KINGDOM ECONOMICS XXXV
And a good, good morning to you! This is the best day of your life! Yessirree! It is! And it's only going to get better.
I'm still not quite back on track for my regular schedule of Coffee Breaks, but things are improving.
My thanks to all those of you who have written and expressed congratulations to us over our move to Prosser; and to those of you in Prosser who have welcomed us, Thank You! I apologize for not having had the time to respond to each of you individually, but I will catch up on my correspondence in the coming days and weeks.
We've been away from the topic of Kingdom Economics for several months. There's much yet to share, and I'd like to share with you today a unique revelation of tithing and God's Holy Portion.
In previous discussions on the subject of Kingdom Economics, I've shared the picture of tithing and the importance it plays in our finances, and the critical necessity of not touching the Holy Portion for any personal or individual purpose.
Just to recap past discussions, there is a priority in our financial picture, and this priority overrides every other priority in our giving. The first tenth of our income or increase in any area belongs to God, and there is a self-induced penalty that comes with not giving God His portion and using it to pay bills, buy food for our families, or use it in some other way to benefit us personally or members of our family. I refer to it as "self-induced" because we bring a curse upon ourselves by our choice to use that tenth portion of our increase. We open the door for "the devourer" (Malachi 3:11) when we withhold God's portion by our own choices and actions.
Deuteronomy 26 identifies the priorities. In this instance, the Lord is speaking of "the year of tithing" in which there was a triple tithe, and we see the order of giving laid out like this:
"When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto (1st tenth) the Levite, (second tenth) the stranger, (third tenth) the fatherless and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled....."
"The Levite" was the priest -- the keeper of the storehouses, and the administrator of God's Word (and His commandments) to the people. "The Levite" was the representative of God who offered up the sacrifices and offerings for the people.
God's people were obligated, as well, to give to the "stranger(s)" in their midst. In so doing, they demonstrated the principle of God's love and caused the "stranger" to desire the same relationship with God.
The third tithe took care of the widows and fatherless children, and there was a spiritual mandate in their midst to take care of them. Understand that while the priests and the Levites certainly distributed from their storehouses to make up any shortfalls, the responsibility for the care of the widow who was not of remarriageable age and any fatherless children fell on their remaining family members -- not on the priestly leaders and elders.
Nevertheless, by commandment of the Lord, every third year of a seven-year cycle, a third tithe was set aside to care for and supplement the unmet needs of the widows and fatherless. During that same third year, a tithe was also set aside in order to have the wherewithal to provide for any unmet needs of those strangers who became a part of Israel.
All that is an aside to where I want to take this discussion. We're talking about the economy of the Kingdom of God. This is an economy that functions completely opposite to the economies of this world. Its very premise is foreign to the financial thinkers of this world who operate on debt and credit. What I'm about to share with you is about as clear a picture from the Word as you'll ever see when it comes to the extreme differences between the way this world thinks and the way God wants us to think.
Probably some sixteen or seventeen years ago, Rick Joyner (MorningStar Ministries) published a book titled, THERE WERE TWO TREES IN THE GARDEN. Australian Pastor, Evangelist and Prophet, Neville Johnson, has likewise taught (and has available from his Living Word Foundation) a series on Two Trees in the Garden. It's a concept just about all Christians are aware of: (1) The Tree of Life, and (2) The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
However, we know from Scripture that there were many trees in the Garden of Eden.
"And God said, 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." (Genesis 1:29)
"And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." (Genesis 2:9)
Entomologists today tell us that there are some 50,000-plus species of trees in the earth. In a discussion a week ago or so with Bob Widmann (Pastor of Cornerstone Assembly in Sunnyside) he mentioned he had learned that all of the species of trees on the earth derive from nine basic genus of trees. That really piqued my interest and I decided to do some research.
Bob was correct in his statement. I stumbled onto a couple of books by Terry L. Erwin in his series on Biodiversity. Dr. Erwin is apparently a well-known entomologist. (I say "apparently" because this is not a field in which I am very conversant, and I know few, if any, of the people who specialize in this field of science.) In his research, Dr. Erwin reports that on the basis of his findings there are at least -- if not more -- 50,000 species of trees on this planet.
What also comes out in his writings is the fact that all of these species have common genetic origins -- nine, to be exact. Though Dr. Erwin does not get into this topic, it is possible to infer a common origin of those nine: one tree: The Tree of Life.
When I saw that, God's command to Adam and Eve , "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" suddenly took on a whole new dimension. You are likely seeing the picture already, but let me continue.
There were, of course, more than just two trees in the Garden; there were many. But here's the kicker. There were a total of ten genus of trees in the Garden. One of those genus of trees was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
God had said to Adam and Eve, "Don't touch that tree! That one's mine. I have reserved that one for myself. I will impart to you revelation knowledge as you have need of it. If you try to ingest the fruit of all the knowledge of good and evil at one time, it'll kill you. In the day you eat thereof you shall surely die. That tree is my portion in the Garden. You can eat anything and everything else, but don't touch this one. The tithe of the Garden is mine!"
