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Preparing the Bride of Christ For His Return By Janet Van Hierdan

Preparing the Bride of Christ For His Return By Janet Van Hierdan

A Tale of Two Brides is now available on Amazon.com:

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Sunday, January 9, 2011

HEAVEN VI: King David

7:19 AM | Posted by | | Edit Post
Heaven VI: King David

Happy New Year Everyone!

Today’s edition of Another Coffee Break kicks off our 7th year of publication! We actually published a couple of Coffee Breaks in December of 2004 as a trial balloon to see how they would be received, but our actual first year of publication began in January of 2005. I haven’t actually counted the total number published thus far, but I believe we have sent out somewhere between 600 and 700 posts. Of nearly 600,000 readers worldwide, we still have somewhere between 30 – 40,000 readers who have stayed with me since early 2005. My thanks to all of you for your support and continued readership. My sincere hope is that these articles will not only be a blessing to you but that you will be drawn closer to the Lord as a result.

After receiving an encouraging email from Shalini Patras a couple of weeks ago it dawned on me that one of the most important discussions with David I neglected to include in the last Coffee Break was on the 23rd Psalm. Let me quote from Shalini’s email:

“I remember a few days back when I was praying, among some other things the Lord said, “The Lord is your Shepherd and you shall not want. These are words from heaven that David heard and personalized for himself and so he wrote.” When I read in your mailer about David talking about his songs originating in heaven long before he came on the scene, I almost screamed and jumped. I remembered about what the Lord had said and understood it better.”

That said, let me take you back to the event I shared in the last Coffee Break where we were sitting on a hillside. You’ll recall that I heard him sing the 8th Psalm, declaring the glory and riches of the Lord with accompanying visions of creation unfolding.

The 23rd Psalm is probably the most quoted chapter worldwide in the Bible. It is also one of the most misunderstood and misquoted. I can’t tell you how many funerals I’ve been to where the preacher read from the 23rd Psalm emphasizing the phrase, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” as though that phrase somehow had relevance to the funeral or the “preaching” that accompanied it.

Even today when I hear preachers and evangelists use this passage of scripture, I wince at some of their illustrations because they are so far afield of what David experienced and saw. As our conversation unfolded on that hillside David related how the Lord had made it applicable to him and his life.

“When I first heard the words of this Psalm,” he said, “There was a vision that began to unfold before me. In 15 separate phrases I saw my life unfold. What you refer to as the 23rd Psalm is only the 23rd because that’s how it was compiled when King Hezekiah began to assemble for the Levites the songs, the hymns and the prayers that God had given to me as well as to Moses. It has mostly remained in that order ever since. The 150 Psalms you have assembled together in your copies of the Scripture represent a cross-section of all that the Lord gave to me, to Moses, to Asaph, Heman & Jeduthun – but there were many more written that you don’t have.”

David paused and then swept his arm across the horizon as he continued, “When the first words of that Psalm first entered my spirit, it was a “YES” in my being. My whole mind and spirit agreed. I was a shepherd. I led my flocks and provided for them everything they could ever need. The Lord was indeed MY Shepherd, and in Him – with Him – I had no need of anything. What I didn’t realize at the time was that those words were going to apply at different stages of my life. As various crises unfolded and challenges faced me, I was going to be confronted with my commitment to allow the Lord to continue to be my Shepherd and not take things into my own hands.”

He smiled a bit wryly. It was as though he was looking back in time for a minute, and he said, “I did, you know. I did take things into my own hands more than once, and it cost me! I only have to remind you of Uriah the Hittite and the time when I numbered the armies of Israel as a couple of ready examples.”

The scene changed before us and for the first time I saw David dressed in kingly robes. They were simple yet elegant. He continued his tale.

“That shepherd’s Psalm became the hallmark of my years on the throne of Judah and then Israel. It had become very personal to me during the years I was on the run for my life from Saul, but it took on new meaning. I saw the provision of the Lord continually. When I fought battles against the Philistines, when I hid from Saul in the hills and in the caves, the Lord set a table before me continually. That table was spread with provisions for me and the families who stood with me. It was spread with supernatural defenses against the enemies who continually surrounded us and threatened us.

“As I’ve already said, the words of the 23rd Psalm were given to me prophetically along with visions as I sat on the hillsides tending my father’s sheep. I don’t think I could have ever imagined the vision of the table and the cup running over as being so prophetic of Jesus and the covenant He restored to all of us with His ministry, His being the Word of Life, His suffering and death, and His resurrection. When I first began to sing those words, I couldn’t have imagined the depth of the prophecy that was hidden in them.”

