ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: GOING BEYOND, Part 6

Another Coffee Break:

Going Beyond, Part 6

December 12, 2014

We really have a lot of ground to cover today and I'm hoping we can finish this part today of dealing with the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking with tongues.

As we said last week, speaking in tongues is the one clear evidence of a change of citizenship in the Kingdom of God.  To be very clear, it is not the only evidence — and we’ll get to those evidences as this series continues — but it is the first and primary evidence that a change of citizenship has taken place.  Before Jesus ascended into Heaven He made the following promises.

Mark 16:15-18:  “And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.  He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.  And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;  They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.”

Let’s see if we can clarify this a little more from the Greek text.

“And He said to them, Go into all the world, announcing and heralding the angelic tidings [of the Kingdom] to every individual.  He that exercises faith and trust [in Me and in My Word] and is baptized — immersed [into Me] — shall be safe [from the Law of Sin and Death], delivered [from the power of Satan], healed, preserved, made whole and prosper; but he that activates and exercises unbelief shall receive the punishment accompanying the judicial verdict and sentence of condemnation.

“And these signs, supernatural indicators and wonders shall follow and accompany they who exercise faith and trust {in Me and in My Word]: in My onoma (the very essence of Who I AM), shall they bring forth and eject demonic beings and entities; they shall speak forth with new and fresh unlearned languages; they shall take on [and defeat] the pernicious arguments of wily, deceitful men who will try to dissuade them and turn aside their faith; and if they drink or imbibe any poisonous and fatal substance, it shall not hinder or injure them in any way; they shall lay hands on [and impart healing] to the sick, the diseased or infirm, and they shall be restored, fully recovering and made whole.”

That, folks, is a mouthful!  Notice where all of this begins: “He that exercises faith and trust [in Me and in My Word] and is baptized — immersed [into Me].”

The starting place is to exercise full faith and trust in Jesus — and by extension, His Word.  The next thing is to be immersed into Him!

The immersion Jesus is referring to is two-fold, and the evidence of that comes in the promises that follow:

1.  We are saved from the Law of Sin and Death.

2.  We are delivered from the power of Satan.

3. With that immersion comes the legal right to access our healing, our preservation from sickness or disease, the right to wholeness and deliverance from the Spirit of Poverty.

THAT’s what happens with water baptism.

Then comes Jesus’ warning to those who disbelieve Him and His Word.  To that statement I would add those who disbelieve any part of His Word and attempt to negate it in some way or set it aside.  The KJV uses the word “damned” for those, but the Greek is far more picturesque with the term, katakrino.  This is a legal term which defines: receive (ing) the punishment accompanying the judicial verdict and sentence of condemnation.

And we continue.  Now we see the evidences of the second baptism: baptism (or immersion) into Holy Spirit.  Jesus made it abundantly clear that certain signs or evidences would follow those who exercised complete faith and trust in Him and — by extension — the transformative Word of Life which He spoke.

These would be immediate evidences — supernatural signs to the rest of the world — of being “clothed” in Holy Spirit.

1.  Authority to bring forth and eject (cast out) evil spirits or demonic beings and entities.

2.  New and fresh — previously unlearned — languages and tongues (i.e., the language of the Spirit) [with prophetic gifts in attendance] (see I Corinthians 12:1-3)

3.  Supernatural wisdom to defeat the arguments of those who eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and try to undo our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

4.  Immunity from poisonous substances, forced (and unforced) drinking of contaminated drinks.

5.  The supernatural ability to impart the healing power of the Lord Jesus Christ to those who are injured, sick, infirm or diseased, and see complete recovery and restoration as the manifestation of that impartation.

It is important for us to remember that these baptisms — the baptisms commanded as necessary for our entrance into Kingdom living —are the vehicle by which we move from natural, earthly-based kingdom living into the Kingdom of God.

Water baptism takes us from death unto life.  Water baptism frees us from the Law of Sin and Death and enacts the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus for us.

Holy Spirit baptism, on the other hand, begins the process of altering our mindset and speech, and initiating us into the norms of walking and living as true citizens of a supernatural kingdom — the Kingdom of God (or the Kingdom of Heaven, as Matthew prefers to define it).  If indeed we are citizens of a kingdom not of this world, our manner of living, our manner of speaking and our manner of functioning must reflect that citizenship.

The language of Holy Spirit is inherently different from the manner of speech we see in this world.  The conversation of those who’ve been baptized in Holy Spirit — or to use a slightly different descriptive phraseology — clothed and covered over by Holy Spirit will of necessity have a different character to it.  It is authoritative, carrying with it the authority of The Throne.  It is life-giving, conveying the very presence of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Once we have been baptized into Holy Spirit, there are clear signs and specific gifts which accompany that baptism, and that's what I'd like to get to next.

I know it seems like we are just rehashing something all of us already know, but the problem we’ve had in the body of Christ for centuries and generations is that, while this is a basic foundation in our walk with the Lord, it is a foundation that has not been fully understood nor properly laid for many believers.

In Paul’s general letter to the Hebrews he points out that we only get to leave the foundations and “go on to perfection” (or completion) “if God permit.”  Obviously he is making an issue of the fact that believers will never advance beyond being “teknons” (children who “under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father”) into “huios” (mature believers given the full authority of Father to function in and with the seal of His approval) if these foundations have not been fully and properly laid. That said, let’s continue with the baptisms (plural) of Holy Spirit.

