Preparing the Bride of Christ For His Return By Janet Van Hierdan
A Tale of Two Brides is now available on Amazon.com:
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Another
Coffee Break:
Supernatural Maturity, Part 11
May 28, 2015
We begin again today with the amplified version of Jesus'
declaration of blessing for those who are persecuted:
Matthew 5:10-12: “Blessed
and highly favored by the King [of Kings] are those who are harassed, molested,
mistreated, or pursued after with hostile intent simply because they have been
justified [by faith (in Jesus Christ and His anointing)]; royalty, and Kingdom
rule shall be theirs.
Blessed and highly favored by the King
[of Kings] whenever men or women will seek to defame you, to rail at you or
taunt you, harassing and pursuing you with malice, saying in public or writing
false and hurtful accusations about you to others, seeking to ruin your
reputation because of your relationship with me [on account of Who I AM — and
who you are in me].
Rejoice — exult, sing, dance, enjoy
yourself — because each time you are mistreated for my sake, your reward and
place at the Seat of Order in things eternal is enhanced and magnified.
Consider yourself in the same company
of the prophets before you who likewise were harassed, molested, mistreated,
defamed, and falsely accused because of My Word in and through them.” (RAC Translation and Amplification)
We've
talked thus far about the division that the Enemy wants to bring among
families, and I've shared with you a bit of history in our family
heritage. I'd like to wrap up this area
of sharing with a few more examples taken from personal experience within what
we would normally refer to as "the Family of God." Because of the threat the Family of God represents
to Satan, nowhere is the attempt to divide and conquer and persecute more
evident, and nowhere is the blessing and favor of the Lord more evident for
those who suffer persecution. At the
same time, the fruit that comes from standing in the midst of the persecution
is some of the best seen in the Kingdom of God.
During
a transition period in 1978 while getting ready for a return to Barrow, Alaska,
I fellowshipped with a Charismatic church group in Anchorage and came to know
all of the people involved in its ministry locally as well as throughout the
state, and even some in missions in other countries. Because of our family legacy in missions and
ministry throughout Alaska, I was given ready access to the pulpit from time to
time as well as the ministry of praise and worship with their musicians.
1978
was still very much at the height of ministry activity for me in the realm of
deliverance from evil spirits. [That's
not to suggest that it has stopped, but rather that the focus has shifted in
the way we minister deliverance.] Many
of the fellow-ministers I shared with were from traditional Pentecostal
backgrounds where the concept of a believer being afflicted by evil spirits was
totally contrary to their doctrines.
I
was invited to come and minister in one of the satellite churches on the Kenai
Peninsula one weekend, and -- wouldn't you know it -- Holy Spirit sets things
up to minister to folks who were being afflicted by evil spirits! Following both the morning and evening
services, the time of personal ministry -- along with quite visible
manifestations as the spirits departed -- easily lasted for a couple of hours
AFTER the time of teaching.
Returning
to Anchorage the following day I was met by a very grim delegation from the
Charismatic church who had heard what had taken place. They made it clear that I was to meet with
their entire ministerial board later that week at a luncheon to explain why I
would minister that way knowing that they were opposed to such ministry.
There
were perhaps 12 senior leaders, pastors, evangelists, prophets and teachers who
sat around the lunch table to grill me on "my doctrine." That luncheon turned into an inquisition of
sorts as they tried to refute the scriptural basis for the ministry of
deliverance among Christians. There came
a point in the discussion when they -- to a man -- conceded that I was on sound
scriptural grounds for the ministry; and then their senior prophet said
directly to me, "we cannot afford for you to continue this ministry in our
fellowship. It contradicts everything we
have taught, and we will not have division among the people over this. People will think that we're just lying to
them, and they'll leave!"
The
Holy Spirit rose up in me at that and I stood to my feet at the end of the
table as the following prophetic message from Jeremiah 8 literally poured from
my mouth: "How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD
is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made He it; the pen of the
scribes is in vain. The
wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have
rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them? Therefore will I give their wives unto
others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for
everyone from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from
the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. For they have healed the hurt of the
daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no
peace. Were they ashamed
when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither
could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time
of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD." (Jeremiah 8:8-12)
I
continued on: "How can you tell these people that they are free when they
are suffering, in torment from evil spirits, and fighting with sicknesses and
diseases? How dare you tell people that
they cannot be suffering with evil spirits, and you say to them that once
they're saved, they are automatically set free?
