ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: HEAVEN XII: Jeremiah
Howdy, Howdy, Howdy!
During the last three weeks or so, Della has been experiencing increasing pain in her jaw from what turns out to be an abscessed tooth. She’s been having dental work done, and our dentist, Dr. James Stevens, has been giving her antibiotics to bring down the infection. The antibiotics have not worked adequately and yesterday, with the pain at an absolute crescendo, Jim opened it up and irrigated the area within the tooth.
Della said that when the infection began to flush out it smelled worse than the sewer. The stuff coming out of her mouth was incredibly rank. When the irrigation procedure was finished it had made a huge difference in her pain level. There’s still more work to be done (and expected to be completed over the next few weeks), but the reason I’m sharing this is because of something the Holy Spirit spoke to Della as she experienced the smell of the poison coming out of her mouth.
“This is a picture of a situation that exists in the Body of Christ right now,” Della heard the Holy Spirit say. “So many Christians have death in their mouth. The words that they speak towards one another, or towards leaders throughout the Body with whom they disagree, or towards those who embrace doctrines they either don’t understand or feel are heretical, are nothing short of excrement in my ears and in my sight. They are a stench to me!”
No kidding! There are fistfuls of believers who think nothing of blasting this movement or that movement, speaking all manner of evil against leaders and preachers with whom they disagree. Somehow they’ve anointed themselves to be the arbiters of what truth is and what heresy is. All you have to do is go into any search engine online and type in the name of some prominent evangelist, prophet or leader and you wind up getting links to scores of posts which delight in roasting that person.
Just as an example, in my last Coffee Break I mentioned the fact that we have partnered with Kenneth Copeland and Jesse Duplantis (among others) in their ministry efforts over the past few years. From some of the unbelievably hateful responses I received, you’d have thought we were partnering with Satan. The word that came to Della in that dental chair could not have been more accurate or timelier (and she was totally unaware at the time of the email responses I’d been receiving). The Holy Spirit finished His Word to Della with the following:
“Just as you have needed your mouth to be flushed and irrigated in order to be cleaned of the infection and poison, so does the Body of Christ also need its mouth flushed and irrigated. The words that come forth out of the mouths of Christians must reflect the life, the health, the healing and the wholeness that is in Christ Jesus and not the hate and venom that comes from the Accuser of the Brethren. That infection and contamination can never be a part of the speech of My people if they expect to be the solution to the sin, sickness and death in the world.”
That word could not have been more graphic! It was a perfect illustration. Let me share a quick personal experience for clarity and we’ll move on.
I was just thinking back to an experience Della and I had some years ago when the Lord first began to emphasize to us the need to alter the way we speak of other believers and leaders in the Body of Christ – and especially those with whom we vehemently disagree. Della happened to be traveling in the southeast doing her jewelry shows. In a hotel one night listening to a preacher on TV for just a few minutes – one with whom we often disagreed – the Lord said to her, “I want you to sow a $1,000 seed into that ministry.” She immediately began to argue with the Lord about it, but He made it abundantly clear that we were to do this.
She called me on the phone and told me what the Lord was saying and I began to sputter, “But, but, but … this guy isn’t …” and I never got to finish what I wanted to say. I began arguing with the Lord that this particular preacher wasn’t a man of integrity when it came to finances. Wow! Did I ever feel His disapproval! He simply said to me, “I trust him, and that’s all that matters.” Yikes! Got the message!! Brother, did I ever!
We sowed that seed as soon as it was possible. The Lord honored our obedience and multiplied it back to us many times over. He also taught us to shut up when it came to speaking out against preachers with whom we had issues and leave the judging to Him. You see, we judge by outward appearances, by what we hear and see and think we know; but the Lord judges them by their heart, by their obedience to Him and what He has commanded them specifically. That’s what counts in His sight.
We don’t get a vote in the matter, and we don’t get to decide whether folks are pleasing the Lord or not. We don’t get to criticize them. That’s not our privilege. God frequently calls flawed men and women to His service. He is the one who qualifies and justifies those whom He calls. What we do get to do – and are so commanded – is to pray for them and intercede on their behalf.
Della’s experience was a fresh reminder that the Body of Christ needs to be warned on this subject. Otherwise they are touching the anointing (and the anointed) of the Lord – and He has issued strong warnings against those who do! There are personal consequences folks don’t even want to think about.
The way the book of Jeremiah opens up makes it apparent that Jeremiah was pretty young when the Lord first called him to be a prophet. God’s instruction to him to “Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak” was of particular interest to me because of my earlier experiences with angels, and the fact that Jesus had appeared to me at age seven and called me.
When he was first introduced to me, he wasn’t anything like I had envisioned. My mental image of Jeremiah stemmed from his being frail and pretty thin following his having been pulled from the mire in the dungeon in the days of the king, Zedekiah, where he was close to starving to death. You wouldn’t call him muscular, but he sure was fit and in great physical condition. My guess was that he stood roughly 5’10” in height.
