Preparing the Bride of Christ For His Return By Janet Van Hierdan
A Tale of Two Brides is now available on Amazon.com:
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Another
Coffee Break:
Dealing With Fear, Part 4
July 25, 2014
Throughout more than
50 years of ministry, the Lord has opened some unusual doors of utterance to me
in some pretty unusual places. I can
truthfully say that walking with the Lord has been a nonstop adventure! During the past few weeks a couple of folks have
been in touch with me who were present during an event that was life-changing
for me. In was an event in which Holy
Spirit showed up and showed out in about as grand a style as you'll ever want
to see. For me it was a foretaste of the
"greater works" that Jesus promised us. You remember what Jesus said as He sat at the
table with His disciples before He was crucified?
John 14:12-14: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the
works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he
do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that
will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will
do it."
During the next few
weeks, I expect to be traveling quite a bit, and that tends to complicate the
time I need for writing these Coffee Breaks.
Because of the recent reminder of a couple of people who were in
Eskdale, Utah when Holy Spirit showed up during an opportunity to minister in
this Mormon community, I thought I would reprise my sharing of that miracle
during the next couple of weeks. This is
a story that was first shared some nine years ago in this Coffee Break column.
I've not had an
opportunity to revisit Eskdale since that memorable weekend in 1971, but I
received updates from folks who were there and were firsthand witnesses to the
change that took place in the years that followed. That said, stay tuned for The Eskdale Miracle in the next couple
of weeks.
During the
last few Coffee Breaks, we've talked about the events that followed when Adam
and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We've spent the last couple of weeks dealing
with the way in which the Fear of Evil and the Fear of Man unfolded, and last
week mostly dealt with some of the symptoms of the Fear of Man. Today, let's finish the sequence of events
that unfolded in the Garden and consider some of the consequences.
Genesis 3:14-24:
"And the LORD God said unto the serpent,
Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above
every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat
all the days of thy life: And
I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her
seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
The word,
"curse," used in this instance, comes from the Hebrew 'arar. In a general sense, it means: to execrate, to be put under, to denounce, to loathe.
In a wider sense, it means: to remove the ability to prosper, or to succeed, or to
multiply and grow larger. The description here of what
happened to the serpent applied to both the physical creature as well as to
Satan, who used the serpent as his vessel of choice. The overwhelming majority of people, no
matter their race or ethnicity, loathe and detest serpents or snakes as a
byproduct of this curse. I won't take
time today to deal with these consequences because it will take me off course,
but we may come back to this later.
"Unto the woman
he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou
shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and
he shall rule over thee.
Lets amplify this verse from the Hebrew: "Unto the woman He said, I will enlarge
and increase your pain, your labor and your hardship and your pregnancy; in
painful labor and great difficulty will you bring forth children; your constant
desire, your longing, your craving [for affection and response] shall be
towards your husband, and he shall govern, and have complete dominion and power
over you."
Are you seeing how the man-woman, woman-man
relationship was so distorted by the curse?
Are you seeing how the curse brought fear into women, and how the curse
so caused women to become almost slaves?
This was NEVER the way God designed things in the first place, but when
Eve, and then Adam, submitted to the lie of Satan and directly violated God's
command to NOT eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil the
relationship between wives and their husbands, women and men, husbands and
wives, and men and women became grossly distorted and warped almost beyond all
recognition.
Excuse the digression for a minute, but consider how
Eve came into the world to begin with.
She was not taken from his head so as to usurp his authority, and she
was not taken from his leg or his foot be to trampled on like some kind of
slave. She was taken from Adam's side to
be his counterpart, his "other self."
The world mistakenly and erroneously refers to this as a
"soul-mate." "Soul"
has nothing to do with it. We are first
and foremost spirit beings, and when we operate from God's paradigm and are
joined by Him, we are "counterparts" for one another.
Eve was created from a part of Adam. Most translations say that a rib was taken
from Adam, but let's be clear. The
Hebrew word, tsal'ah,
is more representative of "a portion of his side." This is the very same word used otherwise
throughout the OT for "the side of a hill" or "the side of a building." Whether in fact it was Adam's rib -- and I
believe that it was -- there was more to it than that! The Lord took a part of Adam -- a part he
had originally been designed and created with -- leaving him incomplete. Adam's completion was in Eve. Hence, she was his 'ezer -- his help, his
assistance, his finisher, the one who would surround and protect him.
