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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Monday, May 28, 2012
Another Coffee Break:
THE CALL OF THE BRIDEGROOM
Part 1
Greetings to you all in the name of our Lord and Bridegroom, Jesus Christ!
With all that the Lord has been doing in our midst, and all the changes that have been and are occurring, it seemed appropriate to cover the significant things He has been speaking, as well as some of the things we have been experiencing.
First and foremost, the Holy Spirit has been sounding a clarion call to the Bride. That call has been to intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ -- our Bridegroom. This call is different from anything heard in previous generations, or moves of the Holy Spirit.
Where, in previous generations, the call has primarily been heard within the "Church, or corporate "Body of Christ" for a people who would grow up in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, this call has been for a people who will come away from the "Church" -- away from everything they have known in the past: their doctrines, their understanding of the Lord, their "ministries," their gifts, their talents -- everything -- and lay them down. This is a call to an intimate, personal love relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself. His desire is for a Bride whose only priority is Him! Just Him!
Allow me for a moment to sound like a radical. Jesus Christ, our Bridegroom, is not calling us to prayer! Not intercession! Not Bible study! Not preaching or teaching! Not the singing of Praise! Not listening to good teaching CD's, or praise CD's! Not being involved in church activities! Not doing things for the Lord in order to please Him! Not preparing for "end times," or worrying about the "rapture!" Not concentrating on what needs to be done in order to prepare for His coming! Not praying for the sick, ministering deliverance, or laying hands on people!
It sounds almost heretical, doesn't it? These are all the things we have known and done in the past. It is not that there is anything wrong with prayer, intercession, Bible study, preaching, teaching, praise, etc. In fact, these things are a natural part of our existence as believers. All of these things are areas to which the Lord has previously called and directed our attention. It is, simply, that the Holy Spirit is drawing attention to the fact that these things have become priorities which have supplanted the priority which is the deepest desire of our Bridegroom's heart. The Holy Spirit is instructing us to come and spend time with the Bridegroom, and set aside all of these things -- and everything else He addresses -- as the important, priority activities.
Let me clarify these remarks lest the Enemy twist things out of context for some. Each of these areas of activity have been important parts of our foundation in the Lord, and coming to know about Him. They are essential introductions in getting to know Him. Referring to one of the last Coffee Breaks, this is all a part of that period of growth in our growing-up in God we know as "teknon." When we say that the Holy Spirit is calling and instructing the people of God to lay these things down, it is not -- and I repeat, not! -- that they do not continue to be a part of our lives.
What happens is that our emphasis and focus changes. They are no longer the central thrust of our lives. Of course we still pray and intercede as the Spirit of the Lord directs. Reading the Bible and meditating on that which is quickened by the Lord still remains an ingredient of our daily lives. Teaching......well, what do you call this Coffee Break?
Praise as a disciplined part of our daily life is a natural byproduct of our whole relationship with the Lord. It was repeatedly commanded by David -- under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit -- as a daily activity, and he certainly demonstrated it with his assignment of the families of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun to the daily ministry of praise and worship unto the Lord.
Yet, we are instructed not to stand still -- to be content doing the same things we have always done. We are being called onward. We are being called into His presence. We are being called to intimacy with Him.
Most prayer is inherently one-way communication. It incorporates supplication, intercession, pleadings and simple requests. Prayer -- or that which we think of as prayer, anyway -- is something which puts us in the role of the supplicant. The Lord Jesus Christ is looking for a whole lot more out of His Bride than "supplicants." While prayer begets answers, it does not beget the kind of intimacy that the Lord is after.
(I know this is going to get me in trouble with a lot of folks who will think I've wandered off the reservation and gotten myself into heresy. Bear with me, people! Bear with me. When I refer to "prayer" in this context, I'm only speaking of "prayer" within the traditional use of the word, NOT in the true scriptural context!)
Bible reading and meditation serve a wonderful purpose in that we can learn pattern principles of the heart's desire of the Bridegroom as we allow the Holy Spirit to teach us. The preaching and teaching we have received -- and continue to receive -- out of the life experiences of those who have learned and received from the Holy Spirit provides the fundamental foundations of growth in the way we relate to the Lord. Pattern principles, however, are no substitute for that real and personal, intimate love relationship sought after by the Lord.
Praise is an act of our will. It requires a mental thought process. With praise, we extol the Lord for His wonderful works and His greatness. We laud Him for the things He has done, and is doing. But praise is not worship, and worship is not praise. Praise comes from the intellect while worship comes from the spirit.