Once again the scene changed before us and we were obviously in a totally different part of Heaven. For the first time I began to realize what David saw as King of Israel when the Holy Spirit began to give to him a vision for the Temple. This part of Heaven was laid out just like the design of the Temple that David gave to Solomon – except on a huge scale. There were the area divisions into what became (in David’s Temple) the Outer Court, the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies. There were the Treasuries – great rooms with wealth beyond the scope of human understanding or comprehension. I didn’t realize it at the time and didn’t learn about it until years later, but one of those Treasury rooms contains body parts for folks in need of healing or restoration.

Stop and think about that for just a minute! Do you realize that when we pray and petition the Lord for the healing of an individual who has lost an arm or leg or who has organs in their body that are failing or have failed, there are replacements that await them in Heaven in a specific Treasury room. If people could only see and realize what stupendous provision God has made for those who believe and act in faith, it would change things in the body of Christ dramatically!

During most of our childhood years my Dad drilled my brother and I in Scripture memorization. We were required to memorize at least one verse of Scripture every single day. One of the first things we memorized (and had to be able to quote verbatim from beginning to end) was the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6 & 7).

One of the things Jesus says in Matthew 6:19-21 is this: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Every time we tithe, every time we sow seed, every time we give to missions, every time we give or minister to the poor and needy, every time we give to ministries that are producing fruit for the Kingdom of God, we are laying up treasure in the storehouses, the Treasuries of Heaven. More than that, every time we lay hands on the sick, every time we intercede for people in crisis situations, every time we pray, declare and decree the Will of God over our friends, our family members and over those the Holy Spirit directs us to, we are laying up treasure in those Treasury rooms.

What is so phenomenal about that is that there is a huge multiplication factor that takes place with every tithe and every gift, every prayer and every act given or done in faith. Our problem here on Earth is that we neither understand God’s multiplication nor even visualize what He does with it. Furthermore, we don’t even begin to comprehend how to draw on those Treasuries for the multiplication and growth of the Kingdom of God here on Earth (in the natural realm) or the growth of the Kingdom in us as earthen vessels.

Sorry to take a bit of a side-trip there but Matthew’s record of what Jesus said really leaped to life as I took in the sight of the Treasuries and saw what David saw as the Holy Spirit poured into him the vision of the Temple.

The place that would have been represented in the Temple by the Holy of Holies was a Cloud of Glory that literally filled the place. It radiated that same sense of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ that I felt the first time I saw Him, and again the second time when He came for me to take me to Heaven. I understood why it was necessary for both Moses (he had seen this same thing) and David to be instructed by the Lord to create a thick veil to separate the Holy of Holies from the Holy Place. For someone without a real love-relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ – one who is constantly in pursuit of His presence AND His Glory being seen in us as His people – the Glory of the Lord is too much for a person to handle.

The truth of this is revealed in Isaiah 42:9 where Isaiah prophesies the following: “I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.”

The phrase, “my glory will I not give to another,” is somewhat obscured in our KJV and other English translations. The word translated “another” from the Hebrew text is the word “acher” (which comes from the root “achar”) specifically translates to “hinder” in the sense of someone who lags behind, procrastinates, puts off, etc. The context of the translation “another” is that of someone strange (or perhaps estranged). The sense of this word is that of someone who does not walk with the Lord in intimacy – someone who is not in active pursuit of Him and His presence.

You get the picture, I’m sure. The Lord does not give His Glory to those who are passive or lackadaisical in their walk with Him. He does not give His Glory to spiritual stragglers. His Glory is for those who are in active pursuit of Him with their whole being, a people who thirst after Him and walk with Him no matter the odds or circumstances. They don’t care what it costs them in terms of reputation or creature comforts. His Glory is designed and destined for a people who respond in every way to become Counterpart and Other Self to the Lord Jesus Christ – His Bride!

The veil that Moses created for the Tabernacle and David commissioned for the Temple were a safety measure to prevent the destruction of those who might come into His presence unprepared or without honor and reverence. [This is a topic I’ll talk about in a little more depth when I share my conversation with Moses.] To do so would have meant death. The intimate presence of the Lord is reserved for a people who live exhibiting His agape love.

Even though it took a number of years for me to be able to assimilate and digest the enormity and the extravagance of this place, the utter grandeur took my breath away. David was watching my reaction as I took it all in. He quite properly read my face and thoughts; and he took my hand momentarily to get my attention.

“Now you can understand why every waking moment of my life from the point of seeing this was spent in the acquisition of as much wealth and riches as I could conceivably amass. For me to duplicate this or provide some semblance of the Glory and magnificence of the Lord in a central house of worship for the nation that common folks could relate to meant acquiring more gold, silver and other precious materials than any single human had ever done before in all of history.

