THE SOUND OF THE LORD
Part 3: WHERE THE SOUND OF OPPOSITION BEGAN
Greetings, Salutations, Solutions, Felicitations, etc., etc., etc., ad infinitum!
That ought to fire up your juices today!
Oh, and it is very, very dark-roasted Colombian in both the French Press and the Expresso Machine today. Come on by and have a cup with me.
This discussion has obviously stirred some folks -- so far not too many negatively, it appears -- and for people whose lives revolve around sound, whether it be praise, worship, intercession, teaching, preaching, or just sharing, this is an extremely important area of revelation and understanding.
We've been using this translation (mine) from the Greek text of II Corinthians 10:3-5 in each of the past two Coffee Breaks and I want to start there again today.
"For the weapons and instruments of our war and executed actions [against Satan] do not have their origins and [weak, impotent] operation in natural flesh and human abilities, but they are skillful, potent and powerful – like dynamite – through God to the demolition and extinction of all fortified and guarded places of opinions in opposition,"
"Bringing down violently and demolishing (to total extinction) all mental reasonings and thought processes, and every mental barrier or arrogant and self-elevated attitude that justifies itself in opposition to the knowledge of God; bringing into captivity and making a prisoner every perception of the intellect and every mental purpose or determination to the compliance and submission of Christ and His anointing."
Let's also review Paul's statements in his letter to Ephesus.
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
In order to get to the root of why Paul expresses himself like this, and why he uses a musical term (esti-pale (from its root, pallo: to vibrate) in Ephesians 6 in talking about "wrestling" we need to go back to Ezekiel's prophecy (chapter 28:12-16) where he takes up God's judgment against what he refers to as "the king of Tyre."
As Ezekiel commences his prophetic discourse it becomes very obvious that he isn't referring to the literal king of Tyre but rather Lucifer. Pay attention to the wording and the phraseology chosen here.
"Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created." This terminology is highly significant as you will see.
"Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.
"By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire."
Now let's lay some foundations and then take a look at some of these words and phrases in the original Hebrew text.
1. First Ezekiel describes him as "sealing up" (the Hebrew word for this is: chatham: to make an end, to be the ultimate in perfection) the sum, being full of wisdom and perfect (kaliyl: entirely consumed, the finished product to exacting specification) in beauty.
2. Then he notes that he was in the Garden of Eden with the Lord God. This fits well when you realize that the Garden of Eden was a copy of what exists in Heaven. Adam and Eve were originally instructed to "be fruitful, and multiply and fill the earth." Genesis 2:15 tells us that they were commanded to "dress" the Garden (the Hebrew word is 'abad: meaning: to work it like an artisan [who creates a thing of beauty] and cause it to serve you by growth and multiplication) and "keep it" (shamar: meaning: to hedge it about, to preserve and protect, to ensure its future [so it is able to produce]).
3. Next he draws this phenomenal picture of Lucifer's dazzling appearance showing him as being covered with nine precious stones and arrayed in gold. No wonder Isaiah refers to him as "Son of the Morning" for brightness! (See Isaiah 14:12)
4. But now we begin to get down to the nitty gritty. Now Ezekiel says that "the workmanship (the Hebrew word here is: mela'kah: better translated: employment, ministry, that for which one is deputized) of thy tabrets (ta.phaph: tambourines, timbrels, percussion drums, percussion) and of thy pipes (neqeb: this word has a double meaning and can be used to describe both a socket or setting for gemstones, and/or something which has been bored through, such as a flute, piccolo and the entire family of wind-instruments) was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created."
In case you haven't quite grasped the picture yet, Lucifer was created specifically as the ultimate in beauty and music. But the picture becomes even more clear in Ezekiel's next phrase.
5. Twice Ezekiel refers to Lucifer as "the anointed cherub that covereth." Three Hebrew words in this phrase draw a picture that our English language fails to capture in direct translation. (a) The first is: mimshach: which is derived from mashach: and it denotes the anointing with oil. In this application, however, mimshach is the anointing that encompasses or overspreads. (b) The second is the word kerub: which is transliterated "cherub" in English. What gets missed in our transliteration is the fact that this word -- in the Hebrew, Syriac, Chaldean and Phoenicio-Semitic languages -- describes a being who guards and ministers to the Throne of God; a powerful angelic being near to the heart of God. [The popular myth of the cherub being some kind of cute, baby angel is about as far from reality as anything can be.] (c) The third word in this phrase is sakak: to entwine, to cover over, to surround.
We have three words assembled in Ezekiel's prophecy which draw a complete picture of Lucifer's ministry to the Throne of God. All of them denote "covering," or "creating an envelope" around the Throne. But that was only part of Lucifer's assignment and employment. His principal occupation was to minister in praise and worship. He was the perfection of music and he was created specifically to surround the Throne and permeate it with the finest praise and worship in a dimension our natural perceptions and hearing are simply not equipped to understand.
Since Lucifer was created as a being who would create sound -- the sound of worship -- we begin to see the picture Paul was drawing in Ephesians 6:12 when he uses the Greek term for "vibrate" to describe the spiritual "wrestling."
We won't take time today to explore all of this prophecy other than to touch on one more descriptive phrase. Ezekiel goes on to say, "Thou hast sinned; therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God." The Hebrew word translated "profane" is chalal. Students of Hebrew will note that this word is a minute variation of the word halal, which we translate as loud, boasting, celebratory praise. The slight difference in the two words is the use of a diacritical mark which alters the meaning from "celebratory praise" to "profane sounds" or "corrupted praise" [or worship]. The Hebrew chalal also denotes an arrogance or haughtiness.
It takes no great rocket science to see and understand that with his arrogance in thinking he could be seated "upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north," (Isaiah 14:13) (more on this in a minute) Lucifer's very arrogance corrupted the sound that came forth from him. It instantly became the sound of opposition to the Throne of God. It became a sound which opposed the anointing and the presence of the Lord. Thus, he was cast out of the mountain of God (a descriptive phrase often used to describe the Throne and the presence of the Lord) with his corrupted sound.
The phrase that Isaiah uses, "the sides of the north," is one which he borrows from Psalm 48:1-2 where the Psalmist describes "the mountain of His holiness" and "Mount Zion, on the sides of the north."
I have shared this picture before, but very quickly let me say that as part of a triumvirate of archangels (Michael and Gabriel being the other two named in Scripture), he was privy to the counsels of God. When the Godhead engaged in the plan to create a species of being who would be like God, imbued with His creative abilities, have the capability of free choice, be given the power of authority and dominion, and be specifically created and designed for fellowship and communion with Him, Lucifer -- as the one created being closest to the Throne -- became jealous and arrogant in pride.
Lucifer had one ability and created purpose that the other archangels did not have: the ability to create in the realm of music. His whole purpose had been the sound of Heaven. He existed for sound. That God would overlook him and not choose him for this special place of intimacy and communion -- and dominion -- angered him. He became rebellious against God.
Ezekiel describes what happened to him like this: "Thou wast perfect (tamiym: sound, complete and undefiled) in all thy ways (derek: course of life, manners, mode of action or activity) from the day thou wast created, till iniquity (evel: -aval: to distort, to twist, to become perverse) was found in thee." And Ezekiel continues.
"By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee."
This is a picture too lengthy for me to describe in any detail in this Coffee Break, but let me quickly define a few of the key Hebrew words used in Ezekiel's prophetic discourse.
He says that because of the "multitude of thy merchandise" (rekullah: trade [in music]) Lucifer was filled "with violence" (chamas: to maltreat, to shake off, to imagine wrongfully) [Note: the Palestinian terror organization, Hamas, gets its name from this word) and that he would, therefore, be cast "as profane" (we've already noted this word, chalal, represents "corrupted praise") out of the mountain of God.
By now, you will easily see the pattern in the kind of sound that now began to come forth from the former Lucifer. His trade (or merchandise) was the sound of praise and worship. He twisted it, made it become violent and shaking and filled with vain and wrongful imaginations. And now you begin to see the significance of Paul's statements in II Corinthians 10:3-5.
That his name was changed from Lucifer (the illuminated one, the morning star) to Satan (the accuser, the one who wrongfully imagines evil against God's people, the one who attacks) becomes very clear.
Once more we come back to I Corinthians 14:10-11. "There are [and seem to be] so many generated and varied sounds in the world, and none of them is without articulated and tonal purpose. If, therefore, I do not know or perceive the power of the sound, I shall be a moral and mental ignoramus to the one giving forth that sound; and he that utters or creates the sound a rude and unlearned foreigner."
No sound "is without articulated and tonal purpose." No sound is without power. It is the source of that sound that determines its tonal purpose. It takes no genius to realize that so much of the music (or that which passes for music) in today's society is the sound of Satan. It is filled with violence. It is filled with hate. It is filled with sexual innuendo, lust and enticement. It is filled with fear, doubt and unbelief -- all of which are Satan's. Today's music is the sound of Satan's opposition to all that represents the Lord Jesus Christ and His message of redemption.
This next statement is not meant to offend, and I apologize in advance for those who take it that way. I have personally marveled at folks who -- in ignorance of the purpose and power of the sounds Satan generates -- seem to think it is OK to take the sound (or sounds) of Satan -- add words which speak of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and think they are doing a good thing by "reaching the younger generation."
It is sheer deception to think one can use the sound that Satan originates to preach the Gospel. It compromises the Word and mixes the holy with the profane. It treats the Gospel as "common" and ordinary -- not life-changing, not the source of salvation, deliverance, healing, health, prosperity and wholeness in every area. It justifies using the sound of hate and the "noise of thy viols" (as Isaiah describes it: 14:11) simply because "that's what the world listens to, and if you want to reach them you have to give them the kind of music they will hear."
