TABLE OF THE LORD VII
Eating and Drinking "Unworthily"
Hiya, Folks! This is the best day of your life! Sure it is. Yesterday’s gone, and tomorrow isn’t here yet. Fact is, if you were any better, you’d be dangerous! Hohohohoho…….
Now wouldn’t you rather start Monday like that instead of some old cranky, wheezy, whiny, “I jus’ don’t know if I oughta get outta bed t’day or not! My bones are jus’ so tarred! Reckon, I gots to, though. Won’t get nuthin done in bed…..groan….”
See. Get your spirits livened up. Get your mind alert. Grab a good cup of that dark roasted Columbian or some French Roast, or somethin’ like that! Wake up, sleepy!
We recently learned of something that happened with some longtime very close friends of ours, Clif and Kristi Shannon, who live in Anchorage. We've known them for nearly 25 years, and in fact Kristi was my secretary when I was in international banking. She also worked with Della at Zales Jewelers when we first met them. Anyway, Clif has had diabetes for many years, and this past year suffered with kidney failure and required daily dialysis treatments. He has been on a transplant list for a new kidney.
I'm not sure what prompted it but Kristi decided to see if she could be a donor for Clif. Turns out she was a perfect match. Seven or eight weeks ago, the transplant operation was conducted in Seattle. Kristi gave one of her kidneys to Clif, and the operation worked! Clif is now free of the dialysis treatments and is recovering just fine, thank you very much. So is Kristi. We had the pleasure and blessing of their company this past week as they drove over for a four-day visit.
We hear of kidney transplant operations regularly, but the idea that a wife could donate one of her kidneys to her husband is really cool! I'd never seen that before.
The recent death of a relative prompted some of our children and grandchildren to come from Alaska for a visit. Our youngest son, Joshua and his wife, Michelle (and their kids), came from Anchorage as did our daughter, Danielle. Because they needed to get back home before Thanksgiving (both Danielle and Josh had to be back at work), we decided to have an early pre-Thanksgiving dinner. Four of our eight children were here, along with spouses, grandchildren and two of our great-grandchildren. I think I counted 21 at the dinner table -- and that's about half of our tribe. We'll have an actual Thanksgiving dinner later this week, but the gathering will be somewhat smaller.
Let's see....what was it that David wrote? "As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate."
Yup! David had it right! And we've got "a quiver full."
(Anyway, in case you're wondering, we've had a busy time for the past few weeks -- hence no Coffee Breaks got published.)
When Paul was writing to the Corinthians about the Table of the Lord he wrote this,
"Now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse. For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s Supper. For in eating every one taketh before other his own supper: and one is hungry, and another is drunken. What? have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not?
"What shall I say to you? shall I praise you in this? I praise you not. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
"For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord’s death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." (I Corinthians 11:23-30)
Let me once again phrase verses 29-30 for you in some contemporary amplified terminology. "He that eats and drinks [at the Table of the Lord] treating it as just another commemorative act and "one more religious thing to do," eats and drinks of the same judgment and decree God made [when He said to Adam, "In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die"], not differentiating between this Table and any other table. Because they treat the Table of the Lord as commonplace, many people are weak and infirm and suffer the various sicknesses and diseases that afflict human flesh; and many die -- most prematurely."
If you grew up in church like I did, you most likely heard the instruction to "examine yourself" more times than you can count. The problem was that we were "examining ourselves" introspectively to see if we had any sin in us. There may be a sense in which that could be applied, but that's not the whole picture of what Paul was talking about.
The Greek word in the original text is dokimazo, which means: to test, to prove, to scrutinize and to recognize as genuine after examination; to approve, to deem worthy. This was a word originally "coined" (if you'll excuse the unintentional pun) among numismatists who put metals through the fire to test their genuineness.
The word, dokimazo, describes the process by which the purity of coins were established -- putting gold, silver and other precious metals into a crucible and applying heat to the place where any impurities would come floating to the surface. Those impurities would be scooped off, and what remained would be classified as 99.9% pure. The .1% difference was always left as the possible margin of error in which some undetectable impurity might remain.
Just as an aside, Paul also uses this same word in writing to Timothy when he says, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." (II Timothy 2:15 KJV) The King James Version really misses the essence of what Paul wrote to Timothy.
This verse should really render like this: "Be instantly responsive to the Lord, diligently making yourself available to Him in the midst of the crucible, a tried and tested laborer who has no fear of being examined -- one who, by virtue of God's testing and the time spent in the crucible with Him, knows the proven word of truth."
Quite a different picture, don't you think? That word, dokimazo, (or actually its root, dokimon, which describes the smelting process itself) is what Paul is using to indicate how approval comes following examination.
And what is it that we are examining, proving or testing at the Table of the Lord? It is quite simple, really. Look at the context of the examination. "For he that eats and drinks unworthily, eats and drinks judgment to himself because he doesn't discern the Lord's body."
Are you seeing it?
Discernment, in this case, is the ability to differentiate between what is taking place when you eat at the Table of the Lord and when you simply eat a piece of bread or drink a cup of wine. Let me explain.
The phraseology that Paul uses is very revealing. Immediately after saying "Let a man examine himself," he uses the Greek word, houtos, which means: in this way, in the manner spoken of, like this, in such manner. Talk about an illustration!
What Paul is literally saying is, "Let a man place himself for examination in the crucible BY eating of that bread and drinking of that cup." The examination comes by the Word being allowed to do His work in us by the power of His blood.
Let's look at this one more way. Consider how Paul put this to the Philippians.
"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:12-13)
Work out your own salvation? Huhh? How do we do that?
Again it is quite simple. We permit the Word to do His work in us. We permit the Word -- the Bread of Life, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself -- to reveal things in our lives that need change, correction, modification, elimination, etc. We permit the Blood of Jesus to finish the work of redemption, to destroy death, to rescue us from the Curse, to minister freedom from sickness, disease, infirmity and weakness.
And how do we permit the Word to do His work in us? How do we permit the power of the Blood of Jesus to accomplish His purpose? By eating at the Table of the Lord! By eating of the bread and drinking of the cup. You see, there is nothing common about this. There is nothing ordinary about the broken bread and the cup of the Lord. There is a supernatural act that is designed into the very nature of the partaking.
I've said this before and I'll say it again. My Roman Catholic brothers almost have it right. Although they believe that the bread actually becomes the body of Jesus and the wine actually becomes His blood, that's not quite true, but almost. There IS a supernatural thing taking place here. The bread and the wine are accomplishing in us -- as long as we permit it -- to do exactly what Jesus' body took, and what His blood accomplished -- literally!
The key is, AS LONG AS WE PERMIT IT! There is a process taking place. Consider once again the fact that Jesus gave us two ordinances -- specific commands -- to keep as believers. The first, of course, was water baptism. Water baptism (when it is done by faith) establishes our legal basis as sons and daughters of God, as heirs and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, as having been freed from the Law of Sin and Death.
The Table of the Lord, on the other hand, is the walking out of our freedom, the partaking of the substance of faith, the enabling in a practical sense of what Jesus accomplished by His death and resurrection, the transforming of us from corruptible (and corrupted!) beings to incorruptible. Each time we eat of the bread and each time we drink of the cup more of Jesus gets imparted and implanted in our being and more change takes place in us.
This is where the Word of Truth becomes proven in us.
Remember Paul's statement to Timothy? "[Make] yourself available to Him in the midst of the crucible, a tried and tested laborer who has no fear of being examined -- one who, by virtue of God's testing and the time spent in the crucible with Him, knows the proven word of truth."
When we permit God to do in us and accomplish in us what Jesus finished with His suffering, His death and His resurrection we become systematically and methodically transformed into a new creation. As a side note here, when we repent of our sin, accept and acknowledge and confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, our spirits are instantly transformed. We spiritually become new. But we are not only spirit-beings.
Created as triune beings, we are spirit, soul and body. Transformation begins in the spirit, but change must also come to our soul -- our mind, our thoughts, our thinking processes, our character and makeup, our identities. By the same token, change must come to our bodies as well. In case you hadn't noticed, Jesus paid the price for our physical well-being also.
The apostle Paul expressed it like this. "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Thessalonians 5:23)
See the picture?
What has happened throughout history is that the implications of the Table of the Lord have become so watered down as to become a religious rite, something "we have to do," something that lacks force and power for change in us; in other words as Paul puts it: anaxios: commonplace. That's the word that gets translated as "unworthily."
So long as we treat the Table of the Lord as "commonplace" or as some religious act, we not only do not receive the benefits Jesus intended for us to receive by eating and drinking of Him, we eat judgment to ourselves. We are treating something that is holy -- something that is supernatural, something that has force and power for change in us -- as expendable and unnecessary.
And the result, as Paul notes, is that "many are weak (astheneo: diseased and impotent) and sickly (arrhostos: unhealthy) among you, and many sleep (koimao: die [prematurely])."
It is time that God's people wake up and realize what they have available to them in the Table of the Lord. How was it that Jesus put it?
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." (John 6:53)
Now you're beginning to get the picture. Life -- Zoë life -- the light, the life, the energizing force of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus is what we receive every time we partake at the Table of the Lord. Della and I do this without fail every single day! And we do this with every single gathering -- both Sunday worship and teaching gatherings and Wednesday nite Bible study gatherings -- at River Worship Center. And it is making a difference for everyone!
Our youth is being renewed like the eagle's because Jesus is satisfying our mouth with good things. (Psalm 103:3-5) He heals all of our diseases, He redeems our life from the destruction that comes from the Curse, and He crowns us daily with His lovingkindness and His tender mercies. And it is all made available at the Table of the Lord.
I repeat. There is nothing commonplace about the Lord's Table. Let me counsel you to begin to eat of the Table of the Lord every single day. Don't do it because I say so. Do it as an act of faith. Use the Table of the Lord as a point of contact between you and the supernatural impartation of life, health, strength and wholeness given and made available to you by the Lord Jesus Christ. Stop moaning and groaning about your aches and pains and begin taking advantage of the Bread of Life and the Cup of Blessing.
I'll be back.
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
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. Older Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly 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.RiverWorshipCenter.org.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: THE TABLE OF THE LORD VI
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: The Table of the Lord VI
Death Cancellation, Part 3
With all of the hype and hoopla concerning the H1N1 "Swine Flu," you'd think the Black Plague had struck the nation and the world. What the fear-mongering media hasn't said or reported is the fact that the numbers of deaths from this flu are actually less than those one might expect in a "normal" flu season. What we have instead is more fear talk and less flu! (chuckle)
I have a personal issue to take with folks who promote this as some kind of thing to be afraid of. Sad to say, but a whole lot of Christians -- or at least folks who call themselves "Christian" -- put more faith in the flu than they do in the Lord Jesus Christ. They have more fear of the flu than they have faith in the healing that Jesus paid for them. We just can't live like that and call ourselves "believers."
Two weeks or so ago, our seven-year-old granddaughter Jessica (of whom I have written on numerous occasions) tested positive for the H1N1 virus. She called Della on the phone and said, "Grandma, I don't like feeling like this. I don't like being sick." Della promised she'd come and pray for her. Della had other business in the Tri-Cities area anyway, so she drove to Pasco to check on the rest of Rebekah's family. After talking and sharing with the rest of Becky's kids (they were all home from school sick) she was getting ready to leave when Jessica said, "Grandma, you promised to pray. You haven't prayed yet!"
Della immediately took Jessica's hands and rebuked the fever (103.9) and commanded the flu virus to depart. The rest of the kids joined hands in prayer as well and Della prayed for them all -- along with a neighbor boy who stopped by to check on Andrew. The fever lifted quickly from Jessica. Before the day ended, it was gone completely and Jessica had nothing but a few sniffles. Her mother kept her home from school the next day, "just in case," but within 48 hours Jessica was back in school -- along with her brothers and sisters, whom the Lord also healed.
See what I mean? We need to stop giving so much credit and power to sickness and disease and begin declaring and decreeing the blood of Jesus as our authority. Consider what Jesus said (see Matthew 10:8 and Luke 10:9, 19);
"Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give."
"Heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you..............Behold, I give unto you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you."
The power over all disease and sickness, along with all authority over the power of Satan, has been given to us. Why waste it? Let's use it, folks! The world needs to see that Christianity isn't simply just "another religion." Christianity is a real, living relationship with a real, living Jesus who has commissioned us to show and grow the Kingdom and demonstrate Heaven in the process.
OOPSS!! Almost forgot! Howdee!
Sorry I haven't been with you for the past three weeks or so. Between a harvest period that has run (for us, anyway) much longer than usual, and a ministry trip to Gaston, Oregon -- not to mention the normal daily ministry activities that surround River Worship Center -- our days have been busy, and that's putting it mildly! Della canned 39 quarts of pure grape juice from just one Concord grape vine, and she's preparing to tackle some more vines later this week. A number of apple growers here in the Yakima Valley chose not to harvest their apples because of the costs of harvesting and getting to market. They would have actually lost money on the harvest, so they let their apples remain on the trees. One of those growers also takes care of the orchard our oldest son, Chris, and his family own. All of a sudden we've had apples coming out of our ears.
Della has been cashing on on the surplus of apples, making applesauce, drying apples and making apple chips (I couldn't tell you how many she's done so far), along with making cinnamon apple pie filling and apple topping for Belgian waffles. We still have ten crates of apples to process, so this is something that will go on yet for another couple of weeks before this process ends for this year. We've given away hundreds of pounds of Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Fuji and Granny Smiths to people in our fellowship, as well as visitors who have stopped by. In case you've never picked apples before, let me warn you. You'll discover muscles you didn't know you had, and they will complain loudly for a few days. (Hehehehehe........................)
In our last two Coffee Breaks, we've talked about a statement that Jesus made (See John 6:50-51, 53) and it is one that many folks have struggled with.
"This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world ......... Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you."
Hopefully you've been able to at least grasp some of what I've shared thus far of the revelation the Lord has given concerning this statement. I'll try to wrap up this portion of our discussion on the Lord's Table today.
