Preparing the Bride of Christ For His Return By Janet Van Hierdan
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Saturday, September 20, 2014
Another
Coffee Break:
The Asher Miracle, Part 2
September 12, 2014
Let's
begin with a news report today taken from Zion Oil Company's publication, Oil
in Israel:
A
Texas oil man named Andy SoRelle was busy preparing to drill the Atlit #1 well
near Haifa, known as the Asher Project. SoRelle’s well was spudded in February 1981,
the same year Jim Spillman’s book, The Great Treasure Hunt, was
released. Spillman and SoRelle were mutual supporters, each understandably
interested in the work of the other. Throughout the Asher Project SoRelle
updated Spillman on the progress of the well they both believed would strike
the oil God had promised.
At 9,400 feet the drill bit hit volcanic rock. They drilled down through another 7600 feet before finally coming into limestone again. The drill bit, now at 17,296 feet was way beyond the rig’s capacity. Fearing he would lose the hole, Atlit’s drilling supervisor (a man by the name of John Brown) shut down the operation until a larger rig could be brought in.
December 28, 1982 a new drill rig, rated at 26,000 feet was installed over the original hole. This new phase, dubbed the Atlit #II was planned to bring the well as deep as 23,000 feet. By February of 1983 the well had been cleaned out and depth had been increased to 18,000 feet.
Drilling continued without incident until, at 20,570 feet Atlit II struck oil! What oil experts call “very good shows” came to the surface; graded as light oil at 35 to 40 degrees API. SoRelle continued to a final depth of 21,431 feet. The zone of oil bearing rock, was estimated at 470 feet, from 20,570 to 21,309 feet. Two years after spudding, the drilling phase of the Atlit well was finally complete!
During development problems emerged again. Financing for the project had been on a shoe-string at best. The crew had stopped casing the well at 13,772 feet. Not having funds for additional casing and reasoning that the volcanic rock they had struggled through was stable enough to hold the hole open the crew had continued drilling in “open hole.”
As the crew was cleaning the hole in preparation for the
production casing, drill collars stuck at 18,669 ft and two weeks of jarring
would not break them loose. Special equipment was flown to retrieve the string
(130 ft. in length) and, while cleaning the hole to “fish” with the new
equipment they stuck again at the 17,772 ft mark. After ten more days of trying
to break loose, they came out leaving another 8 ½ foot fish in the hole.
August 24, 1983, more than two and a half years after spudding,
Andy SoRelle called it quits for the Atlit hole. Having spent more than $25
million, his own money and that of his investors, Andy gave up on the Atlit
well.
The history of the search for Asher’s oil doesn’t seem very
promising. But if God said of Asher, ‘… let him dip his foot in oil …’
then I’m convinced He’ll keep His promise in His own time. One thing I do know;
the oil is down there. Hancock saw it and SoRelle saw it. That Asher’s oil
exists is a fact, when it will be brought to the surface is the only question.
But these are just the material
facts. Let's now get to the Scriptural aspects, the scientific aspects of
this oil find.
While Andy was mapping the region, he was
visited by a group of Rabbis and professors from Jerusalem University.
"Mr. SoRelle," they said, "We think you need to see what we've
discovered."
Well, of course the oil find was front page
news on the Jerusalem Post. Andy went from persona nobody to a first-name basis with
just about everybody in the Israeli government. The Rabbis sat up and
took notice. Hebrew scholars sat up and took notice. Geologists sat
up and took notice. His find was widely written about in the journals of
the oil industry. Scientists took notice.....and scratched their head.
The Rabbis began to show Andy their
discoveries in the Torah. Once it became clear that Asher's Oil was
petroleum and not just olive, it cast some translations of the Hebrew text into
a whole new light. Ironically, it was a
scholar whose name was Olive who pointed out some fascinating aspects of Andy's
discovery.
Asher-Atlit Well by
the old Crusader Castle
"And of Asher he said, Let Asher be
blessed with children; let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip
his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so
shall thy strength be."
"Mr. SoRelle, whether you realize it
or not, you are the fulfillment of Scripture. You've found oil at the
foot of Asher. Your drilling rig is 'iron and brass.'"
But, here's the best part. In I
Chronicles 7:30-39 are the names of the 43 children of Asher. Each of
their names is a prophecy -- a promise from God. Each of their names has
a mathematical value. (You may remember a discussion in one of our Coffee
Breaks about the Russian mathematician, Ivan Panin, and his discoveries.)