“All that wealth wasn’t for me! Sure, the Lord made it possible for me to become rich beyond imagination, but it wasn’t to spend on a lavish lifestyle for myself! Some people express great surprise at the equivalency in your modern money being in the multiplied billions of dollars, but I didn’t care what the monetary value of the gold and silver was. I needed to duplicate as closely as possible what I saw in Heaven. The Spirit of God revealed the dimensions to me in much the same way as He revealed the dimensions of the Ark to Noah. I knew how long, how wide, and how tall it needed to be. I knew the respective sizes of all of the furnishings that would go into it.

“All these things, these dimensions, these quantities I wrote down after Nathan the Prophet told me that because I was a man of violence and bloodshed the building of the Temple would be reserved to my son who would replace me as King of Israel.”

I interrupted David at this point and asked him, “How did you feel when Nathan told you that you were not to build it? I mean, you had seen it with your own eyes! The vision of it was implanted in you as though it had been engraved!”

“A flash of disappointment, I guess, but the disappointment quickly faded with God’s promise that He was going to establish my house, and that my seed would forever sit on His Throne. The magnitude of that promise was almost more than I could take in, and it took some years for it all the register. You understand, though, why every breath of my existence from that moment forward was to accumulate everything that was needed so that when the day came, Solomon would lack for nothing and construction could begin immediately.”

I walked around for awhile just taking in the splendor of gold so pure it was transparent. The light and brilliance of the presence of the Lord throughout Heaven made this place so stunning as to be impossible to adequately describe. On Earth we have an expression we often use to describe people who live in overwhelming abundance. We frequently call them “filthy rich.” You’d never use an expression like that here!

Since my visits to Heaven, I’ve begun to realize that the reason we use the epithet “filthy” is because the world has contaminated the whole idea of wealth and riches. Those who do not walk in understanding and revelation cannot even begin to fathom the purity of God’s wealth and abundance. Our society has so infiltrated the thinking of wealth and abundance that “rich” is a bad word – especially among folks who have a socialist mindset. It has somehow become wrong and sinful to think “rich” or “wealthy.” Many Christians have lost sight of the fact that God promised His people the following:

“But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.” (Deuteronomy 8:18)

Get it? The focus on getting wealth is God-given so that He may establish His covenant!

Jesus made a phenomenal statement as part of His covenant with believers. It goes like this:

“The thief comes only in order that he may steal, and may kill, and may destroy. I came that they might have and enjoy life, and that have it in abundance – to the full, till it overflows.” (John 10:10 Amp.)

Here again Jesus makes clear that it is the thief – Satan – who wants to steal, kill and destroy and rob God’s people of the wealth that belongs to the Kingdom of God. Sorry to get off track a bit but you can’t help but see the gross distortions on the topic of riches and wealth and abundance once you’ve been in Heaven. It’s no wonder Satan doesn’t want God’s people to be blessed and be the richest folks on earth! He wants the power of wealth to tantalize and entice and deceive people into thinking that God wants folks to live “broke, busted and disgusted” so they will instead look to the world and his razzle dazzle instead of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Seeing what David accumulated and the enormous riches God empowered him to get in order to duplicate (on a smaller scale, of course) the Temple in Heaven really makes me appreciate Deuteronomy 8:18.

I have one more discussion with David I’d like to share with you before backtracking to talk about Moses. That discussion centers on the Tabernacle of David and David’s focus on continuous prayer, praise, worship and intercession – and his appointment of the families of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun to that ministry.

That’s where we’ll take this up again in our next Coffee Break.

Next: Heaven: David’s Tabernacle.

2011 is a year of great change, great stirring among the people of God! The call to purity and cleanliness before God has gone forth – and is going forth! This is also a year of God’s recompense on behalf of His people – a year of God’s Justice!

Blessings on you!

Regner

Regner A. CapenerCAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Prosser, Washington 99350
(509) 515-0133
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 now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly added at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.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 unsubscribe, 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.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010

HEAVEN V: David

9:14 AM | Posted by | | Edit Post
Heaven V: David

G ‘Mornin’!

Don’t remember if I’ve talked at all about our youngest granddaughter, Jasmine. She’s just shy of 2 ½ years old, our son Joshua’s daughter. Jasmine gets to spend weekends with us frequently (we don’t consider it babysitting – grin!) and she’s a real kick!

