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The Will of God Sustains US
Episode #543
April 30, 2017
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
This is the continuation of a series of Podcasts started in Episode #541.
The will of God sustains us, nourishes us, replenishes us, even energizes us. Tired of feeling weak and depressed? Then get in God’s will today!
(Martha) So, we know what to pray for everybody. If we don’t know what to pray, we can always pray Epaphras’ prayer for the “character and courage.” I love the word courage. It takes a lot of courage to agree to God’s will. And there have been times when that’s what I’ve prayed for people. I prayed that they would have courage.
(John) Well, even in your speaking in Rome, Georgia, you know, it took courage to do His will in that situation. It was an incredible need for courage, because it was scary,
(Martha) Umhmm.
(John) But His glory was on the other side of it.
(Martha) Yeah, but I didn’t know that. I had no idea, but I wanted to go home. And I couldn’t, because the Lord said, “Are you going to let Satan win? Are you going to stand for your message?” And I had to have His courage to do it in the face of… You know, whatever the church felt as it being my fault, and in the end it was, it was glory, as you say. But it took a lot of God’s courage given to me. And everybody wanted to call my husband, “Call your husband.” And I said, “No, because he will come get me, and I’m not supposed to leave. I know what God’s will is.”
(John) He would have been like, “And I’ll be right there.”
(Martha) Yeah, right. And I would have loved to have used that as an excuse to leave, but anyway it was a precious time. Ok. Oh, this is awesome, because we have such soul needs. Murray says, “If it’s only when we do the will of the Father in the sense of His presence in fellowship with Him and in the loving desire to please Him that He will give nourishment, strength and satisfaction to the soul.” Our destitute conditions, our despair and depression and so forth is because the will of God is not enough for us and not… “The pleasure of God in His will should be our reward.” Oh, he talks about the woman at the well, and how disciples came back, and Jesus was not hungry anymore, and He was not weak anymore. And they said, “Do you have food?” He said, “I have food to eat that you know not of. My food is to do the will of God.” And His satisfaction, and this is what Murray says. “Many Christians mourn over their meagerness and their feebleness. They seek to study Christ’s image and example. They seek to be conformed to Him, yet they find so little of either the power or the joy living as He lived. The cause is simple. They do not feed on the food on which Christ fed. The believer has the same eternal life that was in Christ Jesus, but he needs the same daily food.” And he’s speaking of God’s will as being the daily food. Isn’t that awesome? “And our meat is that I do the will of Him that sent me. He who eats of this meat,” Murray says, “Will have a more abundant life, satisfied as with marrow and fatness. What’s the reason for so much failure? In feeding on this heavenly food the church is not taught it as clearly as what’s needed.” So, if I feel destitute and empty, I have to examine whether I’m in His will. That would be satisfying. And I know that it is. We’ve experienced it. And His will leaves you so full, so satisfied.
(John) The devil has trained us and duped us to believe that it’s completely the opposite, that if you follow His will that, you know, you will be in destitution. You will be in despair, or you will, you know. You’ll be left hungry.
(Martha) And you’ll suffer loss.
(John) And you’ll suffer loss, yeah. And it’s quite the opposite. You’ll be fed and satisfied.
(Martha) Umhmm. And, you know, “seek the Kingdom of God…and all these things will be added to you.” Seeking the Kingdom is seeking His will and His dominion. And I looked up the word abundantly, because Jesus said, “I came to give life and give it more abundantly.” And the word abundant means ‘more than you need, overwhelming supply.’ It means… And that’s what we experience, John, so much of the time. We experience the abundance of His presence. We live in a beautiful place, and it’s just the material provision is what we need and more. But the provision of living, and the experiences of living, and the people we know, and the people we’re learning to know, those are just outlandish blessings. The people that are so good to us and support us and love us, and that is just God’s outpouring. So, I bought some kind of soiled, used copies of this book and sent it around to people. I’ll be glad to see the new ones when they come in. I’m using one that’s rather yellow.
