Another
Coffee Break:
Supernatural Maturity, Part 11
May 28, 2015
We begin again today with the amplified version of Jesus'
declaration of blessing for those who are persecuted:
Matthew 5:10-12: “Blessed
and highly favored by the King [of Kings] are those who are harassed, molested,
mistreated, or pursued after with hostile intent simply because they have been
justified [by faith (in Jesus Christ and His anointing)]; royalty, and Kingdom
rule shall be theirs.
Blessed and highly favored by the King
[of Kings] whenever men or women will seek to defame you, to rail at you or
taunt you, harassing and pursuing you with malice, saying in public or writing
false and hurtful accusations about you to others, seeking to ruin your
reputation because of your relationship with me [on account of Who I AM — and
who you are in me].
Rejoice — exult, sing, dance, enjoy
yourself — because each time you are mistreated for my sake, your reward and
place at the Seat of Order in things eternal is enhanced and magnified.
Consider yourself in the same company
of the prophets before you who likewise were harassed, molested, mistreated,
defamed, and falsely accused because of My Word in and through them.” (RAC Translation and Amplification)
We've
talked thus far about the division that the Enemy wants to bring among
families, and I've shared with you a bit of history in our family
heritage. I'd like to wrap up this area
of sharing with a few more examples taken from personal experience within what
we would normally refer to as "the Family of God." Because of the threat the Family of God represents
to Satan, nowhere is the attempt to divide and conquer and persecute more
evident, and nowhere is the blessing and favor of the Lord more evident for
those who suffer persecution. At the
same time, the fruit that comes from standing in the midst of the persecution
is some of the best seen in the Kingdom of God.
During
a transition period in 1978 while getting ready for a return to Barrow, Alaska,
I fellowshipped with a Charismatic church group in Anchorage and came to know
all of the people involved in its ministry locally as well as throughout the
state, and even some in missions in other countries. Because of our family legacy in missions and
ministry throughout Alaska, I was given ready access to the pulpit from time to
time as well as the ministry of praise and worship with their musicians.
1978
was still very much at the height of ministry activity for me in the realm of
deliverance from evil spirits. [That's
not to suggest that it has stopped, but rather that the focus has shifted in
the way we minister deliverance.] Many
of the fellow-ministers I shared with were from traditional Pentecostal
backgrounds where the concept of a believer being afflicted by evil spirits was
totally contrary to their doctrines.
I
was invited to come and minister in one of the satellite churches on the Kenai
Peninsula one weekend, and -- wouldn't you know it -- Holy Spirit sets things
up to minister to folks who were being afflicted by evil spirits! Following both the morning and evening
services, the time of personal ministry -- along with quite visible
manifestations as the spirits departed -- easily lasted for a couple of hours
AFTER the time of teaching.
Returning
to Anchorage the following day I was met by a very grim delegation from the
Charismatic church who had heard what had taken place. They made it clear that I was to meet with
their entire ministerial board later that week at a luncheon to explain why I
would minister that way knowing that they were opposed to such ministry.
There
were perhaps 12 senior leaders, pastors, evangelists, prophets and teachers who
sat around the lunch table to grill me on "my doctrine." That luncheon turned into an inquisition of
sorts as they tried to refute the scriptural basis for the ministry of
deliverance among Christians. There came
a point in the discussion when they -- to a man -- conceded that I was on sound
scriptural grounds for the ministry; and then their senior prophet said
directly to me, "we cannot afford for you to continue this ministry in our
fellowship. It contradicts everything we
have taught, and we will not have division among the people over this. People will think that we're just lying to
them, and they'll leave!"
The
Holy Spirit rose up in me at that and I stood to my feet at the end of the
table as the following prophetic message from Jeremiah 8 literally poured from
my mouth: "How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD
is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made He it; the pen of the
scribes is in vain. The
wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have
rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them? Therefore will I give their wives unto
others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for
everyone from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from
the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. For they have healed the hurt of the
daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no
peace. Were they ashamed
when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither
could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time
of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD." (Jeremiah 8:8-12)
I
continued on: "How can you tell these people that they are free when they
are suffering, in torment from evil spirits, and fighting with sicknesses and
diseases? How dare you tell people that
they cannot be suffering with evil spirits, and you say to them that once
they're saved, they are automatically set free?
As a practical matter, they have no power to fight against evil spirits
until they've been baptized in the Holy Spirit!
Mark 16:17 makes clear that one of the very first evidences of being
filled with the Spirit is the ability to cast out demons! You have the gall to say to folks,
"Peace, Peace," when they have no peace!"