As a practical matter, they have no power to fight against evil spirits
until they've been baptized in the Holy Spirit!
Mark 16:17 makes clear that one of the very first evidences of being
filled with the Spirit is the ability to cast out demons! You have the gall to say to folks,
"Peace, Peace," when they have no peace!"
Guess
I was a bit astonished at my spontaneous reaction to them. I shook my head and sat back down. The group quickly got to their feet, made it
clear that I was no longer welcome to be in any of their churches, and that was
that! The following Sunday evening, one
of their senior pastors stood behind the pulpit and said to the church, "I
wouldn't touch Regner Capener with a ten-foot pole!"
Once
again, you can see the picture of Jesus' statement, "Men and women in a covenant relationship with
Me will find [even] their non-covenanting [spiritual] family members to be
their hostile adversaries (who will fight and oppose them)."
Doesn't
look like much of a blessing at the moment, does it? Ahhh, but there's more to this story!
In
the months that followed, Jeremiah's prophecy came to fulfillment among them as
several of their families broke up in divorce, at least three of the wives
wound up marrying other men, one of their prophets went to prison on a sex
charge, the other prophet died a year or so later from a painful disease and
the church split down the middle. Sounds
even less like a blessing, doesn't it?
Over
the decade that followed, the same pastor who had made the statement that he
wouldn't touch me with a ten-foot pole reversed his stance and began
encouraging the ministry of deliverance in his church. He was leading the breakaway church which, by
this time, was larger than the original church fellowship he had left. The new church was flourishing, the Kingdom
of God was growing by leaps and bounds and serious repairs and reconciliation
were underway where breaches had taken place.
By this time I had returned to Anchorage after a decade of ministry in
Barrow and Fairbanks.
It
soon became apparent that two other evangelist/pastors who had been at the
table with that group of 12 had reversed their stance on the ministry of
deliverance. On at least one occasion
that I can remember, one of them even called me for counsel in dealing with a
specific issue.
One
day I received a call from the son of the original senior leader of the old
Charismatic fellowship. His dad had
retired and he had become the new senior pastor. He had, however, been a part of that group of
ministers on that fateful luncheon day.
"Would you meet me for lunch today?" he said. "Absolutely!" I looked forward to it.
Sitting
down at the lunch table he broke the silence by saying softly, "I marvel
that you can be sitting across a table from me, after all the water that has
gone under the bridge." Reaching
across the table to take his hand, I said, "Brother, I hold you no ill
will whatever! Whatever God has done out
of all that transpired has worked for the good of the whole Body. When we parted that day, I knew that it
wasn't up to me to bring the kind of revelation needed. Holy Spirit was going to have to do that. I've never felt badly towards you or anyone
else in the church."
There
was real fellowship together at the table that day. God had done a rather spectacular thing in
healing the perceived breach. As we got
up to leave, this pastor said to me, "From me to you, you are always
welcome in our church!"
One
of the issues that we face in the Body of Christ today is that we have a bad
habit of viewing events from a "now" perspective. If we see division take place, our immediate
reaction is that it is bad. We don't see
the long-term picture. If we don't see
instant vindication of either the individual or the truth that was spoken or
represented, we tend to believe the negative about the individual who is under
attack, or at the very least, that which he or she represents. Consider what Paul wrote to the Ekklesia in
Corinth when he was talking about the Table of the Lord.
I
Corinthians 11:18-19: For
first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be
divisions among you; and I partly believe it. For there must be also heresies among
you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you.
The word
used in the KJV -- heresies -- comes from the Greek word, hairesis, which literally means: disunion
(from choices). Thayer defines it like this: dissensions
arising from diversity of opinions and aims, choosing, choice, that which is
chosen.
Paul's
point is that these dissensions and disunity arises so that (and they) which
God specifically approves can be made known -- and here is the crux of it -- so
that the truth can be manifested for all to see, and people can then correct
their wrong choices. Persecution and opposition
produces this kind of dynamic!
