Another
Coffee Break:
Dealing With Fear, Part 1
June 27, 2014
Peter and Janet Van
Hierdan are friends we've known for the past nine years. We met under rather unusual circumstances
during a tour of the National Cemetery in Washington, DC. Peter was walking in front of us, engaged in
an animated discussion with a Canadian friend.
I couldn't help overhearing them as Peter was describing a series of
puzzling events that were taking place in his home with his teenage children.
It seems that they'd
been having Bible studies with other kids from the area. Peter and Janet had been supervising and
leading these Bible studies and things had taken a decidedly unusual turn --
especially for folks whose church and faith background was rooted in the
Netherlands Reformed Congregation. After
the time of Bible study was finished, the kids would get together and begin
praying. One evening without any
warning, some of them began speaking in tongues.
Soon those who'd been
baptized in the Holy Spirit began laying hands on others, and it spread like
fire. They started praying for one
another and seeing healings take place.
For families who had no background whatever in these kinds of displays
it was a source of consternation.
Overhearing Peter's
discussion during our walk in the National Cemetery and his puzzlement over
what he was seeing and hearing, I couldn't help but insert myself into the
conversation. It resulted in Peter and
Janet coming to our hotel room that night while Della and I shared with
them. We laid hands on them to receive
the baptism of the Holy Spirit that night, and while we didn't see or hear any
immediate manifestation of their speaking in tongues, the seeds were planted --
seeds that would shortly explode with humorous manifestation. All of us had been in DC for a conference and
when the conference ended, we shared telephone numbers and addresses (Peter and
Janet live in Lethbridge, Alberta), and we headed our respective ways.
A few days later Peter
calls me. "I just received a phone
call from my wife -- at least I'm pretty sure it's my wife -- but I can't
understand a word she's speaking!"
He explained that Janet regularly went on prayer walks just to be alone
with the Lord. On this occasion as Janet
had been praying, she received a royal download of her prayer language, to the
point where (as I shared with you in the last Coffee Break about my own
experience) she couldn't speak English.
I assured Peter that this was not unusual, and that he should expect
more of this.
In the weeks, months
and years that followed, Della and I were able to be with them in their home
and see the continual growth and the gifts and manifestations of the Holy
Spirit abound in their family to the point that their sons and their daughters
developed unusual prophetic giftings.
I've really only
scratched the surface of this story but my purpose in sharing is to introduce
Janet to you and to let you know that she has published a rather unique book
titled, Preparing the Bride of Christ for His Return. This book is a chronicle of her own experiences
and revelations developed during her prayer walks and times with the Lord. When Janet first began to share the book with
me, I saw it as an extraordinary and very inspirational daily devotional and
recommended that she chapterize it in that manner.
The book is currently
available at Amazon.com in both softcover and e-book form. A link is available on our website at www.RegnersMorningCoffee.com. Simply click on the photo of the book
cover. You won't be disappointed!
OK, my
introductions today got a bit windy, so let's see if we can get cracking on
this new series.
In the
thirty-plus years that have gone by since Holy Spirit first began to download
into me the revelation of the families of fear, my understanding has grown by a
quantum leap of just how pervasive these families are, and the extent to which
these wicked spirits conceal themselves as part of the character or personality
of individuals.
In 1981, I
was invited to speak on a Sunday night at the Presbyterian church in Fairbanks,
Alaska on the subject of deliverance.
One of the elders of the church was a gentleman whom I'd known as a
teenager, growing up in Barrow, and he'd heard me share in a Charismatic
conference on deliverance from fear. He
shared what he'd heard with the pastor, and as a result I was given the
invitation to come and teach.
When I
began to teach, I made the statement that "If you get stirred inside, if
anger rises up inside you or you get really fidgety while hearing this message,
that's a good sign! The Enemy who has
hidden himself inside you -- an enemy who has camouflaged himself as part of
your nature and makeup -- does NOT want you to hear and receive the truth that
you have authority over him, and that you can be rid of him." When I finished sharing that night, the first
person to the front of the church to receive deliverance was the pastor. More than three-quarters of the church
followed him to the front. As they
followed me in a prayer of deliverance, there were a few cases of folks who
began to cough almost uncontrollably, some began to experience convulsing as
though they were about to vomit and some made hissing noises but most of them
very calmly exercised the authority they had in Christ Jesus to receive their
deliverance.