OK, I've paraphrased things, but this really is the essence of what the Lord spoke to Adam. God wasn't being mean to Adam in telling him not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He was simply making it clear that human flesh was not designed to take in ALL the knowledge -- whether of good or evil -- at one time.
When knowledge is learned by man's efforts and academic pursuit, certain things are learned! But when man gains his knowledge and understanding through revelation of the Spirit of God, there is an entirely different dimension of understanding that comes with it.
Knowledge that comes through revelation from the Spirit of God comes in the midst of love, in the midst of grace, in the midst of peace. And it generates faith within the recipient.
Knowledge gained through man's efforts has an end in itself: death. The apostle Paul, in his second letter to Timothy, notes that "in the last days perilous times shall come," and that men would be "ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (II Timothy 3:1-7)
Because all the knowledge gained through human effort, striving and academic pursuit -- no matter how many years one spends at it -- never can lead to the truth, God purposely withheld the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil from man. Knowledge separated from revelation and truth becomes facts. And facts are not necessarily truth, nor is any life inherent in them.
And just what was "the knowledge of the Truth"?
The truth was that all knowledge and wisdom is inherent in God Himself. It is inherent in His Son, Jesus Christ. In fact Jesus put it like this, "I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." (John 14:6) Notice that He began the statement with "I AM." The "I AM" was the very same name He used with Moses. It was the very same name He used with Abraham. It was the same at Creation. The "I AM" spoke the world into existence. The "I AM" said, "Let there be light."
As long as the knowledge was dispensed through revelation from the " I AM" it produced life. And Adam and Eve were able, so long as they lived in the Garden, to eat of the Tree of Life -- and all the trees which sprang from it.
Once they chose to disobey and eat of God's portion, they ate death to themselves. Are you seeing the picture? The Tithe is a whole lot more than just money! Sure, money is a part of the picture, but it is only a small piece of it. The tithe is something God reserves for Himself. It encompasses His life, His authority, His power, His divinity, His very makeup and nature!
When folks eat of the tithe, they are eating death to themselves because they are touching that which is Holy. There's a picture of this -- although not necessarily within the framework or reference of tithing in Acts 5. Ananias and Sapphira were land owners. During a time of great hardship and persecution of the Christians, many well-to-do Christians were giving of their substance and possessions to the apostles as gifts -- as seed, if you will -- to the Lord in order that those families who had been robbed or deprived of their holdings by the Romans and the Jewish leaders who opposed the Gospel would have their losses made up.
If someone sold a piece of land or property, they brought the entire proceeds of the sale to the apostles in a public demonstration that "This belongs to the Lord." Ananias and Sapphira sold one of their estates (the Greek word here is ktema: which means: estate) publicly declaring that the proceeds of this sale belonged to the Lord. Once they did so, the entire sum of money they received belonged to the Lord, and it was His portion.
Unfortunately they only brought a portion of the sale to the apostles and held back part of the sale money for themselves. They touched the Holy Portion. When Peter challenged Ananias (because the Holy Spirit had shown him Ananias' deception) Ananias dropped dead at his feet. Sapphira showed up later looking for her husband and Peter asked her if indeed the property had been sold for the sum that Ananias brought. She agreed with Ananias' lie and in so doing placed herself under the same death sentence. Upon her confession of a lie (and complicity in her husband's embezzlement of God's money) she likewise dropped dead.
Ananias and Sapphira suffered the same fate as Adam and Eve: in the same day that they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they died. You may look cockeyed at me for putting it like that, so let me explain.
After the sale of the property, human reasoning and thinking set in. The times were perilous to say the least. Christians everywhere were suffering persecution, and life had taken a very uncertain turn under Roman rule. The "knowledge of good" said, it would be a good thing to withhold a part of this money in order to take care of any unforeseen circumstances or events. Who knows what might happen. A little money for the rainy day would be a good thing.
The "knowledge of evil" invariably brings the fear of evil and that fear was saying, what happens if you need money in order to run or hide in case your community is exposed to the persecutors?
So Ananias and Sapphira bought it and ate it -- hook, line and sinker! And eating of the knowledge of good and evil cost them their lives.
Whenever people revert to using human reasoning and begin to depend on their knowledge of good or evil, they immediately transfer their citizenship from the Kingdom of God to the kingdoms of this world and Satan's dominion.
The Kingdom of God works on the principle of God's multiplication. There's just one thing, however. In order to take advantage of God's multiplication, one must honor Him, trust Him implicitly, and not lean on their own understanding -- no matter how rational or sensible that thinking may appear to be.
Far too many believers in Christ withhold God's portion because of knowledge of their own circumstances, situations or needs. They see that after taxes and insurance taken out of their paychecks they have $2,200 in bills, monthly payments and food costs, but they only have $2,300. If they take the tithe ($220) out and give it to the Lord, they won't have enough to even meet the bare necessities.
