullet points to be discussed later. There were other choices after number one and in between two and three. But I believe these are choices He’s brought me to that result in His peace.
Excited to see what others share.
❤️