The Table of the Lord X
The Bread of Life, Part 2
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, folks! Barring a little more free time before this next week comes to an end this will likely be the last post of this sixth year of publication. I'll be doing another couple articles in this series before taking a break from it to deal with several other topics -- some of a highly controversial nature. We will return to this subject, however, in a few months to deal with more revelation concerning the Table of the Lord.
Have you ever considered the significance of the Syrophenician woman who came to Jesus, and the response that Jesus gave her? (This event is recounted in Matthew 15 and in Mark 7.) Jesus gives us a picture of the Bread of Life like no other. (I originally meant to move on to the power in Jesus' blood today, and maybe we'll get started with it yet, but there are some fascinating pictures in the Word concerning the importance of the Bread that are important for us to consider.)
Take a quick look at the account recorded in Mark's gospel.
"But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet (kalos) to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs." (Mark 7:27)
This word in the Greek translated "meet" is the word kalos. We can translate it more effectively as: appropriate, honest, valuable. Thus, "It is not honest to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs." Or, we can render it, "It is not appropriate to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs."
Hey! Children's bread? What are we talking about?
OK. Let's revisit a couple of Jesus' statements.
"For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." (John 6:33, 35)
"Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you." (Luke 22:19)
Are we not the children of God? Are we not heirs and joint-heirs of the Kingdom with the Lord Jesus Christ?
Then folks, healing and deliverance are "the children's bread."
Why do you think that Jesus refers to it this way? Think about it for a minute! Jesus is the "Bread of Heaven." He is the "Bread of Life." In Him there is no sickness or disease. In Him there is no weakness or infirmity. In Him there is no death, no dying, no affliction from evil spirits, no addictions, no fears ....... you get the idea!
Jesus said, "Take, eat....." Why? Because His objective is to rid us of the contamination of sin, the contamination of this world, the contamination of Satan and -- most importantly -- the contamination that comes from eating of the wrong diet: the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Jesus served Himself at the Last Supper with His disciples, but He wasn't cutting pieces of His flesh off; He was giving the disciples the Living Word. When He said, "This is my body which is given for you," He wanted to ensure that they understood that He was giving them all that He was.
For the sake of some who are confused by seemingly synonymous terms like "The Table of the Lord," or "The Last Supper," or "The Table of Communion," lets clarify this. The Table of the Lord has existed virtually from the very beginning of Creation. Adam and Eve had the Table of the Lord from which to eat while they were in the Garden, and it was exemplified in the Tree of Life.
The "Last Supper" was the last Passover. How do we know this? Because while they were all eating of the unleavened bread (azumos) and the Passover lamb, Matthew (26:26) records the following:
"And as they were eating, Jesus took bread (artos), and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples..." Mark records virtually the same thing (14:22), and in Luke 22:20, Jesus takes "likewise also the cup after supper.."
Jesus was the Passover Lamb! This would literally be the complete fulfillment of the Passover which had been kept (up to this time) for some 1400 or so years. With Jesus being the Passover Lamb -- "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8) -- He finished all that Passover had prophesied when God commanded Moses to institute this as a commemorative and prophetic feast.
Passover -- the original when God delivered Israel from the death angel as he struck down the firstborn of Egypt -- became a feast. It commemorated Israel's deliverance from death and from bondage in Egypt. It also looked forward prophetically to the coming of the Messiah Who would deliver Israel and the entire human race -- that's to say, whosoever will accept Jesus' as the Passover Lamb, His once-and-for-all sacrifice, and His cancellation of the sentence of death.
The Table of the Lord, however, has become what we more often refer to as "Communion" or "The Table of Communion" since it is an intimate time with the Lord Jesus Christ. We eat, we partake, we share agape Love together in this act of Communion. When Jesus spoke to His disciples as He instituted the Table of the Lord and Communion as the replacement for Passover, Luke tells us the following:
"And he said unto them, With desire (epithumia) I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." (Luke 22:15)
That word, epithumia, translated "desire" in our English translations, denotes great passion, a longing, a thirst in one's being. This word is an intimate word. There was nothing casual about Jesus' Last Supper with the disciples, and -- by the same token -- there is nothing casual or ordinary about our sitting to eat with Him at His Table. He gave Himself totally for us. He held nothing back. All that He was, is, and is to come He has made available to us. Let's see if I can illustrate this another way.
Ever notice how different things are when you sit with someone at a table and eat together? There's a level of fellowship you can't quite put into words. Conversation takes on a different dimension. There's a place of sharing together that really is very personal, very close and intimate -- a level of communication that surpasses the actual words exchanged.
Every single morning, Monday through Saturday, Della and I gather with a small group of folks for prayer and intercession. But we don't limit our getting together to just prayer and intercession. We break bread together and drink of the cup of Communion.
Every Wednesday night following our time of Bible Study, our family of believers here at River Worship Center break bread together and drink of the Cup. Every Sunday following our time of teaching and sharing together, we gather at the Lord's Table to break bread and drink of the cup. There is something that is happening in our midst that defies rational explanation.
There is a level of impartation that takes place, revelation that flows by the Spirit into our spirits. There are times when we visually see angels in our midst. There are times -- actually quite frequently -- when people have visions of the Lord Himself, or the Spirit of God speaks to them things that change their lives.
George, you won't mind if I share what's happened to you, will you?
George Roberts is and has been a Coffee Break reader for most of the past six years. I'll never forget the day he called me on the phone some 5 1/2 years ago in such a state of depression and heaviness as to border on suicide. George and Vivian had just lost their only daughter at age 23. It was a crushing blow. There's a lot to this story that I don't have and won't take liberty to share, but suffice it to say that George needed deliverance from the spirit of the Fear of Death. We ministered that deliverance and continued our sharing and counseling throughout the years over the telephone. George was living in Stillwell, Oklahoma at the time (he's since moved to Tulsa) and Della and I were living in Mission, Texas.
We've yet to meet George and Vivian in person, but there is a bond of love and fellowship that has grown between us -- and Mary Ellen Olnick (who participates with us daily from Red Deer, Alberta) and Warren Bogart who lives next to us and is part of our ongoing fellowship. Depending on Robert's (Storer) work schedule, he and Sandy join us as often as possible for the time of prayer, intercession and eating and drinking at the Table of the Lord.
