Preparing the Bride of Christ For His Return By Janet Van Hierdan
A Tale of Two Brides is now available on Amazon.com:
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Another
Coffee Break:
Dealing With Fear, Part 5
September 19, 2014
For the past couple of
months we've been talking about various other topics, sharing some miracles,
and basically taking a break from this series.
It's time to get back to this subject and see if we can impart some things
that will help everyone who reads this column receive some revelation that will
enable them to walk all over a family of enemies with Godly boldness.
There's a
song based on the first four verses of Psalm 34 that we used to sing frequently
in years gone by -- and one that needs to be revisited in the present.
Psalm 34:1-3: "I
will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be
in my mouth. My soul shall
make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be
glad. O magnify the LORD with me, and
let us exalt his name together. I sought
the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears."
Before I
get to sharing what Holy Spirit has so drilled into my spirit, let's first
explore the context of what David writes and take a look at the specific
circumstances that surrounded him when he was so inspired to write -- and sing
-- these verses.
The
picture is drawn in I Samuel 21 in which David has hidden himself from Saul
(who has been attempting to assassinate him and remove the threat to his
throne) among the Philistines. For some
period of time, David has been with Achish, the King of Gath, helping him fight
his battles and has gained favor with the Philistine king. A day comes, however, when Achish has decided
to assemble the military forces of the Philistines against Saul and against
Israel.
The
princes of the Philistines discover who David really is -- "the one of
whom they sang, 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands', of
the Philistines. Immediately David's
life is in danger and hangs in the balance.
Fear strikes David. Our English
translations really mess up the picture that unfolds here. The KJV reads like this:
I Samuel 21:11-15:
And the servants of Achish said unto him, Is not this
David the king of the land? did they not sing one to another of him in dances,
saying, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?
And David laid up these words in his heart, and was sore afraid
of Achish the king of Gath. And
he changed his behaviour before them, and feigned himself mad in their hands,
and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his
beard.
Then said Achish unto his servants, Lo, ye see the man is mad:
wherefore then have ye brought him to me? Have I need of mad men, that ye have
brought this fellow to play the mad man in my presence? shall this fellow
come into my house?
David did indeed change his behavior
before them, but look at the words that are used in the Hebrew text. Where it says that David "feigned
himself mad"
the Hebrew text uses the word, halal:
one of the primary words for exulting, clamorous, dancing, celebratory
praise! David put on a show, alright!
The next thing we see is that he "scrabbled
on the doors of the gate." Right! The
Hebrew word here is tavah, which means: to mark,
to make marks [by pounding or striking].
I realize that there are other ways to interpret this in the light of
the first statement, and it's not too hard to understand why the KJV
translators came up with their translation, but they obviously didn't
understand what David was doing.
It's the next phrase that puts
everything in perspective. We are told
that David "let his spittle fall down upon his beard." OK, stop for just a second! Have you ever seen singers become so excited
with their singing -- entertainers especially -- that saliva begins to sling
from their mouths? It doesn't happen to
everyone, obviously, but for many folks -- me included -- when I'm singing or
praising or worshiping, there are times when saliva begins to build up in my
mouth and it isn't easy to keep it from dribbling out or "slinging"
from my mouth.
I've no doubt that Achish surely
thought that David had gone over the edge!
Anytime you have someone who is boisterously, loudly singing or shouting
praise at the top of their voice, dancing and beating their hands or their
fingers on something -- in David's case, the swinging gate -- at a time when
accusatory fingers are being pointed , everything inside you says,
"they're nuts!"
Here is where the real clarification
of what took place in this moment comes.
Remember, the first word used in the Hebrew text to describe what David
was doing was, halal -- boisterous,
dancing, celebratory praise! That word
gets translated in the KJV as "feigned himself mad." Nope!
Verses 14 and 15, where Achish describes David as "mad" use a
totally different word.
Now we have the word, shaga, which truly means: insane, to be a raving lunatic. That's NOT what the Hebrew text uses to
describe what David was doing. He wasn't
acting like a raving lunatic, nor was he acting insane! He was praising with all his might. That's what he did when fear struck him and
the Fear of Death attacked. He began to
praise God! The very words of Psalm 34
speak for themselves.