My questions to Jeremiah began with the subject of his very youthful call by the Lord. “You were obviously surprised when you heard the Lord call you. Did you see Him? Did He appear to you in person? Or did you just hear His voice in your being?”
“I was about your age,” he answered. “In those days, people didn’t see angels very often but God has a way of speaking into you so clearly that no one could ever mistake Him for anyone else. That’s the way I heard Him.”
“You are basically saying the same thing that Abraham said to me when I asked him a similar question,” I responded. “His answer to me was that ‘when you’ve heard the voice of God, there is no other voice.’”
“That’s right,” he said, nodding his head. “There are many voices in the world, and many sounds, but when a person hears the voice of God, it isn’t a voice anyone – Satan included – can counterfeit. There is absolute authority when He speaks. There is a sound to His voice unlike any other. There is complete peace. Once you’ve heard Him no one will ever convince you otherwise.
“I’m sure Satan would like to copy Him as much as possible, but there is no peace in his voice – no peace, whatever! And, his voice lacks authority. Deception is his major tactic, but if you are paying attention to the sound of his voice, you quickly realize who is speaking.”
“When the Lord first began to give you His Word to deliver to the nation and to the kings, you were still young like me, weren’t you?” I asked.
“Yes. And that was why He told me that I would go to whomever He sent me, and that I was to speak boldly whatever He instructed. When I first went into the streets of Jerusalem to declare His Word, He used my young age as an illustration of what He was saying to the nation. My size and age became a visible sign to them of His Word.”
Jeremiah continued. “You, my young friend, are being prepared and groomed by the Lord to deliver His Word. Though that day is not yet, there is a time appointed for you by Father God to deliver His Word to the nation, and to many leaders. A day will come when you will speak to kings, to governors, to leaders in all walks of life and at every level of society. God will have prepared His Word in you in such a way that you will be His Word.”
Jeremiah’s statement was something that would become embedded in the core of my being, and a Word that Holy Spirit would later confirm again and again.
I am reminded of how in the years since that Word would be executed in me. My first experience came when I was given the opportunity to lay hands on the native King of the Solomon Islands. That followed a few years later when I was sent to deliver a prophetic word to the governor of Alaska – a word, incidentally, which the governor received and which altered the course of affairs for the whole state as well as shaking up Alaska’s political world. Not long thereafter I was instructed to pour oil upon and commission a young woman to become the City Manager in place of a corrupt predecessor in Barrow, Alaska. That took place seven months before the corrupt manager was indicted and removed from office.
And those are but a few of the events that have followed as the Word of the Lord has been being built and established in me. And it continues to this day.
Throughout the years I’ve heard Jeremiah often referred to as “the weeping prophet.” That certainly was not the way that he came across to me in our conversation, although I could perhaps get a sense of why some folks would think that as we continued talking.
“One of the things that is true today in your world, as much as it was in my time, is the fact that the priests and prophets (you don’t call them that – you use over-generalized terms like “pastor” or “evangelist” or “missionary” of your age fall into the same traps that they did in my day. As the Word of the Lord is being revealed throughout the years and truths lost throughout the centuries are being restored to God’s people, those in places of leadership tend to fear what they perceive as change or alteration to what they’ve preached.
“I’m sure that you’ve heard the phrase “comfortable gospel” or “comfort zone” growing up in church. If you remember some of the prophecies the Lord gave to me concerning Israel’s spiritual leaders, you’ll remember this:
“For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them every one is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.”
“The covetousness spoken of by the Lord isn’t necessarily referring to money or possessions. It applies to the positions of authority and influence. When these “covetous” leaders hear something that could take away from their places of power, they tend to quiet the mouths of those who would speak or share something contrary to their traditional and often “comfortable” doctrines – teachings that won’t disturb the status quo and cause people to begin seeking after something besides that which they offer.”
Jeremiah continued, “You, my young friend, are going to encounter this in the years to come. The Lord will reveal things to you that you must share with God’s people – truths that have not been taught or emphasized, and truths that are critical to their spiritual growth and understanding of their relationship to Him. You will encounter opposition from many leaders and people regarded as “elders.” Just as God said to me, ‘Be not afraid of their faces, for I am with thee to deliver thee,’ I’m saying the same thing to you. Do not – under any circumstances – allow the intimidation of those in high places to alter or influence the Word that Father God gives you to speak. Deliver it exactly as He says whether people like it or not.”
It was a sobering but critically important message for me to consider and hang on to. To some of those of you who read this it may seem like a pretty stern message to give to someone not yet ten years of age, but it was a strong Word from the Lord that was permanently etched in my spirit from that moment on. I had good reason to remember that instruction many years later when I stood before a group of pastors and church leaders whom I loved and respected and rebuked them with Jeremiah’s words for not teaching and preaching the truth of the message of deliverance from evil spirits.
