Getting Joy from Being Nothing – Episode #656

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Getting Joy from Being Nothing
Episode #656
6/30/2019

With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Special Guest: Jennifer Wentzel

What follows the realization of being nothing? Why, complete freedom and a surprising amount of joy, of course! Readers respond to Martha’s new booklet.

Martha:
I just wanted to share a little bit about what’s going on since we launched The Joy Unequaled of Being Nothing. And we’ve had a lot of fun and just talked to a lot of people. Jennifer, how many books are, how many have sold?

Jennifer:
In its first… Is it even its first full? Yeah, in its first full week, we have sold over 600 copies.

Martha:
That’s phenomenal! For us that’s phenomenal.

Jennifer:
That’s remarkable given the fact that I still haven’t gotten around to, to putting up an article to advertise it on Shulamite.com. I mean, you know, we, other than the podcast it, the podcast and the app. Right John?

John:
Yeah, absolutely!

Jennifer:
You know it really hasn’t, we haven’t been hitting it anywhere near like we have previously.

John:
Uh-huh!

Martha:
I’ve had letters from two people that both said they cried through the whole thing. One, one person said I started at the story of Nathaniel and cried all the way through. And so it’s been very impacting. Hasn’t it, Jennifer? Have you heard much from it?

Jennifer:
Absolutely! The response that I’ve gotten has been tears but what I love is the joy that’s with it.

Martha:
Really, oh!

Jennifer:
There is in fact an enormous… It’s a tearful joy from what I’m hearing from them and some of them get, you know, choked up even talking about it. But I think they are experiencing the anointing of joy…

Martha:
Oh, wonderful!

Jennifer:
that was infused…

Martha:
Wonderful!

Jennifer:
in this booklet.

Martha:
Well, I met one person. I had really wanted to hear from her, how she felt about it. So she’s coming toward me and she threw up both arms and said, “I’m free, I’m set free. All my life I thought I had to be something and now I’m free.” So I’m so excited that, that people are getting it.

But I felt the necessity to do another booklet. And then another! So I’m not even deep into it yet but I’m deep into prayer about it. It… I feel like… Okay, we are nothing. But to become nothing is no small matter and so I’m… I’ve been praying, “Lord, how am I going to really reveal this clearly, the process of You taking us to nothing so that we’re free of ourselves?” And He get— And I’m not going to give it away, of course. But it’s, it’s the Word. His stories in the Word that He’s given me to illustrate the process and the, and the reward and the joy and the, the outcome.

So I’m, I’m excited and just ask for prayer, y’all. I know we had lots of prayer over this little booklet. And so… But I’ll give you a hint because I’m going have to say, “We weren’t born nothing. We were nothing when we were born but we didn’t know that we were nothing when we were born.” And so the world centers around self for a long time. And how God deals with that is a matter of humiliation (laughs) because we’re born– even though we are nothing – we’re born with an ego as big as the house. And that ego is another word for pride. And pride is the word for self-worship, independence, and entitlement. Those are some of the words of the ego. So… But it’s, it’s going to be exciting, I know.

I got, I found this verse. I’m just amazed how many verses there were on ‘I am nothing.’ Were y’all amazed…

John:
Um hmm.

Martha:
…at that? I don’t remember putting this in the booklet but it will have to be in some, somewhere. It’s Galatians 6:3 and I’m reading it from the upgraded Amplified. “For if anybody thinks he is something special when in fact he’s nothing special except in his own eyes he deceives himself.” So there is the, the total diagnosis and illustration of becoming nothing.

Then there’s another one I’m brooding on and praying about. There’s a difference between being empty and being nothing. And emptiness is real. It’s terrible but it’s real. Being nothing is not nearly as terrible. So I want to talk about being empty and being nothing; what that is like. So you think that’s needed, Jennifer?

Jennifer:
Yes, because all of a sudden it, it strikes me that that’s kind of comparable to a revelation I had a long time ago: the difference between solitude and loneliness.

