Another Coffee Break - By Regner Capener
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Preparing the Bride of Christ For His Return By Janet Van Hierdan
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Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Heaven V: David
G ‘Mornin’!
Don’t remember if I’ve talked at all about our youngest granddaughter, Jasmine. She’s just shy of 2 ½ years old, our son Joshua’s daughter. Jasmine gets to spend weekends with us frequently (we don’t consider it babysitting – grin!) and she’s a real kick!
More and more she is reminding us of Jessica – who is now 8 years old – when she was that age, with her sensitivity to spiritual things. If you recall, I made reference in Heaven II to the fact that we were with the Lord in spirit form in Heaven long before we came into this world. If you missed that discussion I won’t take time to recall all of the Scriptures that back it up other than to refer you back to the second Coffee Break in this series on Heaven. My reference to that discussion will become clear momentarily.
Jasmine isn’t always talkative, and sometimes her conversation isn’t exactly clear. Like a lot of two-year-olds, she jabbers about this and that occasionally and you really have to listen closely to figure out what she’s talking about. This past Sunday afternoon she was sitting at the kitchen counter having a snack with Grandma Della.
Della periodically talks to Jasmine about spiritual things just to input these values in her life and to see her responses. Sunday, however, Della decided to pose a question to Jasmine on the spur of the moment. Jasmine hadn’t been talking or saying anything because she was focused on her snack. Della says to her, “Jasmine, did you know that you were with Jesus in Heaven before you were born here?”
Jasmine stops, looks at Della and says very clearly and matter-of-fact, “Yes, Grandma!”
Della did a double-take! Beyond the fact that both she and I can remember times and events when we were very young that we both realized we were far older than our earth years and had a very intimate knowledge of the Lord, we have both met and talked to many adults throughout the years who have nearly identical memories. This, however, was the first time either of us had heard or seen a young child who was consciously aware of it.
I know this is taking things out of sequence in terms of my experiences in Heaven but because I’ve been seeing and remembering my conversations with David it seemed appropriate to pick up with him today and talk about Joseph and then Moses in a later Coffee Break.
For whatever reason, David appeared even younger than any of the others with whom I had talked. Even today thinking back on those discussions and remembering the image still firmly planted in my memory, he appeared to me to be in his early 30’s. Although I had a chance to see him briefly in his royal robes as he appeared while reigning over Israel, he appeared to me mostly in white. My first experience, however, was with him as a shepherd.
Whether it was because I had a fascination with the Psalms, or whether it was because of my six years (at that point) of playing musical instruments, questioning began and gravitated around the subject of the Psalms.
My first question to David was, “How did you write the Psalms? How could you come out with such wonderful praise and worship in a way that no one else did?”
Again, whether I was transported there in the Spirit or simply allowed to see the events through David’s eyes, I do not know. What I do know is that I saw David sitting on the hillsides tending his father’s sheep as he began to share how the Spirit of God flowed through him.
“I fell in love with the Lord God in my early youth,” he said. “Going with my father or my older brothers out into the fields gave me time to be alone and meditate on the Lord. I learned to play a small harp and carried it with me. As more and more responsibility was given me over the care and watch of the sheep, I had more and more time to sit back on the grassy slopes, close my eyes, and just get lost in the presence of the Lord.”
In a split second we were back – or at least I was again aware of being in Heaven – and David and I were walking into a stunning section of city with palatial structures and remarkable architecture. (And, by the way, the streets were made of gold so fine it was almost transparent! I’ll talk more about this later.) The sounds of praise and worship as a sea of music had changed from that which I had been hearing and more distinct words and musical structure became apparent.
David continued. “You’ve been hearing these sounds of praise and worship and adoration since you’ve been here,” he said, “and if you pay attention you will hear some of the same words I used as I sang the Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. I didn’t write those. They originated here among the angels. I’m sure you will have the chance to see the Throne and the angelic worship that surrounds it, but this kind of praise, worship and adoration was going on long before I ever came on the scene.
“The more time I spent in praise and worship of the Lord, the more opportunity I had to hear what God hears continually. He simply allowed me to transfer a tiny portion of it into the earthly realm for others to hear and share.”
With scarcely a blink of the eye we were back in David’s era and sitting on a hillside. This time he had a rather elegant but simple harp. His fingers brushed across the strings and suddenly I saw what he had been allowed to see. The words of the 8th Psalm flooded us and the presence of the Lord – really it was the Glory of the Lord – saturated the place where we were sitting. David began to sing as he had sung in his early years. The words flowed, however, with a familiarity that came from having sung them many times. I thought it was really remarkable – “cool” actually – to hear him sing those words to different melodies as he sang, sometimes hummed, almost shouted at times.