It was my intention to talk about the 53rd chapter of Isaiah today, and the revelation of the Table of the Lord associated with it -- and maybe we'll get there -- but I need to take a different track today than I'd originally planned.
Revisiting God's command to the Jews in Leviticus 17:11, we are told, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul."
Paul, writing to the Christians in Corinth, reminded them of what Jesus said (I Corinthians 11:24-25), "Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me." Jesus also said, "This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me."
"As oft as ye drink it?" Drink what? The Cup -- not blood! Jesus wasn't asking them to drink blood. In fact, drinking blood was forbidden under the Law of Moses, and that's not what Jesus was making a point of. The Cup was illustrative of the fact that His blood was going to be shed. In fact, there wasn't going to be enough blood left in Him to sustain life.
I was reading a medical doctor's analysis recently of the wounds that Jesus suffered from the scourge of 39 lashes with the cat-o-nine-tails (Greek: phragello = Latin: flagellum), coupled with the secondary beatings and the crown of thorns. The Scripture tells in (the Hebrew text of) Isaiah 52:14 that His appearance was so disfigured and marred that he was barely recognizable as a man with only his form or outline to say that He was. There was virtually no place on Jesus' body that wasn't a bloody mass of pulp. The loss of blood and the weakened condition resulting made the hardship of having to carry the Cross more than He could physically tolerate; and the Roman soldiers had to compel Simon of Cyrene to carry it for Him.
The medical doctor's report and analysis of Jesus' physical condition was such that He was bleeding to death. By the time the soldier pierced Jesus' side and blood and water exited the wound, there wasn't enough blood in Him to have kept Him alive.
So why was that important? What does that have to do with Jesus' command?
Let's go back to the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve sinned and ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the entire DNA of the human race was contaminated with the curse of death. Every generation born to the human race following Adam and Eve's eviction from the Garden had death in the blood. God had warned Adam "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." (Genesis 2:17)
I've shared before that Adam and Eve were never designed to die. They were created in the image and likeness of God -- and God is eternal. There is a rather obscure reference in Ecclesiastes 6:6 to a man living "a thousand years twice told" (2,000 years) which I believe is a reference to Adam's having lived in the Garden for 2,000 years (the sixth and seventh days) prior to his sin on the eighth day. (See also II Peter 3:8) There are folks who will disagree with me on this, but can I help it if I'm right! (Grin)
Considering the fact that Genesis 5:5 tells us that Adam lived to 930 years (following his eviction from the Garden, and after time began to be measured as we determine it today), he died "in the (thousand-year) day that [he] ate thereof." One little side note to this picture: Adam died on the third day, having eaten of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Jesus died on "the Tree" and rose again on the third day.
[That's a little something for you to consider in your spare time.] Jesus effectively reversed the curse of death, undoing in exact reverse order and sequence curse of death.
What's the point of all this? Just this: blood -- all human blood -- was contaminated with death and the dying process from the moment Adam ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. As a part of reversing the curse of death, Jesus poured out His human blood. He literally poured out death as He died. That may sound strange worded that way, but in dying on the Cross, Jesus also poured out the death that had contaminated human DNA.
When God the Father raised Him from the dead, He didn't raise Jesus by restoring human blood: He replaced human blood with His eternal Spirit. When we drink of the Cup at the Table of the Lord, therefore, we are drinking of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. When Jesus said, "as oft as ye drink it [this do ye] in remembrance of me," He was letting us know that our act of drinking the Cup was done in remembrance of the fact that His blood was poured out, along with death itself, and that we are drinking of His life!
There's one more aspect of this that we can consider. Take a look at Paul's discourse on this in his first letter to the Ekklesia in Corinth.
"So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption."
Next Paul writes, "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Corinthians 15:42-50, 53-57)
Are you seeing it? OK, let me describe it like this.
Every time we eat of the Bread and drink of the Cup, "corruption" is putting on "incorruption" and "mortality" is putting on "immortality." I know lots of folks will think for sure that I've gone off the deep end into La-La Land, but let's revisit the two verses that I left out in the above quotation.
"Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."
Take the first half of those statements: "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." Change takes place each time we partake of the Table of the Lord. Hmmmm ....... Maybe I'd better qualify that. Change takes place for those do not "eat and drink unworthily [Greek: anaxios: to treat as commonplace]" -- for those who eat and drink at the Table of the Lord in faith, understanding that they are partaking of something absolutely supernatural!
There is nothing commonplace about this. This is not some kind of symbolic act. There's nothing "spookey-pookey" about this. My Roman Catholic brethren have a doctrine they call "transubstantiation" in which the bread and the wine become the literal body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as we eat and drink. Although that's not quite true, they're a lot closer to the truth than most folks give them credit for. There is something absolutely supernatural that takes place -- but the change that is taking place is in us! It is a change, however, that only works where and when faith drives our eating at the Table of the Lord.
When Paul was writing to the Corinthians about this he made the statement, "For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." (I Corinthians 11:29-30)
Let me phrase this for you in some amplified terminology. "He that eats and drinks [at the Table of the Lord] treating it as just another commemorative act and "one more religious thing to do," eats and drinks of the same judgment and decree God made [when He said to Adam, "In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die"], not differentiating between this Table and any other table. Because they treat the Table of the Lord as commonplace, many people are weak and infirm and suffer the various sicknesses and diseases that afflict human flesh; and many die -- most prematurely."
There is no reason for folks to be sick, weak or infirm! There is no reason for people to die prematurely. There's no reason for people to die, PERIOD! But this realm of faith is exactly the same realm of faith that is activated when we first believe and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, for deliverance, for healing, or for any other thing. It takes faith to believe for your healing if you suffer from some sickness or disease. But it takes no more faith to believe "preventatively" to walk and live in perfect health! It likewise takes no more faith to believe that you can live and be around to see the physical return of the Lord Jesus Christ instead of dying.
Why die in the first place?
Death has only one appointment with us, and if Jesus kept that appointment on our behalf, will you please tell me why His keeping of our appointment wasn't good enough? Will you please tell me why we have to still keep an appointment that isn't there anymore?
Chew on that for awhile. I'll be back.
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
Be blessed!
Regner
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. Older Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly 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.
Death Cancellation, Part 3
With all of the hype and hoopla concerning the H1N1 "Swine Flu," you'd think the Black Plague had struck the nation and the world. What the fear-mongering media hasn't said or reported is the fact that the numbers of deaths from this flu are actually less than those one might expect in a "normal" flu season. What we have instead is more fear talk and less flu! (chuckle)
I have a personal issue to take with folks who promote this as some kind of thing to be afraid of. Sad to say, but a whole lot of Christians -- or at least folks who call themselves "Christian" -- put more faith in the flu than they do in the Lord Jesus Christ. They have more fear of the flu than they have faith in the healing that Jesus paid for them. We just can't live like that and call ourselves "believers."
Two weeks or so ago, our seven-year-old granddaughter Jessica (of whom I have written on numerous occasions) tested positive for the H1N1 virus. She called Della on the phone and said, "Grandma, I don't like feeling like this. I don't like being sick." Della promised she'd come and pray for her. Della had other business in the Tri-Cities area anyway, so she drove to Pasco to check on the rest of Rebekah's family. After talking and sharing with the rest of Becky's kids (they were all home from school sick) she was getting ready to leave when Jessica said, "Grandma, you promised to pray. You haven't prayed yet!"
Della immediately took Jessica's hands and rebuked the fever (103.9) and commanded the flu virus to depart. The rest of the kids joined hands in prayer as well and Della prayed for them all -- along with a neighbor boy who stopped by to check on Andrew. The fever lifted quickly from Jessica. Before the day ended, it was gone completely and Jessica had nothing but a few sniffles. Her mother kept her home from school the next day, "just in case," but within 48 hours Jessica was back in school -- along with her brothers and sisters, whom the Lord also healed.
See what I mean? We need to stop giving so much credit and power to sickness and disease and begin declaring and decreeing the blood of Jesus as our authority. Consider what Jesus said (see Matthew 10:8 and Luke 10:9, 19);
"Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give."
"Heal the sick that are therein, and say unto them, The kingdom of God is come nigh unto you..............Behold, I give unto you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you."
The power over all disease and sickness, along with all authority over the power of Satan, has been given to us. Why waste it? Let's use it, folks! The world needs to see that Christianity isn't simply just "another religion." Christianity is a real, living relationship with a real, living Jesus who has commissioned us to show and grow the Kingdom and demonstrate Heaven in the process.
OOPSS!! Almost forgot! Howdee!
Sorry I haven't been with you for the past three weeks or so. Between a harvest period that has run (for us, anyway) much longer than usual, and a ministry trip to Gaston, Oregon -- not to mention the normal daily ministry activities that surround River Worship Center -- our days have been busy, and that's putting it mildly! Della canned 39 quarts of pure grape juice from just one Concord grape vine, and she's preparing to tackle some more vines later this week. A number of apple growers here in the Yakima Valley chose not to harvest their apples because of the costs of harvesting and getting to market. They would have actually lost money on the harvest, so they let their apples remain on the trees. One of those growers also takes care of the orchard our oldest son, Chris, and his family own. All of a sudden we've had apples coming out of our ears.
Della has been cashing on on the surplus of apples, making applesauce, drying apples and making apple chips (I couldn't tell you how many she's done so far), along with making cinnamon apple pie filling and apple topping for Belgian waffles. We still have ten crates of apples to process, so this is something that will go on yet for another couple of weeks before this process ends for this year. We've given away hundreds of pounds of Golden Delicious, Red Delicious, Fuji and Granny Smiths to people in our fellowship, as well as visitors who have stopped by. In case you've never picked apples before, let me warn you. You'll discover muscles you didn't know you had, and they will complain loudly for a few days. (Hehehehehe........................)
In our last two Coffee Breaks, we've talked about a statement that Jesus made (See John 6:50-51, 53) and it is one that many folks have struggled with.
"This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world ......... Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you."
Hopefully you've been able to at least grasp some of what I've shared thus far of the revelation the Lord has given concerning this statement. I'll try to wrap up this portion of our discussion on the Lord's Table today.
It was my intention to talk about the 53rd chapter of Isaiah today, and the revelation of the Table of the Lord associated with it -- and maybe we'll get there -- but I need to take a different track today than I'd originally planned.
Revisiting God's command to the Jews in Leviticus 17:11, we are told, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul."
Paul, writing to the Christians in Corinth, reminded them of what Jesus said (I Corinthians 11:24-25), "Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me." Jesus also said, "This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me."
"As oft as ye drink it?" Drink what? The Cup -- not blood! Jesus wasn't asking them to drink blood. In fact, drinking blood was forbidden under the Law of Moses, and that's not what Jesus was making a point of. The Cup was illustrative of the fact that His blood was going to be shed. In fact, there wasn't going to be enough blood left in Him to sustain life.
I was reading a medical doctor's analysis recently of the wounds that Jesus suffered from the scourge of 39 lashes with the cat-o-nine-tails (Greek: phragello = Latin: flagellum), coupled with the secondary beatings and the crown of thorns. The Scripture tells in (the Hebrew text of) Isaiah 52:14 that His appearance was so disfigured and marred that he was barely recognizable as a man with only his form or outline to say that He was. There was virtually no place on Jesus' body that wasn't a bloody mass of pulp. The loss of blood and the weakened condition resulting made the hardship of having to carry the Cross more than He could physically tolerate; and the Roman soldiers had to compel Simon of Cyrene to carry it for Him.
The medical doctor's report and analysis of Jesus' physical condition was such that He was bleeding to death. By the time the soldier pierced Jesus' side and blood and water exited the wound, there wasn't enough blood in Him to have kept Him alive.
So why was that important? What does that have to do with Jesus' command?
Let's go back to the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve sinned and ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the entire DNA of the human race was contaminated with the curse of death. Every generation born to the human race following Adam and Eve's eviction from the Garden had death in the blood. God had warned Adam "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." (Genesis 2:17)
I've shared before that Adam and Eve were never designed to die. They were created in the image and likeness of God -- and God is eternal. There is a rather obscure reference in Ecclesiastes 6:6 to a man living "a thousand years twice told" (2,000 years) which I believe is a reference to Adam's having lived in the Garden for 2,000 years (the sixth and seventh days) prior to his sin on the eighth day. (See also II Peter 3:8) There are folks who will disagree with me on this, but can I help it if I'm right! (Grin)
Considering the fact that Genesis 5:5 tells us that Adam lived to 930 years (following his eviction from the Garden, and after time began to be measured as we determine it today), he died "in the (thousand-year) day that [he] ate thereof." One little side note to this picture: Adam died on the third day, having eaten of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Jesus died on "the Tree" and rose again on the third day.
[That's a little something for you to consider in your spare time.] Jesus effectively reversed the curse of death, undoing in exact reverse order and sequence curse of death.
What's the point of all this? Just this: blood -- all human blood -- was contaminated with death and the dying process from the moment Adam ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. As a part of reversing the curse of death, Jesus poured out His human blood. He literally poured out death as He died. That may sound strange worded that way, but in dying on the Cross, Jesus also poured out the death that had contaminated human DNA.
When God the Father raised Him from the dead, He didn't raise Jesus by restoring human blood: He replaced human blood with His eternal Spirit. When we drink of the Cup at the Table of the Lord, therefore, we are drinking of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. When Jesus said, "as oft as ye drink it [this do ye] in remembrance of me," He was letting us know that our act of drinking the Cup was done in remembrance of the fact that His blood was poured out, along with death itself, and that we are drinking of His life!
There's one more aspect of this that we can consider. Take a look at Paul's discourse on this in his first letter to the Ekklesia in Corinth.
"So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption."
Next Paul writes, "For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Corinthians 15:42-50, 53-57)
Are you seeing it? OK, let me describe it like this.
Every time we eat of the Bread and drink of the Cup, "corruption" is putting on "incorruption" and "mortality" is putting on "immortality." I know lots of folks will think for sure that I've gone off the deep end into La-La Land, but let's revisit the two verses that I left out in the above quotation.
"Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed."
Take the first half of those statements: "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." Change takes place each time we partake of the Table of the Lord. Hmmmm ....... Maybe I'd better qualify that. Change takes place for those do not "eat and drink unworthily [Greek: anaxios: to treat as commonplace]" -- for those who eat and drink at the Table of the Lord in faith, understanding that they are partaking of something absolutely supernatural!
There is nothing commonplace about this. This is not some kind of symbolic act. There's nothing "spookey-pookey" about this. My Roman Catholic brethren have a doctrine they call "transubstantiation" in which the bread and the wine become the literal body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as we eat and drink. Although that's not quite true, they're a lot closer to the truth than most folks give them credit for. There is something absolutely supernatural that takes place -- but the change that is taking place is in us! It is a change, however, that only works where and when faith drives our eating at the Table of the Lord.
When Paul was writing to the Corinthians about this he made the statement, "For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." (I Corinthians 11:29-30)
Let me phrase this for you in some amplified terminology. "He that eats and drinks [at the Table of the Lord] treating it as just another commemorative act and "one more religious thing to do," eats and drinks of the same judgment and decree God made [when He said to Adam, "In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die"], not differentiating between this Table and any other table. Because they treat the Table of the Lord as commonplace, many people are weak and infirm and suffer the various sicknesses and diseases that afflict human flesh; and many die -- most prematurely."
There is no reason for folks to be sick, weak or infirm! There is no reason for people to die prematurely. There's no reason for people to die, PERIOD! But this realm of faith is exactly the same realm of faith that is activated when we first believe and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, for deliverance, for healing, or for any other thing. It takes faith to believe for your healing if you suffer from some sickness or disease. But it takes no more faith to believe "preventatively" to walk and live in perfect health! It likewise takes no more faith to believe that you can live and be around to see the physical return of the Lord Jesus Christ instead of dying.
Why die in the first place?
Death has only one appointment with us, and if Jesus kept that appointment on our behalf, will you please tell me why His keeping of our appointment wasn't good enough? Will you please tell me why we have to still keep an appointment that isn't there anymore?
Chew on that for awhile. I'll be back.
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
Be blessed!
Regner
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. Older Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly 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.
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: THE TABLE OF THE LORD V
Table of the Lord V
Death Cancellation, Part 2
Greetings and Salutations!
I'd intended to get this Coffee Break out earlier, but here it is the 25th and the date of the expected massive Islamic prayer vigil.
Your prayers have paid dividends. The news media reported that somewhere between a thousand and 3,000 people gathered on the lawn in front of the Capital. That's a tiny fraction of the organizers' expected assemblage of 50,000-plus. The Washington Post editorialized that most of the anticipated "pray-ers" stayed away because they feared a Christian backlash, or that they were simply afraid of a confrontation with Christians. Interesting, huh? "Afraid of a confrontation with Christians?" What does that tell you about their confidence in their god, Allah? Hmmmm.... Come to think of it the prophets of Baal had to acknowledge that "The Lord, He is God!" when Elijah confronted them and fire fell from Heaven. Since Allah is a modern incarnation of Baal, that spirit has good reason to be afraid of confrontation.
We've been participating here at River Worship Center in a conference in Spokane (by streaming video) hosted by Cal Pierce and the Healing Rooms. Bill Johnson was sharing last night and made the statement that we all needed to be praying for a real visitation of the Lord in the midst of this Muslim gathering. We did just that! More than that, we prayed that the wind of the Spirit would blow through their midst with a revelation of the Lord Jesus. I'm sure that we'll receive many reports like this, but Beni Johnson (Bill's wife) shared a live report this morning from some people she knew who were just leading some of the Muslims who did attend this event to the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise God! Our united prayers are paying dividends!
(September 29) I've mostly been offline for the past few weeks because of an incredibly busy schedule. Della has been canning fruits and vegetables, doing dried apple chips and all that, and we've been picking several hundreds of pounds of apples. There's more ahead during the next week or so, but things should begin to slow down. We'll harvest some Concord grapes later this week and I'll help Della do her annual juicing. From just one vine, we get enough real grape juice to last through most of the year. I can promise you that this kind of grape juice is not the watered-down variety you buy in the stores. This stuff is powerful. We frequently use this for Communion.
Anyway, on with the day. Coffee's on. Both the French Press and the Expresso machine are full. If you're in the area, stop by and have a cup! Kathryn King Marquis was talking a couple days ago about a coffee she's been buying called "Freakin' Good Coffee." Comes from a Canadian company (http://www.equator.ca/). Haven't had a chance to try this coffee out yet, but I will. I'll give you my "educated taste-bud" (grin) opinion when I do.
(By the way, while I'm talking about Kathryn, visit her website. You can find her at: http://users.bandzoogle.com/kathrynmarquis/fr_index.cfm. This lady knows how to worship!)
Once again, here's the apostle Paul's statement (and a most-misunderstood and applied statement) in Hebrews 9:27.
"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:"
In our previous Coffee Break, I shared with you something that Jesus said (See John 6:50-51, 53) that really shook up the religious world.
"This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world ......... Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you."
The life Jesus speaks of, of course, is eternal life. But there's more. There is a revelation here that people need to see. We live at a unique time in all of history -- a time when most of those now alive will see the end of this age and the beginning of the thousand-year reign of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth -- that period often referred to as "the Millennium." Throughout the years, I've shared a very personal word from the Lord Jesus with a very few individuals, but for the first time in sixty years, I have the liberty to share it openly.
I've shared in past Coffee Breaks my early experiences of growing up with angels and seeing them on a continual -- almost daily -- basis for some three years. When I was seven years old, I awoke one morning very early to see Jesus standing at the foot of my bed. He unfolded many things before me that day -- one of which was a picture of the restoration of the nation of Israel and the ingathering of Jews from all over the world, along with the recognition among the Jews of Jesus as their Messiah.
Perhaps the most singular thing He spoke to me that day -- and one that has rung in my ears continually since (especially during times when the Enemy has tried to take me out) -- was this: "You'll never die or know death as men know death. You will be here to see my return in Glory."
When I shared it over the breakfast table with my parents later that same morning, their first reaction was, "Hmmmmm......" From that point, though, the discussion centered around the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a recognition that His return could well be within their lifetimes as well. (The Lord did come to receive them, but not after the beginning of the millennial period as they had hoped.)
Because of my parents' initial reaction to my sharing what Jesus said in spite of the fact that they overcame their natural instinct, it was obvious to me that this was not something I could freely share. Throughout the past sixty years, I've perhaps shared this with a few dozen folks at most.
Because of the somewhat confrontational nature of the realm of ministry God called me to, it seems that I've often been the focus of controversy and -- at times -- real persecution where people have tried to take me out. Then there have been the deliberate attempts of evil spirits to kill me in "accidents": car accidents, airplane crashes, fires, so-called "close calls," etc.
Della and I were just talking this morning about some angelic deliverances we've both known.
I remember a time when I was flying from Fairbanks (Alaska) to Kotzebue on a Wien Airlines Fairchild F-27. We were seriously overloaded with freight (all but a little over a dozen seats had been removed to accommodate all the freight) and the seats were full. Just past the halfway mark, we lost an engine. The pilot was unable to restart the engine and began to slowly lose altitude. Although I didn't actually see the angel(s) holding up the aircraft, I was very much aware of the fact that we were experiencing supernatural deliverance, and an angel of the Lord was holding the plane aloft. By the time we made Kotzebue, the aircraft was barely 500 feet above the ground. We all arrived safe and sound.
Then there was that time when I was driving in the Santa Cruz mountains on my way to a Teen Challenge meeting with David Wilkerson. We hit a loose patch of gravel in a turn and I lost control of the car. Screaming "JESUS! at the top of my voice as the car headed over a cliff, I heard the audible voice of the angel of the Lord as he spoke peace into my being with the words, "Nothing is going to happen to you." Sure enough, although the car was totally demolished, I walked away without so much as a scratch -- maybe a little loose glass in my hair from the broken windows.
At age 41, I dropped dead in the shower from a massive heart attack. Della was well aware of God's promise to me, and she wasn't about to put up with this. She knew it was nothing more than an attack of Satan to take me out. She dragged my body from the shower into our bedroom, heaved me up onto the bed and began to speak life back into me in the name of Jesus. About 15 minutes went by before I returned, but when I came back, the Lord had healed previous defects in my physical being and a medical doctor who gave me a thorough going-over a few days later told me I had the health of a 20-year-old.
These are but a few incidents (there are literally dozens -- a quick count tells me of some 36 separate occasions) of events like this in my life) where Satan has tried to kill me and prevent the plan of the Lord from coming to fruition. But you see, I have the specific promise of the Lord! It was and is to this day a rhema in my being that no one can take away, or talk me out of.
The Table of the Lord has become a reality to me in the sense that Jesus kept my appointment with death. I have no more appointments with death. If the Enemy tries to take me out, Jesus simply cancels out anything that he does.
One of the statements that Jesus made that same day when He was talking to His disciples about eating and drinking of Him was this: "And this is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:40)
Now I know this verse has more applications than this one, but are you seeing how it was applied in my life when the Enemy sought to take me out? Jesus has the last Word! He has the final say. Satan thought he snuffed out my life and successfully thwarted God's promise to me. But it didn't work. Yes, Della spoke the Word that brought me back from the dead, but it was the Word -- the Lord Jesus Christ -- who had the final say. He raised me up "at the last day." I know that's not how we normally view Jesus' statement, but the essence of what He is saying is that He has the final Word; He has the final say in the matter. The curse of death has been broken. We just have to believe it!
There's another application I'd like for you to consider.
Every sickness, every disease, every infirmity and every pain is rooted and founded in the death process. Although our bodies were designed to replenish every cell every seven years, the curse of death means that not all cells are replenished or replaced. There is a dying process taking place. Every sickness derives its existence from the imbalance that occurs when certain cells in our body fail to rejuvenate or replace. Every infirmity gains its existence when muscle cells, tendon cells, joint-lubrication cells (or some other set of cells) become damaged or fail to rejuvenate.
All of them are based in death and in the curse of death. Yet there is a revelation that takes place at the Table of the Lord that God's people need to receive. Jesus made clear the fact that when we eat of His flesh and drink of His blood, we eat and drink of eternal life. Jesus IS the Bread of Life. But He is more than that!
Think about what Jesus said (See Luke 24:38-39) when He appeared to the disciples following His resurrection. "And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."
WHAT? What did He just say? "A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." Why didn't He say, "a spirit hath not flesh and blood?" Because the life that was in Him following the resurrection was not blood any longer: it was spirit! That is how the apostle Paul could say the following:
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:2)
Get it? The life that now exhibited in Jesus was the life of the Spirit. And now we have an understanding of why the Table of the Lord and Water Baptism were the only two commandments that Jesus gave. The two ordinances exhibit the same thing!
With the Table of the Lord, we eat of the Word of Life in Christ Jesus and drink of the Spirit. With Water Baptism, we show to demonic principalities and demonic powers that the flesh they once had access to is now dead. That which comes forth out of the water is a resurrected person, raised to new life in Christ Jesus, resurrected from the dead by the Spirit. The life that we now live is by the Spirit -- NOT the flesh and blood.
If Christians could just get this revelation, it would radically transform the way they think and the way they live. Folks, as believers in Christ, we are free from the Law of Sin and Death. Jesus kept our appointment with death.
The problem in today's world is that we are programmed continually with the necessity to protect ourselves from death, from premature death, from "accidents" and a whole host of sicknesses and diseases. It's a funny thing, but I've lived most of my life without life insurance or health insurance. When I worked for the television networks (FOX, NBC, Telemundo, etc.) they provided me with some pretty spendy life insurance and health insurance. Honestly, the only time I've ever really gotten sick to the place where I was out of commission for several days (and once for a couple of weeks) was when I had health insurance.
Maybe you've never thought of it like this, but you gamble every time you purchase life or health insurance. The insurance company makes you pay them to gamble. They gamble that you are not going to get sick, and you gamble that you will. They gamble that you won't die prematurely, and you gamble that you will. Insurance companies make billions of dollars every year from people who gamble that they will lose their home, their automobile, their health, their life, or whatever. The medical industry makes billions of dollars from people who -- because they believe they are subject to disease, sickness and infirmity -- gladly pay out their life's earnings in order to gain or preserve what Jesus freely provides at His Table.
Is there something wrong with this picture? YES!!! God's people are supposed to be the picture of life and health and strength and vitality. It has been provided by and through the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf. Why are Christians today suffering from heart attacks? Why are Christians suffering from tumors, from cancer, from stress, from nervous conditions, from every disease known to man?
The simple answer is that most do not have a revelation of the Table of the Lord. Most "believers" don't realize that the thief (and, brother, is he ever a thief!) is stealing what Jesus freely provides. This is why Della and I have come to the place where there is not a day that goes by without our partaking of the Table of the Lord. We do so with the understanding that each time we eat of the Bread of Life, we eat of the health, the vitality, the wholeness and the provision that Jesus has in His very Being! Each time we drink of the Cup, we drink of the Cup of Life that Jesus offers.
When Paul was writing to the Christians in Corinth, he reminded them of what Jesus said (I Corinthians 11:24-25), "Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me." Jesus also said, "This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me."
Are we doing this in remembrance of Jesus hanging on the Cross? Are we doing this in remembrance of Jesus shedding His blood? Nope! And yet, we do to a certain extent. The remembrance is not the Cross, nor the blood that was shed as much as what Jesus accomplished by His sacrifice. The real picture is that a new covenant was made for us -- a covenant between the Lord and us -- a covenant of total provision, a covenant of death cancellation, a covenant of health and life, a covenant that provides complete healing when Satan seeks to steal from us our health, a covenant that replaces whatever provision Satan has stolen from us in an effort to keep us in poverty and continual need.
But this covenant requires something of us. It requires believing that Jesus is a covenant-keeping God, that He will give us and do for us exactly what He said He would! Satan has sold much of the body of Christ the lie that sickness is the will of God for us. How insane is that? He has also sold many Christians the lie that a life of poverty and need is true humility, and that it is more "spiritual" to have barely enough, or not quite enough, than to have an abundance of resources. Brother! What a lie! What a canard!