When George moved to Tulsa, his work schedule changed so that he was able to participate with us in our early morning prayer and intercession. For much of the past year he has been with us on the telephone every morning, but not just praying and interceding. He's also been breaking bread and sitting at the Table of the Lord with us. The change that has taken place in him is nothing short of dramatic! The impartations and revelations are flowing almost daily. And that's true for each of us. There's not a one of us who haven't changed -- and changed so much that you'd scarcely associate us with who we used to be in years gone by.
Life is flowing into us as we eat of the Lord, eat of His Word, and drink of His Spirit. The Cup is not blood, but typifies the life that was in Jesus' blood; and that blood was exchanged for the Spirit when God raised Him from the dead. Thus, we drink of the wine of the Spirit -- both by drinking of the Cup, and also by allowing the Holy Spirit to flow through us in other tongues.
That may seem like a contradiction in terms, and it is paradoxical. We drink of the Cup, but we also drink by virtue of the Holy Spirit using our mouths and our tongues to glorify God and to magnify the Lord Jesus Christ. The more we speak in tongues, the more we drink. Strange, I know, but does it ever work!
One last thing and I'll quit for today.
We talk about the Table of the Lord often in a commemorative fashion -- and there is that element to it -- but I've come to the conviction that we've made it more commemorative than life-giving and life-transferring. That, more than anything else, is a byproduct of the phrasing that our KJV and other English versions use in translating Paul's first epistle to the Corinthians (see I Corinthians 11:26).
"For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come."
That word, "show," comes from the Greek, katangello: to promulgate, to praise, to proclaim publicly, to demonstrate, to teach, to declare.
Katangello is a contraction of two Greek words: kata and angellos. The word, kata, means to lay down, to set forth -- often in the midst of opposition or resistance. Angellos, of course, is the same word for angel, heavenly messenger, one who declares and shows the Word of God.
Perhaps you are seeing the significance of this compound word. In the face of opposition, in the face of resistance, we are demonstrating and showing forth the fact that Jesus Christ kept our appointment with death. He died in our place. We no longer have to die. We no longer have to suffer from the death-process in our bodies; and that means disease, sickness, infirmity, ill health, etc., etc., etc.
The resistance and opposition to this demonstration comes within our own beings as much as it does from without. We've grown up in a society and culture that breeds death, thinks death, is afraid of death and focuses its existence on avoiding it or putting it off as long as possible. The battle is in our own minds -- as much as anywhere! The Table of the Lord is as much for our benefit as it is the world's. We eat and drink at the Table constantly in order to remind ourselves that we eat health, we eat life, we eat eternity; we drink of the life, the authority and the power of the Holy Spirit.
OK, let me put it another way. We are eating of the Word and we are drinking of resurrection life! Understand? Resurrection Life! That same power that raised Christ from the dead.
But we have to do it by faith. Once again, there is nothing common, or ordinary, or casual about this. The Table of the Lord is transformative -- and we are shouting it from the housetops!
One more time: if you aren't already, begin eating of the Lord Jesus Christ daily at His Table. Eat of His Word. Drink from the Cup of Blessing. Drink of Resurrection Life! Receive the life-changing and metamorphosing Bread of Heaven: the rhema!
"Power in the Blood." Almost all of us have sung that old hymn. That's where we'll go next.
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
Be blessed!
Regner
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. Older Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly added at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are normally 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.RiverWorshipCenter.org.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: THE TABLE OF THE LORD IX
The Table of the Lord IX
The Bread of Life
Comments that I made in the previous Coffee Break obviously were misunderstood and taken to mean something I wasn't saying so let me do some clarifying to being with.
And before I get too far along, Good Morning! Have the most blessed day of your life thus far! (There are even better ones in store.)
The past Coffee Break began with my sharing the fact that I have walked with the Lord for virtually every day of my life, and that I cannot think back to a day or time when I haven't known the Lord. When I stated, "I can say with full assurance and conviction, and yet in deep humility, that I have not walked a sinful life," some folks didn't read the following addition. "That's not to say that I have not committed sin." I went on to say that I have indeed failed the Lord miserably at different times. In fact, I have committed sins. That's not the same as walking or living a sinful life.
The apostle Paul wrote, "For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God." (Romans 3:23)
Yup. Absolutely. Me included. What many folks fail to understand is that they've been erased. Those sins don't exist any longer. When I repented and asked the Lord to forgive me of my shortcomings and failures, He did just that. What's more, He erased them completely from existence by the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't find them anywhere.
The fundamental difference between committing sins and walking a sinful life is one's personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If out of 67+ years of walking with the Lord, a sum total of three months of that time (and I'm just picking an arbitrary number) have been engaged in some kind of missing the mark, that's a far cry from "a sinful life." Let's see..... how was it that John put it?
"Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him .......... Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." (I John 3:6, 9)
What is missing from many of our English translations is the tense that occurs here in the Greek text. It should be translated like this: "Whosoever abides in Him does not willfully and repeatedly sin. Whosoever is born of God does not willfully and habitually commit sin because God's seed remains in him: and he cannot willfully and repeatedly commit sin, because he is born of God."
Do you see the difference? Good. Now you understand the context of my statements. Let's move on.
One more thing that needs clarification is my statement in The Table of the Lord VII concerning what happens when we eat of the Bread and drink of the Cup. There is a doctrine known as "transubstantiation" which teaches that the Bread actually becomes the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that the Cup actually becomes His blood. That is not what I am saying, nor should it be inferred in any way, shape or form. There is a supernatural thing that occurs when we eat and drink at the Table of the Lord, but the supernatural change and transformation is that which occurs in us -- NOT the Bread or the Cup!
Again, let me clarify: change -- transformation -- in us and of us takes place at the Table of the Lord ONLY when we believe the Word that Jesus spoke, and ONLY when faith is exercised as we eat. Jesus commanded us to eat of His Table (and there is a commemorative aspect to this act) for the same reason that He commanded water baptism: there is an act of submission on our part to Him, to His Word, and to the cleansing, redeeming and restorative nature and character He seeks to accomplish in us.
Now, was that clearer?
OK! Let's talk about the Bread of Life.
Seems like I've mentioned this before, but let's go there anyway. Take a look at Matthew 26. Jesus and His disciples have gathered for the Passover -- the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They all eat and drink together of the Passover supper, after which Jesus takes whole bread (Greek: artos: raised or whole bread) instead of the unleavened bread (Greek: azumos: flat bread -- no leaven added) of which they've just been eating, and says, "Take, eat; this is my body (Greek: soma < sozo: whole, sound, healthy, complete body)." Luke adds the phrase (see Luke 22), "which is given for you."
And what was Jesus giving? He was instructing them to eat of all that He is -- wholeness, soundness, perfect health, completeness in every sense of the Word. Consider what Jesus said when He was preaching to the multitudes (see Matthew 6:25, 30-33).
"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
You're seeing it, I'm sure. This is what Jesus was distributing at the Table: Himself: "All these things."
The apostle Paul put it like this: "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:19)
Let's get to some basics concerning what Jesus said (and is still saying today). "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." (John 6:32-33, 35)
Question! Why would Jesus make such a point of "life" in His teaching? It's simple really. When Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they brought death upon the human race. Because man was never designed to die in the first place, the imposition of death in our genetic structure created an opening for the spirit we know as "the Fear of Death."
In his general epistle to the Hebrews, Paul says, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." (Hebrews 2:13-14)
It may seem like I'm getting off-track here, but there is a point to this. Jesus gave us Himself at the Table. Because death is so ingrained into human thought processes and into the expectations of nearly every person, it is necessary that we receive deliverance from a "death mindset." I'll come back to this momentarily.
Returning to Jesus' discourse with the disciples in John 6, He continues: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
Sounds a whole lot like our discussion on death cancellation, doesn't it? And Jesus made statements like this often in His teaching and sharing. Watch what He says next! (John 6:53-58)
"Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live forever."
Wow! How do you like that doctrine? If you struggle with it, you're not alone. This was intolerable when viewed through the words (not the Spirit) of the Levitical Law.
"Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father."
The next thing we see among Jesus' disciples is the same thing we see among religious people today. "From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him."
Why is that? It's because they heard what He said through carnal, death-oriented thinking -- the same thinking molded and shaped by the Serpent in the Garden when he deceived Eve.
Remember how 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. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. ....... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1:1-3, 14)
Let's see if I can rephrase this so that it becomes clearer.
"In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The Word was God. The Word was in the beginning with God. All things were made by The Word; and without The Word was not anything made that was made. In The Word was life; and the life was the light of men."
To this we add Paul's revelation in Hebrews 1:2-3: "[God] hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son [The Word], whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He [The Word] made the worlds; Who [The Word] 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."
That's the same Word that was made flesh. That's the same Word that was Jesus! That's the same Word that Jesus invited us to eat of at His Table. That's the Bread of Life. That's the Bread of Heaven.
This is that whole bread -- artos -- that Jesus gave us at His Last Supper. Jesus finished Passover. He brought to us the leaven of the Kingdom of God. (See Matthew 13:33 and Luke 13:20-21) He was the "Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world." (See Revelation 13:8)
Jesus came to do more than simply cancel our appointment with death and remove the curse of death hanging over the human race. He came to bring life, health, wholeness, deliverance, salvation, safety, prosperity, success, ruling and reigning in life -- and one of the primary ways He has made it available to those who will receive it by faith is by our eating of Him. We see Him demonstrating this in two separate miracles, and I'll come to those momentarily.
I just referenced this Scripture, but take a look at Matthew 13 where Jesus is speaking of the multiplication that takes place with leaven. "Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."
This parable should have been clear to all -- especially in the light of Jesus' previous parable where He says, "The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof."
His parable of the leaven was intended to demonstrate the multiplication that takes place when we eat of Him. There is multiplication in every aspect of the Kingdom of God -- and that takes place when we eat at the Table of the Lord.
Remember Jesus statement to the disciples as they sat at the Last Supper? "Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you." Jesus wanted His disciples -- and all of us who eat of Him -- to understand that He was multiplying all that He was to all who would partake. This is fundamental to the whole principle of the Table of the Lord.
Jesus had already demonstrated this multiplication twice. In Matthew 15:29-39 Jesus is ministering continually for three days to the lame, the blind, the dumb, the maimed -- not to mention a host of other diseases and infirmities -- healing them all. There were some four thousand men, not counting women and children. We can readily estimate a crowd conservatively at 15,000 - 20,000.
Healing and restoring virtue is flowing out of His being, and He is suffering no depletion as a result. Seeing that the multitudes were beginning to faint for lack of food, Jesus asks His disciples how much food they have on hand. They tell him that they have seven loaves of whole bread and a few small fishes. He instructs the disciples to seat the multitude in an orderly fashion and proceeds to break apart the bread and the fishes.
There's an interesting word that occurs in the Greek text of verse 38 describing how the people ate. The word is chortazo, which literally means: to gorge oneself, to satiate to the full. Folks, these people who ate from the broken bread and fish weren't just hungry; they were famished, and they gorged themselves on the food to the point where they had no more room to eat another bite. THAT's the kind of multiplication Jesus was demonstrating.
The event repeats itself not long thereafter just prior to Passover when Jesus is ministering to a crowd of 5,000 men -- not counting women and children -- a crowd easily numbering 25,000 - 30,000. This time the only food available is five loaves of barley bread and two small fishes belonging to a young boy in the crowd, who gladly offers it to Jesus. Again Jesus breaks the bread and divides the fishes, and the disciples distribute to the people. John 6:11 tells us that the people took as much food to eat as they wanted -- without reservation or concern for there being enough food. Matthew (14:20) tells us once again that the people gorged themselves -- like young calves going after fodder -- until they were totally satisfied.
That's precisely what Jesus wants to give us at His Table: utter, complete and total satisfaction. This kind of satisfaction (the kind that nourishes completely) doesn't come by any other means than by eating of the Lord Jesus Christ -- the Word made flesh, the Word made digestible, ready for assimilation into our beings, spirit, soul and body.
This kind of satisfaction is the kind that lasts and lasts and lasts -- through eternity! There's no such thing as too much of Jesus in us. By the same token, He can never run out of distributing Himself, His character, His likeness and image into our beings. The more we eat of Him, the more change takes place. The more we eat of Him, the more we are transformed into the very essence of who He is!
If you aren't already, begin eating of the Lord Jesus Christ daily at His Table. Eat of His Word. Receive the life-changing and metamorphosing rhema!
Next: Power in the Blood.
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
Be blessed!
Regner
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. Older Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly added at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are normally 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.RiverWorshipCenter.org.
The Bread of Life
Comments that I made in the previous Coffee Break obviously were misunderstood and taken to mean something I wasn't saying so let me do some clarifying to being with.