More and more she is reminding us of Jessica – who is now 8 years old – when she was that age, with her sensitivity to spiritual things. If you recall, I made reference in Heaven II to the fact that we were with the Lord in spirit form in Heaven long before we came into this world. If you missed that discussion I won’t take time to recall all of the Scriptures that back it up other than to refer you back to the second Coffee Break in this series on Heaven. My reference to that discussion will become clear momentarily.

Jasmine isn’t always talkative, and sometimes her conversation isn’t exactly clear. Like a lot of two-year-olds, she jabbers about this and that occasionally and you really have to listen closely to figure out what she’s talking about. This past Sunday afternoon she was sitting at the kitchen counter having a snack with Grandma Della.

Della periodically talks to Jasmine about spiritual things just to input these values in her life and to see her responses. Sunday, however, Della decided to pose a question to Jasmine on the spur of the moment. Jasmine hadn’t been talking or saying anything because she was focused on her snack. Della says to her, “Jasmine, did you know that you were with Jesus in Heaven before you were born here?”

Jasmine stops, looks at Della and says very clearly and matter-of-fact, “Yes, Grandma!”

Della did a double-take! Beyond the fact that both she and I can remember times and events when we were very young that we both realized we were far older than our earth years and had a very intimate knowledge of the Lord, we have both met and talked to many adults throughout the years who have nearly identical memories. This, however, was the first time either of us had heard or seen a young child who was consciously aware of it.

I know this is taking things out of sequence in terms of my experiences in Heaven but because I’ve been seeing and remembering my conversations with David it seemed appropriate to pick up with him today and talk about Joseph and then Moses in a later Coffee Break.

For whatever reason, David appeared even younger than any of the others with whom I had talked. Even today thinking back on those discussions and remembering the image still firmly planted in my memory, he appeared to me to be in his early 30’s. Although I had a chance to see him briefly in his royal robes as he appeared while reigning over Israel, he appeared to me mostly in white. My first experience, however, was with him as a shepherd.

Whether it was because I had a fascination with the Psalms, or whether it was because of my six years (at that point) of playing musical instruments, questioning began and gravitated around the subject of the Psalms.

My first question to David was, “How did you write the Psalms? How could you come out with such wonderful praise and worship in a way that no one else did?”

Again, whether I was transported there in the Spirit or simply allowed to see the events through David’s eyes, I do not know. What I do know is that I saw David sitting on the hillsides tending his father’s sheep as he began to share how the Spirit of God flowed through him.

“I fell in love with the Lord God in my early youth,” he said. “Going with my father or my older brothers out into the fields gave me time to be alone and meditate on the Lord. I learned to play a small harp and carried it with me. As more and more responsibility was given me over the care and watch of the sheep, I had more and more time to sit back on the grassy slopes, close my eyes, and just get lost in the presence of the Lord.”

In a split second we were back – or at least I was again aware of being in Heaven – and David and I were walking into a stunning section of city with palatial structures and remarkable architecture. (And, by the way, the streets were made of gold so fine it was almost transparent! I’ll talk more about this later.) The sounds of praise and worship as a sea of music had changed from that which I had been hearing and more distinct words and musical structure became apparent.

David continued. “You’ve been hearing these sounds of praise and worship and adoration since you’ve been here,” he said, “and if you pay attention you will hear some of the same words I used as I sang the Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. I didn’t write those. They originated here among the angels. I’m sure you will have the chance to see the Throne and the angelic worship that surrounds it, but this kind of praise, worship and adoration was going on long before I ever came on the scene.

“The more time I spent in praise and worship of the Lord, the more opportunity I had to hear what God hears continually. He simply allowed me to transfer a tiny portion of it into the earthly realm for others to hear and share.”

With scarcely a blink of the eye we were back in David’s era and sitting on a hillside. This time he had a rather elegant but simple harp. His fingers brushed across the strings and suddenly I saw what he had been allowed to see. The words of the 8th Psalm flooded us and the presence of the Lord – really it was the Glory of the Lord – saturated the place where we were sitting. David began to sing as he had sung in his early years. The words flowed, however, with a familiarity that came from having sung them many times. I thought it was really remarkable – “cool” actually – to hear him sing those words to different melodies as he sang, sometimes hummed, almost shouted at times.

“O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set Thy Glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider Thy Heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; 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 God, 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: All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!”

It was as though Creation was unfolding all over again before our eyes. We were seeing glimpses of the genesis of the universe, the earth and man’s careful crafting in God’s own likeness and image. To say the least, it was a WOW experience!