Does that sound like today's picture of a
husband-wife relationship? NOPE! Certainly not in our modern society's
world-view. The spirits of fear have
jumped into relationships and into our society.
Women have been treated as property in many cultures, and in Islam even
less than that. For centuries and even
millennia, the concept of "women under subjection" has been more a
case of a master-slave mentality on the part of men from virtually every
nation, culture and society, and women -- fearing for their safety or
protection or provision -- have bowed to the pressures of that mindset.
As a consequence we have seen women, who
instinctively know that they were not to be treated as some kind of
"thing" to be trampled on by men, rise up in rebellion against the
treatment. The whole "women's
lib" movement is a by-product of the fear erupting in utter and complete
anger. The current insanity that abounds
in political circles stating that "abortion is a woman's right" and
that "the woman has the right to say what happens to her body" arises
as a counter-reaction to generations of fear caused by abusive treatment. The tens of thousands of murders of the
unborn children that have taken place through abortion is visible evidence of
what happens when fear becomes the ruler in a woman's life.
In the modern church -- and even in evangelical and
Pentecostal circles -- Paul's teachings and admonitions in his epistles have
been so abused and taken out of context that women often have no place of
acceptance in ministry, even when the anointing of Holy Spirit is clearly
evident. What seems to have been lost in
understanding is that if we have been redeemed from the curse of the Law, if we
have been redeemed from the curse of death, if we have been redeemed from the
curse that came upon the relationship between husband and wife (or vice-versa)
as well as the man-woman or woman-man relationship, then EVERY SINGLE ASPECT OF
THE CURSE HAS BEEN CANCELED!!! The shed
blood of Jesus, His death on the Cross and His subsequent resurrection have set
free those who are "in Christ Jesus!"
Folks, the blessing we have as members of the body
of Christ is that the husband doesn't have to be everything in a marriage. The wife is no longer the servant or the
slave of the husband. The husband is no
longer "lord and master" of his wife.
Let me digress again to share an example.
The Lord gave me a real revelation of the husband-wife
and wife-husband relationship when He gave Della to me. For the first time in my life I understood
what it was to have my counterpart, my "other self." I understood what it was to have the Lord
give to me someone whom He had designed to complete me and fill out those parts
of my life that were lacking and insufficient.
The best part of this gift in Della was that she loves the Lord more
than she loves me -- and THAT'S the way things are supposed to be! I don't stand between her and the Lord and
her relationship with the Lord. Neither
does she stand between me and the Lord and my relationship with Him. What's really cool is that we both have flaws
but our flaws are not the same. Together
we make one whole person.
Now that I've waxed so verbose on this topic -- and
there's a whole lot more that we could cover -- let's continue.
"And
unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and
hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat
of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of
it all the days of thy life; Thorns
also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of
the field; In the sweat of
thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it
wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Here is the evidence of the wider sense of the
Hebrew word, 'arar. Here we see the removal of the blessing from
the ground. Where before Adam and Eve
had yielded to the deception of Satan the ground had brought forth
spontaneously with little effort, now the life in the earth was removed. With Satan having become the "prince of
this world," the judgment that was upon him and the sentence of
destruction that hung over him now began to contaminate the very soil. The very ph
balance of the soil would be affected.
The empowerment to prosper and multiply had been
removed. No longer would it produce the
way it had for Adam and Eve in the Garden.
The contamination of the ground would now yield "thorns and
thistles," weeds, and soil imbalances that mankind would have to deal
with. Even the air would begin to become
polluted as a result of the efforts to get the soil to produce.
What it meant was that -- for some folks --
depending on where they were and what conditions they encountered with the
soil, the ground simply would not produce without some serious hard labor. For some, all of their labors were going to
produce little to show. It marked the
beginning of the entrance of a Spirit of Poverty. Those folks who capitulated to it would
become poor and suffer ongoing need in many areas of their lives. With that Spirit of Poverty came the Fear of
Not Having Enough (or Insufficiency) along with the Fear of Inadequacy -- all
of which served, and were part of the family of, the Fear of Death.
The whole earth literally would begin to slowly lose
its balance. To compensate, the various
geological plates that form the makeup of the earth would begin to move and to
shift. Earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions would begin to reshape the surface as the earth itself tried to
regain the pristine balance that existed during the Garden years. The apostle Paul very appropriately describes
this condition in his letter to the Ekklesia in Rome.