And before I get too far along, Good Morning! Have the most blessed day of your life thus far! (There are even better ones in store.)
The past Coffee Break began with my sharing the fact that I have walked with the Lord for virtually every day of my life, and that I cannot think back to a day or time when I haven't known the Lord. When I stated, "I can say with full assurance and conviction, and yet in deep humility, that I have not walked a sinful life," some folks didn't read the following addition. "That's not to say that I have not committed sin." I went on to say that I have indeed failed the Lord miserably at different times. In fact, I have committed sins. That's not the same as walking or living a sinful life.
The apostle Paul wrote, "For all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God." (Romans 3:23)
Yup. Absolutely. Me included. What many folks fail to understand is that they've been erased. Those sins don't exist any longer. When I repented and asked the Lord to forgive me of my shortcomings and failures, He did just that. What's more, He erased them completely from existence by the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't find them anywhere.
The fundamental difference between committing sins and walking a sinful life is one's personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If out of 67+ years of walking with the Lord, a sum total of three months of that time (and I'm just picking an arbitrary number) have been engaged in some kind of missing the mark, that's a far cry from "a sinful life." Let's see..... how was it that John put it?
"Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him .......... Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." (I John 3:6, 9)
What is missing from many of our English translations is the tense that occurs here in the Greek text. It should be translated like this: "Whosoever abides in Him does not willfully and repeatedly sin. Whosoever is born of God does not willfully and habitually commit sin because God's seed remains in him: and he cannot willfully and repeatedly commit sin, because he is born of God."
Do you see the difference? Good. Now you understand the context of my statements. Let's move on.
One more thing that needs clarification is my statement in The Table of the Lord VII concerning what happens when we eat of the Bread and drink of the Cup. There is a doctrine known as "transubstantiation" which teaches that the Bread actually becomes the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that the Cup actually becomes His blood. That is not what I am saying, nor should it be inferred in any way, shape or form. There is a supernatural thing that occurs when we eat and drink at the Table of the Lord, but the supernatural change and transformation is that which occurs in us -- NOT the Bread or the Cup!
Again, let me clarify: change -- transformation -- in us and of us takes place at the Table of the Lord ONLY when we believe the Word that Jesus spoke, and ONLY when faith is exercised as we eat. Jesus commanded us to eat of His Table (and there is a commemorative aspect to this act) for the same reason that He commanded water baptism: there is an act of submission on our part to Him, to His Word, and to the cleansing, redeeming and restorative nature and character He seeks to accomplish in us.
Now, was that clearer?
OK! Let's talk about the Bread of Life.
Seems like I've mentioned this before, but let's go there anyway. Take a look at Matthew 26. Jesus and His disciples have gathered for the Passover -- the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They all eat and drink together of the Passover supper, after which Jesus takes whole bread (Greek: artos: raised or whole bread) instead of the unleavened bread (Greek: azumos: flat bread -- no leaven added) of which they've just been eating, and says, "Take, eat; this is my body (Greek: soma < sozo: whole, sound, healthy, complete body)." Luke adds the phrase (see Luke 22), "which is given for you."
And what was Jesus giving? He was instructing them to eat of all that He is -- wholeness, soundness, perfect health, completeness in every sense of the Word. Consider what Jesus said when He was preaching to the multitudes (see Matthew 6:25, 30-33).
"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
You're seeing it, I'm sure. This is what Jesus was distributing at the Table: Himself: "All these things."
The apostle Paul put it like this: "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:19)
Let's get to some basics concerning what Jesus said (and is still saying today). "Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst." (John 6:32-33, 35)
Question! Why would Jesus make such a point of "life" in His teaching? It's simple really. When Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they brought death upon the human race. Because man was never designed to die in the first place, the imposition of death in our genetic structure created an opening for the spirit we know as "the Fear of Death."
In his general epistle to the Hebrews, Paul says, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." (Hebrews 2:13-14)
It may seem like I'm getting off-track here, but there is a point to this. Jesus gave us Himself at the Table. Because death is so ingrained into human thought processes and into the expectations of nearly every person, it is necessary that we receive deliverance from a "death mindset." I'll come back to this momentarily.
Returning to Jesus' discourse with the disciples in John 6, He continues: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
Sounds a whole lot like our discussion on death cancellation, doesn't it? And Jesus made statements like this often in His teaching and sharing. Watch what He says next! (John 6:53-58)
"Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live forever."
Wow! How do you like that doctrine? If you struggle with it, you're not alone. This was intolerable when viewed through the words (not the Spirit) of the Levitical Law.
"Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father."
The next thing we see among Jesus' disciples is the same thing we see among religious people today. "From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him."
Why is that? It's because they heard what He said through carnal, death-oriented thinking -- the same thinking molded and shaped by the Serpent in the Garden when he deceived Eve.
Remember how 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. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. ....... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1:1-3, 14)
Let's see if I can rephrase this so that it becomes clearer.
"In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The Word was God. The Word was in the beginning with God. All things were made by The Word; and without The Word was not anything made that was made. In The Word was life; and the life was the light of men."
To this we add Paul's revelation in Hebrews 1:2-3: "[God] hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son [The Word], whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He [The Word] made the worlds; Who [The Word] 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."
That's the same Word that was made flesh. That's the same Word that was Jesus! That's the same Word that Jesus invited us to eat of at His Table. That's the Bread of Life. That's the Bread of Heaven.
This is that whole bread -- artos -- that Jesus gave us at His Last Supper. Jesus finished Passover. He brought to us the leaven of the Kingdom of God. (See Matthew 13:33 and Luke 13:20-21) He was the "Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world." (See Revelation 13:8)
Jesus came to do more than simply cancel our appointment with death and remove the curse of death hanging over the human race. He came to bring life, health, wholeness, deliverance, salvation, safety, prosperity, success, ruling and reigning in life -- and one of the primary ways He has made it available to those who will receive it by faith is by our eating of Him. We see Him demonstrating this in two separate miracles, and I'll come to those momentarily.
I just referenced this Scripture, but take a look at Matthew 13 where Jesus is speaking of the multiplication that takes place with leaven. "Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened."
This parable should have been clear to all -- especially in the light of Jesus' previous parable where He says, "The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof."
His parable of the leaven was intended to demonstrate the multiplication that takes place when we eat of Him. There is multiplication in every aspect of the Kingdom of God -- and that takes place when we eat at the Table of the Lord.