Will someone please tell me how you use the sound of opposition to the Gospel to preach the Gospel? The Gospel of Jesus Christ isn't just words you can put to any old sound! There is an onoma to the sound (and that's where we will go with our next Coffee Break). No wonder Paul refers to this as "wrestling!"
That's not how Jesus did things, folks! He came with a different sound. He came with the sound of life. He came with the sound of Heaven. Angels announced His coming with a sound that filled the skies.
When Jesus entered the sanctuary of the Temple and heard the sound of commerce and the selling of redemption, it stirred Him to anger. He drove those who thought they could cheapen His covenant by selling it for money out of the Temple. They were doing exactly what Lucifer thought to do in Heaven: defile the sanctuary(ies) "by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffic." There was no compromise in anything Jesus ever said or did.
In our next Coffee Break, we will address THE ONOMA OF SOUND.
I'd expected to break before this for the Christmas season, but wanted to bring this discussion to this point before recessing. This will be our last Coffee Break for 2008, and it will be the final Coffee Break posted on any MSN discussion boards. We will resume publication in mid-January.
MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE! AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Things are not what they seem to be: they're what God says they are. The sound of His Word going forth is what determines the difference between light and darkness, life and death, health or sickness and disease, poverty or prosperity.
The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22) Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
700 South 6th Street
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 837-4657
All Coffee Break articles are copyright by Regner A. Capener, but authorization for reprinting, reposting, copying or re-use, in whole or in part, is granted – provided proper attribution and this notice are included intact. Coffee Break archives will shortly be available at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are published weekly.
If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to Unsubscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.
CAPENER MINISTRIES is a tax-exempt church ministry. Should you desire to participate and covenant with us as partners in this ministry, please contact us at either of the above email or physical addresses, or visit http://www.CapenerMinistries.com. We earnestly desire people to stand behind us as prayer partners.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: THE SOUND OF THE LORD, Part 2
THE SOUND OF THE LORD
Part 2: The Power of Sound
Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning!
How you be this fine day?
Coffee's on. Mine's poured. I'm just kinda sittin' here, enjoyin' the wonderful aroma from those dark roasted Colombian beans. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............................
OK, Maury, I got it right this time: Colombian -- not Columbian! We don't get our beans from some place on the Columbia River. Hehehehehehe...............
Got a ways to go today, and we've got a lot to cover so let's get right to our discussion.
Some folks questioned the connection between the quote in our last Coffee Break from II Corinthians 10:3-5 and "The Sound of the Lord," and it may seem a bit far afield, but bear with me. I'm getting there.
Let's begin today with a look at something the apostle Paul wrote in his first letter to the Ekklesia in Corinth. As I did with the quote from II Corinthians 10:3-5, let me translate this passage from the original Greek text.
As part of his teaching and discourse on speaking in tongues, Paul makes some rather revelatory statements. Our English translations miss expressing the true sense of the Greek. Take a look at I Corinthians 14:10-11.
"There are [and seem to be] so many generated and varied sounds in the world, and none of them is without articulated and tonal purpose. (more on this concept momentarily) If, therefore, I do not know or perceive the power of the sound, I shall be a moral and mental ignoramus to the one giving forth that sound; and he that utters or creates the sound a rude and unlearned foreigner."
Did you catch that? The way Paul phrases this is that every sound has tonal purpose! Maybe that seems odd, but let's put that in its proper context.
Go back to something that David did in his final year as King of Israel, prior to turning the throne over to Solomon.
"Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals:" (I Chronicles 25:1)
The Hebrew word translated "prophesy" in this instance is naba': to sing, to create a declarative sound. In this command of David, he instructs Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun (the three heads of families who have spent the past 33 years in continuous praise and worship around the Tabernacle of David) to alter their function and purpose in praise. Instead of simply offering up praise and worship, now they are to prophesy with their instruments.
How, pray tell, do you prophesy upon an instrument? If you understand the power of sound -- especially under the anointing of the Holy Spirit -- you begin to realize that vast, creative power and authority is at your fingertips.
David clearly understood this when he sang, "Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight." (Psalm 144:1)
How was David using his hands to war? Simple. On his harp. On whatever instrument he played. His fingers were engaged in the fight in and by the way they plucked the strings. The sounds that came forth were prophetic. These were tones -- musical notes -- that had specific meaning and purpose. They had the authority and power of Heaven itself backing them.
Sound, all by itself, carries a certain power with it. Perhaps you've been to a large gathering where folks have been praising and worshiping. Let's take the Lakeland Outpouring as an example where Roy Fields would camp on certain notes on his synthesizer keyboard. If it seemed repetitious and boring, that's only because you didn't understand that he was prophesying with certain tones or notes. The sound of the Lord was going forth. The Holy Spirit was sending forth a sound that literally was causing the gates of Hell to shake.
Let me illustrate this another way. Most folks have seen it in person or at least seen a televised demonstration where an opera singer will hit a certain note. As she holds the note, glass shatters. Crystal flies apart and disintegrates with the force of the sound.
How does that happen? The note hits a certain frequency and resonance. The glass is susceptible to that frequency and begins to vibrate harmonically. The harmonic vibrations cause the molecular structure of the glass or crystal to come apart and lose their cohesiveness.
That's in the natural or visible realm. That's a small sample of what happens in the realm of the spirit. Sound -- ALL SOUND -- has a force and power behind it. You may think I'm going too far with this illustration, but go back to what Paul wrote, "none of {the sounds] are without articulated and tonal purpose."
Let's take this illustration forward to something Paul wrote to the Ephesians. (5:18-19)
"And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."
The Greek word translated here "making melody in your heart" is: psallo: to twitch, to pluck, to twang, to rub the surface of strings. And the Greek text expresses it more accurately "with" (your heart) rather than "in." Thus one's heart is absolutely in the sound.
I will also remind you of the statement in Ephesians 6 where Paul writes, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood...." and the word used is esti-pale (pallo), meaning: to vibrate; to create a sound in opposition [to that of the Enemy]. Are you beginning to see the picture? Do you now understand that we as sons and daughters of the Most High have within our beings the Sound of the Lord -- a sound and tonal quality which opposes [and has the authority, ability and power to destroy the sound of Satan?
For those folks who understand the power of the sound in the realm of the Spirit, we have the ability to cause to disintegrate the thrones where Satan rules. The Sound of the Lord going forth through us causes the molecular structure (you'll pardon me for expressing it like this) of Satan's strongholds to be broken.
Let me take Paul's statement here and put it into the overall context of what he is saying. Go back to Ephesians 5:8-13.
"For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:" (Remember the sound/light/life illustration in our last Coffee Break?) "Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord." How do you prove what is acceptable to the Lord? Easy. With the Sound of the Lord. Take a look at the next verse.
"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them."
THERE'S your command to "vibrate" in opposition to the sound of the Enemy. You reprove, you expose, you make visible and apparent for all to see, and you do so with the Sound of the Lord, "speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." Music, you see, is the communication -- the sound, the tones, a language, if you will -- of the spirit.
OK, OK! I know I've applied these verses a bit differently than you may have been previously taught -- and they do have other applications -- but it is perfectly appropriate to apply Paul's instruction within the context of the Sound of the Lord. We'll come back to this application shortly.
Now let's revisit II Corinthians 10.
"For the weapons and instruments of our war and executed actions [against Satan] do not have their origins and [weak, impotent] operation in natural flesh and human abilities, but they are skillful, potent and powerful – like dynamite – through God to the demolition and extinction of all fortified and guarded places of opinions in opposition," Yup. The weapons of our warfare ARE skillful, potent and powerful -- especially when we understand that the Sound of the Lord available in and through us is the means by which we wield those weapons.
"Bringing down violently and demolishing (to total extinction) all mental reasonings and thought processes, and every mental barrier or arrogant and self-elevated attitude that justifies itself in opposition to the knowledge of God; bringing into captivity and making a prisoner every perception of the intellect and every mental purpose or determination to the compliance and submission of Christ and His anointing."
Yessir! The Sound of the Lord does just that! You don't simply think other thoughts in order to deal with thoughts and mental reasonings: you only demolish thoughts and human rationale with the Sound of the Lord -- whether that sound be the speaking forth -- the rhema -- of the Word, whether that sound be singing in the Spirit, or whether that sound literally be tones or notes that come forth from your voice or an instrument in your hands.
My friends, it's time for the people of God to wake up and recognize how simple and yet how elegant the authority and power of God is in us and to exercise it against Satan. This is not a fantasy. This is life. This is light! This is the Sound of the Lord!
I said this before and I'll say it again. Sound. Light. Life. They are inseparable. They go together. You can't have one without the other. Light exists because of sound. Sound exists with light. Life is both light and sound.
There's another side of this that perhaps you've begun to see as well in this midst of this discussion. Darkness has a sound. Satan has a sound. Satan's whole existence is sound, and it is a sound that is inferior to and subject to the Sound of the Lord. What is his sound? The sound of doubt. The sound of fear. The sound of unbelief. The sound of questioning.
We expose, we reprove, we make evident and we chase the sound of the Enemy with the Sound of the Lord. Let me take you back to an example in the life of Israel in Moses' time.
Psalm 68:1 opens with, "Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered: let them also that hate Him flee before Him."
What is not obvious in this King James Version translation is the fact that this was a cry that went forth every time Israel began to move. The cloud which was the manifestation of the presence of the Lord God in their midst would begin to lift from the top of the Tabernacle indicating that God was ready to move His people onward. A cry would go forth at Moses' command that could be heard throughout all of tribes of Israel. (See also Numbers 10:35)
Long shofars would be blown like giant trumpets and men with strong voices would shout from the highest elevations available, "God is arising! God is arising! Let His enemies be scattered! Let His enemies be scattered! Let all those that hate Him flee before Him. Let all those that hate Him flee before Him."