Jesus
wasn't kidding when He said, “Blessed and
highly favored by the King [of Kings] whenever men or women will seek to defame
you, to rail at you or taunt you, harassing and pursuing you with malice,
saying in public or writing false and hurtful accusations about you to others,
seeking to ruin your reputation because of your relationship with me [on
account of Who I AM — and who you are in me].
Not only
are we the recipients of that blessing, the Body as a whole is blessed. The Body of Christ grows, it multiplies, it
expands, understanding and maturity take place, there is a Kingdom prosperity
that comes (and I point out -- in the long term!) of the show that God puts on
as a result of the harassment, the false accusations and the malicious
defamation that comes by standing in His Truth!
One more
personal story for the sake of illustration, and I'll quit.
When I
returned to Barrow in 1978, it was not my intention to begin another church
fellowship. I was focused on Christian
television and bringing the ministry of CBN to the arctic. A young pastor (late twenties or early
thirties) had been assigned by the denomination to the church I had helped my
Dad build. My hope was to be an
encouragement and a help to this young pastor and support him. That, obviously, was not going to
happen. As soon as he heard my name and
realized who I was, he perceived me as an instant threat to his leadership and
authority.
He made it
abundantly clear that I was not welcome and that I could forget about any
ministry in Barrow. You couldn't help
but feel sorry for him because of his ignorance and fear, and I did my best to
try to allay those fears. Holy Spirit
obviously had other things in mind. An
old friend who had helped Dad to get the property on which to build the church
and provide the vehicle to haul gravel with in order to create a good
foundation was now the presiding elder at the Presbyterian church. He asked if I would serve in an interim
capacity as their pastor until the missions board could assign a permanent
pastor. That's another story with
implications I can't take time to get into today, but the four months I did
serve as their interim pastor saw a move of Holy Spirit in their midst that was
absolutely wonderful!
In the
weeks and months that followed, a number of folks approached me about my
continuing to pastor and forming a new fellowship. Although that new fellowship never became
very large (it was more of an overgrown home fellowship that expanded beyond
the walls of our home) it was perceived by the young pastor as a threat to his
domain, and he began to actively speak out against us as heretics, or -- using
the picture of the native culture -- someone who dishonored his father and
abandoned his father's faith.
Because
Christian television was my primary objective, and I needed a way to fund the
development of television outlets in the arctic, a door of opportunity opened
for me to purchase ASA Television from the Arctic Slope Regional
Corporation. ASA became Arctic Slope
Audio and North Slope Communications -- two distinctly separate businesses with
different focuses in retail consumer entertainment and business
communications. The profits from these
businesses went to purchase equipment and fund the building of tiny little TV
stations in remote villages throughout the northland.
I had my
hands full, operating two businesses, pastoring a small fellowship, building
small TV stations and promoting the growth of Christian television throughout
Alaska. Without realizing what was
taking place, a target was painted directly on my backside for people with a
religious agenda, and they quickly took advantage of it.
It started
with threatening phone calls. "We
know that God didn't send you here, and we're going to drive you
out!" Try this one. "The next time you step out the door,
you're going to get a bullet through the face." (That call was repeated more times than I can
count.) Then there was the somewhat
humorous hate mail in the form of post cards.
"Go directly to hell. Do not
pass go. Do not collect $200. Go straight to hell."
Then
things began to spiral upward. I've
already noted in previous Coffee Breaks the two times a sniper tried to take me
out. My oldest daughter was shot at six
times. My oldest son and second daughter
were repeatedly attacked in the dark as they were on their way home from school
(we were in the midst of the 66-day perpetual darkness cycle) by men who would
pick them up and throw them against the side of a building, and they would come
home bruised and bloody. I wound up
sending them away from Barrow to be with my parents at Saint Paul Island for
their own protection.
These
events are only a drop in the bucket of the persecution that unfolded but in
the midst of it all, the Lord spoke to me and told me that the day would come
when many of these same people would spontaneously fall on their knees in the middle
of the streets and cry out in repentance.
By late in 1980 it became clear that we were going to have to move our
operations center to Fairbanks for CBN's ministry to expand, and we made that
move in 1981.