Remember Jesus statement to the disciples as they sat at the Last Supper? "Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you." Jesus wanted His disciples -- and all of us who eat of Him -- to understand that He was multiplying all that He was to all who would partake. This is fundamental to the whole principle of the Table of the Lord.
Jesus had already demonstrated this multiplication twice. In Matthew 15:29-39 Jesus is ministering continually for three days to the lame, the blind, the dumb, the maimed -- not to mention a host of other diseases and infirmities -- healing them all. There were some four thousand men, not counting women and children. We can readily estimate a crowd conservatively at 15,000 - 20,000.
Healing and restoring virtue is flowing out of His being, and He is suffering no depletion as a result. Seeing that the multitudes were beginning to faint for lack of food, Jesus asks His disciples how much food they have on hand. They tell him that they have seven loaves of whole bread and a few small fishes. He instructs the disciples to seat the multitude in an orderly fashion and proceeds to break apart the bread and the fishes.
There's an interesting word that occurs in the Greek text of verse 38 describing how the people ate. The word is chortazo, which literally means: to gorge oneself, to satiate to the full. Folks, these people who ate from the broken bread and fish weren't just hungry; they were famished, and they gorged themselves on the food to the point where they had no more room to eat another bite. THAT's the kind of multiplication Jesus was demonstrating.
The event repeats itself not long thereafter just prior to Passover when Jesus is ministering to a crowd of 5,000 men -- not counting women and children -- a crowd easily numbering 25,000 - 30,000. This time the only food available is five loaves of barley bread and two small fishes belonging to a young boy in the crowd, who gladly offers it to Jesus. Again Jesus breaks the bread and divides the fishes, and the disciples distribute to the people. John 6:11 tells us that the people took as much food to eat as they wanted -- without reservation or concern for there being enough food. Matthew (14:20) tells us once again that the people gorged themselves -- like young calves going after fodder -- until they were totally satisfied.
That's precisely what Jesus wants to give us at His Table: utter, complete and total satisfaction. This kind of satisfaction (the kind that nourishes completely) doesn't come by any other means than by eating of the Lord Jesus Christ -- the Word made flesh, the Word made digestible, ready for assimilation into our beings, spirit, soul and body.
This kind of satisfaction is the kind that lasts and lasts and lasts -- through eternity! There's no such thing as too much of Jesus in us. By the same token, He can never run out of distributing Himself, His character, His likeness and image into our beings. The more we eat of Him, the more change takes place. The more we eat of Him, the more we are transformed into the very essence of who He is!
If you aren't already, begin eating of the Lord Jesus Christ daily at His Table. Eat of His Word. Receive the life-changing and metamorphosing rhema!
Next: Power in the Blood.
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
Be blessed!
Regner
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. Older Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly added at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are normally 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.RiverWorshipCenter.org.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: THE TABLE OF THE LORD VIII
Table of the Lord VIII
Eating and Drinking "Unworthily" -- Part 2
Blessings, Revelation and Impartations to you! (Now there's a different greeting for you -- but this one has special meaning.)
Reflecting over this past year and all the years of my life prior (nearly 68 in all), 2009 has easily been the most revelatory of any recent years -- and perhaps of my entire life. I cannot think back to a day in my life when I have not known the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not always true that folks who grow up in Christian homes avoid knowing the depths of sin, but I thank God for the way in which He has led me and kept me from my birth. I can say with full assurance and conviction, and yet in deep humility, that I have not walked a sinful life. That's not to say that I have not committed sin -- there have been times when I failed the Lord miserably, yet He has quickly and readily forgiven me -- but my life has been one filled with the constant presence and awareness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have memories that go back to age two, standing in my crib and seeing angel wings overhead. Then there were all those experiences from age four to age seven of waking up in the middle of the night or early morning hours to see angels in my room, capped off with waking up one morning at age seven to see Jesus standing at the foot of my bed. At age nine, He took me to Heaven for what to me was a span of three days (although there was never any nighttime there) for a series of experiences and revelations that are still unfolding for me more than 58 years later.
In the years since, there have been numerous experiences with the Lord, the audible voice of God speaking to me, travels in the Spirit, angelic manifestations and one three-month continuous daily experience with the Lord in which He took me back into the past to witness His development of and foundations for the Bride of Christ, and then to the Cross to witness the crucifixion, and then into the future to see the literal Kingdom of God on earth (during the thousand-year reign); and finally past the thousand years to see the release of Satan from the pit and the final war between Satan and the people of God. Friends have urged me to write about these experiences and share them -- and perhaps that day will come -- but because revelation continues to unfold, I am reluctant to share prematurely.
Meeting folks like Steven L. Shelley, Paul Keith Davis, Bob Jones and Neville Johnson during the past few years has been a real source of encouragement since they share experiences in God similar to those I've had. Steven's recent Day of Atonement visitation brought revelation that is both breathtaking and sobering for believers in Christ, and his willingness to share has been a blessing for Della and me -- and our fellowship as well. (We played a CD of his sharing of this visitation for our fellowship from a meeting where he spoke in Richland, Washington a couple of weeks ago.)
Anyway, I've said all that to say this. Since Della and I began 13 or 14 months ago meeting every morning, Monday thru Saturday, with friends and brethren for prayer and intercession and partaking of the Table of the Lord, the amount of revelation coming from and through the Holy Spirit has been nothing less than astounding. A Messianic Rabbi once said that there are not less than seven layers of revelation and truth hidden in every Scripture; and I believe it! The past months have been a continuous peeling back of layer after layer of truths I'd never seen before despite having been through the Word from cover to cover more times than I can count.
As I shared on my Facebook page, I used to think I knew a few things in God. The longer I walk with the Lord, the more I realize just how little I do know! There is so much that awaits the believer who will contend for the continual presence of the Lord in their life!! As Steven, Paul Keith, Bob and Neville will undoubtedly attest, the experiences we've had in God are not about us; they are for this last generation. I get excited every so often when these things take place, but realize at the same time that it's not because I'm something so special. The apostle Paul recognized the same thing and he describes it like this in his second letter to the Corinthians.
The apostle Paul writes in II Corinthians 4:7, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."
That's it exactly! These experiences are not given so that we receive praise from folks but rather that the excellency of the power may be recognized as of God.