Jesus said, "An hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and truth, for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is a Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." (see John 4:23-24)
The call of the Paraklete, the Holy Spirit, therefore, is for a people who will "come away" with Him -- in the realm of the Spirit. This is a call to intimacy with Jesus Christ.
He does not want us to come predicated on the things we have done, or are doing. He is not impressed with our gifts, our talents, or our I.Q. since they came from Him to begin with. He is not impressed with our "ministerial" titles. He does not want us coming to "study" Him. He does not want us coming as supplicants, or intercessors. He wants us to come as His loving Bride, whose first and only priority is to love Him, and know Him.
Everything we have done in the past -- all the previous moves of the Holy Spirit -- have served to help us learn about Him. We have learned about His graces. We have learned about His gifts, and how to operate in them. We have learned about His ways, and caught glimpses of His plans and desires for the future. None of these things, however, have brought us into a place where we know Him as He knows us. None of these things, as wonderful as they have been, have brought us into the Holy of Holies. None of these things have brought us into a relationship with our Bridegroom-to-be which separates us from all activities, all doctrinal predispositions, and all other people so that we can be alone with Him.
Hence, the call of the Holy Spirit (and this call is going forth on a world-wide basis) is for believers who will become His Bride -- not just servants, and not just friends. It is a call to come away with Him into His secret place, and be alone with Him. (See Song of Solomon 2:14, Psalm 91:1.) This is a call to know Him -- not simply know about Him, His ways, His gifts, His graces, His ministries, etc. -- to know Him as our other self; and to be known as His counterpart, His other self: the Bride whom He has prepared as His co-equal, groomed, fitted, trained and equipped to sit with Him on His throne.
This is a call to know Him after the Spirit -- not after our flesh -- and, not after our intellect. This is a call to WORSHIP! It is, first and foremost, a call to personal worship -- a call to separate ourselves unto Him.
(By this, I don't mean that we should run away and hide in the wilderness, or to cut ourselves off from others.) We may, indeed, find ourselves cut off from others because we no longer perform to their expectations, or measure up to their religious standards. Let's make it clear, however, that we are not (and should never be) the ones who are cutting ourselves off.
A further note while we are on this topic: There is a dividing and separating which is taking place which we have nothing to do with. As the Holy Spirit calls, and we respond, there are brethren and sisters who, for reasons we do not know or understand, either have not heard, or have not responded to the call of the Bridegroom. Frequently, these are friends whom we have known, loved, and fellowshipped with for many years.
Our response to the Bridegroom's call necessarily causes separation. It is not something we choose or desire -- and it may not be a long-lasting separation -- but when we respond to the call to "come away", it is not a call to "come away with" our brethren and sisters: it is a call to come away with the Bridegroom. Hence, our response produces something within our spirits towards the Lord Jesus Christ which others may not understand, and is foreign to prior upbringing and indoctrination within the "church" structure.
Only as our brethren respond themselves will the gap be bridged and understanding be generated within their spirits. We do not want them cut off. We want to see them respond to the "romantic" beckoning of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, and must be, however, a decision which is strictly between them and the Holy Spirit.
The call of the Bridegroom is, secondly, a call to corporate worship. By this, I am referring to a gathering together of those who have individually heard His call and responded: Ekklesia in its purest form! These are those who have responded to the call of the Bridegroom, "Come away with me, my Beloved!"
They have left all to be alone with Him. In the corporate setting, the Holy Spirit brings these individuals together to experience a unique expression of intimacy in Him: unique in the sense that it is not available in any other way, and unique in the sense that none of us have ever before seen or heard the Bridegroom express Himself in such an extraordinary way.
Within this corporate setting, we find ourselves literally transported beyond our earthly setting into a dimension where the Lord reveals the things nearest and dearest to His heart; and where He allows us to see and experience His purposes -- then respond to Him. We are enabled to see, in graphic visual manner, events unfolding in the heavenlies, and instructed how to proceed.
Where, in time past, the focus of our attention has frequently been on intercession, or prayer for certain individuals, or the unfolding of specific events, we now find that with the focus of attention on ministering to the Lord -- worshiping and adoring Him -- things are accomplished in the realm of intercession without attention being specifically given to it. Needs are met, provision is made, bondage is broken, people are healed or delivered, families see the intervention of the Lord in their affairs, etc. It occurs, however, as Bridegroom and Bride -- in union -- accomplish it as a matter of natural course by virtue of their being joined together. There is singleness of purpose in this union -- and singleness of action.