“O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set Thy Glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider Thy Heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; what is man that Thou art mindful of him? And the son of man that Thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than God, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”
It was as though Creation was unfolding all over again before our eyes. We were seeing glimpses of the genesis of the universe, the earth and man’s careful crafting in God’s own likeness and image. To say the least, it was a WOW experience!
It was an experience I didn’t want to leave. It was one of those times when you just want to bask in the presence of the Lord and saturate yourself with Him. It would leave an indelible impression in my being -- one that has never gone away. Once you have experienced that sense of the Lord’s presence, the indescribable love, the weight of His Glory… well, there is simply nothing earthly that can substitute. The greatest excitements of this earthly realm that I’ve known in the roughly sixty years since this trip to Heaven took place pale into insignificance by comparison!
I’m getting ahead of myself in saying this, but you’ll quickly understand and appreciate that I was literally captivated by that sense of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. When it came time for me to leave Heaven sometime later, I can promise you that everything inside of me screamed, “NOOOO!!! I don’t want to leave!”
Though there are times when that sense of God’s presence are more conscious and tangible than others, I can honestly say that there has never been a day in my life since when I have not been aware of His presence with me. Nothing can take it away! Even when I’ve made some serious screw-ups in my life, terrible decisions and blunders that I look back on and shake my head in wonderment, He has always been there.
I guess I relate to David as much or more than anyone else throughout history. I understand why the Lord loved him like He does and why David has always been regarded as “a man after God’s own heart” – screw-ups and all. God cared less about David’s blunders (even though David certainly reaped what he sowed) than He did about his heart and passion for the presence of the Lord – not only for himself, but for all of Israel. Ahh, but I’m getting ahead of myself again.
One of the things I’ve forgotten to mention is that although I was having these conversations with Abraham, with Isaac, with Jacob, with David – and all the others – Jesus never left. He was always nearby. Sometimes He would smile, sometimes nod His head, and sometimes just give a knowing wink of agreement. He never interfered in the conversations or added something to them, but His visible presence was a guiding factor to the course of every discussion.
As our conversation resumed, David began to talk about the visions he’d received – the impartation of instrument designs. Some of this revelation occurred while he was still tending sheep and some of it took place after he’d become King of Israel.
“The more time I spent in praise and worship to the Lord and the more I heard the sounds coming from Heaven I asked the Lord how to make those sounds. My desire was to duplicate here for men and women to hear and to respond to that realm, that sound, that presence of the Lord that comes through the re-creation of the notes, the chords, the drumbeats of the angels.”
David pointed to my hands and said, “The stringed instruments you are learning to play were derived from the psalteries I originally created from the visions received during my times of praise and worship. Stay with your practice. Become skilled as a musician so that you, too, can draw people into the presence of the Lord with your praise and worship.”
[Note: Although David’s instruction to “become skilled as a musician” kind of faded into the background over the years, those words were engraved in my spirit to the place where – as time progressed – I almost(?) became obsessed with practice and developing more and more musical skills. In a Coffee Break titled “Guitars” published several years ago, I noted how my obsession to become “the world’s greatest guitar player” brought me to the place at age 24 when my longtime-friend and fellow minister of the Gospel, Dwain McKenzie, said to me one day, “Reg, the Lord is going to require you to put that guitar on the altar.”
Not until my prized custom-made guitar was stolen from me a little over a year later did those words come to mean something; and it would still be another year before I would cry out to the Lord to do whatever it took to create the heart of David within me so that I would become that kind of spontaneous praiser and worshiper. It was during that same period that the Lord made it possible for me to purchase a rare, literally priceless Ramirez flamenco guitar. That instrument was dedicated to the Lord and has been used only for praise and worship in the 40-plus years since.]
I realized as David was talking about creating (we would call him an inventor, but from his perspective he simply duplicated what he saw in Heaven) the different musical instruments that this was something that spanned much of his life. He began creating musical instruments while still in his youth, experimenting with different woods, animal skins, coming up with varying thicknesses of strings for the psalteries, the harps and the other varied stringed instruments he worked on in order to create musical sounds.
In his later years as a soldier, then on the run for his life from Saul, and again later as King, he was more and more occupied with other activities so that he had less time to spend creating. And yet the creative juices in him never stopped. He used his time as much as possible to bring the Heavenly realm he had become so used to in the realm of praise and worship, prayer and intercession, to Israel.
