ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: SPIRITUAL DNA
In 1996 I had an extended experience in which I was transported back and forth in time as the Lord showed me His plans and purposes for His people. It took place daily over a roughly three-month span. When I say "transported" I'm not talking about being taken physically -- although it might as well have been because of its impact on me -- but rather taken through portals in the realm of the Spirit. That experience is far too lengthy and too detailed to try and share in its entirety in a forum like this, but the revelations and impartations by the Holy Spirit, and the angelic visitations that accompanied it are still producing new understanding in the core of my being on a daily basis.
Let me lay a little foundation for you to help you understand the context of my adventures in the Spirit.
This series of experiences began while Della and I were visiting in the home of some dear friends -- Beryl & Chester Mjolsness -- in Cochrane, Alberta. Beryl frequently drove, along with another very close friend -- Mary Ellen Olnick from Red Deer -- to Post Falls, Idaho to participate in our extended spontaneous praise and worship gatherings where at the time we were based for ministry. That said, from time to time we had our gatherings in their very spacious log home.
When Chester decided to expand the size of the house and add a 3000 square foot addition for his hunting trophies (he was a widely-traveled and well-known big game hunter), Della and I had the rather unusual opportunity to chink the new logs (putting the insulating filler material between the logs to prevent the outside air from coming through). It resulted in periodic trips back and forth to Cochrane, and Della wound up being Beryl's "go-to" person in getting things done around her house.
It was just one of those trips where I had some real time to spend alone with the Lord while Della was helping Beryl. Sitting at a desk in the guest bedroom where we stayed with my Bible spread out in front of me and a computer to take notes with, a portal between time, space and eternity suddenly opened in front of me. An angel of the Lord stood at the portal and beckoned me. The reality of the moment was stunning to say the least. Not until I had stepped through the portal did I realize that what was taking place was happening in the realm of the Spirit, and not in my fleshly body. It began a series of adventures with the Lord that I am sometimes at a loss to really properly explain. Daily, and sometimes several times a day, the portal opened before me and I walked into a dimension where time and space literally spread out before me like a scroll. I was in eternity.
As I was taken from one place and time to another and permitted (instructed, actually) to carefully watch the events unfolding, some of the things I witnessed were spread out over days and weeks, and yet when I returned to the present only minutes or hours (at most) had passed. It gave me a whole new understanding of just how easy it is for us as committed believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to enact the will of God in this realm. The more I experienced this moving between time and eternity, and eternity and time, the veil that separates these dimensions became more and more transparent.
Remember how Jesus instructed the disciples to pray? "Our Father, who art in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done in earth as it is in Heaven......" (Luke 11:2)
This is not a prayer of request. It is not a prayer of asking God to do it. Neither is it intercession. Read it carefully! It is a prayer, a decree, a declaration which reaches through the veil of time and eternity and brings God's Will into the present.
Now, let's rephrase and amplify this into more modern terms:
"Father, you are not just my Father but rather THE Father of an entire family -- our Father! You dwell in the Heavenlies -- all of them -- and your name (your onoma, your character and makeup, your very essence) is Holy. I worship you, and I declare you to be the essence of the Holy of Holies!
"Because you are Father God, because you are in me and I am in you, and you have adopted me into your family by and through the covenant that was ratified in the Blood of Jesus, you have delegated your authority to me to decree your decrees and commands here on earth in the same way you have already declared and decreed things to be in Heaven. Therefore I command your Kingdom to come here on earth. I declare the rulership of your Kingdom to be in force in this part of the earth you have given me responsibility for....."
Are you getting the drift of this? Nothing -- ABSOLUTELY NOTHING -- in this prayer we so tritely refer to as "The Lord's Prayer" incorporates asking, requesting, begging, or coming to Father with hat in hand!
In case you think I've lost it, let me finish this prayer so you can see and understand what I'm talking about.
"I speak by your authority, Father, and command your Word to come alive in my being to produce both spiritual and physical growth and life -- that same kind of growth and life that comes by eating of Your Son, the Bread of Life, the Lord Jesus Christ.
"I erase from existence (this is the literal translation of the Greek word, aphiemi, otherwise translated "forgive") the offenses, the hurts, the debts and the sins of all those who have done wickedly against me, and that gives me the legal right and authority in Christ Jesus to declare that my offenses, hurts, debts and sins against you are erased."
"We will not be tempted to do or to say things contrary to Your Will and Your Word, Father, because You have delivered us from all evil and from the Fear of Evil."
Matthew adds more worship to the end of this prayer with the ending, "For thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen."
I can see the wheels spinning in your thoughts, so let me quickly explain.
When the disciples came to Jesus and said to Him, "Lord, teach us to pray," they weren't using a word which describes everything we think of in our modern society as "prayer." They weren't asking Him to show them how to ask, or beg or necessarily make requests of Father. The word translated in this instance "pray" in the Greek text is the word, proseuchomai. This word occurs within the framework of a covenant relationship in which an intimate relationship and bond have been developed.
The disciples were literally saying to Jesus, "Lord, teach us how to communicate properly with Father so as to enact His covenant will and purposes here." And Jesus responded with a clear and concise answer that would make the veil between this earthly realm and the Heavenlies literally transparent and navigable in the Spirit.
The entire plane of reference Jesus was creating for them was one activated by DNA transformation. Let's go back to the Garden of Eden for a minute.
You need to see something that took place when God breathed into Adam the breath of life. Adam had been formed by the hand of God to be an exact duplicate of Himself -- a physical representation, a visible example of what He looked like and how He operated in the spirit realm. Adam was flesh and bone, but not yet living until the breath of God was breathed into him.
Consider, for a minute, the breath of God. That is the same breath that came forth when the words were spoken, "Light BE! The word used here in the Hebrew text is neshamah, and differs from the ordinary Hebrew word, nashaf, which would describe a puff of wind or breath. Dr. William Gesenius, in his Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon, tells us that this word -- neshamah -- literally describes the Spirit of God imparting His life and His wisdom.
Adam -- at least at that moment in time -- was no mortal. He was immortal. (Mortality didn't come until Adam ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and took upon himself a part of the DNA of a doomed being -- the Serpent, Satan -- who was no longer an eternal being.) The DNA of God was in him. He was in the likeness and image of God. The way this is phrased in the Hebrew text is that Adam was an exact replica -- a photographic image, if you will -- a veritable model of the Lord God made by God to His specifications.
It was no miracle that Adam could "name" all of the animals and every living creature that walked upon the face of the earth. This "naming" process was not simply calling the animals, "bear", or "lion", or "elephant", or "hippopotamus", or "giraffe" or anything else like that. Out of Adam's mouth came a rhema -- a direct, creative word -- which caused each animal and each species to have a character, a makeup, a personality, and individual essence with specific likes and dislikes, tastes and cravings of its own. Each animal, each species, was distinct. Its nature was spoken into being -- creatively -- by Adam.
Why? Because Adam had God's DNA. He was like God. He was God's model in flesh and bone here on earth. I've heard several rabbis say that the last phrase of Genesis 2:7 should be read, "and man became a living, speaking spirit."
So why am I emphasizing this? It was never God's intention to create mortal beings. Mortality is not part of His DNA. His objective from the very beginning was to create a family of beings who would be like Him, function like Him, speak like Him, breathe like Him, love like Him and exist like Him eternally -- in other words, they would be compatible with Him. They would be His counterpart, His "other self," if you will.
Sin corrupted that. Though the DNA of God was still at the core of the creation of the human race, the contamination of self-will, rebellion, and (what we've come to call) learning created a divide between God and man. For the Lord to receive His due in His creation meant that only He could bridge that divide. The process by which He did that was unique and nothing less than spectacular!
Because the contamination came through eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and that tree was reserved by God unto Himself (the Holy Portion, if you will, in the Garden), John the Baptist prophesied of Him saying, "And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the tree..."
That tree had to be cut down in the realm of the Spirit so that it could no longer be accessed as a substitute for the knowledge and revelation necessary for our redemption. There had to be the cleansing of the contamination to our DNA, and the restoration of our being into that first image and likeness in which God created us.
When I refer to this as "DNA," you all understand that I'm using this in a metaphorical sense, do you not? We are first and foremost spirit beings. Our physical bodies are only containers to house our spirit and our soul. Our spirits existed with God before we ever came to inhabit these bodies. Whether we experience the "twinkling of an eye" transformation of our physical bodies into bodies that never die or whether we depart from them through death, our spirit and soul will return to the Lord.
Lest anyone misconstrue what I'm saying, the "twinkling of an eye" transformation ONLY applies to born-again, committed believers who walk in an intimate love-relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. That also applies to those who depart from these bodies through death and return to the presence of the Lord.
