KINGDOM ECONOMICS XXXVII
Greetings, Salutations, and the Blessing of the Lord to you!
Kitty and René Loyd are two of the funniest, and two of the most unusual people you could ever meet. During the 1960's and 70's -- and even into the 80's -- Kitty traveled around singing in different churches with a couple of ladies from Spokane, and she developed quite a reputation for her musical gifts as well as her sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. Some time in the future, perhaps, I will share some very funny anecdotes from Kitty's life.
More than 60 years ago she married René, a transplanted Frenchman whose life story all by itself would make a fabulous adventure volume. After many years in the Spokane area, they moved to Atlin, British Columbia -- a very remote mining community some 50 miles or so from the Alaska border -- where they established a base of operations for ministry beginning in 1979 and the early 1980's.
René has often shared with us his adventures during the Second World War when he was a member of the French Underground resistance movement. One story worth repeating here took place when he was on the run for his life from the Gestapo. René and a friend were hidden by a family in a barn. When they heard the sound of voices outside the barn they hid in some tall stacks of hay.
Someone had apparently seen René go into the barn and reported it to the Gestapo who had been doing a house-by-house or farm-by-farm search. When the Gestapo came into the barn, they began using their bayonets and stabbing at the piles of hay in search for René and his friend. René told us he began to pray like he'd never prayed in his life.
"Lord, if you deliver me from these Gestapo police and get me out of here alive, I'll serve you for the rest of my life."
Sure enough the bayonets were thrust into the haystack where René was hiding. He told us that they literally brushed up against him or the point of the bayonet came right to his chest on several tries. The Gestapo gave up and left the barn. Both René and his friend made it out of there alive and unharmed.
Here's an interesting tidbit for you. The 1965 movie, THE TRAIN, starred Burt Lancaster as Labiche, the French Railway inspector. The movie, parts of which were fictional, was based on real events. The real-life Inspector Labiche was René's supervisor or superior officer in the French Underground.
René kept his promise to the Lord and has been a faithful servant of Jesus Christ ever since. Kitty and René were an integral part of our spontaneous worship gatherings at Trails' End in Post Falls, Idaho during the 1990's. This past week, just shy of her 80th birthday, Kitty changed addresses and went home to be with the Lord. Though we will miss her for awhile, we look forward to seeing her and joining together in worshiping the Lord when we are all gathered together for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. We'll be with René this next week -- and at 90 years of age he looks pretty much like he did at 60: strong and vibrant.
OK. That story had nothing to do with today's discussion on Kingdom Economics, but I couldn't let Kitty's passing go unnoticed because of the part she has played in our lives.
Good Morning! Good Morning! Good Morning! Coffee's on! The French Press is steeping right now with a blend of dark-roasted Rwandan and some very oily French Roast. Love that aroma!
A fair number of folks have responded to the last few Coffee Breaks in which I've noted how tithing -- and more accurately, seeing the tithe as the "God's holy portion" -- has been an integral part of God's economy from the time of the Garden of Eden to the present. Most of the responses have been appreciative because of the revelation of seeing the spiritual principle which far transcends the Law of Moses. A few, however, have offered some comments and questions that I should respond to in this Coffee Break since these are questions that many believers have.
Since I went through a period of time where I was personally caught with the serious misconception (Let's call it what it really is, folks! This is deception, pure and simple!) that because I was in the ministry, I was exempt from tithing. I felt that everything I earned from my various business ventures and everything that I received in the way of tithes and offerings from others was to be used however I saw fit and however the Lord directed me.
You see the twist don't you? In the role of priest, I receive (and was receiving) tithes from men and women. In the role of king, I earn (or was earning) a substantial income from my engineering skills, and talents in the business and banking world. I believed that it all went into one pot, and that I was to use it in the advancement of the Kingdom of God as directed by the Lord.
What I missed was the fact that even under the Law, priests paid tithes. They paid tithes to the High Priest. And the High Priest was required to tithe to the Lord. Very specific guidelines for tithing had been established.
With the Law fulfilled in Christ Jesus, many believers mistakenly relegate tithing to the Law, believing that it went away at the Cross. Yet Paul clearly states that while "here men that die receive tithes" (Hebrews 7:8 -- note the context in the present tense some thirty-plus years after the Cross), he goes on to say that "there He receives them, of Whom it is written that He lives."
Tithing, therefore, transcends the Law. It existed as far back as the Garden of Eden and it was demonstrated in Abraham 400-plus years before the Law of Moses was established. To not tithe, folks, is to rob God and touch the Holy Portion. To not tithe is to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil -- and that's exactly what I was doing: ignorantly, perhaps, but still doing it!
I saw the devourer rob me time after time after time and still didn't see the connection. For those of you who've read earlier parts of this discussion on Kingdom Economics, you'll recall my story of being robbed of $7 Million by a crooked banker who fled the country with commissions I'd earned over a period of two years in an investment operation on behalf of the Canadian government.
One story I haven't shared took place in the mid-1980's when Mel Fisher located and recovered the wrecks of the two Spanish galleons, the Atocha and the Santa Margarita. The treasure he recovered was valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Mel had a number of investors who were anxious to recover their investments in his diving and recovery operations, and he was in debt to them for tens of millions of dollars. (My memory tells me that he actually owed a total of around $250 Million.) Piecemealing the treasure out to various buyers would take a lot longer than the investors wanted, and Mel was anxious to get out from under the financial pressure.
He gave me an exclusive contract for the sale of the entire treasure. I had two potential buyers for it: the first being the Spanish government. King Juan Carlos of Spain was anxious to have the treasure back on Spanish soil because of the rich heritage and historical value it represented -- never mind its intrinsic worth. Mel wanted $400 million for the entire treasure intact. The Spanish government didn't feel it could drain its treasury of that amount and appealed to the Vatican for assistance. The Vatican agreed and I met with a representative to arrange for the transaction.
Once all the pieces of the transaction were in place and we were ready to complete it, Della and I flew to Los Angeles where the deal was to be consummated. Mel Fisher was ecstatic over the prospect of being able to complete. He called me at the hotel where we were staying and said he would arrange to fly us to Florida and take us out to the recovery site as soon as the deal completed. He even called me one morning at 4:00 AM excited over the fact that his team had just recovered the ship's compass from the Santa Margarita.
It was a giddy and almost ethereal atmosphere to think that we were less than 24 hours away from completing a historical sale. The fact that Mel was going to pay us a commission exceeding $10 Million from the proceeds was almost anti-climactic in view of the import of the moment.
Then the unthinkable took place. The agent representing the Vatican learned of our commission structure and got greedy. He called Mel and tried to get him to rescind his agreement with us, offering to do the deal for a smaller commission. Mel was incensed! He called me immediately and said, "How well do you know this guy?"
I told him that we'd only just met as a part of transacting this sale and that I'd never had any contact with him prior. "I won't do business with this man, Regner! He's a crook! He's trying to get me to eliminate you from the deal and I don't go back on my word, signed contract or not!"
It was a mark of Mel Fisher's character that we could really appreciate. Nevertheless, we just couldn't get another agent within Mel's needed time frame to consummate the deal with the Vatican and the transaction came to a sudden halt. Walt Disney's companies were interested in acquiring about $200 Million of the treasure to divide up at their theme parks for exhibition, but they weren't interested in an intact purchase. In the end, Mel wound up having to do what he didn't want to do: piecemeal the treasure through a fistful of small purchases and buyers. Years later, Della and I saw bits and pieces of the treasure in shops throughout the Caribbean.
We were robbed. Sure. We never actually had the money in our hot little hands, but Satan took advantage of the open door we'd provided him to effectively interfere in a business deal at the last possible second and block us from receiving what would have amounted to around $12 - 15 Million. We'd been touching the Holy Portion, and now our portion was being stolen and devoured.
It happened time and time again before we finally awakened to the fact that we were giving the Enemy a legal right to steal from us.
"But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day." (Deuteronomy 8:18)
There is a condition attached: Don't steal from God! If you do, you give the devourer the right to put holes in your pockets, rip your wallets apart, block you from receiving the wealth God has available and steal what you do have so that you live on the edge of nothingness! Wealth is made available and the power to get it is a gift from the Lord, but if we don't "remember" Him first, Satan comes along to prevent us from being the means by which God establishes His Covenant through us, with us, in us, and around us!
Once again as I've already said, my objective in sharing all this is not to hammer home some religious doctrine or ride some kind of hobby horse but rather to demonstrate that the Blessing of the Lord is directly tied to our recognition of and obedience to this very basic of spiritual principles. This is not about money -- even though money is involved. This is about walking in the Blessing and seeing it manifested tangibly.
This is about living as citizens of a Kingdom which is foreign to the kingdoms and thinking and reasoning of this world: the Kingdom of God.
There's one last aspect of this topic of tithing that I need to comment on before we move on. The Word has always been very clear on where the tithe belongs: the storehouse. This is a subject that often gets some Christians riled up when I talk about it, but we need to discuss this.
I can't tell you how many believers I've run into who think they have a right to delegate where their tithes are given. Now bear with me, folks. The Word of God gives very clear direction on this. What gets confused is the separation or distinction between "giving" and "tithing." They are not synonymous with each other.
Tithing -- the first ten percent of everything you receive -- goes to the storehouse. The Hebrew word translated "storehouse" in the Old Testament is: otsar: treasury, a repository for corn, food, provision, gold, silver and other precious things. We see this word, otsar, otherwise translated throughout the O.T. as "treasuries" or "treasury."
The New Testament Greek text uses the word: tameion. It parallels the Hebrew and adds the component "dispensary" to the above. Hence, the "storehouse" is a repository of provision ordered and ordained for dispensing food (both spiritual and physical) and provision (again, both spiritual and physical) by those in spiritual leadership.
Nowhere in the Word does God give permission -- much less instruction -- to the individual person as to the distribution of tithes. We are instructed to give our tithes to the repository or treasury which dispenses our spiritual food, nourishment and provision. For most folks, that represents the church body to which they are an integral part. If you are not part of a regular church, then you need to be a part of a home fellowship. If you are not connected on a daily and weekly basis to some body of believers, then you are starving spiritually.
There are many Christians who give, but don't tithe. Tithing, as I've already noted, is completely separate from giving. Giving, sowing seed and giving of offerings is a completely separate function of our spiritual lives -- and it is equally commanded -- but it does not do away with tithing.
We don't have the right to decide where our tithes go. That's clear in God's economy. It is a clear rule of Kingdom Economics. They go where we receive our spiritual nourishment. That is the fellowship or Ekklesia to which the Holy Spirit has joined us. Whoever leads that fellowship, church body or Ekklesia is tasked by the Holy Spirit with the responsibility of dispensing those tithes.
When we take upon ourselves the decision to choose where our tithes go, we effectively usurp God's authority. We usurp the Word, and we make ourselves God above the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus instructed His disciples to go forth in ministry without taking advantage of their business or economic skills and to receive their provision from those to whom they ministered. Twice He made the statement that "the laborer is worthy of his hire." (See Matthew 10:10 and Luke 10:7.) The Scriptural picture constantly demonstrates that those who minister the Gospel are to receive their provision from the tithe.
The apostle Paul notes the following:
"Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel." (I Corinthians 9:13-14)
The tithe, therefore, is designed first of all to make provision for those who "live of the Gospel." And they who live by their ministry in turn tithe to those from whom they receive. The priests always tithed to the High Priest. Ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ must likewise tithe to those who are their spiritual fathers or source of their continued growth.
It doesn't stop there, of course. Some time ago, Della and I made a covenant with the elders of our fellowship. Our income from River Worship Center is 10% -- the tithe -- of whatever comes in. If the fellowship receives $500 in a given week our income is $50 for that week. If the income is $3,000, we receive $300.
But we take it beyond that. No bills are paid until a second tithe is paid. That second tithe goes to one of the four major ministries with which we partner and participate. We do this on a rotating basis, week-by-week. Above and beyond that second tithe, we contribute to certain missions around the world and support certain missionaries. Above and beyond that we minister to the needs of individuals and families locally to whom the Holy Spirit directs us. Our objective as a fellowship is to consistently tithe 30% of our gross income. We haven't quite reached that level yet, but we continue to increase our tithing and giving, and the Lord continues to increase the income of the fellowship.
It works, folks! You just can't outgive God! When we are faithful to honor the Holy Portion, God is faithful to meet our every need. It never fails. We never have a month go by when the bills are unpaid and we are operating in deficit. Since we began operating this way, we've never had a deficit.
Next: The principle of partnership.
He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. (Sir Isaac Newton)
The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22)
Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
455 North River Road
Prosser, Washington 99350-6554
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. Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being 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.CapenerMinistries.com.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: KINGDOM ECONOMICS XXXVI
KINGDOM ECONOMICS XXXVI
This is the best day of your life; and today's going to get even better as it progresses! Yessirree, Bob!
So Good Morning already!
Corday Trick is a mortgage banker in Yakima, Washington. He and his fellow-banker, Bryan Jones, have been in the mortgage banking business for quite a few years. Unless you've been living on the planet Mars during the past year, you are well aware of the historic downward slide in the housing market and the colossal failures of mortgage lending institutions and banks. Mortgage bankers are a diminishing commodity these days with thousands of folks in the real estate and lending markets losing their jobs.
There is an important distinction to make here. As I've already noted in several previous Coffee Breaks, Babylon (Jesus referred to it as "Mammon") and its financial and economic system are headed for a soon-to-come complete collapse. The economy of the Babylonian system is imploding on itself, and while I believe we will see a brief period of respite for the sake of believers so they can get out of debt, we're not long before the whole world is in utter financial chaos as the entire world system of commerce & finance goes belly-up. Mammon has been serving itself and worshiping itself as the god of finance; and self-destruction is a matter of natural course.
Many of God's people are hearing the warning of God to get out of debt and to operate in an entirely different mode. Even some folks -- like Bill Winston, for example, who pastors the 18,000-member Living Word Christian Center in Forest Park, Illinois -- have decided to form banking and investment centers whose profits are used to fund missionaries, build churches around the world, provide business training and reeducation for people who've lost their jobs or need career changes, as well as providing housing, food and clothing for families in need.
Bill Winston did a study of the revenue that churches and ministries pass through the banking system in Chicago, and he determined that the monthly interest alone on those funds would build not less than forty new churches. He heard instruction from the Holy Spirit to begin forming a new banking institution that would operate apart from the world banking system, and chartered the Joseph School of Business which teaches folks how to operate in business, but operate on Kingdom principles instead of Mammon's greed; and to that end has graduated hundreds of men and women who are taking their place in God's economy.
Getting back to Corday and Bryan, they have an up-to-date testimony of what it means to live in today's world, functioning in banking and lending, but operating within the framework of the Kingdom of God instead of the Babylonian economy.
It was in the late summer or early fall of 2008 when these two men of God saw the housing market crash taking place and made a conscious decision to not participate in the fall of Babylon. As Corday was sharing with me a few days ago, he and Bryan decided to put it before the Lord and to declare that they were going to operate only on and in the economy of the Kingdom of God. They would tithe their increase in business, sow financial seed (as well as other kinds of seed) into the Kingdom, and utilize their anointings (there are several) in finance wherever and however the Holy Spirit instructed.
They gathered together daily for prayer (and still do today) asking for God's direction in what business they should take and what they should avoid. They kept their vows to the Lord concerning tithing and giving and sowing of seed.
Corday was telling me that when all the numbers were in for the last quarter of 2008, they had seen their best business quarter in all their years of mortgage banking and lending. And they saw it in the face of the financial ruin of other bankers and institutions who likewise engaged in the same kind of business, in the same city (or cities) and region they operate in. While many of their banking and lending cohorts were going under financially, they prospered and saw the abundance of the Lord as they had never seen.
In the months of January, February and March of 2009, Corday Trick and Bryan Jones have seen the best financial performance during the first quarter they have ever seen as the Lord continues to bless and multiply and expand their business -- AND their giving! And this is in the face of the worst housing sales slump since records began to be kept in 1961! Corday says they are giving more than they've ever given before in their lives, and the Lord just keeps multiplying it back to them.