I can see that I won’t have time today to get into the things he talked about as he sketched the design of the temple and planned for the day when all Israel would get to taste of what he knew, experienced and saw of the Lord. That will wait until after the Christmas holiday season when we talk about David’s experiences with the Lord as King of Israel.
It never ceases to amaze me even to this day how much was implanted in my spirit and mind and subconscious as a result of my conversations and experiences in Heaven. Looking back to the days (to me the time was roughly analogous to three earth days though there certainly was no night) I spent in conversations as well as the things that the Lord showed me, I’ve come to realize that I’ve known things about the Lord, His plan and purpose for His people, and the destiny He has designed for all of us my entire life. There have – I’m sad to say – been periods of time in which I have not thought much about those things and my focus has been in other places, but the Lord always brings me back to the central objective.
One of the things I’ve learned as a result of my experiences in Heaven is that the more time you spend in the presence of the Lord, the more He “downloads” into you. We are not always conscious of the impartations that are taking place, and sometimes we are totally oblivious to the revelations until days, weeks – even years – have passed. Things come to mind that we think of as then-current revelation, but the truth is that the Holy Spirit continually implants Himself and the knowledge of the Lord into those who entire being thirsts after an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
We’ll be talking more about this in the days and weeks to come, but this is a good place to take a break. See you again early in January.
Next: Heaven VI: King David.
Never have we seen such a time in history as this! Never has there been a more urgent need for the pursuit of the presence of the Lord in our lives! Never has it been so critical that the body of Christ understand Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. CapenerCAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Prosser, Washington 99350
(509) 515-0133
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.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Heaven IV: The Patriarchs, Part 3
Hiya, Folks! This is the best day of your life! Sure it is. Yesterday’s gone, and tomorrow isn’t here yet. Fact is, you’re downright dangerous! Hohohohoho…….
Now wouldn’t you rather start Friday 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 super dark-roasted French Roast in your French Press, or somethin’ like that! Wake up, sleepy!
Now wouldn’t you rather start Friday 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 super dark-roasted French Roast in your French Press, or somethin’ like that! Wake up, sleepy!
If you’re among the new subscribers reading this for the first time, the first three parts of this series are available at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. If you would rather have them in printable format, let me know and I’ll email them to you. My thanks, by the way, to all of the comments I’ve received from so many of you. I appreciate knowing that you are being blessed and encouraged by this sharing.
One more note: some folks have asked me how I can remember so much detail from an event that took place nearly 60 years ago. Honestly, much of what I experienced is still so vivid in me that it is almost like it happened yesterday. Other details have refreshed in my memory just by sitting back and being quiet before the Lord. Beyond that, my cousin Dawn’s request for me to have this experience actually recorded like this was the timing of the Lord. As I have thought back to the event much has come back to me, and the more I think on it and write, the more the Holy Spirit refreshes my memory. In some ways it is almost like I am re-living the event again.
We left off in the last Coffee Break just as I was meeting Jacob. We’ll pick up my conversations with him momentarily.
One of the things I’ve neglected to mention thus far is the modes of transportation experienced in Heaven during this trip. Sure, there were the walks that I took with some of those with whom I conversed as well as the hand-in-hand walks with Jesus. There were, however, those times when – as we were talking – we were suddenly “blinked” into different environments or locations. By that I mean that the image of the place being described was planted in my mind and “blink” (or faster than you can blink your eye) we were there. No, it wasn’t a vision: we were actually in the new location.
Then there were the times when walking with Jesus that we came to homes – palaces would probably be more of an accurate description – and we simply passed through the walls. Doors weren’t necessary to gain entrance, although I didn’t see any buildings or structures without doors or windows. You’ll excuse the pun, but the architecture was simply “out of this world.” In many instances what I saw defied natural understanding, and yet it all seemed so logical and simple while there in Heaven.
As an example, I saw towering buildings that seemed to be made of some kind of metallic transparent material. There were elegant and adorned paths or walks leading to where you would expect to see some kind of doorway, but people came and went from those “buildings” (Sorry! I just don’t know what else to call them.) passing through what appeared at first glance as solid walls. In one instance when I approached the “entrance” the wall dissolved into a transparent opening. It looked solid, but I could pass through it as easily as if walking through a natural open doorway.
As already noted previously in this series, I was constantly surrounded by a light that simply radiated from everywhere. Revelation 21:23-24 best describes it like this:
“And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.”
