Seeking the Kingdom in Crisis Times – Episode #702

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Seeking the Kingdom in Crisis Times
Episode #702
05/17/2020

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

This the continuation of a series of podcasts started in Episode #697
The kingdom is a kingdom of government and it’s difficult for us when we’re been so free, to realize that we are living under a different government.

John:
We were on the names the other day and we were about how the Lord wanted to meet the needs and who He was and you came to know who He was by His name. Well, you know, I’m, I’m just sitting here listening to you and, and I was thinking He’s the God who overcomes coronavirus. He’s, He’s the God. He, He wants to introduce Himself as that God in this specific time. “I’m the God over corona.” And so, it’s all our troubles but today specifically He wants to live through this.

And the preaching that we were hearing yesterday, https://americasvoice.news, they were basically saying, it kind of shocked me, I was like, “Wow”, I didn’t think about that, that He’s calling us all to go back to the basics of the family and He’s, He’s putting us in time-out. And, and, and they didn’t say that but that’s, that’s exactly what it is. He’s putting us in time-out and He’s, He’s requiring us to stay and interact with our family; talk to our family.

And, you know, we’re, we’re such a dispersed people and such a dispersed family, you know. We’re always going, going, going, moving, moving, moving and we have, you know, five seconds we look up and it’s someone between text and work and you know, and that’s it. Right now, you know, things are being shut down all over the place so that we have to face each other.

Joan:
And I see in what John’s saying is He’s taking us back to commitment. Our God is a God of covenant. Covenant is commitment. And marriage is a commitment. The family is a commitment. And He is taking us back and saying, “I will bring you to this commitment.” See that, His faithfulness I saw with Israel He was willing to bring them to every place He wanted them to go to, to come to the heart He wanted from them. He is a God of commitment and covenant and so we are to be a covenant people but He will make us the covenant people and we don’t really understand what that will take because, you know…I, I speak, for, personally. I lots of times think I’m somebody I’m not and He had to tell Israel, you know,  “Not because you’re special, not because you’re righteous, not because you’re strong. You’re stubborn and hard. But I’m God and I’m the God of commitment.” So He overrides, His covenant overrides my humanity in the most amazingly, beautiful way.

Martha:
Well, it’s been interesting to see because we, we watched the President announce some number of things and mandate to go take yourself into quarantine.

So, we had guest coming this particular week and this was before the, the self-quarantine was really going on. And the Lord woke me up early and said, “Cancel their trip!” And it was so painful to do because I knew…He didn’t tell me the reason. Only later did I realize that that mandate was going to come down and He, He knew that so He said, “Cancel their trip.”

Well, then another friend was going to have all her family and all the grandchildren up here and I called her and I said, “We are going to be under the authority of our President and we are going to obey.” And she said, “Martha, they aren’t coming.”

And so then I wanted to give somebody a birthday party and so we got all the, the plans together and, and made Jennifer go do some grocery shopping and because I wanted her to have birthday party. And then suddenly I went, “Oh, no! Whoops!” The rebellious are being exposed.

So we canceled the party. And just, just to be under authority, be under the…The kingdom is a kingdom of government and, and it’s difficult for us when we are, when we’re been so free, to realize that we are living under a different government. The very government has changed over this nation. He’s…Things are being done that have never been done in our history. And so we have to be, all of us have to be alert to the, the governing authorities. So I have laughed at myself over that repentantly.

So the…I have a little booklet that I really love and want to be in print someday called Kingdom Safety. And the jest of it is if you are obedient, you’re in the kingdom. If you’re looking for His will and not your way, you’re in the kingdom. If you live for His will and not your indulgences, you’re in the kingdom. So when you’re in the kingdom…

 “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”

And in, in the process of that in the context it speaks of food and clothing – don’t worry about those things. Well, life, you know, is much bigger than food and clothing, but I believe that whatever things you need at any time you need it if you’re under the authority of Christ, the Lordship of Christ and the Fatherhood of God, you, you will have things you didn’t know you needed. And that’s not the prosperity gospel. You will have what you need to live and to minister. That’s what you’ll have. And you’ll have that in abundance in His great, wonderful ways.

Sometime ago I said to the Lord, “God forgive me for being materialistic and loving, joy in beautiful things. Forgive me.” And His answer was, “Remember I give all….He took me to the scriptures-

“He gives all things abundantly to be enjoyed.”

We don’t see Him as a God that wants us to enjoy this life. We don’t see Him as a God that has abundance for this life. He outshines what I see, what I even think I know of Him by His abundance and His joy to give, His lavish generosity. But it does take being under authority.

So in my little swagger I got caught in it, too; that we’re going to be under the authority of this president. He is the one God put in office for this time. And our safety and provision will be found in the kingdom.

The kingdom is easy to enter. You have to be born again and you have to be a child and go back to being what a child is-utterly dependent and utterly ignorant.

Well, the book John understated and under-spoke of his book “The Great Exchange” is chapter after chapter of that will help you to learn how to let Christ be you instead of you. Say your famous quote, John, that we…I went to speak and someone said, “Martha, say that quote.” And I said, “I can’t do it” but John can. You have to look it up, too ha ha. It’s a little bit complicated in its simplicity.

John:
Yeah, I do, I look it up because I want to make sure that’s it’s exact.

Martha:
So you don’t know it either!

John:
I do know it but, but I, I think about it and go, Oh yeah, I’m going to screw it up. So “Christ’s life as my life is His life in my life, and that’s not my life as His life, it’s HIM.”

Martha:
That must have come from God. That is an incredible statement, John. So let’s end on that. You’ll have to show me, too. I’m going to put it on a card, one of my cards. “Christ’s life as my life is His life in my life, and that’s not my life as His life, it’s HIM.”

John:
It’s just, it’s so simple and so succinct and so it, it excites me that if I had had the wherewithal to ask Him, I would have asked for a statement that was that punchy and that kind of fun. And that’s exactly what I got. So I’m really grateful for it.

Martha:
I think I’ll end on this note:

“In all things give thanks.”

And do we do that? Am I, am I ever up to that ideal? No! But this, this time and this circumstance if we aren’t grateful for what we do have, we’ve missed the point. It’s a time to be grateful. Every time I turn on that water I think, “Oh, God, what riches just water is.” And it was so for Israel. That’s why water out of the rock was the miracle because water is the first basic.

So let us allow the Spirit to open our eyes to gratitude as never before because…What did you read, Joan, in Deuteronomy? “When you get prosperous, don’t forget Me.”

Joan:
Don’t forget. A lot of bewares.

Martha:
A lot of ‘bewares’ about forgetting.

So again we, we bless everybody who listen and we ask God to bless you and give us…We we really ask for the word to come to bless you. And I, I hope that this is His word for the hour and the circumstance. In Jesus love pour all over the world, Lord.

This is my second ending…or third. But I…This has to go in. This is what do you need in this time? Faith. And where do you get faith?

Hebrews 12. “Let us strip off…

Here’s a ‘let’.

…Let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us, looking away…

Here’s how you get faith.

… looking away [from all that will distract]…

Do we not have distractions today? Oh, dear, powerful distractions.

…looking away to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize]…

Which is you and me.

…that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

So it’s your, in your relationship with Jesus that you can find the faith for the hour; His faith in you as a gift.

Seeking the Kingdom in Crisis Times – Episode #702 – Shulamite Podcast

In times of crisis our great need is exposed. We see our utter dependence on the Lord of ALL. If we’re looking for His Will and not our way, we’ll be in the Kingdom. It’s all about seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and then all these things will be added to us.