As Jesus’ ministry was preparing to get underway, John the Baptist was prophesying to the Pharisees and Sadducees and as he did so began to prophesy of Jesus: “And now the axe is laid to the root of the tree; therefore, any tree which fails to bring forth fruit of genuine, approved value is cut down and cut off and thrown into the fire. I indeed immerse you in water as a function of {your} repentance and reversing the past, but He who comes after me comes with force and power far greater than I have, whose shoes I am not competent or sufficient to lift and sustain [walking in]; He shall immerse you into and by Holy Spirit and with fire.

“His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will cleanse perfectly and completely in the place of His threshing, and gather His wheat into His granary, but He will burn up and wholly obliterate the chaff with a perpetual, unquenchable fire.”  (Matthew 3:10-12, RAC Translation and Amplification)

Isaiah prophesied similarly as he began to draw the pictures of the Seven Spirits of God when he wrote, describing the very first of those Seven Spirits like this:

“And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem and for eternal life,

“After the Lord has washed away the [moral] filth of the daughters of Zion [pride, vanity, haughtiness] and has purged the bloodstains of Jerusalem from the midst of it by the spirit and blast of judgment, and by the spirit and blast of burning and sifting.”  (Isaiah 4:3-4, Amplified Bible)

What we are seeing in these prophecies is a picture of the purpose of Holy Spirit’s Baptism of Fire. Isaiah describes this as being for the purpose of purging out pride, vanity, haughtiness and the “bloodstains of Jerusalem” — a reference to the fear-motivated greed, robbery and killing or shedding of innocent blood.

John the Baptist calls it “chaff” — a Hebrew metaphor for the Word of Life which has been broken up and scattered, with all nutritional capability gone completely.

Let me take this another step.

Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden and consider the judgment that God gave to Adam and Eve when they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

That tree — the same tree that Jesus put the axe to — destroyed the very life that was in God’s warning to Adam and Eve to NOT eat of its fruit.  It is impossible to function in the realm of the Spirit AND eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil at the same time.

This is precisely why we see the following narrative in Genesis 3:

“And Father, Son & Holy Spirit said, ‘Look, Adam [and his genesis] has become united with us in knowing [the difference between and characteristics of] good and evil: the possibility exists that he could put forth his hand and take of the fruit of the Tree of Life and live throughout the eternity of the eternities;” Therefore, Father, Son & Holy Spirit sent them [Adam and Eve] forth from the [now protected and fenced] Garden of Eden to work, to till, to dress and to subdue the same ground from which he was taken.

“And He expatriated, evicted and drove out Adam [and Eve], affixing and positioning at the main [mountain] entrance of the Garden of Eden Cherubim (angelic guardians) and a flaming, blazing sword which rotated and turned every direction to hedge about, guard and protect the access and way to the Tree of Life.”  (Genesis 3:22-24, RAC Translation & Amplification)

Ever wonder about the significance of this angelic protection to the Tree of Life?  Ever wonder why the symbols of God’s protection of the Tree of Life were the Sword and the Fire?

Let me express it like this, and then we’ll get to some practical illustrations in the Word:

IF we are going to regain our access to the Tree of Life, and the realm of divine revelation that comes with it, we MUST be purged of everything that we’ve assimilated into our lives from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

There’s not a man or woman alive who has not been contaminated by, or had assimilated into their thought patterns, mode of living and conducting themselves, operating on the basis of what we think we know to be “good” and/or avoiding that which we perceive as “evil.”   If we are truly going to walk in the Spirit, we have to be able to live and function entirely by that which we hear and know BY and THROUGH the kind of revelation that comes from Holy Spirit.

This includes the way we have “interpreted” Scripture, the way we have reasoned in our responses to Holy Spirit, how we have responded or not responded to the Word and — apart from our specific walk with God — how we have dealt with daily issues, our business, our relationships with other people, etc.

We’ve already quoted John the Baptist’s statement regarding Jesus’ coming to “baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire.”

Now, take a look at what actually happened on the Day of Pentecost:

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”  (Acts 2:1-4, KJV)

You see it, don’t you?  Holy Spirit shows up on the scene visibly — as fire!  The first thing that happens, as we are all well aware, is that all those gathered together began speaking in previously unlearned languages.  There’s more to this picture, however, than first meets the eye.  We have a picture of an event that describes the making of, or growing up of, the Bride of Christ.

This is something of an aside to this discussion, but when you look at the individual nationalities and tribes represented — all of whom heard the assembled believers declaring the wonders of praises of God in their own respective languages — the total number of languages heard is 17.

Seventeen is the number of the Bride of Christ throughout Scripture.  It is a hidden number — one not readily visible — and it is representative of a people in preparation, a people who are not yet visible to the world at large.

Getting back to the Day of Pentecost, the assembled believers saw radical change on that day.  Peter went from being a namby-pamby scaredy-cat to having his tongue (and his personality) loosed from the fear of death and the fear of man to being outspokenly bold with an anointing that saw 3,000 people added to the Kingdom immediately as a result.

Peter was purged from his fleshly thinking when the fire hit him.  And that's the next baptism we want to discuss -- the baptism of fire!

I still didn't get to where I wanted to go today, so -- here we go again!  I've got some personal stories to tell you, and that's where we will go next week.

During the rest of this Christmas holiday season, we are only doing our healing prayer call this coming Monday at 7:00 PM.  Thereafter, until Monday, January 5^th, the calls will be suspended when we will resume our normal schedule.  Once again, the number to call for our healing 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

RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Sunnyside, Washington 98944

Email Contact: Admin@RiverWorshipCenter.org

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