1. I will praise the Lord at all times -- and especially
when fear attacks me.
2. His praise shall continually
be in my mouth
-- and I'm not going to stop praising when I'm in apparent danger of losing my
life.
3. My soul shall make her boast
in the Lord
-- and that's exactly what David was doing: boasting -- halal
-- in the Lord, like he had better sense! :-)
4. The humble (aniy: afflicted and depressed) shall
hear thereof and be glad. Why?
Because of the sign and the testimony it presents to them. It gives them hope in the midst of their
troubles that deliverance is just around the corner for them as well.
5. Oh, Magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt His Name together!
Yessir!! When you're in the midst
of it and all of the outward evidence says that you are in deep trouble, there
is no confidence booster like having those around you join in and begin
praising God the same way you are doing.
6. I sought the Lord and He
heard me. Here's an interesting word. The Hebrew word translated here as "sought,"
is the word, darash. While this word is sometimes translated as
"worship", its literal meaning is: to frequent one's
presence, to follow after, to be in pursuit. David was in pursuit of the presence of the
Lord, knowing that His deliverance from fear -- AND from the danger he was in
-- lay in God's presence.
7. And [He} delivered me from
all my fears. Absolutely!
This isn't just one fear, this isn't just the Fear of Death, this is the
Fear of the Unknown, this is the Fear of Evil, this is the Fear of Man, this is
the Fear of Injury ..... we could go on and on.
There's not just one fear. We
have deliverance available to us from each of the three families (and that's
what they are: families of multiple evil spirits of fear) of fear. That deliverance comes in the presence of the
Lord. That deliverance comes in the
midst of praise and worship.
But there's one
other factor that comes into play in our deliverance: the words that come out
of our mouths. David has already made it
clear that the words coming out of his mouth "bless the Lord
at all times," and
that "His praise shall continually be in my mouth." In Psalm 34:13, however, he adds to it with
the statement: "Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips from speaking
guile."
The
Word is filled with specific commands about guarding the words that come out of
our mouth, and that brings me to another issue that seems to be quite prevalent
among professing Christians. I cannot
tell you how often I hear Christians in utter ignorance of what they are saying
allow their voices to become the voice of fear, or the voice of unbelief, or
the voice of criticism, or the voice of an unprovoked attack on other folks.
So
here's my question to you today. Whose
voice is speaking out of your mouth? Is
it the voice of the Fear of Death? Is it
the voice of the Fear of Man? Is it the
voice of the Fear of Evil? How often do
you use a phrase like, "I'm afraid that ...," and you finish the
statement with some event of situation that you are saying will unfold
negatively or at the very least, not in your favor.
Let's
try this another way. Have you
experienced generational sicknesses or diseases in your family? Have you, as a result of seeing those
generational issues, allowed something like this to come out of your
mouth? My grandmother was a
diabetic. My mother and my aunt are both
diabetics. I guess I'm doomed to have sugar
diabetes as well in the years to come -- and maybe even my kids will get it.
Really? Whose voice are you allowing to speak through
you? That's the voice of the Enemy. You just agreed with Satan. You just agreed with the spirit of The Fear
of Death and allowed his voice to become your voice. This is a diabolical trick of the Enemy. He knows that he has no creative power of
speech with his voice.
Evil
spirits were not created in the image and likeness of God. They know that in order to effect their power
and influence over your flesh and your physical existence, you have to become
their voice by proxy. They want you to
speak in agreement with their efforts to steal, kill and destroy, and once you
agree with them -- and believe what you speak -- you implement in your life the
influence and destruction they seek to bring.
Here's how Jesus
put it when speaking to the Pharisees: "You
offspring of vipers! How can you speak good things when you are evil (wicked)?
For out of the fullness (the overflow, the superabundance) of
the heart the mouth speaks.
The good man from his inner good treasure flings forth good
things, and the evil man out of his inner evil storehouse flings forth evil things.