So they either don't pay tithes at all, or they write out a check for $100 and give it to their local church, and satisfy their consciences by saying to themselves, "I'll make up the rest later." Later never comes, and this becomes a repeated scenario. They go farther and farther into debt, they're unable to keep up with the needs that just increase, they get sick and wind up with doctor and hospital bills they can't even see the top of. And they wonder what went wrong.
What went wrong is they embezzled from God. The devourer has access to them because they are eating of the Holy Portion. The windows of Heaven are not open to them to take care of their financial needs because they are trusting in their own reasoning instead of God's promises.
One of the reasons that so many folks withhold their tithe from the Lord is that they just don't trust in the Lord. They don't trust His love for them. They don't trust His Word. They continue to profess their faith in the Lord but they live a lie when it comes to their finances.
I talked to a man once who said to me, "I tried that tithing stuff once and went deep in debt. It didn't work like you said." The real truth was that the Word of the Lord tried him and he failed.
Tithing isn't some routine commandment to keep: it is a lifestyle -- a Kingdom lifestyle. It isn't some commandment out of the Mosaic Law that went away with Jesus' death on the Cross and subsequent resurrection. It is a holy act of worship of the Lord. For those people who implicitly trust the Lord and worship Him with their tithe -- as Abraham did -- they will NEVER suffer need!
It is a law of the Kingdom. It is a fundamental of Kingdom Economics. It is an act of worship and honor of the Lord. It is agreement with the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in His promise that when we seek first His Kingdom and the needs of His Kingdom here on earth, then "all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)
Tithing is a deliberate decision to trust and believe the Word when the apostle Paul declares, "My God shall supply all your need, according to, out of, and in proportion to His riches in Glory by Christ Jesus": (Philippians 4:19) -- not because and through and because of your endeavors as a common laborer, a office manager or bookkeeper, a doctor, or lawyer, a banker, an engineer, scientist or technician -- or whatever the daily occupation may be.
It matters not whether you earn $10 an hour or $1,000 an hour. Your needs are met by God. You don't work for a living -- not, at least, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ! You work for the Kingdom of God -- and God isn't a cheapskate when it comes to providing for His people -- so long as they first honor Him.
There's more of this revelation to share, and this is where we will pick up our discussion in the next Coffee Break.
Babylon is falling. It is coming down around us. Those who live their lives in the Kingdom of God, and according to God's economic principles will never suffer need!
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
455 North River Road
Prosser, Washington 99350-6554
(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 are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being added 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.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: THE SOUND OF THE LORD, Part 6
THE SOUND OF THE LORD
Part 6:
PROOFS OF SPIRITUAL FORCE IN SOUND
Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning!
Brother! I sure didn't expect to be offline for such a long period, but our move from Sunnyside to Prosser turned into a much larger undertaking than we'd thought.
It has proven to be a fabulous blessing, however! It is an entirely new atmosphere, and it has proven to be a real strengthening of River Worship Center's fellowship. We actually began our first services in Prosser on February 15 even though the physical plant move was far from completed.. March 1 was our official beginning at the new location.
One other change I need to note before we get started today is that our CapenerMinistries@embarqmail.com email address is no longer valid. Embarq ran into an engineering boondoggle here in Prosser in routing their cabling along the Yakima River such that they are unable to provide high-speed service. Their "broadband" on the north side of the river isn't a whole lot better than dialup, so we approached Charter Cable about getting 10 Mbit service here.
It's something they advertise, but weren't currently providing to this area due to some equipment problems. I'm happy to say that their engineering department went to work on the issue and resolved all the issues. We were offline for a couple of weeks during the interim, but our last test showed download speeds in excess of 10 Mbit and upload speeds in the range of 1 - 2 Mbits. Good stuff!
We're back to what we consider our default coffee (or coffee of choice). It's a blend of Double-Roasted French (from Cascade Coffees), Dark Roasted Columbian and San Francisco Bay French Roast. It seems to provide the best overall taste and aroma for our tastebuds.
It has been a month since our last Coffee Break went out so a little review is in order.
In Part 1, we talked about the fact that God holds all things together and energizes all creation by the Word of His Power. Since He is the Source of all life and creation, the power to create (or destroy) is inherent in His very being. He created us in His very image and likeness and thus imparted into us the same ability of creative (or destructive) speech and sound.
In Part 2 we talked about the power and authority released in sound, and illustrated it with examples from David's ministry to the Lord in praise and worship. We also discussed the significance of spiritual warfare that takes place in and through sound, along with Paul's illustration from Ephesians 6 where he uses the musical term esti-pale (<pallo), meaning: to vibrate; to create a sound in opposition to describe "wrestling."
In Part 3 we noted that this spiritual "wrestling" in sound began with Lucifer's rebellion in Heaven, and how he began to pervert the whole purpose of music.