Put the translation from Hebrew of each of
the names together in succession as they are recorded in Scripture and it comes
out approximately like this: "A foreign association shall come
together and shall sink a shaft in Asher, using a cutting tool for cutting hard
formations; and will go through a mountain or a high place; and liquid pitch
will come forth as a man vomiting. And Asher will be able to lend to his
brothers, and Israel will become preeminent amongst nations."
Here's another really cool discovery.
A friend who served in the first Iraq War -- Desert Storm -- had access to the
Navy's huge computer. After analyzing
the names of each of the children of Asher, he decided to input the
mathematical value of each of the names of the children of Asher. What he came
up with was.......20,570! The depth at which Andy found oil. You
remember, don't you, that every Hebrew letter has a mathematical value?
It is like the ancient Greek language (or actually it's the other way around -
smile!) Put the letters of the names together; add their numerical values
together and you get 20,570.
But there's more. Extract out some of
the individual names with their corresponding mathematical value, and you get
the exact weight and grade of the oil that came forth.
So, how did all that fit? Andy
definitely had a foreign (American) association. They sank a shaft in
Asher using a cutting tool for cutting hard formations (a drill bit used in
digging for oil). They went through a mountain. The mountain was
hidden because of geologic shifts, but they drilled through a volcanic
mountain. Liquid pitch -- oil -- came forth as a man vomiting.
One more thing: Andrew "Andy"
SoRelle's name is Hebrew is.....tum de tum tum.....Asher! Of course he
didn't know that until the Rabbis told him. (smile)
The rest of it.....well, it still remains
to be completed. The Intifada interrupted things, and despite his best
efforts to raise the money necessary to sink a producing well, Andy ran out of
funds. He was able to raise enough money to begin another drilling effort
in the mid-to-late 1980's, but problems with the drill rig made available to
him by the Israel National Oil Company (yeah, they decided after Andy's
discoveries to put together a national oil company.) forced a shutdown.
The rig was simply too small for the project.
Ill health caught up with him in the years
that followed, and it wasn't until 1995 that he was able to return to try
again. He had raised enough money -- he hoped -- to actually sink a
producing well. Again, mechanical problems and local politics interfered
causing costly delays and eventually draining his resources, bringing his third
effort to a stop.
It is a promise yet to be fulfilled.
Andy once told me that if he could sink 50 oil wells per year in the region
over a 20-year span, they wouldn't come close to extracting all the oil
available.
As I recall, it was in 2001 or 2002 that we
got a phone call from Maxine asking us to pray for Andy. He was in the
hospital, having suffered a bad fall and a broken hip. He recovered
enough that the doctors sent him home, but again complications from the injury
sent him back to the hospital. Maxine called us some weeks later and we
learned that Andy had gone on to be with the Lord.
She shared how that while Andy was in the
hospital, the Lord had spoken to him and told him that the Asher project was
not his to finish, but that he needed to commission his son, Andy Sorelle III
(we all called him "Andy Jr.") Andy Jr. came into the hospital
to see his father and Andy Sr. instructed him to kneel by his bedside. He
placed his hands on Andy Jr's head according to the instruction of the Lord and
commissioned him to follow through with the project to its conclusion.
Andy then laid back down in the bed, folded
his hands, said goodbye to everyone, and went to be with the Lord.
Andy Junior had been in the oil business
like his father, but his activities were in oil and gas law. Despite his
father's commissioning, he somehow never got the same vision. In the years since Andy Senior’s death, John
Brown -- who had been with Andy during his first efforts -- picked up the
vision. The Zion Oil Company was formed, and John Brown picked up the
vision and the effort. Because so many years had passed since Andy's
initial find, John sank his own test wells to prove the oil for himself.
Like Andy's successful test efforts which
began in 1979, John Brown found the same oil. In 2006, Zion Oil Company
applied before the Securities and Exchange Commission for an IPO of two million
shares at $7 per share. To the best of my knowledge, that IPO was
successful and they were able to raise the $14 Million needed for their initial
efforts.
That effort resulted in some successes and
some disappointments, but -- like Andy -- John is one very determined
individual who absolutely believes the Word of God. More efforts have followed John's first
endeavor, and he will not give up until he sees God's promise fulfilled. Oil WILL come forth out of Asher just as
Moses prophesied.