But this revelation of the Table of the Lord grows even more once we begin to understand the significance of Isaiah's prophecy (Isaiah 53) as it relates to eating and drinking of the Lord.
That's where we'll go next. There's more to this revelation, lots more!!!
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
Be blessed!
Regner
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. Older Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly 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/.
Death Cancellation, Part 2
Greetings and Salutations!
I'd intended to get this Coffee Break out earlier, but here it is the 25th and the date of the expected massive Islamic prayer vigil.
Your prayers have paid dividends. The news media reported that somewhere between a thousand and 3,000 people gathered on the lawn in front of the Capital. That's a tiny fraction of the organizers' expected assemblage of 50,000-plus. The Washington Post editorialized that most of the anticipated "pray-ers" stayed away because they feared a Christian backlash, or that they were simply afraid of a confrontation with Christians. Interesting, huh? "Afraid of a confrontation with Christians?" What does that tell you about their confidence in their god, Allah? Hmmmm.... Come to think of it the prophets of Baal had to acknowledge that "The Lord, He is God!" when Elijah confronted them and fire fell from Heaven. Since Allah is a modern incarnation of Baal, that spirit has good reason to be afraid of confrontation.
We've been participating here at River Worship Center in a conference in Spokane (by streaming video) hosted by Cal Pierce and the Healing Rooms. Bill Johnson was sharing last night and made the statement that we all needed to be praying for a real visitation of the Lord in the midst of this Muslim gathering. We did just that! More than that, we prayed that the wind of the Spirit would blow through their midst with a revelation of the Lord Jesus. I'm sure that we'll receive many reports like this, but Beni Johnson (Bill's wife) shared a live report this morning from some people she knew who were just leading some of the Muslims who did attend this event to the Lord Jesus Christ. Praise God! Our united prayers are paying dividends!
(September 29) I've mostly been offline for the past few weeks because of an incredibly busy schedule. Della has been canning fruits and vegetables, doing dried apple chips and all that, and we've been picking several hundreds of pounds of apples. There's more ahead during the next week or so, but things should begin to slow down. We'll harvest some Concord grapes later this week and I'll help Della do her annual juicing. From just one vine, we get enough real grape juice to last through most of the year. I can promise you that this kind of grape juice is not the watered-down variety you buy in the stores. This stuff is powerful. We frequently use this for Communion.
Anyway, on with the day. Coffee's on. Both the French Press and the Expresso machine are full. If you're in the area, stop by and have a cup! Kathryn King Marquis was talking a couple days ago about a coffee she's been buying called "Freakin' Good Coffee." Comes from a Canadian company (http://www.equator.ca/). Haven't had a chance to try this coffee out yet, but I will. I'll give you my "educated taste-bud" (grin) opinion when I do.
(By the way, while I'm talking about Kathryn, visit her website. You can find her at: http://users.bandzoogle.com/kathrynmarquis/fr_index.cfm. This lady knows how to worship!)
Once again, here's the apostle Paul's statement (and a most-misunderstood and applied statement) in Hebrews 9:27.
"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:"
In our previous Coffee Break, I shared with you something that Jesus said (See John 6:50-51, 53) that really shook up the religious world.
"This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world ......... Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you."
The life Jesus speaks of, of course, is eternal life. But there's more. There is a revelation here that people need to see. We live at a unique time in all of history -- a time when most of those now alive will see the end of this age and the beginning of the thousand-year reign of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth -- that period often referred to as "the Millennium." Throughout the years, I've shared a very personal word from the Lord Jesus with a very few individuals, but for the first time in sixty years, I have the liberty to share it openly.
I've shared in past Coffee Breaks my early experiences of growing up with angels and seeing them on a continual -- almost daily -- basis for some three years. When I was seven years old, I awoke one morning very early to see Jesus standing at the foot of my bed. He unfolded many things before me that day -- one of which was a picture of the restoration of the nation of Israel and the ingathering of Jews from all over the world, along with the recognition among the Jews of Jesus as their Messiah.
Perhaps the most singular thing He spoke to me that day -- and one that has rung in my ears continually since (especially during times when the Enemy has tried to take me out) -- was this: "You'll never die or know death as men know death. You will be here to see my return in Glory."
When I shared it over the breakfast table with my parents later that same morning, their first reaction was, "Hmmmmm......" From that point, though, the discussion centered around the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a recognition that His return could well be within their lifetimes as well. (The Lord did come to receive them, but not after the beginning of the millennial period as they had hoped.)
Because of my parents' initial reaction to my sharing what Jesus said in spite of the fact that they overcame their natural instinct, it was obvious to me that this was not something I could freely share. Throughout the past sixty years, I've perhaps shared this with a few dozen folks at most.
Because of the somewhat confrontational nature of the realm of ministry God called me to, it seems that I've often been the focus of controversy and -- at times -- real persecution where people have tried to take me out. Then there have been the deliberate attempts of evil spirits to kill me in "accidents": car accidents, airplane crashes, fires, so-called "close calls," etc.
Della and I were just talking this morning about some angelic deliverances we've both known.
I remember a time when I was flying from Fairbanks (Alaska) to Kotzebue on a Wien Airlines Fairchild F-27. We were seriously overloaded with freight (all but a little over a dozen seats had been removed to accommodate all the freight) and the seats were full. Just past the halfway mark, we lost an engine. The pilot was unable to restart the engine and began to slowly lose altitude. Although I didn't actually see the angel(s) holding up the aircraft, I was very much aware of the fact that we were experiencing supernatural deliverance, and an angel of the Lord was holding the plane aloft. By the time we made Kotzebue, the aircraft was barely 500 feet above the ground. We all arrived safe and sound.
Then there was that time when I was driving in the Santa Cruz mountains on my way to a Teen Challenge meeting with David Wilkerson. We hit a loose patch of gravel in a turn and I lost control of the car. Screaming "JESUS! at the top of my voice as the car headed over a cliff, I heard the audible voice of the angel of the Lord as he spoke peace into my being with the words, "Nothing is going to happen to you." Sure enough, although the car was totally demolished, I walked away without so much as a scratch -- maybe a little loose glass in my hair from the broken windows.
At age 41, I dropped dead in the shower from a massive heart attack. Della was well aware of God's promise to me, and she wasn't about to put up with this. She knew it was nothing more than an attack of Satan to take me out. She dragged my body from the shower into our bedroom, heaved me up onto the bed and began to speak life back into me in the name of Jesus. About 15 minutes went by before I returned, but when I came back, the Lord had healed previous defects in my physical being and a medical doctor who gave me a thorough going-over a few days later told me I had the health of a 20-year-old.
These are but a few incidents (there are literally dozens -- a quick count tells me of some 36 separate occasions) of events like this in my life) where Satan has tried to kill me and prevent the plan of the Lord from coming to fruition. But you see, I have the specific promise of the Lord! It was and is to this day a rhema in my being that no one can take away, or talk me out of.
The Table of the Lord has become a reality to me in the sense that Jesus kept my appointment with death. I have no more appointments with death. If the Enemy tries to take me out, Jesus simply cancels out anything that he does.
One of the statements that Jesus made that same day when He was talking to His disciples about eating and drinking of Him was this: "And this is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:40)
Now I know this verse has more applications than this one, but are you seeing how it was applied in my life when the Enemy sought to take me out? Jesus has the last Word! He has the final say. Satan thought he snuffed out my life and successfully thwarted God's promise to me. But it didn't work. Yes, Della spoke the Word that brought me back from the dead, but it was the Word -- the Lord Jesus Christ -- who had the final say. He raised me up "at the last day." I know that's not how we normally view Jesus' statement, but the essence of what He is saying is that He has the final Word; He has the final say in the matter. The curse of death has been broken. We just have to believe it!
There's another application I'd like for you to consider.
Every sickness, every disease, every infirmity and every pain is rooted and founded in the death process. Although our bodies were designed to replenish every cell every seven years, the curse of death means that not all cells are replenished or replaced. There is a dying process taking place. Every sickness derives its existence from the imbalance that occurs when certain cells in our body fail to rejuvenate or replace. Every infirmity gains its existence when muscle cells, tendon cells, joint-lubrication cells (or some other set of cells) become damaged or fail to rejuvenate.
All of them are based in death and in the curse of death. Yet there is a revelation that takes place at the Table of the Lord that God's people need to receive. Jesus made clear the fact that when we eat of His flesh and drink of His blood, we eat and drink of eternal life. Jesus IS the Bread of Life. But He is more than that!
Think about what Jesus said (See Luke 24:38-39) when He appeared to the disciples following His resurrection. "And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."
WHAT? What did He just say? "A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." Why didn't He say, "a spirit hath not flesh and blood?" Because the life that was in Him following the resurrection was not blood any longer: it was spirit! That is how the apostle Paul could say the following:
"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:2)
Get it? The life that now exhibited in Jesus was the life of the Spirit. And now we have an understanding of why the Table of the Lord and Water Baptism were the only two commandments that Jesus gave. The two ordinances exhibit the same thing!
With the Table of the Lord, we eat of the Word of Life in Christ Jesus and drink of the Spirit. With Water Baptism, we show to demonic principalities and demonic powers that the flesh they once had access to is now dead. That which comes forth out of the water is a resurrected person, raised to new life in Christ Jesus, resurrected from the dead by the Spirit. The life that we now live is by the Spirit -- NOT the flesh and blood.
If Christians could just get this revelation, it would radically transform the way they think and the way they live. Folks, as believers in Christ, we are free from the Law of Sin and Death. Jesus kept our appointment with death.
The problem in today's world is that we are programmed continually with the necessity to protect ourselves from death, from premature death, from "accidents" and a whole host of sicknesses and diseases. It's a funny thing, but I've lived most of my life without life insurance or health insurance. When I worked for the television networks (FOX, NBC, Telemundo, etc.) they provided me with some pretty spendy life insurance and health insurance. Honestly, the only time I've ever really gotten sick to the place where I was out of commission for several days (and once for a couple of weeks) was when I had health insurance.
Maybe you've never thought of it like this, but you gamble every time you purchase life or health insurance. The insurance company makes you pay them to gamble. They gamble that you are not going to get sick, and you gamble that you will. They gamble that you won't die prematurely, and you gamble that you will. Insurance companies make billions of dollars every year from people who gamble that they will lose their home, their automobile, their health, their life, or whatever. The medical industry makes billions of dollars from people who -- because they believe they are subject to disease, sickness and infirmity -- gladly pay out their life's earnings in order to gain or preserve what Jesus freely provides at His Table.
Is there something wrong with this picture? YES!!! God's people are supposed to be the picture of life and health and strength and vitality. It has been provided by and through the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf. Why are Christians today suffering from heart attacks? Why are Christians suffering from tumors, from cancer, from stress, from nervous conditions, from every disease known to man?
The simple answer is that most do not have a revelation of the Table of the Lord. Most "believers" don't realize that the thief (and, brother, is he ever a thief!) is stealing what Jesus freely provides. This is why Della and I have come to the place where there is not a day that goes by without our partaking of the Table of the Lord. We do so with the understanding that each time we eat of the Bread of Life, we eat of the health, the vitality, the wholeness and the provision that Jesus has in His very Being! Each time we drink of the Cup, we drink of the Cup of Life that Jesus offers.
When Paul was writing to the Christians in Corinth, he reminded them of what Jesus said (I Corinthians 11:24-25), "Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me." Jesus also said, "This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me."
Are we doing this in remembrance of Jesus hanging on the Cross? Are we doing this in remembrance of Jesus shedding His blood? Nope! And yet, we do to a certain extent. The remembrance is not the Cross, nor the blood that was shed as much as what Jesus accomplished by His sacrifice. The real picture is that a new covenant was made for us -- a covenant between the Lord and us -- a covenant of total provision, a covenant of death cancellation, a covenant of health and life, a covenant that provides complete healing when Satan seeks to steal from us our health, a covenant that replaces whatever provision Satan has stolen from us in an effort to keep us in poverty and continual need.
But this covenant requires something of us. It requires believing that Jesus is a covenant-keeping God, that He will give us and do for us exactly what He said He would! Satan has sold much of the body of Christ the lie that sickness is the will of God for us. How insane is that? He has also sold many Christians the lie that a life of poverty and need is true humility, and that it is more "spiritual" to have barely enough, or not quite enough, than to have an abundance of resources. Brother! What a lie! What a canard!
But this revelation of the Table of the Lord grows even more once we begin to understand the significance of Isaiah's prophecy (Isaiah 53) as it relates to eating and drinking of the Lord.
That's where we'll go next. There's more to this revelation, lots more!!!
"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)
Be blessed!
Regner
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. Older Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly 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/.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: THE TABLE OF THE LORD IV
DEATH CANCELLATION
Greetings, Salutations and Solutions!
Continuing with the pattern of beginning the past three Coffee Breaks, there is an urgent matter of prayer for believers worldwide on September 25th.
Not too long ago I became aware of what is known as the Ministers Prayer Network -- a now-international prayer movement that originally began in Nigeria in 1995 and began to spread around the globe. This is a non-denominational, trans-denominational group of ministers and church leaders spanning virtually every type of Christian ministry who come together without walls and divisions for the purpose of growing the Kingdom of God.
As founding pastor, Mosy U. Madugba, notes: "The aims and objectives of MPN are to create a forum for prayers and biblical leadership development, devoid of any ostensive, ceremonial and religious atmosphere. The later only breeds religious growth without deep convictions and commitment to God. MPN was therefore born to provide an avenue where ministers of the gospel can come together and speak the bare truth to themselves, and in sincerity and simplicity, rebuke, exhort and pray for one another, basically as a family of brothers and sisters, without any religious stratifications or classifications."
This past week, Pastor Madugba sent out the following notice: "On September 25th there will be a national prayer gathering of Muslims on the west front of the U.S. Capitol Building. They are expecting at least 50,000 to attend from mosques all across America. They say that they want America to see how they pray! A permit for this gathering was issued by Capitol Hill Police on July 28th. They will gather to pray from 4:00 AM until 7:00 PM.
