Episode #484 – The Will of God and the Family of God

Podcast: Download (7.9MB)

Subscribe: RSS

Podcast (podcast-mp3): Download (7.1MB)

Subscribe: RSS

The Will of God and the Family of God
Episode #484
March 13, 2016

With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Special Guest: Carole Nelson

This is the continuation of a series of Podcasts started in Episode #483.

(Carole) The Scripture that came to me was John 3:8, where it says, “The wind blows where it pleases. You hear it’s sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.”
(Martha) Yeah, perfect. You’re right, John, it was a big wind, a tornado. But see, one thing is, you have to understand we believers have no right to independence. When we exercise that right, we don’t gain anything but the loss of God.
(J) Wow.
(Martha) He is functioning in His will. One purpose, Jesus had one purpose, “I delight to do Thy will. In the volume of the Book it is written of Me, I delight to do Thy will, O God.” And so it’s, to have Him, it will cost you your will. If you don’t pay that price, you won’t have Him. And we might wake up in eternity and find out the devastating effects of our willfulness that ‘we know what to do,’ ‘we know what to do.’
(J) ‘I know,’ that whole ‘I know’ thing.
(Martha) That whole ‘I know.’ Oooo, ooo.
(J) It’s scary.
(Martha) So, we’re just kind of living over and seeing more about from that Scripture, Mark 3. That was our Shulamite meeting this morning before we did a taping.
(J) So, you want me to read the…
(Martha) Please read what you said, because you were very occupied when I was telling you all, and you were writing. And it’s just wonderful.
(J) So, this is just a note I have on Mark 3:33. It says,”‘The Will.’ His family is in the will. All of life is about the will. My only connection to God is in the will. ‘Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ Will is His will. I am found in His will. I am lost in His will. I am supposed to be His will, a living, breathing, walking, talking expression of His will. The will for me is that I am lost in the heavens. “For me to live is Christ.” I am not, because He is will. He is His will. ‘Not I, but Christ.’ He lives His will in me, through me, as me for the Father. His life is the will. His life is the will for me. In momentary connection with His life, He lives His will in me, His life is His will.” So, I’m seeing that the reason He said, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Why the will is so important is because the will is the life of Christ. That is the only thing it is.
(Martha) There’s no separation.
(J) There is no separation. The will is the life. The reason why you’re family when you’re in the will, is because you’re one. You’re in the life of Christ, so that is what the will is. So, if you want to know what the will of God is for your life, it’s Christ. It reminds me of in the 80’s and 90’s, Carmen. He was a singer and did several, you know, like concerts. And you’d go, and he was… I mean, he was just kind of fun. I just remember him. But I went to one of the, one of his concerts, and he said up there. He said, “When you know the answer…” He says, he was talking about raising your hands in church service and how people, you know, keep their hands down. And he was talking about raising your hands. And he says, “When you know the answer to something in a class, you raise your hand.” Ok. So he basically said, “What you’re doing when you’re raising your hand is, you know, knowing the answer. And what is the answer?” And he says, “The answer to every question is Christ.” And so, all of a sudden I said, “That’s what I’m seeing.” This theology that he gave there at this meeting at the concert for all these teenagers and kids is there was one answer to any question you have. What’s the answer? Raise your hand. It’s Christ. So, what is the will? Christ. What is the rest? Christ. What is peace? Christ. What is, you know. What’s the family? Christ. It’s all. That is the answer. There is one answer.
(Martha) You’re taking… Carole and I are here breathing, because you’re taking my breath away. Oh, that’s… You can’t separate the will from the man, because the will is the man.
(J) The will is the man. Absolutely.
(Carole) Well, what John’s saying, what Martha’s saying is leading me, leading the Holy Spirit to show me something.
(J) It’s that meandering river, isn’t it?
(Martha) Yes.
(Carole) Yes! Matthew 18:19 and 20. “Again, I say to you, that if two believers on earth agree, that is, are of one mind, in harmony about anything that they ask within the will of God…
(J) Within the will.
(Carole) “…it will be done for them by My Father. For where two or three…” Oh, it gives me goose bumps. “For where two or three are gathered together in My Name,” which is Christ, all of who He is, “meeting together as My followers, I am there amongst them.” And somewhere down below that, somewhere it says, “And whatever you ask, it shall be done for you.” It’s not in this particular place, but… Those are our brothers and sisters that I believe Jesus is talking about. He’s saying ‘these are My brothers and sisters.’ You are my brother and sister and mother, and we are gathered together in Christ. We can only agree by the will of God, and when we agree together on the will of God, Christ is there and fulfills the very thing that He is prompting us to ask for.
(Martha) And it’s done.
(Carole) And it’s done.
(Martha) That is prayer. The only prayer is for His will.
(J) Oh, wow.