I spoke with John a few months ago
concerning raising money for this vision (and it is certainly one that we share
with him). He cautioned me about having
folks involved in the effort who only saw it as a potential money-making
venture. He said to me, "If folks
don't have the vision, I'd rather not have them involved. This is God's doing! This is His promise and His covenant with
Israel. I really don't want anyone being
a part of it who doesn't understand and share the covenant vision. I believe it is crucial to the future success
of our efforts."
Whether it is now, or later, Israel will
have such an abundance of oil -- and I am convinced -- that the United States
will no longer need to depend on Arab oil to meet its needs.
God made a promise to Israel that "if thou shalt
hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all
his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set
thee on high above all nations of the earth......
"The LORD shall command the
blessing upon thee in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand
unto; and he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee....
"And the LORD shall make thee the head, and
not the tail...." (Deuteronomy
28:1, 8, 13, KJV)
You have to have a vision in order to
achieve what everyone says is impossible.
Geologists for years had said that Israel
either had no oil whatever, or only oil in trace amounts not worth
extracting. Their instruments and their scientific studies backed them up
with their claims. There were no natural oil formations when you take in
the geology and geography of the place. It took a nut case from Houston,
Texas -- at least that's what a lot of folks called him -- to demonstrate to
them that if the Bible says so, IT IS SO !!
What does God have in store? More
than anyone can possibly imagine!
Christians
MUST NOT live at random. Everything we do is significant. Beware of
the trap of thinking that anything you do is "insignificant."
Again, let me remind
you that if you are in need of healing or deliverance from any kind of torment,
please join our prayer conference calls on either Monday or Wednesday of each
week at 7:00 PM Eastern. Once again, the number to call is (805) 399-1000. Then enter the access code: 124763#. To get into the queue for prayer, when Randy
opens the call up for everyone, hit *6-1 on your keypad. Let us minister to
your need for healing!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Email Contact: Admin@RiverWorshipCenter.org
Our book, A
Tale of Two Brides, published by Destiny Image, is now available on
Amazon.com as an E-book: http://www.amazon.com/Tale-Two-Brides-Relationship-ebook/dp/B00BSV6HZC/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1363139096&sr=8-8&keywords=A+Tale+of+Two+Brides#_
All Coffee Break articles are
copyright by Regner A. Capener, but authorization for reprinting, reposting,
copying or re-use, in whole or in part, is granted –provided proper attribution
and this notice are included intact. Older Coffee Break archives are available
at http://www.RegnersMorningCoffee.com. Coffee Break
articles are normally published weekly.
If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.To remove yourself from the mailing list, please send a blank email to Unsubscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.
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CAPENER MINISTRIES is a tax-exempt church ministry.
Should you desire to participate and covenant with us as partners in this
ministry, please contact us at either of the above email or physical addresses,
or visit: http://www.RiverWorshipCenter.org.
Friday, September 19, 2014
Another
Coffee Break:
The Asher Miracle, Part 1
September 5, 2014
Nearly ten years have
passed since I first began to share the amazing story of Houston oilman and
drilling legend, Andy SoRelle. Since I
first shared this story, there have been many additions as well as parts of the
original story that needed to be "fleshed out".
It was twenty years
ago this spring that Della and I were first introduced to Andy and Maxine
SoRelle. What we were introduced to was
a whole lot more than a couple of very interesting people: we became involved
in an adventure that continues to this day.
In order to lay the foundations for the events I'm about to share, let
me take you back to WW-II.
Andrew
SoRelle III was the third in the lineage of a Texas oil drilling family. His father and his grandfather before him
(each of whom was named, Andrew SoRelle) had become very well known in
America's rapidly-developing oil industry.
Their adventures and accomplishments had already made the SoRelle name
famous.
Here's an
aside to this story. The unusual
spelling with the capital "R" was the result of a squabble among
members of the family who had emigrated to the U.S. from France. To distinguish themselves from the part of
the family who became known for their winter sorel boots, as well as the branch
that became involved in the elegant (and verrry expensive!) baby furniture,
Andy's grandfather (or great-grandfather -- don't remember for sure) changed
the way the name was spelled.
Andy grew
up in a home where the name of Jesus was a cuss word. He barely knew who Jesus was. When America became engaged in WW-II, he
enlisted in the Army Air Corps and before long was a fighter pilot providing
air support in bombing runs over Germany.
His prowess as a fighter pilot made him the choice of more than one B-24
crew and for a time he managed to return from these bombing runs relatively
unscathed.