“The gathering will take place by the site where U.S. Presidents have been inaugurated since 1981. The organizers say that it was Obama's inauguration speech in January and his speech broadcast from Egypt in June that gave them the idea for this prayer gathering on Capitol Hill. Please fix a fast to start 12 midnight a day before and go on till 7pm when they stop. It is warfare time. Do not joke with this. If Christians fail to frustrate this game plan in the spirit, you will regret the outcome."
Please don't just wave this off thinking this is no big deal! When you begin to realize that the "Allah" the Muslims pray to is nothing more than a modern incarnation of the ancient Baal/Marduk, you begin to understand that the purpose of this prayer is to release demonic spirits over the nation's capital and to seize spiritual control of America.
If Christians stand by and do nothing, God will hold them accountable. I heartily agree with Pastor Madugba's recommendation for believers to fast for that whole day and take the spiritual authority Jesus has released to us.
America was founded specifically as a covenant nation with the Lord Jesus Christ -- as an anchor for the Gospel, a place from which the Good News of Jesus Christ could be spread worldwide. We are not -- and must never be -- a nation under Islam! Should you desire to check out Islam's goals for this nation, simply visit http://www.islamoncapitolhill.com. It will chill your blood.
Will you join Della and me in united prayer and fasting on September 25th? Together we will turn back this flood of wickedness and evil. Together we will -- through and by the Spirit of the Lord -- raise up the standard Isaiah prophesies of in Isaiah 59:19:
"So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him."
OK. On with today's discussion.
In Hebrews 9:27 Paul makes the following statement, and it is one I grew up hearing -- and misunderstanding.
"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:"
I always read this as referring to the Great Judgment Day we would have to experience after death. We all have to die, do we not? There are two things certain in life (according to the quipsters): death and taxes.
Bahh, Humbug! What we miss is the rest of the sentence (verse 28).
"So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."
Get it? Paul is saying, "Although it is appointed unto man once to die -- and after this the judgment -- Jesus kept that appointment with death and was offered up as the sacrifice for our sins -- the same sins that carry that penalty of death."
Remember what Jesus said to the crowds that followed Him after He fed the 5,000?
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world ......... Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." (John 6:47-51, 53)
Let's backtrack a little. What was it that God spoke to Adam when He set him in the Garden of Eden?
"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, 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." (Genesis 2:16-17)
There's a lot of commentary I could make on this event, but I'll hold off on it -- at least for now. The point here is that Adam and Eve did eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The partaking of that fruit introduced death into the human race. Adam and Eve were never designed to die. They were designed to live forever -- just like God! They had no appointment with death at all! The command to NOT eat of that tree was a warning that their lives would have a termination point if they did eat.
Every human being born from that day (the day they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) forward had an appointment with death. It became part of the human genome. It was a curse that came upon the human race; and it was part of the curse of the Law -- the law of sin and death.
Writing to the Romans Paul said, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:2)
This is a real revelation from the Holy Spirit. If you aren't seeing it yet, ask the Holy Spirit to unfold this to you. It will change your entire perspective of what happened at the Cross.
Jesus kept our appointment with death, folks! This is a part of the revelation of the Table of the Lord. When we eat of the Table we eat of the Lord; and Jesus made it clear that when we eat of Him, we eat eternal life. Let's see if I can explain it like this.
Every disease, every infirmity, every sickness, every virus, every weakness that comes into or upon our flesh is a product of some part of our body -- some cell or set of cells -- dying. As we've already said, Adam wasn't designed to die. Eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil brought upon mankind the HIV of the human spirit. That HIV of the spirit resulted in an immediate reaction within human flesh.
Why? How?
When Paul was writing to the Ekklesia in Thessalonica, he said, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Thessalonians 5:23)
Notice the way he phrased this: "your whole spirit and soul and body." We are first and foremost spirit beings. Our spirits never die. We are secondarily soul. Our soul is our identity, our thought processes, our mind, our character and personality. We are lastly physical bodies. If our spirit becomes contaminated it affects our soul. If our soul is affected, it alters the way we think, and the way we speak. Whatever we speak -- because we are primarily spirit beings dwelling in shells of flesh and blood -- it has a direct bearing our physical well being.
Proverbs 23:7 tells us that "As [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he."
When we allow the Spirit of God to superintend our spirit, there is a natural -- and spiritually logical (if I can express it like that) chain of circumstances that follows. When we trust our knowledge and wisdom and understanding over and above what God has said and is saying, there are spiritual consequences that follow.
Follow me down a spiritual path for a minute.
It takes faith to accept and receive our salvation through Jesus Christ. When we trust in, rely on and believe that Jesus paid the price for our sin with His suffering, His death, and His resurrection, our spirits respond to that faith. Faith works by love -- agape love. It was the agape love of Jesus that brought Him to earth and impelled Him to redeem us from the curse.
But redemption from the curse was inclusive of a whole lot more than salvation from sin. "Salvation" has been sold down the river and cheapened into only "saved from sin" when in fact "saved" is only a tiny part of what Jesus accomplished.
We get our word "saved" from the Greek sozo (pronounced sodzo), which means: to save, to heal, to deliver, to make whole, to protect, to preserve, to restore to completeness. One Greek commentator put it like this: "to return to the state or condition that existed (in the Garden of Eden) before the fall of man."
Jesus' very name in the Hebrew, "Yeshua," means: salvation, deliverance, aid, victory, prosperity, health, welfare, wholeness.
So what was Adam's condition in the Garden before the fall? He was in perfect health. There was no death in him of any kind. He wasn't designed to die. After all, he was made in the image of God -- and as we know, God never dies. He always was, He is, and He will always be. He is the personification of eternity.
That's how Adam was created. [In our next Coffee Break, I'll try to demonstrate for you from Scripture that Adam lived in the Garden, walking and talking with God for some 2,000 years prior to the fall.] Whether you accept that argument -- or simply believe that Adam ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil on the third 24-hour day of his existence and then lived for 930 years, dying slowly until death took him -- doesn't really matter.
Adam -- and all the generations that lived prior to the Flood -- lived for the better part of a thousand years after the fall! Sin corrupted the whole environment of the earth and shortened man's lifespan in such a way that, with a few exceptions, most people never even made it to a hundred years of age.
Redemption from sin also included redemption from death, sickness, dying, weakness and infirmity; and -- for those that die, resurrection to eternal life. This is a phenomenal revelation if you can grasp it. Redemption from the curse also incorporates -- for women -- redemption from pain in childbearing; and Della and I know a number of women who have been able to receive this revelation by faith and take advantage of it. Redemption, as well, provides redemption from poverty and the restoration of prosperity. Once again, this is a revelation that folks must grasp and receive by faith in order to walk in.
Are you beginning to get the picture? "Salvation" is a huge package! For folks who limit it to redemption from the penalty for sin, they miss out on living a dimension of life here and now that Jesus intended so that the Father would receive glory. Cancellation of death -- in the here and now -- is part of the package. This is a revelation that many folks are just beginning to get a handle on.
Let me ask you something. It takes faith to accept and receive the salvation that Jesus provided -- and provides -- by His grace. Fact is, the faith that gets activated when one receives salvation from the penalty for sin is Jesus' faith.
When you read Mark 11:22 in the Greek text (rather than the KJV or other English translations) it renders more accurately to "Have [or possess] the faith of God." Or, we can read it, "Have God's faith."
The apostle Paul affirms this in Ephesians 2:8 when he writes, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."
Because of the way this comes out in the majority of our English translations, one tends to read it that Paul is saying that grace is the gift of God, but when you read it in Greek it is obvious that both grace and faith -- together -- are God's gift to us. We cannot receive God's grace without faith -- His faith -- and correspondingly, we cannot receive God's faith without having His grace. The two are inseparably linked together because of agape love.
Writing to the Ekklesia in Galatia, Paul notes that faith is energized (worketh, KJV), empowered and made effective by agape. (See Galatians 5:6)
That is the kind of faith which must be operational for us to receive the revelation of death cancellation. It's the same kind of faith that operates when we receive our healing. It's the same kind of faith that functions when we receive deliverance from evil spirits. It's the same kind of faith that works when we leave the poverty mindset and begin to think abundance.
Jesus came to bring us abundant LIFE! He came to keep our appointment with death so that we don't have to die! Are you seeing it yet?
That's where we'll quit for today. There's more to this revelation, and I'll share it with you in our next Coffee Break.
See you soon.
The Lord has set a table before us that is fit for kings and priests -- and we are both in Him! We have a feast set before us designed to help us function as kings who rule and reign, and priests who worship and come before God's presence in boldness and joy.
Be blessed!
Regner
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. Older Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly 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.
Greetings, Salutations and Solutions!
Continuing with the pattern of beginning the past three Coffee Breaks, there is an urgent matter of prayer for believers worldwide on September 25th.
Not too long ago I became aware of what is known as the Ministers Prayer Network -- a now-international prayer movement that originally began in Nigeria in 1995 and began to spread around the globe. This is a non-denominational, trans-denominational group of ministers and church leaders spanning virtually every type of Christian ministry who come together without walls and divisions for the purpose of growing the Kingdom of God.
As founding pastor, Mosy U. Madugba, notes: "The aims and objectives of MPN are to create a forum for prayers and biblical leadership development, devoid of any ostensive, ceremonial and religious atmosphere. The later only breeds religious growth without deep convictions and commitment to God. MPN was therefore born to provide an avenue where ministers of the gospel can come together and speak the bare truth to themselves, and in sincerity and simplicity, rebuke, exhort and pray for one another, basically as a family of brothers and sisters, without any religious stratifications or classifications."
This past week, Pastor Madugba sent out the following notice: "On September 25th there will be a national prayer gathering of Muslims on the west front of the U.S. Capitol Building. They are expecting at least 50,000 to attend from mosques all across America. They say that they want America to see how they pray! A permit for this gathering was issued by Capitol Hill Police on July 28th. They will gather to pray from 4:00 AM until 7:00 PM.
“The gathering will take place by the site where U.S. Presidents have been inaugurated since 1981. The organizers say that it was Obama's inauguration speech in January and his speech broadcast from Egypt in June that gave them the idea for this prayer gathering on Capitol Hill. Please fix a fast to start 12 midnight a day before and go on till 7pm when they stop. It is warfare time. Do not joke with this. If Christians fail to frustrate this game plan in the spirit, you will regret the outcome."
Please don't just wave this off thinking this is no big deal! When you begin to realize that the "Allah" the Muslims pray to is nothing more than a modern incarnation of the ancient Baal/Marduk, you begin to understand that the purpose of this prayer is to release demonic spirits over the nation's capital and to seize spiritual control of America.
If Christians stand by and do nothing, God will hold them accountable. I heartily agree with Pastor Madugba's recommendation for believers to fast for that whole day and take the spiritual authority Jesus has released to us.
America was founded specifically as a covenant nation with the Lord Jesus Christ -- as an anchor for the Gospel, a place from which the Good News of Jesus Christ could be spread worldwide. We are not -- and must never be -- a nation under Islam! Should you desire to check out Islam's goals for this nation, simply visit http://www.islamoncapitolhill.com. It will chill your blood.
Will you join Della and me in united prayer and fasting on September 25th? Together we will turn back this flood of wickedness and evil. Together we will -- through and by the Spirit of the Lord -- raise up the standard Isaiah prophesies of in Isaiah 59:19:
"So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him."
OK. On with today's discussion.
In Hebrews 9:27 Paul makes the following statement, and it is one I grew up hearing -- and misunderstanding.
"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:"
I always read this as referring to the Great Judgment Day we would have to experience after death. We all have to die, do we not? There are two things certain in life (according to the quipsters): death and taxes.
Bahh, Humbug! What we miss is the rest of the sentence (verse 28).
"So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."
Get it? Paul is saying, "Although it is appointed unto man once to die -- and after this the judgment -- Jesus kept that appointment with death and was offered up as the sacrifice for our sins -- the same sins that carry that penalty of death."
Remember what Jesus said to the crowds that followed Him after He fed the 5,000?
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world ......... Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you." (John 6:47-51, 53)
Let's backtrack a little. What was it that God spoke to Adam when He set him in the Garden of Eden?
"And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, 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." (Genesis 2:16-17)
There's a lot of commentary I could make on this event, but I'll hold off on it -- at least for now. The point here is that Adam and Eve did eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The partaking of that fruit introduced death into the human race. Adam and Eve were never designed to die. They were designed to live forever -- just like God! They had no appointment with death at all! The command to NOT eat of that tree was a warning that their lives would have a termination point if they did eat.
Every human being born from that day (the day they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) forward had an appointment with death. It became part of the human genome. It was a curse that came upon the human race; and it was part of the curse of the Law -- the law of sin and death.
Writing to the Romans Paul said, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." (Romans 8:2)
This is a real revelation from the Holy Spirit. If you aren't seeing it yet, ask the Holy Spirit to unfold this to you. It will change your entire perspective of what happened at the Cross.
Jesus kept our appointment with death, folks! This is a part of the revelation of the Table of the Lord. When we eat of the Table we eat of the Lord; and Jesus made it clear that when we eat of Him, we eat eternal life. Let's see if I can explain it like this.
Every disease, every infirmity, every sickness, every virus, every weakness that comes into or upon our flesh is a product of some part of our body -- some cell or set of cells -- dying. As we've already said, Adam wasn't designed to die. Eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil brought upon mankind the HIV of the human spirit. That HIV of the spirit resulted in an immediate reaction within human flesh.
Why? How?
When Paul was writing to the Ekklesia in Thessalonica, he said, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (I Thessalonians 5:23)
Notice the way he phrased this: "your whole spirit and soul and body." We are first and foremost spirit beings. Our spirits never die. We are secondarily soul. Our soul is our identity, our thought processes, our mind, our character and personality. We are lastly physical bodies. If our spirit becomes contaminated it affects our soul. If our soul is affected, it alters the way we think, and the way we speak. Whatever we speak -- because we are primarily spirit beings dwelling in shells of flesh and blood -- it has a direct bearing our physical well being.
Proverbs 23:7 tells us that "As [a man] thinketh in his heart, so is he."