My very
first experience with ministering deliverance from fear occurred a decade
earlier in Salt Lake City. An
18-year-old girl sat on the front row of the church as I was teaching, and when
I finished she immediately volunteered the fact that she lived her life in
constant fear, doubt, and uncertainty, reacting to sudden noises or events
around her as though something was going to kill or injure her. When I spoke to the spirit of fear and
commanded it to leave her, the sound that came out of her mouth was almost
unbelievable. It was akin to the sound
of a steam locomotive with a deafening hiss and something approaching a scream.
Have to
admit, the look of shock on her face and the faces of those sitting near her
was something to behold! But the
manifestation of her deliverance from fear and the boldness that developed in
her life in the years that followed was a story all by itself. Although I left Salt Lake City the following
year to minister with Dwain McKenzie at Long Beach Christian Center (in
California), events transpired which allowed me to see this young woman's life
unfold and keep track of her for a number of years to come. She eventually went on to become a stock
broker, an investment advisor, and -- eventually -- a managing director for
Smith-Barney (now Morgan Stanley Smith Barney).
With that,
let's lay some foundations from the Word.
II Timothy 1:7 (KJV): "For God hath not given
us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
Let's
expand this a bit from the Greek text: "For
God has not endowed, or committed to our being and existence the spirit (the
very breath and speaking forth) of fear, timidity and faithlessness; but of
miraculous power, might and strength, and of agape love, and of a disciplined mind (under control and not
subject to "flights of fancy")."
(RAC
Translation and Amplification)
Then we
pick up with a verse shared in the previous Coffee Break from I John 4:18
(KJV): "There
is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath
torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love."
Once
again, here is the same verse amplified from the Greek text:
"There is never any alarm or fright or excessive concern in
the love feast [we have with Jesus]; but completed and mature love throws out
any fright or excessive concern: because fright and alarm bring torment. He who
allows himself [the luxury] of alarm, or fright, or excessive concern does not
permit the finished work and maturity of God's love feast in Christ Jesus in
us." (RAC Translation and Amplification)
Now, take
another look at the way the Greek phrases II Timothy 1:7: "For God has not
endowed, or committed to our being and existence the spirit (the very breath
and speaking forth) of fear, timidity and faithlessness; but of miraculous
power, might and strength, and of agape
love, and of a disciplined mind (under control and not subject to "flights
of fancy")."
Do you see
it? God HAS NOT endowed us with any
spirit of fear. We were never given the
breath of an evil spirit at Creation.
Adam and Eve were endowed with and imbued with the breath of God, and
His breath became their spirit. For the
2,000 years or so they lived in the Garden, their lives exemplified what John
describes in his Gospel like this:
"In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without
him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the
light of men." (John 1:1-4 KJV)
When God breathed the breath of life
into Adam and Eve, He breathed into them HIS life, and that life was light --
both in the sense of what flowed in their veins AND in the context of the
revelation that filled their beings.
Adam and Eve never had to go to school to learn anything. They didn't graduate from Eden
University. They never had to attend
Garden Tech in order to learn how to tend the Garden. Eve didn't have a PhD in child-rearing or
home economics. Adam didn't attend four
or eight years at the Divine Institute of Technology in order to transition
between dimensions or to become expert in zoology.
OK.
You can laugh at me if you like, but you get the picture! The naturally supernatural ability to do what
they did came with the Breath of God being breathed into their beings. It brought all the revelation they would ever
need to fulfill every commission God gave them.
