ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: DREAMS FROM THE LORD, Special Edition
Good Morning, y’all! Up and at ‘em, yet?
I’m just getting my coffee started. yAWN!! Trying to wake up this morning. Della is off to a Ladies’ Retreat at Banff Springs, Alberta, so I’m on my own.
If you haven’t had your cup of Java yet this morning, hang on, this French Press will be ready in a couple of minutes. Grab a chair and have a seat.
We’re less than 48 hours away from the elections as I write this, and I need to share with you a dream that came to me a few days ago. This is out of sequence in my dream sharing. I have already completed Dreams from the Lord IV, but because of the nature and urgency of this new dream I felt the necessity of getting this out to you for your prayerful consideration.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul makes a remarkable statement concerning Abraham that we tend to forget or overlook.
Romans 4:17: (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
Isaiah 46:9-10: Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
This may be a stretch for some folks, but I believe that dreams are given because the Lord is giving us the opportunity to declare the end from the beginning and call those things that are not as though they were. Why? What was it that Jesus instructed in what we often refer to as “The Lord’s Prayer”?
Matthew 6:9-10: After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
When the Lord gives us dreams, I believe that He shows us His heart’s desire. I believe that He shows us those things which are His will and purpose in Heaven, giving us both the opportunity and responsibility to call them into being here on earth. That said, consider this dream.
In this dream, the elections were over, and a few days had passed. I was at the White House having a conversation with Barack Obama. The conservative Republicans had swept the elections taking both the House and Senate majorities away from the Democrats. It was an electoral sweep of historic proportions and historic consequences.
Obama was visibly shaken. Somehow he had never believed that this kind of changeover in power could or would happen. The fact that his policies and agenda were so thoroughly repudiated by the voting public literally stopped him in his tracks.
It was a golden opportunity for me to share with him the difference between the wishy-washy, “inclusive” religion he had called “Christianity” and a true relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He hung his head in his hands and covered his eyes. I shared with him the fact that literally tens of thousands of Christians had been praying – many of them fasting as well – for a Great Awakening in this nation not unlike the one that took place in the 1700’s and 1800’s beginning with Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield.
America was born as a nation during that first Great Awakening, with most of our early presidents having a genuine faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and leading this nation in a Godly way.
Last year during the Prayer Mountain gathering in Branson, Missouri, the Lord spoke to Billye Brim and told her that it was not a change of political parties or leaders that would bring change to this nation – righteous change, that is. It would only come with a new and fresh awakening in the hearts of people to the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
To that end we have been praying, as have literally hundreds of thousands of Christians across this nation, and around the world. The electoral sea change taking place in this nation is the result of those prayers and the awakening that has been taking place.
America was founded for the purpose of providing a haven for Christians who could teach, preach and spread the Gospel of the Kingdom around the world with complete freedom, and the backing of a nation that would stand behind them. That purpose is instilled in virtually every state constitution. The First Amendment to our Constitution was designed to keep the government from infringing upon our Christian liberties in any way.
As I shared in the dream with Barack Obama, he began to shake and tremble as the Holy Spirit brought deep conviction to him, and an awakening to who Jesus Christ really is. Revelation began to pour into his being, and for the first time in his life there was a recognition and realization of the Truth of the Gospel. With that revelation came an understanding of how he had been duped throughout his life and misled into believing an agenda that was – in reality – opposed to everything Jesus Christ preached and provided.
He dropped to his knees on the floor and began to weep almost uncontrollably as the Spirit of the Lord washed over his being. Finally he got to his feet. He was quiet for a moment, and then said, “When I ran for the presidency, I campaigned on a platform of change for this nation. The “change” I’ve been trying to push has been wrong. Now we will see some real change as I move to right some terrible wrongs I’ve done to this nation.”
I said to him, “Mr. President, you are certainly aware of the fact that there are a number of lawsuits making their way through the courts challenging your right to sit as president because of your not being born in the U.S.”
He answered me, “Yes, I know that. If those lawsuits are heard by the Supreme Court, I will lose and be forced from office. I may not have a long time, but what time I do have I intend to use for good.”
Again I said to him, “Mr. President, this nation needs to hear from you. They need to hear your confession and your conviction that Jesus Christ is indeed Lord of your life – and furthermore, that He is Lord of America!”
He nodded his head and replied, “You’re right. There is nothing more powerful than an honest and forthright confession.”
I awoke from the dream as Barack Obama prepared to make his announcement, realizing that the Lord had shown me something that can be! This is not an illusion. It is not simply a flight of fancy. This is a change that can take place in this nation.
We have been praying daily for change – righteous change. We have been praying daily that the Holy Spirit would cause the removal of all those from office who follow their own agenda instead of listening to the Lord, and replace them with people who would lead and govern in righteousness. What better change than to have those in power – such as the president himself – publicly repent and confess Jesus Christ as the head of this nation.
It hasn’t happened yet. There are others within the prophetic community who have seen this kind of change taking place – and with Barack Obama! This can happen, folks! But it can’t and won’t happen unless the people of God pray and intercede as never before.
More than ever, we need to assemble as the people of God and cry out for this kind of change. In the remaining days and hours before the elections take place (and many folks have already voted early) I urge you to join us in prayer and intercession for this nation.
Beyond that, I urge you to set aside any prejudice or bias or ill feeling you may have towards Barack Obama because of the choices and agenda he has pushed forward and intercede before God for an awakening to take place in him. This man is in trouble, people, and he needs the Lord in his life. He needs the reality of relationship with Jesus Christ instead of the dead religion that has been foisted off on him since his childhood.
He needs an awakening to the purposes of God – not only for himself and his family, but for this nation. If that awakening takes place, we will have a harvest of souls like you can’t imagine!
Buckle your seatbelts!
The Holy Spirit is moving and operating in this day and age in non-traditional ways; and any attempts we make to box Him in or try to second-guess Him are doomed to failure. Those who are willing to hear what He has to say and are ready to “operate outside the box” will see and experience the Glory of the Lord!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Prosser, Washington 99350
(509) 515-0133
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, October 31, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: DREAMS FROM THE LORD III
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: DREAMS FROM THE LORD III
Salutations and Blessings upon you!
The coffee is brewing…uhh…steeping in the French Press. Ready for a cup? I believe we’ve got some of those smaller “vitamins” sitting around the kitchen, too. You know…those things they call “donut holes”? Vitamins! Right!
Let’s get right to it this morning continuing with the prophetic picture and significance of what I saw in the dreams.
DREAM NUMBER ONE, Part One
Returning to the person in the dream who was a Russian FSB officer, he represents an authority-figure and someone who has the power to influence and control the lives of many people. I noted in the previous Coffee Break that he was a type of the “leader” who has charge over folks, but has no personal relationship with the Lord. He was austere, legalistic, demanding and thought he had the right to rule over them and say what they could believe and not believe. Because he had no personal relationship with the Lord, anyone who talked about such a thing was a heretic and a fool.
He is the classic picture of leaders who have the “form of Godliness but lack the power thereof.” (See II Timothy 3:5) I say that because when he first met me at the airport, his demeanor and appearance was that of a well-polished, seasoned minister. He had the appearance of being a Godly man. He had the ability to put on a show – a façade – that was anything but real. His ultimate repentance at the end of the dream is indicative of many leaders I’ve met throughout the years who have been Bible College or seminary-trained – highly educated, if you will – but whose knowledge is all academic, not revelatory.
There is a huge difference between acquired knowledge and revealed knowledge by the Holy Spirit. Acquired knowledge is what you get through book-learning and academic pursuits. Revealed knowledge is what comes directly from God in an instant. It is a “download” if you will. You instantly have the answer or the solution to a situation that didn’t come through hours or days or weeks or months of study, research and experimentation.
Let me digress a bit to give you an example.
Back in 1988 when I was Chief Engineer for KTBY (the FOX TV affiliate) in Anchorage, I was called in for an emergency in the wee hours of the morning. The transmitter had failed and the station was off the air. The transmitter was an archaic relic of WWII-era design – an old Black and White RCA transmitter that had been converted to color sometime in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. The thing should have been retired to a museum many years before. There were no schematics that covered the modifications, and many changes had been made to the transmitter that weren’t recorded. When I walked into the transmitter room, the place smelled of molten metal. The high-voltage cage had literally melted and the final output tube was almost welded into the High Voltage cavity.
Logically, the first step was to rip everything out, clean up the mess and rebuild the HV section. OK, so far. But what caused the meltdown in the first place? What had failed in such a way as to cause such catastrophic damage? I didn’t have a clue, so I did what I knew to do: lay hands on the transmitter and pray. (By the way, this is something both Della and I have done on numerous occasions with many different things. (Grin)
You can laugh if you want. If some of my engineering friends had been there to see, they’d have known I’d absolutely lost it! There’s a spiritual principle here, however, that many believers miss in crisis situations. James put it like this in his epistle:
James 1:5-6: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.
I needed wisdom and understanding and the Lord gave it to me – in immediate download fashion! In an instant, the Holy Spirit gave me a vision of an old oil-filled capacitor in the HV power supply and told me it was shorted. When I opened up the back doors of the HV cage, there was the capacitor just like the Holy Spirit had shown me. A quick test showed that it was indeed shorted out. I scrounged up a replacement, installed it and fired the transmitter up. Presto! Just like that we were back up and running.
I didn’t need an engineering degree (and truth is, I still don’t have one despite international recognition for some achievements in science and engineering) – just an impartation of wisdom and understanding from the Holy Spirit. My achievements in the field of electronic engineering haven’t come through book-learning; they’ve come as a direct result of revelation from the Holy Spirit. Folks, it works, and it works reliably. But it only works when you have the reality of a relationship, a personal love-relationship, with the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s no form about this. It isn’t religious at all. And there’s both power and authority that backs it up.
Didn’t mean to get so sidetracked, but the personal illustration is a picture of the difference between “the form of Godliness” and living and operating in the power of God.
Throughout the years, I’ve met many “pastors” who had the title and fair-sized church congregations to accompany their title. When I’ve asked them how the Lord called them into the ministry, they’ve given me a deer-in-the-headlights stare. Some have stammered and stuttered around looking for an answer. Others have simply responded dryly, “I just wanted to do something to help my fellow-man.” Still others have answered, “It seemed like a good thing to do.”
Duhhh….. No concept whatever of the voice of the Holy Spirit or having a commission from the Lord!
Dad used to say (and I think he was repeating something he’d heard throughout the years), “There are lots of people in the ministry who simply “went” – but they were not “sent”!”
When that’s the case, you have the perfect picture of the Russian officer in the dream: a person who exercises power, influence and authority without wisdom and understanding.
But here’s the best part of this picture: when folks like this come in contact with real authority and power – that which comes by and through the Holy Spirit – and they see miraculous events take place which defy all their logic and learning resulting in real change to people, desire leaps within their being for the “real.” For many there is recognition – whether ever voiced or not – that what they’ve operated in was “will power” and not some God-given, Holy Spirit-anointed dunamis power and authority. Like the Russian officer in the dream, reality sets in, repentance takes place and there comes a yielding to the Lord Jesus Christ.
* * * * * * * *
DREAM NUMBER ONE, Part Two
Jeremiah 12:9-11: Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour. Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.
In our previous Coffee Break, we talked about Paul’s statement to the Galatians; and I will expand on that for a bit because it bears directly on the prophetic picture in these dreams.
Galatians 5:13-26: For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
In Jeremiah’s prophecy, he lays the initial blame for the “biting and devouring” upon the pastors – the shepherds – saying, “They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.”
Paul takes it further as he writes the Galatians, however, and makes clear that each individual who engages in “biting and devouring” one another lacks love (agape) and is engaging in one or more of the works of the flesh. He describes the “works of the flesh” with the following list of activities: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like.
Pretty graphic, don’t you think?
I don’t remember who first said it, but Neville Johnson recently restated a spiritual principle which accurately describes the condition of the body of Christ today. It goes like this: What this generation tolerates, the next generation will accept as “normal,” or acceptable.
We’ve seen that in a growing tolerance and acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle within this generation. In the previous generation, one didn’t even mention the topic because it was so abhorrent and aberrant to human behavior. Without an awakening in the hearts of God’s people in this generation and a refutation and absolute rejection of homosexual activity as some kind of “norm” we will see this sin quite accepted within the body of Christ in the coming generation. The consequence will be exactly what Jeremiah prophesied: “The whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.”
This is the condition that prevailed in the lives and hearts of the “believers” who were biting, devouring and cannibalizing one another in the cage. They were desolate. They had no hope. They had no manifestation of love between themselves. They had lost the authority and the power that comes when folks walk in communion with the Lord. Had that communion been present – the intimacy of a love relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ – the authority and power to deal with the crisis they found themselves in would have easily been accessible and operational!
I’ve said all that to say this: The “works of the flesh” Paul lays out in Galatians, when tolerated within the body of Christ, leads to the breakdown of relationship between God’s people, and a breakdown in the level of leadership. The more a society tolerates, the more those who are trained and groomed for leadership positions tolerate. It’s one of the reasons why we have seen some major church denominations “ordain” homosexuals and lesbians to pastoral positions.
There has been a breakdown of the moral and spiritual standards once held within these organizations – so much so that people who don’t even know the Lord are being elevated and “ordained” to ministerial places when they don’t even have a call or beckoning from the Holy Spirit. As I’ve already said earlier, this is the picture of the Russian FSB officer in the dream.
* * * * * * * *
DREAM NUMBER TWO
Throughout most of the past forty years, if there’s one thing that both Della and I have learned, there is no quicker way to demolish and remove a yoke of bondage than through prayer and fasting.
In the first dream, it was very apparent that a trap had been set for me by the Enemy – a trap designed for my destruction and death. My spiritual antennae had been alerted before departing on the trip. It was a good thing that I responded to the quickening of the Holy Spirit and instructed Della to wait until she heard from me before coming to Moscow. Being “instant in season and out of season” (II Timothy 4:2) applies to every part of our responsiveness to the Holy Spirit.
In this instance, there was no time to stop and consider the check from the Lord. If I hadn’t responded instantly and Della had gone with me, things could have turned out very differently. As it was, she was prompted by the Holy Spirit (in her dream) to be fasting and praying for my deliverance and restoration. That prayer and fasting became corporate. The spiritual principle of corporate prayer is revealed in Matthew 18:16b and Matthew 18:19-20:
Matthew 18:16b: …In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
Matthew 18:19-20: Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Understand? There certainly is power and authority through prayer; and the prayers of any righteous individual, praying according to the heart and will of Father God, are certainly heard. However, when you add the agreement – the sumphoneo (symphony) – of individuals there is logarithmic multiplication that takes place. It’s almost like a row of bulldozers (or tanks) coming at the Enemy.
Take a look at the following verses of Scripture.
Deuteronomy 32:30: How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?
Joshua 23:10: One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you.
Here’s how Solomon put it in Ecclesiastes:
Ecclesiastes 4:12: And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
It was obvious that I was up against a force of the Enemy that required greater power than I could release by myself. I had authority – all the authority I needed against Satan – but there was a need for the hosts of Heaven to be released against him and to wage warfare in the realm of the Spirit.
That took place as Della gathered with others on a daily and consistent basis. I have a few other comments and observations to share, and in the interests of not making this Coffee Break overlong, I’ll save them for the next one.
The Holy Spirit is moving and operating in this day and age in non-traditional ways; and any attempts we make to box Him in or try to second-guess Him are doomed to failure. Those who are willing to hear what He has to say and are ready to “operate outside the box” will see and experience the Glory of the Lord!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTERProsser, Washington 99350
(509) 515-0133
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.
Salutations and Blessings upon you!
The coffee is brewing…uhh…steeping in the French Press. Ready for a cup? I believe we’ve got some of those smaller “vitamins” sitting around the kitchen, too. You know…those things they call “donut holes”? Vitamins! Right!
Let’s get right to it this morning continuing with the prophetic picture and significance of what I saw in the dreams.
DREAM NUMBER ONE, Part One
Returning to the person in the dream who was a Russian FSB officer, he represents an authority-figure and someone who has the power to influence and control the lives of many people. I noted in the previous Coffee Break that he was a type of the “leader” who has charge over folks, but has no personal relationship with the Lord. He was austere, legalistic, demanding and thought he had the right to rule over them and say what they could believe and not believe. Because he had no personal relationship with the Lord, anyone who talked about such a thing was a heretic and a fool.
He is the classic picture of leaders who have the “form of Godliness but lack the power thereof.” (See II Timothy 3:5) I say that because when he first met me at the airport, his demeanor and appearance was that of a well-polished, seasoned minister. He had the appearance of being a Godly man. He had the ability to put on a show – a façade – that was anything but real. His ultimate repentance at the end of the dream is indicative of many leaders I’ve met throughout the years who have been Bible College or seminary-trained – highly educated, if you will – but whose knowledge is all academic, not revelatory.
There is a huge difference between acquired knowledge and revealed knowledge by the Holy Spirit. Acquired knowledge is what you get through book-learning and academic pursuits. Revealed knowledge is what comes directly from God in an instant. It is a “download” if you will. You instantly have the answer or the solution to a situation that didn’t come through hours or days or weeks or months of study, research and experimentation.
Let me digress a bit to give you an example.
Back in 1988 when I was Chief Engineer for KTBY (the FOX TV affiliate) in Anchorage, I was called in for an emergency in the wee hours of the morning. The transmitter had failed and the station was off the air. The transmitter was an archaic relic of WWII-era design – an old Black and White RCA transmitter that had been converted to color sometime in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. The thing should have been retired to a museum many years before. There were no schematics that covered the modifications, and many changes had been made to the transmitter that weren’t recorded. When I walked into the transmitter room, the place smelled of molten metal. The high-voltage cage had literally melted and the final output tube was almost welded into the High Voltage cavity.
Logically, the first step was to rip everything out, clean up the mess and rebuild the HV section. OK, so far. But what caused the meltdown in the first place? What had failed in such a way as to cause such catastrophic damage? I didn’t have a clue, so I did what I knew to do: lay hands on the transmitter and pray. (By the way, this is something both Della and I have done on numerous occasions with many different things. (Grin)
You can laugh if you want. If some of my engineering friends had been there to see, they’d have known I’d absolutely lost it! There’s a spiritual principle here, however, that many believers miss in crisis situations. James put it like this in his epistle:
James 1:5-6: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.
I needed wisdom and understanding and the Lord gave it to me – in immediate download fashion! In an instant, the Holy Spirit gave me a vision of an old oil-filled capacitor in the HV power supply and told me it was shorted. When I opened up the back doors of the HV cage, there was the capacitor just like the Holy Spirit had shown me. A quick test showed that it was indeed shorted out. I scrounged up a replacement, installed it and fired the transmitter up. Presto! Just like that we were back up and running.
I didn’t need an engineering degree (and truth is, I still don’t have one despite international recognition for some achievements in science and engineering) – just an impartation of wisdom and understanding from the Holy Spirit. My achievements in the field of electronic engineering haven’t come through book-learning; they’ve come as a direct result of revelation from the Holy Spirit. Folks, it works, and it works reliably. But it only works when you have the reality of a relationship, a personal love-relationship, with the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s no form about this. It isn’t religious at all. And there’s both power and authority that backs it up.
Didn’t mean to get so sidetracked, but the personal illustration is a picture of the difference between “the form of Godliness” and living and operating in the power of God.
Throughout the years, I’ve met many “pastors” who had the title and fair-sized church congregations to accompany their title. When I’ve asked them how the Lord called them into the ministry, they’ve given me a deer-in-the-headlights stare. Some have stammered and stuttered around looking for an answer. Others have simply responded dryly, “I just wanted to do something to help my fellow-man.” Still others have answered, “It seemed like a good thing to do.”
Duhhh….. No concept whatever of the voice of the Holy Spirit or having a commission from the Lord!
Dad used to say (and I think he was repeating something he’d heard throughout the years), “There are lots of people in the ministry who simply “went” – but they were not “sent”!”
When that’s the case, you have the perfect picture of the Russian officer in the dream: a person who exercises power, influence and authority without wisdom and understanding.
But here’s the best part of this picture: when folks like this come in contact with real authority and power – that which comes by and through the Holy Spirit – and they see miraculous events take place which defy all their logic and learning resulting in real change to people, desire leaps within their being for the “real.” For many there is recognition – whether ever voiced or not – that what they’ve operated in was “will power” and not some God-given, Holy Spirit-anointed dunamis power and authority. Like the Russian officer in the dream, reality sets in, repentance takes place and there comes a yielding to the Lord Jesus Christ.
* * * * * * * *
DREAM NUMBER ONE, Part Two
Jeremiah 12:9-11: Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour. Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.
In our previous Coffee Break, we talked about Paul’s statement to the Galatians; and I will expand on that for a bit because it bears directly on the prophetic picture in these dreams.
Galatians 5:13-26: For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
In Jeremiah’s prophecy, he lays the initial blame for the “biting and devouring” upon the pastors – the shepherds – saying, “They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.”
Paul takes it further as he writes the Galatians, however, and makes clear that each individual who engages in “biting and devouring” one another lacks love (agape) and is engaging in one or more of the works of the flesh. He describes the “works of the flesh” with the following list of activities: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like.
Pretty graphic, don’t you think?
I don’t remember who first said it, but Neville Johnson recently restated a spiritual principle which accurately describes the condition of the body of Christ today. It goes like this: What this generation tolerates, the next generation will accept as “normal,” or acceptable.
We’ve seen that in a growing tolerance and acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle within this generation. In the previous generation, one didn’t even mention the topic because it was so abhorrent and aberrant to human behavior. Without an awakening in the hearts of God’s people in this generation and a refutation and absolute rejection of homosexual activity as some kind of “norm” we will see this sin quite accepted within the body of Christ in the coming generation. The consequence will be exactly what Jeremiah prophesied: “The whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.”
This is the condition that prevailed in the lives and hearts of the “believers” who were biting, devouring and cannibalizing one another in the cage. They were desolate. They had no hope. They had no manifestation of love between themselves. They had lost the authority and the power that comes when folks walk in communion with the Lord. Had that communion been present – the intimacy of a love relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ – the authority and power to deal with the crisis they found themselves in would have easily been accessible and operational!
I’ve said all that to say this: The “works of the flesh” Paul lays out in Galatians, when tolerated within the body of Christ, leads to the breakdown of relationship between God’s people, and a breakdown in the level of leadership. The more a society tolerates, the more those who are trained and groomed for leadership positions tolerate. It’s one of the reasons why we have seen some major church denominations “ordain” homosexuals and lesbians to pastoral positions.