There is a power and authority that none of us could possibly imagine released in the midst of this corporate worship. It is important to note that this is something the Lord does, and not something which we accomplish by any act of our will. There are no formulas to follow which can bring any of this about. It all takes place at His will and choosing in the midst of our corporate gatherings.
I've been reminiscing a bit, thinking back over the past 20-plus years since the Lord began to bring us into this dimension. None of this happened or began immediately when we first began to gather together for this kind of worship. Earle, Marcia, Della and I had been gathering together daily for months, disciplining ourselves to meet for worship, even if all we had was ten or fifteen minutes out of the day, in the midst of unbelievably hectic work schedules.
As we continued to meet daily, the Lord began to give us these experiences. At first they were sporadic. As the worship continued, however, we began to experience visions. The corporate gatherings increased in the number of people, and we found that we were, from time to time, being literally picked up and transported into the heavenlies. Sometimes this happened with only one or two people during the worship, and sometimes with many.
(I do not mean to imply that we were physically picked up -- that is, in the flesh. Rather, this happened (and continues to this day) in a spiritual dimension where we lost our awareness of those present; and the Lord transported us in the same way that the Apostle Paul relates in II Corinthians 12:2-4.)
It is important to remember that these experiences were not (nor can they be) the purpose of the corporate gathering. The excuse that "I am not an accomplished musician or singer," will not wash. It matters not whether you can sing like Whitney Houston, or carry a tune in a bucket. One does not have to be an Andres Segovia or a Chet Atkins to pick up the guitar and play.
We do not come to spend time with the Lord with expectations predicated on our musical skills or accomplishments -- even though those skills are a blessing from the Lord. Our gathering for worship is not a musical performance based in one's musicianship or vocal skills. There have been times when we have gathered with no instruments at all!
Two of the songs on one of our early recordings, THE BRIDE'S RESPONSE, "Arise, My Love, My Fair One," and, "I Will Come Away," came to Della when she was alone with the Lord -- and not even around others in a corporate setting. The Lord gave Earle the music to "The Processional," while he was driving down the freeway in his truck, worshipping the Lord. He grabbed his pocket recorder and whistled the tune into it in order to remember it and share it with me later. The Lord gave me "Arise, My Beloved! Arise!" when I was by myself in the bathtub. The common denominator in these is that they all came while we were worshiping -- alone.
By the same token, much of our music comes spontaneously while we are gathered together corporately. There are no formulas for this. The lack of musical backgrounds cannot be an excuse for not gathering. For those who struggle to enter into worship because of past programming within the structured "church," or have only understood and participated in praise, this should not be a block. The Lord takes us where we are. It is only necessary to ask Him to place a spirit of worship within you and to build upon it. He will do it -- in abundance!
We have been gone from Trails' End for 15 years but the gatherings continue, and the spontaneous praise, worship, prayer and intercession all continue. Being involved in this kind of spontaneous praise and worship as a musician is still amazing to me! I have frequently said to Rich Warren (who mostly plays the bass) that I find it totally astounding to watch him. We get started with some piece of spontaneous praise or worship and he just sits back, closes his eyes and gets lost in the Spirit.
We may have never played or even heard the music before, but he listens with his spirit to the flow of what the Holy Spirit is giving and tracks the music, hitting the right bass note flawlessly. He doesn't watch me, he doesn't pay attention to how my fingers are positioned on the neck of the guitar in order to get some cue as to where I may go next, and we don't have any discussion between us as to what we're doing. It just flows!
We continue to experience an incredible peace and joy which envelops our whole beings in the midst of this worship. It is transmitted through the music in a manner which defies natural explanation. Change is taking place in our beings as a result of living in this worship. We don't fully understand, yet, all that is taking place but know that the change is a product of the continuous presence of the Lord.
We are simply responding to the call of the Bridegroom to the Bride.
More to follow in our next Coffee Break.
"This a moment that I am drawing the line, and earthly orders are coming from the heavenly realms. Tune your ears to hear the instructions of Heaven, for you are living in a strategic moment when you will see kingdoms that have not been able to come down, come down. New strategies are coming down, and it is a strategy that will pierce the deepest darkness that could not be pierced in the past. Listen to the sounds of Heaven, for in the sounds of Heaven, you will hear your next step!" (Prophetic Word from Chuck Pierce)
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
CAPENER MINISTRIES
709 South 7th Street
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(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.
