ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: PICTURES OF TRIBULATION & WRATH, Part 5

Another Coffee Break:

Pictures of Tribulation & Wrath, Part 5

Much change is in the wind -- not just for the body of Christ -- but for us as a family. I've periodically shared our plan and intention of returning to Alaska. More than 60 years have passed since my first experience of being in Heaven and having the Lord tell me that He was going to pour out His Spirit in unprecedented manner (think John 14:12) across Alaska. He made it clear that what happened in Alaska would spread and fan out across North America. The last thing He said about this move of the Spirit was that part of His purpose for me was to be directly involved and to play an integral part.

I can't say yet -- even all these years afterward -- that I have a complete understanding of what that "integral part" is, but we do have an initial objective. That objective is to revisit all of the communities where my parents pioneered and to share in the churches I helped them to build. We'll see where the Lord takes all of that, but here are the communities we expect to share with: Nome, Barrow, Kaktovik (Barter Island), Nuiqsut, Atqasuk, Wainwright, Point Hope, Kotzebue, and Saint Paul Island. Dad didn't build the churches in Nuiqsut and Atqasuk, but he designed them and ordered the building materials for their construction. (Those churches came into being as a byproduct of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that took place in Barrow, Wainwright and Point Hope during the late 1950's and early 1960's.

Now, all of that to say that after a nearly 12-year absence from Zales Jewelers, the company asked Della to take over management of their largest store in Anchorage as of October 15. It is a strange irony -- and a case of things coming full circle -- that Della began a long career with Zales in that very same store some 28 years ago -- and it was anything but their largest store at the time. What this means is that we're in the middle of hustling to get things in a state of readiness for this move. Della will be there ahead of me. I will remain behind until things are wrapped up here in Sunnyside and in the Valley -- or at least brought to a place of order so that I can head north.

God's plans for us, and His economy are so cool! This is not quite the way we had imagined our return, but -- Oh well!!! -- we just flex with what Holy Spirit is doing and saying, and move accordingly as He opens the doors.

Before we get on with today's discussion, I'd like to make an announcement. Several years ago as a result of a series of visions and experiences in the realm of the Spirit, I launched into an effort to record my experiences in book form. That effort has undergone many re-writes in a desire to capture the essence of what I saw and experienced, and share what the Lord was speaking to the body of Christ -- and particularly, the Bride of Christ.

At this point, it is fair to say that this process may well result in not less than a dozen books. What I am pleased to announce is that the first of those books -- A TALE OF TWO BRIDES -- is due for release shortly by Destiny Image Publishers. It should show up first in the coming weeks as an e-Book, available from a number of different sources, and -- after the first of the year sometime -- in softcover form.

This book is prophecy shared in dramatic form. Though written partially like a novel, it is a graphic portrayal of the character differences and starkly contrasting responses between Esther and Vashti. It is a depiction of the preparation each of these two women went through in order to become the bride of an earthly "king of kings" whom we know alternately from Scripture as Ahasuerus and from history as Xerxes I.

It is also an allegory of the preparation processes taking place in God's people in this hour as they prepare for the coming of the King of Kings, and a portrayal of two kinds of people with differing responses who make up the body of Christ.

A TALE OF TWO BRIDES is both biblically accurate and factual as far as recorded history demonstrates. You won't find some of the conversations recorded historically or in any archaeological findings; they are recorded as I ..... well ..... let's just leave it there. Watch for it -- and get your copy as soon as it is released.

OK, time to get on with today's sharing.

Remember where we left off a few weeks back? We'd just talked about calamities that followed the release of the four angels who were bound up in the River Euphrates, and the fact that the accompanying plagues and disasters resulted in the deaths of one-third of the human race. Chapter 9 of Revelation ends with the following commentary.

"And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts."

As noted in the last Coffee Break we did on tribulation and wrath, the purpose of these plagues and catastrophic events is to get people to repent. So far we haven't seen the wrath of God. Despite all the chaos which unfolds during this time of tribulation on the earth, Father God has yet to pour out His wrath! When He does, folks, the earth will see and KNOW the difference between tribulation and wrath.

Revelation 11 tells us that unregenerate and unrepentant mankind are going to see one final opportunity to see the power of God on display. The human race will see prophecy on display in a dimension hitherto unknown in the form of two witnesses. There are several different portrayals of these witnesses in the Word.

Daniel (see chapter 12) sees two beings clothed in white linen standing on either side of a river. Zechariah sees them as two olive trees and alternately as two olive branches (see chapter 4). John sees them first as Zechariah's olive trees, and then sees them as two golden candlesticks. He specifically tells us in Revelation 11:3-6:

And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth. And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.