Unbelievers will never experience this. And unbelief is not simply a lack of believing these things: unbelief is an active decision and act of the will to oppose the Word and the Will of God.
Now, let's get to an aspect of spiritual DNA, the revelation of which literally unlocks the door of understanding to our operating as true sons of God, heirs and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.
Let me first bracket a statement that comes from personal conviction, and not one that I can absolutely prove from Scripture -- at least not yet. I do this purposely so that no one thinks I'm promoting this as some "new doctrine." It isn't! It has long been my conviction that Adam and Eve saw through the veil that separates time and eternity. I tend to believe likewise that they had the ability to traverse between dimensions as easily as Father God. I have lots of reasons for believing this, but that's not what this Coffee Break is about so we will leave it there for the time being.
In any event, we know that Jesus certainly crossed time and eternity with ease. He was the "last Adam" who came to undo and remove the curse that impaired our God-created ability to live and function as we were intended -- fellowshipping and operating as the family of God. Think about His DNA for a second. Mary was "with child" by the Holy Spirit. That meant that Jesus had Father's DNA! And He made it crystal clear to all of us that it was His intention to bring us back to that same place where He operated -- and operates!
Jesus spells it out like this: "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."
That "life" He's talking about is "zoe" life! J.H. Thayer, in his Greek-English Lexicon defines zoe like this: the absolute fulness of life, both essential and ethical, which belongs to God, which -- through Him and through Jesus Christ -- is transfused into human nature.
I've partially paraphrased Thayer and bypassed a fistful of other Greek words in order to simplify this translation. You get the idea, I'm sure. We're not talking about life in the sense of "animal life" which is here today and gone tomorrow. We're talking about the very life and breath of Father God, the same life and breath that Jesus breathed.
And, Folks, Jesus didn't come to dispense this kind of life in dribbles; He came to liberally give it to us, as the Amplified Bible puts it: "to the full till it overflows"! He absolutely intended that our DNA be transformed, changed, "conformed to the image" -- that same image He was in!
The apostle Paul puts it very succinctly in Romans 8:29: "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."
I've underlined four very pertinent words in this verse which, in the Greek text, make it abundantly clear. Here's how I've rendered this verse from the Greek:
"For those whom He knew and had intimate knowledge of (and relationship with) before they came to be born, He also predetermined and limited in advance so they could be jointly formed and fashioned like unto the very likeness, character and makeup of His Son; because His purpose from the beginning was that He (Jesus Christ) would be the firstborn and first-begotten among a multitude of brothers." (Note: There is no female or male in Christ Jesus because we are all -- once again -- first and foremost "Spirit beings"!)
Am I making sense to you? Are you seeing this picture -- this principle?
Again, Ephesians 1:15-23 says that Jesus is the head of the body, and WE are the body. That makes us part of Him. We are inextricably woven with Him. His DNA is our DNA. You see, folks, as I said in our last Coffee Break we have to get our limitations removed. We have to stop thinking "in the box." Religion and religious thinking keeps us boxed in and prevents us from operating in the fullness of the character, the nature and the makeup of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has given Himself for us and to us, and His command is that we go forth IN Him with Him IN US!
I had hoped to talk more about the portal between time and eternity in this discussion, but I think I'll hold it for now and share pieces of it as we resume the Heaven experiences in the next Coffee Break.
"It is God's grace that allows spiritual awakening to recognize the distinction between religious spirits and the Holy Spirit. The religious spirit introduces into the Church the spirit of the world nullifying the grace of God. The views of truth necessary to purify the Church are not such as the world gives, but are such as are communicated by God's Spirit." (Paul Keith Davis)
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.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: LIMITATIONS
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: LIMITATIONS
Della has been working during the past few months at a home for developmentally handicapped (reduced mental faculties) people. These are folks, some of whom have the development of a six or seven-year-old, and a few with perhaps teen or pre-teen mental states who are in their 40's and 50's. It has been a real education for both of us. What has been evident is that in each case there is clear demonic activity with a couple of very severe cases that have a proclivity for violence.
Several weeks ago, she began taking her Bible with her, bringing some of the residents of the home out to a quiet place in the back yard and reading and praying with them. The spiritual impact of that one act alone was nothing less than dramatic. Now, each day when she arrives, she is greeted with, "Are we going to read out Bibles now?" or some similar question.
