Preparing the Bride of Christ For His Return By Janet Van Hierdan
A Tale of Two Brides is now available on Amazon.com:
Sunday, January 25, 2015
Another
Coffee Break:
Going Beyond, Part 11
January 23, 2015
We're going to run long again
today, so without any prologue, let's get underway.
Hebrews 6:1-3, KJV: “Therefore leaving the
principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying
again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of
the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the
dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit.”
Ever since Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil, death has been a mandated part of our existence as their
descendants. The human genetic makeup
has had death ingrained in its DNA. Death, and the very preparation for it has
become the core of our culture. Without
actually considering that this is the reason, we look at foods from the
perspective of what will make us healthier and live longer.
Many folks pick and choose their automobiles predicated on
how safe they will be in them. The news
media is filled with news and events that all surround how we live and/or how
we will face death. Most news, whether
on TV or in the newspapers, or on the radio, or in magazines has a death
element to it.
Then there’s this:
We buy life and health insurance because we are betting that
we will get sick and/or die before the actuarials predict. On the other hand the insurance companies are
betting that we will live and stay healthier longer than the actuarials.
Our thoughts and our speech are filled with a mindset and
comments that incorporate death in one way or another. Despite the promises that Jesus made and the
Covenant He provides, Christians plan for death. The body of Christ has, for the most part,
lost sight of the Covenant that provides health, strength, and — not only loooooonnng life
— but deliverance from death.
The previous foundational truths that we have considered: (1) Repentance
from dead works; (2) Faith toward God; (3) Baptisms;
and (4) Laying on of Hands are nearly as difficult for Christians to
grasp and lock into their mindsets, their spirits, their way of thinking, and
their behavior patterns as is the fifth foundation: Resurrection of the Dead.
Resurrection of the dead takes on a two-fold
perspective. The first is one that most
Christians can accept because it is off in the far, far future. It is something that takes place after one
has died, stood before the judgment seat of God and found innocent of sin. They are then raised to life in the realm of
the Spirit.
There’s another aspect of this line of thought that says we
are already dead in our sins — dead spiritually. The acceptance and acknowledgement of Jesus’
as the Only Begotten Son of God having suffered and died for our sins is our
redemption from that sin and the curse of spiritual death and separation from
God that the sin brings. Everybody good
so far with this? What gets lost in this
one-sided view is that Jesus did not only die on the Tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil, He laid the axe to its root and was resurrected from the grave
by Father God!
Mankind was NEVER designed to die in the first place. When Adam and Eve were first created, they
were created in the image and likeness of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Two words occur in the Hebrew text which
clarify this: tselem (translated: image), and demuth (translated: likeness).
The word, tselem,
actually conveys the sense: someone who exactly resembles in appearance, an exact replica. The word, demuth, literally means: an exact model; alike in characteristics and makeup. Hence we were made to be just like Father,
Son & Holy Spirit. Our breath was
Father’s breath. Our life-span, eternity!
Our character and makeup: interdimensional, having the ability to
function in both the heavenlies and in the earthly realm.
For two thousand years Adam and Eve lived in the Garden,
walking and talking with Jesus, enjoying the fellowship, receiving revelation,
being given the ability to decree and declare the very nature and makeup of the
various living species — animals, fish, birds; i.e., everything that walked or
moved upon the face of the earth. Death
was not a part of their makeup.
Adam and Eve never knew what death was, except that God had
said to them when they were first introduced to the Garden, “Of every tree of the garden
thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou
shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die.” (Genesis
2:16b-17)
Death was something there was no reference for in their
paradigm. The animals didn’t die. The birds didn’t die. The fish didn’t die. They were all reproducing and filling the
earth, according to God’s command. Once
they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the dying process was
set into their DNA, and just as God had spoken, they died on the day they ate
thereof, 930 years into that third day.
At the same time, with sin's contamination, death became a part of all
creation.