Thirty-odd years ago, I put a portion of the 89th Psalm to music. Psalm 89:15 describes my experience very well:
“Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.”
That’s it! Not only did I walk in the literal light of the Lord, I was surrounded by the joyful sound of praise and worship – continuously – 24 hours a day (grin). Of course there was no time being measured by the clock while I was in Heaven, and yet I was aware of a passage of equivalent time during my stay. To the best of my understanding, I spent the equivalent of three days or so in Heaven (and I’ll talk more about that later.)
Like his father before him, Jacob was ready for my questions and began answering before I actually verbalized them.
My first question – and it was formed as a thought – related to Jacob’s participation in the deception that gained him the blessing of his father, Isaac, in the place of his brother, Esau.
“I know what you want to ask,” he said, “so I’ll save you the trouble of asking.
“I knew the Blessing my father had received from Grandfather Abraham. I saw what the Blessing of the Lord had done in Grandfather’s life and the extraordinary place he had with God. That Blessing had been passed on to Father and he had experienced many of the same things I’d heard of in Grandfather.
“For some reason I’ve never been able to understand, my brother, Esau, didn’t see the value of anything spiritual. He easily gave up his birthright just to satisfy the hunger of his flesh for food. There is spiritual value in the birthright and I was glad he was willing to trade it away. In the years since that had taken place, I had seen nothing in Esau that desired the same walk with God that my father and grandfather knew. The Blessing was integral to that walk and there was a thirst, a craving, something I didn’t know how to put into words that cried out within me to have that same kind of relationship.
“When Mother saw that Father had decided the time had come to impart that same Blessing (and we had talked about it many times) she contrived a way for me to deceive Father. He had, as you know, told Esau to prepare him venison. It was his favorite thing to eat and Esau was good at preparing it. Mother overheard Father tell Esau that he was going to bless him after eating of his venison. She knew how to prepare goat meat so that it would taste exactly like venison.
“When I realized what was happening, despite my fear that the deception would be found out, it was unthinkable to me that Esau would get the Blessing because of all the disparaging things he had said about it in times past. I knew it was wrong to deceive Father, but the value of the relationship with God was worth too much to me and I was determined to have that.
“I guess my problem was that I didn’t realize then that God saw my heart. Had I been patient He would have seen to it that Esau wouldn’t receive something of such great spiritual impact he would disregard and treat so cavalierly.
“To tell the truth, it was many years before I realized how much deception had become a part of my character. It was ingrained in me and I just didn’t know how to do things any other way.”
As Jacob poured out his tale it was easy to see why the Lord had blessed him with the Blessing of Abraham and Isaac! I saw in him that same thing that God seeks after in His people today: the hunger and thirst for righteousness, the insatiable craving for the presence of the Lord – the desire to know the Lord in the same intimate way He knows us.
Seeing through Jacob’s eyes as he shared, I saw that Esau ultimately developed a respect for who God is but never desired a relationship with Him. He saw the Blessing of his father and grandfather as something that would make him rich and powerful in the eyes of the world around him. He wanted the benefits of the Blessing without being willing to pay the cost spiritually.
Jacob had paused momentarily in his sharing, and he continued.
“You remember when I left Laban’s house according to the Word of the Lord to return home? Remember how, on the way, I was told that Esau was coming to meet me?”
I nodded my head as the scenes flashed before me remembering what I’d read in Genesis 31 and 32.
“For the first time in my life I realized how much the fear of death had driven me and why I was such a deceiver. I had deceived repeatedly throughout my life, and I had been deceived in return. I hated what I was seeing in myself. Fear had motivated so much of my actions that it was ruling my life. It had become part and parcel of my character, my personality, my makeup.
“When the Angel of the Lord wrestled with me that night at the brook Jabbok and I realized who I was wrestling with, I saw the opportunity for my character and nature to be changed by God in an instant. I hung onto that Angel for dear life and when he said to let him go, that was the moment for me to insist on a change of nature.
“You understand, don’t you, that names are more than identifiers of a particular person? Names are prophetic pictures. They are character descriptions, character references, marks of personality and makeup. Your name is Regner, but that’s not just some name your parents gave you; it is prophetic and given by God to mark you as a king, as someone who will rule and have charge – someone who will be given great responsibility in and over the lives of people.
“My name was Jacob. It was my character. It was who I was and prophetic of what I would be. I was a supplanter, a trickster, a cheat, a deceiver. It was what I did when I first came out of my mother’s womb. I didn’t want that kind of character anymore. My personality needed change – and only the kind of change that God could give me.