Part 4 centered around the discussion of the onoma or character, personality and essence of one's being behind every sound -- and particularly the onoma of the Lord Jesus Christ vs. the onoma of Satan.
Part 5 began the discussion of articulated sounds through words, and the fact that all words are nothing but "spirit containers" conveying the objective of the motivating spirit which drives those words.
Let's see if we can wrap up this discussion today with some examples of the spiritual force contained in spoken or sung words, and just how much impact the resulting sound generates.
We've already noted that words come from spirit. Words are spirit containers. They carry spirit with them. As spirit containers, words have power. They bring with them the authority to energize life or initiate a sentence of death.
Today's airwaves are the classic illustration. Consider the sounds you hear on radio, television, CD's, iPods and all the various forms of entertainment. You walk into a shopping center, or perhaps a grocery store like Safeway, Kroger's or the like. What do you hear? Do you pay attention to the music in the background?
Ever notice how in some stores (Wal-Mart or K-Mart, for example) you will hear certain "specials" that lure you to purchase something "on sale"? Unless we are exceptionally cognizant of what we hear and careful how we react, we can easily be sucked into spending money we can't afford to spend? Without taking the time to elaborate on this statement, we are being deliberately programmed by a thought process and agenda derived from Babylon.
I don't want to sound conspiratorial, and I'm not much for conspiracy theories, but this is a case where our thoughts are deliberately manipulated so as to get us to spend money, buy things we really don't need, or adopt ideas and agendas not of our own thinking or reasoning. The motivator behind the agenda is Satan, the king of Babylon. Let me give you a couple of quick illustrations out of some personal experience.
My apologies, first of all, if you've heard this story before. A number of years ago while living in Alaska, one of my business ventures was to provide background music for different business applications. I provided music for an airport, restaurants, stores, and a shopping center.
One day while engaged in a social conversation with the general manager of a shopping center, he bemoaned the fact that the stores in this particular mall were suffering inordinate rates of theft -- in a couple of cases approaching 15% or more. We took a walk through the mall, and I pointed out to him the character and nature of the background music that was playing.
"Jim," I said, "What do you expect when what you're programming people with is heavy rock and acid rock -- music which carries a sound and a message that incites anger, lust, greed, and a whole lot of other things?" If you want to have change in your environment, you're going to have to change the sounds that people hear.
He responded that he had a contract with a background music provider, and that he was simply taking what they were providing. I offered to provide him with some tapes that were pre-programmed (I didn't tell him that I had programmed these tapes with subliminal messages containing phrases like "The Lord is my source; I do not need to steal; I am an honest person; I will pay for the things I take," and so forth) to change his business environment.
Because he had already paid for his existing service and really didn't like the idea of making a double payment, I offered to demonstrate what I was saying by providing the service for 30 days at no cost obligation. We agreed that if he saw a significant improvement in the 30-day period, he would pay my fees and change his music service.
The change was noticeable and demonstrable before the 30-day trial period was up. Toward the end of that test period, we sat down together again and he was almost jumping up and down with excitement. "Our worst-case is down to 6%," he said, "and that's not something we've seen in many months." Some stores were reporting a loss rate of between 1.5 and 3 percent.
The next thirty days brought the stores' loss-rate down to a maximum of 1.5 percent, and a few of them reported less than a half of one percent. It was a remarkable demonstration -- not only for the mall manager and the store owners, but for me as well. I knew the principle but this was the first time I had ever seen such dramatic results.
It was proof positive that people react (or respond) to the sounds they hear, even when they don't know they are reacting or responding.
During my years in broadcasting and in recording, I've acquired a slew of original recordings, and a fair number of music archives of various musicians and musical groups. While teaching a college course on subliminal programming I invited one of my classes to take from my archives a 10 1/2-inch reel of tape containing early recordings of the Beetles and test the music for subliminal messages.
Let me preface my discussion by saying that I'd never been a Beetles fan, and never could understand how folks could stand to listen to them despite the obvious musical creativity of some of their pieces. The spirit of their music had always bothered me, and listening to it jarred me.
Different class members dissected different pieces of the Beetles' music, and all of them reported finding various subliminal messages. The most telling of those messages was contained in one of their first releases, and it demonstrated to me a very clear reason why their music had suddenly become so popular, and why folks were flocking to music stores to buy their albums.
The message wasn't demonic. It wasn't sexually suggestive. It wasn't politically subversive. It was simply commercial. The message, recorded approximately 30 db below the average level of the music simply said, "Buy me." It was not backward-masked as we found in the recordings of AC-DC or Black Sabbath, and other like acid-groups. It wasn't even speeded up to repeat at 4x or 8x. Recorded at normal speed, the message simply repeated, over and over and over and over again throughout the song, "Buy me."
The message did its job. It got folks to run out and buy the music -- in record numbers (pun intended). Similar messages were found in subsequent Beetles recordings, all leading to a "popularity" of their music that was deliberate and planned by the studios.