From that moment, the human race and the human genome has
been contaminated with both death and the fear of death. For that reason, even for Christians, the
concept of everlasting life, or life for evermore — never mind resurrection
from the dead — have been contaminated by the Fear of Death as well as by the
traditions and religious philosophies that have been bred into the life of the
body of Christ. In order then to get a
real grasp on the foundation of resurrection from the dead, we have to go back
to the Word Himself and see what Jesus said, what He taught, and what He did.
John 6:38-40, KJV: For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own
will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father’s will which
hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but
should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that sent
me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have
everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.
This is the first and most basic element of resurrection.
Jesus is making it abundantly clear that everyone who sees
Him — the Greek word here is theoreo,
which means: to
discern, to see and know, to perceive and ascertain — and believes on Him (and here the
word in the Greek text is pisteuo, which
is the word for faith, the exercise of faith meaning: to put full faith and credit
in, to entrust and to commit without reservation)
will have zoe life
(the God-breathed life) aionios: existing throughout the
eternity of the eternities.
Then Jesus says this: And I will raise him up at the last day. This
is perhaps one of the most unique and revelatory things Jesus says in this
passage.
The Greek word used for the phrase “raise him up” is the
word, anistemi, a
contraction of two Greek words, ana (up)
and histemi, a
prolonged version of stao,
which has some meanings and applications which give real understanding to what
Jesus is saying. Let me illustrate first with another statement that Jesus
makes:
John 5:24, KJV: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my
word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not
come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”
This word, “passed” comes from the Greek metabaino which is: an instant
transition from one place to another. Again,
we have the picture of hearing (hearing and understanding) and exercising faith
and absolute confidence and trust in the reality of who Jesus is, and the price
that Jesus paid on our behalf.
When Jesus said, “I will raise him up at the last day,” He
was applying the truth of resurrection in a phenomenal way.
The term, anistemi,
literally means: to stand up again, to fix and
establish, to uphold and sustain the authority, to restore and sustain covenant.
Resurrection, therefore, is much more than being raised from
the dead, it is being moved from death — where we have been laid flat by sin —
to the very life that is God’s life. It
is the restoration of our relationship with Father, Son & Holy Spirit throughout
the eternity of the eternities!
Death, in this sense, is nothing more than separation from
the relationship we were created for and in with Father, Son & Holy
Spirit. Resurrection, again in this same
sense, is being raised back to that life we were created and designed for.
But that’s only one phase of resurrection. What Jesus paid for, and what Father did when
He raised Jesus from physical death in the tomb, is literally the cancellation
of the sentence of death upon us. We’ve
quoted this passage again and again in times past but it deserves revisiting in
this context:
Hebrews 9:25-26, KJV: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the
high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; For
then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now
once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself.
Hebrews 9:27-28, Amp Bible: And just as it is appointed for [all] men once to
die, and after that the [certain] judgment, Even so it is that Christ, having
been offered to take upon Himself and bear as a burden the sins of many once
and once for all, will appear a second time, not to carry any burden of sin nor
to deal with sin, but to bring to full salvation those who are [eagerly,
constantly, and patiently] waiting for and expecting Him.
When Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good
and Evil, they brought sin and death into the human genome. Under the Law of Moses, it was necessary for
the priests to enter into the Holy Place once each year with a blood sacrifice
for the atonement (or covering over) of the sins of the people. That act of offering a blood sacrifice did
not eradicate the sin, nor did it do away with the sentence of death in human
DNA.
Thus, it became necessary for Jesus Christ to become the once
and for all time blood sacrifice in order to completely eradicate both the sin
and do away with the sentence of death. What the priests could not do under the
Law of Moses, Jesus accomplished with four distinct acts:
(1) He laid the axe to the root of the Tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil. (see Matthew 3:10)
(2) He was hung and died on that Tree — the same Tree that
brought death to Adam and Eve. (see Acts 13:29 and I Peter 2:24)
(3) He took all of our sins, our sicknesses and diseases, our
infirmities, and Satan’s power over us to that Tree and put it all to death,
then laid it at Satan’s feet once and for all.