Romans 8:22: "For
we know that the whole creation experiences the same calamity [that has come
upon mankind] and suffers sympathetic pangs together until now." (RAC Translation & Amplification)
What Paul is referring to is the redemption of this
earth that will take place with God's people -- the Bride of Christ -- when
they come to their full maturity and resume their rightful authority over
creation. Here's how he expressed it in
the previous verses:
Romans 8:19-21: "For
the intense anticipation and expectation of the original formation of creation
fully expects the manifestation and disclosure of the mature sons of God. For the original formation was made
subject to transientness and profitlessness, not voluntarily, but through Him
who has subordinated creation in confident expectation, Because the creation itself also shall
be delivered and released from the bondage of ruin and decay into the glory and
dignity of the unrestrained freedom of the children of God." (RAC Translation & Amplification)
How's that for a mouthful? You see what is taking place with us, don't
you?
Let's see if we can wrap up the last of this Genesis
narrative.
"And Adam called
his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD
God make coats of skins, and clothed them."
While it may not be obvious at first glance in this
passage, the revelation here is that the redemptive plan of the Lord was
already in action as an atonement for Adam's sin enacted. The "coats of skins" referenced
represents the killing of lambs or sheep in order to provide Adam and Eve both
with cloaks -- garments that would drape over their shoulders. The blood of lambs (or sheep) was shed in
order to provide them with a God-made covering to replace the Glory that had
once been their covering. It was
prophetic of the time when the Blood of the Lamb -- Jesus Christ -- would be
shed in order to provide a path of restoration so that we could once again be
clothed in His Glory.
"And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of
us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also
of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: Therefore the LORD God sent him
forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed
at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned
every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."
No portion
of Scripture more accurately describes the conditions that now prevail in the
geographic area that once encompassed the Garden of Eden. It would have been catastrophic for creation
had Adam and Eve been permitted to continue to live in the Garden and have
continued access to the Tree of Life.
The fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil produces fear
and an arrogant, self-sufficient pride.
There is absolutely NOTHING about the Tree of Life that is compatible
with that fruit.
It became
necessary, therefore, for God to drive Adam and Eve out of the Garden and block
their access entirely to the Tree of Life.
The Cherubims were (and are) angelic beings who were given an assignment:
generate an environment so inhospitable to human habitation that they would
fear to enter. The daytime temperatures
in that region today of 145 degrees Fahrenheit -- to me at least -- present a
tangible picture of the flaming sword which "turns every way"
presenting certain death to those who try to make a life for themselves there.
We should
be able to return to this discussion around the third week of August. Meanwhile, watch for the story of the Eskdale
Miracle.
Again, if you are in
need of healing -- especially if you have some terminal disease or prognosis of
a very short time to live from the doctors -- please join our prayer conference
calls on either Monday or Wednesday of each week at 7:00 PM Eastern. Once
again, the number to call is 
(805) 399-1000. Then enter the access code: 124763#. To get into the queue for prayer, when Randy
opens the call up for everyone, hit *6-1 on your keypad. Let us minister to
your need for healing!
(805) 399-1000. Then enter the access code: 124763#. To get into the queue for prayer, when Randy
opens the call up for everyone, hit *6-1 on your keypad. Let us minister to
your need for healing!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Email Contact: Admin@RiverWorshipCenter.org
Our book, A
Tale of Two Brides, published by Destiny Image, is now available on
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Another
Coffee Break:
Dealing With Fear, Part 3
July 18, 2014
We start
again with II Timothy 1:7, amplified from the Greek text: "For
God has not endowed, or committed to our being and existence the spirit (the
very breath and speaking forth) of fear, timidity and faithlessness; but of
miraculous power, might and strength, and of agape love, and of a disciplined mind (under control and not
subject to "flights of fancy")."
(RAC
Translation and Amplification)
The fear
that took hold of Adam and Eve in the Garden did NOT come from their
relationship with God: it came as a direct byproduct of yielding to the
serpent's lies and disobedience to God's command. As we have already noticed in the previous
Coffee Break, no sooner had Eve eaten of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge
of Good and Evil with Adam following suit, The Fear of Evil gripped them both.
A chain
reaction was set in motion and the Fear of Evil opened the door to the Fear of
Man. As we will see in the following
sequence, the Fear of Death became the third family of fear to invade their
beings.
You see the
working of these spirits already, do you not?
The Fear of Evil affects our relationship with the Lord directly. In Adam and Eve's case, the first thing they
did was to run and hide from the Lord.