Seven
years later, Dwain McKenzie -- my lifetime friend and brother in the Lord --
was back in Barrow pastoring the church Dad had founded. He called me one day to report that people
were literally falling on their knees in the streets of Barrow, calling on the
Lord.
Was the
persecution fun? Not even! Was it necessary to stand in the midst of it
and not give up? Absolutely. Was it worth it? The lives that have been changed and
transformed by the power of God as a result are clear testimony and proof that
persecution yields the blessing of the Lord.
The Kingdom of God has expanded!
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#.
At the same time, in case you are missing out on real fellowship in an
environment of Ekklesia, 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#.
We hope to make these gatherings available by Skype or Talk Fusion
before long.
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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Monday, May 25, 2015
Another
Coffee Break:
Supernatural Maturity, Part 10
May 21, 2015
Let's begin again today with the amplified version of Jesus'
declaration of blessing for those who are persecuted:
Matthew 5:10-12: “Blessed
and highly favored by the King [of Kings] are those who are harassed, molested,
mistreated, or pursued after with hostile intent simply because they have been
justified [by faith (in Jesus Christ and His anointing)]; royalty, and Kingdom
rule shall be theirs.
Blessed and highly favored by the King
[of Kings] whenever men or women will seek to defame you, to rail at you or
taunt you, harassing and pursuing you with malice, saying in public or writing
false and hurtful accusations about you to others, seeking to ruin your
reputation because of your relationship with me [on account of Who I AM — and
who you are in me.
Rejoice — exult, sing, dance, enjoy
yourself — because each time you are mistreated for my sake, your reward and
place at the Seat of Order in things eternal is enhanced and magnified.
Consider yourself in the same company
of the prophets before you who likewise were harassed, molested, mistreated,
defamed, and falsely accused because of My Word in and through them.” (RAC Translation and Amplification)
“Divide
and conquer” has always been a strategy in the arsenal of the Enemy, and it is
no more evident than his use of it in families where he makes every effort to
turn parents against children, children against parents, and — whenever
possible — spouse against spouse.
The
picture of internecine warfare that Jesus draws becomes even more evident when
we see it within the family of God. It
is how denominations have been created.
It is one of the most-used tools of Satan to bring persecution against
people who seek to respond to the continual draw of Holy Spirit towards greater
and greater intimacy with the Lord Jesus Christ.
During
the Charismatic Renewal, I saw this demonstrated again and again. As I recall, it was Bob Mumford who made the
statement, “The reformers of the new generation will always be persecuted by
the former generation. Those who become
a part of the new move of God will always be persecuted by those of the former
move of God.”
Once
again, as we continue to draw the picture, I remind you that Men and women in a covenant relationship with Me
will find [even] their non-covenanting [spiritual] family members to be their
hostile adversaries (who will fight and oppose them).
When
Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Chapel, he
wasn't trying to make a break with the Roman Catholic church, of which he was a
part. He simply was seeking to share
with those who would hear and respond a message of freedom in Christ Jesus —
namely, that “the Just shall live by faith.”
Because of the traditions and the politics which ruled the Catholic
church, he was ostracized, criticized, eventually ex-communicated, and numerous
attempts were made on his life in order to silence him.
When
John Wycliffe sought to make the Word of God available to the common people by
first translating it from Greek and Hebrew (or Latin) into the language of the
day, every effort was made to shut down the effort and stop the presses; and
repeated attempts were made on his life.
That
same pattern has followed, even to this modern day. But consider the blessing!
Every
effort to silence the Word, every effort to silence those who moved beyond
their religious traditions and religious doctrines because of Holy Spirit’s
leading and ongoing revelation, has only resulted in a greater spread of the
Gospel of the Kingdom.
In
the majority of instances where people have moved on in God, even in the midst
of persecution, they have experienced the Blessing of the King of Kings on
their own lives, many who sought to persecute them have, themselves, come under
the conviction of the Spirit and have repented of their opposition and
persecution and, in a twist of irony, have been persecuted themselves because
of their response to the Lord.