(They had been preaching that once a person is ‘saved’ he is automatically free from evil spirits. There is nothing automatic about it. We’ve been given the authority as believers to kick out demons, but if we don’t exercise that authority we’ll never be completely free!)
True to the Word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah, these leaders fought against me and ordered that I was not to even enter any of their churches. Also true to the Word of the Lord, He was with me to deliver me and some years later, the senior pastor in this group repented and asked for my forgiveness. Every one of their churches ultimately began preaching the message of deliverance.
My conversation with Jeremiah ended on the subject that had colored my imagination of him as frail and weak.
“You remember,” I queried, “how during the reign of Zedekiah some of the captains and elders of the people got the king’s permission to throw you into prison, and then into a muddy pit to let you die? You were there long enough that your body became so weak and frail they finally had to haul you out with dirty old rags because your flesh would have ripped apart had they used coarse ropes. Did you ever feel like the Lord had gone back on His Word to deliver you during the days or weeks you struggled to stay alive?”
“Never,” he responded. “It never crossed my mind. I knew this was just part of my journey as a prophet to a rebellious nation. The nation as a large part had rejected God’s leadership and had gone chasing after false gods that would allow them to live as they pleased. Sure, there were many people who followed after the Law of Moses and the traditions of the Elders but as Isaiah before me had mourned, God was sick of their burnt offerings and sacrifices. They had become meaningless traditions – religious practices without life or significance.
“You can expect persecution, imprisonment, slander, false accusations and terrible treatment at the hands of those who reject the Word of the Lord – especially when they are afraid of the people they serve and fear for the loss of their status and position. God had never failed to deliver me in the past. I had no reason to think He was suddenly going to forsake His promises me.”
“How did you cope with the long darkness and the ick of the mud for so long?” I asked.
“You can’t even think about it,” he answered. “If you do you’ll be constantly in torment. The answer to that kind of predicament is to focus on the Lord and to remember what His promises are to you. Another thing you can do – and should do – is to sing praises to the Lord. Keep your focus on Him no matter how long it takes. He will deliver you as He has promised.”
Jeremiah’s counsel to me was etched indelibly in my spirit and in my subconscious. Throughout all the years of ministry since, his words and his instruction have been triggered in my memory whenever events have turned against me because of the Word of the Lord.
Two prophets remained yet for me to visit, and I was anxious to meet them. My conversations with Isaiah and Jeremiah had been both uplifting and encouraging – really important, in fact – and I was excited to have the opportunity to talk to Ezekiel and Daniel.
Next: HEAVEN XIII: Ezekiel.
A shaking is going on the midst of God’s people! Jesus is coming back for a Bride without spot or wrinkle. It is imperative that we as His people yield to the fire of the Holy Spirit and the purification processes He is bringing us to. The fire is not for our destruction, it is to get rid of the bondages that keep us from reaching His destiny for us!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
709 South 7th Street
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(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, March 18, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: HEAVEN XI: Isaiah
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: HEAVEN XI: Isaiah
Good Morning and another Best Day of Your Life!
Anyone who knows Della and me is well aware of the fact that we have for a long time partnered with Kenneth Copeland Ministries and Jesse Duplantis Ministries. They are not the only folks we partner with, but I bring this up today just because of something Jesse Duplantis recently shared at his church fellowship in Destrehan, Louisiana. (I’ll share that momentarily.)
Most of my friends and family know that I’ve been a sci-fi aficionado all of my life, and especially a fan of the whole Star Trek genre. I’ve had a lifetime interest and involvement in science (and even have a few contributions to the realm in broadcast engineering and scientific research) and especially in space travel – an interest I would attribute to the first trip I had when the Lord was taking me to Heaven where I got to see our Solar System from an astronaut’s perspective, as well as a good part of the universe. That interest resulted in my working for NASA in its early days and being able to participate in the launches of some of our first astronauts.
I said all that to say this: Jesse had an absolutely phenomenal parallel adaptation to the line heard at the end of every single Star Trek episode. That line normally begins, “Star Trek: the final frontier! These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. It’s five-year mission is to seek out………etc.” Jesse’s adaptation was for believers who understand our commission from the Lord Jesus Christ, and his line goes as follows:
“MINISTRY: The final frontier! These are the voyages of the Children of God. Our lifelong mission is to seek out new souls for His Glory and Honor, to fill new hearts with His presence and power; to teach and preach the uncompromised Word of God; to boldly go where Jesus Christ tells us to go! Live Long and Prosper!”
Pretty cool, don’t you think? Thought you’d appreciate that!
Up to this point in sharing these experiences I have for the most part stayed in one area of Heaven. My substantive conversations began with Abraham, and then went to Isaac and Jacob. As already noted I did have a conversation with Joseph but it was not part of this visit, and I will address that conversation in a later post.