Obviously, the intended goal here is to bring as many people to repentance as possible. Some folks just don't listen or pay attention and God's purpose is to get people to awaken to the fact that this old earth -- as all of us have known it -- is not going to survive in its present form because of what we might ordinarily refer to as "natural disasters."

If they can be called "natural" it is only because they are the natural result of the earth and its atmosphere being contaminated by such sin and its pollution as the world was never created to withstand. There are a couple of illustrations in the Word that make this clear.

First, the apostle Paul expressed himself like this: "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now." (Romans 8:

Two words in this statement really stand out in the original Greek text. The first one -- sustenazo-- (translated, "groaneth") literally translates out like this: to moan jointly, to experience a common calamity. The second word -- sunodino-- (translated, "travaileth") is a graphic portrayal of the pain of childbirth, and literally means: to have parturition pangs in company (or simultaneously) with; to sympathize; to empathize.

Now, take a look at something that David writes as he is in the midst of great evil: "In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, eveninto his ears. Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it." (Psalm 18:6-8)

Again David writes in the 60th Psalm, "O God, You have rejected us. You have broken us; You have been angry; O, restore us. You have made the land quake, You have split it open; Heal its breaches, for it totters. You have made Your people experience hardship; You have given us wine to drink that makes us stagger."

One last illustration for contrast comes from Isaiah's prophecy over Lucifer. (See Isaiah 14:16-17)

"They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, andconsider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms; That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?"

David twice (actually much more than that throughout the Psalms) speaks of the Lord causing natural disasters because of his wrath which was incurred by wickedness. But Isaiah makes reference to physical and political chaos caused by Satan. There is a distinct difference, however, between what happens (and what is soon to take place) when the wrath of God is incurred.

God's wrath is intended to wipe out the wickedness upon the earth. As Paul noted in his letter to the Romans, the whole earth is moaning and groaning and suffering calamities under the weight and the influence of sin. I've heard folks say -- and I've seen a number of Christians in their ignorance repeat this -- that "a loving God could not and would not bring calamity and disaster upon people.

Let me correct this misinformation.

First of all, David makes it clear that God DOES bring calamity and disasters (we tend to call them "natural disasters") upon the human race, but everything He does has a redemptive purpose! [Here's a side-note for you: even the insurance industry recognizes that there are "acts of God" for which there is no seeming natural cause.]

Secondly, let's go back to the time of Creation. Six times in Genesis 1 we read that "God saw that it was good." That word "good" in our English texts is translated from the Hebrew tob(pronounced, "tobe") We can expand that translation like this: good, orderly, peaceful, beautiful, pleasant, productive, prosperous, well-ordered -- and here's the big one -- bountiful.

Get it? Well-ordered? Orderly? Bountiful (as in multiplying)?

Sin, wickedness, evil, etc., are the exact opposite of the tob God saw when He finished with Creation. They disturb the careful balance, the equilibrium of the earth and its balance on its axis, not to mention the atmosphere that surrounds the earth. Sin, left to its devices; wickedness left unchecked; evil permitted to run rampant, all works together and cooperates to affect the very geologic and atmospheric constitution of the earth and our environment.

Let me break for just a second to offer an observation that some will consider political -- and it is not intended for that purpose. Environmentalists miss the mark because they want to correct the imbalance that is taking place in our various environments by imposing laws, regulations, taxes -- you name it -- and they fail to recognize that our environments are polluted spiritually!

It is spiritual wickedness, it is sin, it is evil that is causing all these things to happen. Natural pollution is hardly the cause. Global warming is a natural cyclical event on the earth for the purpose of correcting atmospheric imbalance. There's nothing "man-made" about it! It isn't the result of burning fossil fuels. It isn't the result of too much carbon dioxide. It isn't the result of the excessive use of certain chemicals. God made it so to keep the earth in proper balance.

Let me take this another step.

Whenever we see major hurricanes (like Andrew, Hugo, Katrina, etc), whenever we see major earthquakes (there've been many throughout history, but more in the past century than in all of previous recorded history combined), whenever we see tsunamis (think of the one that wiped out more than a quarter million people at the end of 2004, or the one that devastated Japan this past year), whenever we see major volcanic eruptions, whenever we see the F-3, F-4 and F-5 tornadoes that strike the country bringing horrendous damage and wiping out (in some cases) whole communities, we are seeing events which are a direct result of the earth rocking and reeling under the weight of sin and the pollution in the spiritual atmosphere.