It was an experience I didn’t want to leave. It was one of those times when you just want to bask in the presence of the Lord and saturate yourself with Him. It would leave an indelible impression in my being -- one that has never gone away. Once you have experienced that sense of the Lord’s presence, the indescribable love, the weight of His Glory… well, there is simply nothing earthly that can substitute. The greatest excitements of this earthly realm that I’ve known in the roughly sixty years since this trip to Heaven took place pale into insignificance by comparison!

I’m getting ahead of myself in saying this, but you’ll quickly understand and appreciate that I was literally captivated by that sense of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. When it came time for me to leave Heaven sometime later, I can promise you that everything inside of me screamed, “NOOOO!!! I don’t want to leave!”

Though there are times when that sense of God’s presence are more conscious and tangible than others, I can honestly say that there has never been a day in my life since when I have not been aware of His presence with me. Nothing can take it away! Even when I’ve made some serious screw-ups in my life, terrible decisions and blunders that I look back on and shake my head in wonderment, He has always been there.

I guess I relate to David as much or more than anyone else throughout history. I understand why the Lord loved him like He does and why David has always been regarded as “a man after God’s own heart” – screw-ups and all. God cared less about David’s blunders (even though David certainly reaped what he sowed) than He did about his heart and passion for the presence of the Lord – not only for himself, but for all of Israel. Ahh, but I’m getting ahead of myself again.

One of the things I’ve forgotten to mention is that although I was having these conversations with Abraham, with Isaac, with Jacob, with David – and all the others – Jesus never left. He was always nearby. Sometimes He would smile, sometimes nod His head, and sometimes just give a knowing wink of agreement. He never interfered in the conversations or added something to them, but His visible presence was a guiding factor to the course of every discussion.

As our conversation resumed, David began to talk about the visions he’d received – the impartation of instrument designs. Some of this revelation occurred while he was still tending sheep and some of it took place after he’d become King of Israel.

“The more time I spent in praise and worship to the Lord and the more I heard the sounds coming from Heaven I asked the Lord how to make those sounds. My desire was to duplicate here for men and women to hear and to respond to that realm, that sound, that presence of the Lord that comes through the re-creation of the notes, the chords, the drumbeats of the angels.”

David pointed to my hands and said, “The stringed instruments you are learning to play were derived from the psalteries I originally created from the visions received during my times of praise and worship. Stay with your practice. Become skilled as a musician so that you, too, can draw people into the presence of the Lord with your praise and worship.”

[Note: Although David’s instruction to “become skilled as a musician” kind of faded into the background over the years, those words were engraved in my spirit to the place where – as time progressed – I almost(?) became obsessed with practice and developing more and more musical skills. In a Coffee Break titled “Guitars” published several years ago, I noted how my obsession to become “the world’s greatest guitar player” brought me to the place at age 24 when my longtime-friend and fellow minister of the Gospel, Dwain McKenzie, said to me one day, “Reg, the Lord is going to require you to put that guitar on the altar.”

Not until my prized custom-made guitar was stolen from me a little over a year later did those words come to mean something; and it would still be another year before I would cry out to the Lord to do whatever it took to create the heart of David within me so that I would become that kind of spontaneous praiser and worshiper. It was during that same period that the Lord made it possible for me to purchase a rare, literally priceless Ramirez flamenco guitar. That instrument was dedicated to the Lord and has been used only for praise and worship in the 40-plus years since.]

I realized as David was talking about creating (we would call him an inventor, but from his perspective he simply duplicated what he saw in Heaven) the different musical instruments that this was something that spanned much of his life. He began creating musical instruments while still in his youth, experimenting with different woods, animal skins, coming up with varying thicknesses of strings for the psalteries, the harps and the other varied stringed instruments he worked on in order to create musical sounds.

In his later years as a soldier, then on the run for his life from Saul, and again later as King, he was more and more occupied with other activities so that he had less time to spend creating. And yet the creative juices in him never stopped. He used his time as much as possible to bring the Heavenly realm he had become so used to in the realm of praise and worship, prayer and intercession, to Israel.

I can see that I won’t have time today to get into the things he talked about as he sketched the design of the temple and planned for the day when all Israel would get to taste of what he knew, experienced and saw of the Lord. That will wait until after the Christmas holiday season when we talk about David’s experiences with the Lord as King of Israel.

It never ceases to amaze me even to this day how much was implanted in my spirit and mind and subconscious as a result of my conversations and experiences in Heaven. Looking back to the days (to me the time was roughly analogous to three earth days though there certainly was no night) I spent in conversations as well as the things that the Lord showed me, I’ve come to realize that I’ve known things about the Lord, His plan and purpose for His people, and the destiny He has designed for all of us my entire life. There have – I’m sad to say – been periods of time in which I have not thought much about those things and my focus has been in other places, but the Lord always brings me back to the central objective.