My conversations with the three major patriarchs all took place in an area of Heaven that seemed to be pretty much like an agricultural area. When I spoke with David, we moved about a bit more, and of course I saw the same temple he and Moses had seen – the same temple that became the pattern for Moses’ tabernacle and David’s “Holy of Holies” tabernacle. Although with each of these discussions we periodically “transported” (for lack of a better description) to places, or into visions of places and events where they had some rather distinctive experiences, it seemed that we pretty much stayed in the same area of Heaven.
When my conversation with Samuel concluded, Jesus now came to my side and He said, “You’ve asked to talk to some of the Old Testament prophets – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. They are in another part of the city, so let’s take a walk. We could go there instantly as you’ve already seen possible, but let’s just walk for now. I’ll show you more of Heaven as we walk and I’ll take you to the area where they reside.”
Let me try to draw this picture for you so that you can at least have some inkling of what it was like. Jesus took my hand in His and we began to walk. I think I’ve already noted that the streets were nearly transparent. The concept of gold so pure that you can almost see through it like glass is a concept we just don’t relate to here. There were places where I could see through the streets to another tier or level below in Heaven. Being a city 1500 miles wide by 1500 miles deep by 1500 miles high makes it almost like a planet with different continents or countries – and in many respects that is what it is like.
In the same way that we have different kinds of architecture and different flavors in the styles of our towns and cities, Heaven has that – and more! This first street we began our walk on seemed to be almost like some of the older cities in Europe with fairly narrow streets and older-styled (I don’t know what to call it) architecture. By the way, if you’ve ever wondered where the Romans and the Greeks and other cultures – Egypt in the time of the Pharaohs, for example – got their architecture, they didn’t invent it! It existed here in Heaven long before Earth ever saw it.
We walked along one street where the “homes” (if you want to refer to them that way) were domed palaces – gorgeous mansions of stupendous beauty and style with their colonnades. I made some comment to the Lord about this and asked Him if this is what He was referring to when He said to the disciples, “In My Father’s house are many mansions … I go there to prepare a place for you.” (See John 14:2)
He put His finger across His mouth to silence my question and simply responded, “Wait and see.”
If I haven’t mentioned this before, it is just an oversight but one of the most powerful things that happens in you when you are in Heaven – and probably more accurately, just being with the Lord and walking with Him – is the overpowering sense of His love. It is impossible for anyone to hang onto past hurts, resentments, offenses or differences of any kind with any person or group of people when you are blanketed by His agape love. All of that fades into nothingness. It simply doesn’t exist anymore. If you were to even stop to think about it for ten seconds, you would wonder why it was ever so important to you or consequential in any way.
The agape love of the Lord Jesus Christ is simply miraculous beyond words! Once you experience this, Jesus’ answer to Peter’s question really makes sense.
Peter, you’ll recall, said to Jesus one day, “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? ‘Till seven times?” Jesus’ answer was something that has befuddled many folks – and especially Christians caught in the dilemma of repetitious offenses of the same nature by the same individuals. “I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” (See Matthew 18:21-22)
Seems impossible, doesn’t it? It is! It is literally impossible to anyone who loves with phileo – human love, brotherly love. On the other hand, the love of the Lord Jesus Christ – agape – is limitless. Suddenly, the offenses seem trivial and worthless – not worth a split second’s consideration! When one is swept by the love of the Lord and lives in that overwhelming presence, so many things we consider important suddenly fade into irrelevance.
(Note: I’m not going to launch into a dissertation on agape here, but it is important to note that despite our ability to dismiss and remit those wrongs against us, those who commit the offenses still have to come to grips with the consequences of their attacks, their trespasses, misdeeds or breaches.)
OK, I’m a bit off-target here so let’s get to my meeting with Isaiah. Here was a man whose very demeanor exemplified agape. There was a softness and tenderness to his character. That’s not to say that anyone else was brittle or abrasive in any way. There just was something distinctly different about him, and that difference triggered my first question.
“Unlike any of your predecessors or successors as prophets in Israel, you seemed to have an acceptance that spanned generations. Kings sent for you, anxious to know what God was saying. It seems to me that you had access where others didn’t. How did that happen?”
“Growing up as I did in the lap of luxury and having access to the privileged life of a family already respected and held in esteem in Israel, I saw the blessing of the Lord in ways many (if not most) of my fellow-Israelites seemed to be missing. Early in life I recognized that we were a nation quickly retreating from our relationship with the Lord God.
“Many years before, God had given to King David the promise that the long-awaited Redeemer and Messiah would come through his lineage. There was a yearning in me that was increasing with the years to find out more about this coming Messiah. As much as I could I spent more and more time in prayer, intercession and waiting on the Lord. The prophetic call on my life and the anointing for it came in the midst of that.
“My increasing heart’s desire was for our people to know the true nature of the Lord and to embrace the Covenant He had (and has) with us. We were a nation of people set apart unto Him for the purpose of showing the world what it could have and how His Blessing could alter them for the better. With my whole heart I sought for a way to communicate the heart of the Lord – not only to our nation, but to the surrounding nations as well.”