There has been a breakdown of the moral and spiritual standards once held within these organizations – so much so that people who don’t even know the Lord are being elevated and “ordained” to ministerial places when they don’t even have a call or beckoning from the Holy Spirit. As I’ve already said earlier, this is the picture of the Russian FSB officer in the dream.
* * * * * * * *
DREAM NUMBER TWO
Throughout most of the past forty years, if there’s one thing that both Della and I have learned, there is no quicker way to demolish and remove a yoke of bondage than through prayer and fasting.
In the first dream, it was very apparent that a trap had been set for me by the Enemy – a trap designed for my destruction and death. My spiritual antennae had been alerted before departing on the trip. It was a good thing that I responded to the quickening of the Holy Spirit and instructed Della to wait until she heard from me before coming to Moscow. Being “instant in season and out of season” (II Timothy 4:2) applies to every part of our responsiveness to the Holy Spirit.
In this instance, there was no time to stop and consider the check from the Lord. If I hadn’t responded instantly and Della had gone with me, things could have turned out very differently. As it was, she was prompted by the Holy Spirit (in her dream) to be fasting and praying for my deliverance and restoration. That prayer and fasting became corporate. The spiritual principle of corporate prayer is revealed in Matthew 18:16b and Matthew 18:19-20:
Matthew 18:16b: …In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
Matthew 18:19-20: Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.
Understand? There certainly is power and authority through prayer; and the prayers of any righteous individual, praying according to the heart and will of Father God, are certainly heard. However, when you add the agreement – the sumphoneo (symphony) – of individuals there is logarithmic multiplication that takes place. It’s almost like a row of bulldozers (or tanks) coming at the Enemy.
Take a look at the following verses of Scripture.
Deuteronomy 32:30: How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?
Joshua 23:10: One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you.
Here’s how Solomon put it in Ecclesiastes:
Ecclesiastes 4:12: And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
It was obvious that I was up against a force of the Enemy that required greater power than I could release by myself. I had authority – all the authority I needed against Satan – but there was a need for the hosts of Heaven to be released against him and to wage warfare in the realm of the Spirit.
That took place as Della gathered with others on a daily and consistent basis. I have a few other comments and observations to share, and in the interests of not making this Coffee Break overlong, I’ll save them for the next one.
The Holy Spirit is moving and operating in this day and age in non-traditional ways; and any attempts we make to box Him in or try to second-guess Him are doomed to failure. Those who are willing to hear what He has to say and are ready to “operate outside the box” will see and experience the Glory of the Lord!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTERProsser, Washington 99350
(509) 515-0133
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.
Friday, October 22, 2010
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: DREAMS FROM THE LORD II
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: DREAMS FROM THE LORD II
And another Good Morning to you!
Coffee’s on! Come and get it!
In our last Coffee Break, I laid out the essence of the two dreams that Della and I had on the night of August 7/morning of August 8th of this year. Today I’d like to explore the prophetic pictures that have unfolded as a result and the strong Word from the Lord to the body of Christ.
DREAM NUMBER ONE, Part One
There are two main themes that Della and I have seen within these dreams. That’s to say, there are two primary areas of focus and two primary messages.
The first is the picture of the officer who put me under arrest because he saw me as a threat to his way of life, his beliefs and his governmental structure. The second was the “biting and devouring” of those who were caged, and this is a picture of a situation that exists in the body of Christ to a large extent.
I will clarify that by saying that this seems to be endemic in the western cultures more than in the eastern. Our western society has so altered the structure and makeup of the way the body of Christ lives and operates so much that believers from the first and second century body would scarcely recognize us today. Let me digress from the dream interpretation to explain.
Ekklesia has devolved into “church.” The intimacy of a personal love-relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ has faded into “religion” and religious practices, traditions, formalism, icons and man-made doctrines that have nothing whatever to do with our walk with the Lord.
(Ekklesia, incidentally, is the Greek word used throughout the New Testament that translators have turned into “church.” The word itself was coined by the Alexandrian translators during the period 300 – 275 BC when they sought for a means to convey the true sense of the Hebrew Ya.ad and its counterpart, Mowadah (the calling together of the betrothed by the bridegroom).
Ekklesia is nothing at all like the contemporary form of church with song services, announcements, offering-taking, sermons and prayers at the altar. These are all trappings added when the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes (Revelation 2:6, 13) began to really infiltrate and take hold within the body of Christ, and history tells us that there really was no such thing as “church” until roughly 225 AD during the reign of the Roman Emperor Alexander Severus when an old temple was converted into a church – and even then, the manner of gathering was quite different than we see in today’s modern churches.)
Aahhhh….but that’s another topic for discussion entirely. We won’t try to go there today. Let’s get to the core of what I saw.
When I shared these dreams a short time ago with a group of pastors, the near-unanimous consensus was that the people were starving to death because the leadership over them was not fulfilling its responsibility. The people were not receiving the kind of nourishment that would foster love or grace or wholeness.
The “officer” in the dream was a type of the “leader” who has charge over folks, but has no personal relationship with the Lord. He was austere, legalistic, demanding and thought he had the right to rule over them and say what they could believe and not believe. Because he had no personal relationship with the Lord, anyone who talked about such a thing was a heretic and a fool. Because he believed that he had a legal right to control what folks see and hear – and I was promoting something foreign to him – I was an immediate threat that had to be dealt with.
This officer was both a type and a picture of the shepherds and pastors who are supposed to be guarding and protecting God’s people and ensuring that they get the kind of nourishment that will make them grow into healthy, productive individuals who are profitable to the Kingdom of God.
We’ll talk more about this after a bit.
* * * * * * * *
DREAM NUMBER ONE, Part Two
The picture that unfolded in the second part of the dream in seeing people who were literally biting and one another and cannibalizing each other was both horrifying and sobering. There are some scriptures we can take a quick look at before we continue.
Galatians 5: 14-17: For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
All sense of love for one another had vanished when these people were caged up and fed minimally. The attitude was “every man (or woman) for himself.” They were literally consuming one another. The cannibalism had obviously resulted in the deaths of many before I ever got there, and several of the people in that cage were close to death because of their “devoured” condition.
I’m not pointing fingers at anyone here. But this is a picture of a condition that prevails in many parts of the body of Christ today. The lack of proper spiritual nourishment, the lack of a personal love-relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, the missing intimacy that accompanies our walk with the Lord, the watering down and even omission of basic fundamental truths that contribute to our ability to be in Christ and have Him manifested in us, all contribute to setting the stage for people to pick and swipe at one another.
The dissatisfaction that results when folks go through the motions – religious rituals and forms – without the signs and wonders that are supposed to follow the believer causes a malaise that in turn results in people looking at and judging one another. They don’t like what they see; and the problem is that they are in fact judging themselves.
Religion causes folks to live by a measurement standard rather than a love standard. What was it that Paul wrote?
I Corinthians 13:4-7 (NASB): Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
There is nothing about love – God’s love – agape – that lives by a measurement standard. It is a love that seeks to build up, to encourage, to save and preserve, to uphold and nurture.
When agape is missing and you have phileo in its place instead (we normally refer to this as “brotherly love,” but it is a love which requires reciprocation in order to exist), value judgments form concerning the behavior of others, the standards of their living (poor, middle-class or wealthy) and whether they think like you do or not.
Because agape is a love that functions in the realm of the Spirit and not the flesh, people whose lives are relegated to living by reason, analysis, and logic have little concept of what it means to “walk in the Spirit.” Without that walk and life in the Spirit, folks resort to their judgments of one another and their analytical decisions which result almost every time in the “other” person coming up short in their eyes.
In order to walk and live in the Spirit, God’s people must have the kind of spiritual nourishment that enables them to grow in God’s grace, His Love, His mercy, His authority and His power. When that nourishment is missing and they can’t even get “the sincere milk of the Word” they live as “brephos” or “paidion” (babes or infants) who never even grow enough in the Lord to become “teknons” immature children, let alone “huios” fully grown, fully matured sons who function in and with Father’s authority.
What I witnessed in that cage were people who were or had been professing Christians. Had you asked them before they were thrown into the cage of their standing in Christ, most of them would have no doubt been glad to tell you that they had walked with the Lord for some years and knew Him well.
In fact, they didn’t know Him at all – at least not in a revelatory way. They had a knowledge of God, they undoubtedly had read the Word, they were likely faithful in going to church services, paying tithes, giving, ministering to the poor and needy and doing “good works.” Jesus described people like this on several occasions. Remember how He put it?
Matthew 7:22-23: Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Are you seeing what Jesus said? “I NEVER knew you!” Wow! The Greek text renders this statement, “I never had a personal relationship with you. We were never intimate with each other.” The essence of what Jesus is saying is this: “You did lots of good things supposedly on my behalf, but you WERE NOT doing them in my name – my onoma! Yes, you spouted my name and used it as a formula, but you and I were not One. You were not in me when you did these works.”
Jesus finishes off his rebuke with a command for them to depart from Him because they were workers – implementers, if you please – of iniquity. Again, WOW! This word, iniquity, comes from the Greek, anomia or anomos, and refers generally to lawlessness, a violation of the law, or illegality.
Jesus was speaking from a Jewish perspective, and not a Greek understanding, when He referred to them as workers of iniquity. The Hebrew ‘avah or ‘avon describes perversity – a “bent”, if you will, in one’s character which pushes them or inclines them mentally, emotionally and spiritually to do something wrong.
What Jesus was describing, therefore, was people who were teaching and developing a character trait of religion rather than a personal relationship with Him. Religion is perverse. Religion causes folks to violate the most basic element of our walk with God. It takes love out of the picture and replaces it with rote, ritual, performance and duty. Religion has all the form of Godliness, but no power and no authority.
The problem with these folks whom Jesus was describing in His parable was that they were using Jesus’ name illegally. They were not in Him, and He was not in them. We refer back to something Paul wrote to the Ekklesia in Corinth:
II Corinthians 5:17: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (ktisis: original formation): old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Again Paul writes to the Galatians and says:
Galatians 6:15-16: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature (ktisis). And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
Are you seeing it? Once a person is in Christ, they are a newly-minted original formation. That may sound funny so let me put it like this. Adam was the original formation. He was created in the image and likeness of the Lord God. He was the original pattern for mankind. Jesus came as the last Adam to reverse the curse that Adam’s disobedience brought upon the human race and to be – once again – the pattern Son in whose image and likeness we could and would become.
Thus Paul writes that if we are “in Christ” – wait, let me clarify this statement. The Greek text uses the word “Christos”, which is equivalent to the Hebrew “Maschiach” (Messiah). This word properly describes “the anointed one” but it goes further to describe “his anointing.” Thus to be “in Christ” is to be “in the Anointed One and in His anointing.”
In writing to the Galatians Paul makes clear that “circumcision” (or the keeping of the Law and separating oneself from lawless activity) accomplishes nothing as far as being “in Christ” is concerned. At the same time, he also says that uncircumcision (or not separating oneself from the world) does not alter or make a person unrighteous. Righteousness is not judged by the Law, and it is not judged by not keeping the Law.
There was no Law except for the one commandment given to Adam and Eve concerning the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. There is no Law that governs us a Christians – except for the Law of Love. Whether we keep the Law or not does not make us Christians, and it does not cause us to be “in Christ.” If we are in Christ we are literally new formations – newly created beings for whom the Law does not apply.