On one particular return flight to England, Andy's
plane got shot, strafed by enemy fire, and he lost his rudder, along with all
of his control surfaces. Now, any of you who are pilots who have flown in
either of the Gulf Wars know when that happens, you start speaking in tongues
immediately! If you know the Lord, that is! (smile)
If God doesn't intervene, you've got maybe
a minute to get things right with the Lord before the plane digs a trench in
the desert or an oil field, or you wind up as shark bait at the bottom of the
ocean. Andy's growing-up hadn't been Biblically-oriented -- at all -- and
the words, "Sunday School," WERE speaking in tongues for him.
Nevertheless, he did what Albert Einstein talked about.
You remember Einstein? E=mc2?
What most folks don't remember is that he once said, "There is a
God-shaped vacuum in every individual that ONLY God can fill." Andy
SoRelle didn't know anything about Einstein's comment and Jesus was more of a historical
figure to him but he started screaming out for God to fill the vacuum in his
life. "God, if you are real, and you can get me out of this alive, I
promise I will give my life to you." With mere seconds to go before
the fighter aircraft pancaked in some French vineyard, the plane flew into a
fog bank and he lost all sense of direction.
For something like an hour, the plane kept
flying......in fog. Not until he neared the airfield in England did the weather clear, and Andy realized
that the Lord had literally carried his broken aircraft back across France and the English
Channel -- WITH
NO CONTROL SURFACES available. Andy couldn't steer the
plane, he couldn't set a compass direction, he couldn't raise or lower flaps --
NOTHING!!
Nevertheless, his plane guided perfectly to the runway, landed, and came to a
stop with him safe and sound.
His commanding officer and fellow-fighter
pilots looked in disbelief at the aircraft. His Commanding Officer said,
"This is impossible! This plane can't fly!" Andy's story,
along with accompanying photos of him and the "can't fly" aircraft,
made it into numerous newspapers, and finally was published in its entirety in
Guideposts' Magazine in the late 1960's.
Despite
his prayer in that life-and-death situation, Andy's actual submission and
commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ didn't take place for more
than fifteen years. Having grown up in the midst of great wealth and
"high society," he was mostly raised by a black nanny. She DID know the Lord, was Holy Spirit-filled
and had a wonderful daily walk with Jesus Christ. (Della and I got to meet her when she was in
her late 80's.) She began to pray for
him, share with him, instruct him (he thought she was preaching :-)) minister
to him every chance she got and didn't let up.
When he did commit his life to Jesus Christ, stupendous changes took
place in his life.
Andy got
baptized in the Holy Spirit -- and DID begin speaking in tongues -- for
real! But that was only the
beginning. Along the way he met Demos
Shakarian (who founded the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship International -
FGBMFI) and became one of the founders of the Houston chapter of the
fellowship. His involvement with the Full
Gospel Businessmen opened up many doors of opportunity for him as an oilman.
His
reputation as an oilman was already well established, but when Shell Oil heard
about some of his adventures and successes, they came to him with a serious
problem. They had found what looked like
a likely oil field off the coast of Louisiana and initiated drilling. The problem was that no one up to that time
had ever successfully gotten through the Louisiana sands without having to deal
with the issue of the fresh water that would play havoc with the process.
Andy said
that he had a specific answer from the Lord as to a drilling site and Shell Oil
funded the project. After days and weeks
of fruitless results, Andy stayed with it and wouldn't give up. His efforts resulted in what became known in
the oil industry as "the Shell Miracle."
If my recollection is correct, it was in
the mid-to-late 1970's when he and Maxine were in Tel Aviv, vacationing at the
Sheraton Hotel. One morning, he opened his Bible to a strange verse of
Scripture in Deuteronomy 33:24.
"Let Asher be blessed with children; let him
be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil."
It struck him as really odd, so he said,
"Lord, are you saying that there is oil in Israel?" Considering
that he was in Israel,
he decided -- just for grins -- to take a look at an old Biblical map to see
where the ancient boundaries were for the tribe of Asher. Turns out
that those boundaries made Asher look like a boot. The toe of the boot
fell just south of present-day Haifa
where many of the Hezbollah rockets have been falling, and where Hamas has
succeeded in reaching in the past few weeks (albeit unsuccessfully because of
Israel's Iron Dome defense).
Being something of an adventurous type,
Andy decided to spend some of his own fortune and do some test drillings in the
area. After some wrangling with the Israeli government -- whose Minister
of Energy thought the whole idea was a crackpot idea -- for nearly three years,
Andy was finally granted a drilling permit, and in 1979 began drilling at the
very edge of the geographical toe: at the River of Crocodiles.