There are a couple of residents who have been easily triggered into screaming rampages or violent outbursts. With these folks, Della has begun praying with them each day and getting them to follow her in prayer, repeating after her something like the following: "Father, in the name of Jesus, I take authority over my mind and my thoughts. I place them under submission to you. I receive a Spirit of Peace in my being and I submit myself to you. Restore my mind. Restore my brain. Restore me so that I can achieve the destiny you have planned for me. I declare this in the name of Jesus. Amen."
To say that it has had an effect in them is an understatement. It gives a whole new dimension to the power and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ that we can release with the words that come out of our mouths.
Obviously, Della isn't there in this group home every day, but other health workers in the home have seen what a difference this is making and they are picking up on it. With one resident in particular who is still easily distracted and set off, some of the health workers immediately stop this individual and initiate a declaration similar to the following: "I am at peace. Those are not my thoughts and I command them to leave now in the name of Jesus."
Without fail, it works! It gives an added dimension of understanding to what Paul wrote in II Corinthians 10:4-5, which reads: "(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."
Folks, we need to wake up and realize that we tend to operate with limitations placed upon ourselves by our own minds, our thoughts, and by a demonic predisposition Satan takes advantage of when he sees the open door. We've got to get out of our mental boxes and discard the limitations of religion, religious doctrines, the traditions of men and the demonic restrictions we've allowed as a result.
Notice that I listed "demonic restrictions" last in this list. Satan has no power over us that we don't give him; and we open doors of opportunity for his ingress into our lives by our thoughts and our failure to "bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." I can't tell you how often I've heard (and continue to hear) people blame God for their state or for the misery they are in. It isn't His fault: it's ours for not believing and acting upon the authority given to us by virtue of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
That's not to say that we won't still experience mishap and difficulty: we do and we will. Jesus made the statement, AND the promise, "In the world ye shall have tribulation(thlipsis: pressure, heavy burdens, anguish, persecution): but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
Hmmmm.... Looks like I just kind of dived in and forgot to say Good Morning to y'all! GOOOODDD MORRRNNNIIIINNNG !!! This is the best day of your life! Sure it is!
While we're still on the topic of dealing with emotionally and mentally handicapped or disadvantaged people, let me tell you about a remarkable event unfolding with our daughter, Rebekah. Like her mother, she works in a home dealing with some developmentally disabled or handicapped people. One of her charges is a young man who is in his late twenties. Several weeks ago she called us quite disturbed because the young man in question was waking up in the morning with what appeared to be bite marks and scratches all over his back. The injuries were clear and unmistakable. The other health workers in the home simply dismissed it as his having nightmares, sleep-walking and injuring himself in the process.
Rebekah has seen enough with our ministry throughout the years to know better and she called to ask what she could do about it. We told her to first document each instance, and if possible to get the agency responsible for the home to install a night-vision camera in the young man's room. The agency refused the request so Rebekah decided to do what she's seen us do and what we have challenged her to do in years gone by.
The young man in question has been greatly tormented for years, and yet he is -- and has been -- a Bible-believing Christian. Rebekah took him to some scriptures to show him how Jesus dealt with these issues, and made it clear to him that she felt he was dealing with evil spirits. He had grown up in a home where he was taught that Christians couldn't be tormented by evil spirits. It's a nice religious doctrine that pacifies a lot of folks and makes them feel good momentarily, but it doesn't get them the help they need, or the deliverance that Jesus paid for on their behalf.
After showing him some pertinent scriptures, Rebekah recommended that he pray with her and take authority over the evil spirits that had been tormenting him and command them to leave him in Jesus' name. He did so immediately.
We've shared with Rebekah the event that happened with Smith Wigglesworth many years ago (and a similar thing happened to Kenneth Hagin) in which he awoke one morning early to see Satan standing over him. Smith Wigglesworth looked up at him and said, "Ohh! It's only you," and turned over in his bed and went back to sleep.
Rebekah shared this with the young man and told him that he could do the same thing. Other than that, she said, "Just tell the demon or Satan to get out of your room and leave you alone in the name of Jesus."
A couple of nights later, that's exactly what happened. The young man woke up feeling pain in his back and turned over to see a demon standing there with his fingers dug into his back. He yelled at him, "Get out of here in the name of Jesus, and don't come back!" The young man was quick to tell Rebekah about it the next morning, and he was ecstatic! "It worked! It worked! Satan left me alone! He stopped scratching and biting me and left."
But that's not the end of the story. This happened more than two weeks ago, and the young man has been able to have a complete night's rest every night since, and the demon has not returned. That's not to say that Satan has given up on the young man yet, but he has had his first taste of Jesus' authority being operational in him and it is making a radical change in his whole makeup.