The Fear of Man contaminates the way we relate one to another. We saw the "blame game" begin as
Adam and Eve were confronted by God and challenged as to their
disobedience. The first thing Adam did
was to avoid his own responsibility and point his finger at God for having
given a "faulty" Eve to him.
Then he proceeded to point the finger at Eve and instead of
acknowledging responsibility for his own actions, he put it all off on her.
The Fear
of Man, you see, infects our perceptions of our spouses, our family members,
those with whom we connect on a daily basis such as our neighbors or those with
whom we work at our jobs or in our careers.
We live in an era in which the Fear of Man has literally taken hold in
every segment of society.
Our
politicians live under the Fear of Man.
They run their elections based on how they are perceived by the
electorate instead of basing their electioneering on the real truth of what
they stand for. Then when they are
elected, depending on their polling of public opinion regarding an issue, they
compromise themselves and their votes rather than standing up and being counted
for who they are and what they believe.
Excuse me
for a minute while I digress. Our
society today is being groomed by people in places of authority who,
themselves, suffer from the Fear of Man.
Folks are being taught to avoid responsibility, to point the finger at
someone else or something else in order to avoid taking personal responsibility
for their actions or their statements.
If a person has failed in some area or committed a crime, the finger gets
pointed at their parents for failing to raise them correctly; or maybe some
lame brained excuse is made that their act or remarks were justified because of
someone else's act or words.
This issue
has permeated the body of Christ and has manifested itself in a variety of
ways. Let me demonstrate for you with
some examples of doctrines which have been part and parcel of some major
segments of the body.
Apostles
and prophets died out at the end of the first century.
Why introduce a heresy like that when Ephesians 4 clearly specifies that
Jesus gave these ministry functions "For the perfecting
(the complete furnishing) of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the
edifying (the architecture, the structure and the confirming) of the body of
Christ: Till we all
come in the unity (the oneness and agreement together) of the faith, and of the
knowledge (the full revelation) of the Son of God, unto a perfect (whole and
complete) man, unto the (required) measure of the stature (maturity) of the
fulness (the completion) of Christ." ? (Ephesians 4:12-13, KJV with my amplification) Let's see...the last time I checked, we
weren't there yet.
So why
ignore that very important part of our destiny in Christ Jesus? The simple answer is that when folks
recognize that the Lord has given certain authority, certain revelation, and
specific anointing to lead, to teach, to direct, to correct, to admonish, to
warn and to provide overall guidance from and through Holy Spirit in the growth
and development of the body of Christ, if they suffer from the Fear of Man,
they fear having someone in authority over them. The practices within the body of Christ that
led to this "doctrine of cessation," are found in what John refers to
in Revelation 2:6 and 2:15 as "the doctrine (and deeds) of the
Nicolaitans." The doctrine of the
Nicolaitans is two-sided and is rooted in the Fear of Man.
The
doctrine and deeds of the Nicolaitans manifest either as "power over the
people" or as "power to the people." As I have noted in previous Coffee Breaks,
for those who fear power being vested in a few people, they choose a form of
government within the structured church world we know as
"congregational" government.
We call it "power to the people." Another, more specific term would be
"democratic." (I'd like to
take this discussion a lot further, but won't today for the sake of staying on
track.)
The other
side of this doctrine fears power or authority being vested in the so-called
"common people," and instead chooses power or authority being vested
in a few." We know this within the
structured church as "hierarchical government" with tiers of
leadership beginning with a pastor or priest and moving upward through various
diminishing tiers until you reach the point at which a single leader speaks for
God. That single leader determines what
should be taught, transmits the teaching through the various tiers until it
reaches the pastor or priest who, for all practical purposes, becomes the
puppet of the governing authorities above him with little or no sensitivity to
what Holy Spirit is saying.
No matter
how you slice it, you get the Fear of Man -- one way or the other. If you fear power being vested in a few, you
choose democracy in the body of Christ.
If you fear power being vested in "the congregation," you
choose hierarchical church structure.
Either way, you have man in charge -- NOT God!! The miracle that I see is that Holy Spirit
has overcome centuries of this kind of error and fear being propagated in order
to bring about a people in this day and this hour who could care less whether
folks will like them, or receive them, or reject them. They are more interested in what Holy Spirit
is doing and saying, and what Jesus gets out of the bargain in the end.
Here's
another screwball doctrine that permeated the body of Christ for centuries --
and again, one based in the Fear of Man: The Baptism of the Holy Spirit with
Speaking in Tongues is of the Devil.