But I tell you, on the day of judgment men will have to give
account for every idle (inoperative, nonworking) word they speak.
For by your words you will be justified and acquitted, and by your
words you will be condemned and sentenced." (Matthew 12:34-37, Amplified Bible)
Jesus obviously
addressed the Pharisees as vipers, indicating that the words that spewed out of
their mouths were poisonous to those who heard them and believed the garbage
that came from them. The Pharisees were
legalistic, religious to the nth degree and devoid of any spiritual life, and
that's what framed every word that came out of their mouths. Their voices were the voices of evil
spirits. They had submitted themselves
to religion and religious spirits, and as a consequence, they spoke death
continually.
Jesus couldn't have
been more clear when He said that -- depending on whose voice you were speaking
with -- "by your words you will be justified and acquitted" and/or "by
your words you will be condemned and sentenced." Let me share with you a recent example in our
own family that speaks directly to this.
Della's mother was
diagnosed as a diabetic many years ago.
It was a battle that she fought for most of the years Della and I have
been married. Some eight or nine years
or so ago, her personal physician had the unmitigated gall and stupidity to say
to her, "Well, Opal, there's nothing more we can do for you. You might as well just expect to die."
You can imagine how
furious Della was when she heard what the doctor had said. That was the last time Opal went to that
doctor. We have had a local doctor, Ron
C., who has been a personal friend for many years and is a born-again
Christian, and Della was able to get her mother's medical care
transferred. When he learned what
medication Opal had been being given, he made some immediate changes, and over
a period of a few years brought her to the place where he told her that she no
longer had diabetes, and that there was no reason for continuing to take the
medication.
Two years ago,
Della's mother did go home to be with the Lord, but her previous battle with
diabetes had absolutely nothing to do with it.
She experienced congestive heart failure and her departure was sudden.
Despite our doctor
friend's ability to treat Opal for diabetes, his scientific research and tests
on her had brought about the discovery of a particular gene which provided a
genetic pre-disposition to diabetes. For
a period of two or three years prior to Opal's departure, Ron had been urging
Della to undergo testing for that particular gene. He would say to her (as doctors are wont to
say), "Della, you know that with your mother's medical history, there's a
very high probability that you are going to have to deal with diabetes. You may even be borderline diabetic
now."
Della's immediate
answer to him was, "Doc, there's no way!
I have no intention of undergoing a test for something I don't have,
can't have, and will not have. The Word
clearly tells me that I've been redeemed from the curse, and I'm standing on
that!"
He
would shake his head, chuckle, and say something like, "OK, Della. That's great, if you can get away with that,
but you still need to take the test."
While
Opal was still alive, he continued to press her from time to time and Della's
answer was always the same. "Don't
have the gene, I'm not going to get it, and I've been redeemed by the blood
that Jesus shed for me."
Not
long after her mother went home to be with the Lord, Ron pressed her
again. This time, Della said, "OK,
Doc! I'm going to prove to you what the
Word of the Lord says! You go ahead and
do the test, and when it comes back you're going to see that I'm totally free
of that gene. There is NO pre-disposition
in me for diabetes, and there never will be!"
So
the Doctor ran the tests. It was a month
or so before the final results came back and he called Della to let her know
that the results were in. When she went
in to see him, he had this smile about his face and a rather chagrined
look. "You were right, Della! There's not a trace of that gene in you
anywhere. There's no chance you'll ever
come down with diabetes."
What
was it that Jesus said? "By your words you will be justified and acquitted." It didn't matter what scientific evidence
there might have been to support the doctor's expectations, that scientific
evidence just didn't match up to what Jesus said, and/or what He was and has
been saying, and Della wasn't going to allow that spirit of fear to grab
her. She refused to allow her mouth to
become the voice of the spirit of The Fear of Death.
See
you next week.
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!
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#_
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 available
at http://www.RegnersMorningCoffee.com. Coffee Break
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If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.To remove yourself from the mailing list, please send a blank email to Unsubscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.
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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.