When we allow the Spirit of God to superintend our spirit, there is a natural -- and spiritually logical (if I can express it like that) chain of circumstances that follows. When we trust our knowledge and wisdom and understanding over and above what God has said and is saying, there are spiritual consequences that follow.
Follow me down a spiritual path for a minute.
It takes faith to accept and receive our salvation through Jesus Christ. When we trust in, rely on and believe that Jesus paid the price for our sin with His suffering, His death, and His resurrection, our spirits respond to that faith. Faith works by love -- agape love. It was the agape love of Jesus that brought Him to earth and impelled Him to redeem us from the curse.
But redemption from the curse was inclusive of a whole lot more than salvation from sin. "Salvation" has been sold down the river and cheapened into only "saved from sin" when in fact "saved" is only a tiny part of what Jesus accomplished.
We get our word "saved" from the Greek sozo (pronounced sodzo), which means: to save, to heal, to deliver, to make whole, to protect, to preserve, to restore to completeness. One Greek commentator put it like this: "to return to the state or condition that existed (in the Garden of Eden) before the fall of man."
Jesus' very name in the Hebrew, "Yeshua," means: salvation, deliverance, aid, victory, prosperity, health, welfare, wholeness.
So what was Adam's condition in the Garden before the fall? He was in perfect health. There was no death in him of any kind. He wasn't designed to die. After all, he was made in the image of God -- and as we know, God never dies. He always was, He is, and He will always be. He is the personification of eternity.
That's how Adam was created. [In our next Coffee Break, I'll try to demonstrate for you from Scripture that Adam lived in the Garden, walking and talking with God for some 2,000 years prior to the fall.] Whether you accept that argument -- or simply believe that Adam ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil on the third 24-hour day of his existence and then lived for 930 years, dying slowly until death took him -- doesn't really matter.
Adam -- and all the generations that lived prior to the Flood -- lived for the better part of a thousand years after the fall! Sin corrupted the whole environment of the earth and shortened man's lifespan in such a way that, with a few exceptions, most people never even made it to a hundred years of age.
Redemption from sin also included redemption from death, sickness, dying, weakness and infirmity; and -- for those that die, resurrection to eternal life. This is a phenomenal revelation if you can grasp it. Redemption from the curse also incorporates -- for women -- redemption from pain in childbearing; and Della and I know a number of women who have been able to receive this revelation by faith and take advantage of it. Redemption, as well, provides redemption from poverty and the restoration of prosperity. Once again, this is a revelation that folks must grasp and receive by faith in order to walk in.
Are you beginning to get the picture? "Salvation" is a huge package! For folks who limit it to redemption from the penalty for sin, they miss out on living a dimension of life here and now that Jesus intended so that the Father would receive glory. Cancellation of death -- in the here and now -- is part of the package. This is a revelation that many folks are just beginning to get a handle on.
Let me ask you something. It takes faith to accept and receive the salvation that Jesus provided -- and provides -- by His grace. Fact is, the faith that gets activated when one receives salvation from the penalty for sin is Jesus' faith.
When you read Mark 11:22 in the Greek text (rather than the KJV or other English translations) it renders more accurately to "Have [or possess] the faith of God." Or, we can read it, "Have God's faith."
The apostle Paul affirms this in Ephesians 2:8 when he writes, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."
Because of the way this comes out in the majority of our English translations, one tends to read it that Paul is saying that grace is the gift of God, but when you read it in Greek it is obvious that both grace and faith -- together -- are God's gift to us. We cannot receive God's grace without faith -- His faith -- and correspondingly, we cannot receive God's faith without having His grace. The two are inseparably linked together because of agape love.
Writing to the Ekklesia in Galatia, Paul notes that faith is energized (worketh, KJV), empowered and made effective by agape. (See Galatians 5:6)
That is the kind of faith which must be operational for us to receive the revelation of death cancellation. It's the same kind of faith that operates when we receive our healing. It's the same kind of faith that functions when we receive deliverance from evil spirits. It's the same kind of faith that works when we leave the poverty mindset and begin to think abundance.
Jesus came to bring us abundant LIFE! He came to keep our appointment with death so that we don't have to die! Are you seeing it yet?
That's where we'll quit for today. There's more to this revelation, and I'll share it with you in our next Coffee Break.
See you soon.
The Lord has set a table before us that is fit for kings and priests -- and we are both in Him! We have a feast set before us designed to help us function as kings who rule and reign, and priests who worship and come before God's presence in boldness and joy.
Be blessed!
Regner
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. Older Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly 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.
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: THE TABLE OF THE LORD III
THE TABLE OF THE LORD III
The Original Covenant of the Table, Part 3
And a Great Gettin' Up Mornin' to you this fine day! I may sound like a broken record sometimes, but this IS the Best Day of Your Life!
Yup! It really is!
As we've already commented in the previous posts, Della and I have been actively praying and interceding over the nation with other brothers and sisters in the Lord each morning, and of course, over this region in which we live. During the past week, the emphasis in prayer has been in the nation's educational system. We have been lifting educators (school principals, superintendents, teachers, college and university professors, school boards, etc.) before the Lord in prayer, asking God to move with the wind of His Spirit to bring change -- real change, Godly change! Twice during the past week, we have received visions of remarkable events happening in our schools.
As many of you well know, the ACLU has been actively warring in our courts against educators and schools where the name of the Lord Jesus Christ -- or even simply Scriptures -- are mentioned or named. This is a spiritual battle that has been being waged. We don't waste our time praying against individuals or naming them in our prayers. Rather, we target the demonic forces and principalities, the rulers of the darkness that pervades our education system. When attorneys who work for the ACLU or other similar organizations become involved in lawsuits against teachers -- and even more recently some students -- these attorneys are nothing more than puppets whose strings are being pulled by wicked spirits out to remove every vestige of the Word of God or the name of Jesus from public education and the public conversation.
It is silliness run amuck to pray against these attorneys because they are not the driving force behind this effort. If you want to deal with a problem you go to the causal force and remove it. The rest of the problem will go away when you deal with the cause. Our problems are not with people: they are with demonic forces that deceive people, making those people nothing more than pawns.
That said, I had a waking vision one morning last week in which I saw a group of young children -- perhaps second or third-graders -- in a courtroom sitting behind their teacher who was on trial for quoting Scripture and mentioning the name of the Lord Jesus in class. The ACLU attorney who was pushing this case was standing behind his desk ranting and raving about the "unconstitutionality" and the "danger to the minds" of the young students. This attorney was really worked up, in a sweat, and waving his hands. A young girl of perhaps seven or eight years of age quietly got up out of her seat some two or three rows back and walked through the swinging doors of the barrier between the attorneys and the folks in the courtroom. This young girl was so filled with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit that she carried the peace of God with each step.
The attorney was oblivious to her and didn't realize what was happening until she quietly touched him on the back. The power of God hit that man and he stopped mid-sentence and began to weep. The young girl just looked up at him and said, "It's OK, Sir. You just didn't know Jesus!" The court proceedings stopped instantly, and within short order the case was dismissed.
This morning a second vision took place. This time I was given a peek into different public schools -- primary, middle, secondary and even post-secondary institutions -- where students filled the halls. They were praying for each other, miracles of healing and deliverance were taking place, teachers were being saved and the Holy Spirit was literally blowing through the classrooms and hallways with the winds of change and deliverance.
These were visions, of course, but they gave real impetus and direction to our intercession. The Holy Spirit gives us these visions in order to direct our prayers and intercession. If God's people will wake up and begin to pray in agreement with the heart of the Lord as the Holy Spirit is showing us, the day will shortly come when we won't have to fight battles in courtrooms. We won't have to face off against specious arguments that are spiritual at their core. The catch is that believers are going to have to understand that -- as Jesus made clear -- "All authority in heaven and in earth" has been given to us by the commissioning from the Lord. We simply have to use that authority in agreement with what the Holy Spirit is directing at the moment. When Jesus commanded us to pray, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven," this is exactly what He meant.
Understand? Good! Then let's refocus our prayers and begin to target the real enemy -- NOT people!
Coffee's on. Pour yourself a cup and pull up a chair. Della made some cinnamon buns (vitamins, you know!) on Saturday, and they go great with this dark-roasted Columbian.
In Part 1 of this series we mentioned Melchizedek's visit to Abraham following his spectacular military victory over the armies of Chedorlaomer, Amraphel, Arioch and Tidal. It is recorded like this in Genesis 14:
"And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan. And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale. And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all."
Ever wonder why Melchizedek came out with bread and wine? Why do we not see this picture earlier in Scripture? The quick and simple answer is that this is the first time we see God making a covenant with a man. We do have an earlier covenant mentioned, but it was a covenant with the human race (See Genesis 9:8-17) not to ever destroy the earth again by a flood. That was different entirely in nature. Whenever a covenant was struck or "cut" (as the term goes in Hebrew: beriyth) that term -- to "cut covenant" -- always denoted a cutting of the flesh (almost always the right hand) so that blood would run. It therefore became a "blood covenant." The blood of both parties to the covenant would be mingled together making them "blood brothers."
Not until the Nephilim appeared on the earth (the seed of the fallen angels mingled with the human race) (This is a topic for future discussion, but one we won't get into in this series.) contaminating the Law of God, which was written in the hearts of men, do we see any evidence of covenants where men would drink each other's blood mingled with wine. God's people were forever forbidden to drink blood. Consider first the command given to Israel under the Mosaic Law, and then we will look a a prophetic word that Jacob gave concerning the coming Messiah.
"And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood. And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust. For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off." (Leviticus 17:10-14)
Notice two things in this passage: First, the command NOT to eat (or drink) blood is based on the fact that "the life of the flesh is in the blood." Secondly, the command is predicated on the Law of God that "it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." We'll come back to this picture in a minute, but let's take a look at Jacob's prophecy.
"The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk." (Genesis 49:10-12)
Because of the way the Hebrew often translates into English, it isn't immediately apparent -- at least in the KJV -- but this is a prophecy concerning Jesus shedding His blood. The very fact that the cup at Jesus' table (when He ate the Last Supper with His disciples) was wine became a fulfillment of prophecy. Jesus fulfilled every single element of Jacob's prophecy. The part, however, that I'm focusing on in this instance is the wine, and the covenant nature of the cup.
There are two things we should remember concerning Melchizedek's visit to Abraham. The first is that a divine covenant was being established. The seed of Abraham would be the people of covenant. God would establish His covenant with Abraham, then make that same covenant with Isaac, and then repeat it for the third time with Jacob. This was the "threefold cord" Solomon describes in Ecclesiastes 4:12. The picture Solomon draws in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 is that of covenant, and that was the covenant God was establishing with Abraham.
The second is that which Paul describes in writing to the Hebrews. "For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." (Hebrews 6:13-20)
If Jesus was a High Priest forever after the order and succession (taxis in the Greek text) of Melchizedek, then He was following the same pattern that Melchizedek established when he brought bread and wine to Abraham to signify the covenant God was making with him. Let's not forget that the apostle Paul also reminds us that,
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise." (Galatians 3:13-18)
One more Scripture will fill in the missing link to these passages.
"And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes." (I Corinthians 11:24-26 NASB)
Now are you seeing it? The Covenant was established with Abraham, confirmed in Isaac, and tripled in Jacob. The Covenant began with bread and wine through Melchizedek. Although natural Israel broke the Covenant, Jesus reinstated it, but made it available to the whole human race for "whosoever will." Paul makes abundantly clear that Jesus took the curse that came with the breaking of the Covenant so that the blessing of Abraham could be restored. Jesus became our High Priest after the arrangement and succession of Melchizedek, and at the same time offered the Covenant bread and wine as the proof that the Blessing and Covenant were again available to those who would enter into that Covenant with Jesus.
This picture gets even larger and more amplified when you see just what happened in the context of the Abrahamic Covenant through Jesus' death and resurrection, and how specifically it relates to the Table of the Lord. That'll wait for our next Coffee Break.
Before we wrap up today, however, there is one more thing you need to see. This is the primary connection between the Covenant and the Cup.
Luke 24:39 tells us what Jesus said when He appeared before His disciples following His resurrection. Pay close attention to the precise wording of what Jesus says. "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." Think about this!
What was Jesus when He went to the Cross? He was flesh and blood. We know from Leviticus 17:11, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls:"
When Jesus rose from the dead, the life that was in Him was not blood: it was Spirit -- that same Spirit that God initially breathed into Adam when he became a living, speaking spirit. What was it that Paul said to the Galatians about Jesus' taking the curse?
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: ......... that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."
See it? The Cup was the promise of the Spirit. The wine was representative of the life of the Spirit. Paul says that as often as we "eat this bread and drink this cup" we demonstrate, declare, show and preach Jesus' death -- and thereby new life in the Spirit -- until He comes.
That's where I have to stop today. Meditate on this picture. Cogitate. And wait until you see what else Jesus accomplished and why the Table is so important to us as believers.
See you soon.
The Lord has set a table before us that is fit for kings and priests -- and we are both in Him! We have a feast set before us designed to help us function as kings who rule and reign, and priests who worship and come before God's presence in boldness and joy.
Be blessed!
Regner
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. Older Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly 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.
The Original Covenant of the Table, Part 3
And a Great Gettin' Up Mornin' to you this fine day! I may sound like a broken record sometimes, but this IS the Best Day of Your Life!
Yup! It really is!
As we've already commented in the previous posts, Della and I have been actively praying and interceding over the nation with other brothers and sisters in the Lord each morning, and of course, over this region in which we live. During the past week, the emphasis in prayer has been in the nation's educational system. We have been lifting educators (school principals, superintendents, teachers, college and university professors, school boards, etc.) before the Lord in prayer, asking God to move with the wind of His Spirit to bring change -- real change, Godly change! Twice during the past week, we have received visions of remarkable events happening in our schools.
As many of you well know, the ACLU has been actively warring in our courts against educators and schools where the name of the Lord Jesus Christ -- or even simply Scriptures -- are mentioned or named. This is a spiritual battle that has been being waged. We don't waste our time praying against individuals or naming them in our prayers. Rather, we target the demonic forces and principalities, the rulers of the darkness that pervades our education system. When attorneys who work for the ACLU or other similar organizations become involved in lawsuits against teachers -- and even more recently some students -- these attorneys are nothing more than puppets whose strings are being pulled by wicked spirits out to remove every vestige of the Word of God or the name of Jesus from public education and the public conversation.