Another variant of this is not quite so severe, but it goes like this: If
God Wants Me to Speak in Tongues, He'll Give it to Me. The corollary to this argument is that Speaking
in Tongues is Not Really Necessary in Order to be Baptized in the Holy Spirit.
I know
some of you are looking a bit cross-eyed at me right now, wondering how in the
world I come up with this as being based in the Fear of Man. Let me explain something about the Fear of
Man: this spirit of fear wants you to be in complete control of yourself, your
normal senses (such as seeing, hearing, speaking, touch, and smelling) and your
surroundings. This fear focuses on the
way you perceive yourself, the way you think folks perceive you, and the way
you perceive those people around you. It
is all the more magnified when the people around you are your closest friends,
your family members, the people you associate with on your job, and especially
those who may be in authority over you as far as your career is concerned. (I've only scratched the surface here.)
When one
is baptized in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues is the (super) natural
evidence of it taking place. Many people
fear speaking in tongues -- most of them subconsciously -- because they have
absolutely no control of their tongue.
What comes forth when they yield to Holy Spirit in many cases comes out
as something strange -- even gibberish -- and for folks who are afraid of
losing that control of their tongues, this becomes an absolute no-no! For many, they are afraid of how it makes
them look or how they sound; and if they spend a lot of time around non-Spirit
filled or non-Spirit baptized believers, their concern is that they will appear
foolish to them.
There have
been a fistful of articles written by Christians who've tried to analyze
speaking in tongues by eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil. Those articles will criticize or
even try to state that it is all emotion, that it is nonsensical, that the
words have no meaning whatever, that it really isn't any language being spoken
and/or that the sounds coming forth are all made up in the mind of the person
speaking.
Before I
continue, let me make something abundantly clear. NO ONE who has been truly baptized in the
Holy Spirit and is seeking an ongoing daily filling by the Spirit will ever
argue against speaking in tongues. By
the same token, anyone who argues against speaking in tongues, or makes the
argument that it isn't really a necessary part of one's walk with the Lord, has
NOT been filled with the Holy Spirit.
Let's get
to the heart of this issue. Satan does
NOT want believers to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and he certainly doesn't
want them to go onward to the daily experience of being filled with the
Spirit. Satan does NOT want believers to
speak in tongues because he is absolutely threatened when believers can
circumvent his ability to interfere with their prayers and their
intercession. He is threatened when
believers can use a language and a stream of communication directed by Holy
Spirit which tears down his places of power and influence.
When a
person speaks in tongues, their mind is totally unengaged in the process
because they can't control what is coming forth, and what is being prayed or
spoken comes directly out of and by Holy Spirit. The tongues-speaking believer simply becomes
a vessel and a willing channel for the Spirit of God to work His will in us and
in the world around us because of the creative power inherent in His speaking.
Let me
illustrate with a couple of Scriptures before we move on.
Psalm 8:2:
"Out of the mouth of babes (metaph: those who lack the
ability to speak coherently, intelligently, with clarity) and
sucklings (metaph: those who've yet to be weaned from milk)
hast thou ordained (established, appointed and set in place)
strength (force, boldness, power and might), because of thine enemies (adversaries),
that thou mightest still (cause to cease) the
enemy and the avenger." (KJV, with my amplifications from
Hebrew)
I Corinthians 2:7-8:
"But we speak the wisdom [*see note] of
God in a mystery (a way that conceals it), even
the hidden wisdom, which God ordained (established and pre-arranged)
before the (beginning of the) world (and
this time-space period) unto our glory: Which none of the
princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory."
[**Note: J. H. Thayer, in his
Greek-English Lexicon identifies the context of the Greek word, sophia,
in this instance like this: "the wisdom of God as evinced in forming and
executing counsels in the formation and government of the world."]
That said,
let's consider Paul's statement (and David's prophecy) like this: When we speak
in tongues we are executing the counsels and governance of the Lord in the
affairs of this world, whether it pertains to us directly in our immediate
circumstances, or whether it effects change in the lives of people we don't
even know, or -- again -- in the governing of affairs within our local, our
state or our national governments.
I realize
that I've gone around a 40-acre field here, but what I'm trying to show is that
the power and authority of God we execute when we speak in tongues is a deadly
threat to the dominions of Satan and his demonic realm. He fears the believer intensely who readily
permits Holy Spirit to use his tongue and the creative power of speech to enact
the will and purposes of God. Hence, the
Fear of Man works both consciously and sub-consciously to intimidate the
believer and keep him/her from responding to Holy Spirit in this way.