From Left to
Right: Andrew SoRelle, Yithak Modai
& Elizar Barak
Andy had to be an adventurer. After
months of drilling, broken drill bit after drill bit because of volcanic
material he kept running into, he was finally down to 13,000 feet. Out of
pipe (casing), and having spent more than $8 Million, some of it his own money,
not to mention some investor funds, his crew said to him, "Andy, it was a
good try. Sorry it didn't work out."
Now this was a crew that had been with him
for many years -- the same crew, in fact, that had been with him for the
"Shell Miracle" -- and had seen him come through some amazing
circumstances and obstacles to find oil in the most obscure places.
Nevertheless, experience told them they had spent a lot of time and money for
nothing. Andy had simply misread the Scripture. That passage
certainly didn't mean petroleum oil. It was a reference to olive
oil. That was the kind of oil that Asher was known for historically.
Right.
Funny, isn't it, how we let our education
and experience, and our book learning get in the way when we ought to be
listening to the Lord. But Andy didn't.
This is a spiritual principle that many folks have lost sight of. We tend to get in the habit of eating from
the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Get it? If something is
"good" by our estimation or past practices, then that simply must
be the thing to do!
If we see something as "bad" or
even "evil" based on our understanding and/or past experiences, then
by all means we need to avoid it and do what seems "good." Trouble is, we are acting based on humanly
acquired knowledge, NOT based on revelation which has come by the Spirit of
God. And that gets us in trouble more
often than not!
For Andy, he'd seen and he'd heard the Word
of the Lord. It was absolutely lodged in
his spirit. Reading that scripture in
Deuteronomy rang as rhema in his whole being.
"Fellas, we're staying with it. Just keep drilling. It's
volcanic, so the material is hard enough to stay together without having to run
casing."
OK. The boss is nuts, but he's paying
the bills.
So they kept drilling. 15,000
feet. 17,000 feet. 19,000 feet. "Andy, this is
crazy! Nobody's ever found oil at this depth in this region. It
just ain't there!"
After many months of drilling, they struck
oil. At 20,570 feet! Now, here's where it really gets interesting.
|
The oil was so pure, it was the color of
honey. I know. Della and I have both seen samples of it. As
soon as I saw the sample Andy showed me, I said to him, "Andy, it sure
gives you a whole new take on "a land flowing with milk and honey."
Ahhh.....but we haven't even scratched the
surface.
Andy had spent some $25 Million by this
time -- a good chunk of it being investor capital -- and he didn't have much
left. So he picked up the equipment and headed back to the U.S. to see if
he could raise some money to drill some producing wells. Of course there
had to be geological analysis of the region in order to demonstrate the
viability of such a project. Andy went back to the area in the early
1980's with some experimental sounding equipment developed by another friend of
ours, (I've already talked about him several times in previous Coffee Breaks)
the scientist, Dr. Joseph O'Neil.
As they began to map the oil deposits, they
realized that they were sitting on top of a world-class find. The pool
extended out under the Mediterranean for more
than a hundred miles. It traveled through a fault line under the city of Haifa across northern Israel,
gradually rising in Jordan
and reaching into Iraq.
Turns out this pool of oil was the primary source of the oil for some of the Middle East's major oil producing countries.
(Whewww.....talk about the politics of the situation!!!!!)
There's a whole lot more to this story, and we'll
pick it up here next week.
Let me remind you that
if you are in need of healing or deliverance from any kind of torment, please
join our prayer conference calls on either Monday or Wednesday of each week at
7:00 PM Eastern. Once again, the number to call is (805) 399-1000. Then enter the access code: 124763#. To get into the queue for prayer, when Randy
opens the call up for everyone, hit *6-1 on your keypad. Let us minister to
your need for healing!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Email Contact: Admin@RiverWorshipCenter.org
Our book, A
Tale of Two Brides, published by Destiny Image, is now available on
Amazon.com as an E-book: http://www.amazon.com/Tale-Two-Brides-Relationship-ebook/dp/B00BSV6HZC/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1363139096&sr=8-8&keywords=A+Tale+of+Two+Brides#_
All Coffee Break articles are
copyright by Regner A. Capener, but authorization for reprinting, reposting,
copying or re-use, in whole or in part, is granted –provided proper attribution
and this notice are included intact. Older Coffee Break archives are available
at http://www.RegnersMorningCoffee.com. Coffee Break
articles are normally published weekly.