Folks, God's multiplication far exceeds anything we can comprehend if we think and reason and operate as the world does. God gave the following command to His people, and this is key to understanding Kingdom Economics.
"But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day." (Deuteronomy 8:18)
Do you see that? The power to get wealth (the Hebrew word is chayil, which means: riches, substance, wealth, an abundance of resources) is not given just so we can consume it upon ourselves, but rather so that He can demonstrate to the world around us that He is a covenant-keeping God, so that He can establish (or prove) the truth of His Word and His promises to us through the Blessing of Abraham.
The Lord certainly has no problem with His people being rich -- and abundantly so -- but it is important that He receive from us the credit and praise and worship and recognition before the world. It is inherent in and integral to the economy of the Kingdom of God to show that the riches poured upon us have been given as the proof of His Covenant.
People who recognize the Lord as the source of their riches and abundance also realize that the key to becoming even more wealthy is to give and give and give. They also understand -- as some of America's wealthiest people have come to understand -- that if one doesn't tithe the first tenth of their increase, their giving will simply amount to throwing money away. You won't see the manifestation of God's blessing in the way He wants to manifest it because you are stealing from Him.
(In previous Coffee Breaks in this series, I’ve already told the stories of John D. Rockefeller, J. C. Penney and Sam Walton, how they tithed and how God blessed them exceedingly.)
Tithing is worship. (See Deuteronomy 26:10.) It is a deliberate act on the part of people to say to the Lord, "You are my Lord and my God! All that I have has come from You, and I will formally and openly acknowledge You as my Source by returning that portion You have designated as Holy and set apart for Your Purposes! In so doing, I engage Your Covenant of Blessing and believe that You are a Covenant-keeping God who will keep His Word to supply my every need -- above all I can ask or think!"
In K-E XXXV, we noted how reverencing (or touching) the Holy Portion has life and death consequences. To set aside the Holy Portion unto the Lord as He commands and not touch it -- even in the seeming face of an insufficient remnant to meet one's personal needs -- is to release Him to multiply that which remains into more than enough.
The Holy Spirit spoke to me the other day and said to me, "If you will give me your "not enough," I will anoint and multiply that which remains into "more than enough." What a picture! What a promise! And Della and I continue to walk this Law of Tithing. Understand that this is not a law in the normal sense of the word: this is a Kingdom principle; it is a Law of Kingdom Economics.
This was the Law established in the Garden of Eden, and when God decided to start over again with the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel to display a Garden of Eden-existence available to the world, He commanded Moses and the Children of Israel to keep the same command He gave to Adam and Eve: "Don't touch the Holy Portion! Don't touch that which I've reserved unto myself. Even in the face of mourning (dire need -- see Deuteronomy 26:14), if you will honor me with your giving of the Holy Portion, you can command my Blessing upon your land and your houses and families and all that you have; and I will release that Blessing upon you."
In Deuteronomy 28, God made it clear that His Blessing would be so surpassing in its greatness that the world around would sit up and take notice. He made it abundantly clear that the Land of Promise would become a virtual duplicate of the Garden of Eden. He likewise made it clear that if Israel failed to keep His commandments -- and that included touching and/or eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (I'm paraphrasing, of course) -- they would become accursed in the land, they would lose His Blessing, they would lose their lives, they would lose their health and their protection from their enemies would disappear.
I know there are folks who really believe that tithing is strictly an Old Testament or Mosaic Law (read that "legalistic") concept, and that it disappeared with Jesus. Quite the contrary, Jesus commanded tithing. OK, I know it isn't obvious from our traditional English translations, but once you see it, you can't escape from it.
Take a look at Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42. When you first look at these verses (and they are parallel accounts of the same event) it almost appears as if Jesus is condemning the Pharisees for tithing, when in fact He is actually commanding it. Reading it in the original Greek text clarifies this.
The KJV reads like this:
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone."
The Message Translation, however, comes across much more clearly.
"You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful tithing and bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required."
It is also rendered clearly and with specificity from the New Living Bible.
"How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest part of your income, but you ignore the important things of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but you should not leave undone the more important things."
Pretty clear, don't you think?
To the contrary, Jesus IS commanding tithing. You understand, do you not, that the anti-tithing doctrine which has contaminated the body of Christ is a deliberate effort of Satan to rob people of the Blessing and keep them poverty-stricken, in financial need, in poor health, always living life on the razor's edge, being welfare recipients instead of being the source of supply for others, etc., etc., ad nauseam?
Like many other folks, I was sucked into the anti-tithing doctrine for a number of years and saw the thief and the devourer steal many millions of dollars from me that should have been available to use for the Kingdom of God. It wasn't that I didn't give: I did give -- generously. But I wasn't reaping the Blessing because of my ignorance concerning the very basic and fundamental law of Kingdom Economics. When I finally awoke to the fact that I was opening the door to the devourer because I was using the Holy Portion and not offering it to the Lord in worship, I did some very tall repenting and asking the Lord for forgiveness.
To quote Jesse Duplantis, think about it like this! Satan is known throughout the Word as the Tempter. He continually seeks to tempt people to do that which is the exact opposite of what God's Word says. He tempts people to lie, to cheat, to steal, to kill, to be in strife, to worry, to fret, to be afraid, etc., etc. When's the last time you were tempted to tithe? Huh? Huh? Huh?
Now don't fall over on the floor laughing! Silly, isn't it? Seriously, do you think Satan would tempt you to tithe when he knows that tithers become recipients of the Blessing of the Lord? Think he's going to tempt you to tithe when your very act of tithing is worshiping the Lord and not him? Think Satan is going to tempt you to tithe when that very tithe will be used to enlarge the Kingdom of God at his expense?
Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho! Riiiiiiigghhhhttt!!!
Now for the sake of those folks who've been caught in the lie of Satan that there was no mention of tithing AFTER Jesus' death and resurrection, that also is well covered and documented in the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Take a look at Hebrews 7:1-10: We'll look at couple of translations again, beginning with the KJV. The apostle Paul (we assume him to be the author) takes great pains to separate the principle of tithing from the Law of Moses and make abundantly clear that tithing functioned before the Law, and continues to this day even after the Law was fulfilled in Christ Jesus.
"For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually. Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham: But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises. And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better. And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him."
Here's the NIV rendering: "This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means "king of righteousness"; then also, "king of Salem" means "king of peace." Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever. Just think how great he was: Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder! Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people—that is, their brothers—even though their brothers are descended from Abraham. This man, however, did not trace his descent from Levi, yet he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. And without doubt the lesser person is blessed by the greater. In the one case, the tenth is collected by men who die; but in the other case, by Him who is declared to be living. One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor."
My objective in sharing all this is not to hammer home some religious doctrine or ride some kind of hobby horse but rather to demonstrate that the Blessing of the Lord is directly tied to our recognition of and obedience to this very basic of spiritual principles. This is not about money -- even though money is involved. This is about walking in the Blessing and seeing it manifested tangibly.
This is about living as citizens of a Kingdom which is foreign to the kingdoms and thinking and reasoning of this world: the Kingdom of God.
More to come. See you in a few days.
If you will give the Lord your "not enough," He will anoint and multiply the remainder to become "more than enough"!
But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. (Deuteronomy 8:18)
The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22)
Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
455 North River Road
Prosser, Washington 99350-6554
(509) 781-6099
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. Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being added at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are published weekly.
If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email with the word “Subscribe” as the subject to: Regner@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. To unsubscribe, please follow the same procedure with the word, “Unsubscribe” as the subject.
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.CapenerMinistries.com.
This is the best day of your life; and today's going to get even better as it progresses! Yessirree, Bob!
So Good Morning already!
Corday Trick is a mortgage banker in Yakima, Washington. He and his fellow-banker, Bryan Jones, have been in the mortgage banking business for quite a few years. Unless you've been living on the planet Mars during the past year, you are well aware of the historic downward slide in the housing market and the colossal failures of mortgage lending institutions and banks. Mortgage bankers are a diminishing commodity these days with thousands of folks in the real estate and lending markets losing their jobs.
There is an important distinction to make here. As I've already noted in several previous Coffee Breaks, Babylon (Jesus referred to it as "Mammon") and its financial and economic system are headed for a soon-to-come complete collapse. The economy of the Babylonian system is imploding on itself, and while I believe we will see a brief period of respite for the sake of believers so they can get out of debt, we're not long before the whole world is in utter financial chaos as the entire world system of commerce & finance goes belly-up. Mammon has been serving itself and worshiping itself as the god of finance; and self-destruction is a matter of natural course.
Many of God's people are hearing the warning of God to get out of debt and to operate in an entirely different mode. Even some folks -- like Bill Winston, for example, who pastors the 18,000-member Living Word Christian Center in Forest Park, Illinois -- have decided to form banking and investment centers whose profits are used to fund missionaries, build churches around the world, provide business training and reeducation for people who've lost their jobs or need career changes, as well as providing housing, food and clothing for families in need.
Bill Winston did a study of the revenue that churches and ministries pass through the banking system in Chicago, and he determined that the monthly interest alone on those funds would build not less than forty new churches. He heard instruction from the Holy Spirit to begin forming a new banking institution that would operate apart from the world banking system, and chartered the Joseph School of Business which teaches folks how to operate in business, but operate on Kingdom principles instead of Mammon's greed; and to that end has graduated hundreds of men and women who are taking their place in God's economy.
Getting back to Corday and Bryan, they have an up-to-date testimony of what it means to live in today's world, functioning in banking and lending, but operating within the framework of the Kingdom of God instead of the Babylonian economy.
It was in the late summer or early fall of 2008 when these two men of God saw the housing market crash taking place and made a conscious decision to not participate in the fall of Babylon. As Corday was sharing with me a few days ago, he and Bryan decided to put it before the Lord and to declare that they were going to operate only on and in the economy of the Kingdom of God. They would tithe their increase in business, sow financial seed (as well as other kinds of seed) into the Kingdom, and utilize their anointings (there are several) in finance wherever and however the Holy Spirit instructed.
They gathered together daily for prayer (and still do today) asking for God's direction in what business they should take and what they should avoid. They kept their vows to the Lord concerning tithing and giving and sowing of seed.
Corday was telling me that when all the numbers were in for the last quarter of 2008, they had seen their best business quarter in all their years of mortgage banking and lending. And they saw it in the face of the financial ruin of other bankers and institutions who likewise engaged in the same kind of business, in the same city (or cities) and region they operate in. While many of their banking and lending cohorts were going under financially, they prospered and saw the abundance of the Lord as they had never seen.
In the months of January, February and March of 2009, Corday Trick and Bryan Jones have seen the best financial performance during the first quarter they have ever seen as the Lord continues to bless and multiply and expand their business -- AND their giving! And this is in the face of the worst housing sales slump since records began to be kept in 1961! Corday says they are giving more than they've ever given before in their lives, and the Lord just keeps multiplying it back to them.
Folks, God's multiplication far exceeds anything we can comprehend if we think and reason and operate as the world does. God gave the following command to His people, and this is key to understanding Kingdom Economics.
"But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day." (Deuteronomy 8:18)
Do you see that? The power to get wealth (the Hebrew word is chayil, which means: riches, substance, wealth, an abundance of resources) is not given just so we can consume it upon ourselves, but rather so that He can demonstrate to the world around us that He is a covenant-keeping God, so that He can establish (or prove) the truth of His Word and His promises to us through the Blessing of Abraham.
The Lord certainly has no problem with His people being rich -- and abundantly so -- but it is important that He receive from us the credit and praise and worship and recognition before the world. It is inherent in and integral to the economy of the Kingdom of God to show that the riches poured upon us have been given as the proof of His Covenant.
People who recognize the Lord as the source of their riches and abundance also realize that the key to becoming even more wealthy is to give and give and give. They also understand -- as some of America's wealthiest people have come to understand -- that if one doesn't tithe the first tenth of their increase, their giving will simply amount to throwing money away. You won't see the manifestation of God's blessing in the way He wants to manifest it because you are stealing from Him.
(In previous Coffee Breaks in this series, I’ve already told the stories of John D. Rockefeller, J. C. Penney and Sam Walton, how they tithed and how God blessed them exceedingly.)
Tithing is worship. (See Deuteronomy 26:10.) It is a deliberate act on the part of people to say to the Lord, "You are my Lord and my God! All that I have has come from You, and I will formally and openly acknowledge You as my Source by returning that portion You have designated as Holy and set apart for Your Purposes! In so doing, I engage Your Covenant of Blessing and believe that You are a Covenant-keeping God who will keep His Word to supply my every need -- above all I can ask or think!"
In K-E XXXV, we noted how reverencing (or touching) the Holy Portion has life and death consequences. To set aside the Holy Portion unto the Lord as He commands and not touch it -- even in the seeming face of an insufficient remnant to meet one's personal needs -- is to release Him to multiply that which remains into more than enough.
The Holy Spirit spoke to me the other day and said to me, "If you will give me your "not enough," I will anoint and multiply that which remains into "more than enough." What a picture! What a promise! And Della and I continue to walk this Law of Tithing. Understand that this is not a law in the normal sense of the word: this is a Kingdom principle; it is a Law of Kingdom Economics.
This was the Law established in the Garden of Eden, and when God decided to start over again with the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel to display a Garden of Eden-existence available to the world, He commanded Moses and the Children of Israel to keep the same command He gave to Adam and Eve: "Don't touch the Holy Portion! Don't touch that which I've reserved unto myself. Even in the face of mourning (dire need -- see Deuteronomy 26:14), if you will honor me with your giving of the Holy Portion, you can command my Blessing upon your land and your houses and families and all that you have; and I will release that Blessing upon you."
In Deuteronomy 28, God made it clear that His Blessing would be so surpassing in its greatness that the world around would sit up and take notice. He made it abundantly clear that the Land of Promise would become a virtual duplicate of the Garden of Eden. He likewise made it clear that if Israel failed to keep His commandments -- and that included touching and/or eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (I'm paraphrasing, of course) -- they would become accursed in the land, they would lose His Blessing, they would lose their lives, they would lose their health and their protection from their enemies would disappear.
I know there are folks who really believe that tithing is strictly an Old Testament or Mosaic Law (read that "legalistic") concept, and that it disappeared with Jesus. Quite the contrary, Jesus commanded tithing. OK, I know it isn't obvious from our traditional English translations, but once you see it, you can't escape from it.
Take a look at Matthew 23:23 and Luke 11:42. When you first look at these verses (and they are parallel accounts of the same event) it almost appears as if Jesus is condemning the Pharisees for tithing, when in fact He is actually commanding it. Reading it in the original Greek text clarifies this.
The KJV reads like this:
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone."
The Message Translation, however, comes across much more clearly.
"You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful tithing and bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required."
It is also rendered clearly and with specificity from the New Living Bible.
"How terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest part of your income, but you ignore the important things of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but you should not leave undone the more important things."
Pretty clear, don't you think?
To the contrary, Jesus IS commanding tithing. You understand, do you not, that the anti-tithing doctrine which has contaminated the body of Christ is a deliberate effort of Satan to rob people of the Blessing and keep them poverty-stricken, in financial need, in poor health, always living life on the razor's edge, being welfare recipients instead of being the source of supply for others, etc., etc., ad nauseam?
Like many other folks, I was sucked into the anti-tithing doctrine for a number of years and saw the thief and the devourer steal many millions of dollars from me that should have been available to use for the Kingdom of God. It wasn't that I didn't give: I did give -- generously. But I wasn't reaping the Blessing because of my ignorance concerning the very basic and fundamental law of Kingdom Economics. When I finally awoke to the fact that I was opening the door to the devourer because I was using the Holy Portion and not offering it to the Lord in worship, I did some very tall repenting and asking the Lord for forgiveness.