Some folks are going to think I've just gone WAYYY off the beaten track, but let me remind you of some basic fundamentals -- some spiritual laws which supersede every natural law!

Law 1:The earth (and our universe) came into being by the spoken Word of God. It was not simply some accident or random event caused by colliding stars, or even by a "Big Bang."

Law 2:When God speaks His very breath comes forth. Incorporated in His breath is His Spirit!

Law 3:Everything created by God has perfect order and perfect symmetry, naturally, spiritually, scientifically, etc., etc., etc.

Law 4:With God's creation comes precise order and balance. That order and balance govern not only the earth itself, but the entire universe.

Law 5:God warned Adam and Eve that the natural order of their creation would be upset, that the balance of perfect, immortal life (as He created them to exist) would cease IF they traded the perfection of His revealed knowledge to them for humanly acquired knowledge. The specific methodology for this trade came in the form of eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

There are other laws we could cite but let's simply apply these to the events currently unfolding, and those that are shortly to take place.

Adam's decision to eat of that tree violated the exactitude and meticulousness of the divine order in which he (and all mankind which followed) and Eve were created. It altered the balance of nature God had so carefully established. It triggered a sequence of events to follow which would ultimately pollute the earth itself, render the soil incapable of producing in the way that God originally designed it to produce, and subsequently alter the critical balance of the atmosphere surrounding the earth.

The events which followed throughout the next millennia and a half multiplied the pollution to such an extent that God could no longer stand by and watch His beautiful creation return to the chaos that existed when His Spirit brooded over the waters (Genesis 1:2). He first issued an edict that man's days would be normally limited to 120 years. His anger was so inflamed at the sin, the chaos, the pollution which had so ruined His creation that He released destruction upon the entire earth in the form of a cataclysmic flood, wiping out mankind, the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air and every creeping thing of creation, saving alive only Noah, his family, and pairs of every species of animal and bird (except for those which would yield sustaining life for mankind ["clean" animals], in which case there were seven pairs).

With that pollution wiped out, the flood waters receded and the earth began to return to its once pristine beauty.

The purpose of God's wrath being revealed and released upon the earth was so that His original Plan for beings with whom He could fellowship -- at His level of fellowship** -- would resume. This has ALWAYS been His objective since before the very first words of Creation were spoken. God's plan has always been to have a family of beings who were and are just like Him, a family of supernaturals (and I use that word rather loosely) who would exhibit His character, His personality, His love -- His very essence!

[**The level of fellowship God is after envisions and requires a species of being who thinks and acts like Him and operates in His level of wisdom and understanding.]

When I refer to a "family of supernaturals" I'm talking about a people who have overcome this "sub-natural" realm -- the realm of sin, the realm that perverts the perfect order God first established, the realm of stubbornness and rebellion; in other words, I'm referring to this place that folks think of today as the "natural" order of things. It is anything but "natural" or "normal."

Sin stops and prevents the development of a family of supernaturals. It interferes with God's plan and purpose. It perverts the fulfillment and completion of the "I AM" as He purposed from before Creation. And that perversion incurs and incites the wrath of God.

OK! It looks like I need to stop and continue this discussion later -- and hopefully finish it up with one more Coffee Break.

See you again soon.

(Steven Shelley is a friend, a fellow-pastor and a brother in the Lord whose ministry I have come to respect and greatly appreciate, especially in the last few years. Following is a short excerpt from a prophetic word he delivered in a recent conference.)

"The Angel of the Lord explained to me that the true baptism of the Holy Spirit would prepare the way for the white eagle. He said the white eagle represented a revelation of the fullness of Jesus Christ; not just a greater knowledge of Him, but an infilling and indwelling of the very character and virtues of Jesus.

This revelation would produce the living Word made flesh again, not just in one man as in the days of the Lord Jesus Christ, but in a whole company of Believers. This message would act as a plumb line, a measuring device to gauge the uprightness of all words given to the end time Bride of Jesus Christ.

I spoke out to those in the room, "The world has never seen what it will see in the Bride. Fools will mock and reject it, some religious leaders will scorn it, but His true Bride will receive it with gladness."

I believe these words were referring to the Lord doing a new thing that will not follow historical revival patterns but will have a distinct model and administration. It will be an expansion of the ministry model of the Lord Jesus Christ as seen in the Gospels.It will be authority and power functioning and flowing in a corporate Body of Believers especially chosen for this purpose, even before the foundation of the world.

(Steven's entire prophetic word is available for you to read at http://www.elijahlist.com/words/display_word.html?ID=11489)

Blessings on you!

Regner

Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES

709 South 7^th Street
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