One of the things I’ve learned as a result of my experiences in Heaven is that the more time you spend in the presence of the Lord, the more He “downloads” into you. We are not always conscious of the impartations that are taking place, and sometimes we are totally oblivious to the revelations until days, weeks – even years – have passed. Things come to mind that we think of as then-current revelation, but the truth is that the Holy Spirit continually implants Himself and the knowledge of the Lord into those who entire being thirsts after an intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

We’ll be talking more about this in the days and weeks to come, but this is a good place to take a break. See you again early in January.

Next: Heaven VI: King David.

Never have we seen such a time in history as this! Never has there been a more urgent need for the pursuit of the presence of the Lord in our lives! Never has it been so critical that the body of Christ understand Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins!

Blessings on you!

Regner

Regner A. CapenerCAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Prosser, Washington 99350
(509) 515-0133
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 now available at http://regnersrangers.multiply.com/journal/ and are being slowly added at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.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 unsubscribe, 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.
Monday, December 6, 2010

HEAVEN IV: The Patriarchs, Part 3

7:35 AM | Posted by | | Edit Post
Heaven IV: The Patriarchs, Part 3

Hiya, Folks! This is the best day of your life! Sure it is. Yesterday’s gone, and tomorrow isn’t here yet. Fact is, you’re downright dangerous! Hohohohoho…….

Now wouldn’t you rather start Friday like that instead of some old cranky, wheezy, whiny, “I jus’ don’t know if I oughta get outta bed t’day or not! My bones are jus’ so tarred! Reckon, I gots to, though. Won’t get nuthin done in bed…..groan….”

See. Get your spirits livened up. Get your mind alert. Grab a good cup of that super dark-roasted French Roast in your French Press, or somethin’ like that! Wake up, sleepy!

If you’re among the new subscribers reading this for the first time, the first three parts of this series are available at http://www.AnotherCoffeeBreak.com. If you would rather have them in printable format, let me know and I’ll email them to you. My thanks, by the way, to all of the comments I’ve received from so many of you. I appreciate knowing that you are being blessed and encouraged by this sharing.

One more note: some folks have asked me how I can remember so much detail from an event that took place nearly 60 years ago. Honestly, much of what I experienced is still so vivid in me that it is almost like it happened yesterday. Other details have refreshed in my memory just by sitting back and being quiet before the Lord. Beyond that, my cousin Dawn’s request for me to have this experience actually recorded like this was the timing of the Lord. As I have thought back to the event much has come back to me, and the more I think on it and write, the more the Holy Spirit refreshes my memory. In some ways it is almost like I am re-living the event again.

We left off in the last Coffee Break just as I was meeting Jacob. We’ll pick up my conversations with him momentarily.

One of the things I’ve neglected to mention thus far is the modes of transportation experienced in Heaven during this trip. Sure, there were the walks that I took with some of those with whom I conversed as well as the hand-in-hand walks with Jesus. There were, however, those times when – as we were talking – we were suddenly “blinked” into different environments or locations. By that I mean that the image of the place being described was planted in my mind and “blink” (or faster than you can blink your eye) we were there. No, it wasn’t a vision: we were actually in the new location.

Then there were the times when walking with Jesus that we came to homes – palaces would probably be more of an accurate description – and we simply passed through the walls. Doors weren’t necessary to gain entrance, although I didn’t see any buildings or structures without doors or windows. You’ll excuse the pun, but the architecture was simply “out of this world.” In many instances what I saw defied natural understanding, and yet it all seemed so logical and simple while there in Heaven.

As an example, I saw towering buildings that seemed to be made of some kind of metallic transparent material. There were elegant and adorned paths or walks leading to where you would expect to see some kind of doorway, but people came and went from those “buildings” (Sorry! I just don’t know what else to call them.) passing through what appeared at first glance as solid walls. In one instance when I approached the “entrance” the wall dissolved into a transparent opening. It looked solid, but I could pass through it as easily as if walking through a natural open doorway.

As already noted previously in this series, I was constantly surrounded by a light that simply radiated from everywhere. Revelation 21:23-24 best describes it like this:

“And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.”

Thirty-odd years ago, I put a portion of the 89th Psalm to music. Psalm 89:15 describes my experience very well:

“Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.”

That’s it! Not only did I walk in the literal light of the Lord, I was surrounded by the joyful sound of praise and worship – continuously – 24 hours a day (grin). Of course there was no time being measured by the clock while I was in Heaven, and yet I was aware of a passage of equivalent time during my stay. To the best of my understanding, I spent the equivalent of three days or so in Heaven (and I’ll talk more about that later.)