Isaiah was a man with the bearing of one who possessed and operated freely with authority. He clearly was accustomed to exercising authority. His next comments began to fill out the picture much more plainly.
“My father was an elder in Judah. I was a part of the house of David and related to the kings of Judah so it gave me ready access to the courts of the kings. For a time during the reign of Uzziah I served as a governor in Judah.
“It was while I was serving as governor – my last year in that position, in fact – that I began to have such visions as I had never had. I began to clearly see the heart of the Lord for His people. For the first time in my life I realized how futile and how insufficient the burnt offerings and sacrifices were in God’s eyes. There was little meaning to them in the eyes of the people. They had become routine, ritualistic and without any life.
“The Lord began to give me some very strong rebukes to the nation and to the priests and leaders. Part of the rebuke came as a vivid picture of the way they treated sin and how inconsequential they considered some of their acts to be. If you remember how the Lord gave it to me, it went like this:
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” [See Isaiah 1:18-20]
“The Lord was basically saying to the people, ‘You treat your sins as though they be a redness in the skin when leprosy first begins; I’m telling you that I see your sins as the whiteness that happens when leprosy is far advanced. You see some of your sins as a dark red – such as that which happens when leprosy begins to advance to a dangerous stage – but I’m telling you that I see your sins like the fully-flourished leprosy (like wool) when flesh begins to fall off and people begin to lose parts of their body.
“It was about as graphic an illustration as I could give them! It was something they would quickly relate to, and it grieved me in my heart to have to say it to them. Nevertheless, they had to hear it, and they had to hear it in a way that quickly grip them and stop them in their tracks. It didn’t dawn on me at the time that this was a word of warning to the king, Uzziah, because of the arrogance and self-sufficiency that had developed in him towards the Lord. He was in mortal danger because of what was happening in his mind and heart. Not long thereafter, he tried to enter the Temple and offer up incense – something reserved exclusively for the priests.
“Next, I had to liken Jerusalem and its leadership to that of a prostitute who sold herself to the highest bidder. Many of the priests and the princes in Judah had abandoned their responsibilities for the sake of their own financial gain.”
As Isaiah was sharing these graphic portrayals of what God had given him to speak to the people, I couldn’t help but cringe. My mouth must have really turned down and my facial expression very sour as he was giving his descriptions, and he caught it immediately.
“You see?” he said. “You are reacting just like the people did when I delivered that word to them. It wasn’t pleasant, I know, but they needed to hear it in the same way you did. They needed to have the Word of the Lord impact them in such a way as to cause them to change their lives and alter their path before God.
“It was in Uzziah’s last year as king of Judah, however, that I began to see the Lord as never before. That was when I saw Him seated on His Throne with all of the hosts of Heaven on display, the seraphim speaking and crying out, shouting, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts! The whole earth throughout is filled with His Glory!’”
I interrupted his narrative to ask, “You mean you actually saw this? Like seeing into Heaven itself? It wasn’t just a vision?”
He nodded his head and laughed. “Are you here in Heaven with me, now, or is this a vision you’re having? Does it matter? Would this be any less real to you if you thought this was a vision as opposed to being here?”
I got it immediately. Though I’d seen my body lying in the bed as I gripped Jesus’ hand and we were soaring heavenward leaving my bedroom behind, being here in Heaven was as tangible as if being here in my physical body. And it really didn’t matter! It wouldn’t have impacted me any greater had I been there physically in flesh and blood.
Isaiah continued. “You need to see this picture, Son! The impact of the seraphim speaking was so powerful that it literally caused the doorposts and the threshold of the Temple to shake and move. That’s when I knew I was unfit to stand and speak on behalf of the Lord. Whatever I’d seen, whatever I’d learned, whatever I thought I knew just didn’t stand up to His Glory and His presence!
“That’s when one of the seraphim came down and put a hot coal on my lips and told me that my natural tendencies and character bends or flaws towards committing certain sins, as well as the sins of my past, had all been erased, blotted out, and made as though they’d never existed. For the first time in my life I suddenly felt like I could actually speak on God’s behalf without any fear of contaminating or altering His Word in any way! It was life-changing! You can understand, therefore, why when I heard the voice cry out, ‘Whom shall I send or who will go for us,’ that I felt free enough to answer, ‘Here am I, Lord. Send me!”
A vision of what Isaiah had seen flashed before me and relating to what he’d experienced was easy. My reaction was an unqualified, “WOW!”
“Whatever happened to me in that moment transcended everything in my past. I felt clean! From that day forward change took place in me. Over the years that followed there was a continual pursuit to know the heart of the Lord as I had never known. I desired to know and understand the revelation of the coming Messiah.”