To quote Jesse Duplantis, think about it like this! Satan is known throughout the Word as the Tempter. He continually seeks to tempt people to do that which is the exact opposite of what God's Word says. He tempts people to lie, to cheat, to steal, to kill, to be in strife, to worry, to fret, to be afraid, etc., etc. When's the last time you were tempted to tithe? Huh? Huh? Huh?
Now don't fall over on the floor laughing! Silly, isn't it? Seriously, do you think Satan would tempt you to tithe when he knows that tithers become recipients of the Blessing of the Lord? Think he's going to tempt you to tithe when your very act of tithing is worshiping the Lord and not him? Think Satan is going to tempt you to tithe when that very tithe will be used to enlarge the Kingdom of God at his expense?
Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho, Ho! Riiiiiiigghhhhttt!!!
Now for the sake of those folks who've been caught in the lie of Satan that there was no mention of tithing AFTER Jesus' death and resurrection, that also is well covered and documented in the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Take a look at Hebrews 7:1-10: We'll look at couple of translations again, beginning with the KJV. The apostle Paul (we assume him to be the author) takes great pains to separate the principle of tithing from the Law of Moses and make abundantly clear that tithing functioned before the Law, and continues to this day even after the Law was fulfilled in Christ Jesus.
"For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually. Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham: But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises. And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better. And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham. For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him."
Here's the NIV rendering: "This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means "king of righteousness"; then also, "king of Salem" means "king of peace." Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, like the Son of God he remains a priest forever. Just think how great he was: Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder! Now the law requires the descendants of Levi who become priests to collect a tenth from the people—that is, their brothers—even though their brothers are descended from Abraham. This man, however, did not trace his descent from Levi, yet he collected a tenth from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. And without doubt the lesser person is blessed by the greater. In the one case, the tenth is collected by men who die; but in the other case, by Him who is declared to be living. One might even say that Levi, who collects the tenth, paid the tenth through Abraham, because when Melchizedek met Abraham, Levi was still in the body of his ancestor."
My objective in sharing all this is not to hammer home some religious doctrine or ride some kind of hobby horse but rather to demonstrate that the Blessing of the Lord is directly tied to our recognition of and obedience to this very basic of spiritual principles. This is not about money -- even though money is involved. This is about walking in the Blessing and seeing it manifested tangibly.
This is about living as citizens of a Kingdom which is foreign to the kingdoms and thinking and reasoning of this world: the Kingdom of God.
More to come. See you in a few days.
If you will give the Lord your "not enough," He will anoint and multiply the remainder to become "more than enough"!
But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. (Deuteronomy 8:18)
The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22)
Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
455 North River Road
Prosser, Washington 99350-6554
(509) 781-6099
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. Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being added at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are published weekly.
If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email with the word “Subscribe” as the subject to: Regner@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. To unsubscribe, please follow the same procedure with the word, “Unsubscribe” as the subject.
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.CapenerMinistries.com.
Friday, March 27, 2009
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: KINGDOM ECONOMICS XXXV
KINGDOM ECONOMICS XXXV
And a good, good morning to you! This is the best day of your life! Yessirree! It is! And it's only going to get better.
I'm still not quite back on track for my regular schedule of Coffee Breaks, but things are improving.
My thanks to all those of you who have written and expressed congratulations to us over our move to Prosser; and to those of you in Prosser who have welcomed us, Thank You! I apologize for not having had the time to respond to each of you individually, but I will catch up on my correspondence in the coming days and weeks.
We've been away from the topic of Kingdom Economics for several months. There's much yet to share, and I'd like to share with you today a unique revelation of tithing and God's Holy Portion.
In previous discussions on the subject of Kingdom Economics, I've shared the picture of tithing and the importance it plays in our finances, and the critical necessity of not touching the Holy Portion for any personal or individual purpose.
Just to recap past discussions, there is a priority in our financial picture, and this priority overrides every other priority in our giving. The first tenth of our income or increase in any area belongs to God, and there is a self-induced penalty that comes with not giving God His portion and using it to pay bills, buy food for our families, or use it in some other way to benefit us personally or members of our family. I refer to it as "self-induced" because we bring a curse upon ourselves by our choice to use that tenth portion of our increase. We open the door for "the devourer" (Malachi 3:11) when we withhold God's portion by our own choices and actions.
Deuteronomy 26 identifies the priorities. In this instance, the Lord is speaking of "the year of tithing" in which there was a triple tithe, and we see the order of giving laid out like this:
"When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto (1st tenth) the Levite, (second tenth) the stranger, (third tenth) the fatherless and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled....."
"The Levite" was the priest -- the keeper of the storehouses, and the administrator of God's Word (and His commandments) to the people. "The Levite" was the representative of God who offered up the sacrifices and offerings for the people.
God's people were obligated, as well, to give to the "stranger(s)" in their midst. In so doing, they demonstrated the principle of God's love and caused the "stranger" to desire the same relationship with God.
The third tithe took care of the widows and fatherless children, and there was a spiritual mandate in their midst to take care of them. Understand that while the priests and the Levites certainly distributed from their storehouses to make up any shortfalls, the responsibility for the care of the widow who was not of remarriageable age and any fatherless children fell on their remaining family members -- not on the priestly leaders and elders.
Nevertheless, by commandment of the Lord, every third year of a seven-year cycle, a third tithe was set aside to care for and supplement the unmet needs of the widows and fatherless. During that same third year, a tithe was also set aside in order to have the wherewithal to provide for any unmet needs of those strangers who became a part of Israel.
All that is an aside to where I want to take this discussion. We're talking about the economy of the Kingdom of God. This is an economy that functions completely opposite to the economies of this world. Its very premise is foreign to the financial thinkers of this world who operate on debt and credit. What I'm about to share with you is about as clear a picture from the Word as you'll ever see when it comes to the extreme differences between the way this world thinks and the way God wants us to think.
Probably some sixteen or seventeen years ago, Rick Joyner (MorningStar Ministries) published a book titled, THERE WERE TWO TREES IN THE GARDEN. Australian Pastor, Evangelist and Prophet, Neville Johnson, has likewise taught (and has available from his Living Word Foundation) a series on Two Trees in the Garden. It's a concept just about all Christians are aware of: (1) The Tree of Life, and (2) The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
However, we know from Scripture that there were many trees in the Garden of Eden.
"And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." (Genesis 1:29)
"And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." (Genesis 2:9)
Entomologists today tell us that there are some 50,000-plus species of trees in the earth. In a discussion a week ago or so with Bob Widmann (Pastor of Cornerstone Assembly in Sunnyside) he mentioned he had learned that all of the species of trees on the earth derive from nine basic genus of trees. That really piqued my interest and I decided to do some research.
Bob was correct in his statement. I stumbled onto a couple of books by Terry L. Erwin in his series on Biodiversity. Dr. Erwin is apparently a well-known entomologist. (I say "apparently" because this is not a field in which I am very conversant, and I know few, if any, of the people who specialize in this field of science.) In his research, Dr. Erwin reports that on the basis of his findings there are at least -- if not more -- 50,000 species of trees on this planet.
What also comes out in his writings is the fact that all of these species have common genetic origins -- nine, to be exact. Though Dr. Erwin does not get into this topic, it is possible to infer a common origin of those nine: one tree: The Tree of Life.
When I saw that, God's command to Adam and Eve , "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" suddenly took on a whole new dimension. You are likely seeing the picture already, but let me continue.
There were, of course, more than just two trees in the Garden; there were many. But here's the kicker. There were a total of ten genus of trees in the Garden. One of those genus of trees was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
God had said to Adam and Eve, "Don't touch that tree! That one's mine. I have reserved that one for myself. I will impart to you revelation knowledge as you have need of it. If you try to ingest the fruit of all the knowledge of good and evil at one time, it'll kill you. In the day you eat thereof you shall surely die. That tree is my portion in the Garden. You can eat anything and everything else, but don't touch this one. The tithe of the Garden is mine!"
OK, I've paraphrased things, but this really is the essence of what the Lord spoke to Adam. God wasn't being mean to Adam in telling him not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He was simply making it clear that human flesh was not designed to take in ALL the knowledge -- whether of good or evil -- at one time.
When knowledge is learned by man's efforts and academic pursuit, certain things are learned! But when man gains his knowledge and understanding through revelation of the Spirit of God, there is an entirely different dimension of understanding that comes with it.
Knowledge that comes through revelation from the Spirit of God comes in the midst of love, in the midst of grace, in the midst of peace. And it generates faith within the recipient.
Knowledge gained through man's efforts has an end in itself: death. The apostle Paul, in his second letter to Timothy, notes that "in the last days perilous times shall come," and that men would be "ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (II Timothy 3:1-7)
Because all the knowledge gained through human effort, striving and academic pursuit -- no matter how many years one spends at it -- never can lead to the truth, God purposely withheld the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil from man. Knowledge separated from revelation and truth becomes facts. And facts are not necessarily truth, nor is any life inherent in them.
And just what was "the knowledge of the Truth"?
The truth was that all knowledge and wisdom is inherent in God Himself. It is inherent in His Son, Jesus Christ. In fact Jesus put it like this, "I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." (John 14:6) Notice that He began the statement with "I AM." The "I AM" was the very same name He used with Moses. It was the very same name He used with Abraham. It was the same at Creation. The "I AM" spoke the world into existence. The "I AM" said, "Let there be light."
As long as the knowledge was dispensed through revelation from the " I AM" it produced life. And Adam and Eve were able, so long as they lived in the Garden, to eat of the Tree of Life -- and all the trees which sprang from it.
Once they chose to disobey and eat of God's portion, they ate death to themselves. Are you seeing the picture? The Tithe is a whole lot more than just money! Sure, money is a part of the picture, but it is only a small piece of it. The tithe is something God reserves for Himself. It encompasses His life, His authority, His power, His divinity, His very makeup and nature!
When folks eat of the tithe, they are eating death to themselves because they are touching that which is Holy. There's a picture of this -- although not necessarily within the framework or reference of tithing in Acts 5. Ananias and Sapphira were land owners. During a time of great hardship and persecution of the Christians, many well-to-do Christians were giving of their substance and possessions to the apostles as gifts -- as seed, if you will -- to the Lord in order that those families who had been robbed or deprived of their holdings by the Romans and the Jewish leaders who opposed the Gospel would have their losses made up.
If someone sold a piece of land or property, they brought the entire proceeds of the sale to the apostles in a public demonstration that "This belongs to the Lord." Ananias and Sapphira sold one of their estates (the Greek word here is ktema: which means: estate) publicly declaring that the proceeds of this sale belonged to the Lord. Once they did so, the entire sum of money they received belonged to the Lord, and it was His portion.
Unfortunately they only brought a portion of the sale to the apostles and held back part of the sale money for themselves. They touched the Holy Portion. When Peter challenged Ananias (because the Holy Spirit had shown him Ananias' deception) Ananias dropped dead at his feet. Sapphira showed up later looking for her husband and Peter asked her if indeed the property had been sold for the sum that Ananias brought. She agreed with Ananias' lie and in so doing placed herself under the same death sentence. Upon her confession of a lie (and complicity in her husband's embezzlement of God's money) she likewise dropped dead.
Ananias and Sapphira suffered the same fate as Adam and Eve: in the same day that they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they died. You may look cockeyed at me for putting it like that, so let me explain.
After the sale of the property, human reasoning and thinking set in. The times were perilous to say the least. Christians everywhere were suffering persecution, and life had taken a very uncertain turn under Roman rule. The "knowledge of good" said, it would be a good thing to withhold a part of this money in order to take care of any unforeseen circumstances or events. Who knows what might happen. A little money for the rainy day would be a good thing.
The "knowledge of evil" invariably brings the fear of evil and that fear was saying, what happens if you need money in order to run or hide in case your community is exposed to the persecutors?
So Ananias and Sapphira bought it and ate it -- hook, line and sinker! And eating of the knowledge of good and evil cost them their lives.
Whenever people revert to using human reasoning and begin to depend on their knowledge of good or evil, they immediately transfer their citizenship from the Kingdom of God to the kingdoms of this world and Satan's dominion.
The Kingdom of God works on the principle of God's multiplication. There's just one thing, however. In order to take advantage of God's multiplication, one must honor Him, trust Him implicitly, and not lean on their own understanding -- no matter how rational or sensible that thinking may appear to be.
Far too many believers in Christ withhold God's portion because of knowledge of their own circumstances, situations or needs. They see that after taxes and insurance taken out of their paychecks they have $2,200 in bills, monthly payments and food costs, but they only have $2,300. If they take the tithe ($220) out and give it to the Lord, they won't have enough to even meet the bare necessities.
So they either don't pay tithes at all, or they write out a check for $100 and give it to their local church, and satisfy their consciences by saying to themselves, "I'll make up the rest later." Later never comes, and this becomes a repeated scenario. They go farther and farther into debt, they're unable to keep up with the needs that just increase, they get sick and wind up with doctor and hospital bills they can't even see the top of. And they wonder what went wrong.
What went wrong is they embezzled from God. The devourer has access to them because they are eating of the Holy Portion. The windows of Heaven are not open to them to take care of their financial needs because they are trusting in their own reasoning instead of God's promises.
One of the reasons that so many folks withhold their tithe from the Lord is that they just don't trust in the Lord. They don't trust His love for them. They don't trust His Word. They continue to profess their faith in the Lord but they live a lie when it comes to their finances.
I talked to a man once who said to me, "I tried that tithing stuff once and went deep in debt. It didn't work like you said." The real truth was that the Word of the Lord tried him and he failed.
Tithing isn't some routine commandment to keep: it is a lifestyle -- a Kingdom lifestyle. It isn't some commandment out of the Mosaic Law that went away with Jesus' death on the Cross and subsequent resurrection. It is a holy act of worship of the Lord. For those people who implicitly trust the Lord and worship Him with their tithe -- as Abraham did -- they will NEVER suffer need!
It is a law of the Kingdom. It is a fundamental of Kingdom Economics. It is an act of worship and honor of the Lord. It is agreement with the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in His promise that when we seek first His Kingdom and the needs of His Kingdom here on earth, then "all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)
Tithing is a deliberate decision to trust and believe the Word when the apostle Paul declares, "My God shall supply all your need, according to, out of, and in proportion to His riches in Glory by Christ Jesus": (Philippians 4:19) -- not because and through and because of your endeavors as a common laborer, a office manager or bookkeeper, a doctor, or lawyer, a banker, an engineer, scientist or technician -- or whatever the daily occupation may be.
It matters not whether you earn $10 an hour or $1,000 an hour. Your needs are met by God. You don't work for a living -- not, at least, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ! You work for the Kingdom of God -- and God isn't a cheapskate when it comes to providing for His people -- so long as they first honor Him.
There's more of this revelation to share, and this is where we will pick up our discussion in the next Coffee Break.
Babylon is falling. It is coming down around us. Those who live their lives in the Kingdom of God, and according to God's economic principles will never suffer need!
The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22) Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
455 North River Road
Prosser, Washington 99350-6554
(509) 837-4657
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. Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being added at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are 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.CapenerMinistries.com.
And a good, good morning to you! This is the best day of your life! Yessirree! It is! And it's only going to get better.
I'm still not quite back on track for my regular schedule of Coffee Breaks, but things are improving.
My thanks to all those of you who have written and expressed congratulations to us over our move to Prosser; and to those of you in Prosser who have welcomed us, Thank You! I apologize for not having had the time to respond to each of you individually, but I will catch up on my correspondence in the coming days and weeks.
We've been away from the topic of Kingdom Economics for several months. There's much yet to share, and I'd like to share with you today a unique revelation of tithing and God's Holy Portion.
In previous discussions on the subject of Kingdom Economics, I've shared the picture of tithing and the importance it plays in our finances, and the critical necessity of not touching the Holy Portion for any personal or individual purpose.