Then the cry would ring across the countryside until all heard it and began to move. It was a sound that the heathen inhabitants of the land came to fear and dread. Because God had so defended His people during their years in the wilderness and the stories of His mighty deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the annihilation of Pharaoh's armies and other such victories had spread throughout the nations of the region, that sound generated great fear among God's foes. There was a power in it that defied description.
Many of you are familiar with the event recounted in II Chronicles 20 during the time that Jehoshaphat was King of Judah. The armies of Moab and Ammon, coupled with an army from Idumaea (the Edomites), came against Judah, outnumbering the armies of Judah by some estimates as much as a hundred to one. Following a period of fasting and a prophetic word given by Jahaziel, a descendant of Asaph (one of the three principal singing and praising families), Jehoshaphat sent out the praisers and worshipers before the armies as they headed to Engedi, the site of the expected battle.
II Chronicles 20:21-22 tells us, "And when he [Jehoshaphat] had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten."
But this was no ordinary destruction of the enemy.
"For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another. And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped."
This was total annihilation of the enemy. Not one single soldier of Moab, Ammon or Mount Seir came out of it alive.
This was the Sound of the Lord at work! In the midst of the sound of God's people praising and glorifying Him, the Lord "set ambushments" in the midst of the enemy's camp. (Just as a side note, the Hebrew word which describes this is: 'arab: In its various forms, this word (from whence we get the modern "Arab") means: to lie in wait, to lurk, to ambush, ambusher, an ambuscade.
The Scripture does not indicate where God got these "ambushers" and we don't know whether they were Moabites, Ammonites, or Edomites panicked by extreme fear, or what, but the Sound of the Lord coming forth from the singers and praisers was strong enough to trigger self-destruction among the enemies of God's people.
What we've just described is a tiny drop in the bucket of the power that goes forth in the Sound of the Lord.
Next: Where the Sound of Opposition Began (and why Paul describes it as "wrestling" in Ephesians 6).
Things are not what they seem to be: they're what God says they are. The sound of His Word going forth is what determines the difference between light and darkness, life and death, health or sickness and disease, poverty or prosperity.
The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22) Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
700 South 6th StreetSunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 837-4657
All Coffee Break articles are copyright by Regner A. Capener, but authorization for reprinting, reposting, copying or re-use, in whole or in part, is granted – provided proper attribution and this notice are included intact.
Coffee Break archives will shortly be available at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are published weekly.
If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to Unsubscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.
CAPENER MINISTRIES is a tax-exempt church ministry. Should you desire to participate and covenant with us as partners in this ministry, please contact us at either of the above email or physical addresses, or visit http://www.CapenerMinistries.com. We earnestly desire people to stand behind us as prayer partners.
Part 2: The Power of Sound
Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning!
How you be this fine day?
Coffee's on. Mine's poured. I'm just kinda sittin' here, enjoyin' the wonderful aroma from those dark roasted Colombian beans. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm............................
OK, Maury, I got it right this time: Colombian -- not Columbian! We don't get our beans from some place on the Columbia River. Hehehehehehe...............
Got a ways to go today, and we've got a lot to cover so let's get right to our discussion.
Some folks questioned the connection between the quote in our last Coffee Break from II Corinthians 10:3-5 and "The Sound of the Lord," and it may seem a bit far afield, but bear with me. I'm getting there.
Let's begin today with a look at something the apostle Paul wrote in his first letter to the Ekklesia in Corinth. As I did with the quote from II Corinthians 10:3-5, let me translate this passage from the original Greek text.
As part of his teaching and discourse on speaking in tongues, Paul makes some rather revelatory statements. Our English translations miss expressing the true sense of the Greek. Take a look at I Corinthians 14:10-11.
"There are [and seem to be] so many generated and varied sounds in the world, and none of them is without articulated and tonal purpose. (more on this concept momentarily) If, therefore, I do not know or perceive the power of the sound, I shall be a moral and mental ignoramus to the one giving forth that sound; and he that utters or creates the sound a rude and unlearned foreigner."
Did you catch that? The way Paul phrases this is that every sound has tonal purpose! Maybe that seems odd, but let's put that in its proper context.
Go back to something that David did in his final year as King of Israel, prior to turning the throne over to Solomon.
"Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals:" (I Chronicles 25:1)
The Hebrew word translated "prophesy" in this instance is naba': to sing, to create a declarative sound. In this command of David, he instructs Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun (the three heads of families who have spent the past 33 years in continuous praise and worship around the Tabernacle of David) to alter their function and purpose in praise. Instead of simply offering up praise and worship, now they are to prophesy with their instruments.
How, pray tell, do you prophesy upon an instrument? If you understand the power of sound -- especially under the anointing of the Holy Spirit -- you begin to realize that vast, creative power and authority is at your fingertips.
David clearly understood this when he sang, "Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight." (Psalm 144:1)
How was David using his hands to war? Simple. On his harp. On whatever instrument he played. His fingers were engaged in the fight in and by the way they plucked the strings. The sounds that came forth were prophetic. These were tones -- musical notes -- that had specific meaning and purpose. They had the authority and power of Heaven itself backing them.
Sound, all by itself, carries a certain power with it. Perhaps you've been to a large gathering where folks have been praising and worshiping. Let's take the Lakeland Outpouring as an example where Roy Fields would camp on certain notes on his synthesizer keyboard. If it seemed repetitious and boring, that's only because you didn't understand that he was prophesying with certain tones or notes. The sound of the Lord was going forth. The Holy Spirit was sending forth a sound that literally was causing the gates of Hell to shake.
Let me illustrate this another way. Most folks have seen it in person or at least seen a televised demonstration where an opera singer will hit a certain note. As she holds the note, glass shatters. Crystal flies apart and disintegrates with the force of the sound.
How does that happen? The note hits a certain frequency and resonance. The glass is susceptible to that frequency and begins to vibrate harmonically. The harmonic vibrations cause the molecular structure of the glass or crystal to come apart and lose their cohesiveness.
That's in the natural or visible realm. That's a small sample of what happens in the realm of the spirit. Sound -- ALL SOUND -- has a force and power behind it. You may think I'm going too far with this illustration, but go back to what Paul wrote, "none of {the sounds] are without articulated and tonal purpose."
Let's take this illustration forward to something Paul wrote to the Ephesians. (5:18-19)
"And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."
The Greek word translated here "making melody in your heart" is: psallo: to twitch, to pluck, to twang, to rub the surface of strings. And the Greek text expresses it more accurately "with" (your heart) rather than "in." Thus one's heart is absolutely in the sound.
I will also remind you of the statement in Ephesians 6 where Paul writes, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood...." and the word used is esti-pale (pallo), meaning: to vibrate; to create a sound in opposition [to that of the Enemy]. Are you beginning to see the picture? Do you now understand that we as sons and daughters of the Most High have within our beings the Sound of the Lord -- a sound and tonal quality which opposes [and has the authority, ability and power to destroy the sound of Satan?
For those folks who understand the power of the sound in the realm of the Spirit, we have the ability to cause to disintegrate the thrones where Satan rules. The Sound of the Lord going forth through us causes the molecular structure (you'll pardon me for expressing it like this) of Satan's strongholds to be broken.
Let me take Paul's statement here and put it into the overall context of what he is saying. Go back to Ephesians 5:8-13.
"For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:" (Remember the sound/light/life illustration in our last Coffee Break?) "Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord." How do you prove what is acceptable to the Lord? Easy. With the Sound of the Lord. Take a look at the next verse.
"And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them."
THERE'S your command to "vibrate" in opposition to the sound of the Enemy. You reprove, you expose, you make visible and apparent for all to see, and you do so with the Sound of the Lord, "speaking to yourselves in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." Music, you see, is the communication -- the sound, the tones, a language, if you will -- of the spirit.
OK, OK! I know I've applied these verses a bit differently than you may have been previously taught -- and they do have other applications -- but it is perfectly appropriate to apply Paul's instruction within the context of the Sound of the Lord. We'll come back to this application shortly.
Now let's revisit II Corinthians 10.
"For the weapons and instruments of our war and executed actions [against Satan] do not have their origins and [weak, impotent] operation in natural flesh and human abilities, but they are skillful, potent and powerful – like dynamite – through God to the demolition and extinction of all fortified and guarded places of opinions in opposition," Yup. The weapons of our warfare ARE skillful, potent and powerful -- especially when we understand that the Sound of the Lord available in and through us is the means by which we wield those weapons.
"Bringing down violently and demolishing (to total extinction) all mental reasonings and thought processes, and every mental barrier or arrogant and self-elevated attitude that justifies itself in opposition to the knowledge of God; bringing into captivity and making a prisoner every perception of the intellect and every mental purpose or determination to the compliance and submission of Christ and His anointing."
Yessir! The Sound of the Lord does just that! You don't simply think other thoughts in order to deal with thoughts and mental reasonings: you only demolish thoughts and human rationale with the Sound of the Lord -- whether that sound be the speaking forth -- the rhema -- of the Word, whether that sound be singing in the Spirit, or whether that sound literally be tones or notes that come forth from your voice or an instrument in your hands.
My friends, it's time for the people of God to wake up and recognize how simple and yet how elegant the authority and power of God is in us and to exercise it against Satan. This is not a fantasy. This is life. This is light! This is the Sound of the Lord!
I said this before and I'll say it again. Sound. Light. Life. They are inseparable. They go together. You can't have one without the other. Light exists because of sound. Sound exists with light. Life is both light and sound.
There's another side of this that perhaps you've begun to see as well in this midst of this discussion. Darkness has a sound. Satan has a sound. Satan's whole existence is sound, and it is a sound that is inferior to and subject to the Sound of the Lord. What is his sound? The sound of doubt. The sound of fear. The sound of unbelief. The sound of questioning.