In so saying, of course, I’m not saying that it doesn’t matter if we are law-breakers; it does matter. We ought not to break the law. But there is a higher Law that governs our existence once we are new creations – new formations and new beings – in Christ. That Law is agape: the very nature and character and makeup of the Lord Jesus Christ! To walk and live by this Law is absolutely revelatory.
OK. I didn’t mean to take up so much time on this topic but I needed to make sure you understand the foundation of what the Lord was showing me in the dream concerning the Christians who were in the cage.
* * * * * * * *
I’d thought to get farther along in the unfolding of the interpretation and revelation of this first dream today, and we need to return to our discussion on the picture of the “officer” who threw me and the others into the cage. However, I think we will pause for today and pick up this discussion in our next Coffee Break.
The Holy Spirit is moving and operating in this day and age in non-traditional ways; and any attempts we make to box Him in or try to second-guess Him are doomed to failure. Those who are willing to hear what He has to say and are ready to “operate outside the box” will see and experience the Glory of the Lord!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Prosser, Washington 99350
(509) 515-0133
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.
And another Good Morning to you!
Coffee’s on! Come and get it!
In our last Coffee Break, I laid out the essence of the two dreams that Della and I had on the night of August 7/morning of August 8th of this year. Today I’d like to explore the prophetic pictures that have unfolded as a result and the strong Word from the Lord to the body of Christ.
DREAM NUMBER ONE, Part One
There are two main themes that Della and I have seen within these dreams. That’s to say, there are two primary areas of focus and two primary messages.
The first is the picture of the officer who put me under arrest because he saw me as a threat to his way of life, his beliefs and his governmental structure. The second was the “biting and devouring” of those who were caged, and this is a picture of a situation that exists in the body of Christ to a large extent.
I will clarify that by saying that this seems to be endemic in the western cultures more than in the eastern. Our western society has so altered the structure and makeup of the way the body of Christ lives and operates so much that believers from the first and second century body would scarcely recognize us today. Let me digress from the dream interpretation to explain.
Ekklesia has devolved into “church.” The intimacy of a personal love-relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ has faded into “religion” and religious practices, traditions, formalism, icons and man-made doctrines that have nothing whatever to do with our walk with the Lord.
(Ekklesia, incidentally, is the Greek word used throughout the New Testament that translators have turned into “church.” The word itself was coined by the Alexandrian translators during the period 300 – 275 BC when they sought for a means to convey the true sense of the Hebrew Ya.ad and its counterpart, Mowadah (the calling together of the betrothed by the bridegroom).
Ekklesia is nothing at all like the contemporary form of church with song services, announcements, offering-taking, sermons and prayers at the altar. These are all trappings added when the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes (Revelation 2:6, 13) began to really infiltrate and take hold within the body of Christ, and history tells us that there really was no such thing as “church” until roughly 225 AD during the reign of the Roman Emperor Alexander Severus when an old temple was converted into a church – and even then, the manner of gathering was quite different than we see in today’s modern churches.)
Aahhhh….but that’s another topic for discussion entirely. We won’t try to go there today. Let’s get to the core of what I saw.
When I shared these dreams a short time ago with a group of pastors, the near-unanimous consensus was that the people were starving to death because the leadership over them was not fulfilling its responsibility. The people were not receiving the kind of nourishment that would foster love or grace or wholeness.
The “officer” in the dream was a type of the “leader” who has charge over folks, but has no personal relationship with the Lord. He was austere, legalistic, demanding and thought he had the right to rule over them and say what they could believe and not believe. Because he had no personal relationship with the Lord, anyone who talked about such a thing was a heretic and a fool. Because he believed that he had a legal right to control what folks see and hear – and I was promoting something foreign to him – I was an immediate threat that had to be dealt with.
This officer was both a type and a picture of the shepherds and pastors who are supposed to be guarding and protecting God’s people and ensuring that they get the kind of nourishment that will make them grow into healthy, productive individuals who are profitable to the Kingdom of God.
We’ll talk more about this after a bit.
* * * * * * * *
DREAM NUMBER ONE, Part Two
The picture that unfolded in the second part of the dream in seeing people who were literally biting and one another and cannibalizing each other was both horrifying and sobering. There are some scriptures we can take a quick look at before we continue.
Galatians 5: 14-17: For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
All sense of love for one another had vanished when these people were caged up and fed minimally. The attitude was “every man (or woman) for himself.” They were literally consuming one another. The cannibalism had obviously resulted in the deaths of many before I ever got there, and several of the people in that cage were close to death because of their “devoured” condition.
I’m not pointing fingers at anyone here. But this is a picture of a condition that prevails in many parts of the body of Christ today. The lack of proper spiritual nourishment, the lack of a personal love-relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, the missing intimacy that accompanies our walk with the Lord, the watering down and even omission of basic fundamental truths that contribute to our ability to be in Christ and have Him manifested in us, all contribute to setting the stage for people to pick and swipe at one another.
The dissatisfaction that results when folks go through the motions – religious rituals and forms – without the signs and wonders that are supposed to follow the believer causes a malaise that in turn results in people looking at and judging one another. They don’t like what they see; and the problem is that they are in fact judging themselves.
Religion causes folks to live by a measurement standard rather than a love standard. What was it that Paul wrote?
I Corinthians 13:4-7 (NASB): Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
There is nothing about love – God’s love – agape – that lives by a measurement standard. It is a love that seeks to build up, to encourage, to save and preserve, to uphold and nurture.
When agape is missing and you have phileo in its place instead (we normally refer to this as “brotherly love,” but it is a love which requires reciprocation in order to exist), value judgments form concerning the behavior of others, the standards of their living (poor, middle-class or wealthy) and whether they think like you do or not.
Because agape is a love that functions in the realm of the Spirit and not the flesh, people whose lives are relegated to living by reason, analysis, and logic have little concept of what it means to “walk in the Spirit.” Without that walk and life in the Spirit, folks resort to their judgments of one another and their analytical decisions which result almost every time in the “other” person coming up short in their eyes.
In order to walk and live in the Spirit, God’s people must have the kind of spiritual nourishment that enables them to grow in God’s grace, His Love, His mercy, His authority and His power. When that nourishment is missing and they can’t even get “the sincere milk of the Word” they live as “brephos” or “paidion” (babes or infants) who never even grow enough in the Lord to become “teknons” immature children, let alone “huios” fully grown, fully matured sons who function in and with Father’s authority.
What I witnessed in that cage were people who were or had been professing Christians. Had you asked them before they were thrown into the cage of their standing in Christ, most of them would have no doubt been glad to tell you that they had walked with the Lord for some years and knew Him well.
In fact, they didn’t know Him at all – at least not in a revelatory way. They had a knowledge of God, they undoubtedly had read the Word, they were likely faithful in going to church services, paying tithes, giving, ministering to the poor and needy and doing “good works.” Jesus described people like this on several occasions. Remember how He put it?
Matthew 7:22-23: Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Are you seeing what Jesus said? “I NEVER knew you!” Wow! The Greek text renders this statement, “I never had a personal relationship with you. We were never intimate with each other.” The essence of what Jesus is saying is this: “You did lots of good things supposedly on my behalf, but you WERE NOT doing them in my name – my onoma! Yes, you spouted my name and used it as a formula, but you and I were not One. You were not in me when you did these works.”
Jesus finishes off his rebuke with a command for them to depart from Him because they were workers – implementers, if you please – of iniquity. Again, WOW! This word, iniquity, comes from the Greek, anomia or anomos, and refers generally to lawlessness, a violation of the law, or illegality.
Jesus was speaking from a Jewish perspective, and not a Greek understanding, when He referred to them as workers of iniquity. The Hebrew ‘avah or ‘avon describes perversity – a “bent”, if you will, in one’s character which pushes them or inclines them mentally, emotionally and spiritually to do something wrong.
What Jesus was describing, therefore, was people who were teaching and developing a character trait of religion rather than a personal relationship with Him. Religion is perverse. Religion causes folks to violate the most basic element of our walk with God. It takes love out of the picture and replaces it with rote, ritual, performance and duty. Religion has all the form of Godliness, but no power and no authority.
The problem with these folks whom Jesus was describing in His parable was that they were using Jesus’ name illegally. They were not in Him, and He was not in them. We refer back to something Paul wrote to the Ekklesia in Corinth:
II Corinthians 5:17: Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (ktisis: original formation): old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Again Paul writes to the Galatians and says:
Galatians 6:15-16: For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature (ktisis). And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
Are you seeing it? Once a person is in Christ, they are a newly-minted original formation. That may sound funny so let me put it like this. Adam was the original formation. He was created in the image and likeness of the Lord God. He was the original pattern for mankind. Jesus came as the last Adam to reverse the curse that Adam’s disobedience brought upon the human race and to be – once again – the pattern Son in whose image and likeness we could and would become.
Thus Paul writes that if we are “in Christ” – wait, let me clarify this statement. The Greek text uses the word “Christos”, which is equivalent to the Hebrew “Maschiach” (Messiah). This word properly describes “the anointed one” but it goes further to describe “his anointing.” Thus to be “in Christ” is to be “in the Anointed One and in His anointing.”
In writing to the Galatians Paul makes clear that “circumcision” (or the keeping of the Law and separating oneself from lawless activity) accomplishes nothing as far as being “in Christ” is concerned. At the same time, he also says that uncircumcision (or not separating oneself from the world) does not alter or make a person unrighteous. Righteousness is not judged by the Law, and it is not judged by not keeping the Law.
There was no Law except for the one commandment given to Adam and Eve concerning the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. There is no Law that governs us a Christians – except for the Law of Love. Whether we keep the Law or not does not make us Christians, and it does not cause us to be “in Christ.” If we are in Christ we are literally new formations – newly created beings for whom the Law does not apply.
In so saying, of course, I’m not saying that it doesn’t matter if we are law-breakers; it does matter. We ought not to break the law. But there is a higher Law that governs our existence once we are new creations – new formations and new beings – in Christ. That Law is agape: the very nature and character and makeup of the Lord Jesus Christ! To walk and live by this Law is absolutely revelatory.
OK. I didn’t mean to take up so much time on this topic but I needed to make sure you understand the foundation of what the Lord was showing me in the dream concerning the Christians who were in the cage.
* * * * * * * *
I’d thought to get farther along in the unfolding of the interpretation and revelation of this first dream today, and we need to return to our discussion on the picture of the “officer” who threw me and the others into the cage. However, I think we will pause for today and pick up this discussion in our next Coffee Break.
The Holy Spirit is moving and operating in this day and age in non-traditional ways; and any attempts we make to box Him in or try to second-guess Him are doomed to failure. Those who are willing to hear what He has to say and are ready to “operate outside the box” will see and experience the Glory of the Lord!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Prosser, Washington 99350
(509) 515-0133
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.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: DREAMS FROM THE LORD I
DREAMS FROM THE LORD I
Howdy, Howdy, Howdy!
Wow! Another week has gone by! Already, even.
Mmmmmm...........Mmmmmm.........Mmmmmm! Smell that aroma of that wonderful French Roasted Columbian Supremo! Now THERE's a smell to start the day with! The French Press is full and almost running over. Pour yourself a cup. There might even be one of those maple-covered "vitamins" lying around somewhere.
I’ve been promising for several weeks to share some rather remarkable experiences that Della and I had while at the Heaven & Earth-themed camp-meeting/conference in Red Deer, Alberta in July and August. On Saturday nite, August 7th, Della and I had parallel dreams. By that I mean that what I dreamed meshed with what Della dreamed and vice-versa. She actually dreamed the portion of a prophetic experience in which she fulfilled her commission from the Lord, just as I dreamed the portion of the same experience in which I fulfilled my commission.
