Another
Coffee Break:
Pictures
of Tribulation & Wrath,
Part 1
Greetings &
Solutions!
Without any ado
let's get right to today's discussion.
By the way, I do have a French Press brimming with some very dark
roasted French Roast. Come on over and
set a spell with me.
In
keeping with the theme of the past two discussions, this Coffee Break can be
regarded as part III of the Antichrist series as I seek to clear up some
confusion in the body of Christ concerning some of the end time teachings and
doctrines we've all been exposed to.
Again let me begin with I Corinthians 13:9,10,12):
"For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when
that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done
away...... For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I
know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known."
As
already noted, my sharing with you comes out of the revelation Holy Spirit has
downloaded in me and that which I have been walking personally -- especially
during the past 30 years. I do not claim
to have all of the blanks filled in yet so bear with me if some of what I share
doesn't seem to click in your spirit.
In
our last Coffee Break, I noted that Paul used the Greek word thlipsis in Colossians, and here we have
it translated "afflictions."
Let's take a look at that for a minute.
"Although you were previously alienated and hostile in your
thinking by virtue of the wicked deeds you were engaged in, yet He [Jesus
Christ] has now reconciled you to the Father through the death of His fleshly
body [on the Cross] in order to present you before Him holy, blameless and
beyond reproach -- if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established and
immovable, and not removed in any way from the hope of the Gospel [of the
Kingdom] which you have heard, and which was proclaimed in all creation under
Heaven -- that of which I, Paul, was made a minister. I rejoice now in my tribulation and
sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His Body
(which is the Ekklesia) in filling up that which is lacking in Christ's
afflictions. Of this Ekklesia I was made
a minister according to the administration and stewardship from God imparted
upon, in and through me for your benefit so that I might completely carry out
the preaching and teaching of the Word."
(Colossians
1:21-25, my translation & amplification)
We
actually see the word thlipsis twice in this
passage -- once translated as Paul's tribulation and sufferings, and once as the
afflictions of Christ. Notice what that thlipsis
produced in Paul.
It
resulted in Paul's being able to share from a personal standpoint the
afflictions that Jesus went through on our behalf. It produced the change of Paul's nature in
such a way that the Lord imparted a stupendous anointing. That anointing resulted in the efficacy of
Paul's being able to share a revelation of Jesus Christ such that 2000 years of
fellow-believers have been able to profit and grow in their relationship with
the Lord as a result.
Next,
take a look at Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians.
"[We] sent Timotheus, our brother and minister of God, and
our fellow-laborer in the Gospel of Christ, to establish you and to comfort you
concerning your faith: that no man should be moved by these afflictions: for
yourselves know that we were appointed thereunto. For verily, when we were with you, we told
you before that we should suffer tribulation; even as it came to pass and ye
know." (I Thessalonians
3:2-4 KJV)
Here
again, twice, we see the alternate translation of the word thlipsis as "afflictions" and
"tribulation." Again, Paul is
telling us that tribulation and afflictions for believers [who press forward in
Christ Jesus] is the norm! Tribulation
isn't something abnormal for the believer!
Tribulation is a normal part of our existence as believers. To create an imaginary picture -- a fantasy,
if you will -- in the mind that tribulation is something to be avoided is --
once again -- a lie of antichrist. It is
a false Christ that says You don't need to go through
tribulation! I'll just snatch you out of
the way and keep you safe in Heaven during "the great tribulation." It is a false Christ -- a substitute Christ
-- that suggests that A loving God would never put His people
through tribulation!
We've
been quoting this verse from John's Gospel in the previous Coffee Breaks, and
here it is again! Jesus said (and
continues to say!):
"These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might
have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good
cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:33)
It's
NOT the Lord that is putting us through tribulation and afflictions. These things are a byproduct of the fact that
sin is at work in the world. We are
enemies of sin. We are residents and
representatives of a Kingdom that is in the midst of overthrowing Satan's
dominion in the earth today. For us to
think we're going to somehow escape experiencing tribulation is an absolute
fantasy. It is a demonic fantasy!
Let
me take this another step. What about
our fellow-believers in China today?
What about our fellow-believers in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and other
Muslim countries where folks worship a god who hates Yowd Hey Vav Hey (Jehovah)
and His Son, Jesus Christ, with a purple passion?
Father
and mothers kill their sons and daughters who convert to Christianity, and they
feel absolutely justified in doing so.
They cut off the hands or the feet of believers. They starve them to death in prison. They hang them on public display in order to
demonstrate their utter hatred of the Lord Jesus Christ and all who believe in
Him. They drill holes in the heads of
Christians and string wires through them, connecting those wires to electric
current in order to hopefully destroy their brains and rid them of any thoughts
of serving the Lord Jesus.
Tribulation! It goes with the territory, folks! The overwhelming majority of the tribulation
that committed believers suffer today is a direct product of other religious
people (and very often those who call themselves Christians) who oppose them as
heretics, or simply do not want to hear a Gospel preached that requires them to
be anything other than passive "believers."
