Receiving the Sovereign Touch – Episode #725

Receiving the Sovereign Touch
Episode #725
10/25/2020

With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
In the book The Sovereign Touch you’ll not meet theology or theory, you’ll meet a man who had the courage to face God for his answers.

Martha:
Well, good morning. It’s a beautiful fall day in the mountains. Just turning, the leaves are just turning and it’s just gorgeous here. And it’s a gorgeous day for us because we are here to announce the printing and delivery of John’s book Sovereign Touch. John has written this book one chapter at the time over a long period of time as he lived it.

And this is the forward that I wrote for the book after much prayer:

“In reading this book you will not meet the theology or theory. You’ll meet a real person, a man who’s had the courage to face God for his answers to life’s deepest question. And this is the question: Is God really in control over all, the wrongs and sufferings of this messy world? Does God really reign over all the wrongs?

John brings the rich and broad answer to his question and yours. He stands squarely on the scriptures to declare and to believe the ultimate truth that God is God. And he lives on the foundation of a robust relationship with Christ in the integrity of a raw and constant dialogue with his personal Father.”

Not many of us will be raw with God. It’s the secret of John’s revelation, really.

“So John has lived this book. He experienced first hand the Sovereign Touch, which is a true story, a private revelation from God revealing Himself to one man who faced Him with stark questions. The testimony of the Sovereign Touch is this rare pronouncement: God is honored here as God.”

And I have wept over that because Romans 1 says,

“They did not honor God as God.”

But John as done that in this book and for me that is cause of weeping.

“As a result people are without excuse for though they knew God they did not glorify Him as God.”
Romans 1:20

“In the end the answer to the question is a gift of awe and wonder. God is

sovereign and God is unfathomable love.”

So, John, tell us about the book and how long it’s been writing.

John:
Well, you know, it’s really, it’s my whole life. It’s, it’s…I’ve been writing it my whole life. And it’s either being written or being lived to be written. And it’s, it’s been a, a long process. And once it was written it’s been a long process. We released it on Kindle and actually the printed version is different. It’s been updated and kind of rearranged a little bit and I’ve added stories in there. And the, the formatting is different. It’s a lot better.

I’m real excited about the, the way it’s all laid out and formatted. I’ve always had the vision of, of how it was going to be presented and I’ve had to fight for it because I’ve had people push back on it and, and, you know, try to do different things with it and I realized, “Wait a minute. You’ve taken it out of my vision and out of how He’s given it to me.”

And so I’m, I’m not a reader. You know what I mean? This is, this… So…Because I’m not a reader, I have deferred to people that basically had education in English and in grammar and in theology. And so I’ve deferred and, but then I realized what, what was happening is I was being taken out of it. Which is fine…if it’s God. But I, the fact is is that this book is, is literally not just a theological touch down on the subject of sovereignty.

This, this book is a ground zero of His sovereign touch in my life. And it’s not like glorifying or exalting me by any stretch of the imagination. It literally is pointing continually back to Him.

And you can’t separate the person, the vessel, from the message. And I feel like that’s what kind of was the assault. And it came in multiple different ways to try to prevent it and I, I mean I’ve been waiting for years for this thing to get done and been frustrated, been discouraged, been in…And now it, it, it’s, you know, to have it actually at the printers, being printed and being shipped soon I’m, I’m blown away. I’m really blown away.

There’s just been…You know, I’ve had, I’ve had to look at the entire situation as God’s sovereign hand in it and His preparation of me and of the book and of the timing of the book. You know, the timing has been huge. You know, we were going to go with, you know, submit it to a, a larger publishing house and we ended up staying with self-publishing it because the, the publisher wanted to completely change it.

Martha:
I think there were five people have edited the manuscript. But basically it’s a testimony.

Author Pink wrote the book on the scriptures. You have lived it. That’s far more interesting, far more relevant to each of us as a person, John. So I, I appreciate your honesty in this book. It’s, it’s a life-long journey. This topic that you, you chose and that God has chosen in you and to give you has been a tremendous trust to you, And you’ve had, you’ve had to protect it yourself, protect your view and your beliefs, your experience.

John:
I’ve had to defend it from myself and to myself.

Martha:
Yes, you have. That’s interesting.

John:
And, you know it’s, it’s been a process and, you know, there’s been so much warfare that there’s almost an element that the, the joy of, of the release of it being done is a little, little tarnished because it’s been so much war. But I’m going to trust that it’s, it’s that He took me out of it. You know, like when you look at your Adoration and you said, “This isn’t mine!”

Martha:
Um hmm.

John:
I’ve the exact same, same feeling with this book. I can look at it and I can go, “Well, this isn’t mine.”

Martha:
And, you know, you’ve had to keep it yours because it’s yours.

John:
Um hmm.

