ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: DREAMS FROM THE LORD III

ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: DREAMS FROM THE LORD III

Salutations and Blessings upon you!

The coffee is brewing…uhh…steeping in the French Press. Ready for a cup? I believe we’ve got some of those smaller “vitamins” sitting around the kitchen, too. You know…those things they call “donut holes”? Vitamins! Right!

Let’s get right to it this morning continuing with the prophetic picture and significance of what I saw in the dreams.

DREAM NUMBER ONE, Part One

Returning to the person in the dream who was a Russian FSB officer, he represents an authority-figure and someone who has the power to influence and control the lives of many people. I noted in the previous Coffee Break that he was a type of the “leader” who has charge over folks, but has no personal relationship with the Lord. He was austere, legalistic, demanding and thought he had the right to rule over them and say what they could believe and not believe. Because he had no personal relationship with the Lord, anyone who talked about such a thing was a heretic and a fool.

He is the classic picture of leaders who have the “form of Godliness but lack the power thereof.” (See II Timothy 3:5) I say that because when he first met me at the airport, his demeanor and appearance was that of a well-polished, seasoned minister. He had the appearance of being a Godly man. He had the ability to put on a show – a façade – that was anything but real. His ultimate repentance at the end of the dream is indicative of many leaders I’ve met throughout the years who have been Bible College or seminary-trained – highly educated, if you will – but whose knowledge is all academic, not revelatory.

There is a huge difference between acquired knowledge and revealed knowledge by the Holy Spirit. Acquired knowledge is what you get through book-learning and academic pursuits. Revealed knowledge is what comes directly from God in an instant. It is a “download” if you will. You instantly have the answer or the solution to a situation that didn’t come through hours or days or weeks or months of study, research and experimentation.

Let me digress a bit to give you an example.

Back in 1988 when I was Chief Engineer for KTBY (the FOX TV affiliate) in Anchorage, I was called in for an emergency in the wee hours of the morning. The transmitter had failed and the station was off the air. The transmitter was an archaic relic of WWII-era design – an old Black and White RCA transmitter that had been converted to color sometime in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. The thing should have been retired to a museum many years before. There were no schematics that covered the modifications, and many changes had been made to the transmitter that weren’t recorded. When I walked into the transmitter room, the place smelled of molten metal. The high-voltage cage had literally melted and the final output tube was almost welded into the High Voltage cavity.

Logically, the first step was to rip everything out, clean up the mess and rebuild the HV section. OK, so far. But what caused the meltdown in the first place? What had failed in such a way as to cause such catastrophic damage? I didn’t have a clue, so I did what I knew to do: lay hands on the transmitter and pray. (By the way, this is something both Della and I have done on numerous occasions with many different things. (Grin)

You can laugh if you want. If some of my engineering friends had been there to see, they’d have known I’d absolutely lost it! There’s a spiritual principle here, however, that many believers miss in crisis situations. James put it like this in his epistle:

James 1:5-6: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.

I needed wisdom and understanding and the Lord gave it to me – in immediate download fashion! In an instant, the Holy Spirit gave me a vision of an old oil-filled capacitor in the HV power supply and told me it was shorted. When I opened up the back doors of the HV cage, there was the capacitor just like the Holy Spirit had shown me. A quick test showed that it was indeed shorted out. I scrounged up a replacement, installed it and fired the transmitter up. Presto! Just like that we were back up and running.

I didn’t need an engineering degree (and truth is, I still don’t have one despite international recognition for some achievements in science and engineering) – just an impartation of wisdom and understanding from the Holy Spirit. My achievements in the field of electronic engineering haven’t come through book-learning; they’ve come as a direct result of revelation from the Holy Spirit. Folks, it works, and it works reliably. But it only works when you have the reality of a relationship, a personal love-relationship, with the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s no form about this. It isn’t religious at all. And there’s both power and authority that backs it up.

Didn’t mean to get so sidetracked, but the personal illustration is a picture of the difference between “the form of Godliness” and living and operating in the power of God.

Throughout the years, I’ve met many “pastors” who had the title and fair-sized church congregations to accompany their title. When I’ve asked them how the Lord called them into the ministry, they’ve given me a deer-in-the-headlights stare. Some have stammered and stuttered around looking for an answer. Others have simply responded dryly, “I just wanted to do something to help my fellow-man.” Still others have answered, “It seemed like a good thing to do.”

Duhhh….. No concept whatever of the voice of the Holy Spirit or having a commission from the Lord!

Dad used to say (and I think he was repeating something he’d heard throughout the years), “There are lots of people in the ministry who simply “went” – but they were not “sent”!”

When that’s the case, you have the perfect picture of the Russian officer in the dream: a person who exercises power, influence and authority without wisdom and understanding.

But here’s the best part of this picture: when folks like this come in contact with real authority and power – that which comes by and through the Holy Spirit – and they see miraculous events take place which defy all their logic and learning resulting in real change to people, desire leaps within their being for the “real.” For many there is recognition – whether ever voiced or not – that what they’ve operated in was “will power” and not some God-given, Holy Spirit-anointed dunamis power and authority. Like the Russian officer in the dream, reality sets in, repentance takes place and there comes a yielding to the Lord Jesus Christ.