It is silliness run amuck to pray against these attorneys because they are not the driving force behind this effort. If you want to deal with a problem you go to the causal force and remove it. The rest of the problem will go away when you deal with the cause. Our problems are not with people: they are with demonic forces that deceive people, making those people nothing more than pawns.
That said, I had a waking vision one morning last week in which I saw a group of young children -- perhaps second or third-graders -- in a courtroom sitting behind their teacher who was on trial for quoting Scripture and mentioning the name of the Lord Jesus in class. The ACLU attorney who was pushing this case was standing behind his desk ranting and raving about the "unconstitutionality" and the "danger to the minds" of the young students. This attorney was really worked up, in a sweat, and waving his hands. A young girl of perhaps seven or eight years of age quietly got up out of her seat some two or three rows back and walked through the swinging doors of the barrier between the attorneys and the folks in the courtroom. This young girl was so filled with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit that she carried the peace of God with each step.
The attorney was oblivious to her and didn't realize what was happening until she quietly touched him on the back. The power of God hit that man and he stopped mid-sentence and began to weep. The young girl just looked up at him and said, "It's OK, Sir. You just didn't know Jesus!" The court proceedings stopped instantly, and within short order the case was dismissed.
This morning a second vision took place. This time I was given a peek into different public schools -- primary, middle, secondary and even post-secondary institutions -- where students filled the halls. They were praying for each other, miracles of healing and deliverance were taking place, teachers were being saved and the Holy Spirit was literally blowing through the classrooms and hallways with the winds of change and deliverance.
These were visions, of course, but they gave real impetus and direction to our intercession. The Holy Spirit gives us these visions in order to direct our prayers and intercession. If God's people will wake up and begin to pray in agreement with the heart of the Lord as the Holy Spirit is showing us, the day will shortly come when we won't have to fight battles in courtrooms. We won't have to face off against specious arguments that are spiritual at their core. The catch is that believers are going to have to understand that -- as Jesus made clear -- "All authority in heaven and in earth" has been given to us by the commissioning from the Lord. We simply have to use that authority in agreement with what the Holy Spirit is directing at the moment. When Jesus commanded us to pray, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven," this is exactly what He meant.
Understand? Good! Then let's refocus our prayers and begin to target the real enemy -- NOT people!
Coffee's on. Pour yourself a cup and pull up a chair. Della made some cinnamon buns (vitamins, you know!) on Saturday, and they go great with this dark-roasted Columbian.
In Part 1 of this series we mentioned Melchizedek's visit to Abraham following his spectacular military victory over the armies of Chedorlaomer, Amraphel, Arioch and Tidal. It is recorded like this in Genesis 14:
"And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan. And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. And the king of Sodom went out to meet him after his return from the slaughter of Chedorlaomer, and of the kings that were with him, at the valley of Shaveh, which is the king’s dale. And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all."
Ever wonder why Melchizedek came out with bread and wine? Why do we not see this picture earlier in Scripture? The quick and simple answer is that this is the first time we see God making a covenant with a man. We do have an earlier covenant mentioned, but it was a covenant with the human race (See Genesis 9:8-17) not to ever destroy the earth again by a flood. That was different entirely in nature. Whenever a covenant was struck or "cut" (as the term goes in Hebrew: beriyth) that term -- to "cut covenant" -- always denoted a cutting of the flesh (almost always the right hand) so that blood would run. It therefore became a "blood covenant." The blood of both parties to the covenant would be mingled together making them "blood brothers."
Not until the Nephilim appeared on the earth (the seed of the fallen angels mingled with the human race) (This is a topic for future discussion, but one we won't get into in this series.) contaminating the Law of God, which was written in the hearts of men, do we see any evidence of covenants where men would drink each other's blood mingled with wine. God's people were forever forbidden to drink blood. Consider first the command given to Israel under the Mosaic Law, and then we will look a a prophetic word that Jacob gave concerning the coming Messiah.
"And whatsoever man there be of the house of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, that eateth any manner of blood; I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will cut him off from among his people. For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourneth among you eat blood. And whatsoever man there be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn among you, which hunteth and catcheth any beast or fowl that may be eaten; he shall even pour out the blood thereof, and cover it with dust. For it is the life of all flesh; the blood of it is for the life thereof: therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall eat the blood of no manner of flesh: for the life of all flesh is the blood thereof: whosoever eateth it shall be cut off." (Leviticus 17:10-14)
Notice two things in this passage: First, the command NOT to eat (or drink) blood is based on the fact that "the life of the flesh is in the blood." Secondly, the command is predicated on the Law of God that "it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul." We'll come back to this picture in a minute, but let's take a look at Jacob's prophecy.
"The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk." (Genesis 49:10-12)
Because of the way the Hebrew often translates into English, it isn't immediately apparent -- at least in the KJV -- but this is a prophecy concerning Jesus shedding His blood. The very fact that the cup at Jesus' table (when He ate the Last Supper with His disciples) was wine became a fulfillment of prophecy. Jesus fulfilled every single element of Jacob's prophecy. The part, however, that I'm focusing on in this instance is the wine, and the covenant nature of the cup.
There are two things we should remember concerning Melchizedek's visit to Abraham. The first is that a divine covenant was being established. The seed of Abraham would be the people of covenant. God would establish His covenant with Abraham, then make that same covenant with Isaac, and then repeat it for the third time with Jacob. This was the "threefold cord" Solomon describes in Ecclesiastes 4:12. The picture Solomon draws in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 is that of covenant, and that was the covenant God was establishing with Abraham.
The second is that which Paul describes in writing to the Hebrews. "For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." (Hebrews 6:13-20)
If Jesus was a High Priest forever after the order and succession (taxis in the Greek text) of Melchizedek, then He was following the same pattern that Melchizedek established when he brought bread and wine to Abraham to signify the covenant God was making with him. Let's not forget that the apostle Paul also reminds us that,
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man’s covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise." (Galatians 3:13-18)
One more Scripture will fill in the missing link to these passages.
"And when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me." In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes." (I Corinthians 11:24-26 NASB)
Now are you seeing it? The Covenant was established with Abraham, confirmed in Isaac, and tripled in Jacob. The Covenant began with bread and wine through Melchizedek. Although natural Israel broke the Covenant, Jesus reinstated it, but made it available to the whole human race for "whosoever will." Paul makes abundantly clear that Jesus took the curse that came with the breaking of the Covenant so that the blessing of Abraham could be restored. Jesus became our High Priest after the arrangement and succession of Melchizedek, and at the same time offered the Covenant bread and wine as the proof that the Blessing and Covenant were again available to those who would enter into that Covenant with Jesus.
This picture gets even larger and more amplified when you see just what happened in the context of the Abrahamic Covenant through Jesus' death and resurrection, and how specifically it relates to the Table of the Lord. That'll wait for our next Coffee Break.
Before we wrap up today, however, there is one more thing you need to see. This is the primary connection between the Covenant and the Cup.
Luke 24:39 tells us what Jesus said when He appeared before His disciples following His resurrection. Pay close attention to the precise wording of what Jesus says. "Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have." Think about this!
What was Jesus when He went to the Cross? He was flesh and blood. We know from Leviticus 17:11, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls:"
When Jesus rose from the dead, the life that was in Him was not blood: it was Spirit -- that same Spirit that God initially breathed into Adam when he became a living, speaking spirit. What was it that Paul said to the Galatians about Jesus' taking the curse?
"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: ......... that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."
See it? The Cup was the promise of the Spirit. The wine was representative of the life of the Spirit. Paul says that as often as we "eat this bread and drink this cup" we demonstrate, declare, show and preach Jesus' death -- and thereby new life in the Spirit -- until He comes.
That's where I have to stop today. Meditate on this picture. Cogitate. And wait until you see what else Jesus accomplished and why the Table is so important to us as believers.
See you soon.
The Lord has set a table before us that is fit for kings and priests -- and we are both in Him! We have a feast set before us designed to help us function as kings who rule and reign, and priests who worship and come before God's presence in boldness and joy.
Be blessed!
Regner
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. Older Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly 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.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: THE TABLE OF THE LORD II
Table of the Lord II
The Original Covenant of the Table, Part 2
We've talked about our granddaughter, Jessica, (now seven years old) many times throughout the past few years and the rather spectacular things she's come out with, her experiences with the Lord, her boldness to lay hands on others and command healing, and the revelations she's had. We have another young one in our midst who is apparently coming up the same way. Rich and DeAngela Warren have been an integral part of River Worship Center for more than two years, and are worship leaders in our fellowship.
They have a grandson, Christopher, who has been living in their home for more than a year. Christopher is three years old. Periodically he talks about the angels he sees here, and sometimes asks either Rich or DeAngela to bring him over during the week because of it. (They live only two doors away from us, by the way.) Sunday a week ago, while we were in the midst of worship, he suddenly broke down and began to weep. A spirit of intercession came over him on behalf of his aunt Jessica (DeAngela's daughter). He comes over to DeAngela and asks, "Is Jessica dead?"
DeAngela's reaction was -- of course -- complete shock. "No, Christopher, she's not dead." Then it suddenly dawned that Christopher was seeing some event with impending death for his aunt and the Spirit of the Lord was moving through his being with intercession on her behalf. We stopped what we were doing and gathered around Christopher and prayed with him for Jessica. There was an immediate release in the Spirit and things settled down.
Because of our focus during the past months on the Table of the Lord and the constant revelation the Holy Spirit has been bringing, we have made it a practice each Sunday to gather around a large table as a fellowship -- both to break the Word together, and to break bread and drink of the cup. Because our fellowship is relatively small (in actual numbers) we grab a cup of coffee or tea or chocolate (or whatever), and sometimes other refreshments and bring them to the table with us as we begin to share out of the Word. We have a real family atmosphere and a bond of love and fellowship that is hard to put into words, and the smaller numbers of people make it easy to fellowship like this.
Christopher was with Della in the kitchen to get his usual cup of chocolate before heading into another room with Sandra (who teaches the children). All of a sudden he began to cry and laugh at the same time. Tears were streaming down his face as he was laughing; and this was a laughter that literally was shaking his whole being with the joy of the Lord. Again, bear in mind that Christopher is only three years old.
Della began to laugh with him and said to him, "Christopher, what's happening?" She took his hand and patted her own cheek saying, "I want some of that. Will you give me some of that?" Christopher continued laughing and crying and drew back his hand. "No, it's mine. It's mine, and I'm keeping it." Everyone laughed, but honestly it was one of those Wow! experiences. It isn't often that you see a three-year-old so under the power of the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Lord so gripped him that he decided he didn't want any cookies, and he didn't want his cup of chocolate. He decided he was just going to eat and drink of the presence of the Lord. (That's my interpretation of what was happening with him. He simply lost his normal desire to eat or drink anything of this natural realm.)
And, speaking of angels, we are seeing them more and more frequently in our midst during our times of praise and worship. It is apparent that they revel in the worship and just want to join in with us. Hallelujah!
OK, we got started again without the usual greetings. So, GOOD MORNING already!
This is the best day of your life! And yes, the coffee is poured. Got both Espresso and the French Press working so there's plenty to go around.
Let's begin today with Jesus' statement that caused such consternation among the people who heard him.
"This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. ..... Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
"Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever." (John 6:50-51, 53-58)
Then we have John's observation of Jesus:
"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)
Ever wonder how "the Word was made flesh" as John declares? Consider the picture that unfolds in Luke 1:26-38. The angel Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her that she is blessed and highly favored of God, and that she will conceive and bear a son who in fact will be the long-promised and prophesied Messiah. Mary does not doubt the word that she is hearing but asks, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" The angel Gabriel responds, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
Bear in mind that the angel is simply a messenger of God sent with God's Word to her. Here is how -- and when -- the Word is made flesh. "And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." (Luke 1:38) Get it?
Mary agrees with the Word of the Lord and speaks that agreement by saying "Be it unto me according to thy Word:" the Word of the Lord. She is effectively speaking the same creative Word that God spoke when He decreed in Genesis 1:3, "Light be" (or as the KJV reads, "Let there be light!") Thus the Word came into being instantly within her womb. Sure, she had to carry Jesus for the normal nine-month term before He was actually born but He was instantly conceived when she spoke the Word herself.
Are you beginning to get the picture? The Word, spoken by Mary in agreement with the Word of the Lord which had been delivered to her, became flesh in her womb. It was living. It was eternity, invading time and space with the reality of God Himself! Thus, the Word -- Jesus -- became flesh. And John witnesses, "and dwelt among us (and we beheld His Glory, the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."
Jesus walked and talked with His disciples. He preached to the multitudes. He broke bread with them, and He did it in a manner that would testify to them (and they would also be witness to) that He was the Word!
Consider the event that had unfolded (see John 6) just prior to Jesus' statement "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you."
"After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh." (This is an important point in view of what Jesus is about to do.)
"When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread (Note: this is roughly equivalent to seven months' wages in those days) is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.
"One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand." (Note: By Hebrew tradition this number represents the married men only, not counting the unmarried men, all the wives, the women and children. The actual number of those gathered on the hillsides would have been more on the order of 20,000 - 30,000.)
"And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world."
Before we continue with the rest of this picture, let's consider some of the issues that have already been presented.
First, John makes note of the fact that the Passover was "eggus": "ready to begin, at hand." Folks were ready for the seven day period in which they would eat of the unleavened bread. They would break this bread and eat of it only -- no leavened bread at all. (Both Orthodox and Messianic Jews keep this ordinance yet today. They often refer to it as a "Seder" meal.) With the Passover meal, they would drink water -- not wine. The practice of wine with the Table of the Lord did not really commence until after Jesus turned the water into wine at the marriage of Cana in Galilee, although we see this covenant practice long before the days of Moses.