The "Buy me" message may not in and of itself been demonic but it drove a demonic agenda. The music of the Beetles arguably changed forever the attitudes, the tastes, the spiritual desires and mores of a music-buying public and pushed the music business in a direction which has since spiraled downward into "music forms" which are blatantly demonic at their core. The words of some of the Beetles' music, and music which has subsequently followed are indeed containers of spirit -- and that spirit is NOT the Holy Spirit!
Let's take a look for a minute at the use of music the way God intended.
When we go back to the origins of all music in Heaven, it becomes clear that praise and worship of the Lord has always been its principal purpose. Music was created for the sole purpose of generating an environment in which the power and authority, the love, the grace, the faith of the Lord God was manifested, demonstrated and exercised.
In that realm there is love and the faith which works by love, healing, deliverance, redemption, wholeness, prosperity, blessing without measure, and unlimited power and authority. It stands therefore, that when men and women yield to the Spirit of the Lord and begin to play and sing the music of Heaven, all those benefits are on display.
Throughout much of the 1990's, Della and I lived and functioned in ministry from a ranch in Post Falls, Idaho known as "Trails' End." It was here that we began to experience a much fuller measure of the presence of the Lord with His accompanying grace and gifts on constant display.
We gathered together with other musicians, singers and intercessors not less than three or four times a week, sometimes nightly, and sometimes three or four times a day (if we were having a major gathering with folks from around the country). Although we generally had from six-to-twelve people who gathered on a regular basis, there were times when we had more than forty people packed into that tiny ranch house for praise and worship.
One night as we were gathered together (and this was a larger than normal group) the phone rang. The daughter of one of the couples worshiping with us had just received a terrible report from her doctor. She was pregnant (she and her husband were expecting their first daughter). A sonogram, followed by a series of other tests, showed that the unborn child -- just over a month away from birth -- was showing all of its internal organs on the outside of the body. Barring some kind of miracle from God or unique surgery, this child would not survive childbirth.
We told her to relax and be at peace. The Lord was going to intervene for her and the baby. Immediately, the Holy Spirit began to pour through all of us some rather extraordinary music of healing. It was not music we'd ever heard before, much less played or sang. We knew immediately that a supernatural healing was being ministered. It didn't matter that the mother and as-yet unborn child were hundreds of miles away and couldn't hear the sound coming forth. Healing power and authority were being released through that sound, and because the sound was being driven of the Holy Spirit, distance was irrelevant.
Five or six weeks later when the baby girl was born, she was whole, complete and beautiful. It was a pleasure for Della and me to hold that baby girl in our arms a year later and see for ourselves the miracle the Lord had done. There was not so much as a trace of the condition.
This is something we have seen repeated over and over again throughout the past twenty or so years. It reminds me of one of the remarkable healings that took place during the early years of our daily worship gatherings.
We had received a phone call from a lady who had been given a death sentence with perhaps three-to-six months to live because of cancer. Her husband and three sons were pretty distraught over the prospect of her death. We introduced her to the realm of praise and worship as a part of daily living. For me personally, this case was unique because this lady had been one of the teenagers I'd shared the Lord Jesus Christ with when I was Minister of Youth at Bethel Union Church in Duarte, California back in the mid-1960's.
The Lord had reconnected us after many years at a critical time in her life. We had just begun recording our worship gatherings and releasing them on cassette tape and CD's. When this lady could not be with us, we showed her how to "plug in" to nonstop praise and worship listening on her stereo or Walkman. She soon realized what a difference it was making in her physical well-being and began to live a lifestyle of praise and worship. Dwelling in the midst of the presence of the Lord has a powerful effect.
You can't be in the presence of the Lord for long and continue to hang onto disease, infirmity or affliction. You can't be in the presence of the Lord for long and continue to be tormented by evil spirits. The Enemy simply cannot survive for any prolonged period when the sound of the Lord is constantly going forth. That sound generates faith. It generates love. It generates power and authority over Satan and his army of demonic powers that knows no limitation.
Cancer is one of those lies of Satan he tries to foist off on folks; and if they are willing to spend the necessary time with the Lord, faith rises up in such a dimension that cancer has to leave. Three years after this lady was supposed to have been dead, she was more alive and healthier than she'd been in many years.
Not long after River Worship Center opened its doors at our original location in Sunnyside, a gentleman came who had been suffering from a near-lifetime of drug and alcohol addiction. He'd been in and out of treatment programs spanning a 25-year period, all with the same end-result.
Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon, and the fistful of treatment programs available mostly deal with symptoms and not the underlying cause. They mostly teach folks how to "live with" the problem instead of overcoming and receiving permanent healing. This particular gentleman had been programmed to tell folks that "I am an alcoholic," and he would receive his coin for being alcohol-free for so many months, and then a year, and then so many years.