Another
Coffee Break:
The Asher Miracle, Part 2
September 12, 2014
Let's
begin with a news report today taken from Zion Oil Company's publication, Oil
in Israel:
A
Texas oil man named Andy SoRelle was busy preparing to drill the Atlit #1 well
near Haifa, known as the Asher Project. SoRelle’s well was spudded in February 1981,
the same year Jim Spillman’s book, The Great Treasure Hunt, was
released. Spillman and SoRelle were mutual supporters, each understandably
interested in the work of the other. Throughout the Asher Project SoRelle
updated Spillman on the progress of the well they both believed would strike
the oil God had promised.
At 9,400 feet the drill bit hit volcanic rock. They drilled down through another 7600 feet before finally coming into limestone again. The drill bit, now at 17,296 feet was way beyond the rig’s capacity. Fearing he would lose the hole, Atlit’s drilling supervisor (a man by the name of John Brown) shut down the operation until a larger rig could be brought in.
December 28, 1982 a new drill rig, rated at 26,000 feet was installed over the original hole. This new phase, dubbed the Atlit #II was planned to bring the well as deep as 23,000 feet. By February of 1983 the well had been cleaned out and depth had been increased to 18,000 feet.
Drilling continued without incident until, at 20,570 feet Atlit II struck oil! What oil experts call “very good shows” came to the surface; graded as light oil at 35 to 40 degrees API. SoRelle continued to a final depth of 21,431 feet. The zone of oil bearing rock, was estimated at 470 feet, from 20,570 to 21,309 feet. Two years after spudding, the drilling phase of the Atlit well was finally complete!
During development problems emerged again. Financing for the project had been on a shoe-string at best. The crew had stopped casing the well at 13,772 feet. Not having funds for additional casing and reasoning that the volcanic rock they had struggled through was stable enough to hold the hole open the crew had continued drilling in “open hole.”
As the crew was cleaning the hole in preparation for the
production casing, drill collars stuck at 18,669 ft and two weeks of jarring
would not break them loose. Special equipment was flown to retrieve the string
(130 ft. in length) and, while cleaning the hole to “fish” with the new
equipment they stuck again at the 17,772 ft mark. After ten more days of trying
to break loose, they came out leaving another 8 ½ foot fish in the hole.
August 24, 1983, more than two and a half years after spudding,
Andy SoRelle called it quits for the Atlit hole. Having spent more than $25
million, his own money and that of his investors, Andy gave up on the Atlit
well.
The history of the search for Asher’s oil doesn’t seem very
promising. But if God said of Asher, ‘… let him dip his foot in oil …’
then I’m convinced He’ll keep His promise in His own time. One thing I do know;
the oil is down there. Hancock saw it and SoRelle saw it. That Asher’s oil
exists is a fact, when it will be brought to the surface is the only question.
But these are just the material
facts. Let's now get to the Scriptural aspects, the scientific aspects of
this oil find.
While Andy was mapping the region, he was
visited by a group of Rabbis and professors from Jerusalem University.
"Mr. SoRelle," they said, "We think you need to see what we've
discovered."
Well, of course the oil find was front page
news on the Jerusalem Post. Andy went from persona nobody to a first-name basis with
just about everybody in the Israeli government. The Rabbis sat up and
took notice. Hebrew scholars sat up and took notice. Geologists sat
up and took notice. His find was widely written about in the journals of
the oil industry. Scientists took notice.....and scratched their head.
The Rabbis began to show Andy their
discoveries in the Torah. Once it became clear that Asher's Oil was
petroleum and not just olive, it cast some translations of the Hebrew text into
a whole new light. Ironically, it was a
scholar whose name was Olive who pointed out some fascinating aspects of Andy's
discovery.
Asher-Atlit Well by
the old Crusader Castle
"And of Asher he said, Let Asher be
blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip
his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so
shall thy strength be."
"Mr. SoRelle, whether you realize it
or not, you are the fulfillment of Scripture. You've found oil at the
foot of Asher. Your drilling rig is 'iron and brass.'"