DREAM NUMBER ONE, Part 1
Over the past months, we have been receiving multiple invitations to come and visit and minister in numerous places around the world – Kenya, Pakistan, India, and Ghana – even such faraway places as Alaska. (Grin!) We’ve yet to take folks up on those invitations, but that day seems just around the corner.
This dream began with an invitation from a pastor in Russia for Della and me to come and minister to a group of Christians in Moscow. That seemed rather fortuitous since I’d had an indication from the Lord some years ago that He would be sending me to Russia from time to time.
The time came for Della and me to board our flight to Moscow when I suddenly felt a check in my spirit. I said to Della, “Honey, I’m feeling something really strange or out of kilter concerning this trip. Though we rarely travel apart, this is one time when I think you should remain behind until I arrive and get a feel for the lay of the land. I’ll call you when I get situated and you can board the next flight.”
There was agreement between us that this was the best course to follow in view of the warning from the Holy Spirit and I went ahead and boarded the flight alone.
When my flight landed in Moscow, a fairly well-dressed gentleman met me at the plane and said he was there to escort me to my destination. Because I’d never met the pastor in person who’d invited me, I made the assumption that this man was the same individual. He acted as though he was the pastor, but never came out and said so. I should have caught it, but because of the newness of my surroundings and my attention on the very different scenery and skyline of the city, I was distracted enough not to actually verify who the gentleman was.
We got into what seemed to be a rather official-looking vehicle and I was taken into downtown Moscow. I was a bit surprised when we pulled up in front of what seemed to be a large government building. A church building or even a home would have been more expected. The gentleman escorted me into the building and it was then that I realized we were at the headquarters of the Russian secret police or FSB (what the old KGB evolved into).
My surprise evoked the comment, “Wow! What are we doing here?” My escort then introduced himself as an officer (obviously high officer) of the Russian police. I said to him, “I thought we were going to a church or perhaps a home.
Why are we here?” He responded that I was under arrest.
“Under arrest?” I exclaimed. “For what?”
“We received word that you were coming to Russia as an agent for the U.S. Government and that you are here as a spy.”
I couldn’t help but laugh uproariously. “You’ve got to be kidding? Me a spy? I’m a minister of the Gospel and a representative of the Kingdom of God. I’m not here to spy on anyone! I’m here to minister to the needs of people.”
The silliness of the accusation was hard to digest and I just shook my head in disbelief. The look on this officer’s face, however, was anything but genial and he obviously wasn’t buying my defense. He directed me to a rather bleak-looking room with nothing but a desk, a chair and a very plain and hard leather sofa. He left and I was alone in the room for some indeterminate length of time.
Sometime thereafter two other officers appeared indicating that I was to follow them. They led me to another location. It wasn’t a prison in the sense that I could see bars or barbed-wire fencing, but it was most certainly a secure location from which there was no easy escape. I might have likened it to “quarters for political prisoners.”
The surroundings were bleak at best. The room temperature was below normal. The walls of the rooms (there was a combination kitchen and living room, and a room with a very sparse bed) were a dull grey-green – uninviting to say the least. Once a day, I was brought an adequate, though not over-abundant meal. Since Della and I have been used to semi-fasting with one meal a day on many occasions, receiving only one meal a day was no big deal.
I was concerned, however, that I had not been able to contact Della. I’d been refused any telephone or mail privileges and I knew that she would wonder what in the world happened to me. At the same time, I knew that the check in my spirit that had prevented her from traveling with me would have had an impact on her; and I was sure she would have been making inquiries to track me down. At the very least, I was sure that she would be praying and interceding.
After days had turned into weeks, and weeks into months, time became almost meaningless. I really had no concept of how long I was being made a prisoner. No trial had taken place. No court proceedings had ensued. No official charges had been lodged against me to which I could answer.
It dawned on me one day that I was wasting perfectly good opportunities to be who I am in Christ Jesus, and to allow His grace, His love and His Glory to work through me to the few people I had daily contact with. Food was being brought to me daily by someone. There were other individuals who periodically checked in on me. I needed to begin ministering the love of the Lord Jesus Christ to them. And that’s exactly what I did.
My reaction from them at first was skeptical, then curious, then receptive. It seemed I was making some real headway.
One day the officer came to see me who had put me there in the first place. When I began to share the Lord with him, he became angry. The more I talked the angrier he became. Finally he could take no more. He grabbed me by the arm and said, “I’m going to show you what we do with Christians!”
I was forcibly hauled out of the room and taken to another facility. My first reaction when I saw the place from the outside was that it was some kind of warehouse. When we entered the building, it was clear that it was a whole lot more than a warehouse. A large steel cage with vertical and horizontal bars was in the middle of the place. My initial estimate was that it was roughly 40 feet long by perhaps 16 feet wide.
But that wasn’t the focus. In the cage were perhaps 30 or 40 (or more) people who were in grotesque condition.
The Russian officer unlocked the door of the cage, threw me in and promptly left. The condition of these people was far worse than words can adequately convey. Their faces were chewed and gouged. Many of them were missing fingers, toes, hands, feet, and in some cases arms and legs or parts thereof. Some faces were missing noses and others eyes. They were literally attacking one another with intent to kill or destroy. Talk about “biting and devouring one another!”
Some had fashioned metal pieces around their arms or wrists and formed claws with which they struck at one another taking bits of flesh each time. A few were grabbing the wrists or legs of others and taking hunks of flesh and eating them. The blood was flowing profusely from the faces and bodies of most of them. They were resorting to cannibalism. The shock of what I saw literally woke me from my dream.
I awakened in horror wondering why in the world I was having this dream. Shaking myself awake I got myself a drink of water, used the restroom and headed back to bed.
* * * * * * * *
DREAM NUMBER ONE, Part 2
The dream picked up right where it had left off. As it resumed, it dawned on me that the reason these people were behaving in such animalistic ways was because they were starving. I saw that a ration of food was being brought to them, but it wasn’t enough to go around. As the food was delivered – literally dumped in – people scrambled for any portion they could get their hands on. The fighting ensued because there wasn’t enough to go around. They were literally biting and devouring one another because of it. Even those who did get some of the food were not getting enough to meet their needs. They were not satisfied. A few of them were near death.
It was likewise apparent to me that this had been going on for a long time. The bones that littered the outside of the cage were mute testimony to those who had been killed off.
The horror of what I was seeing was more than I could stand. When these caged people saw me they came after me, claws swiping at me. I ducked and dodged and lifted up my right hand toward them.
“This stops right now,” I commanded with a loud voice. Everyone froze momentarily.
Someone in the back of the group shouted, “Oh yeah? Just who do you think you are?”
“I’m a representative of the Kingdom of God and a servant, a messenger, a friend of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
With scarcely a pause I lifted my hand again and spoke loudly. “I command and declare peace in your midst in the name of Jesus.’
There was no time to waste. The words kept on coming. “And in the name of Jesus I declare and decree healing to all of you. Health! Wholeness! Restoration! Creative miracles for each of you!”
Throughout my many years of ministry I’ve seen creative miracles – restorative miracles, flesh renewed, new limbs grown – but what I saw unfold before my eyes was stunning! The mutilated and gouged faces suddenly became new. New noses appeared. Eyes appeared in formerly gouged-out sockets. Arms and legs appeared where people had lost them. New fingers and toes grew out. Scarred and bloody flesh healed over and became as new.
In a matter of a few moments every single person standing there was whole and restored! Metal implements that had been fashioned as weapons fell to the floor. I saw a people – all of whom had been thrown into this prison cage because they professed to be born-again, committed Christians – looked around at each with a very different gaze.
Remembering that all this butchery had begun because these folks were being starved to death, I again lifted up my hand.
“In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I command and decree a feast spread before you – an abundance from which to eat!”
Instantly a long table appeared in their midst spread with a feast fit for a king. I didn’t have to invite folks to eat. They began to eat ravenously. The feasting continued until every person was thorough satiated. The atmosphere in the cage changed rapidly. People began to turn to one another and repent. There was a display of love and forgiveness that went around that group the likes of which are hard to describe.
Suddenly I heard the door of the “warehouse” open and the Russian officer strode in. He was obviously expecting to either see my corpse or find me in the same condition as the rest of the people. He opened the door of the cage and looked in because he couldn’t believe what he was seeing through the bars.
Utter amazement flooded his face, then shock, and then tears. He fell to his knees in the gateway and began to cry out in repentance. In minutes he had accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
When he finally got to his feet, he turned to the people and began to openly apologize and repent for his behavior towards them. He said to me, “I’m so sorry! I had no idea of the reality of Jesus Christ. I thought this was some kind of religious myth.”
He continued, “You’re free to go.” He threw open the cage door and stood back. He turned again to face the others and said, “You, too, are free to go.”
In that moment it dawned on me that four years had passed since I had been seized and arrested. There had been no communication whatsoever between me and Della and no opportunity to let her know what had happened. I said to the officer, “Sir, I need to contact my wife. I need to get to a telephone and call her.”
He said, “Follow me,” took me back to the FSB headquarters and ushered me into a room where there was a telephone and opportunity for privacy. I called home and Della’s Mom answered the phone.
“We knew you would call. We’ve been praying and interceding for you.” She handed the telephone to Della who began to talk about the daily gatherings and nonstop intercession that had gone on for me.
“We knew the Lord was going to intervene for you and set you free.” Della went on to share how when no word had been forthcoming from me after departing for Moscow, she called the pastor who’d invited us in the first place. He had advised her that he’d been delayed in getting to the airport and later discovered that I’d been arrested.
There was an unshakeable confidence that despite the lack of word of any kind, God was at work in the situation. People in our fellowship, friends and fellow-believers spread abroad were contacted and the intercession began.
* * * * * * * *
Earlier I said that Della had a parallel dream which actually meshed into my dream. I’ll let her share her portion of this which began after I’d awakened from the first part of the dream, gotten my drink of water, used the restroom and gone back to bed.
* * * * * * * *
DREAM NUMBER TWO
In my dream I was gathered together with a large number of people in a home setting. Many of the faces were those of people I did not recognize, although there were many others that were.
We were obviously engaged in prayer and intercession. At first it was not clear to me why we were gathered in prayer or where the focus of our prayers was targeted. My looking around the room made it clear that Reg was not there and he was not a part of the gathering.
It took some time – and it was a bit later in the dream – that I realized that he was the focus of the prayer and intercession and that we were praying for his restoration. At that moment, however, it was not clear that the restoration was his being restored to us, or that he was actually missing and his whereabouts unknown. That was something the Holy Spirit showed me later – and particularly after awakening from my dream.
There were a number of declarations and decrees during the prayers being offered. Healing, restoration, cleansing, wholeness, health and resurrection life were all a part of the declaring taking place. The breaking of bondage and setting free were clearly a purposeful intent on the part of those praying.
One sister in the Lord who had been alienated from us for a number of years because she had earlier rejected a Word of correction and admonition was there. Restoration and healing in our relationship had obviously taken place. She was clinging to me like a magnet and often saying, “I want what you have in God – and more!”
At one point during the time of prayer, I had a glass in hand and I was handing it to someone. It slipped from my hand and shattered on the floor. The Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “The bondage has been broken and the prison doors have opened.”