Martha:
Right.

Jennifer:
There was a huge…

Martha:
Oh that’s…

Jennifer:
…difference between those two things…

Martha:
That’s a good parallel.

Jennifer:
…but they’re used synonymously but they’re not,

Martha:
Yeah.

Jennifer:
…they’re not synonymous.

Martha:
Oh, brilliant, Jennifer.

Jennifer:
So I can’t wait to hear, I can’t wait for Him to birth that revelation…

Martha:
Yeah.

Jennifer:
…about emptiness verses nothingness. That’s amazing.

Martha:
Well, you’ll have to feed me some of your insights. We’ve also had some emails – haven’t we, John? – from people who say we’re experiencing the suddenlies.

John:
Yeah, I had several emails of people that have basically written and people, have, have commented. I wish more people had commented and not just sent emails because I wanted it to, that everybody could see what they were saying. But they were saying that literally in their lives like I questioned in the last podcast: Are you seeing these suddenlies happen? Are you witnessing the, the overtaking of the blessing that, that you’ve gone through a season of, of sowing, of resting, of surrender, of the cross, of death and now you literally are, are feeling like almost the tidal wave of blessing coming at you? And, so, what, what I’ve, what I’ve heard from all these people is “yes.” This is not just something that’s happening just to us. This is a corporate thing. People are seeing this. Seth was one that wrote me and, and… There’s just been, there’s been a number of emails that I have received that they just said, “Hey, I am right, right there. I am right there with this being overtaken by the reality of God’s blessing, really, just to, to take us out and over.”

Martha:
I have someone who’s been dear to this ministry for years and her daughter has had a really rough, rough life. I won’t reveal who it is. But she wrote me that overtaking of blessings were just phenomenal on this young mother, single mother. And things like she needed wood for winter and she needed it split and some neighbor said, “What are you going to do with that wood?” She said, “Well, I’m going to borrow a splitter.” Here’s a woman going to do this! So he took it and split the whole thing. Those kind of things when you’re, when you’re a single woman, a widow or single mom, those things are so overwhelming. It has to be done and you think you have to do it. But God is so, so faithful. I’ve, I’ve had many stories like that and there was a number of other situations in which the overwhelming help of God just showed up. And people, neighbors asking, “Do you need this?” And it’s just so exciting.

You mentioned something about comments, John. I just want to ask everybody that can do it to comment on our podcast. We so look down to see who’s, who’s listening and who’s, who’s there and it just means the world to us more than you would ever imagine. It’s encouraging, it’s enlightening, it’s, it’s… I just answer some people and say, “I didn’t get that in my message! I need it now and you’re helping me define it.” So… And that’s what you want, too, John. You want participation and not just…

John:
Yeah, absolutely! I’d love, I’d love to, to read the comments and, and even if we don’t respond right away. I try to always respond. Sometimes I’m unable but I love the comments because it, it becomes interactive. It becomes, you know… And, and I know that people, some people they think “Oh, I don’t want it to go out there in front of everybody.” I would love even if you’re going to do a big long email to send, I would love just a little, you know, a little brief, Cliffs Note version on the, on the blog because the revelations and the insights are, are blessing not only to us but they are to everybody. It’s like a community.

Martha:
It’s that we want them to have a forum for their revelation.

John:
Absolutely, absolutely!

Martha:
And it’s just, it can, it can be rich. So, we’ve never asked, we’ve never mentioned this before, have we? But it’s always on our heart. We want to hear from you. And that’s church. You know, that’s, that’s church life for us.

Getting Joy from Being Nothing – Episode #656 – Shulamite Podcast

What follows the realization of being nothing? Why, complete freedom and a surprising amount of joy, of course! Readers respond wholeheartedly to Martha’s new booklet and John’s revelation of the ‘day of suddenly’ with their own stories of great blessing.