Just to recap past discussions, there is a priority in our financial picture, and this priority overrides every other priority in our giving. The first tenth of our income or increase in any area belongs to God, and there is a self-induced penalty that comes with not giving God His portion and using it to pay bills, buy food for our families, or use it in some other way to benefit us personally or members of our family. I refer to it as "self-induced" because we bring a curse upon ourselves by our choice to use that tenth portion of our increase. We open the door for "the devourer" (Malachi 3:11) when we withhold God's portion by our own choices and actions.
Deuteronomy 26 identifies the priorities. In this instance, the Lord is speaking of "the year of tithing" in which there was a triple tithe, and we see the order of giving laid out like this:
"When thou hast made an end of tithing all the tithes of thine increase the third year, which is the year of tithing, and hast given it unto (1st tenth) the Levite, (second tenth) the stranger, (third tenth) the fatherless and the widow, that they may eat within thy gates, and be filled....."
"The Levite" was the priest -- the keeper of the storehouses, and the administrator of God's Word (and His commandments) to the people. "The Levite" was the representative of God who offered up the sacrifices and offerings for the people.
God's people were obligated, as well, to give to the "stranger(s)" in their midst. In so doing, they demonstrated the principle of God's love and caused the "stranger" to desire the same relationship with God.
The third tithe took care of the widows and fatherless children, and there was a spiritual mandate in their midst to take care of them. Understand that while the priests and the Levites certainly distributed from their storehouses to make up any shortfalls, the responsibility for the care of the widow who was not of remarriageable age and any fatherless children fell on their remaining family members -- not on the priestly leaders and elders.
Nevertheless, by commandment of the Lord, every third year of a seven-year cycle, a third tithe was set aside to care for and supplement the unmet needs of the widows and fatherless. During that same third year, a tithe was also set aside in order to have the wherewithal to provide for any unmet needs of those strangers who became a part of Israel.
All that is an aside to where I want to take this discussion. We're talking about the economy of the Kingdom of God. This is an economy that functions completely opposite to the economies of this world. Its very premise is foreign to the financial thinkers of this world who operate on debt and credit. What I'm about to share with you is about as clear a picture from the Word as you'll ever see when it comes to the extreme differences between the way this world thinks and the way God wants us to think.
Probably some sixteen or seventeen years ago, Rick Joyner (MorningStar Ministries) published a book titled, THERE WERE TWO TREES IN THE GARDEN. Australian Pastor, Evangelist and Prophet, Neville Johnson, has likewise taught (and has available from his Living Word Foundation) a series on Two Trees in the Garden. It's a concept just about all Christians are aware of: (1) The Tree of Life, and (2) The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
However, we know from Scripture that there were many trees in the Garden of Eden.
"And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat." (Genesis 1:29)
"And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." (Genesis 2:9)
Entomologists today tell us that there are some 50,000-plus species of trees in the earth. In a discussion a week ago or so with Bob Widmann (Pastor of Cornerstone Assembly in Sunnyside) he mentioned he had learned that all of the species of trees on the earth derive from nine basic genus of trees. That really piqued my interest and I decided to do some research.
Bob was correct in his statement. I stumbled onto a couple of books by Terry L. Erwin in his series on Biodiversity. Dr. Erwin is apparently a well-known entomologist. (I say "apparently" because this is not a field in which I am very conversant, and I know few, if any, of the people who specialize in this field of science.) In his research, Dr. Erwin reports that on the basis of his findings there are at least -- if not more -- 50,000 species of trees on this planet.
What also comes out in his writings is the fact that all of these species have common genetic origins -- nine, to be exact. Though Dr. Erwin does not get into this topic, it is possible to infer a common origin of those nine: one tree: The Tree of Life.
When I saw that, God's command to Adam and Eve , "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" suddenly took on a whole new dimension. You are likely seeing the picture already, but let me continue.
There were, of course, more than just two trees in the Garden; there were many. But here's the kicker. There were a total of ten genus of trees in the Garden. One of those genus of trees was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
God had said to Adam and Eve, "Don't touch that tree! That one's mine. I have reserved that one for myself. I will impart to you revelation knowledge as you have need of it. If you try to ingest the fruit of all the knowledge of good and evil at one time, it'll kill you. In the day you eat thereof you shall surely die. That tree is my portion in the Garden. You can eat anything and everything else, but don't touch this one. The tithe of the Garden is mine!"
OK, I've paraphrased things, but this really is the essence of what the Lord spoke to Adam. God wasn't being mean to Adam in telling him not to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He was simply making it clear that human flesh was not designed to take in ALL the knowledge -- whether of good or evil -- at one time.
When knowledge is learned by man's efforts and academic pursuit, certain things are learned! But when man gains his knowledge and understanding through revelation of the Spirit of God, there is an entirely different dimension of understanding that comes with it.
Knowledge that comes through revelation from the Spirit of God comes in the midst of love, in the midst of grace, in the midst of peace. And it generates faith within the recipient.
Knowledge gained through man's efforts has an end in itself: death. The apostle Paul, in his second letter to Timothy, notes that "in the last days perilous times shall come," and that men would be "ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (II Timothy 3:1-7)
Because all the knowledge gained through human effort, striving and academic pursuit -- no matter how many years one spends at it -- never can lead to the truth, God purposely withheld the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil from man. Knowledge separated from revelation and truth becomes facts. And facts are not necessarily truth, nor is any life inherent in them.
And just what was "the knowledge of the Truth"?
The truth was that all knowledge and wisdom is inherent in God Himself. It is inherent in His Son, Jesus Christ. In fact Jesus put it like this, "I AM the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." (John 14:6) Notice that He began the statement with "I AM." The "I AM" was the very same name He used with Moses. It was the very same name He used with Abraham. It was the same at Creation. The "I AM" spoke the world into existence. The "I AM" said, "Let there be light."
As long as the knowledge was dispensed through revelation from the " I AM" it produced life. And Adam and Eve were able, so long as they lived in the Garden, to eat of the Tree of Life -- and all the trees which sprang from it.
Once they chose to disobey and eat of God's portion, they ate death to themselves. Are you seeing the picture? The Tithe is a whole lot more than just money! Sure, money is a part of the picture, but it is only a small piece of it. The tithe is something God reserves for Himself. It encompasses His life, His authority, His power, His divinity, His very makeup and nature!
When folks eat of the tithe, they are eating death to themselves because they are touching that which is Holy. There's a picture of this -- although not necessarily within the framework or reference of tithing in Acts 5. Ananias and Sapphira were land owners. During a time of great hardship and persecution of the Christians, many well-to-do Christians were giving of their substance and possessions to the apostles as gifts -- as seed, if you will -- to the Lord in order that those families who had been robbed or deprived of their holdings by the Romans and the Jewish leaders who opposed the Gospel would have their losses made up.
If someone sold a piece of land or property, they brought the entire proceeds of the sale to the apostles in a public demonstration that "This belongs to the Lord." Ananias and Sapphira sold one of their estates (the Greek word here is ktema: which means: estate) publicly declaring that the proceeds of this sale belonged to the Lord. Once they did so, the entire sum of money they received belonged to the Lord, and it was His portion.
Unfortunately they only brought a portion of the sale to the apostles and held back part of the sale money for themselves. They touched the Holy Portion. When Peter challenged Ananias (because the Holy Spirit had shown him Ananias' deception) Ananias dropped dead at his feet. Sapphira showed up later looking for her husband and Peter asked her if indeed the property had been sold for the sum that Ananias brought. She agreed with Ananias' lie and in so doing placed herself under the same death sentence. Upon her confession of a lie (and complicity in her husband's embezzlement of God's money) she likewise dropped dead.
Ananias and Sapphira suffered the same fate as Adam and Eve: in the same day that they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil they died. You may look cockeyed at me for putting it like that, so let me explain.
After the sale of the property, human reasoning and thinking set in. The times were perilous to say the least. Christians everywhere were suffering persecution, and life had taken a very uncertain turn under Roman rule. The "knowledge of good" said, it would be a good thing to withhold a part of this money in order to take care of any unforeseen circumstances or events. Who knows what might happen. A little money for the rainy day would be a good thing.
The "knowledge of evil" invariably brings the fear of evil and that fear was saying, what happens if you need money in order to run or hide in case your community is exposed to the persecutors?
So Ananias and Sapphira bought it and ate it -- hook, line and sinker! And eating of the knowledge of good and evil cost them their lives.
Whenever people revert to using human reasoning and begin to depend on their knowledge of good or evil, they immediately transfer their citizenship from the Kingdom of God to the kingdoms of this world and Satan's dominion.
The Kingdom of God works on the principle of God's multiplication. There's just one thing, however. In order to take advantage of God's multiplication, one must honor Him, trust Him implicitly, and not lean on their own understanding -- no matter how rational or sensible that thinking may appear to be.
Far too many believers in Christ withhold God's portion because of knowledge of their own circumstances, situations or needs. They see that after taxes and insurance taken out of their paychecks they have $2,200 in bills, monthly payments and food costs, but they only have $2,300. If they take the tithe ($220) out and give it to the Lord, they won't have enough to even meet the bare necessities.
So they either don't pay tithes at all, or they write out a check for $100 and give it to their local church, and satisfy their consciences by saying to themselves, "I'll make up the rest later." Later never comes, and this becomes a repeated scenario. They go farther and farther into debt, they're unable to keep up with the needs that just increase, they get sick and wind up with doctor and hospital bills they can't even see the top of. And they wonder what went wrong.
What went wrong is they embezzled from God. The devourer has access to them because they are eating of the Holy Portion. The windows of Heaven are not open to them to take care of their financial needs because they are trusting in their own reasoning instead of God's promises.
One of the reasons that so many folks withhold their tithe from the Lord is that they just don't trust in the Lord. They don't trust His love for them. They don't trust His Word. They continue to profess their faith in the Lord but they live a lie when it comes to their finances.
I talked to a man once who said to me, "I tried that tithing stuff once and went deep in debt. It didn't work like you said." The real truth was that the Word of the Lord tried him and he failed.
Tithing isn't some routine commandment to keep: it is a lifestyle -- a Kingdom lifestyle. It isn't some commandment out of the Mosaic Law that went away with Jesus' death on the Cross and subsequent resurrection. It is a holy act of worship of the Lord. For those people who implicitly trust the Lord and worship Him with their tithe -- as Abraham did -- they will NEVER suffer need!
It is a law of the Kingdom. It is a fundamental of Kingdom Economics. It is an act of worship and honor of the Lord. It is agreement with the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in His promise that when we seek first His Kingdom and the needs of His Kingdom here on earth, then "all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33)
Tithing is a deliberate decision to trust and believe the Word when the apostle Paul declares, "My God shall supply all your need, according to, out of, and in proportion to His riches in Glory by Christ Jesus": (Philippians 4:19) -- not because and through and because of your endeavors as a common laborer, a office manager or bookkeeper, a doctor, or lawyer, a banker, an engineer, scientist or technician -- or whatever the daily occupation may be.
It matters not whether you earn $10 an hour or $1,000 an hour. Your needs are met by God. You don't work for a living -- not, at least, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ! You work for the Kingdom of God -- and God isn't a cheapskate when it comes to providing for His people -- so long as they first honor Him.
There's more of this revelation to share, and this is where we will pick up our discussion in the next Coffee Break.
Babylon is falling. It is coming down around us. Those who live their lives in the Kingdom of God, and according to God's economic principles will never suffer need!
The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22) Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
455 North River Road
Prosser, Washington 99350-6554
(509) 837-4657
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. Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being added at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are 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.CapenerMinistries.com.
Friday, March 20, 2009
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: THE SOUND OF THE LORD, Part 6
THE SOUND OF THE LORD
Part 6:
PROOFS OF SPIRITUAL FORCE IN SOUND
Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning!
Brother! I sure didn't expect to be offline for such a long period, but our move from Sunnyside to Prosser turned into a much larger undertaking than we'd thought.
It has proven to be a fabulous blessing, however! It is an entirely new atmosphere, and it has proven to be a real strengthening of River Worship Center's fellowship. We actually began our first services in Prosser on February 15 even though the physical plant move was far from completed.. March 1 was our official beginning at the new location.
One other change I need to note before we get started today is that our CapenerMinistries@embarqmail.com email address is no longer valid. Embarq ran into an engineering boondoggle here in Prosser in routing their cabling along the Yakima River such that they are unable to provide high-speed service. Their "broadband" on the north side of the river isn't a whole lot better than dialup, so we approached Charter Cable about getting 10 Mbit service here.
It's something they advertise, but weren't currently providing to this area due to some equipment problems. I'm happy to say that their engineering department went to work on the issue and resolved all the issues. We were offline for a couple of weeks during the interim, but our last test showed download speeds in excess of 10 Mbit and upload speeds in the range of 1 - 2 Mbits. Good stuff!
We're back to what we consider our default coffee (or coffee of choice). It's a blend of Double-Roasted French (from Cascade Coffees), Dark Roasted Columbian and San Francisco Bay French Roast. It seems to provide the best overall taste and aroma for our tastebuds.
It has been a month since our last Coffee Break went out so a little review is in order.
In Part 1, we talked about the fact that God holds all things together and energizes all creation by the Word of His Power. Since He is the Source of all life and creation, the power to create (or destroy) is inherent in His very being. He created us in His very image and likeness and thus imparted into us the same ability of creative (or destructive) speech and sound.
In Part 2 we talked about the power and authority released in sound, and illustrated it with examples from David's ministry to the Lord in praise and worship. We also discussed the significance of spiritual warfare that takes place in and through sound, along with Paul's illustration from Ephesians 6 where he uses the musical term esti-pale (<pallo), meaning: to vibrate; to create a sound in opposition to describe "wrestling."
In Part 3 we noted that this spiritual "wrestling" in sound began with Lucifer's rebellion in Heaven, and how he began to pervert the whole purpose of music.
Part 4 centered around the discussion of the onoma or character, personality and essence of one's being behind every sound -- and particularly the onoma of the Lord Jesus Christ vs. the onoma of Satan.
Part 5 began the discussion of articulated sounds through words, and the fact that all words are nothing but "spirit containers" conveying the objective of the motivating spirit which drives those words.
Let's see if we can wrap up this discussion today with some examples of the spiritual force contained in spoken or sung words, and just how much impact the resulting sound generates.
We've already noted that words come from spirit. Words are spirit containers. They carry spirit with them. As spirit containers, words have power. They bring with them the authority to energize life or initiate a sentence of death.
Today's airwaves are the classic illustration. Consider the sounds you hear on radio, television, CD's, iPods and all the various forms of entertainment. You walk into a shopping center, or perhaps a grocery store like Safeway, Kroger's or the like. What do you hear? Do you pay attention to the music in the background?
Ever notice how in some stores (Wal-Mart or K-Mart, for example) you will hear certain "specials" that lure you to purchase something "on sale"? Unless we are exceptionally cognizant of what we hear and careful how we react, we can easily be sucked into spending money we can't afford to spend? Without taking the time to elaborate on this statement, we are being deliberately programmed by a thought process and agenda derived from Babylon.
I don't want to sound conspiratorial, and I'm not much for conspiracy theories, but this is a case where our thoughts are deliberately manipulated so as to get us to spend money, buy things we really don't need, or adopt ideas and agendas not of our own thinking or reasoning. The motivator behind the agenda is Satan, the king of Babylon. Let me give you a couple of quick illustrations out of some personal experience.
My apologies, first of all, if you've heard this story before. A number of years ago while living in Alaska, one of my business ventures was to provide background music for different business applications. I provided music for an airport, restaurants, stores, and a shopping center.
One day while engaged in a social conversation with the general manager of a shopping center, he bemoaned the fact that the stores in this particular mall were suffering inordinate rates of theft -- in a couple of cases approaching 15% or more. We took a walk through the mall, and I pointed out to him the character and nature of the background music that was playing.
"Jim," I said, "What do you expect when what you're programming people with is heavy rock and acid rock -- music which carries a sound and a message that incites anger, lust, greed, and a whole lot of other things?" If you want to have change in your environment, you're going to have to change the sounds that people hear.