We expose, we reprove, we make evident and we chase the sound of the Enemy with the Sound of the Lord. Let me take you back to an example in the life of Israel in Moses' time.
Psalm 68:1 opens with, "Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered: let them also that hate Him flee before Him."
What is not obvious in this King James Version translation is the fact that this was a cry that went forth every time Israel began to move. The cloud which was the manifestation of the presence of the Lord God in their midst would begin to lift from the top of the Tabernacle indicating that God was ready to move His people onward. A cry would go forth at Moses' command that could be heard throughout all of tribes of Israel. (See also Numbers 10:35)
Long shofars would be blown like giant trumpets and men with strong voices would shout from the highest elevations available, "God is arising! God is arising! Let His enemies be scattered! Let His enemies be scattered! Let all those that hate Him flee before Him. Let all those that hate Him flee before Him."
Then the cry would ring across the countryside until all heard it and began to move. It was a sound that the heathen inhabitants of the land came to fear and dread. Because God had so defended His people during their years in the wilderness and the stories of His mighty deliverance of Israel from Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the annihilation of Pharaoh's armies and other such victories had spread throughout the nations of the region, that sound generated great fear among God's foes. There was a power in it that defied description.
Many of you are familiar with the event recounted in II Chronicles 20 during the time that Jehoshaphat was King of Judah. The armies of Moab and Ammon, coupled with an army from Idumaea (the Edomites), came against Judah, outnumbering the armies of Judah by some estimates as much as a hundred to one. Following a period of fasting and a prophetic word given by Jahaziel, a descendant of Asaph (one of the three principal singing and praising families), Jehoshaphat sent out the praisers and worshipers before the armies as they headed to Engedi, the site of the expected battle.
II Chronicles 20:21-22 tells us, "And when he [Jehoshaphat] had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten."
But this was no ordinary destruction of the enemy.
"For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another. And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped."
This was total annihilation of the enemy. Not one single soldier of Moab, Ammon or Mount Seir came out of it alive.
This was the Sound of the Lord at work! In the midst of the sound of God's people praising and glorifying Him, the Lord "set ambushments" in the midst of the enemy's camp. (Just as a side note, the Hebrew word which describes this is: 'arab: In its various forms, this word (from whence we get the modern "Arab") means: to lie in wait, to lurk, to ambush, ambusher, an ambuscade.
The Scripture does not indicate where God got these "ambushers" and we don't know whether they were Moabites, Ammonites, or Edomites panicked by extreme fear, or what, but the Sound of the Lord coming forth from the singers and praisers was strong enough to trigger self-destruction among the enemies of God's people.
What we've just described is a tiny drop in the bucket of the power that goes forth in the Sound of the Lord.
Next: Where the Sound of Opposition Began (and why Paul describes it as "wrestling" in Ephesians 6).
Things are not what they seem to be: they're what God says they are. The sound of His Word going forth is what determines the difference between light and darkness, life and death, health or sickness and disease, poverty or prosperity.
The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22) Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
700 South 6th StreetSunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 837-4657
All Coffee Break articles are copyright by Regner A. Capener, but authorization for reprinting, reposting, copying or re-use, in whole or in part, is granted – provided proper attribution and this notice are included intact.
Coffee Break archives will shortly be available at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are published weekly.
If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to Unsubscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.
CAPENER MINISTRIES is a tax-exempt church ministry. Should you desire to participate and covenant with us as partners in this ministry, please contact us at either of the above email or physical addresses, or visit http://www.CapenerMinistries.com. We earnestly desire people to stand behind us as prayer partners.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Christians and Non-Christians > General Discussion
Christians and Non-Christians > General Discussion
THE SOUND OF THE LORD
Part 1: INTRODUCING THE CONCEPT
Great getting' up mornin' to ye, Folks! Blessin's on Ye!There, how's that for a good morning greeting. Awwww, well... Anyway...grab that fresh cup of coffee from your French Press coffee maker, or that cup of super hot Expresso.
Maybe you've been wondering when we're going to finish the discussion on Kingdom Economics -- and really, I thought I'd get back to it before this -- but it looks like it will wait and resume after the first of the year.
It was nearly four years ago that I published a series of Coffee Breaks titled, "The Science and Spirit of Sound." That Coffee Break series was predicated in large part on an earlier OPEN LETTER TO THE EKKLESIA I had written and distributed back in the mid-1990's in which I dealt with the significance of sound and the spiritual force behind it.
Many of you know that I've had a long background in engineering and research, and -- for a period of several years -- in the field of audio research. Got to thinking about it this morning and realized that I was probably around seventeen years of age when I first began seriously experimenting in the field of acoustics, playing with loudspeaker cabinet design and acoustic-wave theory.
My audio research continued on through some of my college years and beyond, and in the mid-to-late 1960's a former college buddy, Allen Parker, and I formed an acoustic research company -- Alpac Audio. We developed together what we referred to as "3-Dimensional Sound" -- an early predecessor to today's Dolby Surround -- and traveled around the country introducing the concept to various manufacturers.
"3-Dimensional Sound" was actually achieved with only two, albeit perfectly balanced and accurately phased loudspeakers. We were able to create a soundstage far wider than the speaker placement and reproduce the sounds which appeared to be coming out of thin air where no speakers existed. I won't get into the technical issues or specs on the system because that's not what this Coffee Break is about. I simply share this as a foundation for where I want to take this (and perhaps one or more additional Coffee Breaks) discussion and to perhaps establish a basis in both scientific fact and spiritual law.
As a lifelong musician and recording engineer, sound has been an integral part of my life. At least nine out of every ten mornings, I will a waken with the sound of Heaven flowing through my spirit with new music. It is and has been perhaps the most actively creative part of my life. (Some people think it is my writing, but that's just because they haven't been around me much. (Grin.)
Della is likewise creative when it comes to music. There are many times when she sits down at the synthesizer keyboard, closes her eyes, and just begins to worship as the Spirit of the Lord flows through her with new sounds and new words. We flow together this way. But there is purpose and direction in the sound that comes forth. Between the two of us, the Holy Spirit has given hundreds of new songs -- Psalms (set to new music), Hymns, and Spiritual Songs -- more than a few of which have become part of the repertoire of praise and worship in churches around the world.
We understand that literally everything God ever created began with the sound of His voice. We also understand that we've been created in His image and likeness and imbued with His same creative ability.
Our world today has so corrupted and contaminated sound that we've lost sight -- and in large part, the creative use -- of the ability God gave us. We are surrounded with so much sound it has become cacophonous. It is nothing but destructive noise!
We turn on the television and get bombarded with every kind of sound -- most of it (as noted in previous Coffee Breaks) designed to entice, persuade and manipulate us into believing things that are not true, have no life, and deceive us into committing sin, buying something we don't need or want, or wasting time in unproductive endeavors.
Why is this? What has happened to the human race? More than that, what has happened that the Body of Christ has so lost sight (and use) of the gift of God He has made available to us through Jesus Christ?
I've shared this personal translation of the Greek text of II Corinthians 10:3-5 before but let me refresh you.
"For though we live, deport and comport ourselves by that which we see, hear, taste, smell and touch, we do not contend with, war after and execute military strategies [against Satan] by that which we see and hear, know intellectually, or have opinions of: For the weapons and instruments of our war and executed actions [against Satan] do not have their origins and [weak, impotent] operation in natural flesh and human abilities, but they are skillful, potent and powerful – like dynamite – through God to the demolition and extinction of all fortified and guarded places of opinions in opposition,
"Bringing down violently and demolishing (to total extinction) all mental reasonings and thought processes, and every mental barrier or arrogant and self-elevated attitude that justifies itself in opposition to the knowledge of God; bringing into captivity and making a prisoner every perception of the intellect and every mental purpose or determination to the compliance and submission of Christ and His anointing [in the same way that He complied with the will and desire of the Father]."
Now, let's put that together with Ephesians 6:12. The KJV reads like this: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
The phrase, "we wrestle not" is an extraordinary phrase in the Greek text. The Greek uses a musical term -- or more accurately, a conjunctive word which denotes "sound," esti-pale (from its root, pallo). This word more literally translates: to vibrate; and it draws a picture of two sounds in opposition to each other. The wrestling, literally, is the opposition of the sounds of Satan against the sound of the Lord. (We'll come back to this, momentarily.)
From a purely scientific perspective, all energy beginning at 0 cycles per second (or hertz) and increasing in frequency through the audio spectrum, the sub-RF and RF spectrums, electro-magnetic energy, HF, VHF, UHF, Microwave and beyond into the realm of visible and invisible light -- all of it -- is sound-based. If we had ears that could hear at those frequencies, we could hear light.
I was just thinking back to a discussion I had with a Canadian astrophysicist in 1994 when the comet, Shoemaker-Levy, after breaking apart, struck the planet Jupiter 21 times over a period of seven days. He noted that -- were it possible for sound to travel in space -- this event created a series of low-frequency electro-magnetic shock waves equivalent to sound that spread throughout our galaxy. Though our ears didn't hear it the earth did, and there were both tidal and weather phenomena that followed in the months thereafter.
Sound, whether we hear it or not, is an integral part of our existence. Sound holds things together. Here's how the apostle Paul put it.
"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." (Hebrews 1:1-3)
Did you catch that? He is "upholding all things (the Greek word used here is phero: meaning to energize and hold together cohesively) by the word (rhema: sound of His word, the speaking forth) of His power (dunamis: force, might, miraculous power)." He energizes and holds everything together cohesively by the sound of His Word going forth. Because He is God, it is the sound of His power, not the other way around.