The problem was that every time he confessed "I am an alcoholic," or perhaps, "I am a recovering alcoholic," he was setting in motion -- by his very words -- the spiritual forces necessary to drive him back to the bottle under the right conditions.
Other pastors and ministers of the Gospel had prayed with him for deliverance, but the confession never changed. We did minister deliverance to him but counseled him to join us in our nightly worship gatherings and just "soak" in the presence of the Lord, and receive from the Holy Spirit through the Words containing His power and force.
Night after night, week after week, month after month, he came and simply enveloped himself in presence of the Lord. Before too long, his hands were up in the air, and he was joining in the praise and worship. A day came when he realized that he was permanently free. The cravings for drugs or alcohol were completely gone. He'd been transformed in the midst of the sound of the Lord. The power and authority of the Holy Spirit had been released into his being, and that power and authority brought real, genuine change.
We continue to rejoice with him today over his freedom and deliverance.
There's much more I could share, and perhaps in the weeks or months to come, I may add another Coffee Break on this topic, but in our next Coffee Break, I will return to (and attempt to conclude in the next few discussions) the topic of Kingdom Economics.
What I hear I think about. What I think about is generated in my heart. What is generated in my heart I speak. What I speak comes to pass. Out of the abundance of my heart, my mouth speaks. Death and life are in the power of my tongue.
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
455 North River Road
Prosser, Washington 99350-6554
(509) 781-6099
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 6:
PROOFS OF SPIRITUAL FORCE IN SOUND
Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning!
Brother! I sure didn't expect to be offline for such a long period, but our move from Sunnyside to Prosser turned into a much larger undertaking than we'd thought.
It has proven to be a fabulous blessing, however! It is an entirely new atmosphere, and it has proven to be a real strengthening of River Worship Center's fellowship. We actually began our first services in Prosser on February 15 even though the physical plant move was far from completed.. March 1 was our official beginning at the new location.
One other change I need to note before we get started today is that our CapenerMinistries@embarqmail.com email address is no longer valid. Embarq ran into an engineering boondoggle here in Prosser in routing their cabling along the Yakima River such that they are unable to provide high-speed service. Their "broadband" on the north side of the river isn't a whole lot better than dialup, so we approached Charter Cable about getting 10 Mbit service here.
It's something they advertise, but weren't currently providing to this area due to some equipment problems. I'm happy to say that their engineering department went to work on the issue and resolved all the issues. We were offline for a couple of weeks during the interim, but our last test showed download speeds in excess of 10 Mbit and upload speeds in the range of 1 - 2 Mbits. Good stuff!
We're back to what we consider our default coffee (or coffee of choice). It's a blend of Double-Roasted French (from Cascade Coffees), Dark Roasted Columbian and San Francisco Bay French Roast. It seems to provide the best overall taste and aroma for our tastebuds.
It has been a month since our last Coffee Break went out so a little review is in order.
In Part 1, we talked about the fact that God holds all things together and energizes all creation by the Word of His Power. Since He is the Source of all life and creation, the power to create (or destroy) is inherent in His very being. He created us in His very image and likeness and thus imparted into us the same ability of creative (or destructive) speech and sound.
In Part 2 we talked about the power and authority released in sound, and illustrated it with examples from David's ministry to the Lord in praise and worship. We also discussed the significance of spiritual warfare that takes place in and through sound, along with Paul's illustration from Ephesians 6 where he uses the musical term esti-pale (<pallo), meaning: to vibrate; to create a sound in opposition to describe "wrestling."
In Part 3 we noted that this spiritual "wrestling" in sound began with Lucifer's rebellion in Heaven, and how he began to pervert the whole purpose of music.
Part 4 centered around the discussion of the onoma or character, personality and essence of one's being behind every sound -- and particularly the onoma of the Lord Jesus Christ vs. the onoma of Satan.
Part 5 began the discussion of articulated sounds through words, and the fact that all words are nothing but "spirit containers" conveying the objective of the motivating spirit which drives those words.
Let's see if we can wrap up this discussion today with some examples of the spiritual force contained in spoken or sung words, and just how much impact the resulting sound generates.
We've already noted that words come from spirit. Words are spirit containers. They carry spirit with them. As spirit containers, words have power. They bring with them the authority to energize life or initiate a sentence of death.
Today's airwaves are the classic illustration. Consider the sounds you hear on radio, television, CD's, iPods and all the various forms of entertainment. You walk into a shopping center, or perhaps a grocery store like Safeway, Kroger's or the like. What do you hear? Do you pay attention to the music in the background?
Ever notice how in some stores (Wal-Mart or K-Mart, for example) you will hear certain "specials" that lure you to purchase something "on sale"? Unless we are exceptionally cognizant of what we hear and careful how we react, we can easily be sucked into spending money we can't afford to spend? Without taking the time to elaborate on this statement, we are being deliberately programmed by a thought process and agenda derived from Babylon.