But, here's the best part. In I
Chronicles 7:30-39 are the names of the 43 children of Asher. Each of
their names is a prophecy -- a promise from God. Each of their names has
a mathematical value. (You may remember a discussion in one of our Coffee
Breaks about the Russian mathematician, Ivan Panin, and his discoveries.)
Put the translation from Hebrew of each of
the names together in succession as they are recorded in Scripture and it comes
out approximately like this: "A foreign association shall come
together and shall sink a shaft in Asher, using a cutting tool for cutting hard
formations; and will go through a mountain or a high place; and liquid pitch
will come forth as a man vomiting. And Asher will be able to lend to his
brothers, and Israel will become preeminent amongst nations."
Here's another really cool discovery.
A friend who served in the first Iraq War -- Desert Storm -- had access to the
Navy's huge computer. After analyzing
the names of each of the children of Asher, he decided to input the
mathematical value of each of the names of the children of Asher. What he came
up with was.......20,570! The depth at which Andy found oil. You
remember, don't you, that every Hebrew letter has a mathematical value?
It is like the ancient Greek language (or actually it's the other way around -
smile!) Put the letters of the names together; add their numerical values
together and you get 20,570.
But there's more. Extract out some of
the individual names with their corresponding mathematical value, and you get
the exact weight and grade of the oil that came forth.
So, how did all that fit? Andy
definitely had a foreign (American) association. They sank a shaft in
Asher using a cutting tool for cutting hard formations (a drill bit used in
digging for oil). They went through a mountain. The mountain was
hidden because of geologic shifts, but they drilled through a volcanic
mountain. Liquid pitch -- oil -- came forth as a man vomiting.
One more thing: Andrew "Andy"
SoRelle's name is Hebrew is.....tum de tum tum.....Asher! Of course he
didn't know that until the Rabbis told him. (smile)
The rest of it.....well, it still remains
to be completed. The Intifada interrupted things, and despite his best
efforts to raise the money necessary to sink a producing well, Andy ran out of
funds. He was able to raise enough money to begin another drilling effort
in the mid-to-late 1980's, but problems with the drill rig made available to
him by the Israel National Oil Company (yeah, they decided after Andy's
discoveries to put together a national oil company.) forced a shutdown.
The rig was simply too small for the project.
Ill health caught up with him in the years
that followed, and it wasn't until 1995 that he was able to return to try
again. He had raised enough money -- he hoped -- to actually sink a
producing well. Again, mechanical problems and local politics interfered
causing costly delays and eventually draining his resources, bringing his third
effort to a stop.
It is a promise yet to be fulfilled.
Andy once told me that if he could sink 50 oil wells per year in the region
over a 20-year span, they wouldn't come close to extracting all the oil
available.
As I recall, it was in 2001 or 2002 that we
got a phone call from Maxine asking us to pray for Andy. He was in the
hospital, having suffered a bad fall and a broken hip. He recovered
enough that the doctors sent him home, but again complications from the injury
sent him back to the hospital. Maxine called us some weeks later and we
learned that Andy had gone on to be with the Lord.
She shared how that while Andy was in the
hospital, the Lord had spoken to him and told him that the Asher project was
not his to finish, but that he needed to commission his son, Andy Sorelle III
(we all called him "Andy Jr.") Andy Jr. came into the hospital
to see his father and Andy Sr. instructed him to kneel by his bedside. He
placed his hands on Andy Jr's head according to the instruction of the Lord and
commissioned him to follow through with the project to its conclusion.
Andy then laid back down in the bed, folded
his hands, said goodbye to everyone, and went to be with the Lord.
Andy Junior had been in the oil business
like his father, but his activities were in oil and gas law. Despite his
father's commissioning, he somehow never got the same vision. In the years since Andy Senior’s death, John
Brown -- who had been with Andy during his first efforts -- picked up the
vision. The Zion Oil Company was formed, and John Brown picked up the
vision and the effort. Because so many years had passed since Andy's
initial find, John sank his own test wells to prove the oil for himself.