(4)
Having put an end to the power of sin and sickness, disease and infirmity, He
also put an end to death when Father raised Him from the dead. (Acts
10:39-40 and 13:30, & Galatians 3:13-14)
This last quote from Paul’s letter to the Galatians makes it
about as unambiguous as anything can be when he writes that “Christ hath redeemed us
from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us.”
So what was the curse?
It was the sentence of death for sin.
That was the sentence that had passed upon all man-kind from the moment
that Adam ate of the fruit of the Tree
of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. There was a fundamental understanding among
the Jews that there would come a Resurrection Day for all at some point in the
future when all would stand before the Great Judgment Seat. Consider Martha’s statement to Je-sus when he
spoke of Lazarus being raised from the dead:
John 11:21-24, KJV: Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst
been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou
wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.
Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall
rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
But look now at what Jesus says to Martha next:
John 11:25-26, KJV: Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the
life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
Martha responded in the affirmative to Jesus, but that’s not
quite what He got when He was addressing a crowd of followers.
John 6:49-52, KJV: Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and
are dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from
heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that
I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The Jews therefore strove among themselves,
saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat?
But Jesus was quick to answer them.
John 6:54-58, KJV: Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath
eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is
drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh,
and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him.
As the
living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even
he shall live by me. This is that bread
which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead:
he that eateth of this bread shall live forever.
In each of the preceding verses and passages, we have seen
the words, “die,” and “death.” In each
case the Greek word apothnesko occurs. This word literally means: to die off, to be dead
physically.
What’s sad is that in today’s society, and particularly in
the body of Christ for many generations, this has been read and inferred as
spiritual death. After all, Jesus surely didn’t mean that Resurrection From
the Dead meant that we could apply this in a literal sense! And yet, that’s exactly what the Word
says! Jesus couldn’t have said it more plainly than He did when He said to
Martha, “And
whosoever liveth and believeth in me SHALL NEVER DIE.”
Again, when Paul is writing to the Hebrews and says “And as it is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins
of many,” here once again, the word translated “die” is that same word
Jesus used, apothnesko:
physical death.
Resurrection of the Dead IS a foundation truth and principle
that we must lay hold of. We have to see
and understand this as much more than a spiritual event. Of course the spiritual aspect of it is
critical! It is the restoration of our relationship and interdimensional walk
with the Lord through-out the eternity of the eternities. But in order for it to have force NOW in this
present day and time, we have to see it as Resurrection from the sentence of
death.
Death cannot be a consideration for us. The subconscious
belief that we must die now impedes out ability to believe that we can raise
the dead just as Jesus did. And, please, don’t anyone think I’m saying that a
person absolutely must believe in physical death cancellation before they can
raise the dead. We have far too many examples of folks in bygone eras and moves
of God who did raise the dead. But God is bringing His people beyond the old
mindset and understanding.
There are current examples of people living today who have
grasped this principle and have been alive for hundreds of years.
When Jesus hung on the Cross, His last words were, “It
is Finished!” Blood and water came
from His side when the centurion pierced His side. What was finished? Sin and death! What came forth from His side? A new birth!
A Bride who would live and demonstrate His Life to the world!
We have resumed our
normal Healing Prayer Call schedule for Mondays only at 7:00 PM Eastern. Once again, the number to call for healing is
(805) 399-1000. Then enter the access
code: 124763#. I also want to let you
know that our Sunday gatherings are available by conference call – usually at
about 10:45AM Pacific. That conference
number is (559) 726-1300, and the access code is 308640#.
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 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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Thursday, January 15, 2015
Another
Coffee Break:
Going Beyond, Part 10
January 16, 2015
Let me share a
"funny" with you as we get underway today. I've mentioned our six-year-old
granddaughter, Jasmine, a couple of times over the past months. One night not too long ago, I was praying with
Jasmine as she was going to bed. Because
she'd had something of a rough day, I decided to pray with her in the
Spirit. We started off praying together
(she was following me) in English. When
we reached a certain point, I switched and began praying in tongues.
When I finished praying, she
looked at me and said, "Grandpa, what language was that?" I answered her that I didn't have any
idea. That made no sense to her so she
dug a little bit further. "How can
you pray in a language you don't know?"