He responded that he had a contract with a background music provider, and that he was simply taking what they were providing. I offered to provide him with some tapes that were pre-programmed (I didn't tell him that I had programmed these tapes with subliminal messages containing phrases like "The Lord is my source; I do not need to steal; I am an honest person; I will pay for the things I take," and so forth) to change his business environment.
Because he had already paid for his existing service and really didn't like the idea of making a double payment, I offered to demonstrate what I was saying by providing the service for 30 days at no cost obligation. We agreed that if he saw a significant improvement in the 30-day period, he would pay my fees and change his music service.
The change was noticeable and demonstrable before the 30-day trial period was up. Toward the end of that test period, we sat down together again and he was almost jumping up and down with excitement. "Our worst-case is down to 6%," he said, "and that's not something we've seen in many months." Some stores were reporting a loss rate of between 1.5 and 3 percent.
The next thirty days brought the stores' loss-rate down to a maximum of 1.5 percent, and a few of them reported less than a half of one percent. It was a remarkable demonstration -- not only for the mall manager and the store owners, but for me as well. I knew the principle but this was the first time I had ever seen such dramatic results.
It was proof positive that people react (or respond) to the sounds they hear, even when they don't know they are reacting or responding.
During my years in broadcasting and in recording, I've acquired a slew of original recordings, and a fair number of music archives of various musicians and musical groups. While teaching a college course on subliminal programming I invited one of my classes to take from my archives a 10 1/2-inch reel of tape containing early recordings of the Beetles and test the music for subliminal messages.
Let me preface my discussion by saying that I'd never been a Beetles fan, and never could understand how folks could stand to listen to them despite the obvious musical creativity of some of their pieces. The spirit of their music had always bothered me, and listening to it jarred me.
Different class members dissected different pieces of the Beetles' music, and all of them reported finding various subliminal messages. The most telling of those messages was contained in one of their first releases, and it demonstrated to me a very clear reason why their music had suddenly become so popular, and why folks were flocking to music stores to buy their albums.
The message wasn't demonic. It wasn't sexually suggestive. It wasn't politically subversive. It was simply commercial. The message, recorded approximately 30 db below the average level of the music simply said, "Buy me." It was not backward-masked as we found in the recordings of AC-DC or Black Sabbath, and other like acid-groups. It wasn't even speeded up to repeat at 4x or 8x. Recorded at normal speed, the message simply repeated, over and over and over and over again throughout the song, "Buy me."
The message did its job. It got folks to run out and buy the music -- in record numbers (pun intended). Similar messages were found in subsequent Beetles recordings, all leading to a "popularity" of their music that was deliberate and planned by the studios.
The "Buy me" message may not in and of itself been demonic but it drove a demonic agenda. The music of the Beetles arguably changed forever the attitudes, the tastes, the spiritual desires and mores of a music-buying public and pushed the music business in a direction which has since spiraled downward into "music forms" which are blatantly demonic at their core. The words of some of the Beetles' music, and music which has subsequently followed are indeed containers of spirit -- and that spirit is NOT the Holy Spirit!
Let's take a look for a minute at the use of music the way God intended.
When we go back to the origins of all music in Heaven, it becomes clear that praise and worship of the Lord has always been its principal purpose. Music was created for the sole purpose of generating an environment in which the power and authority, the love, the grace, the faith of the Lord God was manifested, demonstrated and exercised.
In that realm there is love and the faith which works by love, healing, deliverance, redemption, wholeness, prosperity, blessing without measure, and unlimited power and authority. It stands therefore, that when men and women yield to the Spirit of the Lord and begin to play and sing the music of Heaven, all those benefits are on display.
Throughout much of the 1990's, Della and I lived and functioned in ministry from a ranch in Post Falls, Idaho known as "Trails' End." It was here that we began to experience a much fuller measure of the presence of the Lord with His accompanying grace and gifts on constant display.
We gathered together with other musicians, singers and intercessors not less than three or four times a week, sometimes nightly, and sometimes three or four times a day (if we were having a major gathering with folks from around the country). Although we generally had from six-to-twelve people who gathered on a regular basis, there were times when we had more than forty people packed into that tiny ranch house for praise and worship.
One night as we were gathered together (and this was a larger than normal group) the phone rang. The daughter of one of the couples worshiping with us had just received a terrible report from her doctor. She was pregnant (she and her husband were expecting their first daughter). A sonogram, followed by a series of other tests, showed that the unborn child -- just over a month away from birth -- was showing all of its internal organs on the outside of the body. Barring some kind of miracle from God or unique surgery, this child would not survive childbirth.
We told her to relax and be at peace. The Lord was going to intervene for her and the baby. Immediately, the Holy Spirit began to pour through all of us some rather extraordinary music of healing. It was not music we'd ever heard before, much less played or sang. We knew immediately that a supernatural healing was being ministered. It didn't matter that the mother and as-yet unborn child were hundreds of miles away and couldn't hear the sound coming forth. Healing power and authority were being released through that sound, and because the sound was being driven of the Holy Spirit, distance was irrelevant.
Five or six weeks later when the baby girl was born, she was whole, complete and beautiful. It was a pleasure for Della and me to hold that baby girl in our arms a year later and see for ourselves the miracle the Lord had done. There was not so much as a trace of the condition.
This is something we have seen repeated over and over again throughout the past twenty or so years. It reminds me of one of the remarkable healings that took place during the early years of our daily worship gatherings.
We had received a phone call from a lady who had been given a death sentence with perhaps three-to-six months to live because of cancer. Her husband and three sons were pretty distraught over the prospect of her death. We introduced her to the realm of praise and worship as a part of daily living. For me personally, this case was unique because this lady had been one of the teenagers I'd shared the Lord Jesus Christ with when I was Minister of Youth at Bethel Union Church in Duarte, California back in the mid-1960's.
The Lord had reconnected us after many years at a critical time in her life. We had just begun recording our worship gatherings and releasing them on cassette tape and CD's. When this lady could not be with us, we showed her how to "plug in" to nonstop praise and worship listening on her stereo or Walkman. She soon realized what a difference it was making in her physical well-being and began to live a lifestyle of praise and worship. Dwelling in the midst of the presence of the Lord has a powerful effect.
You can't be in the presence of the Lord for long and continue to hang onto disease, infirmity or affliction. You can't be in the presence of the Lord for long and continue to be tormented by evil spirits. The Enemy simply cannot survive for any prolonged period when the sound of the Lord is constantly going forth. That sound generates faith. It generates love. It generates power and authority over Satan and his army of demonic powers that knows no limitation.
Cancer is one of those lies of Satan he tries to foist off on folks; and if they are willing to spend the necessary time with the Lord, faith rises up in such a dimension that cancer has to leave. Three years after this lady was supposed to have been dead, she was more alive and healthier than she'd been in many years.
Not long after River Worship Center opened its doors at our original location in Sunnyside, a gentleman came who had been suffering from a near-lifetime of drug and alcohol addiction. He'd been in and out of treatment programs spanning a 25-year period, all with the same end-result.
Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon, and the fistful of treatment programs available mostly deal with symptoms and not the underlying cause. They mostly teach folks how to "live with" the problem instead of overcoming and receiving permanent healing. This particular gentleman had been programmed to tell folks that "I am an alcoholic," and he would receive his coin for being alcohol-free for so many months, and then a year, and then so many years.
The problem was that every time he confessed "I am an alcoholic," or perhaps, "I am a recovering alcoholic," he was setting in motion -- by his very words -- the spiritual forces necessary to drive him back to the bottle under the right conditions.
Other pastors and ministers of the Gospel had prayed with him for deliverance, but the confession never changed. We did minister deliverance to him but counseled him to join us in our nightly worship gatherings and just "soak" in the presence of the Lord, and receive from the Holy Spirit through the Words containing His power and force.
Night after night, week after week, month after month, he came and simply enveloped himself in presence of the Lord. Before too long, his hands were up in the air, and he was joining in the praise and worship. A day came when he realized that he was permanently free. The cravings for drugs or alcohol were completely gone. He'd been transformed in the midst of the sound of the Lord. The power and authority of the Holy Spirit had been released into his being, and that power and authority brought real, genuine change.
We continue to rejoice with him today over his freedom and deliverance.
There's much more I could share, and perhaps in the weeks or months to come, I may add another Coffee Break on this topic, but in our next Coffee Break, I will return to (and attempt to conclude in the next few discussions) the topic of Kingdom Economics.
What I hear I think about. What I think about is generated in my heart. What is generated in my heart I speak. What I speak comes to pass. Out of the abundance of my heart, my mouth speaks. Death and life are in the power of my tongue.
The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22) Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
455 North River Road
Prosser, Washington 99350-6554
(509) 781-6099
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. Coffee Break archives will shortly be available at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are 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.CapenerMinistries.com. We earnestly desire people to stand behind us as prayer partners.
Part 6:
PROOFS OF SPIRITUAL FORCE IN SOUND
Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning!
Brother! I sure didn't expect to be offline for such a long period, but our move from Sunnyside to Prosser turned into a much larger undertaking than we'd thought.
It has proven to be a fabulous blessing, however! It is an entirely new atmosphere, and it has proven to be a real strengthening of River Worship Center's fellowship. We actually began our first services in Prosser on February 15 even though the physical plant move was far from completed.. March 1 was our official beginning at the new location.
One other change I need to note before we get started today is that our CapenerMinistries@embarqmail.com email address is no longer valid. Embarq ran into an engineering boondoggle here in Prosser in routing their cabling along the Yakima River such that they are unable to provide high-speed service. Their "broadband" on the north side of the river isn't a whole lot better than dialup, so we approached Charter Cable about getting 10 Mbit service here.
It's something they advertise, but weren't currently providing to this area due to some equipment problems. I'm happy to say that their engineering department went to work on the issue and resolved all the issues. We were offline for a couple of weeks during the interim, but our last test showed download speeds in excess of 10 Mbit and upload speeds in the range of 1 - 2 Mbits. Good stuff!
We're back to what we consider our default coffee (or coffee of choice). It's a blend of Double-Roasted French (from Cascade Coffees), Dark Roasted Columbian and San Francisco Bay French Roast. It seems to provide the best overall taste and aroma for our tastebuds.
It has been a month since our last Coffee Break went out so a little review is in order.
In Part 1, we talked about the fact that God holds all things together and energizes all creation by the Word of His Power. Since He is the Source of all life and creation, the power to create (or destroy) is inherent in His very being. He created us in His very image and likeness and thus imparted into us the same ability of creative (or destructive) speech and sound.
In Part 2 we talked about the power and authority released in sound, and illustrated it with examples from David's ministry to the Lord in praise and worship. We also discussed the significance of spiritual warfare that takes place in and through sound, along with Paul's illustration from Ephesians 6 where he uses the musical term esti-pale (<pallo), meaning: to vibrate; to create a sound in opposition to describe "wrestling."
In Part 3 we noted that this spiritual "wrestling" in sound began with Lucifer's rebellion in Heaven, and how he began to pervert the whole purpose of music.
Part 4 centered around the discussion of the onoma or character, personality and essence of one's being behind every sound -- and particularly the onoma of the Lord Jesus Christ vs. the onoma of Satan.
Part 5 began the discussion of articulated sounds through words, and the fact that all words are nothing but "spirit containers" conveying the objective of the motivating spirit which drives those words.
Let's see if we can wrap up this discussion today with some examples of the spiritual force contained in spoken or sung words, and just how much impact the resulting sound generates.
We've already noted that words come from spirit. Words are spirit containers. They carry spirit with them. As spirit containers, words have power. They bring with them the authority to energize life or initiate a sentence of death.
Today's airwaves are the classic illustration. Consider the sounds you hear on radio, television, CD's, iPods and all the various forms of entertainment. You walk into a shopping center, or perhaps a grocery store like Safeway, Kroger's or the like. What do you hear? Do you pay attention to the music in the background?
Ever notice how in some stores (Wal-Mart or K-Mart, for example) you will hear certain "specials" that lure you to purchase something "on sale"? Unless we are exceptionally cognizant of what we hear and careful how we react, we can easily be sucked into spending money we can't afford to spend? Without taking the time to elaborate on this statement, we are being deliberately programmed by a thought process and agenda derived from Babylon.
I don't want to sound conspiratorial, and I'm not much for conspiracy theories, but this is a case where our thoughts are deliberately manipulated so as to get us to spend money, buy things we really don't need, or adopt ideas and agendas not of our own thinking or reasoning. The motivator behind the agenda is Satan, the king of Babylon. Let me give you a couple of quick illustrations out of some personal experience.
My apologies, first of all, if you've heard this story before. A number of years ago while living in Alaska, one of my business ventures was to provide background music for different business applications. I provided music for an airport, restaurants, stores, and a shopping center.
One day while engaged in a social conversation with the general manager of a shopping center, he bemoaned the fact that the stores in this particular mall were suffering inordinate rates of theft -- in a couple of cases approaching 15% or more. We took a walk through the mall, and I pointed out to him the character and nature of the background music that was playing.
"Jim," I said, "What do you expect when what you're programming people with is heavy rock and acid rock -- music which carries a sound and a message that incites anger, lust, greed, and a whole lot of other things?" If you want to have change in your environment, you're going to have to change the sounds that people hear.
He responded that he had a contract with a background music provider, and that he was simply taking what they were providing. I offered to provide him with some tapes that were pre-programmed (I didn't tell him that I had programmed these tapes with subliminal messages containing phrases like "The Lord is my source; I do not need to steal; I am an honest person; I will pay for the things I take," and so forth) to change his business environment.
Because he had already paid for his existing service and really didn't like the idea of making a double payment, I offered to demonstrate what I was saying by providing the service for 30 days at no cost obligation. We agreed that if he saw a significant improvement in the 30-day period, he would pay my fees and change his music service.
The change was noticeable and demonstrable before the 30-day trial period was up. Toward the end of that test period, we sat down together again and he was almost jumping up and down with excitement. "Our worst-case is down to 6%," he said, "and that's not something we've seen in many months." Some stores were reporting a loss rate of between 1.5 and 3 percent.
The next thirty days brought the stores' loss-rate down to a maximum of 1.5 percent, and a few of them reported less than a half of one percent. It was a remarkable demonstration -- not only for the mall manager and the store owners, but for me as well. I knew the principle but this was the first time I had ever seen such dramatic results.
It was proof positive that people react (or respond) to the sounds they hear, even when they don't know they are reacting or responding.
During my years in broadcasting and in recording, I've acquired a slew of original recordings, and a fair number of music archives of various musicians and musical groups. While teaching a college course on subliminal programming I invited one of my classes to take from my archives a 10 1/2-inch reel of tape containing early recordings of the Beetles and test the music for subliminal messages.
Let me preface my discussion by saying that I'd never been a Beetles fan, and never could understand how folks could stand to listen to them despite the obvious musical creativity of some of their pieces. The spirit of their music had always bothered me, and listening to it jarred me.
Different class members dissected different pieces of the Beetles' music, and all of them reported finding various subliminal messages. The most telling of those messages was contained in one of their first releases, and it demonstrated to me a very clear reason why their music had suddenly become so popular, and why folks were flocking to music stores to buy their albums.
The message wasn't demonic. It wasn't sexually suggestive. It wasn't politically subversive. It was simply commercial. The message, recorded approximately 30 db below the average level of the music simply said, "Buy me." It was not backward-masked as we found in the recordings of AC-DC or Black Sabbath, and other like acid-groups. It wasn't even speeded up to repeat at 4x or 8x. Recorded at normal speed, the message simply repeated, over and over and over and over again throughout the song, "Buy me."
The message did its job. It got folks to run out and buy the music -- in record numbers (pun intended). Similar messages were found in subsequent Beetles recordings, all leading to a "popularity" of their music that was deliberate and planned by the studios.
The "Buy me" message may not in and of itself been demonic but it drove a demonic agenda. The music of the Beetles arguably changed forever the attitudes, the tastes, the spiritual desires and mores of a music-buying public and pushed the music business in a direction which has since spiraled downward into "music forms" which are blatantly demonic at their core. The words of some of the Beetles' music, and music which has subsequently followed are indeed containers of spirit -- and that spirit is NOT the Holy Spirit!