Guess
I was a bit astonished at my spontaneous reaction to them. I shook my head and sat back down. The group quickly got to their feet, made it
clear that I was no longer welcome to be in any of their churches, and that was
that! The following Sunday evening, one
of their senior pastors stood behind the pulpit and said to the church, "I
wouldn't touch Regner Capener with a ten-foot pole!"
Once
again, you can see the picture of Jesus' statement, "Men and women in a covenant relationship with
Me will find [even] their non-covenanting [spiritual] family members to be
their hostile adversaries (who will fight and oppose them)."
Doesn't
look like much of a blessing at the moment, does it? Ahhh, but there's more to this story!
In
the months that followed, Jeremiah's prophecy came to fulfillment among them as
several of their families broke up in divorce, at least three of the wives
wound up marrying other men, one of their prophets went to prison on a sex
charge, the other prophet died a year or so later from a painful disease and
the church split down the middle. Sounds
even less like a blessing, doesn't it?
Over
the decade that followed, the same pastor who had made the statement that he
wouldn't touch me with a ten-foot pole reversed his stance and began
encouraging the ministry of deliverance in his church. He was leading the breakaway church which, by
this time, was larger than the original church fellowship he had left. The new church was flourishing, the Kingdom
of God was growing by leaps and bounds and serious repairs and reconciliation
were underway where breaches had taken place.
By this time I had returned to Anchorage after a decade of ministry in
Barrow and Fairbanks.
It
soon became apparent that two other evangelist/pastors who had been at the
table with that group of 12 had reversed their stance on the ministry of
deliverance. On at least one occasion
that I can remember, one of them even called me for counsel in dealing with a
specific issue.
One
day I received a call from the son of the original senior leader of the old
Charismatic fellowship. His dad had
retired and he had become the new senior pastor. He had, however, been a part of that group of
ministers on that fateful luncheon day.
"Would you meet me for lunch today?" he said. "Absolutely!" I looked forward to it.
Sitting
down at the lunch table he broke the silence by saying softly, "I marvel
that you can be sitting across a table from me, after all the water that has
gone under the bridge." Reaching
across the table to take his hand, I said, "Brother, I hold you no ill
will whatever! Whatever God has done out
of all that transpired has worked for the good of the whole Body. When we parted that day, I knew that it
wasn't up to me to bring the kind of revelation needed. Holy Spirit was going to have to do that. I've never felt badly towards you or anyone
else in the church."
There
was real fellowship together at the table that day. God had done a rather spectacular thing in
healing the perceived breach. As we got
up to leave, this pastor said to me, "From me to you, you are always
welcome in our church!"
One
of the issues that we face in the Body of Christ today is that we have a bad
habit of viewing events from a "now" perspective. If we see division take place, our immediate
reaction is that it is bad. We don't see
the long-term picture. If we don't see
instant vindication of either the individual or the truth that was spoken or
represented, we tend to believe the negative about the individual who is under
attack, or at the very least, that which he or she represents. Consider what Paul wrote to the Ekklesia in
Corinth when he was talking about the Table of the Lord.
I
Corinthians 11:18-19: For
first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be
divisions among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among
you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.
The word
used in the KJV -- heresies -- comes from the Greek word, hairesis, which literally means: disunion
(from choices). Thayer defines it like this: dissensions
arising from diversity of opinions and aims, choosing, choice, that which is
chosen.
Paul's
point is that these dissensions and disunity arises so that (and they) which
God specifically approves can be made known -- and here is the crux of it -- so
that the truth can be manifested for all to see, and people can then correct
their wrong choices. Persecution and opposition
produces this kind of dynamic!
Jesus
wasn't kidding when He said, “Blessed and
highly favored by the King [of Kings] whenever men or women will seek to defame
you, to rail at you or taunt you, harassing and pursuing you with malice,
saying in public or writing false and hurtful accusations about you to others,
seeking to ruin your reputation because of your relationship with me [on
account of Who I AM — and who you are in me].
Not only
are we the recipients of that blessing, the Body as a whole is blessed. The Body of Christ grows, it multiplies, it
expands, understanding and maturity take place, there is a Kingdom prosperity
that comes (and I point out -- in the long term!) of the show that God puts on
as a result of the harassment, the false accusations and the malicious
defamation that comes by standing in His Truth!
One more
personal story for the sake of illustration, and I'll quit.
When I
returned to Barrow in 1978, it was not my intention to begin another church
fellowship. I was focused on Christian
television and bringing the ministry of CBN to the arctic. A young pastor (late twenties or early
thirties) had been assigned by the denomination to the church I had helped my
Dad build. My hope was to be an
encouragement and a help to this young pastor and support him. That, obviously, was not going to
happen. As soon as he heard my name and
realized who I was, he perceived me as an instant threat to his leadership and
authority.