My
great-great grandfather, John Capener, left England in 1836 and the Anglican
church where he had been a vicar to emigrate to the United States. His brother, William, joined him in the move. Sometime after arriving in this country, he
began ministering in a Presbyterian church in Columbus, Ohio. I have no details of the specific breach or
religious argument that William had with John over his departure from the
Church of England, but whatever prompted John to become a Presbyterian pastor
so angered William that he cut off all relationship and connection.
Some
time thereafter, William joined Brigham Young and assisted in the organization
and westward move of the Mormons from Nauvoo, Illinois to Salt Lake City. The
family breach lasted for a full century until the early 1950’s when my uncle,
Everett Capener (who was with the Strategic Air Command at the time) stopped
over in Salt Lake City and discovered literal pages in the phone book of
Capeners.
That
led to a major family reunion that year between the two branches of the Capener
family, and another the following year in 1954.
A little over a decade later when I resigned at Bethel Union Church in
Duarte, California rather than compromise teaching and sharing on the baptism
of the Holy Spirit, a Mormon cousin, Dr. Jex Capener, invited me to move to
Salt Lake City — a move which ultimately led to the Eskdale Miracle and the
salvation and deliverance of an entire community.
Although
my grandparents had not been exposed to the Azusa Street Revival during the
first decade of the 20th century, as they began to seek after greater
revelation and pursue the presence of the Lord, they were baptized in the Holy
Spirit, along with a number of people who were gathered together in their home. It all took place in the midst of the sound
of a rushing mighty wind (a tornado) and a flame of fire which broke apart and
settled on the heads of all the people gathered for prayer.
My
grandfather was a Methodist preacher who was shortly thereafter removed from
his pulpit because the denominational leaders did not believe that the baptism
of the Holy Spirit was a legitimate experience for this modern time, and
considered that Grandpa had wandered off into error and heresy.
His
removal from the pulpit did not stop his preaching. He simply followed the New Testament pattern
in ministering from his home, and it resulted in a new generation of people
who, themselves, became the leaders and ministers of the Kingdom in the years
following.
As
noted in our previous session on being peacemakers, when my father announced to
his denominational leaders that the time had come for our family to move to
Alaska, they argued against it because of the expense involved and tried to
convince him that he would do better by going to Africa or China. When he made it clear that God had called him
to Alaska, and not Africa or China, they forbid him to go and told him that if
he tried, they would cut off his financial backing.
You’ve
already heard the story of how God provided the finances for the ministry in
Alaska through the stupendous fishing miracle, and what a blessing it produced
— not only for the tens of thousands of natives scattered across the arctic in
Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and even Siberia — but for our family as well. It was some five years or more before the
denominational leaders realized that they had really missed it and chose to
back our family’s ministry in Alaska.
When
Dad went home to be with the Lord, people came from all over the world to his
funeral and memorial service. Despite
the fact that his denominational leaders rejected the concept of the five-fold
ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, I was able
to share with the assembled folks the apostolic impact that my father had made
in the roughly 50 years of his labors throughout Washington and Alaska. When I finished sharing, one of his
fellow-ministers stood and recited an incredible poem he wrote about Dad which
he titled, My Friend, the Apostle.
None
of Dad’s detractors in those early years, who sought to block him from going to
Alaska, could possibly have foreseen the fact that God would use the isolation
of native villages to bring in visitors from all over the globe as tourists
whom he would lead to the Lord, including the Muslim bodyguards of Jordan’s
(then) King Hussein.
I’ve
yet to attend another memorial service for anyone who has been so honored by
people from all over the globe, and honored by God on account of their
faithfulness in the midst of opposition and persecution.
Following
this same theme to show you both the persecution that often follows
generationally, along with the Blessing of God, let me wrap up today's
discussion with a final story.
Judson
Cornwall was one of the Charismatic Renewal’s more prominent leaders, and a
pastor whom I had met and gotten to know in the early 1960’s. In 1976, while trying to reconcile the
counsel of brethren to remain in southern California and go to work to pay off
some serious indebtedness BEFORE responding to the quickening of the Lord to
return to Alaska, I sent out a resume to perhaps 30 or more major organizations
seeking employment either as an engineer or an instructor at a University. That resulted in three very prompt job offers
— one of which would take me back to NASA to run one of their satellite
tracking stations.