“It must have been very rewarding to you, then, to have the Father reveal Jesus to you in the way that He did,” I responded. “The prophecies you were given concerning His coming were the most detailed and specific prophecies I believe I have seen anywhere in the Word. There were other prophets, of course, to whom the Lord gave revelation concerning His coming, His life and His death and resurrection, but no one that I can think of offhand who received such a revelation as you did.”
“Most of my successors received some marvelous revelations of His coming and His life, and one ought not diminish in any way that which the Father revealed to them or consider it of less importance. You are correct, however, in saying that what He gave to me was very specific and detailed. Those revelations, given over a span of some 50 years, became the very foundation of Israel’s expectation of what to look for in the years ahead.
“It was an honor that no words can properly express. That He would entrust that revelation to me and permit me to share it with the nation as the foundation of what they should be watching for…… well, you understand! Each successive revelation brought change to me and to my character.”
I would like to go into more depth in my conversations with Isaiah, but what I’ve shared here captures the most important aspects of the time I spent with him. We’ll move on and pick up in our next Coffee Break with my meeting the prophet, Jeremiah. From Jeremiah we’ll discuss the meetings and conversations with Ezekiel and Daniel before moving on to the Apostles.
Next: HEAVEN XII: Jeremiah.
Though 2011 has already been a difficult year – and it is going to get even more difficult in the weeks and months ahead -- God is going to show His hand on behalf of His people, especially those who believe His Word and trust Him implicitly!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
709 South 7th Street
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(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.
Good Morning and another Best Day of Your Life!
Anyone who knows Della and me is well aware of the fact that we have for a long time partnered with Kenneth Copeland Ministries and Jesse Duplantis Ministries. They are not the only folks we partner with, but I bring this up today just because of something Jesse Duplantis recently shared at his church fellowship in Destrehan, Louisiana. (I’ll share that momentarily.)
Most of my friends and family know that I’ve been a sci-fi aficionado all of my life, and especially a fan of the whole Star Trek genre. I’ve had a lifetime interest and involvement in science (and even have a few contributions to the realm in broadcast engineering and scientific research) and especially in space travel – an interest I would attribute to the first trip I had when the Lord was taking me to Heaven where I got to see our Solar System from an astronaut’s perspective, as well as a good part of the universe. That interest resulted in my working for NASA in its early days and being able to participate in the launches of some of our first astronauts.
I said all that to say this: Jesse had an absolutely phenomenal parallel adaptation to the line heard at the end of every single Star Trek episode. That line normally begins, “Star Trek: the final frontier! These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. It’s five-year mission is to seek out………etc.” Jesse’s adaptation was for believers who understand our commission from the Lord Jesus Christ, and his line goes as follows:
“MINISTRY: The final frontier! These are the voyages of the Children of God. Our lifelong mission is to seek out new souls for His Glory and Honor, to fill new hearts with His presence and power; to teach and preach the uncompromised Word of God; to boldly go where Jesus Christ tells us to go! Live Long and Prosper!”
Pretty cool, don’t you think? Thought you’d appreciate that!
Up to this point in sharing these experiences I have for the most part stayed in one area of Heaven. My substantive conversations began with Abraham, and then went to Isaac and Jacob. As already noted I did have a conversation with Joseph but it was not part of this visit, and I will address that conversation in a later post.
My conversations with the three major patriarchs all took place in an area of Heaven that seemed to be pretty much like an agricultural area. When I spoke with David, we moved about a bit more, and of course I saw the same temple he and Moses had seen – the same temple that became the pattern for Moses’ tabernacle and David’s “Holy of Holies” tabernacle. Although with each of these discussions we periodically “transported” (for lack of a better description) to places, or into visions of places and events where they had some rather distinctive experiences, it seemed that we pretty much stayed in the same area of Heaven.
When my conversation with Samuel concluded, Jesus now came to my side and He said, “You’ve asked to talk to some of the Old Testament prophets – Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. They are in another part of the city, so let’s take a walk. We could go there instantly as you’ve already seen possible, but let’s just walk for now. I’ll show you more of Heaven as we walk and I’ll take you to the area where they reside.”
Let me try to draw this picture for you so that you can at least have some inkling of what it was like. Jesus took my hand in His and we began to walk. I think I’ve already noted that the streets were nearly transparent. The concept of gold so pure that you can almost see through it like glass is a concept we just don’t relate to here. There were places where I could see through the streets to another tier or level below in Heaven. Being a city 1500 miles wide by 1500 miles deep by 1500 miles high makes it almost like a planet with different continents or countries – and in many respects that is what it is like.
In the same way that we have different kinds of architecture and different flavors in the styles of our towns and cities, Heaven has that – and more! This first street we began our walk on seemed to be almost like some of the older cities in Europe with fairly narrow streets and older-styled (I don’t know what to call it) architecture. By the way, if you’ve ever wondered where the Romans and the Greeks and other cultures – Egypt in the time of the Pharaohs, for example – got their architecture, they didn’t invent it! It existed here in Heaven long before Earth ever saw it.