Like Andy's successful test efforts which
began in 1979, John Brown found the same oil. In 2006, Zion Oil Company
applied before the Securities and Exchange Commission for an IPO of two million
shares at $7 per share. To the best of my knowledge, that IPO was
successful and they were able to raise the $14 Million needed for their initial
efforts.
That effort resulted in some successes and
some disappointments, but -- like Andy -- John is one very determined
individual who absolutely believes the Word of God. More efforts have followed John's first
endeavor, and he will not give up until he sees God's promise fulfilled. Oil WILL come forth out of Asher just as
Moses prophesied.
I spoke with John a few months ago
concerning raising money for this vision (and it is certainly one that we share
with him). He cautioned me about having
folks involved in the effort who only saw it as a potential money-making
venture. He said to me, "If folks
don't have the vision, I'd rather not have them involved. This is God's doing! This is His promise and His covenant with
Israel. I really don't want anyone being
a part of it who doesn't understand and share the covenant vision. I believe it is crucial to the future success
of our efforts."
Whether it is now, or later, Israel will
have such an abundance of oil -- and I am convinced -- that the United States
will no longer need to depend on Arab oil to meet its needs.
God made a promise to Israel that "if thou shalt
hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all
his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set
thee on high above all nations of the earth......
"The LORD shall command the
blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand
unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee....
"And the LORD shall make thee the head, and
not the tail...." (Deuteronomy
28:1, 8, 13, KJV)
You have to have a vision in order to
achieve what everyone says is impossible.
Geologists for years had said that Israel
either had no oil whatever, or only oil in trace amounts not worth
extracting. Their instruments and their scientific studies backed them up
with their claims. There were no natural oil formations when you take in
the geology and geography of the place. It took a nut case from Houston,
Texas -- at least that's what a lot of folks called him -- to demonstrate to
them that if the Bible says so, IT IS SO !!
What does God have in store? More
than anyone can possibly imagine!
Christians
MUST NOT live at random. Everything we do is significant. Beware of
the trap of thinking that anything you do is "insignificant."
Again, let me remind
you that if you are in need of healing or deliverance from any kind of torment,
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!
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#_
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 available
at http://www.RegnersMorningCoffee.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 remove yourself from the mailing list, please send a blank email to Unsubscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.
If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.To remove yourself from the mailing list, please 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, September 19, 2014
Another
Coffee Break:
The Asher Miracle, Part 1
September 5, 2014
Nearly ten years have
passed since I first began to share the amazing story of Houston oilman and
drilling legend, Andy SoRelle. Since I
first shared this story, there have been many additions as well as parts of the
original story that needed to be "fleshed out".
It was twenty years
ago this spring that Della and I were first introduced to Andy and Maxine
SoRelle. What we were introduced to was
a whole lot more than a couple of very interesting people: we became involved
in an adventure that continues to this day.
In order to lay the foundations for the events I'm about to share, let
me take you back to WW-II.
Andrew
SoRelle III was the third in the lineage of a Texas oil drilling family. His father and his grandfather before him
(each of whom was named, Andrew SoRelle) had become very well known in
America's rapidly-developing oil industry.
Their adventures and accomplishments had already made the SoRelle name
famous.
Here's an
aside to this story. The unusual
spelling with the capital "R" was the result of a squabble among
members of the family who had emigrated to the U.S. from France. To distinguish themselves from the part of
the family who became known for their winter sorel boots, as well as the branch
that became involved in the elegant (and verrry expensive!) baby furniture,
Andy's grandfather (or great-grandfather -- don't remember for sure) changed
the way the name was spelled.
Andy grew
up in a home where the name of Jesus was a cuss word. He barely knew who Jesus was. When America became engaged in WW-II, he
enlisted in the Army Air Corps and before long was a fighter pilot providing
air support in bombing runs over Germany.
His prowess as a fighter pilot made him the choice of more than one B-24
crew and for a time he managed to return from these bombing runs relatively
unscathed.