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CAPENER MINISTRIES is a tax-exempt church ministry. Should you desire to participate and covenant with us as partners in this ministry, please contact us at either of the above email or physical addresses, or visit http://www.RiverWorshipCenter.org.
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(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.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Another Coffee Break:
THE CALL OF THE BRIDEGROOM
Part 5
This is a bit tardy, but allow me to express my thanks to the more than one thousand people who sent me individual birthday greetings for my 70th birthday! Have to say that I was more than a little astonished to receive so many cards, letters and e-notes. It more than doubled the largest number of birthday wishes I've received in any prior years. All I can say is, WOW!!! Anyway, once again, Thank You!
This past weekend was one of the most rewarding experiences in intimate worship that I've seen in more than a decade. Asked to lead worship for a Full Gospel Businessmen's retreat, Rich Warren (close friend, brother, fellow-musician and bassist) joined me in leading somewhere between 120 and 150 men into the presence of the Lord. It would not be overstating things to say that there were more than a few moments when we experienced the Glory of the Lord tangibly.
When you hear more than a hundred men singing at the top of their voice, "Blessing and Honor and Glory and Power be unto the Lamb forever and ever" ..... well, words fail me!! Like I shared with a few folks with whom we fellowship regularly, your goose bumps get goose pimples! (Grin)
There were more than a few occasions when a holy hush settled over everyone and we just basked in the immediate presence of the Lord. One brother told me that he visibly saw angels with us as we worshiped.
As we have done for more than 20 years, the overwhelming majority of the worship and praise music was spontaneous. We had no list of songs to work from, no sheet music in front of any of the musicians, and -- except for Rich and me -- none of them had ever worked with us before; and none of them had ever been involved in a completely spontaneous setting like this before.
Last fall, Rich and I were invited to share this kind of worship at a Seattle high school. Afterwards the band director requested us to stay on and speak with the band class and simply share with them what we were doing, how we got there, and how these young budding musicians could begin moving in this realm themselves. We spent better than an hour sharing with the class. Three of those students came to the retreat and brought their instruments to join in with us. You'd have thought they'd been playing with us for years! Those young men had been working together in the months since we'd shared with them and were ready to flow in the Spirit with us.
Craig Manley brought his (and his church's) drums and percussion, and he joined us for the first time -- again, flowing with us in the Spirit and (as he experienced) doing things in rhythm and percussion he'd never done before.
Finally, another young man from Spain joined us on the keyboard. A trained classical pianist with a stellar reputation as a musician, this was a totally new experience for Jorge. It was a bit reminiscent of our days back in the early 90's when Marcia Treend brought her cello into the mix. Marcia had been principal cellist with the Detroit and Spokane Symphonies with a long career as a classical musician. It was a struggle for her to adapt to a totally spontaneous mode without any sheet music in front of her, playing only what she heard in her spirit. That same thing applied to Jorge, and it was marvelous to watch him adapt in less than three days and flow with us!
It really is a work of the Holy Spirit to bring such a group of musicians together and orchestrate a flow of worship with all of them in such a way that you would think they'd worked together for years! But it is in exactly that kind of unstructured atmosphere with folks who have one mind and one spirit to minister to the Lord that the Holy Spirit can create the most extravagant flow, exhibiting the Glory of the Lord in such a profound manner!
Once again, all I can say is, WOW !!! What a way to live!
Instead of just ending this Coffee Break in my usual manner with a note from one of the prophetic individuals I've come to know and appreciate, it seemed appropriate to begin this one with a word from Arthur (Art) Katz, a Messianic Jewish brother whose ministry I was introduced to some 40 years ago.
“‘The time is surely coming,’” says the Lord God, ‘that I will send a famine on the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord’” (Amos 8:11-12).
"The thought strikes me that the famine is not so much for the lack of speaking as the lack of hearing. I have had the increasing impression that God’s people do not know how to hear the word of God. Or, unlike the Thessalonian converts from paganism, they do not believe that the word they are hearing is indeed God’s word.Therefore, the word is received casually if not indifferently as the word of man, that is to say, without effect. Perhaps we have been filling up on verbal “junk food” and have dulled our appetites for “real food” by the profusion of much speaking of our own that leaves us sated if not bloated, and therefore we suffer malnutrition in the midst of seeming plenty. Certainly we lack the evidence of growth and change that the word of God should accomplish, and we seem fixed in our immaturity and shallowness.