Martha:
And I think that’s the wonderful part about it. But it’s been sabotaged, ravished, killed, sidelined, all kinds of things. And we’ve known by that the importance and I have wept over the, the situation in our nation and the world because I know that this book is the answer that every person needs. We need to know that God is really God.

John:
Um hmm, um hmm.

Martha:
And there’re very few, I don’t think there are many books about sovereignty especially coming from a personal journey.

John:
Yeah.

Martha:
And so to me this is the life-saving instrument. Not the only one, certainly. But the one that you can produce and I can help. And, so it’s been, to me, it’s been crucial.

So it’s, it’s coming to publication on November 4th. Is that when we receive it or when it…

John:
They’re going to, they’re going have it done by the 6^th of November and then they’ll ship it and it will take a couple of days to get here…

Martha:
Um hmm.

John:
…from Michigan.

Martha:
So it’s not far.

John:
No, no, no it’s just weeks away.

Martha:
And so the absolute warfare has been overcome.

John:
Yeah.

Martha:
We, we have, Christ has won in defense of His book.

John:
Well, the cool thing I like about it is that I’m not talking only about me and my life. I’m, I’m bring in a number of situations. I bring in the Biblical references to…

Martha:
Um hmm.

John:
…to stories of sovereignty. I bring in modern day people and their, their dealings with sovereignty. And I deal with my own issues of sovereignty and facing sovereignty. And so it’s, you know, it’s, it’s kind of a full scope…

Martha:
It really is.

John:
…deal but, but what I like about it is that it invites you. When you read about someone else going through sovereignty, it invites you to reflect on your own issues and the Spirit will pick it up so fast that He will reflect it Himself in your own life and His own sovereign touch in your life and you can see it more clearly. I don’t understand how it happens but do you agree with that?

Martha:
I agree completely.

John:
That, that all of a sudden you’re able to face your sovereign touch, you’re able to face His sovereign hand and because it’s one thing to be told, it’s another thing to be shown.

Martha:
Right. And, John, the reason it’s impacted the people who’ve read it is what Watchman Nee and Oswald Chambers say that you have to give life to produce life in another person.

John:
Um hmm.

Martha:
And you’re coming from not only your own personal adventure but you’re encounter with God who’s been over this, the writing with this manuscript by what He put in your life.

John:
Um hmm.

Martha:
There are some stories you tell that are just incredible. And you see them, you see God’s hand now maybe things many years ago that you didn’t see God as sovereign.

John:
Oh, no, absolutely not, yeah.

Martha:
But you’ve, you’ve gathered and others have helped to gather quotations from other writers, from other people, tons of scripture and but, but the basic thing you’ve put in this document is own life in Christ.

John:
Yeah.

Martha:
His life worked with you throughout and so that life is present by the, by the anointing of the Spirit…

John:
Right, right.

Martha:
…in the book. And so it becomes life to others. It’s not just a simple, it’s not a simple book.

John:
It’s not a methodology, it’s living impartation.

Martha:
That’s right as you always said. Used to mystify me. But it is an impartation.

John:
It is. I believe it has the power.

Martha:
I do to because it’s life.

John:
Yeah.

Martha:
He gave you the words. He guided you in the words.

John:
Yeah.

Martha:
You prayed and prayed and prayed for words to express it.

John:
I did, yeah.

Martha:
And so it’s been the unction of the Spirit and the need of the Holy Spirit’s presence all the way through. So it has life in it innately.

John:
Yes!

Martha:
That’s why we can call our books Living Christian Books…

John:
Right, exactly.

Martha:
…because they are still alive in the Spirit. What the Spirit conveys never, never diminishes or goes away. So…

John:
And, you know, I, I know this about your books. I, I can go back years later and read the exact same thing and it have a totally different meaning. I can do the same thing with Oswald Chambers. I can, I can read…You know, that’s why My Utmost for His Highest is so amazingly powerful is because you can go through that every single years and it’s not like you’re going through the same lessons over and over like a rehash. It literally is fresh every single time you go through it. Your life is connected to it. And I, I have found that with your stuff that I, I can go in and I can read Adoration today and it will speak to my today exactly where I’m at. And that’s the evidence of the Spirit’s writing it. That, that literally, the, the Spirit wrote those things. It wasn’t flesh. It was the Spirit. Not that they’re infallible it just was submitted vessels willing to bring forth His Life and, and really not their own.

Martha:
Um hmm.

John:
And that’s exactly what you did. That’s what Oswald did and that’s what I believe I have done.

Martha:
Um hmm.

John:
And, you know, though I’m in it, though I’m there, though they’re my stories, those are my experiences it, it…

Martha:
It’s universal.

John:
It is universal. And my life is just a backdrop.

Martha:
Um hmm.

John:
It’s, it’s just, you know, the, the, the main, the main person on the stage is, is Him and His hand and His touch.

Martha:
Oh, wow.