Judson
happened to be in Costa Mesa for a World Map Conference that summer of 1976, so
I went to him for counsel. My quandary
was that the pull of Holy Spirit to Alaska was immediate — NOT after the bills
were paid. Judson’s counsel was that
“God has a way of making provision for everything He requires of us, and I
suspect that He will more than provide for you if you will respond to His
specific Word.”
Several
of my friends and brethren at the time did their best to convince me to stay
and take one of the offers presented, but I began making preparations for the
move to Alaska right away. In the
meantime, my father suggested that I join him on Saint Paul Island to do some
fox trapping. That would turn out to be
an effort that would result in generating some start-up capital for the
Christian Broadcasting Network in Alaska — and that was one of my purposes in
returning.
Arriving
in Anchorage, I ran into a pastor I had known for many years whom we will
simply refer to as “Paul.” He saw me in
a church on my first Sunday in Anchorage (I had to wait for the weather to
clear in order to fly to Saint Paul Island) and caught my attention.
Paul
came up to greet me and tears began running down his face as he said, “I need
to ask you to forgive me.” That took me
totally by surprise and I responded, “Brother!
What in the world do I need to forgive you for?” His response astonished me.
“You
remember some ten years ago or more when you made application for the mission
station at Nenana?” I nodded my head and
said, “I never could figure out why I got the negative response I did from the
Home Missions Department.”
“That
was my doing,” he answered. “I wrote
letters to them accusing you of leaving Nome with a lot of debt hanging over
your head and a bad testimony in the city.”
Since I had taken pains to ensure that my debts were paid before
leaving, his answer made no sense. The
puzzlement on my face spoke volumes.
“I
knew that if they accepted you and appointed you to that station, it would be
one more vote for your father to become the District Superintendent, and I
wanted that position. I knew that if you
were blocked from taking it, I would have a much better chance when the voting
came.”
“Brother
Paul,” I responded. “Dad wouldn’t have
taken the position even if he had been voted in. He detested the organizational politics and
wanted none of it. He felt that it would
prevent him from fulfilling God’s specific call to the villages, and that call
was far more important to him than the recognition and titles of the
denomination.”
Paul
answered and said, “I realize that now, and God has made it very clear to me
that I am to put my house in order.
Because I have touched God’s anointed, judgment has fallen on me and I
have less than two years to live. I now
have ALS.”
It
shook me. I wept as I put my arms around
him and said, “My brother, whatever you meant for my evil, God intended and
used for my good! The Lord has delivered
me from the need to be associated with denominations and organizations, and
that deliverance has permitted me to work across denominational and
organizational lines to minister wherever and whenever He so orders.”
Paul
B. died some 19 or 20 months later. It
was sobering to me to realize just how seriously God treats the persecution and
opposition of those who stand against His anointed.
Over
the next six months, Dad and I trapped 208 arctic blue foxes. It generated some startup capital for the CBN
ministry in Alaska. More than that,
people who’d never met me and didn’t know me began sending checks and money
orders saying that God instructed them to do so because I “had a need that had
to be met.” My $17,000 indebtedness
vanished in less than a year!
The
opposition and persecution only increased when I went to Barrow, but the
blessing that followed that opposition was the gift of my counterpart, Della
Denise!
Next
week let's wrap this up and talk about some personal experiences, and the
ultimate long-term blessing that came from that persecution.
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#.
At the same time, in case you are missing out on real fellowship in an
environment of Ekklesia, 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#.
We hope to make these gatherings available by Skype or Talk Fusion
before long.
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.
Friday, May 15, 2015
Another
Coffee Break:
Supernatural Maturity, Part 9
May 15, 2015
Whenever we think of the term, "persecution," in
today's vernacular, and especially among those who have an "end
times" mindset, we tend to view it as a lead-in to "tribulation"
-- and for some, the so-called "Great Tribulation." It isn't my purpose to discuss tribulation in
this week's (and next week's) Coffee Break.
Rather I want us to consider what Jesus treats as a real blessing for
those who are committed to Him.
That sounds terribly contradictory, and even (for some)
masochistic, but we need to remember that our earthly comforts are not Jesus'
priority. His priority, and His
objective for those who will become One with Him, is the development and
maturing of their character -- and more specifically, His character in them.