It's a funny thing! When folks begin to really taste of the power and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ operating in them, it alters their whole outlook on things. The fear which has been so resident and controlling in their lives begins to dissipate -- and if there is one common denominator in the developmentally disabled, it is FEAR! Once that fear begins to leave, their ability to reason returns or begins to develop the way God designed for them.
Kenneth Hagin used to tell the story of how he was urged to go and see a young woman in a mental asylum. This lady was locked in a padded cell, and had been there for many months. The Holy Spirit directed him to read to her from the Scriptures, pray over her -- and tell her every single day that Jesus loved her, and he did too. For one solid year he did this as the Holy Spirit instructed him. In that year, the woman's whole demeanor changed. She was transferred from the padded cell to the general population of the institution.
When Kenneth Hagin's year was up and the Holy Spirit said to him, "You're through. You've done all that is needed," he went his way and as time went by stopped thinking about the lady. Several years passed and one day he received a phone call from a lady who asked him to come to her place of business.
When he walked into the place, a well-dressed and elegant woman rose from her desk and shook his hand. "Brother Hagin, do you remember me?" she asked. He looked at her and confessed that he did not. "I was that woman in the padded cell in the insane asylum that you ministered to for a solid year."
She proceeded to tell him how she had grown up in the midst of extreme physical abuse and how it had driven her over the edge until she completely lost her sanity. During her growing up years she had been prevented from attending school and had no education whatever. She thus lacked any people skills and any ability to cope with her environment. When she was locked away, everyone gave her up totally considering that she would be institutionalized for the rest of her life.
Hearing the Word day after day, hearing the prayers, the declarations and prophetic decrees over her, and hearing that Jesus loved her (and Kenneth did too) slowly but surely brought her back to sanity. She learned to read by reading the Bible. In due time she was released from the insane asylum as completely sane and emotionally stable. In the years that followed she learned math and became financially proficient, eventually forming her own business. Her company became one of Texas' major trucking and transportation companies, and she became a pillar of society. More than that, she became a living, breathing testimony of how the love of Jesus transforms and restores an individual thought completely lost to society.
Are you beginning to get the drift in these events? These are miracles that are happening "outside the box." They go past the mental limitations -- the religious limitations -- that we tend to put on ourselves or allow Satan to trip us with.
How often have you heard someone say, "Oh, I can't do that!! That's for someone a whole lot more "spiritual" than me." Or maybe it came out like this: "I just don't have the faith for something like that."
Something like WHAT? Something that Jesus did? Something that He commanded us to do? Since when is it OUR faith that accomplishes it?
Jesus put it like this: "Have the faith of God." (Mark 11:22) Our KJV renders it, "Have faith in God," but that's not how the actual Greek text reads. OK, so if we are commanded to have God's faith, how do we get there?
Again, Jesus didn't leave us without clear and unmistakable answers. Consider how the apostle Paul put it in Romans 10:8: "The word (rhema: direct, spoken and uttered word) is near you, in your mouth and in your heart -- that is, the word (rhema: direct, spoken out loud word) of faith which we are preaching." (NASB)
Again Paul writes in the same place, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word (rhema: direct, spoken out loud word) of God." (Romans 10:17)
Get it? We hear Him speak it inside ourselves. It may be quiet, it may be nothing more than a prompt, it might even be a whisper, but it is still something we hear. He doesn't shout it, He simply speaks it into us.
It becomes alive and active once we put wind to what we hear -- that is to say, it comes forth from our vocal cords in agreement with what the Lord is speaking in our spirit.
What happens, then, when we hear that prompting inside and respond to it by speaking what we hear is that we see tangible results -- the kind of results that Della has seen with the people she's working with, the kind of results that Rebekah has been seeing, the kind of results that Kenneth Hagin saw when he responded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and spent that year reading and praying and speaking to that woman in the institution.
Roughly three months ago while gathered for prayer with a group of local pastors and church leaders, one of the men shared a prayer request for his granddaughter who was struggling with epileptic seizures. He had requested prayer for her a couple of times previously and we had all prayed our usual prayers of agreement for her healing and deliverance both times.
This time was different. As he shared how she was being battered about by the Enemy and the number of seizures was increasing dramatically, anger against the Enemy rose up in me in a way that's hard to put into words. There was a passion that came out of the core of my being. The Word of the Lord spontaneously came out of my mouth and I began to decree and declare the Word of deliverance for this young woman. I commanded that spirit to loose her from that moment forth and declared her complete healing and restoration from any physical or mental or emotional damage done to her on the basis of I Peter 2:24.