All that is to say that much of what I've been sharing in this series on the Table of the Lord is a part of the peeling away of layers of truth and revelation contained in this command from the Lord. The Table of the Lord is not just a commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is an experience -- a daily experience for those who will see it -- of impartation, intimate communion and the growing sense of the tangible presence of the Lord.
I was sharing something in our Sunday fellowship this past Sunday relative to eating and drinking at the Table of the Lord "unworthily" and thought I'd add to our last discussion on this.
Let’s begin by taking a look at a couple of verses that we never think of in connection with the Table of the Lord. The first one comes from the apostle John as he writes concerning the Revelation:
Revelation 12:10-11: And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
The next verse is in Paul’s epistle to the Hebrews:
Hebrews 1:1-3: 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;
These verses may seem to be totally unrelated to this topic but bear with me. The Table of the Lord, as we well know, consists of two things: The Bread (The Word), and The Cup (The Blood).
In previous discussions we’ve already noted the fact that when Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to the disciples, his comment to them was that a “spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” He didn’t say to them, “a spirit hath not flesh and blood, as ye see me have,” and the reason was that Jesus had already spilled His blood as part of the act of redemption.
Blood was replaced in Him as the source of life and power by the Spirit.
Consider again the fact that when God breathed first life into Adam, he became (according to the Hebrew context) “a living, speaking spirit.” When Eve was taken from Adam’s side, he said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” (See Genesis 2:23)
It is my growing conviction (and I can't prove it yet) that Adam and Eve lived and breathed by the Spirit when they were first created, and that the Spirit was replaced with blood when sin came. Whether that is true or not is debatable, but it is certain that from the moment Adam ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, blood contaminated with death was flowing in his veins. Consider now the statement John makes when he says,
“And they overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony.”
We sit at the Table of the Lord. Each time we eat the Bread and drink the Cup, we take into ourselves the Word. That Word is made alive, energized, put into force and sustained by the same Life Force that raised Jesus from the dead.
The Greek word that Paul uses in Hebrews 1:3 where he writes “upholding all things by the Word of His Power” is phero. This word parallels the Greek energko — the two words having the same root. The word phero means: to carry, to sustain, to bear up, to bring forward, to activate, to move from one place to another, to apply, to endure [in the sense of lasting and lasting and lasting]. Phero also means: to bring forward in or by speaking, to activate by the speaking of a thing. (You probably already are seeing another application, but we’ll come back to this word a bit later.)
Its companion word, energko, means: to energize (we get our English word “energize” from this word), to put into force, to activate, to bring to life.
Again we return to the apostle Paul’s phrasing in Hebrews 1:3: “upholding all things by the Word of His Power.” Notice that he doesn’t say, “upholding all things by the power of His Word.” We know that the Word of the Lord has power, but that’s not the right emphasis.
This is the same power — the same energizing force — that existed at Creation. This is the power that was behind and energized the words, “Light BE!” Light WAS because there was an activating power and force that caused those words to have creative manifestation.
That activating and energizing force was faith. Faith is that creative force. Faith existed as substance before the first words of Creation were spoken.
Thus Paul writes (see Hebrews 11:3): Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
Faith — in and of itself — is invisible to the natural eye. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have substance. It does. It is! Faith is a spiritual force, a creative and substantive energizer which brings into this natural realm the reality of that which is spoken.
That’s why Jesus said to the disciples, “Have God’s faith!” (Mark 11:22) Again we go back to Scriptures we used in a previous illustration.
Romans 10:17: So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
The Greek text actually spells it out more clearly. “So faith is (and comes into being) by audible report; but the report is the rhema [the spoken and audibly delivered Word] of [and from] God.”
Are you now seeing the distinction?
Faith IS substance in the same way that the worlds came into being. God spoke. With His spoken Word came the creative substance which caused the earth (and all the planets, stars, galaxies, etc.) to suddenly appear. Behind God’s Word was the power, the energizing force, the activating substance that gave life and impetus to that Word. THAT, folks is what we partake of each time we eat and drink at the Table of the Lord!
We are not eating of the logos — the all-encompassing body of all that God said. We are eating of the rhema — the direct, empowered, activated and placed into force Word by Jesus command! We are eating of His body. We are eating of the very faith substance of the Lord Himself.
The Word is becoming OUR flesh because there is sustaining power and force to make it so! The life force that makes it so is in the Cup. Each time we drink, we bring to remembrance the fact that Jesus shed blood that was filled with death, disease, sickness, weakness and poverty. What we drink of, however, is the Spirit of Life that is in Christ Jesus. (See Romans 8:2)
There is no death in the Cup. There is no disease or sickness in the Cup. There is no poverty in the Cup. There is no weakness or infirmity of any kind in the Cup.
The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus literally embodies that energizing force which “upholds all things.” THIS is the power — the dunamis (explosive power and force) — that sustains, that makes effective, that puts force to the Word. We are eating of the Word Himself. We are drinking of the power that makes the Word come alive in us. We are being changed from Glory to Glory.
Transformation is taking place. Change is occurring in our spirits. We are metamorphosing into eternity-based beings. We are being restored to the very image in which God first made Adam.
Now we have the ability to overcome Satan “by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the Word of our Testimony.”
THIS IS THE TABLE OF THE LORD!
Here's the issue that gets so many folks in trouble, and the reason why they don't seem to gain any victory in their lives over sickness, infirmity, weakness, disease, poverty or the attacks of Satan.
We've already looked at these verses before, but here they are once again.
"Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." (I Corinthians 11:27-30)
Now let me amplify these verses from the Greek text.
"Therefore, whoever eats of this bread and drinks of this cup of the Lord, treating them as commonplace, ordinary and incapable or unfit, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man place himself for examination in the crucible by eating of that bread and drinking of that cup, because he that eats and drinks treating the bread and the cup as commonplace, incapable and unfit to accomplish in him [that for which Christ died on the Cross] eats and drinks judgment to himself, not separating or discriminating between that which is ordinary and the Lord's body. For this reason many are weak, sickly, infirm, diseased and poverty-stricken, and many die prematurely."
You see it, don't you? OK, back up for a minute.
The Bread is the Word. Jesus made it clear that He was the Word, and that we are to eat of Him. Paul makes abundantly clear that all things are upheld, energized, made effective and sustained by the Word (rhema) of His [Jesus'] Power. And what is His Power?
Jesus put it like this to the disciples: "And, behold, I send the promise of my Father (the Holy Spirit: see John 14:16-17) upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high."