On one particular return flight to England, Andy's
plane got shot, strafed by enemy fire, and he lost his rudder, along with all
of his control surfaces. Now, any of you who are pilots who have flown in
either of the Gulf Wars know when that happens, you start speaking in tongues
immediately! If you know the Lord, that is! (smile)
If God doesn't intervene, you've got maybe
a minute to get things right with the Lord before the plane digs a trench in
the desert or an oil field, or you wind up as shark bait at the bottom of the
ocean. Andy's growing-up hadn't been Biblically-oriented -- at all -- and
the words, "Sunday School," WERE speaking in tongues for him.
Nevertheless, he did what Albert Einstein talked about.
You remember Einstein? E=mc2?
What most folks don't remember is that he once said, "There is a
God-shaped vacuum in every individual that ONLY God can fill." Andy
SoRelle didn't know anything about Einstein's comment and Jesus was more of a historical
figure to him but he started screaming out for God to fill the vacuum in his
life. "God, if you are real, and you can get me out of this alive, I
promise I will give my life to you." With mere seconds to go before
the fighter aircraft pancaked in some French vineyard, the plane flew into a
fog bank and he lost all sense of direction.
For something like an hour, the plane kept
flying......in fog. Not until he neared the airfield in England did the weather clear, and Andy realized
that the Lord had literally carried his broken aircraft back across France and the English
Channel -- WITH
NO CONTROL SURFACES available. Andy couldn't steer the
plane, he couldn't set a compass direction, he couldn't raise or lower flaps --
NOTHING!!
Nevertheless, his plane guided perfectly to the runway, landed, and came to a
stop with him safe and sound.
His commanding officer and fellow-fighter
pilots looked in disbelief at the aircraft. His Commanding Officer said,
"This is impossible! This plane can't fly!" Andy's story,
along with accompanying photos of him and the "can't fly" aircraft,
made it into numerous newspapers, and finally was published in its entirety in
Guideposts' Magazine in the late 1960's.
Despite
his prayer in that life-and-death situation, Andy's actual submission and
commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ didn't take place for more
than fifteen years. Having grown up in the midst of great wealth and
"high society," he was mostly raised by a black nanny. She DID know the Lord, was Holy Spirit-filled
and had a wonderful daily walk with Jesus Christ. (Della and I got to meet her when she was in
her late 80's.) She began to pray for
him, share with him, instruct him (he thought she was preaching :-)) minister
to him every chance she got and didn't let up.
When he did commit his life to Jesus Christ, stupendous changes took
place in his life.
Andy got
baptized in the Holy Spirit -- and DID begin speaking in tongues -- for
real! But that was only the
beginning. Along the way he met Demos
Shakarian (who founded the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International -
FGBMFI) and became one of the founders of the Houston chapter of the
fellowship. His involvement with the Full
Gospel Businessmen opened up many doors of opportunity for him as an oilman.
His
reputation as an oilman was already well established, but when Shell Oil heard
about some of his adventures and successes, they came to him with a serious
problem. They had found what looked like
a likely oil field off the coast of Louisiana and initiated drilling. The problem was that no one up to that time
had ever successfully gotten through the Louisiana sands without having to deal
with the issue of the fresh water that would play havoc with the process.
Andy said
that he had a specific answer from the Lord as to a drilling site and Shell Oil
funded the project. After days and weeks
of fruitless results, Andy stayed with it and wouldn't give up. His efforts resulted in what became known in
the oil industry as "the Shell Miracle."
If my recollection is correct, it was in
the mid-to-late 1970's when he and Maxine were in Tel Aviv, vacationing at the
Sheraton Hotel. One morning, he opened his Bible to a strange verse of
Scripture in Deuteronomy 33:24.
"Let Asher be blessed with children; let him
be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil."
It struck him as really odd, so he said,
"Lord, are you saying that there is oil in Israel?" Considering
that he was in Israel,
he decided -- just for grins -- to take a look at an old Biblical map to see
where the ancient boundaries were for the tribe of Asher. Turns out
that those boundaries made Asher look like a boot. The toe of the boot
fell just south of present-day Haifa
where many of the Hezbollah rockets have been falling, and where Hamas has
succeeded in reaching in the past few weeks (albeit unsuccessfully because of
Israel's Iron Dome defense).