"I yield to the Holy Spirit and He prays through me. When that happens He prays through me with
exactly the right words that need to be said."
Jasmine smiled, looked a bit
quizzically at me, and then said, "Grandpa, I like it when you do
that! It feels really good!" Ever since that, whenever I've prayed with
her, she often specifically asks that I "use that Angel
language!" Kids!! They sure get it -- and often way ahead of
adults!
It was back in 1949 in Rockford, Illinois,
at an Oral Roberts tent crusade that I first heard the phrase, “Point of
Contact.” In the years that followed,
this phrase would become a central theme of Oral Roberts’ ministry. It was not
until the 1970’s, however, that the impact of what he was teaching really
struck home for me. We’ve all become
familiar with the statement in the general epistle of James in which he writes:
James 5:14-15, KJV: "Is any sick among you? let him call for the
elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the
name of the Lord: And the
prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he
have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him."
What
is missing in the KJV translation is a direct statement that the “praying over”
someone incorporates the laying on of hands.
The more accurate way to read this statement from the Greek is like
this:
“Are there
any sick or infirm among you? let them pray, laying hands upon him, anointing
him with oil (and rubbing the oil into him) in the onoma (the character, the
makeup, the very essence and nature) of the Lord: And the covenant command (in
prayer) of faith shall save, heal, deliver and make whole the sick, and the
Lord shall raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they shall be totally
eradicated from him.” (RAC Translation
and Amplification)
What
James is getting at is that there is “a point of contact” between the Lord
(through those praying and laying on hands) and the individual who is sick or
suffering. That point of contact becomes
the nexus where the power of God moves directly into the individual,
eradicating and eliminating both the disease or sickness — AND the sin which
brought about that sickness in the first place.
Oral
Roberts’ revelation of “the point of contact” revolutionized his ministry, and
acting in faith, he literally laid hands on tens of thousands of individuals. In every service of his that I ever attended,
every single individual was healed.
Blind eyes were opened, deaf ears were unstopped, people who had never
been able to speak suddenly had their voices and could talk, cancers fell off,
large growths (goiters) vanished in an instant, and in some cases, people
suddenly lost 50—100 pounds of excess weight.
(That was a bit humorous because you saw men and women suddenly grabbing
at now grossly-oversize clothing that was falling off.)
[This
environment of faith, incidentally, is the environment in which Kenneth
Copeland developed his ministry.]
The
actual contact between those praying in faith, and those receiving their
healing, deliverance, and wholeness can be described as “the nexus of
faith.” It is the point at which the
physical power and the authority of God are released into the receiving
individual.
In
previous studies, we have talked about faith as being the actual “transporter
mechanism” which carries and moves God’s power from the heavenlies into this
time-space realm, making that realm manifest for all who witness it.
But
there’s more to it than that!
Most
of us have watched Paul Keith Davis, or Chuck Pierce, or one of the other
prophetic teachers at the end of their time of teaching when they begin to lay
hands on the people as Holy Spirit directs them. Paul Keith frequently will say to the people,
“I’m being directed to impart this anointing (for whatever area of impartation
Holy Spirit happens to be emphasizing at that moment) to you, and I’d like for
you to form a line in front.” He
subsequently has other brethren join him as he either walks across the front
laying hands on one person after another, or has people simply pass in front of
him as he lays hands on them.
Sharing
on a recent Sunday in Fort Worth was my first experience in doing that, and in
fact, the first time I’ve ever been directed by Holy Spirit to impart specific
revelation into folks by the laying on of hands. There is a transference by Holy Spirit which
defies natural explanation. Sometimes we
see specific gifts of the Spirit imparted as a point of contact occurs between
the one directed by Holy Spirit and the recipient. Consider what Paul wrote to Timothy on two
separate occasions:
I Timothy 1:18, NASB: “This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in
accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you
fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience…”
II Timothy 1:5-7, KJV: “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith
that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother
Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.
“Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God,
which is in thee by the putting on of my hands.
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love,
and of a sound mind.”
In
the first instance, Paul notes that Timothy has been commissioned as a warrior
after the Spirit. We don’t have a
specific indication that this prophecy came with the laying on of hands, but in
the second letter to Timothy Paul makes clear the fact that the gift of faith “that
is in thee” … “is in thee by the laying on of my hands.”
Since
faith, and the warring by faith noted in the first letter, is the same gift Paul
refers to in his second letter, it takes no great stretch of imagination to
realize that Timothy received an impartation of the gift of faith when Paul
laid his hands on him and prophesied over him.
Consider
what Paul writes to the Corinthians in his first epistle to them:
I Corinthians 12:1, 4-11, RAC Translation &
Amplification: “Now with respect to spiritual impartations
and manifestations (pneumatikos:
literally,
spirituals), my
brethren, I don’t want you to lack understanding…
“Now there
are divisions — distinct differences — of spiritual faculties, endowments,
qualifications and gifts, but the same breath of Holy Spirit [breathing
them]. And there are varieties of modes
of service and means of administration, but it is the same Lord [in
control]. And there are the same
distinct [displays and manifestations] of supernatural energy, and it is still
the same God effecting the workings of it all.
The exhibition and bestowed expression of Holy Spirit is delivered and
made available to each man or woman for the collective advancement and
betterment of all [the members of the body].
“For to one
is bestowed (with the striking of the hand [and in some instances], the palm of
the hand) the divine expression of wisdom; to another, the divine release of
knowledge and [even] scientific understanding by the same Holy Spirit; To another individual, faith, conviction and
constancy to persuade (and extend the Kingdom) by the same Holy Spirit; and to
another the miraculous faculty and endowment of healing by the same Holy
Spirit;
“To yet
another is given the divine energy to put on display force, miraculous power
and strength; to another the ability to see [things to come, events, people]
and prophetically decree; to another the capacity to detect, discern, and
distinguish spirit beings [operating within individuals]; To yet another the ability to speak in a
variety of languages previously not learned or acquired; and to another the
miraculous ability to interpret and translate to the hearers [those same
languages]: But all these gifts that
same Holy Spirit energizes and activates, distributing to everyone (often in
multiples) as He purposes and is so minded.”
Whewww!!! That’s a mouthful, I know, but there’s a
fistful of revelation encompassed in this teaching by Paul.
You’ll
notice the rather unusual statement that occurs when he begins with the Word of
Wisdom and the Word of Knowledge. Here,
the Greek text uses an application of the word, didomi, which means in
this instance: to impart, to deliver, to bestow with the striking of the hand,
or (in some cases) the palm of the hand.
This
certainly is not the traditional idea of “the laying on of hands” as we would
apply it. Let me give you some — shall
we refer to them as “bizarre” — cases in which Holy Spirit has directed this
kind of extraordinary action on the part of the individual imparting a gift
from the Lord.
Those
of you who remember the Lakeland Revival back in 2009 and 2010 will remember
Todd Bentley striking someone in the stomach with his hand and seeing the
individual healed of stomach cancer instantly.
There were several instances in which Todd struck people in different
places as healing, deliverance and revelation were imparted to them.
It
sounds radical, and it almost seems cruel and abusive — and it would be if the
individual who was being struck experienced hurt or pain — but in each case no
pain was felt and each person received their complete and instant healing.
I
think of the instance in Lethbridge, Alberta a few years ago when Della and I
participated in a Seder Dinner for Passover.
There was a gentleman there who had been dumb all of his life, and
unable to speak clearly. The Lord sent a
man into Lethbridge to seek out this man for his healing, his deliverance from
this affliction, and his ability to speak the Word of the Lord clearly to all
who would hear him.
When
the two met, the prophet asked the dumb man to stick out his tongue. The prophet then coughed up some massive phlegm,
took the spit, put it on the man’s tongue and told him to swallow it. Sounds insane, doesn’t it? Definitely “out of the box!” The man obeyed without hesitation and was
instantly healed. He became an
outstanding preacher and teacher of the Word as Holy Spirit not only set him
free from his affliction, but imparted to him revelation and understanding of
the Lord Jesus Christ!