The Holy Spirit is that power. It is the force which makes the Word alive and effective. It is the energizer of the Word. It is the explosive power of God which causes the Word to blow sin, sickness and disease apart. God's purpose is for that Word to become as much our flesh as it did in Jesus.
When we treat the Table of the Lord as ordinary, as just crackers and juice, as simply bread and wine and fail to recognize what the Word seeks to do in us, we not only do NOT receive the benefits that Jesus made available with His death and resurrection, we effectively crucify Him all over again. And folks wonder why even though they quote Scriptures and talk "faith talk" they fail to see the results. Their "faith talk" is just words. There is no faith at work. There is no discernment of what Jesus really did for them, nor is there any understanding of what and why Jesus was so clear on the importance of eating and drinking of Him.
You can have the right confession from now until Jesus comes, but if you don't believe what you say -- and you know in your heart whether you do or not -- it is impossible for faith to be energized and activated substantively. It requires faith to believe that change takes place, and that Jesus IS accomplishing change in you by means of eating at the Table of the Lord. Without that faith, you're simply treating the bread and the wine as unfit and incapable of change -- just ordinary .... another religious routine.
Chew on that for awhile, my friends. (pun intended) Meditate on this. Let the Word do its work in you.
See you again, soon.
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
Be blessed!
--Regner
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. Older Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly added at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are normally 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.RiverWorshipCenter.org.
Eating and Drinking "Unworthily" -- Part 2
Blessings, Revelation and Impartations to you! (Now there's a different greeting for you -- but this one has special meaning.)
Reflecting over this past year and all the years of my life prior (nearly 68 in all), 2009 has easily been the most revelatory of any recent years -- and perhaps of my entire life. I cannot think back to a day in my life when I have not known the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not always true that folks who grow up in Christian homes avoid knowing the depths of sin, but I thank God for the way in which He has led me and kept me from my birth. I can say with full assurance and conviction, and yet in deep humility, that I have not walked a sinful life. That's not to say that I have not committed sin -- there have been times when I failed the Lord miserably, yet He has quickly and readily forgiven me -- but my life has been one filled with the constant presence and awareness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I have memories that go back to age two, standing in my crib and seeing angel wings overhead. Then there were all those experiences from age four to age seven of waking up in the middle of the night or early morning hours to see angels in my room, capped off with waking up one morning at age seven to see Jesus standing at the foot of my bed. At age nine, He took me to Heaven for what to me was a span of three days (although there was never any nighttime there) for a series of experiences and revelations that are still unfolding for me more than 58 years later.
In the years since, there have been numerous experiences with the Lord, the audible voice of God speaking to me, travels in the Spirit, angelic manifestations and one three-month continuous daily experience with the Lord in which He took me back into the past to witness His development of and foundations for the Bride of Christ, and then to the Cross to witness the crucifixion, and then into the future to see the literal Kingdom of God on earth (during the thousand-year reign); and finally past the thousand years to see the release of Satan from the pit and the final war between Satan and the people of God. Friends have urged me to write about these experiences and share them -- and perhaps that day will come -- but because revelation continues to unfold, I am reluctant to share prematurely.
Meeting folks like Steven L. Shelley, Paul Keith Davis, Bob Jones and Neville Johnson during the past few years has been a real source of encouragement since they share experiences in God similar to those I've had. Steven's recent Day of Atonement visitation brought revelation that is both breathtaking and sobering for believers in Christ, and his willingness to share has been a blessing for Della and me -- and our fellowship as well. (We played a CD of his sharing of this visitation for our fellowship from a meeting where he spoke in Richland, Washington a couple of weeks ago.)
Anyway, I've said all that to say this. Since Della and I began 13 or 14 months ago meeting every morning, Monday thru Saturday, with friends and brethren for prayer and intercession and partaking of the Table of the Lord, the amount of revelation coming from and through the Holy Spirit has been nothing less than astounding. A Messianic Rabbi once said that there are not less than seven layers of revelation and truth hidden in every Scripture; and I believe it! The past months have been a continuous peeling back of layer after layer of truths I'd never seen before despite having been through the Word from cover to cover more times than I can count.
As I shared on my Facebook page, I used to think I knew a few things in God. The longer I walk with the Lord, the more I realize just how little I do know! There is so much that awaits the believer who will contend for the continual presence of the Lord in their life!! As Steven, Paul Keith, Bob and Neville will undoubtedly attest, the experiences we've had in God are not about us; they are for this last generation. I get excited every so often when these things take place, but realize at the same time that it's not because I'm something so special. The apostle Paul recognized the same thing and he describes it like this in his second letter to the Corinthians.
The apostle Paul writes in II Corinthians 4:7, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."
That's it exactly! These experiences are not given so that we receive praise from folks but rather that the excellency of the power may be recognized as of God.
All that is to say that much of what I've been sharing in this series on the Table of the Lord is a part of the peeling away of layers of truth and revelation contained in this command from the Lord. The Table of the Lord is not just a commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is an experience -- a daily experience for those who will see it -- of impartation, intimate communion and the growing sense of the tangible presence of the Lord.
I was sharing something in our Sunday fellowship this past Sunday relative to eating and drinking at the Table of the Lord "unworthily" and thought I'd add to our last discussion on this.
Let’s begin by taking a look at a couple of verses that we never think of in connection with the Table of the Lord. The first one comes from the apostle John as he writes concerning the Revelation:
Revelation 12:10-11: And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.
The next verse is in Paul’s epistle to the Hebrews:
Hebrews 1:1-3: 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;
These verses may seem to be totally unrelated to this topic but bear with me. The Table of the Lord, as we well know, consists of two things: The Bread (The Word), and The Cup (The Blood).
In previous discussions we’ve already noted the fact that when Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to the disciples, his comment to them was that a “spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” He didn’t say to them, “a spirit hath not flesh and blood, as ye see me have,” and the reason was that Jesus had already spilled His blood as part of the act of redemption.
Blood was replaced in Him as the source of life and power by the Spirit.
Consider again the fact that when God breathed first life into Adam, he became (according to the Hebrew context) “a living, speaking spirit.” When Eve was taken from Adam’s side, he said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” (See Genesis 2:23)
It is my growing conviction (and I can't prove it yet) that Adam and Eve lived and breathed by the Spirit when they were first created, and that the Spirit was replaced with blood when sin came. Whether that is true or not is debatable, but it is certain that from the moment Adam ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, blood contaminated with death was flowing in his veins. Consider now the statement John makes when he says,
“And they overcame him [Satan] by the blood of the lamb, and by the word of their testimony.”