Her deliverance, her healing and her restoration were already paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ and He deserved to get from her what He paid for! Now bear in mind that this young woman is not someone I've ever met -- and still haven't to this day. She was many miles distant from our gathering.
Though I did not quote this particular Scripture, it is one that has come to mind more often in recent weeks and months than at any time previously, namely, "He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions." (Psalm 107:20)
Jesus fulfilled that prophecy on several occasions. I remind you of the Centurion who said to Jesus, "Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed." (Matthew 8:8)
Jesus did so. He sent His Word and the Centurion's servant was healed instantly.
The same thing happened when the Word of the Lord -- a rhema -- came out of my mouth. That was three-plus months ago, and the young woman has never had a seizure since. She was healed and completely delivered from those epileptic attacks.
One of the problems we all have as Christians is that we tend to think that this will work for someone else -- and it certainly worked for Jesus -- but "we're just not Jesus!"
Bahh!! Humbug!! Talk about a lie of the Enemy! Let's see, the last time I looked, God's Word hadn't changed. Last time I checked, Ephesians 1:15-23 still says that Jesus is the head of the body, and WE are the body. That makes us part of Him. We are inextricably woven with Him. His DNA is our DNA. (And I'll talk about that more in our next Coffee Break.)
You see, folks, we have to get our limitations removed. We have to stop thinking "in the box." Religion and religious thinking keeps us boxed in and prevents us from operating in the fullness of the character, the nature and the makeup of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has given Himself for us and to us, and His command is that we go forth IN Him with Him IN US!
More on this topic in our next Coffee Break.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
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.
Della has been working during the past few months at a home for developmentally handicapped (reduced mental faculties) people. These are folks, some of whom have the development of a six or seven-year-old, and a few with perhaps teen or pre-teen mental states who are in their 40's and 50's. It has been a real education for both of us. What has been evident is that in each case there is clear demonic activity with a couple of very severe cases that have a proclivity for violence.
Several weeks ago, she began taking her Bible with her, bringing some of the residents of the home out to a quiet place in the back yard and reading and praying with them. The spiritual impact of that one act alone was nothing less than dramatic. Now, each day when she arrives, she is greeted with, "Are we going to read out Bibles now?" or some similar question.
There are a couple of residents who have been easily triggered into screaming rampages or violent outbursts. With these folks, Della has begun praying with them each day and getting them to follow her in prayer, repeating after her something like the following: "Father, in the name of Jesus, I take authority over my mind and my thoughts. I place them under submission to you. I receive a Spirit of Peace in my being and I submit myself to you. Restore my mind. Restore my brain. Restore me so that I can achieve the destiny you have planned for me. I declare this in the name of Jesus. Amen."
To say that it has had an effect in them is an understatement. It gives a whole new dimension to the power and the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ that we can release with the words that come out of our mouths.
Obviously, Della isn't there in this group home every day, but other health workers in the home have seen what a difference this is making and they are picking up on it. With one resident in particular who is still easily distracted and set off, some of the health workers immediately stop this individual and initiate a declaration similar to the following: "I am at peace. Those are not my thoughts and I command them to leave now in the name of Jesus."
Without fail, it works! It gives an added dimension of understanding to what Paul wrote in II Corinthians 10:4-5, which reads: "(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."
Folks, we need to wake up and realize that we tend to operate with limitations placed upon ourselves by our own minds, our thoughts, and by a demonic predisposition Satan takes advantage of when he sees the open door. We've got to get out of our mental boxes and discard the limitations of religion, religious doctrines, the traditions of men and the demonic restrictions we've allowed as a result.
Notice that I listed "demonic restrictions" last in this list. Satan has no power over us that we don't give him; and we open doors of opportunity for his ingress into our lives by our thoughts and our failure to "bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." I can't tell you how often I've heard (and continue to hear) people blame God for their state or for the misery they are in. It isn't His fault: it's ours for not believing and acting upon the authority given to us by virtue of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
That's not to say that we won't still experience mishap and difficulty: we do and we will. Jesus made the statement, AND the promise, "In the world ye shall have tribulation(thlipsis: pressure, heavy burdens, anguish, persecution): but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
Hmmmm.... Looks like I just kind of dived in and forgot to say Good Morning to y'all! GOOOODDD MORRRNNNIIIINNNG !!! This is the best day of your life! Sure it is!