Most folks think of it as the power of His Word, but that's not the way Paul phrases it. It is the Word, the Sound of His Word of the power inherent in His very being. Thus we exist because of sound -- the Sound of the Lord.
When you stop to consider, this is how creation began. With sound. The sound of His Word went forth, "Light BE!" And light was. Everything about the creation of this world and all that is therein (with the exception of man -- and we'll get to that) began with sound going forth -- the sound of His Word.
Light, therefore, began with sound. Maybe you think I'm wearing this issue thin, but bear with me. There is a point to this.
Jesus put it like this, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth after me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12)
Again He said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." (John 9:5)
Now, juxtapose those statements with the way John began his Gospel.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made."
Then John puts sound and light together.
"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."
Are you seeing it? Sound. Light. Life. They are inseparable. They go together. You can't have one without the other. Light exists because of sound. Sound exists with light. Life is both light and sound.
Ever notice the difference at Creation between the way God made the earth, the universe, and all that is therein, and the way He made man? Genesis 2:7 tells us that God "formed" (the Hebrew word is yatsar: to mold, to squeeze into shape, to fashion with determined purpose) man. It is the first time during the entire creation sequence that God departs from the declarative commands to "BE" in order to accomplish His creative design.
Thus God took particular care and purpose in man's creation. After all, the entire creative operation was intended to create an environment for man in the first place. Man was not simply a generic part of creation; he was the reason. And the objective for man's creation is revealed in Genesis 1:26-28.
First of all, Father, Son and Holy Spirit took counsel together in this. It was the unified decision that a species of being would come into existence who would be exactly like God, functioning in three dimensions simultaneously and having the power of creative speech and creative sound -- just like God!
Thus, man's existence came into being first by God taking deliberate and specific care in creating him.and molding him. Then He breathed into man His own breath -- that same breath with which He generated the commanding sounds of Creation. (See Genesis 2:7) And the very first thing man heard was the sound of the Lord's Voice creating in him the empowerment to do what God did: create with His voice.
"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." (Genesis 1:28)
Do you see it? The very first thing God did was to bless them -- to declare and decree in them the empowerment to prosper, to accomplish everything they desired. The second thing God did was to declare and decree dominion in them -- His authority -- to rule over every living thing upon the earth (except man, of course, and that's an important distinction we'll get into later).
Next the Lord says to them, "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat:" (Verses 29 & 30) And He finishes it off by confirming, "and it was so."
Thus God confirmed the decrees of blessing He had imparted with the sound of His Voice into man.
In our next Coffee Break, we will expand on this concept and show the relationship between the sound that comes forth from us and the creative power of God that operates in and through us.
See you again shortly.
Things are not what they seem to be: they're what God says they are. The sound of His Word going forth is what determines the difference between light and darkness, life and death, health or sickness and disease, poverty or prosperity.
The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22) Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
700 South 6th StreetSunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 837-4657
All Coffee Break articles are copyright by Regner A. Capener, but authorization for reprinting, reposting, copying or re-use, in whole or in part, is granted – provided proper attribution and this notice are included intact. Coffee Break archives will shortly be available at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are published weekly.
If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to Unsubscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.
CAPENER MINISTRIES is a tax-exempt church ministry. Should you desire to participate and covenant with us as partners in this ministry, please contact us at either of the above email or physical addresses, or visit http://www.CapenerMinistries.com. We earnestly desire people to stand behind us as prayer partners.
THE SOUND OF THE LORD
Part 1: INTRODUCING THE CONCEPT
Great getting' up mornin' to ye, Folks! Blessin's on Ye!There, how's that for a good morning greeting. Awwww, well... Anyway...grab that fresh cup of coffee from your French Press coffee maker, or that cup of super hot Expresso.
Maybe you've been wondering when we're going to finish the discussion on Kingdom Economics -- and really, I thought I'd get back to it before this -- but it looks like it will wait and resume after the first of the year.
It was nearly four years ago that I published a series of Coffee Breaks titled, "The Science and Spirit of Sound." That Coffee Break series was predicated in large part on an earlier OPEN LETTER TO THE EKKLESIA I had written and distributed back in the mid-1990's in which I dealt with the significance of sound and the spiritual force behind it.
Many of you know that I've had a long background in engineering and research, and -- for a period of several years -- in the field of audio research. Got to thinking about it this morning and realized that I was probably around seventeen years of age when I first began seriously experimenting in the field of acoustics, playing with loudspeaker cabinet design and acoustic-wave theory.
My audio research continued on through some of my college years and beyond, and in the mid-to-late 1960's a former college buddy, Allen Parker, and I formed an acoustic research company -- Alpac Audio. We developed together what we referred to as "3-Dimensional Sound" -- an early predecessor to today's Dolby Surround -- and traveled around the country introducing the concept to various manufacturers.
"3-Dimensional Sound" was actually achieved with only two, albeit perfectly balanced and accurately phased loudspeakers. We were able to create a soundstage far wider than the speaker placement and reproduce the sounds which appeared to be coming out of thin air where no speakers existed. I won't get into the technical issues or specs on the system because that's not what this Coffee Break is about. I simply share this as a foundation for where I want to take this (and perhaps one or more additional Coffee Breaks) discussion and to perhaps establish a basis in both scientific fact and spiritual law.
As a lifelong musician and recording engineer, sound has been an integral part of my life. At least nine out of every ten mornings, I will a waken with the sound of Heaven flowing through my spirit with new music. It is and has been perhaps the most actively creative part of my life. (Some people think it is my writing, but that's just because they haven't been around me much. (Grin.)
Della is likewise creative when it comes to music. There are many times when she sits down at the synthesizer keyboard, closes her eyes, and just begins to worship as the Spirit of the Lord flows through her with new sounds and new words. We flow together this way. But there is purpose and direction in the sound that comes forth. Between the two of us, the Holy Spirit has given hundreds of new songs -- Psalms (set to new music), Hymns, and Spiritual Songs -- more than a few of which have become part of the repertoire of praise and worship in churches around the world.
We understand that literally everything God ever created began with the sound of His voice. We also understand that we've been created in His image and likeness and imbued with His same creative ability.
Our world today has so corrupted and contaminated sound that we've lost sight -- and in large part, the creative use -- of the ability God gave us. We are surrounded with so much sound it has become cacophonous. It is nothing but destructive noise!
We turn on the television and get bombarded with every kind of sound -- most of it (as noted in previous Coffee Breaks) designed to entice, persuade and manipulate us into believing things that are not true, have no life, and deceive us into committing sin, buying something we don't need or want, or wasting time in unproductive endeavors.
Why is this? What has happened to the human race? More than that, what has happened that the Body of Christ has so lost sight (and use) of the gift of God He has made available to us through Jesus Christ?
I've shared this personal translation of the Greek text of II Corinthians 10:3-5 before but let me refresh you.
"For though we live, deport and comport ourselves by that which we see, hear, taste, smell and touch, we do not contend with, war after and execute military strategies [against Satan] by that which we see and hear, know intellectually, or have opinions of: For the weapons and instruments of our war and executed actions [against Satan] do not have their origins and [weak, impotent] operation in natural flesh and human abilities, but they are skillful, potent and powerful – like dynamite – through God to the demolition and extinction of all fortified and guarded places of opinions in opposition,
"Bringing down violently and demolishing (to total extinction) all mental reasonings and thought processes, and every mental barrier or arrogant and self-elevated attitude that justifies itself in opposition to the knowledge of God; bringing into captivity and making a prisoner every perception of the intellect and every mental purpose or determination to the compliance and submission of Christ and His anointing [in the same way that He complied with the will and desire of the Father]."
Now, let's put that together with Ephesians 6:12. The KJV reads like this: "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
The phrase, "we wrestle not" is an extraordinary phrase in the Greek text. The Greek uses a musical term -- or more accurately, a conjunctive word which denotes "sound," esti-pale (from its root, pallo). This word more literally translates: to vibrate; and it draws a picture of two sounds in opposition to each other. The wrestling, literally, is the opposition of the sounds of Satan against the sound of the Lord. (We'll come back to this, momentarily.)
From a purely scientific perspective, all energy beginning at 0 cycles per second (or hertz) and increasing in frequency through the audio spectrum, the sub-RF and RF spectrums, electro-magnetic energy, HF, VHF, UHF, Microwave and beyond into the realm of visible and invisible light -- all of it -- is sound-based. If we had ears that could hear at those frequencies, we could hear light.
I was just thinking back to a discussion I had with a Canadian astrophysicist in 1994 when the comet, Shoemaker-Levy, after breaking apart, struck the planet Jupiter 21 times over a period of seven days. He noted that -- were it possible for sound to travel in space -- this event created a series of low-frequency electro-magnetic shock waves equivalent to sound that spread throughout our galaxy. Though our ears didn't hear it the earth did, and there were both tidal and weather phenomena that followed in the months thereafter.
Sound, whether we hear it or not, is an integral part of our existence. Sound holds things together. Here's how the apostle Paul put it.
"God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." (Hebrews 1:1-3)
Did you catch that? He is "upholding all things (the Greek word used here is phero: meaning to energize and hold together cohesively) by the word (rhema: sound of His word, the speaking forth) of His power (dunamis: force, might, miraculous power)." He energizes and holds everything together cohesively by the sound of His Word going forth. Because He is God, it is the sound of His power, not the other way around.
Most folks think of it as the power of His Word, but that's not the way Paul phrases it. It is the Word, the Sound of His Word of the power inherent in His very being. Thus we exist because of sound -- the Sound of the Lord.
When you stop to consider, this is how creation began. With sound. The sound of His Word went forth, "Light BE!" And light was. Everything about the creation of this world and all that is therein (with the exception of man -- and we'll get to that) began with sound going forth -- the sound of His Word.