* * * * * * * *

DREAM NUMBER ONE, Part Two

Jeremiah 12:9-11: Mine heritage is unto me as a speckled bird, the birds round about are against her; come ye, assemble all the beasts of the field, come to devour. Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.

In our previous Coffee Break, we talked about Paul’s statement to the Galatians; and I will expand on that for a bit because it bears directly on the prophetic picture in these dreams.

Galatians 5:13-26: For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

In Jeremiah’s prophecy, he lays the initial blame for the “biting and devouring” upon the pastors – the shepherds – saying, “They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me; the whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.”

Paul takes it further as he writes the Galatians, however, and makes clear that each individual who engages in “biting and devouring” one another lacks love (agape) and is engaging in one or more of the works of the flesh. He describes the “works of the flesh” with the following list of activities: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like.

Pretty graphic, don’t you think?

I don’t remember who first said it, but Neville Johnson recently restated a spiritual principle which accurately describes the condition of the body of Christ today. It goes like this: What this generation tolerates, the next generation will accept as “normal,” or acceptable.

We’ve seen that in a growing tolerance and acceptance of the homosexual lifestyle within this generation. In the previous generation, one didn’t even mention the topic because it was so abhorrent and aberrant to human behavior. Without an awakening in the hearts of God’s people in this generation and a refutation and absolute rejection of homosexual activity as some kind of “norm” we will see this sin quite accepted within the body of Christ in the coming generation. The consequence will be exactly what Jeremiah prophesied: “The whole land is made desolate, because no man layeth it to heart.”

This is the condition that prevailed in the lives and hearts of the “believers” who were biting, devouring and cannibalizing one another in the cage. They were desolate. They had no hope. They had no manifestation of love between themselves. They had lost the authority and the power that comes when folks walk in communion with the Lord. Had that communion been present – the intimacy of a love relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ – the authority and power to deal with the crisis they found themselves in would have easily been accessible and operational!

I’ve said all that to say this: The “works of the flesh” Paul lays out in Galatians, when tolerated within the body of Christ, leads to the breakdown of relationship between God’s people, and a breakdown in the level of leadership. The more a society tolerates, the more those who are trained and groomed for leadership positions tolerate. It’s one of the reasons why we have seen some major church denominations “ordain” homosexuals and lesbians to pastoral positions.

There has been a breakdown of the moral and spiritual standards once held within these organizations – so much so that people who don’t even know the Lord are being elevated and “ordained” to ministerial places when they don’t even have a call or beckoning from the Holy Spirit. As I’ve already said earlier, this is the picture of the Russian FSB officer in the dream.

* * * * * * * *

DREAM NUMBER TWO

Throughout most of the past forty years, if there’s one thing that both Della and I have learned, there is no quicker way to demolish and remove a yoke of bondage than through prayer and fasting.

In the first dream, it was very apparent that a trap had been set for me by the Enemy – a trap designed for my destruction and death. My spiritual antennae had been alerted before departing on the trip. It was a good thing that I responded to the quickening of the Holy Spirit and instructed Della to wait until she heard from me before coming to Moscow. Being “instant in season and out of season” (II Timothy 4:2) applies to every part of our responsiveness to the Holy Spirit.

In this instance, there was no time to stop and consider the check from the Lord. If I hadn’t responded instantly and Della had gone with me, things could have turned out very differently. As it was, she was prompted by the Holy Spirit (in her dream) to be fasting and praying for my deliverance and restoration. That prayer and fasting became corporate. The spiritual principle of corporate prayer is revealed in Matthew 18:16b and Matthew 18:19-20:

Matthew 18:16b: …In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.

Matthew 18:19-20: Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Understand? There certainly is power and authority through prayer; and the prayers of any righteous individual, praying according to the heart and will of Father God, are certainly heard. However, when you add the agreement – the sumphoneo (symphony) – of individuals there is logarithmic multiplication that takes place. It’s almost like a row of bulldozers (or tanks) coming at the Enemy.

Take a look at the following verses of Scripture.

Deuteronomy 32:30: How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?

Joshua 23:10: One man of you shall chase a thousand: for the LORD your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath promised you.

Here’s how Solomon put it in Ecclesiastes:

Ecclesiastes 4:12: And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

It was obvious that I was up against a force of the Enemy that required greater power than I could release by myself. I had authority – all the authority I needed against Satan – but there was a need for the hosts of Heaven to be released against him and to wage warfare in the realm of the Spirit.

That took place as Della gathered with others on a daily and consistent basis. I have a few other comments and observations to share, and in the interests of not making this Coffee Break overlong, I’ll save them for the next one.

The Holy Spirit is moving and operating in this day and age in non-traditional ways; and any attempts we make to box Him in or try to second-guess Him are doomed to failure. Those who are willing to hear what He has to say and are ready to “operate outside the box” will see and experience the Glory of the Lord!
Blessings on you!

Regner

Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTERProsser, Washington 99350
(509) 515-0133

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