Let's take a look for a minute at the use of music the way God intended.
When we go back to the origins of all music in Heaven, it becomes clear that praise and worship of the Lord has always been its principal purpose. Music was created for the sole purpose of generating an environment in which the power and authority, the love, the grace, the faith of the Lord God was manifested, demonstrated and exercised.
In that realm there is love and the faith which works by love, healing, deliverance, redemption, wholeness, prosperity, blessing without measure, and unlimited power and authority. It stands therefore, that when men and women yield to the Spirit of the Lord and begin to play and sing the music of Heaven, all those benefits are on display.
Throughout much of the 1990's, Della and I lived and functioned in ministry from a ranch in Post Falls, Idaho known as "Trails' End." It was here that we began to experience a much fuller measure of the presence of the Lord with His accompanying grace and gifts on constant display.
We gathered together with other musicians, singers and intercessors not less than three or four times a week, sometimes nightly, and sometimes three or four times a day (if we were having a major gathering with folks from around the country). Although we generally had from six-to-twelve people who gathered on a regular basis, there were times when we had more than forty people packed into that tiny ranch house for praise and worship.
One night as we were gathered together (and this was a larger than normal group) the phone rang. The daughter of one of the couples worshiping with us had just received a terrible report from her doctor. She was pregnant (she and her husband were expecting their first daughter). A sonogram, followed by a series of other tests, showed that the unborn child -- just over a month away from birth -- was showing all of its internal organs on the outside of the body. Barring some kind of miracle from God or unique surgery, this child would not survive childbirth.
We told her to relax and be at peace. The Lord was going to intervene for her and the baby. Immediately, the Holy Spirit began to pour through all of us some rather extraordinary music of healing. It was not music we'd ever heard before, much less played or sang. We knew immediately that a supernatural healing was being ministered. It didn't matter that the mother and as-yet unborn child were hundreds of miles away and couldn't hear the sound coming forth. Healing power and authority were being released through that sound, and because the sound was being driven of the Holy Spirit, distance was irrelevant.
Five or six weeks later when the baby girl was born, she was whole, complete and beautiful. It was a pleasure for Della and me to hold that baby girl in our arms a year later and see for ourselves the miracle the Lord had done. There was not so much as a trace of the condition.
This is something we have seen repeated over and over again throughout the past twenty or so years. It reminds me of one of the remarkable healings that took place during the early years of our daily worship gatherings.
We had received a phone call from a lady who had been given a death sentence with perhaps three-to-six months to live because of cancer. Her husband and three sons were pretty distraught over the prospect of her death. We introduced her to the realm of praise and worship as a part of daily living. For me personally, this case was unique because this lady had been one of the teenagers I'd shared the Lord Jesus Christ with when I was Minister of Youth at Bethel Union Church in Duarte, California back in the mid-1960's.
The Lord had reconnected us after many years at a critical time in her life. We had just begun recording our worship gatherings and releasing them on cassette tape and CD's. When this lady could not be with us, we showed her how to "plug in" to nonstop praise and worship listening on her stereo or Walkman. She soon realized what a difference it was making in her physical well-being and began to live a lifestyle of praise and worship. Dwelling in the midst of the presence of the Lord has a powerful effect.
You can't be in the presence of the Lord for long and continue to hang onto disease, infirmity or affliction. You can't be in the presence of the Lord for long and continue to be tormented by evil spirits. The Enemy simply cannot survive for any prolonged period when the sound of the Lord is constantly going forth. That sound generates faith. It generates love. It generates power and authority over Satan and his army of demonic powers that knows no limitation.
Cancer is one of those lies of Satan he tries to foist off on folks; and if they are willing to spend the necessary time with the Lord, faith rises up in such a dimension that cancer has to leave. Three years after this lady was supposed to have been dead, she was more alive and healthier than she'd been in many years.
Not long after River Worship Center opened its doors at our original location in Sunnyside, a gentleman came who had been suffering from a near-lifetime of drug and alcohol addiction. He'd been in and out of treatment programs spanning a 25-year period, all with the same end-result.
Alcoholics Anonymous, Al-Anon, and the fistful of treatment programs available mostly deal with symptoms and not the underlying cause. They mostly teach folks how to "live with" the problem instead of overcoming and receiving permanent healing. This particular gentleman had been programmed to tell folks that "I am an alcoholic," and he would receive his coin for being alcohol-free for so many months, and then a year, and then so many years.
The problem was that every time he confessed "I am an alcoholic," or perhaps, "I am a recovering alcoholic," he was setting in motion -- by his very words -- the spiritual forces necessary to drive him back to the bottle under the right conditions.
Other pastors and ministers of the Gospel had prayed with him for deliverance, but the confession never changed. We did minister deliverance to him but counseled him to join us in our nightly worship gatherings and just "soak" in the presence of the Lord, and receive from the Holy Spirit through the Words containing His power and force.
Night after night, week after week, month after month, he came and simply enveloped himself in presence of the Lord. Before too long, his hands were up in the air, and he was joining in the praise and worship. A day came when he realized that he was permanently free. The cravings for drugs or alcohol were completely gone. He'd been transformed in the midst of the sound of the Lord. The power and authority of the Holy Spirit had been released into his being, and that power and authority brought real, genuine change.
We continue to rejoice with him today over his freedom and deliverance.
There's much more I could share, and perhaps in the weeks or months to come, I may add another Coffee Break on this topic, but in our next Coffee Break, I will return to (and attempt to conclude in the next few discussions) the topic of Kingdom Economics.
What I hear I think about. What I think about is generated in my heart. What is generated in my heart I speak. What I speak comes to pass. Out of the abundance of my heart, my mouth speaks. Death and life are in the power of my tongue.
The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22) Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
455 North River Road
Prosser, Washington 99350-6554
(509) 781-6099
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. Coffee Break archives will shortly be available at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are 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.CapenerMinistries.com. We earnestly desire people to stand behind us as prayer partners.
Monday, February 2, 2009
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: THE SOUND OF THE LORD, Part 5
THE SOUND OF THE LORD
Part 5: THE SPIRIT OF SOUND
Hiya, Folks!
We are in the midst of change -- lots of change! In the days ahead -- and even now as I write -- we are moving River Worship Center and our entire ministry from Sunnyside to Prosser, Washington -- a distance of some 18 miles.
Prosser has always been our target location, but we honestly didn't expect to make the move quite this soon. Recent developments with our sister ministry, Iglesia de Cristo Miel (the Spanish-language ministry operating under the leadership of Cesar Lopez), have prompted this move. Both of us using the same space at different times for different types of ministry necessitates the use of equipment, instruments, and office equipment that take up a considerable amount of room, and that -- in turn -- restricts the amount of space for seating people who come to worship.
For the past several weeks, Cesar has had standing room only on Saturdays and Sundays, and has had to open the vestibule doors so folks could stand out in the vestibule in order to hear and participate. Although we had expected to purchase this building ourselves, Cesar has requested the option of purchasing it and enlarging the place to meet the growing need for space.
At the same time, an opportunity has presented itself for us to make the move to Prosser now and relocate to new quarters on the Yakima River. Interestingly enough, the majority of the families in our fellowship already live in Prosser. The timing is ordered of the Lord, and the details of this move have been being worked out smoothly and easily. That said, we expect to complete the relocation of River Worship Center and Capener Ministries before or by the first of March.
We will keep you apprised as things progress. As the time approaches for the move of our office and equipment, we will likely not publish a Coffee Break for a week or two during mid-February.
OK. Time to get on with the day. Told you I'd let you know what I thought of this Marques Estate Harvest coffee that our daughter, Shelley, brought us. I would classify it as a medium roast coffee. That said, it works just fine when blended in a 1:2 ratio with either very dark roasted Columbian or French Roast. As a standalone coffee, however, it's a bit too tangy for my tastebuds.
Let me begin today with something that maybe you've never thought of. Words are spirit containers. It matters not who is speaking, the words that come forth from a person's mouth contain spirit. The Hebrew Midrash translates the text of Genesis 2:7b/c as, "and {God] breathed into his being the breath of life, and man became a living, speaking spirit."
Jesus made the following statement: "It is the spirit that quickens (zoopoieo: energizes, makes alive); the [natural, carnal] flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." (John 6:63)
Then Paul adds, "We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak." (II Corinthians 4:13)
Are you seeing the connection? Words come from spirit. Words are spirit containers. They carry spirit with them. As spirit containers, words have power. They bring with them the authority to energize life or initiate a sentence of death.
If the motivating spirit is faith, then the spirit of faith is what comes forth in the words. If the motivating spirit is love, the words that come forth carry that spirit of love. When the motivating spirit is operating in and through the Holy Spirit with His power and authority, that is the sound that goes forth; and it is a sound of life, health, wholeness, healing, deliverance and provision for every need. The words that are spoken articulate the specific ministry the Holy Spirit is bringing.
By the same token, if the motivating spirit is fear, unbelief, doubt, anger, hate, etc., the words that come out of a person's mouth will contain those spirits. The words -- driven by evil spirits working in agreement with the individual human spirit -- will articulate what the evil spirits are attempting to enact.
There is a truth here that many folks seem to miss. Words -- no matter what spirit motivates them -- have no power on their own: until the sound of those words goes forth they remain thoughts, concepts or ideas. It is the sound of those words which articulates the purpose and intent of the spirit behind them. Hence, words are containers of spirit.
Evil spirits have no power of their own to function or enact anything in any realm except they operate through, and with the agreement of, men or women. Evil spirits have no creative power or authority of any kind. The only way they can enact their agenda is through human agency. All evil spirits, whether they be low-level "foot soldiers," or demonic rulers of darkness (kosmokrator: world rulers of darkness -- Ephesians 6:12), operate through and by human flesh working in agreement with them.
They operate in a spiritual dimension, to be sure, but they still require human flesh in order to accomplish their agenda. Satan has no ability on his own other than that which God created for him in which to function. We'll come back to this momentarily.
I don't want to get too far astray in today's discussion, but let me take you to an event in Daniel that illustrates this picture.
"Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia."
"Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come."
Notice that the angel's description of his opposition is the "prince of the kingdom of Persia" -- NOT the king of Persia. Nowhere in the Word is Satan -- or any other demonic force -- EVER described as a king. Rather, you have a demonic force of wickedness working in, through and with the agreement of a prince. A prince is not just some flunky. He has authority, and he exercises it to the fullest
In this instance this prince (the demonic power working through him) saw the angel of the Lord going forth on a mission. His ability to withstand the messenger of God was sufficient enough as a delaying tactic that Daniel wasn't getting what he was praying for. The angel reports to Daniel that Michael the Archangel came to defeat this demonic prince, and during the conflict that ensued the messenger remained "with the kings of Persia."
The phrase, "kings of Persia," is NOT a reference to earthly kings but rather individuals who had intercessory power and authority and functioned in their place of Godly authority providing a place of safety for the messenger of God during the spiritual conflict. Let's not forget that history tells us that Daniel had established a "school of prophets" who clearly understood what it meant to wait on God, wait on His Word, engage in prayer and intercession, and rehearse among themselves every prophetic utterance concerning the coming of the Messiah. I've no doubt that the real "kings of Persia" came from this group.
Revelation 1:6 bears out this concept with the statement, "And [He] hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."
Understand? Satan is no king. He is nothing more than a prince -- and a thieving prince at that! He is nothing but a disembodied master spirit who still must have a body (or bodies) through which he can exercise his agenda. He exercises his deception, his trickery and his theft through people.
Why? The answer is found in Psalm 115:16, "The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men." Yup. That's it! Satan does not own the earth. The apostle Paul refers to him as the "prince of the power of the air" -- not even the "prince of this earth!"
I noted earlier that Satan has no power on his own other than that for which he was created. He was created Lucifer, an archangel whose specific function and duty was to minister before the Throne with the sound of praise and worship, and to envelop the Throne of God with that worship. It is worth noting that after his rebellion and eviction from his place in Heaven, he corrupted that sound of praise and worship and used his only creative ability to generate a sound of opposition ("wrestling," if you will) to God. We see and hear that opposition 24 hours a day in the entertainment media of today.
I've really gotten astray from today's discussion, but what I'm getting at is the fact that evil spirits do not have a voice of their own. They must utilize people in order to have access to the creative or destructive power of the human tongue.
We've quoted this before, but once again, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life." (Proverbs 18:21 Amplified Version)
It may seem like I'm beating this topic to pieces but I'm trying to make it abundantly clear that all creative (or destructive) sounds come from the human tongue (or, in the case of music, from the hands that play instruments). Human agency is, therefore, an integral part to all creative or destructive sound, and by spiritual involvement, likewise integral to the implementation of spiritual power and force.
In the same way that evil spirits (or Satan) require human beings operating in agreement -- knowingly or unwittingly -- in order to accomplish their agenda against God (and mankind), so also has God -- by His own choice and Will -- elected to use man (operating in knowing agreement with Him) to accomplish the establishing of His Kingdom and His purposes for men and women.
All sound, therefore, which emanates from the human voice conveys a spiritual force. There is no such thing as a word spoken which does not convey some spirit. For that reason, Jesus made a point of dealing with this principle. The KJV (Mark 4:24-25) records it like this:
"And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath."
Allow me to translate it from the Greek and amplify it a bit more:
"And He said to them, Be careful of what you are hearing or what you listen to. The measure of esteem, thought, meditation or consideration you give to that which you hear will be the measure of virtue and/or revelation [of good or evil] that comes back to you -- and even more will be given to you who hear. For to him who has [the substance of faith or virtue] will more be given; and from him who has nothing of substance, even what he has will be forcibly taken away."
A bit windy, I know, but you get the picture. Not only is it important to guard that which comes forth from our mouth, what we hear is of equally critical consequence. There is spiritual significance and weight to the sound.
I had thought to finish up this series today, but it is important to give you some real-life examples of the spiritual power and force that comes through sound -- and particularly, words as spirit-containers. We'll do one more Coffee Break dealing with the Proofs of Spiritual Force in Sound.
Finally, in the light of Jesus' instruction, let me ask you a few questions. What do you spend your day listening to? Do you watch a lot of television? Do you listen to pop music on the radio a lot? Are you a talk-radio addict? Are you addicted to heavy rock or rap? Do you walk around all day plugged into an iPod or some other mp3 player listening to the stuff that passes for "popular music?"
Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not condemning ALL popular music. I'm not opposed to talk-radio on its merits. I enjoy reruns of Star Trek or Stargate, and 24. What I DON'T do is make any of it a steady diet. It does not fill my day.
I enjoy Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity from time to time, but I won't listen to them continually. I won't sit in front of the television set hour after hour after hour every day and consume everything that passes for entertainment. I rarely listen to the radio anymore and doubt that I've actually listened to a total of one or perhaps two hours of radio programming in the past two years.
Della and I limit the music we listen to. Other than the rare and occasional moment to listen to some Big Band music of the 1940's, and once in a very great while a bit of Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin or Handel, if you check the CD carousel in our sound system you'll find nothing but praise and worship -- or perhaps a teaching series by Keith Moore, Neville Johnson, Kenneth Copeland or some other faith-filled teacher.
We have a huge music library built up over many years, and I have live and original recordings that date back nearly 70 years. Della and I have learned throughout the years that it is important -- and becoming increasingly so -- that we guard our ears (and our eyes, as well). As we come to the end of this age and see the imminent return of Jesus Christ upon us, we want to ensure that there are no contaminants in our spirits -- no impediments to the flow of the Holy Spirit.
For that reason, I encourage you to guard what you hear and listen to. Begin using the discernment of the Holy Spirit given to you. Pay attention to the spirit behind what you hear. What are you meditating on? What are you thinking about? What thoughts or feelings or emotions are you experiencing as a result of what you hear? Do the things you listen to promote the satisfying of your human desires, feelings and imaginations, or do they draw you into the fulfilling and life-giving presence of the Lord?