I can give you a guided tour of what it means to be persecuted
(and I'll share a couple of stories as we deal with this topic this week, and
next), and I can demonstrate to you, the long-term benefit and blessing that
comes for those who suffer persecution, as well as the way in which the Kingdom
of God is expanded as a direct result.
That said, here's what Jesus is saying:
Matthew 5:10-12: Blessed
are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men
shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for
great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you.
Once
again, let’s amplify this from the Greek text.
“Blessed and highly favored by the
King [of Kings] are those who are harassed, molested, mistreated, or pursued
after with hostile intent simply because they have been justified [by faith (in
Jesus Christ and His anointing)]; royalty, and Kingdom rule shall be theirs.
Blessed and highly favored by the King
[of Kings] whenever men or women will seek to defame you, to rail at you or
taunt you, harassing and pursuing you with malice, saying in public or writing
false and hurtful accusations about you to others, seeking to ruin your
reputation because of your relationship with me [on account of Who I AM — and
who you are in me.
Rejoice — exult, sing, dance, enjoy
yourself — because each time you are mistreated for my sake, your reward and
place at the Seat of Order in things eternal is enhanced and magnified.
Consider yourself in the same company
of the prophets before you who likewise were harassed, molested, mistreated,
defamed, and falsely accused because of My Word in and through them.” (RAC Translation and Amplification)
Sorry
about that! I know that’s a mouthful,
but the picture that Jesus draws of those being persecuted for no other reason
than the fact that they are in Him, and He is in them is a picture of Kingdom
recognition and blessing. It is a
picture of reward and recompense that only He can offer — and it is
spectacular!
No
one with any kind of natural reasoning would think that persecution is a
blessing but most folks equate persecution with the kinds of massacres we’ve
seen with the various Islamic groups like ISIS or Al-Qaeda or Boko-Haram, etc.
More
often than not, persecution is thought of in terms of the early Christians
being burned at the stake, thrown to the lions, being used for target practice
in the coliseums by the gladiators, etc., etc., etc.
The
massacres and the extreme abuse resulting in the murders of millions of
Christians throughout the ages are the end result in many cases of persecution,
but those deaths — in and of themselves — are not the persecution Jesus was
referring to. Let me share an example
that I saw in my childhood.
You’ll
recall the story that I shared last week about my father’s fishing miracle, and
the provision that God made when the denominational leaders refused to back him
in our move to Alaska.
When
we arrived in Nome in the fall of 1944, my parents rented a home for the first
year while we waited for a steamship to arrive with building supplies to build
a church. A piece of land was chosen for
the building site and preparation to build got under way.
There
was just one problem. The families who
lived on either side of the church property were very unhappy campers over the
idea that they were going to have a Pentecostal church as a neighbor. On one side the “gentleman” took great delight
in coming out of his house, standing on his porch and cursing us.
On
the other side, the family was Roman Catholic and while the wife and children
were pleased to have us for neighbors, the husband (who was a lawyer) hated us
(for reasons we never understood) with a purple passion and took every
opportunity to make his feelings known.
One
of this man’s sons was insane, and his behavior was as erratic as anything
you’ve ever seen. Everyone knew him as
“Hanko.” There was nothing about him
that was normal, although he could be friendly and playful for short periods at
a time.
One
day, something that my brother said or did tripped him up and he immediately
became violent. He picked up a handful
of good sized rocks and began throwing them at my brother. One of them struck Howie on the temple and
knocked him unconscious.
My
father saw the event take place and reacted instantly in the same way he would
have when he was a farm boy in North Dakota or Minnesota. He quickly ran and grabbed “Hanko,” knocked
the rocks out of his hands, spun him around and gave him a good paddling on his
rear end.
“Hanko”
ran home, crying that he had been beaten up.
It was the perfect opportunity for his father to take advantage of his
hatred for Dad. He immediately filed a
lawsuit against Dad.
Fred
L., Hanko’s father, was a close friend of the judge who heard the case. Both were Roman Catholic, both were members
of the Masonic Lodge, and both felt they had solid justification to take out
vengeance on Dad. The attorney who
represented Dad made little effort to defend him, and when the dust settled,
the judge had fined Dad $500.