At that moment I awoke from my dream unaware of the significance of what the Holy Spirit had said, or that it paralleled the moment in time when the door of the steel cage swung open for Reg and he was told that he was free to go.
* * * * * * * *
The spiritual parallels and the prophetic Word that the Holy Spirit gave us in and through these dreams – both to the body of Christ, and to the leaders and shepherds in the body – was far-reaching. That’s where we’ll go with the next Coffee Break.
The Holy Spirit is moving and operating in this day and age in non-traditional ways; and any attempts we make to box Him in or try to second-guess Him are doomed to failure. Those who are willing to hear what He has to say and are ready to “operate outside the box” will see and experience the Glory of the Lord!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Prosser, Washington 99350
(509) 515-0133
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.
Howdy, Howdy, Howdy!
Wow! Another week has gone by! Already, even.
Mmmmmm...........Mmmmmm.........Mmmmmm! Smell that aroma of that wonderful French Roasted Columbian Supremo! Now THERE's a smell to start the day with! The French Press is full and almost running over. Pour yourself a cup. There might even be one of those maple-covered "vitamins" lying around somewhere.
I’ve been promising for several weeks to share some rather remarkable experiences that Della and I had while at the Heaven & Earth-themed camp-meeting/conference in Red Deer, Alberta in July and August. On Saturday nite, August 7th, Della and I had parallel dreams. By that I mean that what I dreamed meshed with what Della dreamed and vice-versa. She actually dreamed the portion of a prophetic experience in which she fulfilled her commission from the Lord, just as I dreamed the portion of the same experience in which I fulfilled my commission.
DREAM NUMBER ONE, Part 1
Over the past months, we have been receiving multiple invitations to come and visit and minister in numerous places around the world – Kenya, Pakistan, India, and Ghana – even such faraway places as Alaska. (Grin!) We’ve yet to take folks up on those invitations, but that day seems just around the corner.
This dream began with an invitation from a pastor in Russia for Della and me to come and minister to a group of Christians in Moscow. That seemed rather fortuitous since I’d had an indication from the Lord some years ago that He would be sending me to Russia from time to time.
The time came for Della and me to board our flight to Moscow when I suddenly felt a check in my spirit. I said to Della, “Honey, I’m feeling something really strange or out of kilter concerning this trip. Though we rarely travel apart, this is one time when I think you should remain behind until I arrive and get a feel for the lay of the land. I’ll call you when I get situated and you can board the next flight.”
There was agreement between us that this was the best course to follow in view of the warning from the Holy Spirit and I went ahead and boarded the flight alone.
When my flight landed in Moscow, a fairly well-dressed gentleman met me at the plane and said he was there to escort me to my destination. Because I’d never met the pastor in person who’d invited me, I made the assumption that this man was the same individual. He acted as though he was the pastor, but never came out and said so. I should have caught it, but because of the newness of my surroundings and my attention on the very different scenery and skyline of the city, I was distracted enough not to actually verify who the gentleman was.
We got into what seemed to be a rather official-looking vehicle and I was taken into downtown Moscow. I was a bit surprised when we pulled up in front of what seemed to be a large government building. A church building or even a home would have been more expected. The gentleman escorted me into the building and it was then that I realized we were at the headquarters of the Russian secret police or FSB (what the old KGB evolved into).
My surprise evoked the comment, “Wow! What are we doing here?” My escort then introduced himself as an officer (obviously high officer) of the Russian police. I said to him, “I thought we were going to a church or perhaps a home.
Why are we here?” He responded that I was under arrest.
“Under arrest?” I exclaimed. “For what?”
“We received word that you were coming to Russia as an agent for the U.S. Government and that you are here as a spy.”
I couldn’t help but laugh uproariously. “You’ve got to be kidding? Me a spy? I’m a minister of the Gospel and a representative of the Kingdom of God. I’m not here to spy on anyone! I’m here to minister to the needs of people.”
The silliness of the accusation was hard to digest and I just shook my head in disbelief. The look on this officer’s face, however, was anything but genial and he obviously wasn’t buying my defense. He directed me to a rather bleak-looking room with nothing but a desk, a chair and a very plain and hard leather sofa. He left and I was alone in the room for some indeterminate length of time.
Sometime thereafter two other officers appeared indicating that I was to follow them. They led me to another location. It wasn’t a prison in the sense that I could see bars or barbed-wire fencing, but it was most certainly a secure location from which there was no easy escape. I might have likened it to “quarters for political prisoners.”
The surroundings were bleak at best. The room temperature was below normal. The walls of the rooms (there was a combination kitchen and living room, and a room with a very sparse bed) were a dull grey-green – uninviting to say the least. Once a day, I was brought an adequate, though not over-abundant meal. Since Della and I have been used to semi-fasting with one meal a day on many occasions, receiving only one meal a day was no big deal.
I was concerned, however, that I had not been able to contact Della. I’d been refused any telephone or mail privileges and I knew that she would wonder what in the world happened to me. At the same time, I knew that the check in my spirit that had prevented her from traveling with me would have had an impact on her; and I was sure she would have been making inquiries to track me down. At the very least, I was sure that she would be praying and interceding.
After days had turned into weeks, and weeks into months, time became almost meaningless. I really had no concept of how long I was being made a prisoner. No trial had taken place. No court proceedings had ensued. No official charges had been lodged against me to which I could answer.
It dawned on me one day that I was wasting perfectly good opportunities to be who I am in Christ Jesus, and to allow His grace, His love and His Glory to work through me to the few people I had daily contact with. Food was being brought to me daily by someone. There were other individuals who periodically checked in on me. I needed to begin ministering the love of the Lord Jesus Christ to them. And that’s exactly what I did.
My reaction from them at first was skeptical, then curious, then receptive. It seemed I was making some real headway.
One day the officer came to see me who had put me there in the first place. When I began to share the Lord with him, he became angry. The more I talked the angrier he became. Finally he could take no more. He grabbed me by the arm and said, “I’m going to show you what we do with Christians!”
I was forcibly hauled out of the room and taken to another facility. My first reaction when I saw the place from the outside was that it was some kind of warehouse. When we entered the building, it was clear that it was a whole lot more than a warehouse. A large steel cage with vertical and horizontal bars was in the middle of the place. My initial estimate was that it was roughly 40 feet long by perhaps 16 feet wide.
But that wasn’t the focus. In the cage were perhaps 30 or 40 (or more) people who were in grotesque condition.
The Russian officer unlocked the door of the cage, threw me in and promptly left. The condition of these people was far worse than words can adequately convey. Their faces were chewed and gouged. Many of them were missing fingers, toes, hands, feet, and in some cases arms and legs or parts thereof. Some faces were missing noses and others eyes. They were literally attacking one another with intent to kill or destroy. Talk about “biting and devouring one another!”
Some had fashioned metal pieces around their arms or wrists and formed claws with which they struck at one another taking bits of flesh each time. A few were grabbing the wrists or legs of others and taking hunks of flesh and eating them. The blood was flowing profusely from the faces and bodies of most of them. They were resorting to cannibalism. The shock of what I saw literally woke me from my dream.
I awakened in horror wondering why in the world I was having this dream. Shaking myself awake I got myself a drink of water, used the restroom and headed back to bed.
* * * * * * * *
DREAM NUMBER ONE, Part 2
The dream picked up right where it had left off. As it resumed, it dawned on me that the reason these people were behaving in such animalistic ways was because they were starving. I saw that a ration of food was being brought to them, but it wasn’t enough to go around. As the food was delivered – literally dumped in – people scrambled for any portion they could get their hands on. The fighting ensued because there wasn’t enough to go around. They were literally biting and devouring one another because of it. Even those who did get some of the food were not getting enough to meet their needs. They were not satisfied. A few of them were near death.
It was likewise apparent to me that this had been going on for a long time. The bones that littered the outside of the cage were mute testimony to those who had been killed off.
The horror of what I was seeing was more than I could stand. When these caged people saw me they came after me, claws swiping at me. I ducked and dodged and lifted up my right hand toward them.
“This stops right now,” I commanded with a loud voice. Everyone froze momentarily.
Someone in the back of the group shouted, “Oh yeah? Just who do you think you are?”
“I’m a representative of the Kingdom of God and a servant, a messenger, a friend of the Lord Jesus Christ.”
With scarcely a pause I lifted my hand again and spoke loudly. “I command and declare peace in your midst in the name of Jesus.’
There was no time to waste. The words kept on coming. “And in the name of Jesus I declare and decree healing to all of you. Health! Wholeness! Restoration! Creative miracles for each of you!”
Throughout my many years of ministry I’ve seen creative miracles – restorative miracles, flesh renewed, new limbs grown – but what I saw unfold before my eyes was stunning! The mutilated and gouged faces suddenly became new. New noses appeared. Eyes appeared in formerly gouged-out sockets. Arms and legs appeared where people had lost them. New fingers and toes grew out. Scarred and bloody flesh healed over and became as new.
In a matter of a few moments every single person standing there was whole and restored! Metal implements that had been fashioned as weapons fell to the floor. I saw a people – all of whom had been thrown into this prison cage because they professed to be born-again, committed Christians – looked around at each with a very different gaze.
Remembering that all this butchery had begun because these folks were being starved to death, I again lifted up my hand.
“In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ I command and decree a feast spread before you – an abundance from which to eat!”
Instantly a long table appeared in their midst spread with a feast fit for a king. I didn’t have to invite folks to eat. They began to eat ravenously. The feasting continued until every person was thorough satiated. The atmosphere in the cage changed rapidly. People began to turn to one another and repent. There was a display of love and forgiveness that went around that group the likes of which are hard to describe.
Suddenly I heard the door of the “warehouse” open and the Russian officer strode in. He was obviously expecting to either see my corpse or find me in the same condition as the rest of the people. He opened the door of the cage and looked in because he couldn’t believe what he was seeing through the bars.
Utter amazement flooded his face, then shock, and then tears. He fell to his knees in the gateway and began to cry out in repentance. In minutes he had accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.
When he finally got to his feet, he turned to the people and began to openly apologize and repent for his behavior towards them. He said to me, “I’m so sorry! I had no idea of the reality of Jesus Christ. I thought this was some kind of religious myth.”
He continued, “You’re free to go.” He threw open the cage door and stood back. He turned again to face the others and said, “You, too, are free to go.”
In that moment it dawned on me that four years had passed since I had been seized and arrested. There had been no communication whatsoever between me and Della and no opportunity to let her know what had happened. I said to the officer, “Sir, I need to contact my wife. I need to get to a telephone and call her.”
He said, “Follow me,” took me back to the FSB headquarters and ushered me into a room where there was a telephone and opportunity for privacy. I called home and Della’s Mom answered the phone.
“We knew you would call. We’ve been praying and interceding for you.” She handed the telephone to Della who began to talk about the daily gatherings and nonstop intercession that had gone on for me.
“We knew the Lord was going to intervene for you and set you free.” Della went on to share how when no word had been forthcoming from me after departing for Moscow, she called the pastor who’d invited us in the first place. He had advised her that he’d been delayed in getting to the airport and later discovered that I’d been arrested.
There was an unshakeable confidence that despite the lack of word of any kind, God was at work in the situation. People in our fellowship, friends and fellow-believers spread abroad were contacted and the intercession began.
* * * * * * * *
Earlier I said that Della had a parallel dream which actually meshed into my dream. I’ll let her share her portion of this which began after I’d awakened from the first part of the dream, gotten my drink of water, used the restroom and gone back to bed.