Oh, and by the way, when God
breathed into Adam, and then into Eve after He took a rib from Adam and made
her, He didn't conduct a ceremony in which He stood before them and performed
some kind of ritual. God blessed them
with His declaration, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the
earth, and subdue it [using all its vast resources in the service of God and
man]; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and
over every living creature that moves upon the earth. And God said, See, I have
given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the land and
every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to all the animals on
the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything that creeps on the
ground—to everything in which there is the breath of life—I have given every
green plant for food." (Genesis 1:28-30 Amplified Bible)
What Adam and Eve received from the Lord with His
Spirit being breathed into them, AND the blessing He declared over them, was
total dominion over the earth.
David makes this clear in Psalm
115:16 when he writes, "The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S: but
the earth hath he given to the children of men." (KJV)
It's even clearer
when you read it in the Hebrew text: "The
Heaven, even the Heavens [past, present and future], are the Lord's: but the
earth has He appointed, assigned, delivered and charged to the sons [and
daughters] and descendants of Adam."
By now you
are seeing it, aren't you? What happens
when someone is given complete dominion -- full authority?
They are
given the control of things! No one, no
being, no entity has the power or authority to take it away. If the one with dominion and authority cedes
any part of that authority to someone else, then that "someone else"
has the ability to function or to exercise some rule in the stead of the
grantor.
Let's put
it another way. The grantor has the
final authority. He is a king. The one to whom some portion of power or
authority is granted is still subject to the king. That individual is regarded as a prince.
It may
seem like I'm really going around a 40-acre field but my objective is to show
you some contrasts, and in the process help you understand the nature and the
foundation for the creation of, or basis for fear.
Once
again, what was it that first happened with Adam and Eve? "And God blessed
them......." With God's Blessing came His
authority! With God's Blessing, Adam and
Eve had full revelation of God's plan for the Garden; they had all their needs
supplied; they had the creative ability to call each of the animals, the birds
of the air and the fish of the sea and endue them with their respective nature,
their character, their personality and their makeup.
Here's one
thing most folks miss in this picture: Adam had dominion over the serpent! The serpent was subject to him. The serpent was answerable to him. Despite the fact that Satan had entered into
the serpent, causing it to take on Satan's character and makeup, the serpent
still remained a serpent -- a reptile (or creeping thing), if you will -- over
which Adam had all rule and authority.
When the
serpent deceived Eve through cunning and subtlety into eating of the fruit from
the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, he tricked Eve into violating God's
command and warning that doing so would induce death. Adam acted with purpose, not being deceived,
and he acted emotionally, not fully considering or comprehending the long-term
consequences of his action when he took the fruit from Eve and ate of it
himself. God specifically commanded Adam
and Eve not to eat of that tree -- NOT because He was trying to keep something
good from them, but because the human frame was never designed for any
knowledge acquired by anything other than revelation.
What Adam
did not comprehend was that when an individual eats of the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil, three serious consequences follow: (1) the
Knowledge of Good produces pride and arrogance; (2) the Knowledge of Evil
produces the Fear of Evil, and along with it a host of other fear families; and
(3) that kind of fear produces a chain reaction in human cells and human DNA
resulting in ultimate death.
Adam and
Eve were never designed to die. They
were created in the image and likeness of God, Who is Eternal. They had dwelled in the Garden for some 2,000
years (give or take), walking and talking with the Lord and functioning
inter-dimensionally between earth and the heavenlies. The fact that partaking of the fruit of the
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil began marking a point in their existence at
which life would terminate produced in them (and all their descendants) the
Fear of Death.
Next week
we will explore the events that unfolded in Scripture when Adam and Eve ate of
the fruit of that tree, and watch each specific event that followed, along with
a visual demonstration of the families of fear as they activated in both of
them.
Again, if you are in
need of healing -- especially if you have some terminal disease or prognosis of
a very short time to live from the doctors -- please join our prayer conference
calls on either Monday or Wednesday of each week at 7:00 PM Eastern. Once again,
the number to call is (805) 399-1000. Then enter the access code: 124763#. To get into the queue for prayer, when Randy
opens the call up for everyone, hit *6-1 on your keypad. Let us minister to
your need for healing!
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 now 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#_
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 available
at http://www.RegnersMorningCoffee.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 remove yourself from the mailing list, please send a blank email to Unsubscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.
If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.To remove yourself from the mailing list, please 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment