Preparing the Bride of Christ For His Return By Janet Van Hierdan
A Tale of Two Brides is now available on Amazon.com:
Thursday, April 23, 2015
Another
Coffee Break:
Supernatural Maturity, Part 6
April 24, 2015
When we paused in this discussion last week, we were talking
about the presence of the Lord as it manifested in the cloud. This is a discussion that could take us way
off track if we followed the rabbit trail, but I'm really just wanting to draw
some illustrations for you to help in understanding what Jesus means when He
speaks of "the pure in heart."
Picking
up from last week, the cloud was darkness to the Egyptians, but it was light to
the camp of Israel. Consider the cloud
in the way that it rested in the temple on the day that Solomon dedicated it to
the Lord.
I Kings 8:10-13:
And it came to pass, when the priests
were come out of the holy place, that the cloud
filled the house of the LORD, So
that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the
glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD.
Then spake Solomon, The LORD said that
he would dwell in the thick darkness. I have surely built thee an
house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide in forever.
Drawing
from the illustrations and the pictures drawn in these particular passages (and
there are many others we could add), this thick, dark cloud appears that way to
those people who do NOT dwell in His presence.
He obscures, He hides Himself from the world at large — a world steeped
in sin and rebellion against Him.
By
the same token, to those who — as Paul described David — are in pursuit of His
presence, those who have allowed their hearts to be purified by fire, who do
not suffer from guilt and condemnation, dwell in light. When Moses and the Elders ate and drank with
the Lord, they didn’t eat and drink in pitch blackness; they enjoyed the
presence of the Lord in absolute light.
Remember when Moses came down out of the mount with the Ten
Commandments? His face shone with such a
brightness that they had to cover him with a veil.
Let
me pause in this discussion for a minute to share with you a personal
experience.
Many
years ago, when I had my first experience of going to Heaven, those of you who
remember my sharing will recall that the first part of my first experience —
after being lifted out of the bed through the ceiling and traveling above the
earth — was to travel through our Solar system and out into the Universe.
Obviously
it was breathtaking and my attention was at first focused on the sights of our
Solar system, seeing the planets, the moons, the stars, etc., and then through
the Universe, seeing the galaxies, and
all the various phenomenal formations which came as a result of the Word, “Light
Be!”
that came forth from the Lord.
Here’s
where things became relevant to what we’re discussing today. Traveling through the Universe at
ever-increasing acceleration was not unlike what we see in Star Trek or Star
Wars, going through hyperspace.
Everything began to blur as streaks of light.
Suddenly
the streaks of light were gone. There
were no more stars, no more galaxies, no more formations. We were plunged into a total, thick darkness. No matter which way my eyes turned, it was a
darkness that was totally impenetrable.
Let
me give you an example.
Close
your eyes. What do you see? It’s dark — even black — but there is still a sense of light. Even if you walk into a closet and shut the
door, once your eyes adjust to the darkness, you can still see things. That kind of darkness can be penetrated. It isn’t so thick you can slice it with a
knife.
Getting
back to my experience in the midst of that darkness, that wasn’t the end of it!
This
is a strange way to describe the darkness, but there was light, and plenty of
it! The light was in Jesus,
Himself! All I could see in that place
of pitch darkness was the Lord Jesus Christ, and in Him was all the light.
John
put it this way as he opened up his gospel:
John
1:4-5: In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the
darkness comprehended it not.
Let’s
amplify this so you get a better sense of what John sees and writes.
In Him was God’s [kind of] life, and that life was the same fire and
luminous brightness manifesting in men (and women) [— those men and women whose
lives are purified by Him].
And that fiery light manifested in the midst of men (and women) whose
lives were filled with the obscure darkness which comes of the ignorance of
divine things with its associated wickedness, and that spiritual darkness was
incapable of apprehending, perceiving and possessing. (John 1:4-5, RAC Translation and
Amplification)
Now
do you see (pun intended) what I’m talking about? The light that radiated from Jesus as I stood
next to Him and held His hand was literally the light of His presence — His
Glory! It’s the same light that made it
possible for Moses and the 70 Elders to eat and drink in that thick cloud with
the Lord, and be totally cut off from Israel’s sight.
Getting
back to my own experience, after some indistinguishable period of time, we were
suddenly standing at the gates of Heaven.
Again, Heaven appeared to me as total light. I could look behind me or from side to side,
and Heaven was the only place of light in the midst of this thick darkness.
I
know that we have really taken this discussion down a long rabbit trail, but we
really are still talking about “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
When
we begin to realize that the very first of the Seven Spirits of God is the
Spirit of Judgment and Burning, applying the concept of the heart — the
thoughts, purposes, motives and intents — being purified by fire really begins
to become clear.
Once
we take a look at the way Isaiah puts this in context, a whole lot of what
we’ve been discussing falls into place.
Isaiah 4:4-6, NASB: When
the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the
bloodshed of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and
the spirit of burning,
Then the LORD will create over the
whole area of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, even smoke,
and the brightness of a flaming fire by night; for over all, the glory will be
a canopy.
There will be a shelter (Hebrew: sukkah: dwelling
place) to give
shade from the heat by day, and refuge and protection from the storm and the
rain.
Once
again, “Blessed and highly favored by
the King [of Kings] are those whose thoughts, motives, purposes and intents
have been purified by fire, who are unstained with any guilt, for God will
allow and permit them to see Him — and more than that, to see into and know His
heart [His heart’s desires and purposes].”
This
is really where we are headed as a people.
The title of this series is, SUPERNATURAL MATURITY. In truth, it is being like Jesus. Jesus KNEW the heart of Father! He KNEW with the very breath of His existence
exactly what Father desired. He KNEW the
plans and purposes for a divine family — a family who would truly be like
Him,
function with His DNA at the core of their very existence, and represent who
and all that He is! So, what does Isaiah
say?
FIRST of all he says that the filth has to be
washed away (strange term, “washed away”, isn’t it?) by the Spirit of Judgment
and Burning. That’s the purification of
our beings, the purifying of our thoughts, our motives, even our thinking
processes and modes of operation.
THEN, he says that God will create over us
(Isaiah uses the term, “Mount Zion” to describe a holy people. He also uses it to distinguish between the
Bride and believers in general.) that dark cloud of His presence as a means of
distinguishing His people from the rest of the world.
But
he doesn’t leave it there. He draws upon
the illustration of the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night that moved
with Israel throughout their 40 years in the wilderness, to contrast God’s
defense of us as His people.
NEXT, Isaiah says that the Glory of the Lord
will be like a canopy — an invisible force shield — to protect against all the
forces of the Enemy.
Remember
where all of this started? The purification
of our hearts, our thoughts, our minds, our agenda!
NOW, he says that the Lord will sukkah — tabernacle — with
us. He will be a covering and provision
for us in the midst of waste and desolation.
[The Hebrew word, choreb, is the word otherwise translated
“heat,” and otherwise describes drought or utter dryness.]
If
the Lord is “tabernacling” with us, then we can have absolute confidence, hope
and trust. That’s the Hebrew word, machseh, translated “shelter” or “refuge.”
Lastly,
the presence of the Lord dwelling with us (and IN us) gives us protection
(covert, KJV) — and a hiding place where we are sheltered in the midst of every
storm, every troubling event, every disaster, every breakdown, every unexpected
time of need.
At
age six, our family decided to go camping and berry-picking on Anvil Mountain,
which is just a few miles out of Nome, Alaska.
Dad pitched an old, army-style tent for our camping and created a
bonfire perhaps ten feet in front of the tent where Mom could make coffee and
fix our meals.
After
a day of camping and berry-picking, Mom had just finished cleaning up the pots
and pans used for making our supper. It
was late summer and starting to get dark outside so we set up a makeshift table
between our sleeping cots to play a few games of Checkers before going to
sleep. In the midst of one of our games,
Dad looked outside and stiffened up suddenly.
He
told us to be quiet and reached for his Remington 30-06 rifle. Loading a few shells into it, he stood it up
next to the tent flap and pointed out of the tent to a pair of wolves standing
roughly a hundred feet away. We prayed
and asked for the angel of the Lord to stand guard and went to sleep. In the morning, there was a set of tracks in
a circle about fifty feet out from the tent.
The wolves never approached.
Some
of you have heard me share an event that took place in Barrow, Alaska in 1980
when I was standing in a construction shack with one of the elders in our
fellowship. We had been reviewing some blueprints
for the construction of a new worship center.
No electricity had been run yet to the construction site, so we were
taking advantage of a good-sized window by the drafting table.
Without
any warning, Holy Spirit suddenly picked both of us up physically and spread us
apart by perhaps 12 inches; and at that moment the window exploded as a bullet
passed between us. A sniper standing on
the roadway perhaps 300 feet away had tried to take me out. The Lord didn’t allow it, and when I opened
the door and hollered at the guy with the rifle, he turned and ran. In each of these instances, the Lord was “a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a
flaming fire by night: for upon all, the glory was a
defence.”
These
illustrations may seem a bit disconnected from our original theme of
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God," but when you
realize that God's initial purpose in this is for us to not simply see His form
and shape but to KNOW His heart and His heart's desire, things begin to fall
into place.
Let
me wrap up today with an amplified translation of something that Paul wrote to
the Philippian Ekklesia.
The
KJV reads like this:
Philippians 3:10-14: That I may know him, and the
power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made
conformable unto his death; If by any
means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either
were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for
which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one
thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth
unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
I
won't try to amplify this whole passage here because it would take up more
space than I want to in this Coffee Break, but let me just deal with the last
part of it.
My brothers and sisters,
in taking inventory of myself and where I have come to in my growth and
relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, I do not consider that I have yet
possessed that place where I am yet completed and finished, but this one sole
consideration grips my thoughts and objective: I purpose to forget the past, I
purpose to lay aside my failures (as well as the mental reasonings and prior
experiences) and stretch forth with my whole being to that goal which lies
before me; I eagerly pursue [without mental reservation] with my entire being
that goal where the high prize above all prizes and rewards awaits: being so
ONE with Jesus Christ that His nature is my nature, His thoughts are my
thoughts, His purposes are my purposes, and I am a part of His bridal company --
His Counterpart and Other Self! (Philippians
3:13-14, RAC Translation and Amplification)
There
is so much is what Paul is saying here that it is almost difficult to properly
express it, but if there ever was a picture of being "pure in heart,"
he has articulated it!
More
next week.
I remind those of you in need of ministry that our Healing Prayer Call
takes place on Mondays at 7:00 PM Eastern (4:00 PM Pacific). Once again, the number to call for healing is
(805) 399-1000. Then enter the access
code: 124763#.
Also want to let you know that our Sunday worship 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#_
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.
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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.
Saturday, April 18, 2015
Another
Coffee Break:
Supernatural Maturity, Part 5
April 17, 2015
Let's get right to our discussion today. This concept of being "naturally
supernatural, and supernaturally natural" is rooted and grounded in the
following truths.
We've been fitted together and joined together with Jesus Christ
as a living, breathing extension of Him. This may sound simplistic, but
He is us, and we are Him. Whatever He does, He does through us.
Things don't happen without our participation. Jesus Christ does not
randomly, mystically, perform miracles in the earth, or work some kind of sign
and wonder in the earth without the direct participation of His covenant
people.
We have and live a covenant that requires our all. Jesus
has made a covenant with us that requires His all -- and the last time I
checked, He hadn't left anything out or stopped His covenant partners from
living in, and operating in all that He is and has.
Folks, His covenant is as alive and breathing today as it was
when He said,
"All (exousia) privilege, force,
authority, power and jurisdiction is given unto me in Heaven and in
earth. You go, therefore.." . (Matthew 28:18-19a)
That's OUR responsibility. Our covenant responsibility to
the Lord is to do the works that He did, to preach the Word that He preached,
and -- moreover -- to fulfill His prophetic Word,
"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." (John 14:12)
This is where I want to go today as we continue from Jesus'
teaching in Matthew 5. Before we can
become this mature extension of the Lord Jesus Christ, living, breathing and
operating in His character, His nature, His personality -- the very essence of
Who He is -- our thoughts, our way of thinking, our motives and personal agenda
have to be expunged from everything we have learned and gained as a result of
eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
That tree is the very epitome of the spirit of anti-Christ. Again, as a reminder, anti in Greek is not "against" (as
the Latin translates it) but rather "a substitute for." Eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good
and Evil causes us to substitute ourselves, our motives, our reasoning
processes and our decisions for the heart's desires of the Lord Jesus Christ.
For that reason, Jesus makes the following
statement as He continues His "beatitudes."
Matthew 5:8:
Blessed are the pure in heart, for
they shall see God.
This
is a verse that needs to be amplified in the same way that we have looked at
some of the previous verses.
“Blessed and highly favored by the
King [of Kings] are those whose thoughts, motives, purposes and intents have
been purified by fire, who are unstained with any guilt, for God will allow and
permit them to see Him — and more than that, to see into and know His heart
[His heart’s desires and purposes].” (RAC Translation and Amplification)
How’s
that for a mouthful? In case you think
I'm stretching it a bit with my translation, consider how J. H. Thayer
translates the word, katharos
(the Greek word translated, "pure").
Thayer uses the following definitions: 1a) physically; (1a1) purified by
fire; (1a2) in a similitude, like a vine cleansed by pruning and so fitted to
bear fruit.
Are
you seeing how this fits with other verses of Scripture we have previously
considered? Consider for a minute, and
put this in context to Paul’s statement to Timothy in his second letter:
II Timothy 2:15:
Be instantly responsive to the Lord,
making yourself available to Him in the midst of the crucible, a tried and
tested laborer who has no fear of being examined — one who, by virtue of God’s
testing and the time spent in the crucible with Him, knows the proven Word of
Truth. (RAC Translation
& Amplification)
But
Paul doesn’t just leave it there. He
goes on to give the following warning to those who ARE in the crucible and
might be tempted to hear and pay attention to teaching or “untested” word (or
words) that comes from those who’ve not permitted the word to be tested in them
and purified.
II Timothy 2:16-17: Stand aloof from and avoid the untested, untried
“word” which comes forth from them who would propagate speculation and create
their own doctrines. These profane
speculations and so-called “words” are empty babblings which will only to serve
to advance ungodliness.
And those who spread these doctrines
will only yield a gangrene pasture — a source of poison to those who ingest
their “word” — and we point out Hymenaeus and Philetus as examples. (RAC Translation & Amplification)
David
absolutely understood the significance of this principle that Jesus set forth
when he wrote the following:
Psalm 37:4: Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give
thee the desires of thine heart.
Now,
take a look a how the Hebrew actually renders David’s statement:
“Let your thoughts,
motives, purposes and intents be soft and pliable towards the Lord; luxuriate in
and take exquisite delight in Him; and He will appoint, ascribe, commit and
apply in and to you the desires and requirements of your will, your feelings,
your intellect and your thought processes.” (RAC Translation
and Amplification)
You
see it, don’t you? In each instance we
are seeing the same principle applied.
We could probably even read David’s statement like this and pretty much
hit it on the head:
“Delight
yourself also in the Lord and He will plant within you His desires so that they
become your desires.”
Preaching
on the sabbath in a synagogue in Antioch, Paul reaffirmed what David said, and
even took it a step further to describe the “why” and importance of this
principle.
Acts 13:22: And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them
David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found
David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil
all my will.
Consider
just the last part of this verse:
“I have sought out and obtained David,
the son of Jesse, a man whose intense pursuit is to know my thoughts and
feelings, my intents and purposes, who will [without deviation or compromise]
perform, execute and accomplish everything I purpose, determine and decree —
according to my delight, desire and pleasure.”
(RAC Translation and Amplification)
The
picture is that of a man (or woman) whose intense pursuit of the Lord is
focused on God getting His heart’s desire fulfilled to the exclusion or setting
aside of all personal desires or purposes.
Now,
add that to the previous Scriptures we’ve looked at! The promise that God makes to them is that
they will get to see him, experience His presence, and know His heart’s
desires.
Beyond
that, the desires of their hearts are met and fulfilled! David expresses it like this:
Psalm 16:11: Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is
fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
No
statement could express it any better! That
leads me to what is probably going to become something of a rabbit trail in
this discussion but something nevertheless that draws as vivid a picture as I
can draw.
Let
me start with something that Paul wrote to the Corinthian Ekklesia:
I Corinthians 12:1-4: Moreover,
brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were
under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the
cloud and in the sea; And did
all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink:
for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was
Christ.
Now,
take a look at the context of these next statements.
Numbers 11:24-25:
And Moses went out, and told the
people the words of the LORD, and gathered the seventy men of the elders of the
people, and set them round about the tabernacle. And the LORD came down in a cloud, and
spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it
unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit
rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease.
Numbers 12:5-8:
And the LORD came down in the pillar
of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron
and Miriam: and they both came forth. And he said, Hear now my words: If
there be a prophet among you, I the LORD will make myself known unto him
in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.
My servant Moses is not so, who
is faithful (Hebrew: ‘aman: to support, uphold, nourish, reliable, faithful,
trusty) in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth,
even apparently (Hebrew: mar’eh: appearing, seeing visually), and not in dark speeches; and the similitude (Hebrew: temunah: image, likeness, form) of the LORD shall he behold (Hebrew: nabat: to look intently at, to regard with pleasure).
The
Hebrew phraseology in this instance is as clear as anything can be. God describes Moses as one who “supported,
upheld and nourished” Him. The nourishment that Moses provided God came
from a pure heart.
Borrowing
from Jesus’ statement in Matthew 8, Moses’ thoughts, motives,
purposes and intents had been purified by fire; He was unstained with any
guilt. Hence, he had the privilege of seeing into
the heart of God, knowing His thoughts and desires — AND Moses was permitted
into the very presence of the Lord.
Let’s
get back to the picture described in Numbers 11 and I Corinthians 12 where we
read of Moses and the 70 elders eating and drinking with the Lord in the
cloud. Before I get too far along here,
let’s talk about the nature of this “cloud” and what distinguished it from all
the other clouds.
Here’s
how Moses describes it:
Deuteronomy 5:22:
These words the LORD spake unto all
your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and
of the thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he
wrote them in two tables of stone, and delivered them unto me.
Moses
describes this cloud as “thick darkness.”
Kind of peculiar, don’t you think, if Moses and the elders were sitting
in thick darkness? But wait a
minute. This isn’t quite all it appears
to be. Take a look at how this cloud
appeared to the armies of Pharaoh when they were chasing after the Children of
Israel.
Exodus 14:19-20:
And the angel of God, which went
before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the
cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: And it came between the camp of the
Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them,
but it gave light by night to these: so that the one came not near the
other all the night.
Do
you see it? That cloud was darkness to
the Egyptians, but it was light to the camp of Israel. Consider the cloud in the way that it rested
in the temple on the day that Solomon dedicated it to the Lord.
Let me pause here in this narrative to share with
you a personal experience in order to draw the comparison.
Well,
OK, I just realized how long we had already gone today, and if I take the time
to share that experience today, it will make this Coffee Break overly long --
and I don't want to lose you. Let's stop
here and pick it up next week.
I remind those of you in need of ministry that our Healing Prayer Call
takes place on Mondays at 7:00 PM Eastern (4:00 PM Pacific). Once again, the number to call for healing is
(805) 399-1000. Then enter the access
code: 124763#.
Also want to let you know that our Sunday worship 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#_
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.
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