I don't want to sound conspiratorial, and I'm not much for conspiracy theories, but this is a case where our thoughts are deliberately manipulated so as to get us to spend money, buy things we really don't need, or adopt ideas and agendas not of our own thinking or reasoning. The motivator behind the agenda is Satan, the king of Babylon. Let me give you a couple of quick illustrations out of some personal experience.
My apologies, first of all, if you've heard this story before. A number of years ago while living in Alaska, one of my business ventures was to provide background music for different business applications. I provided music for an airport, restaurants, stores, and a shopping center.
One day while engaged in a social conversation with the general manager of a shopping center, he bemoaned the fact that the stores in this particular mall were suffering inordinate rates of theft -- in a couple of cases approaching 15% or more. We took a walk through the mall, and I pointed out to him the character and nature of the background music that was playing.
"Jim," I said, "What do you expect when what you're programming people with is heavy rock and acid rock -- music which carries a sound and a message that incites anger, lust, greed, and a whole lot of other things?" If you want to have change in your environment, you're going to have to change the sounds that people hear.
He responded that he had a contract with a background music provider, and that he was simply taking what they were providing. I offered to provide him with some tapes that were pre-programmed (I didn't tell him that I had programmed these tapes with subliminal messages containing phrases like "The Lord is my source; I do not need to steal; I am an honest person; I will pay for the things I take," and so forth) to change his business environment.
Because he had already paid for his existing service and really didn't like the idea of making a double payment, I offered to demonstrate what I was saying by providing the service for 30 days at no cost obligation. We agreed that if he saw a significant improvement in the 30-day period, he would pay my fees and change his music service.
The change was noticeable and demonstrable before the 30-day trial period was up. Toward the end of that test period, we sat down together again and he was almost jumping up and down with excitement. "Our worst-case is down to 6%," he said, "and that's not something we've seen in many months." Some stores were reporting a loss rate of between 1.5 and 3 percent.
The next thirty days brought the stores' loss-rate down to a maximum of 1.5 percent, and a few of them reported less than a half of one percent. It was a remarkable demonstration -- not only for the mall manager and the store owners, but for me as well. I knew the principle but this was the first time I had ever seen such dramatic results.
It was proof positive that people react (or respond) to the sounds they hear, even when they don't know they are reacting or responding.
During my years in broadcasting and in recording, I've acquired a slew of original recordings, and a fair number of music archives of various musicians and musical groups. While teaching a college course on subliminal programming I invited one of my classes to take from my archives a 10 1/2-inch reel of tape containing early recordings of the Beetles and test the music for subliminal messages.
Let me preface my discussion by saying that I'd never been a Beetles fan, and never could understand how folks could stand to listen to them despite the obvious musical creativity of some of their pieces. The spirit of their music had always bothered me, and listening to it jarred me.
Different class members dissected different pieces of the Beetles' music, and all of them reported finding various subliminal messages. The most telling of those messages was contained in one of their first releases, and it demonstrated to me a very clear reason why their music had suddenly become so popular, and why folks were flocking to music stores to buy their albums.
The message wasn't demonic. It wasn't sexually suggestive. It wasn't politically subversive. It was simply commercial. The message, recorded approximately 30 db below the average level of the music simply said, "Buy me." It was not backward-masked as we found in the recordings of AC-DC or Black Sabbath, and other like acid-groups. It wasn't even speeded up to repeat at 4x or 8x. Recorded at normal speed, the message simply repeated, over and over and over and over again throughout the song, "Buy me."
The message did its job. It got folks to run out and buy the music -- in record numbers (pun intended). Similar messages were found in subsequent Beetles recordings, all leading to a "popularity" of their music that was deliberate and planned by the studios.
The "Buy me" message may not in and of itself been demonic but it drove a demonic agenda. The music of the Beetles arguably changed forever the attitudes, the tastes, the spiritual desires and mores of a music-buying public and pushed the music business in a direction which has since spiraled downward into "music forms" which are blatantly demonic at their core. The words of some of the Beetles' music, and music which has subsequently followed are indeed containers of spirit -- and that spirit is NOT the Holy Spirit!
Let's take a look for a minute at the use of music the way God intended.
When we go back to the origins of all music in Heaven, it becomes clear that praise and worship of the Lord has always been its principal purpose. Music was created for the sole purpose of generating an environment in which the power and authority, the love, the grace, the faith of the Lord God was manifested, demonstrated and exercised.
In that realm there is love and the faith which works by love, healing, deliverance, redemption, wholeness, prosperity, blessing without measure, and unlimited power and authority. It stands therefore, that when men and women yield to the Spirit of the Lord and begin to play and sing the music of Heaven, all those benefits are on display.
Throughout much of the 1990's, Della and I lived and functioned in ministry from a ranch in Post Falls, Idaho known as "Trails' End." It was here that we began to experience a much fuller measure of the presence of the Lord with His accompanying grace and gifts on constant display.