We sit at the Table of the Lord. Each time we eat the Bread and drink the Cup, we take into ourselves the Word. That Word is made alive, energized, put into force and sustained by the same Life Force that raised Jesus from the dead.
The Greek word that Paul uses in Hebrews 1:3 where he writes “upholding all things by the Word of His Power” is phero. This word parallels the Greek energko — the two words having the same root. The word phero means: to carry, to sustain, to bear up, to bring forward, to activate, to move from one place to another, to apply, to endure [in the sense of lasting and lasting and lasting]. Phero also means: to bring forward in or by speaking, to activate by the speaking of a thing. (You probably already are seeing another application, but we’ll come back to this word a bit later.)
Its companion word, energko, means: to energize (we get our English word “energize” from this word), to put into force, to activate, to bring to life.
Again we return to the apostle Paul’s phrasing in Hebrews 1:3: “upholding all things by the Word of His Power.” Notice that he doesn’t say, “upholding all things by the power of His Word.” We know that the Word of the Lord has power, but that’s not the right emphasis.
This is the same power — the same energizing force — that existed at Creation. This is the power that was behind and energized the words, “Light BE!” Light WAS because there was an activating power and force that caused those words to have creative manifestation.
That activating and energizing force was faith. Faith is that creative force. Faith existed as substance before the first words of Creation were spoken.
Thus Paul writes (see Hebrews 11:3): Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
Faith — in and of itself — is invisible to the natural eye. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t have substance. It does. It is! Faith is a spiritual force, a creative and substantive energizer which brings into this natural realm the reality of that which is spoken.
That’s why Jesus said to the disciples, “Have God’s faith!” (Mark 11:22) Again we go back to Scriptures we used in a previous illustration.
Romans 10:17: So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
The Greek text actually spells it out more clearly. “So faith is (and comes into being) by audible report; but the report is the rhema [the spoken and audibly delivered Word] of [and from] God.”
Are you now seeing the distinction?
Faith IS substance in the same way that the worlds came into being. God spoke. With His spoken Word came the creative substance which caused the earth (and all the planets, stars, galaxies, etc.) to suddenly appear. Behind God’s Word was the power, the energizing force, the activating substance that gave life and impetus to that Word. THAT, folks is what we partake of each time we eat and drink at the Table of the Lord!
We are not eating of the logos — the all-encompassing body of all that God said. We are eating of the rhema — the direct, empowered, activated and placed into force Word by Jesus command! We are eating of His body. We are eating of the very faith substance of the Lord Himself.
The Word is becoming OUR flesh because there is sustaining power and force to make it so! The life force that makes it so is in the Cup. Each time we drink, we bring to remembrance the fact that Jesus shed blood that was filled with death, disease, sickness, weakness and poverty. What we drink of, however, is the Spirit of Life that is in Christ Jesus. (See Romans 8:2)
There is no death in the Cup. There is no disease or sickness in the Cup. There is no poverty in the Cup. There is no weakness or infirmity of any kind in the Cup.
The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus literally embodies that energizing force which “upholds all things.” THIS is the power — the dunamis (explosive power and force) — that sustains, that makes effective, that puts force to the Word. We are eating of the Word Himself. We are drinking of the power that makes the Word come alive in us. We are being changed from Glory to Glory.
Transformation is taking place. Change is occurring in our spirits. We are metamorphosing into eternity-based beings. We are being restored to the very image in which God first made Adam.
Now we have the ability to overcome Satan “by the Blood of the Lamb, and by the Word of our Testimony.”
THIS IS THE TABLE OF THE LORD!
Here's the issue that gets so many folks in trouble, and the reason why they don't seem to gain any victory in their lives over sickness, infirmity, weakness, disease, poverty or the attacks of Satan.
We've already looked at these verses before, but here they are once again.
"Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." (I Corinthians 11:27-30)
Now let me amplify these verses from the Greek text.
"Therefore, whoever eats of this bread and drinks of this cup of the Lord, treating them as commonplace, ordinary and incapable or unfit, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man place himself for examination in the crucible by eating of that bread and drinking of that cup, because he that eats and drinks treating the bread and the cup as commonplace, incapable and unfit to accomplish in him [that for which Christ died on the Cross] eats and drinks judgment to himself, not separating or discriminating between that which is ordinary and the Lord's body. For this reason many are weak, sickly, infirm, diseased and poverty-stricken, and many die prematurely."
You see it, don't you? OK, back up for a minute.
The Bread is the Word. Jesus made it clear that He was the Word, and that we are to eat of Him. Paul makes abundantly clear that all things are upheld, energized, made effective and sustained by the Word (rhema) of His [Jesus'] Power. And what is His Power?
Jesus put it like this to the disciples: "And, behold, I send the promise of my Father (the Holy Spirit: see John 14:16-17) upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high."
The Holy Spirit is that power. It is the force which makes the Word alive and effective. It is the energizer of the Word. It is the explosive power of God which causes the Word to blow sin, sickness and disease apart. God's purpose is for that Word to become as much our flesh as it did in Jesus.
When we treat the Table of the Lord as ordinary, as just crackers and juice, as simply bread and wine and fail to recognize what the Word seeks to do in us, we not only do NOT receive the benefits that Jesus made available with His death and resurrection, we effectively crucify Him all over again. And folks wonder why even though they quote Scriptures and talk "faith talk" they fail to see the results. Their "faith talk" is just words. There is no faith at work. There is no discernment of what Jesus really did for them, nor is there any understanding of what and why Jesus was so clear on the importance of eating and drinking of Him.
You can have the right confession from now until Jesus comes, but if you don't believe what you say -- and you know in your heart whether you do or not -- it is impossible for faith to be energized and activated substantively. It requires faith to believe that change takes place, and that Jesus IS accomplishing change in you by means of eating at the Table of the Lord. Without that faith, you're simply treating the bread and the wine as unfit and incapable of change -- just ordinary .... another religious routine.
Chew on that for awhile, my friends. (pun intended) Meditate on this. Let the Word do its work in you.
See you again, soon.
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
Be blessed!
--Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
455 North River Road
Prosser, Washington 99350-6554
(509) 781-6099
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