We walked along one street where the “homes” (if you want to refer to them that way) were domed palaces – gorgeous mansions of stupendous beauty and style with their colonnades. I made some comment to the Lord about this and asked Him if this is what He was referring to when He said to the disciples, “In My Father’s house are many mansions … I go there to prepare a place for you.” (See John 14:2)
He put His finger across His mouth to silence my question and simply responded, “Wait and see.”
If I haven’t mentioned this before, it is just an oversight but one of the most powerful things that happens in you when you are in Heaven – and probably more accurately, just being with the Lord and walking with Him – is the overpowering sense of His love. It is impossible for anyone to hang onto past hurts, resentments, offenses or differences of any kind with any person or group of people when you are blanketed by His agape love. All of that fades into nothingness. It simply doesn’t exist anymore. If you were to even stop to think about it for ten seconds, you would wonder why it was ever so important to you or consequential in any way.
The agape love of the Lord Jesus Christ is simply miraculous beyond words! Once you experience this, Jesus’ answer to Peter’s question really makes sense.
Peter, you’ll recall, said to Jesus one day, “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? ‘Till seven times?” Jesus’ answer was something that has befuddled many folks – and especially Christians caught in the dilemma of repetitious offenses of the same nature by the same individuals. “I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” (See Matthew 18:21-22)
Seems impossible, doesn’t it? It is! It is literally impossible to anyone who loves with phileo – human love, brotherly love. On the other hand, the love of the Lord Jesus Christ – agape – is limitless. Suddenly, the offenses seem trivial and worthless – not worth a split second’s consideration! When one is swept by the love of the Lord and lives in that overwhelming presence, so many things we consider important suddenly fade into irrelevance.
(Note: I’m not going to launch into a dissertation on agape here, but it is important to note that despite our ability to dismiss and remit those wrongs against us, those who commit the offenses still have to come to grips with the consequences of their attacks, their trespasses, misdeeds or breaches.)
OK, I’m a bit off-target here so let’s get to my meeting with Isaiah. Here was a man whose very demeanor exemplified agape. There was a softness and tenderness to his character. That’s not to say that anyone else was brittle or abrasive in any way. There just was something distinctly different about him, and that difference triggered my first question.
“Unlike any of your predecessors or successors as prophets in Israel, you seemed to have an acceptance that spanned generations. Kings sent for you, anxious to know what God was saying. It seems to me that you had access where others didn’t. How did that happen?”
“Growing up as I did in the lap of luxury and having access to the privileged life of a family already respected and held in esteem in Israel, I saw the blessing of the Lord in ways many (if not most) of my fellow-Israelites seemed to be missing. Early in life I recognized that we were a nation quickly retreating from our relationship with the Lord God.
“Many years before, God had given to King David the promise that the long-awaited Redeemer and Messiah would come through his lineage. There was a yearning in me that was increasing with the years to find out more about this coming Messiah. As much as I could I spent more and more time in prayer, intercession and waiting on the Lord. The prophetic call on my life and the anointing for it came in the midst of that.
“My increasing heart’s desire was for our people to know the true nature of the Lord and to embrace the Covenant He had (and has) with us. We were a nation of people set apart unto Him for the purpose of showing the world what it could have and how His Blessing could alter them for the better. With my whole heart I sought for a way to communicate the heart of the Lord – not only to our nation, but to the surrounding nations as well.”
Isaiah was a man with the bearing of one who possessed and operated freely with authority. He clearly was accustomed to exercising authority. His next comments began to fill out the picture much more plainly.
“My father was an elder in Judah. I was a part of the house of David and related to the kings of Judah so it gave me ready access to the courts of the kings. For a time during the reign of Uzziah I served as a governor in Judah.
“It was while I was serving as governor – my last year in that position, in fact – that I began to have such visions as I had never had. I began to clearly see the heart of the Lord for His people. For the first time in my life I realized how futile and how insufficient the burnt offerings and sacrifices were in God’s eyes. There was little meaning to them in the eyes of the people. They had become routine, ritualistic and without any life.
“The Lord began to give me some very strong rebukes to the nation and to the priests and leaders. Part of the rebuke came as a vivid picture of the way they treated sin and how inconsequential they considered some of their acts to be. If you remember how the Lord gave it to me, it went like this:
“Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” [See Isaiah 1:18-20]
“The Lord was basically saying to the people, ‘You treat your sins as though they be a redness in the skin when leprosy first begins; I’m telling you that I see your sins as the whiteness that happens when leprosy is far advanced. You see some of your sins as a dark red – such as that which happens when leprosy begins to advance to a dangerous stage – but I’m telling you that I see your sins like the fully-flourished leprosy (like wool) when flesh begins to fall off and people begin to lose parts of their body.