Let's get
back to Adam and Eve in the Garden. Taking
our cue from the responses we saw in Adam and Eve once they were confronted by
the Lord for their disobedience, they pointed their fingers at one another, or
at God, or at the serpent. Sure, the
serpent lied to Eve. He fed her
deliberate mis-information so as to entice and deceive her. (That, by the way, is exactly what
mis-information and the campaigns of disinformation are all about! But that's another topic we'll get to at some
other time.) The issue at hand wasn't
that the serpent lied to her. The issue
was that she knew God had specifically instructed them to avoid eating of the
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
When she
ate of that fruit, a dawning was taking place in her, and she didn't want to be
alone in her disobedience. She gives it
to Adam who knowingly eats of the fruit for reasons we've already
discussed. Again, Adam's issue wasn't
that he didn't know: he DID know! As
soon as he ate of the fruit, he knew he was in trouble. Both of them saw the Glory of the Lord
stripped from them as their covering.
Now they had no covering whatever.
They saw each other in a carnal way for the first time and it scared
them.
Into this
moment comes the Lord. They hear Him
walking as they have heard Him before.
Instead of rejoicing and running toward Him, they run away and
hide. Fear has taken over. We've already talked about the Fear of Evil,
and that's something we'll explore more in the days ahead, but let's get to the
confrontation that takes place between God and Adam, and then Adam and Eve, and
then Eve and the serpent.
"What
have you done," God asks Adam.
"Have you eaten of the tree I specifically commanded you to
avoid?" What's the first thing Adam
does? "It's that woman YOU gave
me! It's your fault, God! If you hadn't given her to me in the first
place, this wouldn't have happened!
She's the one who picked the fruit.
She ate of it and then gave it to me, and...by the way...Yes, I did eat
of it."
Adam
avoids taking personal responsibility for his actions and instead first points
the finger at God, and then points the finger at Eve. Do you see what happens when the Fear of Man
takes hold?
Next, God
speaks to Eve. "What is this that
you've done?" Eve is stricken by
the same fear that has gripped Adam and avoids personal responsibility for her
actions. "The serpent deceived
me. He pulled the wool over my eyes and
tricked me into eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil."
We'll get
to the next sequence of events momentarily, but consider what we've just seen
take place.
The Fear
of Man causes people to avoid taking personal responsibility for their actions
or statements. In a husband-wife
relationship, if the wife confronts the husband, or the husband confronts the
wife with some act or word they consider wrong, evil, or simply offensive, the
husband or the wife will respond with some characterization of the other which
denigrates them, places the fault at their feet or accuses them of similar
offenses.
There have
been many marriages or personal friendships which have been broken or dissolved
because one or more of the parties have avoided personal responsibility for
something they've said or done and instead passed it off on someone else.
Why didn't
Adam simply say to the Lord, "You're right, Father! I really blew it! Eve did fail but I should have covered her
and canceled her disobedience rather than participating in it myself. I'm asking you for forgiveness, Father! I take full responsibility for what took
place."
I rather
suspect that we'd have had a VERY different outcome in the Garden had Adam
responded that way. The same holds true
of Eve. Had she responded with
acknowledgement of her disobedience instead of pointing fingers, I believe
forgiveness could have taken place.
That's an opinion, you understand.
What God
is after in each of us is to face our fears and to overcome them. Revelation 2 and 3 take us through seven
specific descriptions of things we need to overcome. The Fear of Evil, the Fear of Man and the
Fear of Death are clearly included. The
crown of the Lord is for the overcomer -- NOT the avoider! We are going to face things we don't
like. We are going to be confronted with
issues we need to overcome. Avoiding
them will only prolong the agony, and keep us from achieving the goal that the
Lord Jesus Christ has set before us.
Well, I
didn't get as far into the Genesis narrative today as expected, so we will
continue with it next week.
If you need
deliverance from fear, please join our prayer conference calls on either Monday
or Wednesday of each week at 7:00 PM Eastern. The number to call is (805) 399-1000. Then enter the access code: 124763#. To get into the queue for prayer, hit *6-1 on
your keypad. Let us minister to your need for healing!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Email Contact: Admin@RiverWorshipCenter.org
Our book, A
Tale of Two Brides, published by Destiny Image, is now available on
Amazon.com as an E-book: http://www.amazon.com/Tale-Two-Brides-Relationship-ebook/dp/B00BSV6HZC/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1363139096&sr=8-8&keywords=A+Tale+of+Two+Brides#_
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