Perhaps we need to consider that the act of hearing is as much an act of grace as that of speaking itself. Surely God's Word requires an attentiveness and retention for which the world has not schooled us. The sobering caution, "When you hear My voice, harden not your hearts" implies that God's Word will not allow our indifference. If there is not a hearing, then there will certainly be a hardening!"
This is an excellent admonition for God's people today. Art's comment that "we have been filling up on verbal "junk food" and have dulled our appetites for "real food" hits the nail on the head. That "verbal junk food" is partly a product -- as Art notes -- of much speaking, as well as the "mixture of truth with poison" to which I referred as we wrapped up the last Coffee Break.
Oftentimes, attempts by ministers to apply the formulas learned in Bible College or seminary to deal with critical situations in the lives of people they're supposed to be responsible for results in tragedy or even greater chaos. When the formulas fail, and the lives of those people who depend on him crash, condemnation sets in. Because the "minister" has put his dependence on formulas and doctrines which are now ingrained into the very core of his existence -- in the name of putting that dependence in the Lord -- the "minister" now feels that the Lord has failed him. Despair sets in, depression reigns, and questions arise by the multitude. What's the problem?
The "minister" never heard from the Lord. Much of his upbringing and preparation for "ministry" was predicated on "profane, empty babblings which only serve to advance ungodliness." Much of his upbringing and training was based in "performance."
This results in judgment and criticism of the people who fail in their efforts to apply the formulas he is teaching. Condemnation and despair set in for those who cannot make their "faith" work according to the formulaic methodology they are taught and, all too often, they decide to give up trying because "they are not spiritual enough."
This is not relationship with the Lord! This is legalism and performance! Those who have suffered these guilt pangs need to dump them as coming from Satan, and not from the Lord! (I share these things from the perspective of having spent most of my life "in the ministry" [to use the common cliché] and having seen many of my brethren suffer in this manner.)
Referring back once again to the last Coffee Break (and the retranslation of II Timothy 2:15 from the Greek text) there is another side to this concept of "study" which affects all of us -- and particularly, those of us who have over the years received visions or experienced something where the Lord has revealed a truth with a specific application to us.
Like so many of my brethren, I experienced much in the way of revelation from the Lord in my early youth. Although I was extremely blessed by the character and dimension of the experiences which the Lord gave to me, I grew up in classical Pentecostal circles with all of the attendant church structure. The things which the Lord spoke within my spirit in those early days were of such a nature that I could not find a way to make them fit within my understanding. When I attempted to share them with men and women in leadership within the denomination, the most common response was, "Well, that's wonderful, son! Some day the Lord will use you as a pastor, or a missionary, or even an evangelist, and you'll win lots of souls for Christ."
In my spirit, I knew this was a wrong interpretation and application of what the Lord was saying, but there was absolutely nothing within the church structure which would permit me to function as the Lord had revealed Himself to me. By the same token, I had no example of that which had penetrated my being by the Holy Spirit among any leaders whom I knew (or knew of), nor among my peers. In my thirst for revelation knowledge, I read -- voraciously! I couldn't stand books on doctrine, and I detested the great majority of the so-called religious books which were available, so I read the Bible -- from cover to cover -- again, and again, and again. By the time I got ready to attend Bible college, I had been through the Bible, from cover to cover, at least 25 times, had memorized hundreds of verses, some entire books of the Bible, and many chapters verbatim from the KJV.
The primary thing Bible college did for me was to program me to fit those things which the Lord had revealed to me in my early youth into the framework of the church system or structure. I became "a pastor." For much of the first 25 years of pastoral ministry, I struggled to fit the mold. At least three times, different pastors -- brethren with whom I was closely associated, labored with and deeply respected -- came to me and said, "Regner, I'm not sure what you are, but you certainly are not a pastor!"
The more they said it, the more frustrated I became, and the greater the internal drive to fit the stereotypical model. It was not until the summer of 1974 that I received a direct word from the Lord which clarified the situation, and delivered me from the necessity of fitting the structural and religious mold. I have from time to time continued on in a kind of pastoral ministry but I've now just pastored as a part of what God called me to. I've been able to minister freely without the structural requirement or the pressure of fulfilling someone else's expectations of what "a pastor" is supposed to be.