If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.To remove yourself from the mailing list, please send a blank email to Unsubscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.
If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.To remove yourself from the mailing list, please send a blank email to Unsubscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.
CAPENER MINISTRIES is a tax-exempt church ministry.
Should you desire to participate and covenant with us as partners in this
ministry, please contact us at either of the above email or physical addresses,
or visit: http://www.RiverWorshipCenter.org.
Another
Coffee Break:
Exercising Spiritual Authority, Part 2
August 29, 2014
After the large number
of responses to last week's Coffee Break, I realized that much of what is
happening currently here in the Yakima Valley, as well as other places around
the country, really should be included so as not to leave this simply as an event
that took place years ago. Sometimes I start swimming with all of the
reports that come in and lose track of certain specific details, but it seems
appropriate to at least include things that are happening here in Sunnyside, as
well as Toppenish, Yakima and surrounding areas.
That
said, let me lay a little more Scriptural foundation for this kind of Kingdom
authority.
Matthew
28:18-20
(RAC Translation & Amplification): Jesus [keeping his appointment with the disciples] drew near and
laid out His designed plan and purpose to them, "All authority and power
to rule in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.
Go then and make disciples -- disciplined ones -- of all the
nations, baptizing and immersing them into the onoma (the very character, makeup and essence) of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit,
Teaching
[and imparting to] them to guard and fulfill everything that I have charged you
with; and consider this: I am with you throughout all the days perpetually,
uniformly, and on every occasion, to the consummation of the age." Amen.
There's
another part of this imparting and delegating of authority that we need to
fully understand and get hold of. Paul,
writing to the Ephesians, puts it like this:
Ephesians 1:18-21 (NASB): I pray that the
eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope
of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the
saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who
believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His
might which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and
seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above
all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all
things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things
to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Ephesians 2:4-6 (Amplified
Bible): But
God—so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the
great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us,
Even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and
trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with
Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with
which He quickened Him, for] it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did
not deserve) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of
Christ’s salvation).
And He raised us up together with Him and made us sit down
together [giving us joint seating with Him] in the heavenly sphere [by virtue
of our being] in Christ Jesus (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
By
now, it should be very clear that our authority comes by virtue of (1) ALL
authority and power to rule having been given to Jesus Christ; (2) Jesus being
the head of the whole body -- the Ekklesia; (3) our being IN CHRIST and having
His very life, His makeup and the essence of Who He is being in us; and (4) our
having been seated with Him in that same place of rulership in and from the
Heavenlies.
When
He speaks into our spirits and our inner beings with a command or some
instruction or desire of His heart, He gives to us the full authority to carry
out that instruction, along with the backing of Father and Holy Spirit so that
the following evidence provides the proof of His Word to us.
Walking
the streets of the neighborhood where I lived in Long Beach, California, along
with the area around the church fellowship, day after day, week after week,
month after month took consistency and faithfulness. It didn't bother me that I didn't see any
results after the first week, or the first month, or even for many months. I didn't have to see immediate results; there
was a mandate in my spirit to stay with it.
We
had neighbors on either side of our house, neither of whom had any kind of
relationship with the Lord. The
neighbors just to the west of us were about as loud and foul-mouthed as anyone
you've ever heard. I honestly don't
remember the time frame between when I first started walking the streets of our
neighborhood and when change took place in their home -- and it seems like it
was easily two years or more -- but one day the lady of the house opened up her
side door when I was trying to till the ground right next to the fence that
separated our homes.
She
expressed her thanks at the faithfulness in praying over them and said that she
and her (formerly very foul mouthed) husband were now attending the local
United Brethren church just a few blocks from us, and that they had accepted
Jesus Christ. It didn't matter to me
that two years or more had passed since the prayers had begun. It just mattered that this family was now a
part of the Kingdom of God.
The
folks that lived on the other side of us continuously fought like cats and dogs
with each other and we didn't need the windows open on that side of the house
to hear them cursing at each other. The
day came, however, when things seemed to quiet down. I didn't really know what had happened until
one day when the phone rang. The wife
called me to say that her husband had been in deep depression. She came home one afternoon to find that he
had put a gun to his mouth and blown his brains out in the bathroom. Paramedics had been called by another
neighbor and taken him to the hospital barely hanging onto life.
