Another
Coffee Break:
A Revelation of God's Glory, Part 11
October 23, 2015
We
left off last week talking about Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1 and that's where
we need to pick up again. Ever notice
how he talks about Father -- the God of our Lord Jesus Christ -- as being the
Father of Glory? Right. Then, twice in this same chapter he writes
"that we should be to the praise of His Glory." Let's talk about that for a minute.
This
phrase, "that we should be to the praise of His Glory who first trusted
in Christ,"
is one that really gets missed in our understanding. We sort of know what that means, but the
Greek text really expresses it more clearly.
The
word translated, "praise," is not one that we would associate with
the Hebrew words for praise throughout the Old Testament. Here we have the word, epainos, which is a
contraction of the two Greek terms, epi, and aineo. The first word, epi, is a preposition
which literally means: to superimpose upon. The term, aineo, generally means: laudation, to tell a story which magnifies or exalts.
Let's
see if we can put this together in a way that makes sense.
That we should so live our lives in such a way that we are
literally superimposed on and into the Lord Jesus Christ; that the story of our
lives and the transformation which has taken place magnifies, exalts and
demonstrates His Glory; that our story is the proof of our trust and
expectation of our redemption in and through the anointing of the Anointed One,
Jesus. (Ephesians 1: 12, RAC Translation and
Amplification)
How's
that for a picture? The revelation of
the Glory of the Lord to the world is not some mystical or super-spiritual
thing: it is the most practical and real-world evidence of His presence, His
anointing, His love, His empowering grace and His supernatural authority at
work in and through us.
Let
me put it another way.
The
world treats itself and its societies as "normal." The truth is that everything about the world,
the societies of the day, and even the religious structures of the day, are
sub-normal. When we are transformed by
the power of God, we are restored to "normal." What the world sees in the truly transformed
believer is something "supernatural."
The
fact is, the Glory of the Lord, changes us so that we are naturally
supernatural. This is where we are
heading! Many years, I started using a phrase that Holy Spirit planted in me
that I believe describes where we are heading, and where we must be if the
Glory of God is to fill the earth as we see in the prophetic Word given to
Moses.
Numbers 14:21: But as truly as
I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.
Isaiah
picked up the same Word of the Lord and added to what Moses had heard:
Isaiah 40:5: And the glory of the LORD
shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the
mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.
The
phrase I have come to use is that in Christ, we have been designed to be
naturally supernatural, and supernaturally natural! We are regarded as "supernatural"
when in fact all that has happened is that restoration to the image and
likeness of the Lord Jesus Christ has been taking place. THAT is natural living! THAT is the real "normal."
Our
society today has so degraded and slid into the muck and mire that the P.C.
Police tell us that we need to accept this as "the new normal." It isn't new, and it isn't normal! It is living sub-normally, sub-naturally, so
far beneath what we were created for as to defy any kind of normal spiritual
thinking.
The
problem today is that we accept this sub-natural realm as normal. The whole idea of the Glory is so far beyond
today's thinking as to be something out of science fiction! Robert Heidler was sharing a couple weeks or
so ago at Glory of Zion on the "normal" that the body of Christ has
come to accept, and I will borrow a bit of what he shared.
The
norm in the body of Christ during the first couple of centuries was that the
Glory of God was on display. We had a
fully functional five-fold ministry with Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists,
Pastors and Teachers -- a fully operational picture of the five ministry facets
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Early in the
fourth century, because Christians were still being persecuted and Christianity
was not widely acceptable, the Roman Emperor Constantine figured out a way to
make compromises with the pagan Roman society by dumping Christianity's Jewish
roots, banning any recognition of God's ordered Feasts, and getting rid of the
five-fold ministries.
The
changes that followed so altered the makeup of the body of Christ that
suddenly, the "congregation" became a passive onlooker while the
priests conducted "mysteries" and rituals that had nothing whatever
to do with Word of God. The Reformation
reintroduced the concept of the pastor, but the "pastor" was still
nothing more than a re-named priest who acted as the sole voice of God. Not until the Charismatic Renewal began in
the 1960's and 1970's did the (by this time) almost heretical idea of the
restoration of the five-fold ministry get re-introduced in the body of Christ.
And
still, the "new normal" was nothing more than a shadow of what and
where Holy Spirit is bringing the body of Christ. And that's the issue! This is why Paul wrote the following to the
Ekklesia in Rome:
Don't allow yourself, your mind, your thinking, your thought
processes and your character to become fashioned after the way of the world;
instead, allow a process of transformation -- renovation, restoration and
renewing -- to completely alter your way of thinking, your intellect, your
feelings and your understanding in order that you may apply the crucible so as
to assay, test, and prove for yourself that which is beneficial, that which
agrees with and is well-pleasing [to God], and that which completes and brings
to full maturity God's desire, purpose and destiny in and for you. (Romans 12:2, RAC Translation &
Amplification)
What
we see in the Word of God isn't some supernatural thing: it is living naturally
in Him. When Jesus uttered His
phenomenal prayer in John 17, the crux of His prayer was -- and is:
John 17:20-23: Neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art
in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may
believe that thou hast sent me. And
the Glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as
we are one: I in them,
and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world
may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
This
may sound really strange -- and perhaps to some, almost heretical -- but bear
with me. There was NOTHING supernatural
about Jesus! Everything that He did was
natural! The Word that He spoke, taught,
prophesied and lived was natural. It was
the norm! The whole plan of redemption
was to restore us back to normal. And
normal, folks, is exactly how we were planned, executed, created, formed and
breathed into with the zoe breath and life of God in the
beginning.