See what I mean?
We will continue this again in a week or so.
What I hear I think about. What I think about is generated in my heart. What is generated in my heart I speak. What I speak comes to pass. Out of the abundance of my heart, my mouth speaks. Death and life are in the power of my tongue.
The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22) Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
700 South 6th Street
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 837-4657
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. Coffee Break archives will shortly be available at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are 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.CapenerMinistries.com. We earnestly desire people to stand behind us as prayer partners.
Part 5: THE SPIRIT OF SOUND
Hiya, Folks!
We are in the midst of change -- lots of change! In the days ahead -- and even now as I write -- we are moving River Worship Center and our entire ministry from Sunnyside to Prosser, Washington -- a distance of some 18 miles.
Prosser has always been our target location, but we honestly didn't expect to make the move quite this soon. Recent developments with our sister ministry, Iglesia de Cristo Miel (the Spanish-language ministry operating under the leadership of Cesar Lopez), have prompted this move. Both of us using the same space at different times for different types of ministry necessitates the use of equipment, instruments, and office equipment that take up a considerable amount of room, and that -- in turn -- restricts the amount of space for seating people who come to worship.
For the past several weeks, Cesar has had standing room only on Saturdays and Sundays, and has had to open the vestibule doors so folks could stand out in the vestibule in order to hear and participate. Although we had expected to purchase this building ourselves, Cesar has requested the option of purchasing it and enlarging the place to meet the growing need for space.
At the same time, an opportunity has presented itself for us to make the move to Prosser now and relocate to new quarters on the Yakima River. Interestingly enough, the majority of the families in our fellowship already live in Prosser. The timing is ordered of the Lord, and the details of this move have been being worked out smoothly and easily. That said, we expect to complete the relocation of River Worship Center and Capener Ministries before or by the first of March.
We will keep you apprised as things progress. As the time approaches for the move of our office and equipment, we will likely not publish a Coffee Break for a week or two during mid-February.
OK. Time to get on with the day. Told you I'd let you know what I thought of this Marques Estate Harvest coffee that our daughter, Shelley, brought us. I would classify it as a medium roast coffee. That said, it works just fine when blended in a 1:2 ratio with either very dark roasted Columbian or French Roast. As a standalone coffee, however, it's a bit too tangy for my tastebuds.
Let me begin today with something that maybe you've never thought of. Words are spirit containers. It matters not who is speaking, the words that come forth from a person's mouth contain spirit. The Hebrew Midrash translates the text of Genesis 2:7b/c as, "and {God] breathed into his being the breath of life, and man became a living, speaking spirit."
Jesus made the following statement: "It is the spirit that quickens (zoopoieo: energizes, makes alive); the [natural, carnal] flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." (John 6:63)
Then Paul adds, "We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak." (II Corinthians 4:13)
Are you seeing the connection? Words come from spirit. Words are spirit containers. They carry spirit with them. As spirit containers, words have power. They bring with them the authority to energize life or initiate a sentence of death.
If the motivating spirit is faith, then the spirit of faith is what comes forth in the words. If the motivating spirit is love, the words that come forth carry that spirit of love. When the motivating spirit is operating in and through the Holy Spirit with His power and authority, that is the sound that goes forth; and it is a sound of life, health, wholeness, healing, deliverance and provision for every need. The words that are spoken articulate the specific ministry the Holy Spirit is bringing.
By the same token, if the motivating spirit is fear, unbelief, doubt, anger, hate, etc., the words that come out of a person's mouth will contain those spirits. The words -- driven by evil spirits working in agreement with the individual human spirit -- will articulate what the evil spirits are attempting to enact.
There is a truth here that many folks seem to miss. Words -- no matter what spirit motivates them -- have no power on their own: until the sound of those words goes forth they remain thoughts, concepts or ideas. It is the sound of those words which articulates the purpose and intent of the spirit behind them. Hence, words are containers of spirit.
Evil spirits have no power of their own to function or enact anything in any realm except they operate through, and with the agreement of, men or women. Evil spirits have no creative power or authority of any kind. The only way they can enact their agenda is through human agency. All evil spirits, whether they be low-level "foot soldiers," or demonic rulers of darkness (kosmokrator: world rulers of darkness -- Ephesians 6:12), operate through and by human flesh working in agreement with them.
They operate in a spiritual dimension, to be sure, but they still require human flesh in order to accomplish their agenda. Satan has no ability on his own other than that which God created for him in which to function. We'll come back to this momentarily.
I don't want to get too far astray in today's discussion, but let me take you to an event in Daniel that illustrates this picture.
"Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia."
"Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come."
Notice that the angel's description of his opposition is the "prince of the kingdom of Persia" -- NOT the king of Persia. Nowhere in the Word is Satan -- or any other demonic force -- EVER described as a king. Rather, you have a demonic force of wickedness working in, through and with the agreement of a prince. A prince is not just some flunky. He has authority, and he exercises it to the fullest
In this instance this prince (the demonic power working through him) saw the angel of the Lord going forth on a mission. His ability to withstand the messenger of God was sufficient enough as a delaying tactic that Daniel wasn't getting what he was praying for. The angel reports to Daniel that Michael the Archangel came to defeat this demonic prince, and during the conflict that ensued the messenger remained "with the kings of Persia."
The phrase, "kings of Persia," is NOT a reference to earthly kings but rather individuals who had intercessory power and authority and functioned in their place of Godly authority providing a place of safety for the messenger of God during the spiritual conflict. Let's not forget that history tells us that Daniel had established a "school of prophets" who clearly understood what it meant to wait on God, wait on His Word, engage in prayer and intercession, and rehearse among themselves every prophetic utterance concerning the coming of the Messiah. I've no doubt that the real "kings of Persia" came from this group.
Revelation 1:6 bears out this concept with the statement, "And [He] hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."
Understand? Satan is no king. He is nothing more than a prince -- and a thieving prince at that! He is nothing but a disembodied master spirit who still must have a body (or bodies) through which he can exercise his agenda. He exercises his deception, his trickery and his theft through people.
Why? The answer is found in Psalm 115:16, "The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men." Yup. That's it! Satan does not own the earth. The apostle Paul refers to him as the "prince of the power of the air" -- not even the "prince of this earth!"
I noted earlier that Satan has no power on his own other than that for which he was created. He was created Lucifer, an archangel whose specific function and duty was to minister before the Throne with the sound of praise and worship, and to envelop the Throne of God with that worship. It is worth noting that after his rebellion and eviction from his place in Heaven, he corrupted that sound of praise and worship and used his only creative ability to generate a sound of opposition ("wrestling," if you will) to God. We see and hear that opposition 24 hours a day in the entertainment media of today.
I've really gotten astray from today's discussion, but what I'm getting at is the fact that evil spirits do not have a voice of their own. They must utilize people in order to have access to the creative or destructive power of the human tongue.
We've quoted this before, but once again, "Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life." (Proverbs 18:21 Amplified Version)
It may seem like I'm beating this topic to pieces but I'm trying to make it abundantly clear that all creative (or destructive) sounds come from the human tongue (or, in the case of music, from the hands that play instruments). Human agency is, therefore, an integral part to all creative or destructive sound, and by spiritual involvement, likewise integral to the implementation of spiritual power and force.
In the same way that evil spirits (or Satan) require human beings operating in agreement -- knowingly or unwittingly -- in order to accomplish their agenda against God (and mankind), so also has God -- by His own choice and Will -- elected to use man (operating in knowing agreement with Him) to accomplish the establishing of His Kingdom and His purposes for men and women.
All sound, therefore, which emanates from the human voice conveys a spiritual force. There is no such thing as a word spoken which does not convey some spirit. For that reason, Jesus made a point of dealing with this principle. The KJV (Mark 4:24-25) records it like this:
"And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath."
Allow me to translate it from the Greek and amplify it a bit more:
"And He said to them, Be careful of what you are hearing or what you listen to. The measure of esteem, thought, meditation or consideration you give to that which you hear will be the measure of virtue and/or revelation [of good or evil] that comes back to you -- and even more will be given to you who hear. For to him who has [the substance of faith or virtue] will more be given; and from him who has nothing of substance, even what he has will be forcibly taken away."
A bit windy, I know, but you get the picture. Not only is it important to guard that which comes forth from our mouth, what we hear is of equally critical consequence. There is spiritual significance and weight to the sound.
I had thought to finish up this series today, but it is important to give you some real-life examples of the spiritual power and force that comes through sound -- and particularly, words as spirit-containers. We'll do one more Coffee Break dealing with the Proofs of Spiritual Force in Sound.
Finally, in the light of Jesus' instruction, let me ask you a few questions. What do you spend your day listening to? Do you watch a lot of television? Do you listen to pop music on the radio a lot? Are you a talk-radio addict? Are you addicted to heavy rock or rap? Do you walk around all day plugged into an iPod or some other mp3 player listening to the stuff that passes for "popular music?"
Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not condemning ALL popular music. I'm not opposed to talk-radio on its merits. I enjoy reruns of Star Trek or Stargate, and 24. What I DON'T do is make any of it a steady diet. It does not fill my day.
I enjoy Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity from time to time, but I won't listen to them continually. I won't sit in front of the television set hour after hour after hour every day and consume everything that passes for entertainment. I rarely listen to the radio anymore and doubt that I've actually listened to a total of one or perhaps two hours of radio programming in the past two years.
Della and I limit the music we listen to. Other than the rare and occasional moment to listen to some Big Band music of the 1940's, and once in a very great while a bit of Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin or Handel, if you check the CD carousel in our sound system you'll find nothing but praise and worship -- or perhaps a teaching series by Keith Moore, Neville Johnson, Kenneth Copeland or some other faith-filled teacher.
We have a huge music library built up over many years, and I have live and original recordings that date back nearly 70 years. Della and I have learned throughout the years that it is important -- and becoming increasingly so -- that we guard our ears (and our eyes, as well). As we come to the end of this age and see the imminent return of Jesus Christ upon us, we want to ensure that there are no contaminants in our spirits -- no impediments to the flow of the Holy Spirit.
For that reason, I encourage you to guard what you hear and listen to. Begin using the discernment of the Holy Spirit given to you. Pay attention to the spirit behind what you hear. What are you meditating on? What are you thinking about? What thoughts or feelings or emotions are you experiencing as a result of what you hear? Do the things you listen to promote the satisfying of your human desires, feelings and imaginations, or do they draw you into the fulfilling and life-giving presence of the Lord?
See what I mean?
We will continue this again in a week or so.
What I hear I think about. What I think about is generated in my heart. What is generated in my heart I speak. What I speak comes to pass. Out of the abundance of my heart, my mouth speaks. Death and life are in the power of my tongue.
The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22) Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
700 South 6th Street
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 837-4657
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. Coffee Break archives will shortly be available at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are 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.CapenerMinistries.com. We earnestly desire people to stand behind us as prayer partners.
Monday, January 19, 2009
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: THE SOUND OF THE LORD, Part 4
THE SOUND OF THE LORD
Part 4: THE ONOMA OF SOUND
A belated Happy New Year and Good Morning to you!
Thanks again to those of you who have been faithful readers and subscribers! Today's edition begins our fifth year of publication.
During the weeks of the Christmas and New Year holiday break, we have added somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 new readers despite the fact that we have not published any new Coffee Breaks since just before Christmas. Guess that means these Coffee Break discussions are making a difference in the lives of some people, and that's a blessing! By the way, if you are among the newly subscribed and are wondering why you haven't been receiving any Coffee Breaks, it has been an extremely busy break period as I have been trying to archive the past four years worth of these writings in one place, as well as taking care of some needed maintenance here at River Worship Center.
Let's get started with today's discussion and pick up where we left off in talking about sound -- and specifically, the Sound of the Lord.
Before we do, make sure you've gotten the day kick-started with some good dark-roasted java. Della and I are trying a new coffee today. Our daughter, Shelley, gave us a large bag of Marques Estate Harvest coffee from Brazil. It looks good and smells good. Haven't seen this coffee before, but because Shelley is a chef she has access to coffees and sources of coffee that we don't normally see. After we've had a few days of trying this and comparing it, I'll let you know my assessment.
We have quoted Paul's statement from Ephesians 6:12 throughout these discussions on sound, and let me start there again today.
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
Once again I remind you that the word translated "wrestle" in the KJV ("struggle" in the NAS) is the Greek word, esti-pale (from its root, pallo: to vibrate). It is a musical term which describes two or more notes or sounds in opposition to each other which create a resulting noise or cacophony the ears cannot stand. This is a significant concept in the overall picture of spiritual warfare.
Each sound has an onoma -- a shem -- a striking personality and character that drives it.
Onoma is a Greek term (shem is the Hebrew term which has the identical picture) which most often gets translated "name" but the image and thought behind this word go far beyond the simple idea of a "name." The "name" is intended as a snapshot, if you will, of a certain character, a personality, the essence of who one is, one's makeup, their rank, power and authority, their behavior, their integrity (or lack thereof), and so forth. The "name" is a marker for a vision that encompasses all that a person is to be. It is a prophecy of their future. All of this is encompassed in "onoma."
Let me draw some illustrations for you.
We have a graphic picture in Acts 19 where the seven sons of the Jewish priest, Sceva, saw and heard the apostle Paul casting out evil spirits in the "onoma" of Jesus. They took the names of Jesus and Paul as some kind of religious formula and, thinking they could simply bandy those names without being "in the onoma" therewith, uttered the phrase, "We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth."
Because they were simply using words as a formula and not understanding either the power, the authority, or the character and essence behind the "name" of Jesus, "Jesus" became a weapon they didn't know how to use. The evil spirits came out, all right. They came out of the demonized individual and tore them to pieces.
There's another example of this in Matthew 7:20-23 where Jesus says, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
Notice what is happening. People want to be included in the Kingdom, and say to the Lord, "We've prophesied in your name. We've cast out demons in your name. We've done lots of miracles in your name."
The essence of Jesus' response is, "No you haven't. You've used religious formulas and seen success because of the power of my name, but you've used my name as a formula. You've twisted the very essence of my onoma into something that serves your kingdom. You haven't been in my onoma!"
There are many professing Christians today who spout the name of Jesus, lay hands on the sick and prophesy. They pay tithes, they do good deeds in public, the feed the hungry and provide shelter for those who are in poverty. But here's the kicker. They are not doing it in the onoma of Jesus!
There is no abiding in Him. There is no intimate love-relationship with Him. There is no willingness on their part to meet His conditions in order to bring the Kingdom of God to realization on earth. There is no thirst for the life and presence of the Lord in their lives. There is no "Katy-bar-the-door," no-holds-barred drive in their spirits to see that Jesus Christ receives His inheritance in them. They are filled with religious doctrines which satisfy their flesh and place no requirements for the spiritual growth and maturity that Jesus is looking for in a Bride who will be His Counterpart, His Other Self.
Understand the difference?
Religion uses formulas. Religion uses nice phrases. Religion sounds good. It often says all the right things, but there is no power and authority to back up what it does. The manifestation of the life and presence of the Lord Jesus Christ is missing.
And here's the issue I'm getting at in this discussion on the Sound of the Lord. The Sound of the Lord brings with it the onoma, the very shem of the Lord Himself! His sound transmits His character. It communicates the absolute essence of Who He is!
Think about all the "church" music you've heard throughout the years. How much of it really communicated and transmitted the very life of the Lord Jesus Christ? How much of it simply communicated the flesh and carnality of the people singing and playing? How much of it was real ministry to the Lord? How much of it was dry and lifeless?
Are you beginning to see the picture? Music which comes out of the Spirit of the Living God communicates His presence. Music that just "sounds good" entertains you for a minute or two, maybe it makes you feel good, but it leaves you without any sense of the character and makeup of the Lord Himself. The reason is because of the onoma that is creating that sound. It may have all the right words. It may have a very skilled and professional sound. But it isn't the Sound of the Lord!