“When the Angel of the Lord demanded that I let him go, it was my opportunity. My father had blessed me and given me the Blessing of Abraham – my grandfather – but it was time for me to have the Lord bless me directly. With that blessing would come change and empowerment for change in my life.
“And that’s exactly what I received! The Angel said to me, “Your name will no longer be Jacob – the deceiver, the supplanter – but Israel. Now you are a prince, and as a prince you have power with God and with men. As a prince you have prevailed with God.”
“Jacob is not my name, or my character, or my personality any longer. I’m not a Jacob: I’m an Israel – a prince, a ruler with God, under Him, and ruling by His decree!”
In some ways by now my head was almost swimming. The revelations that were coming forth from the back-to-back-to-back conversations with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel were sinking in. A very different and fresh revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ was unfolding for me. I was beginning to see and understand the difference between people who mouth the name of God – in essence, using God’s name in vain – and those who have paid the price for a real, personal and intimate relationship with Him.
With Abraham’s obedience to that at-first-unknown voice of God, and then pursuit of a relationship with Him in an era when literally the whole earth was following after false gods – man-made gods – Isaac’s pursuit of that same relationship and obedience to the Lord under impossible circumstances, and the heart-cry of Jacob that God heard and responded to, bringing and changing Jacob into Israel, I saw the heart of the Lord for genuine intimacy, for fellowship, for communion, for an interchange of real love – not just cheap words – with mankind. I was seeing and understanding Creation like I’d never understood it before.
All of Creation came into being so that God could have intimate fellowship on His peer level with beings like Him, made in His image and likeness, whose character and personality would choose Him and fellowship with Him at all costs above everyone and everything else!
I saw for the first time that Satan’s treachery in the Garden, and his deception of Eve did not catch the Lord by surprise. He knew it was going to take place. He was ready for it. And in that knowledge He set the stage for people to choose Him over and above all the enticements that the world would offer, and over and above all the enticements that Satan would present with his wiles and deception.
It was the overcoming process! I was seeing the pattern unfold. In that instant there was an inkling of what I was likely going to hear in all of the conversations that would unfold in the time/days/period to come while I was in Heaven. If Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel were any indication, this overcoming process was going to be repeated again and again and again in the stories and adventures I would hear shared from Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.,…… not to mention Peter, James, John, Paul and the other apostles.
One of the things I wanted to talk to Jacob about was his experience when he first left home and saw the staircase into Heaven with angels ascending and descending. This was of particular interest to me since I had experienced something nearly identical some four years earlier. The main difference between my experience and Jacob’s was that he saw the Lord standing at the top of the staircase; and the Lord spoke to him on that occasion to reinforce and reaffirm the Covenant he had first made with Abraham, and then Isaac.
He described the appearance of the angels as “innumerable” on a stairway – almost a circular staircase – that spiraled heavenward. Whether the Lord simply gave him telescopic vision to see into Heaven or whether He shortened the distance for the sake of Jacob’s experience (and mine, for that matter), Jacob said that his view of Heaven was as if viewing through a widening portal. He could easily see the Lord standing there.
The experience of seeing a stairway to Heaven is not unique to Jacob. Others have experienced this too. I may or may not have shared with you the experience we had at the Calgary Stampede in 1995. Lindsay Roy (now Lindsay Rempel), a young lady we consider as being among our adopted daughters, was working with us (we were helping friends use “The Country Kitchen” as a means to raise funds to send kids to summer camp) when she had an experience of seeing a stairway coming down out of Heaven and angels coming into the midst of the crowds at the Stampede fairgrounds. She was surprised to see them change appearance as their feet touched the ground, and they appeared as normal people.
It wasn’t just a dream or a vision. Lindsay saw something that was actually happening – even though to her it seemed as a dream or vision. She shared her experience with all of us. Michael and Melissa (Sharpe) were working with us and they decided to take a break and get a latte from the Starbucks’ stand a little distance away.
Michael was saying to Melissa as they walked, “I sure would like to see something like that.” A tour bus had stopped fairly close to their path and people were disembarking and mingling. Michael turned to see a lady standing close by. Without any other word of introduction, she said to Michael, “I’m one of them,” and proceeded to vanish. You can bet that Michael and Melissa beat a hasty path back to the kitchen to tell us what had just happened.
OK, it wasn’t a Jacob’s ladder experience exactly, but close enough! This was no dream. It was one of many unusual supernatural experiences we had during our Stampede adventures.