The point I'm making is that the Jews were ready to begin Passover with its unleavened flatbread (matstsah) -- symbolic of the fact that there was no leaven of Egypt in what they were eating. In a parable that Jesus later shared, He likened the Kingdom of God to leaven and said, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." (Matthew 13:33) In so doing, Jesus was clarifying the fact that the picture of leaven is that of a spiritual force -- whether for evil or for good.
In the miracle that unfolded in John 6 where Jesus fed the 5,000, as noted in the last Coffee Break, the loaves that Jesus broke and distributed were artos: raised bread, whole bread -- leavened bread. There was an impartation of His life that took place which He was demonstrating. There is a multiplying factor in His life (and we will be discussing this at length throughout this series) -- the leaven of the Kingdom of God which multiplies and causes the Word to grow and expand within us until we reach the place of being fully "raised" in Him.
Thus as the miracle of the loaves unfolded, Jesus was demonstrating what He would say to the people shortly thereafter, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
On many occasions, Jesus made statements such as the following:
"As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." (John 6:57)
"I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" (John 11:25-26)
"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6)
In his first general epistle, John writes, "For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us." (I John 1:2)
The Table of the Lord -- which took the place of Passover -- provides us with a daily (or as often as we eat and drink of it) impartation of the life, the multiplication that comes in that divine life, and we receive for ourselves healing, health, wholeness, deliverance from bondage and oppression, and the abundant provision of all that Heaven has for us. Consider the event that took place when the Syrophenician woman came to Jesus.
"And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour." (Matthew 15:21-28)
See the picture? Are you understanding just how powerful the bread of life really is? This woman was not even of the house of Israel. Yet she understood the significance of the Table of the Lord. She understood the picture of the Bread of Life, and she realized that just a dried-out crumb of that bread that had fallen under the Table would bring healing and deliverance to her daughter.
Brother! I sometimes marvel that the body of Christ -- who is supposed to have a grip on what it means to be seated at the Table of the Lord -- has yet to understand what it means to eat of the Bread of Life. David certainly had the picture.
Remember the 23rd Psalm?
"Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies." Who is preparing this table? Hello!?! The Lord Jesus Christ, of course. And what are the enemies in whose presence this Table is spread? Hmmmm ........ Let's see, now ....... Sickness, disease, infirmity, death, poverty, bondage of every kind, demonic oppression, fear, doubt, unbelief ..... shall we go on?
Yet, for the most part, the body of Christ today still treats the Table of the Lord as anaxios: to treat irreverently, to treat as commonplace and ordinary. There is nothing, and I do mean NOTHING about the Table of the Lord that is commonplace or ordinary. This is not a ritual. This is not some duty to keep. The Table of the Lord is a way of life, a manner of living. Eating of the Table of the Lord takes a person out of this time-space, sin-and-sickness-based, death-imposed realm and transports them into the eternity of eternities -- the Kingdom of God!
When we eat of the Bread of Life, we are eating of the Word Himself. But we have to do it with revelation and understanding. Otherwise it becomes just another "thing to do" as a Christian. Personally, I dislike -- no, I'll make it even stronger than that -- I detest the form and ritual that has turned our sacred Communion at the Table of the Lord into crackers or wafers and dinky little "communion cups" (so that folks don't transmit or catch some disease by drinking from a common cup).
When I was still at Long Beach Christian Center back in the 1970's, we stopped the "crackers-and-grape juice-in-communion cups" ritual and went to breaking a whole loaf of bread and drinking from a common cup or chalice. It began the transformation of my understanding of what it means to partake of the Lord's Table.
That was more than 35 years ago, and you couldn't pay me to go back to the old ritual! I've yet to see someone "catch something" by drinking of a common cup at the Table of the Lord. It just doesn't happen! That would make the Table of the Lord a lie -- and there is nothing but truth that emanates and is imparted when we eat and drink with revelation!
Wheww!!! We've just begun to scratch the surface. There's a whole lot more to go just dealing with the covenant picture of the Table. See you again in a few days.
The Lord has set a table before us that is fit for kings and priests -- and we are both in Him! We have a feast set before us designed to help us function as kings who rule and reign, and priests who worship and come before God's presence in boldness and joy.
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. Older Coffee Break archives are now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly 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.
The Original Covenant of the Table, Part 2
We've talked about our granddaughter, Jessica, (now seven years old) many times throughout the past few years and the rather spectacular things she's come out with, her experiences with the Lord, her boldness to lay hands on others and command healing, and the revelations she's had. We have another young one in our midst who is apparently coming up the same way. Rich and DeAngela Warren have been an integral part of River Worship Center for more than two years, and are worship leaders in our fellowship.
They have a grandson, Christopher, who has been living in their home for more than a year. Christopher is three years old. Periodically he talks about the angels he sees here, and sometimes asks either Rich or DeAngela to bring him over during the week because of it. (They live only two doors away from us, by the way.) Sunday a week ago, while we were in the midst of worship, he suddenly broke down and began to weep. A spirit of intercession came over him on behalf of his aunt Jessica (DeAngela's daughter). He comes over to DeAngela and asks, "Is Jessica dead?"
DeAngela's reaction was -- of course -- complete shock. "No, Christopher, she's not dead." Then it suddenly dawned that Christopher was seeing some event with impending death for his aunt and the Spirit of the Lord was moving through his being with intercession on her behalf. We stopped what we were doing and gathered around Christopher and prayed with him for Jessica. There was an immediate release in the Spirit and things settled down.
Because of our focus during the past months on the Table of the Lord and the constant revelation the Holy Spirit has been bringing, we have made it a practice each Sunday to gather around a large table as a fellowship -- both to break the Word together, and to break bread and drink of the cup. Because our fellowship is relatively small (in actual numbers) we grab a cup of coffee or tea or chocolate (or whatever), and sometimes other refreshments and bring them to the table with us as we begin to share out of the Word. We have a real family atmosphere and a bond of love and fellowship that is hard to put into words, and the smaller numbers of people make it easy to fellowship like this.
Christopher was with Della in the kitchen to get his usual cup of chocolate before heading into another room with Sandra (who teaches the children). All of a sudden he began to cry and laugh at the same time. Tears were streaming down his face as he was laughing; and this was a laughter that literally was shaking his whole being with the joy of the Lord. Again, bear in mind that Christopher is only three years old.
Della began to laugh with him and said to him, "Christopher, what's happening?" She took his hand and patted her own cheek saying, "I want some of that. Will you give me some of that?" Christopher continued laughing and crying and drew back his hand. "No, it's mine. It's mine, and I'm keeping it." Everyone laughed, but honestly it was one of those Wow! experiences. It isn't often that you see a three-year-old so under the power of the Holy Spirit. The presence of the Lord so gripped him that he decided he didn't want any cookies, and he didn't want his cup of chocolate. He decided he was just going to eat and drink of the presence of the Lord. (That's my interpretation of what was happening with him. He simply lost his normal desire to eat or drink anything of this natural realm.)
And, speaking of angels, we are seeing them more and more frequently in our midst during our times of praise and worship. It is apparent that they revel in the worship and just want to join in with us. Hallelujah!
OK, we got started again without the usual greetings. So, GOOD MORNING already!
This is the best day of your life! And yes, the coffee is poured. Got both Espresso and the French Press working so there's plenty to go around.
Let's begin today with Jesus' statement that caused such consternation among the people who heard him.
"This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. ..... Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
"Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever." (John 6:50-51, 53-58)
Then we have John's observation of Jesus:
"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)
Ever wonder how "the Word was made flesh" as John declares? Consider the picture that unfolds in Luke 1:26-38. The angel Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her that she is blessed and highly favored of God, and that she will conceive and bear a son who in fact will be the long-promised and prophesied Messiah. Mary does not doubt the word that she is hearing but asks, "How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?" The angel Gabriel responds, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
Bear in mind that the angel is simply a messenger of God sent with God's Word to her. Here is how -- and when -- the Word is made flesh. "And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." (Luke 1:38) Get it?
Mary agrees with the Word of the Lord and speaks that agreement by saying "Be it unto me according to thy Word:" the Word of the Lord. She is effectively speaking the same creative Word that God spoke when He decreed in Genesis 1:3, "Light be" (or as the KJV reads, "Let there be light!") Thus the Word came into being instantly within her womb. Sure, she had to carry Jesus for the normal nine-month term before He was actually born but He was instantly conceived when she spoke the Word herself.
Are you beginning to get the picture? The Word, spoken by Mary in agreement with the Word of the Lord which had been delivered to her, became flesh in her womb. It was living. It was eternity, invading time and space with the reality of God Himself! Thus, the Word -- Jesus -- became flesh. And John witnesses, "and dwelt among us (and we beheld His Glory, the Glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."
Jesus walked and talked with His disciples. He preached to the multitudes. He broke bread with them, and He did it in a manner that would testify to them (and they would also be witness to) that He was the Word!
Consider the event that had unfolded (see John 6) just prior to Jesus' statement "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you."
"After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias. And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. And the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh." (This is an important point in view of what Jesus is about to do.)
"When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat? And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread (Note: this is roughly equivalent to seven months' wages in those days) is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.
"One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him, There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many? And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand." (Note: By Hebrew tradition this number represents the married men only, not counting the unmarried men, all the wives, the women and children. The actual number of those gathered on the hillsides would have been more on the order of 20,000 - 30,000.)
"And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would. When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world."
Before we continue with the rest of this picture, let's consider some of the issues that have already been presented.
First, John makes note of the fact that the Passover was "eggus": "ready to begin, at hand." Folks were ready for the seven day period in which they would eat of the unleavened bread. They would break this bread and eat of it only -- no leavened bread at all. (Both Orthodox and Messianic Jews keep this ordinance yet today. They often refer to it as a "Seder" meal.) With the Passover meal, they would drink water -- not wine. The practice of wine with the Table of the Lord did not really commence until after Jesus turned the water into wine at the marriage of Cana in Galilee, although we see this covenant practice long before the days of Moses.
The point I'm making is that the Jews were ready to begin Passover with its unleavened flatbread (matstsah) -- symbolic of the fact that there was no leaven of Egypt in what they were eating. In a parable that Jesus later shared, He likened the Kingdom of God to leaven and said, "The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened." (Matthew 13:33) In so doing, Jesus was clarifying the fact that the picture of leaven is that of a spiritual force -- whether for evil or for good.
In the miracle that unfolded in John 6 where Jesus fed the 5,000, as noted in the last Coffee Break, the loaves that Jesus broke and distributed were artos: raised bread, whole bread -- leavened bread. There was an impartation of His life that took place which He was demonstrating. There is a multiplying factor in His life (and we will be discussing this at length throughout this series) -- the leaven of the Kingdom of God which multiplies and causes the Word to grow and expand within us until we reach the place of being fully "raised" in Him.
Thus as the miracle of the loaves unfolded, Jesus was demonstrating what He would say to the people shortly thereafter, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
On many occasions, Jesus made statements such as the following:
"As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me." (John 6:57)
"I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?" (John 11:25-26)
"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:6)
In his first general epistle, John writes, "For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us." (I John 1:2)
The Table of the Lord -- which took the place of Passover -- provides us with a daily (or as often as we eat and drink of it) impartation of the life, the multiplication that comes in that divine life, and we receive for ourselves healing, health, wholeness, deliverance from bondage and oppression, and the abundant provision of all that Heaven has for us. Consider the event that took place when the Syrophenician woman came to Jesus.
"And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour." (Matthew 15:21-28)
See the picture? Are you understanding just how powerful the bread of life really is? This woman was not even of the house of Israel. Yet she understood the significance of the Table of the Lord. She understood the picture of the Bread of Life, and she realized that just a dried-out crumb of that bread that had fallen under the Table would bring healing and deliverance to her daughter.
Brother! I sometimes marvel that the body of Christ -- who is supposed to have a grip on what it means to be seated at the Table of the Lord -- has yet to understand what it means to eat of the Bread of Life. David certainly had the picture.
Remember the 23rd Psalm?
"Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies." Who is preparing this table? Hello!?! The Lord Jesus Christ, of course. And what are the enemies in whose presence this Table is spread? Hmmmm ........ Let's see, now ....... Sickness, disease, infirmity, death, poverty, bondage of every kind, demonic oppression, fear, doubt, unbelief ..... shall we go on?
Yet, for the most part, the body of Christ today still treats the Table of the Lord as anaxios: to treat irreverently, to treat as commonplace and ordinary. There is nothing, and I do mean NOTHING about the Table of the Lord that is commonplace or ordinary. This is not a ritual. This is not some duty to keep. The Table of the Lord is a way of life, a manner of living. Eating of the Table of the Lord takes a person out of this time-space, sin-and-sickness-based, death-imposed realm and transports them into the eternity of eternities -- the Kingdom of God!
When we eat of the Bread of Life, we are eating of the Word Himself. But we have to do it with revelation and understanding. Otherwise it becomes just another "thing to do" as a Christian. Personally, I dislike -- no, I'll make it even stronger than that -- I detest the form and ritual that has turned our sacred Communion at the Table of the Lord into crackers or wafers and dinky little "communion cups" (so that folks don't transmit or catch some disease by drinking from a common cup).
When I was still at Long Beach Christian Center back in the 1970's, we stopped the "crackers-and-grape juice-in-communion cups" ritual and went to breaking a whole loaf of bread and drinking from a common cup or chalice. It began the transformation of my understanding of what it means to partake of the Lord's Table.
That was more than 35 years ago, and you couldn't pay me to go back to the old ritual! I've yet to see someone "catch something" by drinking of a common cup at the Table of the Lord. It just doesn't happen! That would make the Table of the Lord a lie -- and there is nothing but truth that emanates and is imparted when we eat and drink with revelation!
Wheww!!! We've just begun to scratch the surface. There's a whole lot more to go just dealing with the covenant picture of the Table. See you again in a few days.
The Lord has set a table before us that is fit for kings and priests -- and we are both in Him! We have a feast set before us designed to help us function as kings who rule and reign, and priests who worship and come before God's presence in boldness and joy.
Be blessed!
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
455 North River Road
Prosser, Washington 99350-6554
(509) 781-6099
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