She
had seen me day after day after day after day stretching out my hands toward
the house and praying over them, and she asked me if I would go to the hospital
and pray for her husband. I did so
immediately. When I walked into the
hospital room, the nurses were just pulling the sheet over him after his being
pronounced dead. I asked them if I could
pray over him and they stepped aside.
It
was a rather strange way to pray. I
didn't do a "Lazarus, come forth" kind of prayer. What I said to the Lord was this:
"Father, in Jesus' name restore life to this man so that he has an
opportunity to accept Jesus Christ into his life before he steps into
eternity. I know he blew his brains out,
but restore enough cognitive ability in him to hear the truth of the Gospel and
respond. Give him his life long enough
to get to know the Lord Jesus Christ."
Immediately
the sheet began to move as the man stirred.
The startled nurses grabbed it and pulled it back to see the man's eyes
open and seeing. I lifted up my hand and
said quietly, "Thank you, Lord!" and left the hospital. It was quite some time before I heard that
the man had been transferred to an intensive care unit, and then to an extended
care facility before being released to go home.
His wife had sold the house next to us and they had moved to the San
Fernando Valley to be close to the extended care facility.
She
later reported to me that her husband had lost a lot of the motor
abilities. He could barely feed himself,
and was wheelchair bound, but his ability to see, hear and respond had been
restored. During the eighteen months
that followed the attempted suicide and the prayer over him, a minister came to
the extended care facility and shared the Lord with him. He accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and
Saviour and finally passed on into eternity a year and a half after blowing his
brains out. I marvelled -- and I still
marvel -- at the faithfulness of God to restore life into the man after he had
died and give him enough time to come to know Jesus Christ.
The
house just on the other side of this one (two doors down from our house) was
occupied by a family who had a daughter who was between the age of my oldest
daughter, Debbie, and daughter #2, Melodie.
The girls often played together and would be in our back yard. This girl (I'll call her Karen, for the sake
of this story) would sit at the dining room table while her mother was having a
very early morning cup of coffee when I was doing my walking and praying and
declaring Kingdom authority.
It
was many years later that Karen connected with me while Della and I were in
Texas. She somehow tracked me down and
told me how they would watch when I stretched out my hand towards them and
prayed over them, and then walked on to the next house. She said that first her mother accepted the
Lord, then she, then her brother, and finally her father. At the time of this conversation both she and
her mother had been baptized in the Holy Spirit and were speaking in tongues.
Let's bring things a little more current and up to
date. Throughout the years, Della and I
have been prompted by Holy Spirit to walk the streets where we have lived and
pray over the area. When we came back to
the northwest in 2006 and began the fellowship here in Sunnyside, we occasionally
walked the streets to pray over certain areas as we felt specifically
instructed. The then-police chief was a
gentleman I'd met years before and had gotten to know reasonably well. The gang activity in Sunnyside was at an
all-time high, and it wasn't uncommon for us to have shooting on our
street. Three houses at the end of our
block were shot up at different times.
I called the police chief and asked him for the
names of the gang leaders in the area.
He provided me with the names of the leaders of 13 different gangs. We began to pray over them every day. Periodically we would hear news relating to
one of the names on the list. Della and
I frequently prayed that the presence of the Lord would so fill this valley
that when people tried to take drugs, it would be impossible to get high --
that they would have to leave the valley in order to experience drug highs.
A year from the date that the chief gave me those
names, we had this report: four or five (or six -- I don't remember exactly) of
them had accepted Jesus Christ. The rest
of them were either dead or in prison.
Chief Ed Radder retired and his deputy, Phil Schenck -- a committed
believer in Jesus Christ -- stepped in.
Today, gang activity in Sunnyside is at its lowest point since
2006. The once-frequent shootings are
almost completely non-existent.
But there's more!
Lawrence and JoAnn Goodnight have been part of our fellowship for some
time. The Lord has really made them a
part of our family! Lawrence is one of
these guys who can walk the streets and minister salvation to perfect strangers
at the drop of a hat. More than that, he
has a vision for this kind of ministry.
He joined forces perhaps eighteen months ago with Don Pirozok from
Spokane, who has a similar vision. They
began walking the streets of Sunnyside together, as well as streets of Yakima
and other places here in the Yakima Valley.
Day after day, they've walked the streets, even having the boldness to
knock on doors and lead (in some cases) entire families to the Lord. Lawrence and Don began to report daily
conversions and house ministries began to pop up all over the valley.