He made it
abundantly clear that I was not welcome and that I could forget about any
ministry in Barrow. You couldn't help
but feel sorry for him because of his ignorance and fear, and I did my best to
try to allay those fears. Holy Spirit
obviously had other things in mind. An
old friend who had helped Dad to get the property on which to build the church
and provide the vehicle to haul gravel with in order to create a good
foundation was now the presiding elder at the Presbyterian church. He asked if I would serve in an interim
capacity as their pastor until the missions board could assign a permanent
pastor. That's another story with
implications I can't take time to get into today, but the four months I did
serve as their interim pastor saw a move of Holy Spirit in their midst that was
absolutely wonderful!
In the
weeks and months that followed, a number of folks approached me about my
continuing to pastor and forming a new fellowship. Although that new fellowship never became
very large (it was more of an overgrown home fellowship that expanded beyond
the walls of our home) it was perceived by the young pastor as a threat to his
domain, and he began to actively speak out against us as heretics, or -- using
the picture of the native culture -- someone who dishonored his father and
abandoned his father's faith.
Because
Christian television was my primary objective, and I needed a way to fund the
development of television outlets in the arctic, a door of opportunity opened
for me to purchase ASA Television from the Arctic Slope Regional
Corporation. ASA became Arctic Slope
Audio and North Slope Communications -- two distinctly separate businesses with
different focuses in retail consumer entertainment and business
communications. The profits from these
businesses went to purchase equipment and fund the building of tiny little TV
stations in remote villages throughout the northland.
I had my
hands full, operating two businesses, pastoring a small fellowship, building
small TV stations and promoting the growth of Christian television throughout
Alaska. Without realizing what was
taking place, a target was painted directly on my backside for people with a
religious agenda, and they quickly took advantage of it.
It started
with threatening phone calls. "We
know that God didn't send you here, and we're going to drive you
out!" Try this one. "The next time you step out the door,
you're going to get a bullet through the face." (That call was repeated more times than I can
count.) Then there was the somewhat
humorous hate mail in the form of post cards.
"Go directly to hell. Do not
pass go. Do not collect $200. Go straight to hell."
Then
things began to spiral upward. I've
already noted in previous Coffee Breaks the two times a sniper tried to take me
out. My oldest daughter was shot at six
times. My oldest son and second daughter
were repeatedly attacked in the dark as they were on their way home from school
(we were in the midst of the 66-day perpetual darkness cycle) by men who would
pick them up and throw them against the side of a building, and they would come
home bruised and bloody. I wound up
sending them away from Barrow to be with my parents at Saint Paul Island for
their own protection.
These
events are only a drop in the bucket of the persecution that unfolded but in
the midst of it all, the Lord spoke to me and told me that the day would come
when many of these same people would spontaneously fall on their knees in the middle
of the streets and cry out in repentance.
By late in 1980 it became clear that we were going to have to move our
operations center to Fairbanks for CBN's ministry to expand, and we made that
move in 1981.
Seven
years later, Dwain McKenzie -- my lifetime friend and brother in the Lord --
was back in Barrow pastoring the church Dad had founded. He called me one day to report that people
were literally falling on their knees in the streets of Barrow, calling on the
Lord.
Was the
persecution fun? Not even! Was it necessary to stand in the midst of it
and not give up? Absolutely. Was it worth it? The lives that have been changed and
transformed by the power of God as a result are clear testimony and proof that
persecution yields the blessing of the Lord.
The Kingdom of God has expanded!
I remind those of you in need of ministry that our Healing Prayer Call
takes place on Mondays at 7:00 PM Eastern (4:00 PM Pacific). Once again, the number to call for healing is
(805) 399-1000. Then enter the access
code: 124763#.
At the same time, in case you are missing out on real fellowship in an
environment of Ekklesia, our Sunday
worship gatherings are available by conference call – usually at about 10:45AM
Pacific. That conference number is (559)
726-1300, and the access code is 308640#.
We hope to make these gatherings available by Skype or Talk Fusion
before long.
Blessings
on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Email Contact: Admin@RiverWorshipCenter.org
Our book, A
Tale of Two Brides, published by Destiny Image, is available on
Amazon.com as an E-book: http://www.amazon.com/Tale-Two-Brides-Relationship-ebook/dp/B00BSV6HZC/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1363139096&sr=8-8&keywords=A+Tale+of+Two+Brides#_
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