* * * * * * * *
DREAM NUMBER TWO
In my dream I was gathered together with a large number of people in a home setting. Many of the faces were those of people I did not recognize, although there were many others that were.
We were obviously engaged in prayer and intercession. At first it was not clear to me why we were gathered in prayer or where the focus of our prayers was targeted. My looking around the room made it clear that Reg was not there and he was not a part of the gathering.
It took some time – and it was a bit later in the dream – that I realized that he was the focus of the prayer and intercession and that we were praying for his restoration. At that moment, however, it was not clear that the restoration was his being restored to us, or that he was actually missing and his whereabouts unknown. That was something the Holy Spirit showed me later – and particularly after awakening from my dream.
There were a number of declarations and decrees during the prayers being offered. Healing, restoration, cleansing, wholeness, health and resurrection life were all a part of the declaring taking place. The breaking of bondage and setting free were clearly a purposeful intent on the part of those praying.
One sister in the Lord who had been alienated from us for a number of years because she had earlier rejected a Word of correction and admonition was there. Restoration and healing in our relationship had obviously taken place. She was clinging to me like a magnet and often saying, “I want what you have in God – and more!”
At one point during the time of prayer, I had a glass in hand and I was handing it to someone. It slipped from my hand and shattered on the floor. The Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “The bondage has been broken and the prison doors have opened.”
At that moment I awoke from my dream unaware of the significance of what the Holy Spirit had said, or that it paralleled the moment in time when the door of the steel cage swung open for Reg and he was told that he was free to go.
* * * * * * * *
The spiritual parallels and the prophetic Word that the Holy Spirit gave us in and through these dreams – both to the body of Christ, and to the leaders and shepherds in the body – was far-reaching. That’s where we’ll go with the next Coffee Break.
The Holy Spirit is moving and operating in this day and age in non-traditional ways; and any attempts we make to box Him in or try to second-guess Him are doomed to failure. Those who are willing to hear what He has to say and are ready to “operate outside the box” will see and experience the Glory of the Lord!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Prosser, Washington 99350
(509) 515-0133
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.
Thursday, October 7, 2010
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: KEYS OF THE KINGDOM XIII
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: KEYS OF THE KINGDOM XIII
Coffee’s on! Come and get it! Yummm…..Smell that aroma? …..Mmmm…Hmmm!
Today we’ll wrap this series. Moving right along….
RELEASING THE HOSTS OF HEAVEN FOR BATTLE
For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been considering the Laws of Quantum Physics as they relate to Observation and Envisioning, Believing what we see in our anointed imagination, Speaking what we hear Father say, and releasing Faith so that the necessary substance of that which we see is transported from the dimension of the Heavenlies — the Spirit Realm — to the natural, time-space realm.
For all practical purposes the Quantum Physics defines the Laws of Faith.
We ended our discussion in our last Coffee Break with Psalm 149, and that’s where I’d like to pick up today. As we’ve already noted, David had a clear revelation of how to utilize the Keys of the Kingdom, and he saw how to apply those keys — authority and power — with the tongue.
Let’s look at one other Scripture before we review Psalm 149:
Proverbs 18:21: Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
There’s an old cliché we’re all familiar with that goes something like this: Whatever you eat is what you become.
Let me paraphrase Proverbs 18:21 so that this makes a bit more sense.
Proverbs 18:21: Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love death or life shall have whatever they speak. Speak death, either about yourself or towards someone else, and that’s what you’ll get; speak life, either about yourself or towards someone else, and that’s what you’ll get.
Make sense? Good! Now we can move on to Psalm 149.
Psalm 149-1-9: Praise (halal) ye the LORD. Sing (shiyr) unto the LORD a new song, and his praise (tehillah) in the congregation of saints.
Before we go to the next verse, let’s pause to consider just what David is saying here.
“[You] Halal the Lord!” This is an extraordinary phrase in Hebrew! It is a directive to rave, to foolishly, clamorously, noisily celebrate the Lord! But there’s another aspect of this word, halal. It also means to release light, to cause to shine!
And how does David say to do this?
“Start walking, strolling with an instrument in hand — shiyr — verbalizing and vocalizing with your voice a new sound, a bold, fresh song out of the Spirit; and with it, a tehillah (*specific hymns that designate glory to the Lord) in the midst of the gathering of saints.”
(*The specific hymns referred to are as follows: Psalm 22:4, Psalm 22:26, Psalm 48:11, Psalm 51:17, Psalm 66:2 and Psalm 145:1.) Each time you see a reference to the term “hymn” in the Psalms, it makes reference to one or more of these passages.
Let Israel rejoice (samach) in Him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful (giyl) in their King.
Here again is a two-fold command for verbal and physical expressions of joy. The word “samach” denotes a loud expression of joy “as of those who make merry with wine [Gesenius]” whereas “giyl” describes spinning around under the influence of violent emotion (as in the physical sensation of being thrilled.)
Let them praise (halal) his name in the dance (machol: round, twisting, whirling dance): let them sing praises (zamar: to strike a percussion instrument or pluck upon strings) unto him with the timbrel (toph: tambourine or tabret) and harp (kinnor: [although this generally describes a harp, it also denotes any of a group of stringed instruments].
Are you seeing the picture so far? Nowhere in these commands is there a picture of somber quietness. This boisterous, demonstrative, verbal, noisy, let-out-all-the-stops creating of sounds literally rocks the spirit world back on its heels.
For the LORD taketh pleasure (ratsah: to set one’s affection upon, to be satisfied) in his people: he will beautify (pa.ar: embellish, vaunt) the meek (anav: humble) with salvation (Yeshua: deliverance, aid, prosperity, welfare, health, salvation).
The hosts of Heaven have been released for battle. In the midst of this boisterous, Katy-bar-the-door release of the rhema, God is being magnified in the midst of His people.
Authority and power are on display! Substance is being transferred from the Heavenlies — the eternal realm — to this time-space dimension in which we live.
Let the saints be joyful (alaz: exult, jump for joy) in glory (kabod: weight, splendor, copiousness): let them sing aloud (ranan: shout, sing with excitement at the top of their voice) upon their beds.
UNDERSTANDING THE POWER OF THE TONGUE IN PRAISE
This is war, folks! We’re releasing Heaven on Earth. We’re taking back territory that Satan has stolen by way of deception, trickery and treachery from the people of God. When you go to war, things are not very quiet! Notice, too, that we can do this even in our sleep, while we’re in bed or simply in quiet meditative repose.
Let the high praises (ròmemah: exaltation, celebration, lifting up, magnifying) of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword** in their hand; To execute vengeance (neqamah: to avenge evil done upon God’s people by slaughter — annihilating) upon the heathen (goy: foreigner — used metaphorically of those alienated to and from God), and punishments upon the people (leòm: those gathered together, a community, a nation);
**Note: the concept of a two-edged sword in their hand has both a literal and a metaphorical meaning. The literal, of course, does refer to the use of a broadsword as used in ancient battles, and was an effective weapon in the hands of a skilled warrior.
The metaphoric use of this phrase relates to David’s cry of exaltation in Psalm 144:1 when He says, “Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight.” In this instance, David is referring to the use of his hands and his fingers in playing various instruments.
Thus, both hands and voices are employed to defeat Satan!
Once again we see the tongue at work doing battle. The important thing for all to remember is that the tongue is releasing glory and magnification in exalting God — NOT speaking out against personalities or naming people by name who’ve been used by the Enemy (see Ephesians 6:12). When the high praises of God are released, the Hosts of Heaven go forth breaking the power of the Enemy over God’s people. Watch how David describes this in the next two verses.
To bind (asar: to yoke, to harness, to hold, to make prisoner) their kings with chains, and their nobles (kabad: the “heavy ones”; weighty; used metaphorically to describe those who throw their weight around to influence and alter the course of affairs in business or society) with fetters of iron;
What was it that Jesus said to the disciples?
BINDING AND LOOSENING IN PRAISE
“And I will give you the authority and power to lock and unlock Heaven so what whatever you bind, restrict or stop on earth shall be, having been already bound, restricted or stopped in Heaven."
That’s precisely what is being exercised in the midst of praise, high praise, dancing, jumping, skipping, whirling and shouting at the top of your voice in magnifying the Lord: authority and power.
To execute upon them the judgment (mishpat: verdict, the sentence or decree of Divine Law) written: this honour (hadar: beauty, glory, magnificence, majesty) have all his saints. Praise ye the LORD (Yowd Hey Vav Hey).
Allow me to digress here momentarily. Each time we see the use of the term “Lord” in the 149th Psalm it is either the full Tetragrammaton or the abbreviated form “Yah.” That said, I will remind you of what the apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians:
Philippians 29-11: Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him THE name (onoma) which is above every name (onoma): That at the name (onoma) of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord ( Yowd Hey Vav Hey), to the glory of God the Father.
See the picture? We exalt the name — the onoma — the character, the very essence and makeup, the glory and magnificence of the Lord Jesus Christ and all that He is in the midst of our “halals.” As we “samach” (loudly rejoice and make merry) in the midst of our “giyls” (spinning around under the influence of violent motion) we are letting the entire angelic and spirit world see and know that our Lord — Jesus Christ — is King of Kings and Lord of Lords! We put the entire spirit world on notice in so doing.
Next, we “machol” the Lord (praise and glorify the Lord in the round, whirling dance). At the same time we send our hands to war and our fingers to fight as we “zamar” the Lord in praise by plucking the strings of our instruments, playing our keyboards and striking our percussion instruments such as the drums, the tambourines and the tabrets.
OUR PRAISE CAUSES THE LORD TO BOAST HIMSELF IN US
David tells us that as we do so the Lord takes great pleasure in us. He expresses His satisfaction and delight in us by vaunting and embellishing us. The whole concept of “vaunting” means that the Lord is boasting to the angelic and spirit realm of His goodness and His works in us, and in what He is doing and accomplishing through us.
In the midst of His boasting — and bear in mind once again, that He is the one doing the boasting, NOT us — He releases deliverance to His people who are in captivity. He causes healing and health to flow in those who are infirm or sick and diseased.
He sends His angels to provide aid and assistance to those in need or in peril. He releases salvation and forgiveness to His people.
And there’s more!
In the midst of our “machol” and “zamar” prosperity and abundance begins to flow in order to ensure that the people of God are showing and experiencing the blessing of the Lord in a tangible way.
Remember! We are kings. We are lords. Kings and lords are not poverty-stricken. Jesus Christ is our King and Lord and He’s not about to display anything less than who He is and what He is in the midst of His people!
Remember what John wrote of Jesus?
John 10:10: The thief cometh not but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy; I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
And David confirms this.
Psalm 36:7-9: How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore shall the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures. For with Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light.
Psalm 132:13-16: For the Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation. This is My rest forever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy the poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation (Yeshua): and her priests shall shout aloud for joy.
In this instance Isaiah is prophesying of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why did Isaiah and Amos prophesy that the Lord would again raise up the tabernacle of David instead of the temple? Why David’s tabernacle and not the temple he designed?
And why did the Angel of the Lord tell John to prophesy to the Ekklesia in Philadelphia concerning the Key of David instead of using the same term that Jesus used — the Keys of the Kingdom — when he talked to the disciples?
If you’ve been following the discussion concerning the laws of Quantum Physics and how they relate to the release of faith through seeing, envisioning, believing and speaking, you’ll now be able to connect those laws with why, in a span of 33 years, David forever altered the character and nature of the nation of Israel and laid the foundations for Kingdom rulership in the earth.