Like his father before him, Jacob was ready for my questions and began answering before I actually verbalized them.

My first question – and it was formed as a thought – related to Jacob’s participation in the deception that gained him the blessing of his father, Isaac, in the place of his brother, Esau.

“I know what you want to ask,” he said, “so I’ll save you the trouble of asking.

“I knew the Blessing my father had received from Grandfather Abraham. I saw what the Blessing of the Lord had done in Grandfather’s life and the extraordinary place he had with God. That Blessing had been passed on to Father and he had experienced many of the same things I’d heard of in Grandfather.

“For some reason I’ve never been able to understand, my brother, Esau, didn’t see the value of anything spiritual. He easily gave up his birthright just to satisfy the hunger of his flesh for food. There is spiritual value in the birthright and I was glad he was willing to trade it away. In the years since that had taken place, I had seen nothing in Esau that desired the same walk with God that my father and grandfather knew. The Blessing was integral to that walk and there was a thirst, a craving, something I didn’t know how to put into words that cried out within me to have that same kind of relationship.

“When Mother saw that Father had decided the time had come to impart that same Blessing (and we had talked about it many times) she contrived a way for me to deceive Father. He had, as you know, told Esau to prepare him venison. It was his favorite thing to eat and Esau was good at preparing it. Mother overheard Father tell Esau that he was going to bless him after eating of his venison. She knew how to prepare goat meat so that it would taste exactly like venison.

“When I realized what was happening, despite my fear that the deception would be found out, it was unthinkable to me that Esau would get the Blessing because of all the disparaging things he had said about it in times past. I knew it was wrong to deceive Father, but the value of the relationship with God was worth too much to me and I was determined to have that.

“I guess my problem was that I didn’t realize then that God saw my heart. Had I been patient He would have seen to it that Esau wouldn’t receive something of such great spiritual impact he would disregard and treat so cavalierly.

“To tell the truth, it was many years before I realized how much deception had become a part of my character. It was ingrained in me and I just didn’t know how to do things any other way.”

As Jacob poured out his tale it was easy to see why the Lord had blessed him with the Blessing of Abraham and Isaac! I saw in him that same thing that God seeks after in His people today: the hunger and thirst for righteousness, the insatiable craving for the presence of the Lord – the desire to know the Lord in the same intimate way He knows us.

Seeing through Jacob’s eyes as he shared, I saw that Esau ultimately developed a respect for who God is but never desired a relationship with Him. He saw the Blessing of his father and grandfather as something that would make him rich and powerful in the eyes of the world around him. He wanted the benefits of the Blessing without being willing to pay the cost spiritually.

Jacob had paused momentarily in his sharing, and he continued.

“You remember when I left Laban’s house according to the Word of the Lord to return home? Remember how, on the way, I was told that Esau was coming to meet me?”

I nodded my head as the scenes flashed before me remembering what I’d read in Genesis 31 and 32.

“For the first time in my life I realized how much the fear of death had driven me and why I was such a deceiver. I had deceived repeatedly throughout my life, and I had been deceived in return. I hated what I was seeing in myself. Fear had motivated so much of my actions that it was ruling my life. It had become part and parcel of my character, my personality, my makeup.

“When the Angel of the Lord wrestled with me that night at the brook Jabbok and I realized who I was wrestling with, I saw the opportunity for my character and nature to be changed by God in an instant. I hung onto that Angel for dear life and when he said to let him go, that was the moment for me to insist on a change of nature.

“You understand, don’t you, that names are more than identifiers of a particular person? Names are prophetic pictures. They are character descriptions, character references, marks of personality and makeup. Your name is Regner, but that’s not just some name your parents gave you; it is prophetic and given by God to mark you as a king, as someone who will rule and have charge – someone who will be given great responsibility in and over the lives of people.

“My name was Jacob. It was my character. It was who I was and prophetic of what I would be. I was a supplanter, a trickster, a cheat, a deceiver. It was what I did when I first came out of my mother’s womb. I didn’t want that kind of character anymore. My personality needed change – and only the kind of change that God could give me.

“When the Angel of the Lord demanded that I let him go, it was my opportunity. My father had blessed me and given me the Blessing of Abraham – my grandfather – but it was time for me to have the Lord bless me directly. With that blessing would come change and empowerment for change in my life.

“And that’s exactly what I received! The Angel said to me, “Your name will no longer be Jacob – the deceiver, the supplanter – but Israel. Now you are a prince, and as a prince you have power with God and with men. As a prince you have prevailed with God.”