Light, therefore, began with sound. Maybe you think I'm wearing this issue thin, but bear with me. There is a point to this.
Jesus put it like this, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth after me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12)
Again He said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." (John 9:5)
Now, juxtapose those statements with the way John began his Gospel.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made."
Then John puts sound and light together.
"In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."
Are you seeing it? Sound. Light. Life. They are inseparable. They go together. You can't have one without the other. Light exists because of sound. Sound exists with light. Life is both light and sound.
Ever notice the difference at Creation between the way God made the earth, the universe, and all that is therein, and the way He made man? Genesis 2:7 tells us that God "formed" (the Hebrew word is yatsar: to mold, to squeeze into shape, to fashion with determined purpose) man. It is the first time during the entire creation sequence that God departs from the declarative commands to "BE" in order to accomplish His creative design.
Thus God took particular care and purpose in man's creation. After all, the entire creative operation was intended to create an environment for man in the first place. Man was not simply a generic part of creation; he was the reason. And the objective for man's creation is revealed in Genesis 1:26-28.
First of all, Father, Son and Holy Spirit took counsel together in this. It was the unified decision that a species of being would come into existence who would be exactly like God, functioning in three dimensions simultaneously and having the power of creative speech and creative sound -- just like God!
Thus, man's existence came into being first by God taking deliberate and specific care in creating him.and molding him. Then He breathed into man His own breath -- that same breath with which He generated the commanding sounds of Creation. (See Genesis 2:7) And the very first thing man heard was the sound of the Lord's Voice creating in him the empowerment to do what God did: create with His voice.
"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." (Genesis 1:28)
Do you see it? The very first thing God did was to bless them -- to declare and decree in them the empowerment to prosper, to accomplish everything they desired. The second thing God did was to declare and decree dominion in them -- His authority -- to rule over every living thing upon the earth (except man, of course, and that's an important distinction we'll get into later).
Next the Lord says to them, "Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat:" (Verses 29 & 30) And He finishes it off by confirming, "and it was so."
Thus God confirmed the decrees of blessing He had imparted with the sound of His Voice into man.
In our next Coffee Break, we will expand on this concept and show the relationship between the sound that comes forth from us and the creative power of God that operates in and through us.
See you again shortly.
Things are not what they seem to be: they're what God says they are. The sound of His Word going forth is what determines the difference between light and darkness, life and death, health or sickness and disease, poverty or prosperity.
The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22) Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
700 South 6th StreetSunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 837-4657
All Coffee Break articles are copyright by Regner A. Capener, but authorization for reprinting, reposting, copying or re-use, in whole or in part, is granted – provided proper attribution and this notice are included intact. Coffee Break archives will shortly be available at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are published weekly.
If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to Unsubscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.
CAPENER MINISTRIES is a tax-exempt church ministry. Should you desire to participate and covenant with us as partners in this ministry, please contact us at either of the above email or physical addresses, or visit http://www.CapenerMinistries.com. We earnestly desire people to stand behind us as prayer partners.
Monday, December 1, 2008
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: INTERCESSION, Part 3
Intercession, Part 3
And a Gooooooodddd Morrrrrrrnnnnniiinnnnggg to you!
Yup. It is! And I'm already into my second cup of French Roasted Columbian Supremo -- made in the French Press, of course. Got yours, yet? Well whaddaya waitin' for? Christmas? (oooopppsss...that's just around the corner.) Hehehehehehe........
When I first started this discussion on intercession, I didn't expect it to stretch out like this, but because the Lord has really compelled Della and me to intercede more and more and more in the past weeks, it seems like there is a lot more understanding unfolding for both of us in this realm. That being the case, it is appropriate for me to share this continuing revelation for your growth and understanding as well.
In our last Coffee Break, I quoted from I Timothy 2:1-5: "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, 1-supplications, 2-prayers, 3-intercessions, and 4-giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."
We talked about the four specific commands embodied in Paul's instruction: (1) Supplications, (2) Prayers, (3) Intercessions, and (4) Giving of Thanks.
For the sake of short review, supplications comes from the Greek word, de.esis; meaning petitions or requests. Prayers, in this instance, is taken from proseuchomai, a covenant term better translated: worship. The third word -- intercessions -- is a term we would better frame within the context of a courtroom; and it comes from the Greek enteuxis; and means: to present a legal argument based in Law (that is, to confer with, to mediate on behalf of, or to deal with an unresolved issue). The fourth command -- the giving of thanks -- is another covenant word in Greek eucharistia. This word defines gratefulness, gratitude towards God for His keeping covenant with His people.
Each of these words or phrases are drawn from the picture of the Covenant God made with Abraham. The event is told in Genesis 15 (you can read it for yourself) but I will simply draw the picture for you. We know from all of the references in Scripture that this is the fifth time the Lord has appeared to Abraham. But this time is different. In each previous appearance, God has spoken to him and made some very singular promises. What separates this fifth appearance of the Lord from all previous events is the fact that God now makes a promise to Abraham that -- for Abraham -- is simply impossible to enact by any means of calculating or reasoning. Sarah has been barren in all the years of their married life, and Abraham is well past the age of male fertility; and yet, God promises that Abraham's seed -- of his loins -- will be innumerable as the stars in the heavens and the sand of the seashore.
Verse 6 of this chapter tells us that in spite of the impossibility of the event, Abraham believed God. Now God is going to etch His promises to Abraham in the form of a Legal Covenant, the likes of which Abraham -- and all his generations thereafter -- will clearly understand and be able to relate to: a Covenant of Blood.
I remember during my growing-up years hearing about "the Blood, the Blood, the Blood" and singing all those songs (Oh, the Blood of Jesus; The Old Rugged Cross, Power in the Blood, Nothing But the Blood, etc., etc.), wondering why there was so much importance put on the blood of Jesus being shed. Sure, I knew all the usual things: He died to save us from sin; He paid the price for our freedom, His death and resurrection restored what was lost when Adam and Eve sinned and brought a curse to mankind; but the real significance of what took place on the Cross was not something any of us really understood at the time, and the concept of "Covenant" simply was lost on us.
It never occurred to me that blood was shed from the time Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden. Consider for a moment that when they lost their "covering" and clothing of Glory, they were naked. Yet God made a covering for them of animal skins -- a poor substitute for the Glory of God, but a covering nonetheless. In order for God to provide those animal skins, the animals had to die and their blood be shed in the process. It was to set the future pattern for "covering," protection, blessing and redemption.
Now God gives seemingly strange instruction to Abraham.
"Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not."
There's a prophetic picture in the choice of these animals (and one I don't have time to delve into with all the specifics today) but God's command to Abraham in choosing these animals was very deliberate. These animals would represent every spectrum of the promises to be made, and every kind of character and personality in the generations to follow. The number (5) of animals chosen would -- again -- be prophetic. It denoted kheseed: that remarkable and astonishing grace of God which represented His Blessing, His lovingkindness and tender mercy, His favor, His total covering, protection and provision for every conceivable need or situation.
Now God puts Abraham into a vision-state. He cannot permit Abraham to actually see Him physically, so He places Abraham in a position that will allow him to see what takes place without endangering him by the Glory of His actual physical being. And God shows up in person to enact this Covenant.
What Abraham sees is what Moses and the Children of Israel will see some 400-plus years in the future as God takes them out of bondage in Egypt: a pillar of smoke and a column of fire. And God now walks up and down, back and forth in the blood that is flowing between the divided halves of the animals. As He does so, He declares and decrees His Covenant promise to Abraham.
"And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full."
"In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."
God had already made this same promise to Abraham, but now He seals it in an unbreakable Covenant. This Covenant is a legal act, a decree which cannot be altered or broken.
As Paul notes in his letter to the Hebrews, "For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could sware by no greater, He sware by Himself, saying Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee." (Hebrews 6:13-14)
It is important to note that in a Covenant relationship, both parties literally give their all to the other. They become "joined at the hip" to use the old metaphor. Whatever one party to the covenant has, the other is entitled to without question. Each acts for and on behalf of the other. Each watches out for the other.
This is a covenant of blood. Since as we all know "The life of the flesh is in the blood" (Leviticus 17:11), a covenant of blood meant "life for life." If one party were to violate the covenant, his life was forfeit.
That God fulfilled His part of the Covenant -- and continues to this day to fulfill it -- is evident in all that we have and receive through Jesus Christ. Abraham, however, fulfilled his part of the covenant in a way most folks today would find impossible.
During the years, God had withheld nothing from Abraham. He was easily the Bill Gates of his day being the richest and arguably the most powerful man on the planet. It mattered not what Abraham required, God met that need. But now it is God's turn to ask something of Abraham -- and if he is going to perpetuate this extraordinary covenant blessing in the generations to come, he must -- without hesitation -- give God whatever He asks of Abraham.
And God asks him to offer up his only son -- the son in and through whom God has promised the Covenant Blessing would be implemented -- as a burnt sacrifice to Him. Sounds nuts, doesn't it? Sounds like a contradiction! Why would God ask Abraham for the very thing through which His Covenant Blessing was promised?
Easy. Isaac represented literally the whole of Abraham's life, his future, the generations to follow. God had withheld nothing from Abraham. Now Abraham must likewise withhold nothing from God. And here is the crux of the whole picture, the focal point of the Blessing of Abraham, the essence of Covenant with God.
Watch.
"By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure." (Hebrews 11:17-19)
See it? Abraham's absolute and resolute trust and faith in God and in His Word was so great that even if Isaac died on an altar of sacrifice to the Lord, he knew without question that God would raise Isaac from the dead in order to keep His Covenant Word.
But here's the best part!