“It was about as graphic an illustration as I could give them! It was something they would quickly relate to, and it grieved me in my heart to have to say it to them. Nevertheless, they had to hear it, and they had to hear it in a way that quickly grip them and stop them in their tracks. It didn’t dawn on me at the time that this was a word of warning to the king, Uzziah, because of the arrogance and self-sufficiency that had developed in him towards the Lord. He was in mortal danger because of what was happening in his mind and heart. Not long thereafter, he tried to enter the Temple and offer up incense – something reserved exclusively for the priests.
“Next, I had to liken Jerusalem and its leadership to that of a prostitute who sold herself to the highest bidder. Many of the priests and the princes in Judah had abandoned their responsibilities for the sake of their own financial gain.”
As Isaiah was sharing these graphic portrayals of what God had given him to speak to the people, I couldn’t help but cringe. My mouth must have really turned down and my facial expression very sour as he was giving his descriptions, and he caught it immediately.
“You see?” he said. “You are reacting just like the people did when I delivered that word to them. It wasn’t pleasant, I know, but they needed to hear it in the same way you did. They needed to have the Word of the Lord impact them in such a way as to cause them to change their lives and alter their path before God.
“It was in Uzziah’s last year as king of Judah, however, that I began to see the Lord as never before. That was when I saw Him seated on His Throne with all of the hosts of Heaven on display, the seraphim speaking and crying out, shouting, ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts! The whole earth throughout is filled with His Glory!’”
I interrupted his narrative to ask, “You mean you actually saw this? Like seeing into Heaven itself? It wasn’t just a vision?”
He nodded his head and laughed. “Are you here in Heaven with me, now, or is this a vision you’re having? Does it matter? Would this be any less real to you if you thought this was a vision as opposed to being here?”
I got it immediately. Though I’d seen my body lying in the bed as I gripped Jesus’ hand and we were soaring heavenward leaving my bedroom behind, being here in Heaven was as tangible as if being here in my physical body. And it really didn’t matter! It wouldn’t have impacted me any greater had I been there physically in flesh and blood.
Isaiah continued. “You need to see this picture, Son! The impact of the seraphim speaking was so powerful that it literally caused the doorposts and the threshold of the Temple to shake and move. That’s when I knew I was unfit to stand and speak on behalf of the Lord. Whatever I’d seen, whatever I’d learned, whatever I thought I knew just didn’t stand up to His Glory and His presence!
“That’s when one of the seraphim came down and put a hot coal on my lips and told me that my natural tendencies and character bends or flaws towards committing certain sins, as well as the sins of my past, had all been erased, blotted out, and made as though they’d never existed. For the first time in my life I suddenly felt like I could actually speak on God’s behalf without any fear of contaminating or altering His Word in any way! It was life-changing! You can understand, therefore, why when I heard the voice cry out, ‘Whom shall I send or who will go for us,’ that I felt free enough to answer, ‘Here am I, Lord. Send me!”
A vision of what Isaiah had seen flashed before me and relating to what he’d experienced was easy. My reaction was an unqualified, “WOW!”
“Whatever happened to me in that moment transcended everything in my past. I felt clean! From that day forward change took place in me. Over the years that followed there was a continual pursuit to know the heart of the Lord as I had never known. I desired to know and understand the revelation of the coming Messiah.”
“It must have been very rewarding to you, then, to have the Father reveal Jesus to you in the way that He did,” I responded. “The prophecies you were given concerning His coming were the most detailed and specific prophecies I believe I have seen anywhere in the Word. There were other prophets, of course, to whom the Lord gave revelation concerning His coming, His life and His death and resurrection, but no one that I can think of offhand who received such a revelation as you did.”
“Most of my successors received some marvelous revelations of His coming and His life, and one ought not diminish in any way that which the Father revealed to them or consider it of less importance. You are correct, however, in saying that what He gave to me was very specific and detailed. Those revelations, given over a span of some 50 years, became the very foundation of Israel’s expectation of what to look for in the years ahead.
“It was an honor that no words can properly express. That He would entrust that revelation to me and permit me to share it with the nation as the foundation of what they should be watching for…… well, you understand! Each successive revelation brought change to me and to my character.”
I would like to go into more depth in my conversations with Isaiah, but what I’ve shared here captures the most important aspects of the time I spent with him. We’ll move on and pick up in our next Coffee Break with my meeting the prophet, Jeremiah. From Jeremiah we’ll discuss the meetings and conversations with Ezekiel and Daniel before moving on to the Apostles.
Next: HEAVEN XII: Jeremiah.
Though 2011 has already been a difficult year – and it is going to get even more difficult in the weeks and months ahead -- God is going to show His hand on behalf of His people, especially those who believe His Word and trust Him implicitly!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
709 South 7th Street
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 515-0133
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CAPENER MINISTRIES is a tax-exempt church ministry. Should you desire to participate and covenant with us as partners in this ministry, please contact us at either of the above email or physical addresses, or visit http://www.RiverWorshipCenter.org.
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