We gathered together with other musicians, singers and intercessors not less than three or four times a week, sometimes nightly, and sometimes three or four times a day (if we were having a major gathering with folks from around the country). Although we generally had from six-to-twelve people who gathered on a regular basis, there were times when we had more than forty people packed into that tiny ranch house for praise and worship.
One night as we were gathered together (and this was a larger than normal group) the phone rang. The daughter of one of the couples worshiping with us had just received a terrible report from her doctor. She was pregnant (she and her husband were expecting their first daughter). A sonogram, followed by a series of other tests, showed that the unborn child -- just over a month away from birth -- was showing all of its internal organs on the outside of the body. Barring some kind of miracle from God or unique surgery, this child would not survive childbirth.
We told her to relax and be at peace. The Lord was going to intervene for her and the baby. Immediately, the Holy Spirit began to pour through all of us some rather extraordinary music of healing. It was not music we'd ever heard before, much less played or sang. We knew immediately that a supernatural healing was being ministered. It didn't matter that the mother and as-yet unborn child were hundreds of miles away and couldn't hear the sound coming forth. Healing power and authority were being released through that sound, and because the sound was being driven of the Holy Spirit, distance was irrelevant.
Five or six weeks later when the baby girl was born, she was whole, complete and beautiful. It was a pleasure for Della and me to hold that baby girl in our arms a year later and see for ourselves the miracle the Lord had done. There was not so much as a trace of the condition.
This is something we have seen repeated over and over again throughout the past twenty or so years. It reminds me of one of the remarkable healings that took place during the early years of our daily worship gatherings.
We had received a phone call from a lady who had been given a death sentence with perhaps three-to-six months to live because of cancer. Her husband and three sons were pretty distraught over the prospect of her death. We introduced her to the realm of praise and worship as a part of daily living. For me personally, this case was unique because this lady had been one of the teenagers I'd shared the Lord Jesus Christ with when I was Minister of Youth at Bethel Union Church in Duarte, California back in the mid-1960's.
The Lord had reconnected us after many years at a critical time in her life. We had just begun recording our worship gatherings and releasing them on cassette tape and CD's. When this lady could not be with us, we showed her how to "plug in" to nonstop praise and worship listening on her stereo or Walkman. She soon realized what a difference it was making in her physical well-being and began to live a lifestyle of praise and worship. Dwelling in the midst of the presence of the Lord has a powerful effect.
You can't be in the presence of the Lord for long and continue to hang onto disease, infirmity or affliction. You can't be in the presence of the Lord for long and continue to be tormented by evil spirits. The Enemy simply cannot survive for any prolonged period when the sound of the Lord is constantly going forth. That sound generates faith. It generates love. It generates power and authority over Satan and his army of demonic powers that knows no limitation.
Cancer is one of those lies of Satan he tries to foist off on folks; and if they are willing to spend the necessary time with the Lord, faith rises up in such a dimension that cancer has to leave. Three years after this lady was supposed to have been dead, she was more alive and healthier than she'd been in many years.
Not long after River Worship Center opened its doors at our original location in Sunnyside, a gentleman came who had been suffering from a near-lifetime of drug and alcohol addiction. He'd been in and out of treatment programs spanning a 25-year period, all with the same end-result.
Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon, and the fistful of treatment programs available mostly deal with symptoms and not the underlying cause. They mostly teach folks how to "live with" the problem instead of overcoming and receiving permanent healing. This particular gentleman had been programmed to tell folks that "I am an alcoholic," and he would receive his coin for being alcohol-free for so many months, and then a year, and then so many years.
The problem was that every time he confessed "I am an alcoholic," or perhaps, "I am a recovering alcoholic," he was setting in motion -- by his very words -- the spiritual forces necessary to drive him back to the bottle under the right conditions.
Other pastors and ministers of the Gospel had prayed with him for deliverance, but the confession never changed. We did minister deliverance to him but counseled him to join us in our nightly worship gatherings and just "soak" in the presence of the Lord, and receive from the Holy Spirit through the Words containing His power and force.
Night after night, week after week, month after month, he came and simply enveloped himself in presence of the Lord. Before too long, his hands were up in the air, and he was joining in the praise and worship. A day came when he realized that he was permanently free. The cravings for drugs or alcohol were completely gone. He'd been transformed in the midst of the sound of the Lord. The power and authority of the Holy Spirit had been released into his being, and that power and authority brought real, genuine change.
We continue to rejoice with him today over his freedom and deliverance.
There's much more I could share, and perhaps in the weeks or months to come, I may add another Coffee Break on this topic, but in our next Coffee Break, I will return to (and attempt to conclude in the next few discussions) the topic of Kingdom Economics.
What I hear I think about. What I think about is generated in my heart. What is generated in my heart I speak. What I speak comes to pass. Out of the abundance of my heart, my mouth speaks. Death and life are in the power of my tongue.
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
455 North River Road
Prosser, Washington 99350-6554
(509) 781-6099
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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.
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