Why? Because there's no rhema of the Holy Spirit in it. It's just not what the Lord is saying to or through His people at the moment. If it isn't what He is saying to His people NOW, it lacks the power and authority.
Extrapolate that to the words you listen to. What are you hearing on radio or TV? What are you hearing in the pulpit?
Let's take this concept to another dimension.
There is a unique aspect to the Sound of the Lord and His onoma that most folks are not aware of. Uri Harel discovered that there is a musical sound or tone to each letter of the Hebrew alphabet corresponding to its numerical value. (For those of you who don't know Uri, he was born in Haifa, Israel. Uri attended college in Buffalo, New York, where he graduated with a degree in education. After moving to Phoenix, Arizona in 1977, he began what would become a life-long passion to explore and share with others the unique beauty of the Hebrew language. I commend his work to you which you can find at www.c-bh.com, and www.musicfromgod.com)
Each word of the Old Testament has a sound that goes with it. That sound is a part of the Sound of the Lord. Quoting from Uri's website, "According to an old Hebrew tradition about the creation of the world, God used the Torah as a blueprint for the work of creating the universe. The 22 Hebrew letters in pre-determined combinations were used to accomplish this task. Those letters therefore represent the physical forces used in the Creation process. All of creation reflects the Divine order, which in turn is represented by the Divine language and its symbols - the Hebrew alphabet."
Those forces are manifested in sound. That sound, as we all know, is the sound that went forth when God spoke the worlds into existence. That is the same sound that came forth with the very first words, "Light BE!"
Now, let's take this picture to the onoma of the sound of opposition.
Think about all the sounds that fill our daily lives. How about TV commercials? What about sound tracks for TV programs or movies? What about the music you listen to?
We've already talked about Lucifer, his function in Heaven prior to his rebellion as the preeminent orchestrator of the sound of praise, worship and adoration; followed by his removal from his archangelic office. His name was changed from Lucifer to Satan. In the same way that the name of the Lord incorporates His shem, His onoma, so also does Satan's name draw a graphic picture of his character, his essence, his makeup and his behavior.
We've already discussed the fact that Paul's use of the representative term "vibrating" in opposition draws a graphic picture of sounds in opposition. Opposition is part of the onoma of Satan. The Hebrew word, satan, (pronounced saw. tan) is a primitive root in the Hebrew language. It draws a picture of opposition, of (false) accusation; to take an adversarial stance, to resist. It denotes one who lies in wait to ambush, an enticer, a layer of snares or traps.
The Greek satanas parallels the Hebrew satan, drawing its origin from the same Chaldean definitions. J. H. Thayer, in his Greek-English Lexicon, adds that satanas is "the prince of evil," and "an inciter to apostasy." Thayer defines the onoma of satanas as "the source of affliction, infirmity, disease and sickness."
Consider, therefore, the sound of his onoma! Is it any wonder that people who spend their days and nights listening to hard rock music, acid rock and rap, just to draw a few examples, are among the most sickly, the most diseased, the most afflicted and tormented people on the face of the earth? Is it any wonder that the overwhelming majority of them rarely even make the allotted 70-year sin lifespan because ("our days are passed away in thy wrath")? (See Psalm 90:9-10) [Note: Despite God's promise that man's "days shall be an hundred and twenty years" (Genesis 6:3) Moses makes note of the fact that sin and iniquity cut it back for most folks to seventy years, or eighty "by reason of strength."]
Pretty drastic cut, don't you think? It's no wonder that Jesus made clear that "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy." (John 10:10a) That is precisely what the sound of Satan's onoma does: it steals, it kills, and it destroys! What a rip-off! And some folks even enjoy it while they're being systematically deprived of their health, their long life, and their welfare. Satan has so effectively programmed the masses with his mind-control that they see nothing harmful in listening to his sound. They don't even see it as the sound of Satan.
What's even worse, we have folks who come out of this scene into the body of Christ; they accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Redeemer and yet they think they need to hang onto that sound. They try to put the message of the Gospel into the onomatopoeia (sorry for the pun, but it's accurate) of Satan, and then wonder why there is so little change of lifestyle, character, makeup and personality in those they seek to "minister" to with that sound.
God's people really need to get a hold of this understanding!
I've said this before and I'll say it again! Will someone please tell me how you use the sound of opposition to the Gospel to preach the Gospel? The Gospel of Jesus Christ isn't just words you can put to any old sound! There is an onoma to the sound! No wonder Paul refers to this as "wrestling!"
That's not how Jesus did things, folks! He came with a different sound. He came with the sound of life. He came with the sound of healing and deliverance! He came with the sound of Salvation! He came with the sound of prosperity and wholeness in every part of life. He came with the sound of Heaven.
You just can't have it both ways. Trying to mix the holy and the profane, the Godly and the Satanic is folly! Pretending that it is "just sound" and that "it makes no difference" is akin to the ostrich hiding it's head in the sand.
We're almost done with this series, but I want to touch on one more aspect of sound before we move on. We've dealt thus far primarily with the sound itself, and we have touched briefly on the message or the words that come with the sound, but we need to take another look at the words themselves and how they cooperate with (or oppose, as the case may be) the sound of the Lord.
Our next Coffee Break discussion will deal with THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUND. See you again in a few days.
Things are not what they seem to be: they're what God says they are. The sound of His Word going forth is what determines the difference between light and darkness, life and death, health or sickness and disease, poverty or prosperity.
The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22) Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
700 South 6th Street
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 837-4657
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. Coffee Break archives will shortly be available at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. Coffee Break articles are 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.CapenerMinistries.com. We earnestly desire people to stand behind us as prayer partners.
Part 4: THE ONOMA OF SOUND
A belated Happy New Year and Good Morning to you!
Thanks again to those of you who have been faithful readers and subscribers! Today's edition begins our fifth year of publication.
During the weeks of the Christmas and New Year holiday break, we have added somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 new readers despite the fact that we have not published any new Coffee Breaks since just before Christmas. Guess that means these Coffee Break discussions are making a difference in the lives of some people, and that's a blessing! By the way, if you are among the newly subscribed and are wondering why you haven't been receiving any Coffee Breaks, it has been an extremely busy break period as I have been trying to archive the past four years worth of these writings in one place, as well as taking care of some needed maintenance here at River Worship Center.
Let's get started with today's discussion and pick up where we left off in talking about sound -- and specifically, the Sound of the Lord.
Before we do, make sure you've gotten the day kick-started with some good dark-roasted java. Della and I are trying a new coffee today. Our daughter, Shelley, gave us a large bag of Marques Estate Harvest coffee from Brazil. It looks good and smells good. Haven't seen this coffee before, but because Shelley is a chef she has access to coffees and sources of coffee that we don't normally see. After we've had a few days of trying this and comparing it, I'll let you know my assessment.
We have quoted Paul's statement from Ephesians 6:12 throughout these discussions on sound, and let me start there again today.
"For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
Once again I remind you that the word translated "wrestle" in the KJV ("struggle" in the NAS) is the Greek word, esti-pale (from its root, pallo: to vibrate). It is a musical term which describes two or more notes or sounds in opposition to each other which create a resulting noise or cacophony the ears cannot stand. This is a significant concept in the overall picture of spiritual warfare.
Each sound has an onoma -- a shem -- a striking personality and character that drives it.
Onoma is a Greek term (shem is the Hebrew term which has the identical picture) which most often gets translated "name" but the image and thought behind this word go far beyond the simple idea of a "name." The "name" is intended as a snapshot, if you will, of a certain character, a personality, the essence of who one is, one's makeup, their rank, power and authority, their behavior, their integrity (or lack thereof), and so forth. The "name" is a marker for a vision that encompasses all that a person is to be. It is a prophecy of their future. All of this is encompassed in "onoma."
Let me draw some illustrations for you.
We have a graphic picture in Acts 19 where the seven sons of the Jewish priest, Sceva, saw and heard the apostle Paul casting out evil spirits in the "onoma" of Jesus. They took the names of Jesus and Paul as some kind of religious formula and, thinking they could simply bandy those names without being "in the onoma" therewith, uttered the phrase, "We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth."
Because they were simply using words as a formula and not understanding either the power, the authority, or the character and essence behind the "name" of Jesus, "Jesus" became a weapon they didn't know how to use. The evil spirits came out, all right. They came out of the demonized individual and tore them to pieces.
There's another example of this in Matthew 7:20-23 where Jesus says, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
Notice what is happening. People want to be included in the Kingdom, and say to the Lord, "We've prophesied in your name. We've cast out demons in your name. We've done lots of miracles in your name."
The essence of Jesus' response is, "No you haven't. You've used religious formulas and seen success because of the power of my name, but you've used my name as a formula. You've twisted the very essence of my onoma into something that serves your kingdom. You haven't been in my onoma!"
There are many professing Christians today who spout the name of Jesus, lay hands on the sick and prophesy. They pay tithes, they do good deeds in public, the feed the hungry and provide shelter for those who are in poverty. But here's the kicker. They are not doing it in the onoma of Jesus!
There is no abiding in Him. There is no intimate love-relationship with Him. There is no willingness on their part to meet His conditions in order to bring the Kingdom of God to realization on earth. There is no thirst for the life and presence of the Lord in their lives. There is no "Katy-bar-the-door," no-holds-barred drive in their spirits to see that Jesus Christ receives His inheritance in them. They are filled with religious doctrines which satisfy their flesh and place no requirements for the spiritual growth and maturity that Jesus is looking for in a Bride who will be His Counterpart, His Other Self.
Understand the difference?
Religion uses formulas. Religion uses nice phrases. Religion sounds good. It often says all the right things, but there is no power and authority to back up what it does. The manifestation of the life and presence of the Lord Jesus Christ is missing.
And here's the issue I'm getting at in this discussion on the Sound of the Lord. The Sound of the Lord brings with it the onoma, the very shem of the Lord Himself! His sound transmits His character. It communicates the absolute essence of Who He is!
Think about all the "church" music you've heard throughout the years. How much of it really communicated and transmitted the very life of the Lord Jesus Christ? How much of it simply communicated the flesh and carnality of the people singing and playing? How much of it was real ministry to the Lord? How much of it was dry and lifeless?
Are you beginning to see the picture? Music which comes out of the Spirit of the Living God communicates His presence. Music that just "sounds good" entertains you for a minute or two, maybe it makes you feel good, but it leaves you without any sense of the character and makeup of the Lord Himself. The reason is because of the onoma that is creating that sound. It may have all the right words. It may have a very skilled and professional sound. But it isn't the Sound of the Lord!
Why? Because there's no rhema of the Holy Spirit in it. It's just not what the Lord is saying to or through His people at the moment. If it isn't what He is saying to His people NOW, it lacks the power and authority.
Extrapolate that to the words you listen to. What are you hearing on radio or TV? What are you hearing in the pulpit?
Let's take this concept to another dimension.
There is a unique aspect to the Sound of the Lord and His onoma that most folks are not aware of. Uri Harel discovered that there is a musical sound or tone to each letter of the Hebrew alphabet corresponding to its numerical value. (For those of you who don't know Uri, he was born in Haifa, Israel. Uri attended college in Buffalo, New York, where he graduated with a degree in education. After moving to Phoenix, Arizona in 1977, he began what would become a life-long passion to explore and share with others the unique beauty of the Hebrew language. I commend his work to you which you can find at www.c-bh.com, and www.musicfromgod.com)
Each word of the Old Testament has a sound that goes with it. That sound is a part of the Sound of the Lord. Quoting from Uri's website, "According to an old Hebrew tradition about the creation of the world, God used the Torah as a blueprint for the work of creating the universe. The 22 Hebrew letters in pre-determined combinations were used to accomplish this task. Those letters therefore represent the physical forces used in the Creation process. All of creation reflects the Divine order, which in turn is represented by the Divine language and its symbols - the Hebrew alphabet."
Those forces are manifested in sound. That sound, as we all know, is the sound that went forth when God spoke the worlds into existence. That is the same sound that came forth with the very first words, "Light BE!"
Now, let's take this picture to the onoma of the sound of opposition.
Think about all the sounds that fill our daily lives. How about TV commercials? What about sound tracks for TV programs or movies? What about the music you listen to?
We've already talked about Lucifer, his function in Heaven prior to his rebellion as the preeminent orchestrator of the sound of praise, worship and adoration; followed by his removal from his archangelic office. His name was changed from Lucifer to Satan. In the same way that the name of the Lord incorporates His shem, His onoma, so also does Satan's name draw a graphic picture of his character, his essence, his makeup and his behavior.
We've already discussed the fact that Paul's use of the representative term "vibrating" in opposition draws a graphic picture of sounds in opposition. Opposition is part of the onoma of Satan. The Hebrew word, satan, (pronounced saw. tan) is a primitive root in the Hebrew language. It draws a picture of opposition, of (false) accusation; to take an adversarial stance, to resist. It denotes one who lies in wait to ambush, an enticer, a layer of snares or traps.
The Greek satanas parallels the Hebrew satan, drawing its origin from the same Chaldean definitions. J. H. Thayer, in his Greek-English Lexicon, adds that satanas is "the prince of evil," and "an inciter to apostasy." Thayer defines the onoma of satanas as "the source of affliction, infirmity, disease and sickness."
Consider, therefore, the sound of his onoma! Is it any wonder that people who spend their days and nights listening to hard rock music, acid rock and rap, just to draw a few examples, are among the most sickly, the most diseased, the most afflicted and tormented people on the face of the earth? Is it any wonder that the overwhelming majority of them rarely even make the allotted 70-year sin lifespan because ("our days are passed away in thy wrath")? (See Psalm 90:9-10) [Note: Despite God's promise that man's "days shall be an hundred and twenty years" (Genesis 6:3) Moses makes note of the fact that sin and iniquity cut it back for most folks to seventy years, or eighty "by reason of strength."]
Pretty drastic cut, don't you think? It's no wonder that Jesus made clear that "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy." (John 10:10a) That is precisely what the sound of Satan's onoma does: it steals, it kills, and it destroys! What a rip-off! And some folks even enjoy it while they're being systematically deprived of their health, their long life, and their welfare. Satan has so effectively programmed the masses with his mind-control that they see nothing harmful in listening to his sound. They don't even see it as the sound of Satan.
What's even worse, we have folks who come out of this scene into the body of Christ; they accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior and Redeemer and yet they think they need to hang onto that sound. They try to put the message of the Gospel into the onomatopoeia (sorry for the pun, but it's accurate) of Satan, and then wonder why there is so little change of lifestyle, character, makeup and personality in those they seek to "minister" to with that sound.
God's people really need to get a hold of this understanding!
I've said this before and I'll say it again! Will someone please tell me how you use the sound of opposition to the Gospel to preach the Gospel? The Gospel of Jesus Christ isn't just words you can put to any old sound! There is an onoma to the sound! No wonder Paul refers to this as "wrestling!"
That's not how Jesus did things, folks! He came with a different sound. He came with the sound of life. He came with the sound of healing and deliverance! He came with the sound of Salvation! He came with the sound of prosperity and wholeness in every part of life. He came with the sound of Heaven.
You just can't have it both ways. Trying to mix the holy and the profane, the Godly and the Satanic is folly! Pretending that it is "just sound" and that "it makes no difference" is akin to the ostrich hiding it's head in the sand.
We're almost done with this series, but I want to touch on one more aspect of sound before we move on. We've dealt thus far primarily with the sound itself, and we have touched briefly on the message or the words that come with the sound, but we need to take another look at the words themselves and how they cooperate with (or oppose, as the case may be) the sound of the Lord.
Our next Coffee Break discussion will deal with THE SPIRIT OF THE SOUND. See you again in a few days.
Things are not what they seem to be: they're what God says they are. The sound of His Word going forth is what determines the difference between light and darkness, life and death, health or sickness and disease, poverty or prosperity.
The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow! (Proverbs 10:22) Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
700 South 6th Street
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 837-4657
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