While we're still on the topic of dealing with emotionally and mentally handicapped or disadvantaged people, let me tell you about a remarkable event unfolding with our daughter, Rebekah. Like her mother, she works in a home dealing with some developmentally disabled or handicapped people. One of her charges is a young man who is in his late twenties. Several weeks ago she called us quite disturbed because the young man in question was waking up in the morning with what appeared to be bite marks and scratches all over his back. The injuries were clear and unmistakable. The other health workers in the home simply dismissed it as his having nightmares, sleep-walking and injuring himself in the process.
Rebekah has seen enough with our ministry throughout the years to know better and she called to ask what she could do about it. We told her to first document each instance, and if possible to get the agency responsible for the home to install a night-vision camera in the young man's room. The agency refused the request so Rebekah decided to do what she's seen us do and what we have challenged her to do in years gone by.
The young man in question has been greatly tormented for years, and yet he is -- and has been -- a Bible-believing Christian. Rebekah took him to some scriptures to show him how Jesus dealt with these issues, and made it clear to him that she felt he was dealing with evil spirits. He had grown up in a home where he was taught that Christians couldn't be tormented by evil spirits. It's a nice religious doctrine that pacifies a lot of folks and makes them feel good momentarily, but it doesn't get them the help they need, or the deliverance that Jesus paid for on their behalf.
After showing him some pertinent scriptures, Rebekah recommended that he pray with her and take authority over the evil spirits that had been tormenting him and command them to leave him in Jesus' name. He did so immediately.
We've shared with Rebekah the event that happened with Smith Wigglesworth many years ago (and a similar thing happened to Kenneth Hagin) in which he awoke one morning early to see Satan standing over him. Smith Wigglesworth looked up at him and said, "Ohh! It's only you," and turned over in his bed and went back to sleep.
Rebekah shared this with the young man and told him that he could do the same thing. Other than that, she said, "Just tell the demon or Satan to get out of your room and leave you alone in the name of Jesus."
A couple of nights later, that's exactly what happened. The young man woke up feeling pain in his back and turned over to see a demon standing there with his fingers dug into his back. He yelled at him, "Get out of here in the name of Jesus, and don't come back!" The young man was quick to tell Rebekah about it the next morning, and he was ecstatic! "It worked! It worked! Satan left me alone! He stopped scratching and biting me and left."
But that's not the end of the story. This happened more than two weeks ago, and the young man has been able to have a complete night's rest every night since, and the demon has not returned. That's not to say that Satan has given up on the young man yet, but he has had his first taste of Jesus' authority being operational in him and it is making a radical change in his whole makeup.
It's a funny thing! When folks begin to really taste of the power and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ operating in them, it alters their whole outlook on things. The fear which has been so resident and controlling in their lives begins to dissipate -- and if there is one common denominator in the developmentally disabled, it is FEAR! Once that fear begins to leave, their ability to reason returns or begins to develop the way God designed for them.
Kenneth Hagin used to tell the story of how he was urged to go and see a young woman in a mental asylum. This lady was locked in a padded cell, and had been there for many months. The Holy Spirit directed him to read to her from the Scriptures, pray over her -- and tell her every single day that Jesus loved her, and he did too. For one solid year he did this as the Holy Spirit instructed him. In that year, the woman's whole demeanor changed. She was transferred from the padded cell to the general population of the institution.
When Kenneth Hagin's year was up and the Holy Spirit said to him, "You're through. You've done all that is needed," he went his way and as time went by stopped thinking about the lady. Several years passed and one day he received a phone call from a lady who asked him to come to her place of business.
When he walked into the place, a well-dressed and elegant woman rose from her desk and shook his hand. "Brother Hagin, do you remember me?" she asked. He looked at her and confessed that he did not. "I was that woman in the padded cell in the insane asylum that you ministered to for a solid year."
She proceeded to tell him how she had grown up in the midst of extreme physical abuse and how it had driven her over the edge until she completely lost her sanity. During her growing up years she had been prevented from attending school and had no education whatever. She thus lacked any people skills and any ability to cope with her environment. When she was locked away, everyone gave her up totally considering that she would be institutionalized for the rest of her life.