Jesus came as the "Seed of Abraham" AND as the Son of God so that both ends of the Covenant were met at once in a single moment and in a single person. God did not require the sacrifice of Isaac from Abraham in order for Abraham to keep his part of the Covenant, but provided him a ram instead at the last second to offer in Isaac's place.
Some seventeen- or eighteen hundred years later, Jesus came along. By reason of his being brought into the earth through Mary, he qualified legitimately as the Seed of Abraham. By virtue of His having been conceived through the Holy Spirit, Jesus was the Son of God. In Him, God offered up His ultimate sacrifice -- the sacrifice of His Only Son. At the same time, as the Seed of Abraham, he was able to legally fulfill the price of Abraham's part in the Covenant of Blessing -- the offering up of his seed to the Lord.
Jesus' willingness to become the fulfillment of the Law of the Covenant on both sides meant that all who come to God through Him have complete and total access to every part of the Blessing, by the Law of God!
OK. Now that we've drawn this picture of the Abrahamic Covenant, let's take it forward in time so that we understand the covenant nature of Paul's command in his letter to Timothy, and how intercession is so intricately woven into covenant.
In the apostle Paul's letter to the Galatians, he writes, "Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." (Galatians 3:6-9)
Paul continues, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." (Galatians 3:13-14)
Have we gotten there, yet? Are you seeing the progression from Abraham to us? We are recipients of the Blessing of Abraham (1) by and through the blood that Jesus shed, (2) our acceptance and acknowledgement of Him as the redeemer and mediator of the Covenant, and (3) our participation in that Covenant by faith.
That being the case, let's return to the four commands Paul gives in I Timothy 2:1-5. The first, of course, is the presentation of the petition. The petition, however, is presented because of the Covenant we have with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Our request is presented with the full faith and trust of God's Word backing our petition.
What is the nature of our petition? We are coming before God as intercessors, as People of the Covenant, on behalf of God's Word. We are bringing Kingdom Authority into this natural world, overruling the works of the flesh, defeating Satan and his army of demons and demonic princes, and implementing the Kingdom of God on His behalf "for all men, for kings and all that are in authority" so that "all men" will have the opportunity to respond to the redemptive plan Jesus made available.
We are "standing in the gap" putting our lives, all that we have, and all that we are on the line so that Jesus receives His inheritance in us. If we do not stand in the gap, God must (because He is righteous and just) execute His wrath upon "the children of disobedience."
To stand in the gap means that we present ourselves before the Lord in and on His behalf. We do so, both presenting ourselves as an act of worship, and also actually worshiping Him -- "in Spirit and in Truth." Thus the second part of Paul's instruction -- translated "prayers" in the KJV -- is actually "worship." But this isn't simply worshiping the Lord because we want to spend time with Him. This is worship in the context of our Covenant with Him. As the Author, Implementer and Finisher of the Covenant, He is worthy of our worship. He is due that worship.
Our worship recognizes and acknowledges Him and the fact that without the redemptive work that Jesus Christ did on our behalf, we could not come before Him at all!
It may seem a bit incongruous that we now intercede in the midst of the worship, but let's put this all in its proper context. We are in the Courtroom of the Universe. This is a legal situation, and we are here for the purpose of implementing God's Word in an environment that is hostile to Him and resists submitting to His Word at every possible instance. We are here to enforce the Word.
Intercession is nothing more and nothing less than presenting our legal arguments before God. What makes those arguments lawful and enforceable is the very Word God has Himself spoken. We come, therefore, into this August Presence armed with the Word, reminding God of precisely what He has decreed and spoken. His Word is the Final Authority. Everything that happens is based on what He has already spoken.
It is important to note that we waste our time and God's time if we attempt to come before Him with requests and petitions NOT based in His Word. That means we'd best KNOW what He has said and be able to declare that Word before Him. As God spoke through the prophet Isaiah, "Put me in remembrance; let us plead together; declare thou, that thou mayest be justified." (Isaiah 43:26)
He, therefore, makes it clear that He wants us to remind Him of what He has already spoken. Our ability to do that means that we are not coming before Him frivolously, that we KNOW His Will, and that we are desirous of implementing it. It isn't that God has forgotten what He said. Far from it! He simply wants us to know and understand just exactly what we actually can do!
And what we can actually do is to stand in the blood of Jesus! Doing so reminds both us -- and the Father -- that we have legal standing in this Court.
Finally, having presented His Word to Him as the legal basis for our petition, faith in Him and faith in that Word we have presented now demands that we offer thanks -- even before we've seen the manifestation of that for which we asked. Thanksgiving -- at this stage -- is again a Covenant act. It is a statement of faith. It is a declaration that we know with absolute assurance He has heard us, we've come before Him with His Word, and He has responded accordingly.
Thanksgiving -- in the Courtroom of the Universe -- acknowledges that our petitions have been heard and that God has ruled in our (and not coincidentally, in His) favor! John put it like this in his first general letter to the body of Christ.
"And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His Will, he heareth us: And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." (I John 5:14-15)
So, there you go!
We've presented our petitions. We've come before the Throne of the Universe in worship. We've presented our legal document. We've come before God, standing in the blood of Jesus, and demonstrated that we not only have the right to stand before Him with our petition, but also that our request has the merit of His own Word and the promises He has made. Lastly, we've exhibited absolute and implicit trust and faith by offering up our gratitude and gratefulness for His having ruled in our favor concerning our requests.
That, folks, is exactly what intercession is all about. We put our lives on the line. We put all that we are and all that we have on the line so that God will stay deserved judgment against those who are rightfully due that judgment.
This is the Thanksgiving season in America. If you've been presenting your requests before the Lord, you know that you have both standing, and a sound legal argument before God predicated in His Word, then spend these days in thanksgiving before Him. Worship Him! Pour out your whole being in love to the Lord, KNOWING that you are operating according to His Will and functioning in the Covenant of Blessing God originated through and with Abraham.
See you again in a few days.
The purpose of Covenant is to place God's mark in your forehead, that is, to mark your mind. That Covenant is as valid today as it was in the Garden.
The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22) Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
700 South 6th Street
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 837-4657
All Coffee Break articles are copyright by Regner A. Capener, but authorization for reprinting, reposting, copying or re-use, in whole or in part, is granted – provided proper attribution and this notice are included intact. Coffee Break archives will shortly be available at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are published weekly.
If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to Unsubscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.
CAPENER MINISTRIES is a tax-exempt church ministry. Should you desire to participate and covenant with us as partners in this ministry, please contact us at either of the above email or physical addresses, or visit http://www.CapenerMinistries.com. We earnestly desire people to stand behind us as prayer partners.
And a Gooooooodddd Morrrrrrrnnnnniiinnnnggg to you!
Yup. It is! And I'm already into my second cup of French Roasted Columbian Supremo -- made in the French Press, of course. Got yours, yet? Well whaddaya waitin' for? Christmas? (oooopppsss...that's just around the corner.) Hehehehehehe........
When I first started this discussion on intercession, I didn't expect it to stretch out like this, but because the Lord has really compelled Della and me to intercede more and more and more in the past weeks, it seems like there is a lot more understanding unfolding for both of us in this realm. That being the case, it is appropriate for me to share this continuing revelation for your growth and understanding as well.
In our last Coffee Break, I quoted from I Timothy 2:1-5: "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, 1-supplications, 2-prayers, 3-intercessions, and 4-giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time."
We talked about the four specific commands embodied in Paul's instruction: (1) Supplications, (2) Prayers, (3) Intercessions, and (4) Giving of Thanks.
For the sake of short review, supplications comes from the Greek word, de.esis; meaning petitions or requests. Prayers, in this instance, is taken from proseuchomai, a covenant term better translated: worship. The third word -- intercessions -- is a term we would better frame within the context of a courtroom; and it comes from the Greek enteuxis; and means: to present a legal argument based in Law (that is, to confer with, to mediate on behalf of, or to deal with an unresolved issue). The fourth command -- the giving of thanks -- is another covenant word in Greek eucharistia. This word defines gratefulness, gratitude towards God for His keeping covenant with His people.
Each of these words or phrases are drawn from the picture of the Covenant God made with Abraham. The event is told in Genesis 15 (you can read it for yourself) but I will simply draw the picture for you. We know from all of the references in Scripture that this is the fifth time the Lord has appeared to Abraham. But this time is different. In each previous appearance, God has spoken to him and made some very singular promises. What separates this fifth appearance of the Lord from all previous events is the fact that God now makes a promise to Abraham that -- for Abraham -- is simply impossible to enact by any means of calculating or reasoning. Sarah has been barren in all the years of their married life, and Abraham is well past the age of male fertility; and yet, God promises that Abraham's seed -- of his loins -- will be innumerable as the stars in the heavens and the sand of the seashore.
Verse 6 of this chapter tells us that in spite of the impossibility of the event, Abraham believed God. Now God is going to etch His promises to Abraham in the form of a Legal Covenant, the likes of which Abraham -- and all his generations thereafter -- will clearly understand and be able to relate to: a Covenant of Blood.
I remember during my growing-up years hearing about "the Blood, the Blood, the Blood" and singing all those songs (Oh, the Blood of Jesus; The Old Rugged Cross, Power in the Blood, Nothing But the Blood, etc., etc.), wondering why there was so much importance put on the blood of Jesus being shed. Sure, I knew all the usual things: He died to save us from sin; He paid the price for our freedom, His death and resurrection restored what was lost when Adam and Eve sinned and brought a curse to mankind; but the real significance of what took place on the Cross was not something any of us really understood at the time, and the concept of "Covenant" simply was lost on us.
It never occurred to me that blood was shed from the time Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden. Consider for a moment that when they lost their "covering" and clothing of Glory, they were naked. Yet God made a covering for them of animal skins -- a poor substitute for the Glory of God, but a covering nonetheless. In order for God to provide those animal skins, the animals had to die and their blood be shed in the process. It was to set the future pattern for "covering," protection, blessing and redemption.