I’d originally planned to talk about Moses next, but think I’ll hold that for later. I’ve been revisiting my experiences and conversations with David. Because it is so fresh right now I think we’ll go there in our next Coffee Break.
Following next week’s sharing about David – and it may run a bit longer than the usual Coffee Breaks – I’ll be taking a break for the Christmas season, and will return early in January.
Next: Heaven V: David.
Never have we seen such a time in history as this! Never has there been a more urgent need for the pursuit of the presence of the Lord in our lives! Never has it been so critical that the body of Christ understand Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. CapenerCAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Prosser, Washington 99350
(509) 515-0133
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.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Heaven III:The Patriarchs, Part 2
Good Morning and Happy Thanksgiving!
It’s been a couple of years or more since I quoted from any research articles or papers on the subject of coffee, but here’s one for you to take a look at. This one deals with coffee’s ability to cancel bad breath.
Yup. That’s what I said. New research has demonstrated that certain coffee extracts actually can cancel bad breath. Read it for yourself: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/132100
While you’re reading, pour yourself a good cup from the French Press – the darkest brew you can get. You’ll liiiiike it!
Before I resume my sharing on Heaven, let me first wish you all the best Thanksgiving you’ve ever had. Despite the economic woes that have hit this nation and much of the world, there aren’t any of us who don’t have things to be thankful for. 2010 has been a year of spectacular change – and a year of some of the most remarkable experiences in the Lord we’ve ever had. The presence of the Glory of the Lord surrounding us and being in and with us has increased in the past year by a quantum leap.
Despite much shaking, sifting and change taking place in us and in our fellowship we wouldn’t trade where we are in the Lord for anything! The change and the spiritual growth are worth everything it has cost thus far, and we are determined to have God’s best manifested and operational in our lives. Our objective is to be readied for the Lord Jesus Christ as His Counterpart, His Other Self – a people of whom He can joyfully say, “This is My Bride!”
Thank you, Lord, for 2010 and all that you’ve done in us, with us, for us and to us this year!
When we left off last week, I’d just shared Abraham’s comments to me where he answered my question like this: “Once you’ve heard the voice of God, there is no other voice!”
Reflecting back on the nearly sixty years that have passed since, I can attest to that statement. The call of God that comes with that audible voice – no matter whether the voice is audible in your natural ears or your spiritual ears – establishes something in you that no one can steal from you or convince you otherwise by great argument.
I grew up watching the impact of my Dad having heard the voice of God saying to him, “I want you to go to Alaska for me,” and seeing the results that came from it. Dad plowed through every conceivable obstacle and ignored the odds stacked against him. Despite religious arguments to the contrary, as well as the advice and instruction of his denominational peers and superiors, the voice of the Lord rang in his being to the day he went home! He never deviated from what God commanded.
Like my father before me, I’ve been the topic of much controversy and opposition because of the path I’ve walked in God, but having heard the voice of the Lord clearly – not once, but many times – and knowing that voice, has been the steadying factor throughout my life.
My conversation with Abraham continued as he described his trek through Canaan, his journey into Egypt, his screw-up in introducing Sarah as his sister and the way in which God turned it for a blessing in his life.
One of the things that amazed me as he described his walk with God was the revelation of much the fear of death ruled him despite the numerous experiences he had in both seeing the Lord visibly and having angels appear with messages from God. Time after time after time again he would see the Lord, hear and respond and then have Satan attack him with fear.
I said to him, “You must have received deliverance or have overcome that fear by the time you took Isaac up to Moriah to offer him up as a sacrifice.”
Once again I was permitted to see into his experiences and his emotions and feelings. I understood perhaps for the first time the Scriptures that record, “…and Jesus, knowing their thoughts…” (Matthew 9:4, Luke 11:17). There is a knowing in your being that you simply don’t question. It is as clear as anything can be.
Can I deviate for just a minute to share with you a personal example of how this worked in me many years later? During the years I was at Long Beach Christian Center we had an instance where a lady in great distress came to see Dwain (McKenzie) for counsel. After Dwain had listened to her for a few minutes he called me into his office and asked her to repeat what she had just shared.
She did so and then stepped out of the office for a minute. Dwain said to me, “OK, Brother. Give me your take on this.”
The answer was clear to me. I knew the inside of that woman almost better than she knew herself. I said to Dwain, “Brother, this woman is a practicing lesbian. In fact she takes the male role in the relationship. The conviction of the Holy Spirit is tearing her apart and she doesn’t know what to do with it because she is a professing Christian.”