Enter the next phase of deliverance. (This was only the first of several stages of deliverance from "religion.") In 1975, the Lord began the revelation to me of the vision which most of you have heard related as "The House of Praise." Without relating all of the detail, suffice it to say that this vision began with a perspective of David, the tabernacle he set up, and the praisers and worshipers he appointed, and employed on a 24-hour-per-day basis to minister to the Lord. Being still stuck in the "structure" of the church, I related everything the Lord was showing me to church structure, and tried to make it fit within that structure. As a result, I saw "The House of Praise" as a modern-day version of the ministry David instituted, with singers and musicians on a payroll, ministering to the Lord in a building, or structure, which would be called "The House of Praise."
For fifteen years I was stuck with this "vision." It was not that the vision was flawed, or that the revelation came out of eating chocolate-covered jalapeno peppers before going to bed one night. The problem was that I interpreted what the Lord showed me within the framework of my religious understanding, even going so far as to place advertisements in the Anchorage Daily News for musicians and singers who were "oriented towards praise" music, and then interviewing the respondents in an effort to "put this thing together." From where the Lord has brought us today, this comes across as sincere stupidity. (I was genuinely sincere -- and stupid!) We laugh every time we talk about it.
Some months after Earle, Marcia, Della and I began to gather together daily for worship, the real truth of the revelation hit me like a ton of bricks. Where our worship began with a few minutes each day, as the daily gathering continued throughout the months, we found that we were ministering to the Lord -- in the corporate sense -- for anywhere from an hour to three or four hours.
When we would break up and head to our respective homes at the end of the day, the worship continued in our beings on nonstop basis. It became so strong that we would awaken in the middle of the night singing in the spirit. When we arose in the morning, worship was going through our spirits. During the workday, in the midst of performing normal work duties which would seemingly have nothing whatever to do with spiritual things, worship would be flowing uninterrupted through our spirits to the Lord.
What David accomplished, and had to pay singers and musicians to accomplish after the flesh, the Lord accomplished in us after the Spirit. We didn't have 128 singers and musicians like David did -- it just started with the four of us -- and we couldn't be gathered together 24 hours per day like those singers and musicians did in shifts, but worship was going forth, nonetheless -- in our spirits -- 24 hours per day. We were the House of Praise! We had become a House of Worship.
This is the very thing which the Lord is addressing in us, NOW. Most of us have received visions of things to come; and most of us have, in some way, become involved in activities related to these visions in an honest effort to carry out what we believe the Lord has spoken to us.
Has the Lord spoken to us? YES! Has He given us a vision of His purposes for these end-times? YES! Have we tried to fulfill that which the Lord has given us according to our understanding? With all of our hearts! Is that understanding flawed by religious doctrines and years of indoctrination within the church structure? Without question! Have we missed the mark? Sure we have!
Does that mean that we've completely set aside the idea of a physical location for a 24-hour ministry of praise and worship similar to the Tabernacle of David? NO!
You see, sometimes it is necessary for Holy Spirit to rid us of preconceived notions and religious programming before He can move us forward with the vision He has imparted. We must first be free of religion and religious concepts if we are to respond and act according to the Lord's plans and purpose. We must first become that to which we are being called. We must first become the visual of that which Holy Spirit has shown us before we can go any further!
Let's get one thing straight! The call of the Bridegroom is to intimacy with Him! The call of the Bridegroom is to and for a people who will fulfill Him, His heart's desires and His destiny for each of us within His Kingdom. This is a call for an overcoming people -- not a people who are content with who they are in Christ Jesus, and not a people who are content with "business as usual."
Those "business as usual" Christians (and I use that word rather loosely) may actually make it to Heaven by the stupendous grace and mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ, just by virtue of their acceptance and acknowledgement of His shed blood on the Cross, but they will NEVER be invited into the Bridal Chamber.
Finally -- and most of all -- the call of the Bridegroom is to and for a people who will literally and demonstrably BECOME HIS BRIDE, His Counterpart, His Other Self!
Are we clear? Good! Next week we'll move this discussion along as we talk about Practical Discipleship.
"God is waiting for those to arise who will lay down their own lives and agendas to become the intercessors He must have. He's waiting for preachers to arise who are willing to stand against any amount of scorn, ridicule, or persecution to declare God's truth, righteousness, and justice without compromise. He is willing. Are we? The Lord lit the fire on the altars of His tabernacle in the wilderness and the temple in Jerusalem. He then commanded the priests to keep these fires going. Likewise, only God can start an authentic revival, but only man can end it by not keeping the fire going. For this to be done, there must be an underlying hunger for God and willingness on the part of His people to sacrifice their own purposes to give themselves for His purposes." (Prophetic Word from Rick Joyner)
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
CAPENER MINISTRIES
709 South 7th Street
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(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.
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(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.
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