(John) It looks like an old library book. Does it have the Dewey-decimal on the side?
(Martha) Oh, yes it does. It’s an old library book. That’s true. I gave my new… The new printing is a beautiful copy of it. Then it’s the same book, the brand new printing that they sold out of, and I gave my highlighted one away and didn’t realize I was going to be so destitute. So, I got my hands on another one.
(John) Well, I’m glad you did, because you’ve gone through it again and rehightlighted it. And I think you’ve gotten richer off of it.
(Martha) Oh, I can’t tell you how rich. I don’t even have words. Oooo, he says, “The failure in so many Christian lives is that the church has not clearly preached this great message.” Let’s be the church that preaches this great message. I want all of us to get in on this. “All that God’s wondrous grace has this one object to restore us to the original glory of our creation and make it our life to do His will.” Restore us to the original glory! “He works in us what is well pleasing in His sight.”
(John) Well, it sounds like from when He was with the Samaritan woman that it was physical as well as—
(Martha) Oh, yes…
(John) —His countenance and His physicality was restored because of the will of God. So, not only are you able to receive the glory of living in that and the joy of being in the will of God, but also your physical frame is affected by it.
(Martha) Yeah, that’s awesome. New, restored energy and strength. Wow. So, the will of God is sustenance, refreshing, energizing.
(John) When I think of that scripture, I see Him as being, you know, vigorous.
(Martha) Umhmm.
(John) You know, and that’s why they said it. He probably was, you know, we’ve been in ministry times that you’re just exhausted.
(Martha) And they’ve been walking, see? And Samaria is dusty and desert-y.
(John) Yeah.
(Martha) And they’ve been, they stopped there because they had been walking from Jerusalem to Galilee on foot. So, He would have been tired and in need of nourishment. And He didn’t need anything when He got through. And what He gave her was so glorious of His will. He revealed His will and God’s will, the Father’s will to that woman.
(John) He gave her one of the highest messages of the Bible to that point.
(Martha) Yes. Sometimes I’ve used this illustration that when God called me to write, I didn’t want to. I very much didn’t want to. I never dreamed that He would call me to such. That was not my ambition, nor my thought. I mean, it was totally foreign. It might as well have said, “Go and be president of Samba we or something… (both laughing) But I got on the plane and obeyed it, and began to do it. And then when I got into it through prayer, praying and praying and praying for His will to be given to me, so that I could perform it… Just, oh, I prayed and prayed, “God, when are you going to give it to me?” Finally, one day He did, but I found out that I am a writer. I didn’t know that.
(John) His will met you.
(Martha) Yes. And when my husband wanted to have sheep, you didn’t know that you were a shepherd at heart, being trained to be one. But you came in and as an Orlando city guy, you very much took on the duties and learned how to take care of them. You were virtually their vet.
(John) Yeah (chuckling).
(Martha) You never dreamed of such a thing, did you?
(John) Never.
(Martha) That was several years we had sheep, and it was an ongoing thing, and as you’ve said before, you learned how to take care people.
(John) Well, the weird thing is that it was like I met the Shepherd in me.
(Martha) Wow…
(John) It was like you met the Author in you, I met the Shepherd in me, and it was like – the only visual I can give is it was almost like merging into a highway, that you’re coming off of a road and you’re merging into a highway. And then you’re just it’s real natural. You just start flowing. And that’s how it was. Would you say that’s how it was with you with the writing?
(Martha) Yes. And it became a love. You loved the sheep, and I loved those times when I can write. And they’re my best times.
(John) And then you impregnated me with it.
(Martha) With writing? No, that too was there within you. I kind of pushed it and pulled it out. But the Writer was in you, and you have continued to get better and better, more and more anointed, and it…
The Will of God Sustains US – Episode #543 – Shulamite Podcast
It is the enemy who tells us that God’s will is joyless and costly with no reward, but that’s an enormous lie. The will of God sustains us, nourishes us, replenishes us, even energizes us. Tired of feeling weak and depressed? Then get in God’s will!