Turned out she was a Sunday School teacher at a large Charismatic fellowship in the Los Angeles area. She was afraid to talk to her pastor and figured she could safely come and talk to someone else who was a fair distance away without jeopardizing her position.
When she came back into the office, Dwain said to her, “Would you like to hear what Regner just said about your situation?”
She nodded her head, and he continued. “He says you are a lesbian, and you are playing the male role in the relationship.”
Her face turned dark, she stood to her feet, went out of the office and slammed the door. Moments later she came back and said, “You can’t have known that! I’ve never told anyone! How did you know that?”
I answered her, “You can’t hide anything from the Holy Spirit, and He is the revealer of all truth.”
That lady was set free that day and delivered from a spirit of sexual perversion which had tormented her for years. We baptized her the following Sunday. Her former partner, unfortunately, rejected the Word of the Lord.
Sorry for the side-trip, but I just wanted to show you what happened that day in Heaven. The revelation of what Abraham went through was nothing less than marvelous! I saw the patience of the Lord with Abraham because his heart was perfect before God. Once he’d heard God’s voice, he was going to obey the voice of the Lord, no matter what!
We talked about the time he heard the Lord tell him to take Isaac up to the hills or mountains of Moriah (his great-great (etc.)-grandfather, Shem, had his citadel not far from there) and offer him as a sacrifice. As he shared it,
“I had seen God do so many things for me throughout more than 50 years (Abraham was somewhere between 125 and 130 years of age at the time), and His covenant was so established in my being that I knew without a doubt things were going to be OK. I knew that if I killed Isaac and succeeded in offering him up as a burnt sacrifice, God was going to do a miracle and raise him back from the ashes.
“The fear of death was gone from me. I had no question that God would not fulfill His covenant with me through Isaac as He had promised. When the Angel of the Lord stayed my hand and I saw the ram, my faith was fully justified.”
Now it was time for my conversation to shift to Isaac. He was standing nearby and had listened to my conversation with his father. Once again as it was with Abraham and seeing him as a vibrant, healthy man, so it was with Isaac. Most of the pictures I’d seen up to this point (and in fact, most of the pictures today that portray Isaac) displayed him at or near the 180 years of age he was when he died. Just about any picture you look at shows him blind and feeble. The Isaac I saw was anything but. He appeared as a man in his late thirties, perhaps near forty as he was when Eliezer brought Rebekah to him, full of vim, vigor and vitality.
Thinking back my judgment of height was probably distorted because of my young age, but he wasn’t a short man by any stretch. Appearing perhaps two inches taller than his father, I’d have guessed him to be over six feet in height.
My momentary image of Abraham picking him up and laying him on the altar, arms and legs bound with ropes just didn’t fit what I was seeing. Abraham was no weakling! This guy looked like someone who worked out regularly, so his story of the events when his father awakened him that fateful morning and told him they were going to offer a sacrifice to the Lord was more than a little enlightening.
“What did you think,” I asked, “when your dad woke you up and told you that you were going to offer a sacrifice?”
“My father had told me of his many experiences of hearing the Lord, seeing the Lord, and having visitations of angels, and although we hadn’t been offering any sacrifices that I could remember, it just seemed like everything was normal.”
“What about when you asked your father where the lamb was for the burnt offering,” I continued. “What were you thinking about?”
“We were into the third day of our journey into the hills. Father was getting ready to prepare the altar, I was carrying the wood, he had a burning torch in one hand and a knife in the other. I hadn’t seen any evidence of a lamb. The two servants who accompanied us had stayed behind with the asses and the food provisions a couple of hours before.”
Isaac tilted his head back and smiled. He was obviously remembering the instant, and in that moment it was as though I’d been transported to the scene to see it in person.
“Weren’t you scared to death when your father suddenly took your hands and began to rope them together?” I asked.
“There was a momentary flicker of fear but a supernatural presence of the Lord settled over me and quieted my spirit. I had no rational explanation for what was taking place. It was like my whole being was put into a restful state. I knew without knowing why I knew that Father was being obedient to the Lord and that something miraculous was about to take place. I was able to relax as he picked me up and put me on the altar. Even the sight of his upraised hand with that knife in it didn’t rouse me. It was almost like I was looking at the event in the third person and thinking, Hmmmmm…this is interesting! I wonder what comes next. Subconsciously, I think, my body still tensed up.”
Isaac’s response obviously answered questions that were forming in my mind even before I could speak them. His face had an expression of enormous joy as he continued, “When the Angel of the Lord appeared and I heard his voice, the tension left and my whole body relaxed. Seeing that ram caught in those branches was almost funny. I just knew that God had a sense of humor in his timing. I also knew somehow that what was taking place had some kind of strong prophetic significance to it, although what that significance was escaped me at the time.”