Hearing the Word day after day, hearing the prayers, the declarations and prophetic decrees over her, and hearing that Jesus loved her (and Kenneth did too) slowly but surely brought her back to sanity. She learned to read by reading the Bible. In due time she was released from the insane asylum as completely sane and emotionally stable. In the years that followed she learned math and became financially proficient, eventually forming her own business. Her company became one of Texas' major trucking and transportation companies, and she became a pillar of society. More than that, she became a living, breathing testimony of how the love of Jesus transforms and restores an individual thought completely lost to society.
Are you beginning to get the drift in these events? These are miracles that are happening "outside the box." They go past the mental limitations -- the religious limitations -- that we tend to put on ourselves or allow Satan to trip us with.
How often have you heard someone say, "Oh, I can't do that!! That's for someone a whole lot more "spiritual" than me." Or maybe it came out like this: "I just don't have the faith for something like that."
Something like WHAT? Something that Jesus did? Something that He commanded us to do? Since when is it OUR faith that accomplishes it?
Jesus put it like this: "Have the faith of God." (Mark 11:22) Our KJV renders it, "Have faith in God," but that's not how the actual Greek text reads. OK, so if we are commanded to have God's faith, how do we get there?
Again, Jesus didn't leave us without clear and unmistakable answers. Consider how the apostle Paul put it in Romans 10:8: "The word (rhema: direct, spoken and uttered word) is near you, in your mouth and in your heart -- that is, the word (rhema: direct, spoken out loud word) of faith which we are preaching." (NASB)
Again Paul writes in the same place, "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word (rhema: direct, spoken out loud word) of God." (Romans 10:17)
Get it? We hear Him speak it inside ourselves. It may be quiet, it may be nothing more than a prompt, it might even be a whisper, but it is still something we hear. He doesn't shout it, He simply speaks it into us.
It becomes alive and active once we put wind to what we hear -- that is to say, it comes forth from our vocal cords in agreement with what the Lord is speaking in our spirit.
What happens, then, when we hear that prompting inside and respond to it by speaking what we hear is that we see tangible results -- the kind of results that Della has seen with the people she's working with, the kind of results that Rebekah has been seeing, the kind of results that Kenneth Hagin saw when he responded to the prompting of the Holy Spirit and spent that year reading and praying and speaking to that woman in the institution.
Roughly three months ago while gathered for prayer with a group of local pastors and church leaders, one of the men shared a prayer request for his granddaughter who was struggling with epileptic seizures. He had requested prayer for her a couple of times previously and we had all prayed our usual prayers of agreement for her healing and deliverance both times.
This time was different. As he shared how she was being battered about by the Enemy and the number of seizures was increasing dramatically, anger against the Enemy rose up in me in a way that's hard to put into words. There was a passion that came out of the core of my being. The Word of the Lord spontaneously came out of my mouth and I began to decree and declare the Word of deliverance for this young woman. I commanded that spirit to loose her from that moment forth and declared her complete healing and restoration from any physical or mental or emotional damage done to her on the basis of I Peter 2:24.
Her deliverance, her healing and her restoration were already paid for by the Lord Jesus Christ and He deserved to get from her what He paid for! Now bear in mind that this young woman is not someone I've ever met -- and still haven't to this day. She was many miles distant from our gathering.
Though I did not quote this particular Scripture, it is one that has come to mind more often in recent weeks and months than at any time previously, namely, "He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions." (Psalm 107:20)
Jesus fulfilled that prophecy on several occasions. I remind you of the Centurion who said to Jesus, "Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed." (Matthew 8:8)
Jesus did so. He sent His Word and the Centurion's servant was healed instantly.
The same thing happened when the Word of the Lord -- a rhema -- came out of my mouth. That was three-plus months ago, and the young woman has never had a seizure since. She was healed and completely delivered from those epileptic attacks.
One of the problems we all have as Christians is that we tend to think that this will work for someone else -- and it certainly worked for Jesus -- but "we're just not Jesus!"
Bahh!! Humbug!! Talk about a lie of the Enemy! Let's see, the last time I looked, God's Word hadn't changed. Last time I checked, Ephesians 1:15-23 still says that Jesus is the head of the body, and WE are the body. That makes us part of Him. We are inextricably woven with Him. His DNA is our DNA. (And I'll talk about that more in our next Coffee Break.)
You see, folks, we have to get our limitations removed. We have to stop thinking "in the box." Religion and religious thinking keeps us boxed in and prevents us from operating in the fullness of the character, the nature and the makeup of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has given Himself for us and to us, and His command is that we go forth IN Him with Him IN US!
More on this topic in our next Coffee Break.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)