Now God gives seemingly strange instruction to Abraham.
"Take me an heifer of three years old, and a she goat of three years old, and a ram of three years old, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon. And he took unto him all these, and divided them in the midst, and laid each piece one against another: but the birds divided he not."
There's a prophetic picture in the choice of these animals (and one I don't have time to delve into with all the specifics today) but God's command to Abraham in choosing these animals was very deliberate. These animals would represent every spectrum of the promises to be made, and every kind of character and personality in the generations to follow. The number (5) of animals chosen would -- again -- be prophetic. It denoted kheseed: that remarkable and astonishing grace of God which represented His Blessing, His lovingkindness and tender mercy, His favor, His total covering, protection and provision for every conceivable need or situation.
Now God puts Abraham into a vision-state. He cannot permit Abraham to actually see Him physically, so He places Abraham in a position that will allow him to see what takes place without endangering him by the Glory of His actual physical being. And God shows up in person to enact this Covenant.
What Abraham sees is what Moses and the Children of Israel will see some 400-plus years in the future as God takes them out of bondage in Egypt: a pillar of smoke and a column of fire. And God now walks up and down, back and forth in the blood that is flowing between the divided halves of the animals. As He does so, He declares and decrees His Covenant promise to Abraham.
"And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full."
"In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates: The Kenites, and the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites, And the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the Rephaims, And the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Girgashites, and the Jebusites."
God had already made this same promise to Abraham, but now He seals it in an unbreakable Covenant. This Covenant is a legal act, a decree which cannot be altered or broken.
As Paul notes in his letter to the Hebrews, "For when God made promise to Abraham, because He could sware by no greater, He sware by Himself, saying Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee." (Hebrews 6:13-14)
It is important to note that in a Covenant relationship, both parties literally give their all to the other. They become "joined at the hip" to use the old metaphor. Whatever one party to the covenant has, the other is entitled to without question. Each acts for and on behalf of the other. Each watches out for the other.
This is a covenant of blood. Since as we all know "The life of the flesh is in the blood" (Leviticus 17:11), a covenant of blood meant "life for life." If one party were to violate the covenant, his life was forfeit.
That God fulfilled His part of the Covenant -- and continues to this day to fulfill it -- is evident in all that we have and receive through Jesus Christ. Abraham, however, fulfilled his part of the covenant in a way most folks today would find impossible.
During the years, God had withheld nothing from Abraham. He was easily the Bill Gates of his day being the richest and arguably the most powerful man on the planet. It mattered not what Abraham required, God met that need. But now it is God's turn to ask something of Abraham -- and if he is going to perpetuate this extraordinary covenant blessing in the generations to come, he must -- without hesitation -- give God whatever He asks of Abraham.
And God asks him to offer up his only son -- the son in and through whom God has promised the Covenant Blessing would be implemented -- as a burnt sacrifice to Him. Sounds nuts, doesn't it? Sounds like a contradiction! Why would God ask Abraham for the very thing through which His Covenant Blessing was promised?
Easy. Isaac represented literally the whole of Abraham's life, his future, the generations to follow. God had withheld nothing from Abraham. Now Abraham must likewise withhold nothing from God. And here is the crux of the whole picture, the focal point of the Blessing of Abraham, the essence of Covenant with God.
Watch.
"By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called: Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure." (Hebrews 11:17-19)
See it? Abraham's absolute and resolute trust and faith in God and in His Word was so great that even if Isaac died on an altar of sacrifice to the Lord, he knew without question that God would raise Isaac from the dead in order to keep His Covenant Word.
But here's the best part!
Jesus came as the "Seed of Abraham" AND as the Son of God so that both ends of the Covenant were met at once in a single moment and in a single person. God did not require the sacrifice of Isaac from Abraham in order for Abraham to keep his part of the Covenant, but provided him a ram instead at the last second to offer in Isaac's place.
Some seventeen- or eighteen hundred years later, Jesus came along. By reason of his being brought into the earth through Mary, he qualified legitimately as the Seed of Abraham. By virtue of His having been conceived through the Holy Spirit, Jesus was the Son of God. In Him, God offered up His ultimate sacrifice -- the sacrifice of His Only Son. At the same time, as the Seed of Abraham, he was able to legally fulfill the price of Abraham's part in the Covenant of Blessing -- the offering up of his seed to the Lord.
Jesus' willingness to become the fulfillment of the Law of the Covenant on both sides meant that all who come to God through Him have complete and total access to every part of the Blessing, by the Law of God!
OK. Now that we've drawn this picture of the Abrahamic Covenant, let's take it forward in time so that we understand the covenant nature of Paul's command in his letter to Timothy, and how intercession is so intricately woven into covenant.
In the apostle Paul's letter to the Galatians, he writes, "Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham." (Galatians 3:6-9)
Paul continues, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith." (Galatians 3:13-14)
Have we gotten there, yet? Are you seeing the progression from Abraham to us? We are recipients of the Blessing of Abraham (1) by and through the blood that Jesus shed, (2) our acceptance and acknowledgement of Him as the redeemer and mediator of the Covenant, and (3) our participation in that Covenant by faith.
That being the case, let's return to the four commands Paul gives in I Timothy 2:1-5. The first, of course, is the presentation of the petition. The petition, however, is presented because of the Covenant we have with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. Our request is presented with the full faith and trust of God's Word backing our petition.
What is the nature of our petition? We are coming before God as intercessors, as People of the Covenant, on behalf of God's Word. We are bringing Kingdom Authority into this natural world, overruling the works of the flesh, defeating Satan and his army of demons and demonic princes, and implementing the Kingdom of God on His behalf "for all men, for kings and all that are in authority" so that "all men" will have the opportunity to respond to the redemptive plan Jesus made available.
We are "standing in the gap" putting our lives, all that we have, and all that we are on the line so that Jesus receives His inheritance in us. If we do not stand in the gap, God must (because He is righteous and just) execute His wrath upon "the children of disobedience."
To stand in the gap means that we present ourselves before the Lord in and on His behalf. We do so, both presenting ourselves as an act of worship, and also actually worshiping Him -- "in Spirit and in Truth." Thus the second part of Paul's instruction -- translated "prayers" in the KJV -- is actually "worship." But this isn't simply worshiping the Lord because we want to spend time with Him. This is worship in the context of our Covenant with Him. As the Author, Implementer and Finisher of the Covenant, He is worthy of our worship. He is due that worship.
Our worship recognizes and acknowledges Him and the fact that without the redemptive work that Jesus Christ did on our behalf, we could not come before Him at all!
It may seem a bit incongruous that we now intercede in the midst of the worship, but let's put this all in its proper context. We are in the Courtroom of the Universe. This is a legal situation, and we are here for the purpose of implementing God's Word in an environment that is hostile to Him and resists submitting to His Word at every possible instance. We are here to enforce the Word.
Intercession is nothing more and nothing less than presenting our legal arguments before God. What makes those arguments lawful and enforceable is the very Word God has Himself spoken. We come, therefore, into this August Presence armed with the Word, reminding God of precisely what He has decreed and spoken. His Word is the Final Authority. Everything that happens is based on what He has already spoken.
It is important to note that we waste our time and God's time if we attempt to come before Him with requests and petitions NOT based in His Word. That means we'd best KNOW what He has said and be able to declare that Word before Him. As God spoke through the prophet Isaiah, "Put me in remembrance; let us plead together; declare thou, that thou mayest be justified." (Isaiah 43:26)
He, therefore, makes it clear that He wants us to remind Him of what He has already spoken. Our ability to do that means that we are not coming before Him frivolously, that we KNOW His Will, and that we are desirous of implementing it. It isn't that God has forgotten what He said. Far from it! He simply wants us to know and understand just exactly what we actually can do!
And what we can actually do is to stand in the blood of Jesus! Doing so reminds both us -- and the Father -- that we have legal standing in this Court.
Finally, having presented His Word to Him as the legal basis for our petition, faith in Him and faith in that Word we have presented now demands that we offer thanks -- even before we've seen the manifestation of that for which we asked. Thanksgiving -- at this stage -- is again a Covenant act. It is a statement of faith. It is a declaration that we know with absolute assurance He has heard us, we've come before Him with His Word, and He has responded accordingly.
Thanksgiving -- in the Courtroom of the Universe -- acknowledges that our petitions have been heard and that God has ruled in our (and not coincidentally, in His) favor! John put it like this in his first general letter to the body of Christ.
"And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His Will, he heareth us: And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." (I John 5:14-15)
So, there you go!
We've presented our petitions. We've come before the Throne of the Universe in worship. We've presented our legal document. We've come before God, standing in the blood of Jesus, and demonstrated that we not only have the right to stand before Him with our petition, but also that our request has the merit of His own Word and the promises He has made. Lastly, we've exhibited absolute and implicit trust and faith by offering up our gratitude and gratefulness for His having ruled in our favor concerning our requests.
That, folks, is exactly what intercession is all about. We put our lives on the line. We put all that we are and all that we have on the line so that God will stay deserved judgment against those who are rightfully due that judgment.
This is the Thanksgiving season in America. If you've been presenting your requests before the Lord, you know that you have both standing, and a sound legal argument before God predicated in His Word, then spend these days in thanksgiving before Him. Worship Him! Pour out your whole being in love to the Lord, KNOWING that you are operating according to His Will and functioning in the Covenant of Blessing God originated through and with Abraham.
See you again in a few days.
The purpose of Covenant is to place God's mark in your forehead, that is, to mark your mind. That Covenant is as valid today as it was in the Garden.
The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22) Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
700 South 6th Street
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 837-4657
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