“Jacob is not my name, or my character, or my personality any longer. I’m not a Jacob: I’m an Israel – a prince, a ruler with God, under Him, and ruling by His decree!”

In some ways by now my head was almost swimming. The revelations that were coming forth from the back-to-back-to-back conversations with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel were sinking in. A very different and fresh revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ was unfolding for me. I was beginning to see and understand the difference between people who mouth the name of God – in essence, using God’s name in vain – and those who have paid the price for a real, personal and intimate relationship with Him.

With Abraham’s obedience to that at-first-unknown voice of God, and then pursuit of a relationship with Him in an era when literally the whole earth was following after false gods – man-made gods – Isaac’s pursuit of that same relationship and obedience to the Lord under impossible circumstances, and the heart-cry of Jacob that God heard and responded to, bringing and changing Jacob into Israel, I saw the heart of the Lord for genuine intimacy, for fellowship, for communion, for an interchange of real love – not just cheap words – with mankind. I was seeing and understanding Creation like I’d never understood it before.

All of Creation came into being so that God could have intimate fellowship on His peer level with beings like Him, made in His image and likeness, whose character and personality would choose Him and fellowship with Him at all costs above everyone and everything else!

I saw for the first time that Satan’s treachery in the Garden, and his deception of Eve did not catch the Lord by surprise. He knew it was going to take place. He was ready for it. And in that knowledge He set the stage for people to choose Him over and above all the enticements that the world would offer, and over and above all the enticements that Satan would present with his wiles and deception.

It was the overcoming process! I was seeing the pattern unfold. In that instant there was an inkling of what I was likely going to hear in all of the conversations that would unfold in the time/days/period to come while I was in Heaven. If Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel were any indication, this overcoming process was going to be repeated again and again and again in the stories and adventures I would hear shared from Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.,…… not to mention Peter, James, John, Paul and the other apostles.

One of the things I wanted to talk to Jacob about was his experience when he first left home and saw the staircase into Heaven with angels ascending and descending. This was of particular interest to me since I had experienced something nearly identical some four years earlier. The main difference between my experience and Jacob’s was that he saw the Lord standing at the top of the staircase; and the Lord spoke to him on that occasion to reinforce and reaffirm the Covenant he had first made with Abraham, and then Isaac.

He described the appearance of the angels as “innumerable” on a stairway – almost a circular staircase – that spiraled heavenward. Whether the Lord simply gave him telescopic vision to see into Heaven or whether He shortened the distance for the sake of Jacob’s experience (and mine, for that matter), Jacob said that his view of Heaven was as if viewing through a widening portal. He could easily see the Lord standing there.

The experience of seeing a stairway to Heaven is not unique to Jacob. Others have experienced this too. I may or may not have shared with you the experience we had at the Calgary Stampede in 1995. Lindsay Roy (now Lindsay Rempel), a young lady we consider as being among our adopted daughters, was working with us (we were helping friends use “The Country Kitchen” as a means to raise funds to send kids to summer camp) when she had an experience of seeing a stairway coming down out of Heaven and angels coming into the midst of the crowds at the Stampede fairgrounds. She was surprised to see them change appearance as their feet touched the ground, and they appeared as normal people.

It wasn’t just a dream or a vision. Lindsay saw something that was actually happening – even though to her it seemed as a dream or vision. She shared her experience with all of us. Michael and Melissa (Sharpe) were working with us and they decided to take a break and get a latte from the Starbucks’ stand a little distance away.

Michael was saying to Melissa as they walked, “I sure would like to see something like that.” A tour bus had stopped fairly close to their path and people were disembarking and mingling. Michael turned to see a lady standing close by. Without any other word of introduction, she said to Michael, “I’m one of them,” and proceeded to vanish. You can bet that Michael and Melissa beat a hasty path back to the kitchen to tell us what had just happened.

OK, it wasn’t a Jacob’s ladder experience exactly, but close enough! This was no dream. It was one of many unusual supernatural experiences we had during our Stampede adventures.

I’d originally planned to talk about Moses next, but think I’ll hold that for later. I’ve been revisiting my experiences and conversations with David. Because it is so fresh right now I think we’ll go there in our next Coffee Break.

Following next week’s sharing about David – and it may run a bit longer than the usual Coffee Breaks – I’ll be taking a break for the Christmas season, and will return early in January.

Next: Heaven V: David.

Never have we seen such a time in history as this! Never has there been a more urgent need for the pursuit of the presence of the Lord in our lives! Never has it been so critical that the body of Christ understand Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins!

Blessings on you!

Regner

Regner A. CapenerCAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
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