(Martha) The only prayer could be, “Just show me Your will, and that’s what I’ll pray.” And sometimes His will rises from within me, because He says that in the New Covenant. He will put His will in your heart and mind. And so, it will rise within me, and I will kind of test it and say, “That is Your will.” And then other times I don’t know His will, and He will show us. And that’s why, that’s what makes Body life is the will of God is the glue, the cohesion, the connection, the oneness. And we can be totally individual inside that. And just as you’re getting one thing, and you got this amazing thing. I’ve written it down. “I am not, because He is.” So it’s the Body functioning together. That’s what our podcasts are, a demonstration of Body life. But the essence of our whole being is the will of God. And frankly, there’ve been a number of people who’ve come through Shulamite Ministries as a Shulamite, intimately involved, who in the end were not about the will of God, and there could be no… I’m sorry, there’s community, no fellowship. There could be love, but no trust and no community, no part of the Body if you’re not in the will of God, then I’m sorry, if you don’t live for that will, because you live for Him. You live in Him. Then there is no Body life. It doesn’t exist. And if we are, how shall I say, jealous for the Body of Christ, for Christ to have His rulership… You really can’t have someone in rebellion in your midst endlessly. You can have it for years. Someone can be there for years, but there’s going to come a time when the Holy Spirit will show the absence of the oneness, the complete void of unity.
(J) That reminds me of the message, “Christ, the Head” from the “Spirit and the Wind” messages. That was one of the first messages that I believe I started duplicating for you. I remember giving that one away. I was in Orlando, and I would duplicate those, and I was giving those away, because it was just so amazing. I was amazed at that message, because of it’s what you’re saying right now. It’s so clear; Christ is the Head and about the will and everything like that. (•••Because we mentioned this audio series in this podcast, we’re offering you a 25% off coupon to enjoy it. Visit LivingChristianBooks.com today to redeem it by entering the code SPIRIT at checkout•••) Anyway, it changed church life for me. It personally changed all of church life. All of a sudden I said, “Ok, this is not, this is a game changer” basically is what it was for me about how church functions, and how church is supposed to function, and how church has to function. And so, I gotta go back and listen to that. It’s an amazing message. But everything that Christ prayed was done, because He was praying the will of the Father. And that’s why we, as a Body, we can have everything we pray, everything we pray. And you’ve seen it immediately. Things that are very difficult, things that involve people and will and counter will.
(Martha) Seemingly impossible.
(J) Impossible. Impossible. But you’ve seen those things done, because it was the will of the Father. You got into the will of the Father, prayed the will of the Father, and it was done. And so, wow! And it’s not like, you know, it can’t take a season of time, or that His will may take a longer than momentary, you know, because you’ve prayed stuff for us and, you know, it’s taken years, some of the things to come to fruition. But the will of the Father and the will of the Son and the Spirit moving, our prayers are answered. Our life is unified. We are one Body. We are brothers and sisters. I mean, the will is amazing, because is it the life of Christ. The will is the life of Christ.
(Martha) And I’m breathless at the moment, because I see afresh that our responsibility is to find that will and bring that will to earth. And when that happens, the Kingdom is invaded the world. And the King is enthroned. That is a huge responsibility to take that prayer and understand it truly, as that is what we are to do. And that’s the only thing we’re to do and to pray. When I started working with prayer and looking at prayer and thinking about prayer, I realized I wasn’t interested in prayer at all. I was interested in answers to prayer.
(Carole) I just, I started marking my Bible; Prayers and when I found an answer, I put an ‘A.’ I put a ‘P’ and then I put an ‘A.’ I’ve just begun this, and it’s so exciting, because it’s like a prayer journal. It becomes a prayer journal where you go…
(J) Are you talking about for your personal prayers or prayers that are in the Bible?
(Carole) No, in the Scripture.
(J) Ok.
(Carole) In the Scripture where prayer is prayed and then somewhere following that there is a precise answer. And I can go over, I can go over that and miss that, which is very, I’ll just say, faith building.
(Martha) I was going to use that very word.
(Carole) Yes, it’s very faith building to look and say, “This is the prayer that was prayed,” and right down here… And sometimes it’s a long way away. The prophesies were prayers in essence, and they were fulfilled in the New Testament. There was a long period of time between that prophecy and prayer to the fruition, the fulfillment of that prayer, that answer. And I’m just beginning to do that, but I’ve got a ‘P’ and an ‘A.’ So if anybody looks in my Bible and wonders what the ‘P’ and the ‘A’ is, it’s the prayer and the answer.
(Martha) Oh, Carole, that is awesome. I never thought of prophecy as prayer, but I know that you cannot prophesy anything that you haven’t been in prayer about. And the prophecy is the Word coming forth as a result of the prayer. And the prophecy… oh my goodness. Prophecy is so powerful. We’ll get on that one day, because you declare a thing that God declares, and it can be years before that, just like the prophets of the Old Testament.
(Carole) Ok, but then, when we pray is that not declaring what has been loosed in heaven?
(Martha) Umhmm.
(Carole) And that… I’m just asking you. Is that..?
(Martha) No, you’re not. You’re teaching me.
(Carole) No, as you’re talking, I’m thinking, well, that’s what it is, because it is the declaration of what God has willed in heaven to be brought forth on this earth.
(Martha) That’s why it’s called ‘binding and loosing.’ Prophecy is a result of ‘binding and loosing.’ The edification of the church, which is prophecy, is ‘binding and loosing.’ It’s finding God’s mind. How fascinating His will is, and His mind. Why would you listen to yourself or any person? The mind of God is utterly fascinating, and how He views things. I’ll say, “Oh, I can’t wait to find out how He views this,” because I won’t be able to guess how He views it; as you’re writing on, Carole, ‘perspective.’ Ummm!

• Want a related teaching on the Will of God? Check out Knowing God’s Will at LivingChristianBooks.com!

The Will of God and the Family of God – Episode #484 – Shulamite Podcast