The
Glory of God was on display from the beginning.
The Glory of God was on display in the Garden of Eden. The Glory of God was on display when Adam and
Eve tended the Garden. The Glory of God
was on display when Adam gave character, nature, personality and makeup to each
genus and specie of animal. The Glory of
God was on display during the two thousand or so years that Adam and Eve lived
in the Garden and caused it to grow, to multiply and to begin to spread beyond
its original boundaries. The Glory of
God is creative!
Consider
for a few minutes some of the things that occur when the Glory is on display.
1.
Creative miracles (we call them miracles, when in fact they are nothing but the
norm of the Word and the norm of Jesus Christ) take place regularly and
consistently.
2.
Authority over the weather is commonplace -- the ability to divert storms and
eliminate, or at least seriously mitigate, the damage of loss of life.
3.
The need to be in more than one place at a time is easily solved by translation
in the realm of the Spirit -- we call it "Phillip
Transportation." (Bruce Allen likes
to call it "Phillip Airlines." :-))
4.
More and more individuals are experiencing what it means to step out of time
and into eternity and to see -- from God's perspective -- His unfolding Plan
and Purpose for His people.
5.
The return of "transgender" individuals (who've come to realize that
their change of identity solved nothing of the huge void in their spirits)
instantly to their former selves.
6.
Literally altering the landscape (e.g., moving mountains) by speaking the Word
as Jesus illustrated in Mark 11:23.
7.
Simply speaking the word over a large group of people who need healing and
watching every single individual receive their healing is really a part of what
Jesus promised when He said, "The works that I do shall you do
also, and greater works than these shall you do because I go to my
Father."
8.
Regular appearances of the Hosts of Heaven -- particularly in crisis
situations, or when those ministering the Word are threatened by the Enemy --
are rapidly becoming more and more the "norm."
9.
Even more prevalent as the Glory of the Lord is becoming manifested among the
Bride of Christ is the appearance of Jesus, Himself. More and more we are seeing and hearing of
the visible appearances of Jesus as a testimony to the Word being ministered.
10.
There are several recorded instances in the Word when Jesus simply shifted
dimensions and passed through the crowds without their being able to touch him,
even if He was visible. That kind of
shifting is becoming more and more manifested, and is a natural display of the
Glory.
11.
When we read of the Glory of the Lord being on display with Israel, or -- for
example -- the way that the Glory of God was so strong that the priests and the
praise and worshipers were unable to minister at the dedication of Solomon's
temple, we are talking about an event which is becoming, and will become, more
and more the norm as people focus on what the Glory is really all about.
Think
about it! The Glory of God is simply the
evidence of His manifested presence among His people. How it manifests can, does, and will take
more forms than any of us can imagine.
When God's people focus on Jesus, when they focus on His heart's
desires, when they focus on what He is looking for in us, perspective changes.
For
years Della and I have had a theme that captions what we are all about, and
what the focus of our ministry is: "There is
no substitute for intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ!"
When
we began gathering back in the early 1990's at Trails' End in Post Falls, Idaho
with other worshipers, we didn't gather to "have church." We didn't gather to sing a few songs, spend
some time in fellowship and take time for teaching. We gathered together with one -- and ONLY ONE
-- objective: to minister to the Lord.
Of
course we had fellowship together. And,
yes, we did occasionally take time for some specific teaching as it related to
what God was saying to us. But the
fellowship and the teaching were not a focus of why we gathered together.
Ministry
to the Lord was what we were all about. After
five years of regular and sometimes daily gatherings -- some of which would
begin at 7:00 AM and continue until 11:00 PM, or even 1:00 AM, with short
breaks for lunch or dinner -- the presence of the Lord became so intense at
times that the Glory of the Lord would manifest clearly. One time we experienced as a corporate group
of perhaps 20 or 25 people hearing the voice of the Lord speak audibly in our
midst.
The
revelations that poured forth by the Spirit were nothing less than
astounding. The spiritual growth that
took place during that period catapulted us all into dimensions that sometimes
left us almost gasping for breath because of the awe of His Presence.
There
is a story to share in this that I will take you to next week. We will wrap up this series with next week's
Coffee Break. (At least I think we will
-- smile!)
I remind those of you in need of ministry that our Healing Prayer Call
takes place on Mondays at 7:00 PM Eastern (4:00 PM Pacific). Our call-in number has changed to (712) 775-7035. The new Access Code is: 323859#. For Canadians who have difficulty getting in
to this number, you can call (559) 546-1400. If someone answers and asks what your
original call-in number was, you can give them the 712 number and access code.
At the same time, in case you are missing out on real fellowship in an
environment of Ekklesia, our Sunday worship gatherings are available by
conference call – usually at about 10:45AM Pacific. That conference number is (605) 562-3140, and the access
code is 308640#. We hope to make these gatherings available by
Skype or Talk Fusion before long. If you
miss the live call, you can dial (605) 562-3149, enter the same
access code and listen in later.
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
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