I'll
share with you some personal experiences for the sake of illustration.
You
all know that I grew up in the arctic, and that my parents were pioneer
missionaries who went into communities where people either were hearing a
watered-down Gospel, or they were still steeped in ancient traditions under the
rule of shamans. The churches that did
exist in those communities were not challenging the status-quo and any concept
of deliverance from evil spirits was non-existent.
We
saw a move of the Spirit in the late 1950's and early 1960's equal to anything
you read about in the book of Acts.
After several years of being absent from the far north, I returned in
the late 1970's to Barrow, Alaska. It
was not my intention to start another church fellowship when I went, and I
expected to work with the pastor who was serving in the church I'd helped my
Dad build.
He
was a fairly young man and one who was not confident in himself, nor in the
relationship he had with the Lord, nor in the church denomination he was
with. When I returned to Barrow, I had
long been away from the denomination my father was a part of -- not out of any
antagonism towards the denomination, but simply because the Lord had opened up
doors of opportunity for me to minister across denominational lines. By that time, I'd served in a conservative
Baptist church, spent a year ministering in a Methodist church, filled in for a
Lutheran pastor while he took a sabbatical, preached in multiple seminars with
Roman Catholic priests -- some of whom were among my best friends, spent a year
teaching classes on the Priesthood of the Believer in a Mormon ward, done
Charismatic seminars with Lutheran and Episcopal denominational leaders, etc.,
etc., etc. You get the picture. I went where the Lord directed me to go and
He gave me the necessary grace and favor.
Because
I was not a part of my father's denomination any longer, all of a sudden I was
a threat. The current pastor of that
church in Barrow I'd helped Dad to build made it clear that I was not welcome
there. At the same time, elders in the
local Presbyterian church who had known me from years prior came to me and
asked me if I would serve in an interim capacity while they awaited the
appointment of a permanent pastor by the Missions Board of the
denomination. I accepted gladly and
served there for four months. The new,
permanent pastor and I became good friends and we were able to fellowship
together freely.
When
people in the community realized that I was not going to serve at the
Presbyterian church any longer, and that I'd been declared persona non grata at
the other church, they asked me to begin another non-denominational fellowship,
and that I did.
I
began to teach and preach deliverance from evil spirits, from the traditions of
man, and began to teach on the reemergence of the Tabernacle of David (a
society of praisers and worshipers) as a practical and operational event in the
body of Christ, religious opposition began to rear its ugly head. When I began to teach and lead people in the
realm of spiritual warfare, I became the target of real warfare and
persecution.
My
name was spoken of in the pulpit of the very church I'd helped my parents to
build, and it was bandied about as that of a heretic. However my name was used, people were
encouraged to do everything in their power to drive me out of the community.
For
months my phone would ring and a muffled voice on the other end would say words
to the effect of, "The next time you step out the door, you're going to
get a bullet through the face."
Hate mail filled my mailbox. My
two youngest children were repeatedly attacked and beaten on their way home
from school. My oldest daughter was shot
at six times.
Driving
one day from my office, I heard a thud on the side of the van I was
driving. I wasn't sure if I'd hit
something so I stopped to take a look.
There was a bullet hole that had punctured the side of the van just
behind my seat. The bullet passed
through the van and out the other side.
Not long thereafter, I was standing in a construction shack with one of
the elders in our fellowship on property we had acquired for building a worship
center. We'd been standing in front of a
window studying the building plans when suddenly Holy Spirit yanked us
apart. In that same split second, the
window exploded as a bullet passed a couple inches from my face.
I
opened the door to the shack and saw a man standing out on the road some 300
feet or so away with a rifle and a scope.
Running toward him as fast as I could, I hollered at him, "Hey,
what do you think you're doing?" That
obviously was the last thing he expected.
He turned to run and dropped his rifle.
He stopped to grab it off the ground and ran to a waiting vehicle with
the motor running and sped away.
A
few days later when the construction crew was at work on the same property
getting ready to sink piling into the ground, a group of young men showed up
with rifles in hand and told the construction foreman that "You either
stop now, or we will kill you and your crew." He came to see me a few minutes later and
told me that they were all boarding a flight for Anchorage. "Call me if you ever get this mess
straightened out," he said.
"If we can actually get on with the work, let us know and we'll
come back. Otherwise, we're out of
here!"
We
had leased the community center from the city for our fellowship
gatherings. The building was in a severe
state of disrepair, so we set about to restore the building. We put in new flooring, linoleum and carpet,
painted the place and installed new bathrooms.
Not long after the work was complete, we showed up one Sunday morning
for our services and the place was a wreck.
The city manager had rented the place out on Saturday for some parties
and no effort had been made to clean it up.
When I went to report it to the city manager, he let me know that the
building was not ours to use any longer and that our lease was terminated.