I got tickled at their boldness one day when they
decided to walk into the school administration office and met several
secretaries. Lawrence had been in the
office a couple weeks prior and had prayed for some of them for healing. On this occasion, however, they led four or
five of them to the Lord. And it continues. Walking the streets has turned into more than
just prayer over the houses, or the businesses, or the various churches, or
even local city officials.
Della and I still walk the streets periodically and
pray over specific houses or families, but it is a real blessing to see that
the vision for this has been picked up by so many other folks. Other pastors and church leaders in the
community have also picked up the vision and are seeing demonstrable
results. Two or three of us have
occasionally gone together and walked into the city offices to pray over the
City Manager, or the police department or other individuals. Our entry into the various offices of city
officials has always been welcomed and we have periodically prayed with them
over specific issues.
Sevy and Nancy Barajas are a couple in Yakima with
whom we are connected who have picked up this vision and have run with it
nonstop. They walk the streets in stages
in order to cover a much larger area, and from what we've seen, there's not a
day that goes by that people get led to the Lord, healings take place, folks get
delivered from evil spirits, etc., etc.
Sevy and Nancy have a home fellowship that has grown by leaps and bounds
and actually has turned into multiple home fellowships as a product of their
daily consistency and faithfulness.
There is one thing I'd like to point out before we
wrap up. Don't take what I'm sharing
here as a reason for you to get out and do the same thing -- NOT unless you
have a specific prompting from Holy Spirit.
We have a bad habit of seeing the miracles, the blessings and the results
that take place with other people, and then trying to duplicate it
ourselves. It doesn't work that
way. It is important for us to act --
not react -- to what the Lord is saying to us.
What works for me, or for our fellowship is not necessarily what God
wants you to do. He may well have a
different method of operating entirely for you -- and one that wouldn't work
for us. Don't try to can what God is
doing. It doesn't take any time to
become stale and lifeless when we become copycat Christians.
That said, I receive emails from folks in India, in
Pakistan, in Kenya, in Nigeria, in Ghana -- and a fistful of other places --
where the Spirit of the Lord has prompted them to walk the streets of their
towns and villages, declaring the Kingdom of God and the rulership of the Lord
Jesus Christ. In some cases, I've heard
of whole towns or villages turning to Jesus Christ. What God has done with us is not new. It is happening worldwide. This is an early stage to a harvest of souls
the likes of which the world has never seen.
America is on the threshold of an awakening that will make the previous
"Great Awakenings," such as the one that birthed this nation, pale by
comparison.
You see, the Lord intends to have a full
house. I know there are many prophecies
floating around about the judgment to be visited on this nation because of its
sins and the falling away that has taken place -- and I'm not ignoring those
prophecies. What folks need to realize
is that in the face of judgment, there is a fire that cleanses and
purifies. Let's not forget that the very
first of the Seven Spirits of God (Isaiah 4:4) is the Spirit of Judgment and
Burning. That judgment is not for the
destruction of a people: it is for their cleansing and their restoration!
There are millions of believers who are crying out
for the cleansing and restoration of this country -- and there are Christians
worldwide who likewise cry out for their nations. We are on the verge of a transformation of
this nation like you can't imagine! We
are going to see a massive change of administration over this country -- and a
return to our covenant status with the Lord Jesus Christ: the same covenant
status our nations forefathers and founders bled and died for -- and unless my
hearing from the Lord is dulled, we're going to see spectacular change before
2014 has come to an end.
I finished the last Coffee Break with a statement
that Della and I heard Keith Moore make in one of the Southwest Believer's
Conventions we went to that I've never forgotten, and it applies to what I've
just shared.
When you want what God wants for the same reason
that God wants it, you become unlimited and unstoppable!
YOU Become the Unstoppable by being in agreement
with Holy Spirit! That’s SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY in motion!
Let me remind you that
if you are in need of healing or deliverance from any kind of torment, please
join our prayer conference calls on either Monday or Wednesday of each week at
7:00 PM Eastern. Once again, the number to call is (805) 399-1000. Then enter the access code: 124763#. To get into the queue for prayer, when Randy
opens the call up for everyone, hit *6-1 on your keypad. Let us minister to
your need for healing!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Email Contact: Admin@RiverWorshipCenter.org
Our book, A
Tale of Two Brides, published by Destiny Image, is now available on
Amazon.com as an E-book: http://www.amazon.com/Tale-Two-Brides-Relationship-ebook/dp/B00BSV6HZC/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1363139096&sr=8-8&keywords=A+Tale+of+Two+Brides#_
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