In
1948, $500 might as well have been $50,000.
It might have created a scenario in which Dad could have gone to jail
because of his inability to pay such an exorbitant fine, but God had foreseen
the outcome and on the day that the ruling was made, a check for $500 arrived
from a wealthy family in Naselle, Washington whom Dad had led to the Lord
during the years of ministry in Ilwaco.
The
unjustness of the ruling and the hatred against my father because of who he was
and what he represented in Jesus Christ really stung for awhile, but the
vindication of God in the eyes of the community would become very obvious in
the following year. In the days
following the judge’s ruling, the local newspaper made a big deal out of the
fact that my father had been found guilty of assault and fined $500. Fred L. and the judge were played up as local
heroes for taking Dad to task. The story
was treated as a master stroke.
The
following summer, “Fred” and the judge went boating and fishing in one of the
many lakes on the Seward Peninsula, not far from Nome. When they didn’t come home as expected, a
search party went looking for them.
What
the search party found was an empty boat drifting on the lake with no one on
board. My recollection of the event is
that it was some days later that their bodies were found. Autopsies indicated that both had drowned.
The
news of the death of these two men was not lost on the community of Nome. In the weeks that followed that news, other
ministers in the community strengthened their fellowship with Dad and
acknowledged that God had set things right in the eyes of the people.
The
blessing of persecution is that is produces a clear delineation between those
whom the Lord approves of, and those whom He does not. I’ll illustrate this in a few minutes, but
first, take a look at one of the paradigms in which we see persecution.
Matthew 10:32-42:
Whosoever therefore shall confess me
before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him
will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
Think not that I am come to send peace
on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance
against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in
law against her mother in law. And a
man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
He that loveth father or mother more
than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is
not worthy of me.
And he that taketh not his cross, and
followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for
my sake shall find it. He that
receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent
me.
He that receiveth a prophet in the
name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a
righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s
reward.
And whosoever shall give to drink unto
one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a
disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.
What
Jesus says here sounds almost contradictory to what we’ve just considered in
our last two sessions on being or becoming the means to command God’s peace.
The way our English translations phrase it almost sounds like He is saying that
He has purposely set families against each other, and that He has come to make
war, and THAT would deliberately create confrontational circumstances that
would bring persecution.
That
IS true, and it’s NOT true.
Let’s
take a minute to retranslate a portion of what Jesus is saying out of the Greek
text.
Matthew 10:32-36:
Whoever will covenant with me and
speak their agreement with My Word in the sight of all men will I acknowledge
and declare to be in covenant with My Father in Heaven.
But anyone who seeks to disavow,
contradict or renounce me in the sight of men will I refuse [the covenant
relationship], and disregard before My Father in Heaven.
Don’t consider or begin to think that
I have come to simply create global peace and compromise with all men; that’s
NOT my purpose; I have come to clearly delineate the war that exists between
the Kingdom of God and the fleshly kingdoms of this world.
In fact, men who covenant with me will
be at odds with their non-covenant fathers, covenant daughters will find their
mothers to be their adversaries, and covenanting daughters-in-law will see
their mothers-in-law alienated.
Men and women in a covenant
relationship with Me will find their non-covenanting family members to be their
hostile adversaries (who will fight and oppose them).
(RAC
Translation & Amplification)
Makes
things pretty clear, doesn’t it? Jesus
hasn’t come to make war, He came to make war.
Brotherrr!! Sounds like double
talk.
What
He is really saying is that war and opposition are already here if we walk and
live in our covenant relationship with Him.
Satan has already been defeated — legally — but that doesn’t mean he
doesn’t still wage battles against us as believers — and he certainly continues
to do his snow job on unbelievers, making every effort to use them against us
in every possible way!
Next
week let's take this up again and talk about the historical pictures of
persecution within the Body of Christ, and the ultimate long-term blessing that
came from that persecution.
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#.
At the same time, in case you are missing out on real fellowship in an
environment of Ekklesia, 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#.
We hope to make these gatherings available by Skype or Talk Fusion
before long.
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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