On
at least two occasions I have seen healing imparted to the deaf as the one
ministering boxed the ears of the deaf man with his fists. On numerous other occasions I have seen the
deaf healed and/or the blind eyes opened when the one ministering poked his
fingers into the ears or the eyes.
We
all tend to have mental blocks over the instruction of Holy Spirit. We analyze, we reason, we calculate, we
justify our lack of responsiveness to Him because what He commands either
doesn’t fit our traditional understanding, or it may cause us to look like
weirdoes to onlookers, or because it makes us feel self-conscious, or because
it just isn’t logical! More often than
not, we have religious doctrines or traditions that interfere with our
responses.
Holy
Spirit is not weird! Holy Spirit is not
trying to embarrass or make us look stupid.
What He IS LOOKING FOR is unabashed and instantaneous obedience to His
promptings. The results of obedience
always manifest in the supernatural.
Many
of you have heard me use this expression, and I’ve said this time and time
again throughout the years: God’s
objective is to make us become naturally supernatural, and supernaturally
natural!
I
don’t mean it as a cliché, but if we are to become the living Word in flesh, we
have to be ready to do whatever Holy Spirit directs — no matter how silly or
how strange it may seem!
One
last item that I need to cover before we wrap up this portion of our
study. Consider again something that
Paul writes to Timothy:
I Peter 5:22, NASB: “Do not lay hands upon anyone too hastily and
thereby share responsibility for the sins of others; keep yourself free from
sin.”
The
impartation that takes place by laying hands on someone can be bi-directional,
as Paul makes clear in his letter to Timothy.
What he is describing is reverse impartation.
Because
we ONLY lay hands on people at the specific direction of Holy Spirit for the
purpose of impartation, and that direction comes as we function and operate IN
CHRIST, with He IN US, laying hands on someone just because we’ve gotten used
to doing it can be dangerous — both to us and to the one we lay hands on. Take a look at another verse we can apply
within the same context.
I Thessalonians 5:12, KJV: “And we beseech you,
brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and
admonish you.”
I
realize that I’m applying this verse somewhat out of its context in Paul’s
message to the Thessalonians, but this Word strikes to the heart of the
necessity of having revelation by the Spirit of those who minister among you
and with you.
In
1973, Derek Prince was ministering at a conference at Carleton College in Santa
Ana, California. He made the statement
that he did not allow anyone to lay hands upon him whom he did not know by the
Spirit, and whose ministry or doctrinal beliefs flowed counter to that which
Holy Spirit was giving him.
It
is a position Della and I have taken for many years. We do not allow folks to lay hands on us for
the sake of impartation of healing or ministry of any kind who we do not know
by the Spirit of God, lest we become a partaker of some area of unbelief or
doubt in them, or if they hold strong doctrinal positions contrary to
everything the Lord has built within us.
Wrapping
up this area of study, this may seem like a strange application, but take a
look at a couple things that David writes in the Psalms:
Psalm 8:4-6, KJV: "What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little
lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the
works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:"
What
gets revealed here is the fact that the Lord has entrusted us with the “work of
His hands:” hence, when we lay hands on people, we do so acting on His behalf,
and in Him!
Psalm 144:1-2, KJV: "Blessed be the LORD my strength, which teacheth
my hands to war, and my fingers to fight:
My goodness, and my fortress; my high tower, and my deliverer; my
shield, and he in whom I trust; who subdueth my people under me."
I
frequently quote this verse in conjunction with the prophetic use of my hands
and fingers in playing on the guitar and other instruments. My hands become His hands in conducting
warfare and bringing down enemy strongholds.
We’ve
run long and we're out of time. I could
take this a lot farther, but this is as good a place as any to wrap up. This is foundational to us. We must know and use our hands with wisdom
and revelation!
We have resumed our
normal Healing Prayer Call schedule for Mondays & Wednesdays at 7:00 PM
Eastern. Once again, the number to call
for healing 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 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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