I'd
been operating two for-profit businesses in Barrow as a means to fund our
growing ministry operations and to provide capital for the expansion of the
ministry of the Christian Broadcasting Network in Alaska. In the eight weeks that followed the loss of
the community center, my store was broken into six times. Every time I tried to restock the merchandise
(it was a high-end stereo and TV business), the store was broken into and the
place cleaned.
In
the middle of these robberies, two employees who were managing my
communications business embezzled $145,000 in cash and fled the town.
What's
funny is that in the midst of all this turmoil we were seeing miracle after
miracle take place in the lives of individuals.
In my mind, all of these things just went with the territory. I'd seen Dad and Mom suffer persecution and
opposition for the sake of the Gospel.
Why should I think it would be any different with me?
I
sent my two youngest children out of town to be with my parents for their own
safety and protection. My oldest
daughter felt she could stick things out.
She was nearing graduation from High School and didn't want to leave her
friends.
The
repeated loss of merchandise in my retail store eventually brought me to the
place where I didn't have the necessary cash to keep refilling the shelves, and
I couldn't pay for the merchandise that had been stolen. It forced me into bankruptcy.
Within
a matter of weeks after filing, there came a knock on our door. When I answered the door, police officers
stood there with guns drawn. They
announced that they had a search warrant and told me to get out of the
way. When I asked them what they needed
or what they were looking for (and that I would be glad to get for them
whatever they thought I had) they pushed past me and began ransacking the
house. They took clothing, bedding,
personal papers, and some very expensive stereo equipment that I had in the
living room, and left.
Because
I was closely linked to CBN in Virginia Beach at the time, I called CBN's Chief
Counsel and told him what was happening.
His reaction was to be expected, "This can't really be happening in
America! This is not the Soviet Union! How do they think they can get away with
this?"
In
the end, I had no attorney to represent me -- none of the local attorneys (and
they were few!) wanted to touch the case -- and by the time I was able to get
an attorney in Fairbanks (over 500 miles away) things had really gone downhill
fast. In the end, none of the items
taken were ever returned, and the stereo equipment wound up in the homes of two
of the police officers.
Despite
the furor and confusion, the opposition and the persecution, we were seeing the
Gospel spread through Christian television into the native communities
scattered throughout Alaska. We were
hearing miracle after miracle after miracle of changed lives, people receiving
healing, folks being set free from evil spirits.
The story I've
just related to you is a fraction of all that took place. There's a whole lot more that I could share,
but you've gotten the picture. It would
fill a volume to just talk about the tribulation and the persecution. You see it don't you? This was not the wrath
of God! This was nothing more and
nothing less than what Jesus assured believers they would
experience....remember?
"These
things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world
ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the
world."
Jesus spoke this
promise in order to ensure that we would be at peace in the midst of it. Tribulation, persecution and opposition all
pale into insignificance when you see Holy Spirit at work otherwise. None of it moved Paul. Consider what he said as he prepared to be
taken to Jerusalem: (See Acts 20:22-24)
"And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem,
not knowing the things that shall befall me there: Save that the Holy Ghost
witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me,
neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course
with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify
the gospel of the grace of God."
Later
on Paul would write to Timothy and say, "But thou hast fully
known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering,
charity, patience, Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at
Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what
persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered
me. Yea, and all that will live godly
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." (II Timothy 3:10-12)
Now
look again at the last half of verse 11:
"what persecutions I endured: but out of them
all the Lord delivered me."
I've
often wondered why so many Christians are anxious to avoid suffering,
persecution, affliction and tribulation when God's Word makes it repeatedly
clear that this goes with anyone who "will live Godly in Christ Jesus."
Without
quoting the entire passage (and I refer you to II Corinthians 6:4-10) Paul
makes the point that Father God demonstrates the difference between those who
have His approval and those who do not by the grace with which they live
through tribulation, afflictions, tumults, imprisonments, necessities,
distresses and every other form of thlipsis. How so?
By the way in which He vindicates His Word!
I've
run out of time today to take this where I wanted to go, so we'll continue with
this topic next week, but let me finish up today by saying that in the midst of
all the persecution, the opposition, the losses that I suffered, the
accusations that were leveled against me, and all the attempts that were made
on my life, when all the smoke cleared away, the Lord vindicated His Word --
that same Word He had sent me to Barrow to deliver -- in ways that simply left
me breathless and astonished.
Tribulation? Yesssirrrreeee!!! Anyone who thinks they can live in this world
and walk as lights in this generation without suffering tribulation is simply
deluding him or herself.
Great
tribulation? You bet! Getting raptured or caught away out of it so
that you don't have to experience great tribulation? NOT if you want the Glory of the Lord to be
revealed in the here and now!
Next
week I'll take you into the sixth chapter of Revelation for a picture of great
tribulation. Then we'll look at the
eighth chapter to see the wrath of God poured out.
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
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.
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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.
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.
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