Being something of an adventurous type,
Andy decided to spend some of his own fortune and do some test drillings in the
area. After some wrangling with the Israeli government -- whose Minister
of Energy thought the whole idea was a crackpot idea -- for nearly three years,
Andy was finally granted a drilling permit, and in 1979 began drilling at the
very edge of the geographical toe: at the River of Crocodiles.
From Left to
Right: Andrew SoRelle, Yithak Modai
& Elizar Barak
Andy had to be an adventurer. After
months of drilling, broken drill bit after drill bit because of volcanic
material he kept running into, he was finally down to 13,000 feet. Out of
pipe (casing), and having spent more than $8 Million, some of it his own money,
not to mention some investor funds, his crew said to him, "Andy, it was a
good try. Sorry it didn't work out."
Now this was a crew that had been with him
for many years -- the same crew, in fact, that had been with him for the
"Shell Miracle" -- and had seen him come through some amazing
circumstances and obstacles to find oil in the most obscure places.
Nevertheless, experience told them they had spent a lot of time and money for
nothing. Andy had simply misread the Scripture. That passage
certainly didn't mean petroleum oil. It was a reference to olive
oil. That was the kind of oil that Asher was known for historically.
Right.
Funny, isn't it, how we let our education
and experience, and our book learning get in the way when we ought to be
listening to the Lord. But Andy didn't.
This is a spiritual principle that many folks have lost sight of. We tend to get in the habit of eating from
the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Get it? If something is
"good" by our estimation or past practices, then that simply must
be the thing to do!
If we see something as "bad" or
even "evil" based on our understanding and/or past experiences, then
by all means we need to avoid it and do what seems "good." Trouble is, we are acting based on humanly
acquired knowledge, NOT based on revelation which has come by the Spirit of
God. And that gets us in trouble more
often than not!
For Andy, he'd seen and he'd heard the Word
of the Lord. It was absolutely lodged in
his spirit. Reading that scripture in
Deuteronomy rang as rhema in his whole being.
"Fellas, we're staying with it. Just keep drilling. It's
volcanic, so the material is hard enough to stay together without having to run
casing."
OK. The boss is nuts, but he's paying
the bills.
So they kept drilling. 15,000
feet. 17,000 feet. 19,000 feet. "Andy, this is
crazy! Nobody's ever found oil at this depth in this region. It
just ain't there!"
After many months of drilling, they struck
oil. At 20,570 feet! Now, here's where it really gets interesting.
|
The oil was so pure, it was the color of
honey. I know. Della and I have both seen samples of it. As
soon as I saw the sample Andy showed me, I said to him, "Andy, it sure
gives you a whole new take on "a land flowing with milk and honey."
Ahhh.....but we haven't even scratched the
surface.
Andy had spent some $25 Million by this
time -- a good chunk of it being investor capital -- and he didn't have much
left. So he picked up the equipment and headed back to the U.S. to see if
he could raise some money to drill some producing wells. Of course there
had to be geological analysis of the region in order to demonstrate the
viability of such a project. Andy went back to the area in the early
1980's with some experimental sounding equipment developed by another friend of
ours, (I've already talked about him several times in previous Coffee Breaks)
the scientist, Dr. Joseph O'Neil.
As they began to map the oil deposits, they
realized that they were sitting on top of a world-class find. The pool
extended out under the Mediterranean for more
than a hundred miles. It traveled through a fault line under the city of Haifa across northern Israel,
gradually rising in Jordan
and reaching into Iraq.
Turns out this pool of oil was the primary source of the oil for some of the Middle East's major oil producing countries.
(Whewww.....talk about the politics of the situation!!!!!)
There's a whole lot more to this story, and we'll
pick it up here next week.
Let me remind you that
if you are in need of healing or deliverance from any kind of torment, 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!
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
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Tale of Two Brides, published by Destiny Image, is now available on
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