You should be able to now see and understand why David is referred to by the Lord as “a man after God’s own heart.”
David had a grasp of the spiritual laws that would alter the course of history for Israel. He had a revelation of what it took to bring Kingdom prosperity back to the earth. He knew what it took to take down giants and strike down the armies and forces of the enemy — no matter how large they were proportionately to the visible forces and might he had to work with.
David understood the Keys of the Kingdom, and he used them in a very practical way! He had a revelation of the Lord like no one of his generation – nor, in fact, of anyone who preceded the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the angel referred in Revelation 3 to “the Key of David” he was literally referring to David. David was the key in Israel because he knew what activated the Keys of the Kingdom – the Authority and Power of Yowd Hey Vav Hey Yeshua Ha-Mashiach: The King of Kings and Lord of Lords manifested and demonstrated in active, all the stops-out, praise and worship!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Prosser, Washington 99350
(509) 515-0133
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.
Coffee’s on! Come and get it! Yummm…..Smell that aroma? …..Mmmm…Hmmm!
Today we’ll wrap this series. Moving right along….
RELEASING THE HOSTS OF HEAVEN FOR BATTLE
For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been considering the Laws of Quantum Physics as they relate to Observation and Envisioning, Believing what we see in our anointed imagination, Speaking what we hear Father say, and releasing Faith so that the necessary substance of that which we see is transported from the dimension of the Heavenlies — the Spirit Realm — to the natural, time-space realm.
For all practical purposes the Quantum Physics defines the Laws of Faith.
We ended our discussion in our last Coffee Break with Psalm 149, and that’s where I’d like to pick up today. As we’ve already noted, David had a clear revelation of how to utilize the Keys of the Kingdom, and he saw how to apply those keys — authority and power — with the tongue.
Let’s look at one other Scripture before we review Psalm 149:
Proverbs 18:21: Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
There’s an old cliché we’re all familiar with that goes something like this: Whatever you eat is what you become.
Let me paraphrase Proverbs 18:21 so that this makes a bit more sense.
Proverbs 18:21: Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love death or life shall have whatever they speak. Speak death, either about yourself or towards someone else, and that’s what you’ll get; speak life, either about yourself or towards someone else, and that’s what you’ll get.
Make sense? Good! Now we can move on to Psalm 149.
Psalm 149-1-9: Praise (halal) ye the LORD. Sing (shiyr) unto the LORD a new song, and his praise (tehillah) in the congregation of saints.
Before we go to the next verse, let’s pause to consider just what David is saying here.
“[You] Halal the Lord!” This is an extraordinary phrase in Hebrew! It is a directive to rave, to foolishly, clamorously, noisily celebrate the Lord! But there’s another aspect of this word, halal. It also means to release light, to cause to shine!
And how does David say to do this?
“Start walking, strolling with an instrument in hand — shiyr — verbalizing and vocalizing with your voice a new sound, a bold, fresh song out of the Spirit; and with it, a tehillah (*specific hymns that designate glory to the Lord) in the midst of the gathering of saints.”
(*The specific hymns referred to are as follows: Psalm 22:4, Psalm 22:26, Psalm 48:11, Psalm 51:17, Psalm 66:2 and Psalm 145:1.) Each time you see a reference to the term “hymn” in the Psalms, it makes reference to one or more of these passages.
Let Israel rejoice (samach) in Him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful (giyl) in their King.
Here again is a two-fold command for verbal and physical expressions of joy. The word “samach” denotes a loud expression of joy “as of those who make merry with wine [Gesenius]” whereas “giyl” describes spinning around under the influence of violent emotion (as in the physical sensation of being thrilled.)
Let them praise (halal) his name in the dance (machol: round, twisting, whirling dance): let them sing praises (zamar: to strike a percussion instrument or pluck upon strings) unto him with the timbrel (toph: tambourine or tabret) and harp (kinnor: [although this generally describes a harp, it also denotes any of a group of stringed instruments].
Are you seeing the picture so far? Nowhere in these commands is there a picture of somber quietness. This boisterous, demonstrative, verbal, noisy, let-out-all-the-stops creating of sounds literally rocks the spirit world back on its heels.
For the LORD taketh pleasure (ratsah: to set one’s affection upon, to be satisfied) in his people: he will beautify (pa.ar: embellish, vaunt) the meek (anav: humble) with salvation (Yeshua: deliverance, aid, prosperity, welfare, health, salvation).
The hosts of Heaven have been released for battle. In the midst of this boisterous, Katy-bar-the-door release of the rhema, God is being magnified in the midst of His people.
Authority and power are on display! Substance is being transferred from the Heavenlies — the eternal realm — to this time-space dimension in which we live.
Let the saints be joyful (alaz: exult, jump for joy) in glory (kabod: weight, splendor, copiousness): let them sing aloud (ranan: shout, sing with excitement at the top of their voice) upon their beds.
UNDERSTANDING THE POWER OF THE TONGUE IN PRAISE
This is war, folks! We’re releasing Heaven on Earth. We’re taking back territory that Satan has stolen by way of deception, trickery and treachery from the people of God. When you go to war, things are not very quiet! Notice, too, that we can do this even in our sleep, while we’re in bed or simply in quiet meditative repose.
Let the high praises (ròmemah: exaltation, celebration, lifting up, magnifying) of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword** in their hand; To execute vengeance (neqamah: to avenge evil done upon God’s people by slaughter — annihilating) upon the heathen (goy: foreigner — used metaphorically of those alienated to and from God), and punishments upon the people (leòm: those gathered together, a community, a nation);
**Note: the concept of a two-edged sword in their hand has both a literal and a metaphorical meaning. The literal, of course, does refer to the use of a broadsword as used in ancient battles, and was an effective weapon in the hands of a skilled warrior.
The metaphoric use of this phrase relates to David’s cry of exaltation in Psalm 144:1 when He says, “Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war and my fingers to fight.” In this instance, David is referring to the use of his hands and his fingers in playing various instruments.
Thus, both hands and voices are employed to defeat Satan!
Once again we see the tongue at work doing battle. The important thing for all to remember is that the tongue is releasing glory and magnification in exalting God — NOT speaking out against personalities or naming people by name who’ve been used by the Enemy (see Ephesians 6:12). When the high praises of God are released, the Hosts of Heaven go forth breaking the power of the Enemy over God’s people. Watch how David describes this in the next two verses.
To bind (asar: to yoke, to harness, to hold, to make prisoner) their kings with chains, and their nobles (kabad: the “heavy ones”; weighty; used metaphorically to describe those who throw their weight around to influence and alter the course of affairs in business or society) with fetters of iron;
What was it that Jesus said to the disciples?
BINDING AND LOOSENING IN PRAISE
“And I will give you the authority and power to lock and unlock Heaven so what whatever you bind, restrict or stop on earth shall be, having been already bound, restricted or stopped in Heaven."
That’s precisely what is being exercised in the midst of praise, high praise, dancing, jumping, skipping, whirling and shouting at the top of your voice in magnifying the Lord: authority and power.
To execute upon them the judgment (mishpat: verdict, the sentence or decree of Divine Law) written: this honour (hadar: beauty, glory, magnificence, majesty) have all his saints. Praise ye the LORD (Yowd Hey Vav Hey).
Allow me to digress here momentarily. Each time we see the use of the term “Lord” in the 149th Psalm it is either the full Tetragrammaton or the abbreviated form “Yah.” That said, I will remind you of what the apostle Paul wrote to the Philippians:
Philippians 29-11: Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him THE name (onoma) which is above every name (onoma): That at the name (onoma) of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord ( Yowd Hey Vav Hey), to the glory of God the Father.
See the picture? We exalt the name — the onoma — the character, the very essence and makeup, the glory and magnificence of the Lord Jesus Christ and all that He is in the midst of our “halals.” As we “samach” (loudly rejoice and make merry) in the midst of our “giyls” (spinning around under the influence of violent motion) we are letting the entire angelic and spirit world see and know that our Lord — Jesus Christ — is King of Kings and Lord of Lords! We put the entire spirit world on notice in so doing.
Next, we “machol” the Lord (praise and glorify the Lord in the round, whirling dance). At the same time we send our hands to war and our fingers to fight as we “zamar” the Lord in praise by plucking the strings of our instruments, playing our keyboards and striking our percussion instruments such as the drums, the tambourines and the tabrets.
OUR PRAISE CAUSES THE LORD TO BOAST HIMSELF IN US
David tells us that as we do so the Lord takes great pleasure in us. He expresses His satisfaction and delight in us by vaunting and embellishing us. The whole concept of “vaunting” means that the Lord is boasting to the angelic and spirit realm of His goodness and His works in us, and in what He is doing and accomplishing through us.
In the midst of His boasting — and bear in mind once again, that He is the one doing the boasting, NOT us — He releases deliverance to His people who are in captivity. He causes healing and health to flow in those who are infirm or sick and diseased.
He sends His angels to provide aid and assistance to those in need or in peril. He releases salvation and forgiveness to His people.
And there’s more!
In the midst of our “machol” and “zamar” prosperity and abundance begins to flow in order to ensure that the people of God are showing and experiencing the blessing of the Lord in a tangible way.
Remember! We are kings. We are lords. Kings and lords are not poverty-stricken. Jesus Christ is our King and Lord and He’s not about to display anything less than who He is and what He is in the midst of His people!
Remember what John wrote of Jesus?
John 10:10: The thief cometh not but for to steal, to kill, and to destroy; I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
And David confirms this.
Psalm 36:7-9: How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God! Therefore shall the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures. For with Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light.
Psalm 132:13-16: For the Lord hath chosen Zion; He hath desired it for His habitation. This is My rest forever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it. I will abundantly bless her provision: I will satisfy the poor with bread. I will also clothe her priests with salvation (Yeshua): and her priests shall shout aloud for joy.
In this instance Isaiah is prophesying of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why did Isaiah and Amos prophesy that the Lord would again raise up the tabernacle of David instead of the temple? Why David’s tabernacle and not the temple he designed?
And why did the Angel of the Lord tell John to prophesy to the Ekklesia in Philadelphia concerning the Key of David instead of using the same term that Jesus used — the Keys of the Kingdom — when he talked to the disciples?
If you’ve been following the discussion concerning the laws of Quantum Physics and how they relate to the release of faith through seeing, envisioning, believing and speaking, you’ll now be able to connect those laws with why, in a span of 33 years, David forever altered the character and nature of the nation of Israel and laid the foundations for Kingdom rulership in the earth.
You should be able to now see and understand why David is referred to by the Lord as “a man after God’s own heart.”
David had a grasp of the spiritual laws that would alter the course of history for Israel. He had a revelation of what it took to bring Kingdom prosperity back to the earth. He knew what it took to take down giants and strike down the armies and forces of the enemy — no matter how large they were proportionately to the visible forces and might he had to work with.
David understood the Keys of the Kingdom, and he used them in a very practical way! He had a revelation of the Lord like no one of his generation – nor, in fact, of anyone who preceded the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. When the angel referred in Revelation 3 to “the Key of David” he was literally referring to David. David was the key in Israel because he knew what activated the Keys of the Kingdom – the Authority and Power of Yowd Hey Vav Hey Yeshua Ha-Mashiach: The King of Kings and Lord of Lords manifested and demonstrated in active, all the stops-out, praise and worship!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Prosser, Washington 99350
(509) 515-0133
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.
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