My conversations with Isaac were wide-ranging and it isn’t possible to recount everything in an article like this, but let me recount two others because of their importance.
John (in Revelation 21:16) describes Heaven as a city 1500 miles wide, 1500 miles long and 1500 miles high (12,000 furlongs). Obviously, I didn’t see the whole of Heaven in this visit – nor for that matter in any subsequent visits – but what I saw made it almost seem as if each tier (and there are apparently many tiers from what I saw and experienced) was like a country unto itself. Do the math. 1500 X 1500 = 2,250,000 square miles. That’s the area of each tier. I lived in Alaska for most of my life and it is easily two and a half times the size of Texas at 586,000 square miles. We think of Alaska as a vast land, but it pales in comparison to just one tier of Heaven. When you cross the Brooks Range into arctic Alaska, it is almost like being on another planet!
I said all that to say that my conversation with Isaac paused for a bit as we got up and began to walk through what seemed to be an endless field. We could just as easily have been in the same field where Isaac was meditating on the things of God when he saw the coming camel train with Rebekah silhouetted against a red-streaked sky and a setting sun, so graphic was Isaac’s description.
“Did you know that your father had sent Eliezer to find a wife for you,” I asked as we re-lived that moment.
“Yes,” he responded. “My mother and I had shared a wonderful relationship with each other. It was the only real feminine companionship I’d had for the first 37 years of my life. The servants were there of course, and there were many young maidens among them who caught my eye momentarily, but the “knowing” that comes within your spirit wasn’t there. It had been three years since Mother had passed on and I was beginning to feel the need for someone – a counterpart, an “other self” – who would fulfill me like Mother fulfilled Father and vice-versa.
“Eliezer had long been Father’s most trusted servant and faithful steward. When he left to fulfill his mission, I was aware of it; and I knew that he would choose wisely and effectively. There was great anticipation in me and excitement during the waiting time, and yet I had peace.”
Re-living the scene when Isaac first saw Rebekah was revelatory. I can’t say that I fully understood what I was seeing at that moment, not having yet reached my tenth birthday, but something was communicated in the realm of the spirit that later bore fruit. Eliezer had done his job well. In a very real sense he had served as a paraklete. When he delivered Rebekah to Isaac, Isaac saw everything in Rebekah that he had desired and expected. She was indeed his counterpart, his “other self.” What I saw take place was an instant reciprocal communication of love between the two of them, and it was a love that lasted their lifetimes.
I began to think about the two sons that came of their union – Jacob and Esau – and Isaac saw what I was thinking. “Come on,” he said, “and I’ll introduce you to Jacob – Israel!”
We met back at the bench where I’d talked with Abraham. Jacob – like Abraham and Isaac – was in the prime of life looking, I would imagine, much like he did when he went to work for Laban – tanned, outdoorsy, muscular… you get the picture.
Seeing Jacob in this way made me look around at other people. None were really close to us, other than a few passers-by. No one looked old! You understand my reference point from my youth, but there were no “gray-hairs,” no “old” people. I realized that being with the Lord and being in His presence had a powerful effect on people’s appearance. When Jesus was talking with Martha (upon the occasion of Lazarus having died) He said to her, “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?” (See John 11:25-26)
No kidding! All Jesus had to do was speak Lazarus’ name and he came forth out of the tomb alive and restored! Ditto for me when I was 41 years of age. When Della spoke life back into me and the doctor later did a complete physical, he told me that I had all the markings and youth of someone at least 20 years my junior. Gone were the traces of former diseases and sicknesses that had been resident in my body. I had all the youth of a 20-year-old. (And I still do to this day!) My last physical earlier this year pretty much said the same thing. The doctor told me that my blood work was that of someone between 25 and 40 years of age – not someone nearing age 70.
It was more of a curiosity to me 60 years ago that everyone I met in Heaven was so youthful and vibrant in their appearance. Now, all these years later, I completely understand! The presence of the Lord does that to people!
Well, I’ve run out of time for today. Guess I’ll pick up my discussions with Jacob in the next Coffee Break. See you then.
Next: Heaven III: The Patriarchs, Part 3.
Never have we seen such a time in history as this! Never has there been a more urgent need for the pursuit of the presence of the Lord in our lives! Never has it been so critical that the body of Christ understand Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. CapenerCAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Prosser, Washington 99350
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