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Reflections on the Hidden Life
Episode #278
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Special guests: Don Nelson, Julie and Jennifer Wentzel
(Don) Martha asked the question about the new booklet; and I response as I usually do, I use awesome a lot, but it was awesome. But Uhmm, I think it goes far past that. For as many years as I have known her, I have always been so enlightened, so overcome, by what God shares through her. And what a blessing it is to all who read and understand it. And when they read it, they know exactly where it comes from. It comes right from the Lord Himself, the words are His, all that He shares with her, and I think He takes great pleasure in using Martha as His vessel. And I take great pleasure in being able to read and share in what He has shared through her. I believe that this booklet is a tremendous tribute to the Lord Jesus Christ, and for all that He is, and for all that He is to all of us that know Him as Lord and Savior.
(Julie) The thing that I appreciate about this booklet, uhmm, there’s a lot to appreciate in this booklet, and I, I appreciate in this whole series that you are sharing the foundational, kind of like these are the, these are the habits, these are the building blocks of your spiritual life, and it’s so helpful for people coming behind you. But I’m grateful that in this booklet several times you stress that the hidden life is a power that comes to us from God, that is so encouraging to me. Because I think that for anybody that has sincerely desired to pursue God, and tried and failed, and failed, and failed, and failed, it’s encouraging to hear someone like you say, pray and ask, and the power will come from Him. And that it is, it is, I mean it’s your revelation in this booklet that, that it is ultimately Jesus Christ own hidden life with the Father that lives in us, and plays out in us. That’s just extraordinary, I’ve never heard that anywhere before. And it’s so encouraging because it means His life, even in this that feels like my most fundamental duty, so to speak, to pray, and to seek God, even in that His life will carry me, that’s rest.
(Jennifer) This booklet, like “The Secret To Answered Prayer”, I think for me, uhmm, like all of Martha’s stuff really, that I read and listen to, uhmm, shows me more of Him, makes me want to see more of Him, know more of Him, be more His. Uhmm, and this one in particular, you know John, when you were talking about the reward, about uhmm, about seeing the depth of riches and the deeper Christian life. Uhmm, I grew up in the church, but then I left it for quite awhile, so ah, when I first came to Shulamite Ministries, I didn’t know what it meant to have a deeper Christian life, I didn’t know what that meant. Uhmm, the idea of a living impartation, exchanged life, indwelling Christ, all of these things, ah, it was like hearing a different language, and ah. But it was something that I was hungry for, uhmm, because part of my story is that ah, Christianity as a whole was never really attractive to me because I never saw any real reward in just living a good life and being a good person. Uhmm, it seemed kind of pointless and it was just there. And of course behaviorally I really couldn’t do it anyway, so (Jennifer laughs) I rejected it before I could be rejected by the goodness. There, take that ‘goodness’, I don’t like you, you’re bored, it doesn’t matter that I can’t ‘do you’, I don’t like you, I don’t want to do you anyway. Uhmm, you know, (Jennifer laughs) a lot of petulance there, but. Also, (Jennifer sighs) I just, it just seemed empty, like everything else; just a mode of behavior, just a different way to live, different way to focus on things, and uhmm, my desire has always been to find something bigger than and outside of myself. Ah, to find a purpose beyond be, because I know what I’m capable of, and it’s so small and petty and brutal, frankly. Uhm, and, and these booklets, you know there is the element of the practical, which says this path is attainable, it is possible. Not only is it possible, it’s the path you were meant to do, it’s the path you were meant to walk, you were called to walk this path. So it’s not just that it’s possible, this is, this is the Life that He has for you, that He intends to give you. Uhmm, which means it’s not just something that I, I have a desire for, uhm, although I do, and it’s not just something that I, I, that brought me to repentance because I have not been there, although definitely, definitely did. It was a further seeing of Him, and what is possible day in and day out in sometimes really ‘crappy’, (Jennifer laughs-cries) crappy situations. And just a call that says that mundane while precious on one level, and something that Martha teaches as precious, and I am choosing to believe that and hoping He’ll plant that it reality (Jennifer laughs). But it says that ‘this’ is not all there is, and this reality is not, what I see is not all there is, and I guess that somehow takes me deeper into Him. Because, you know my relationship with Him, ah, moves forward with every glimpse of Him, and every revelation of Him. And so this idea, this ‘hidden life’, this utterly intimate time for He and I, and that He has completely and uhmm, has called me to, that is, that is a comfort in knowing that reality, that that reality is there, that that is my reality as His child. That it’s not just a, it’s not just a mode of behavior, it’s not just a system of living or culture, it is His Life, capital L-I-F-E. It is, it is what He means to live, that is living. So, that’s what I’ve come to in this booklet.
