Preparing the Bride of Christ For His Return By Janet Van Hierdan
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Friday, May 15, 2015
Another
Coffee Break:
Supernatural Maturity, Part 9
May 15, 2015
Whenever we think of the term, "persecution," in
today's vernacular, and especially among those who have an "end
times" mindset, we tend to view it as a lead-in to "tribulation"
-- and for some, the so-called "Great Tribulation." It isn't my purpose to discuss tribulation in
this week's (and next week's) Coffee Break.
Rather I want us to consider what Jesus treats as a real blessing for
those who are committed to Him.
That sounds terribly contradictory, and even (for some)
masochistic, but we need to remember that our earthly comforts are not Jesus'
priority. His priority, and His
objective for those who will become One with Him, is the development and
maturing of their character -- and more specifically, His character in them.
I can give you a guided tour of what it means to be persecuted
(and I'll share a couple of stories as we deal with this topic this week, and
next), and I can demonstrate to you, the long-term benefit and blessing that
comes for those who suffer persecution, as well as the way in which the Kingdom
of God is expanded as a direct result.
That said, here's what Jesus is saying:
Matthew 5:10-12: Blessed
are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men
shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely, for my sake.
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for
great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you.
Once
again, let’s amplify this from the Greek text.
“Blessed and highly favored by the
King [of Kings] are those who are harassed, molested, mistreated, or pursued
after with hostile intent simply because they have been justified [by faith (in
Jesus Christ and His anointing)]; royalty, and Kingdom rule shall be theirs.
Blessed and highly favored by the King
[of Kings] whenever men or women will seek to defame you, to rail at you or
taunt you, harassing and pursuing you with malice, saying in public or writing
false and hurtful accusations about you to others, seeking to ruin your
reputation because of your relationship with me [on account of Who I AM — and
who you are in me.
Rejoice — exult, sing, dance, enjoy
yourself — because each time you are mistreated for my sake, your reward and
place at the Seat of Order in things eternal is enhanced and magnified.
Consider yourself in the same company
of the prophets before you who likewise were harassed, molested, mistreated,
defamed, and falsely accused because of My Word in and through them.” (RAC Translation and Amplification)
Sorry
about that! I know that’s a mouthful,
but the picture that Jesus draws of those being persecuted for no other reason
than the fact that they are in Him, and He is in them is a picture of Kingdom
recognition and blessing. It is a
picture of reward and recompense that only He can offer — and it is
spectacular!
No
one with any kind of natural reasoning would think that persecution is a
blessing but most folks equate persecution with the kinds of massacres we’ve
seen with the various Islamic groups like ISIS or Al-Qaeda or Boko-Haram, etc.
More
often than not, persecution is thought of in terms of the early Christians
being burned at the stake, thrown to the lions, being used for target practice
in the coliseums by the gladiators, etc., etc., etc.
The
massacres and the extreme abuse resulting in the murders of millions of
Christians throughout the ages are the end result in many cases of persecution,
but those deaths — in and of themselves — are not the persecution Jesus was
referring to. Let me share an example
that I saw in my childhood.
You’ll
recall the story that I shared last week about my father’s fishing miracle, and
the provision that God made when the denominational leaders refused to back him
in our move to Alaska.
When
we arrived in Nome in the fall of 1944, my parents rented a home for the first
year while we waited for a steamship to arrive with building supplies to build
a church. A piece of land was chosen for
the building site and preparation to build got under way.
There
was just one problem. The families who
lived on either side of the church property were very unhappy campers over the
idea that they were going to have a Pentecostal church as a neighbor. On one side the “gentleman” took great delight
in coming out of his house, standing on his porch and cursing us.
On
the other side, the family was Roman Catholic and while the wife and children
were pleased to have us for neighbors, the husband (who was a lawyer) hated us
(for reasons we never understood) with a purple passion and took every
opportunity to make his feelings known.
One
of this man’s sons was insane, and his behavior was as erratic as anything
you’ve ever seen. Everyone knew him as
“Hanko.” There was nothing about him
that was normal, although he could be friendly and playful for short periods at
a time.
One
day, something that my brother said or did tripped him up and he immediately
became violent. He picked up a handful
of good sized rocks and began throwing them at my brother. One of them struck Howie on the temple and
knocked him unconscious.
My
father saw the event take place and reacted instantly in the same way he would
have when he was a farm boy in North Dakota or Minnesota. He quickly ran and grabbed “Hanko,” knocked
the rocks out of his hands, spun him around and gave him a good paddling on his
rear end.
“Hanko”
ran home, crying that he had been beaten up.
It was the perfect opportunity for his father to take advantage of his
hatred for Dad. He immediately filed a
lawsuit against Dad.
Fred
L., Hanko’s father, was a close friend of the judge who heard the case. Both were Roman Catholic, both were members
of the Masonic Lodge, and both felt they had solid justification to take out
vengeance on Dad. The attorney who
represented Dad made little effort to defend him, and when the dust settled,
the judge had fined Dad $500.
In
1948, $500 might as well have been $50,000.
It might have created a scenario in which Dad could have gone to jail
because of his inability to pay such an exorbitant fine, but God had foreseen
the outcome and on the day that the ruling was made, a check for $500 arrived
from a wealthy family in Naselle, Washington whom Dad had led to the Lord
during the years of ministry in Ilwaco.
The
unjustness of the ruling and the hatred against my father because of who he was
and what he represented in Jesus Christ really stung for awhile, but the
vindication of God in the eyes of the community would become very obvious in
the following year. In the days
following the judge’s ruling, the local newspaper made a big deal out of the
fact that my father had been found guilty of assault and fined $500. Fred L. and the judge were played up as local
heroes for taking Dad to task. The story
was treated as a master stroke.
The
following summer, “Fred” and the judge went boating and fishing in one of the
many lakes on the Seward Peninsula, not far from Nome. When they didn’t come home as expected, a
search party went looking for them.
What
the search party found was an empty boat drifting on the lake with no one on
board. My recollection of the event is
that it was some days later that their bodies were found. Autopsies indicated that both had drowned.
The
news of the death of these two men was not lost on the community of Nome. In the weeks that followed that news, other
ministers in the community strengthened their fellowship with Dad and
acknowledged that God had set things right in the eyes of the people.
The
blessing of persecution is that is produces a clear delineation between those
whom the Lord approves of, and those whom He does not. I’ll illustrate this in a few minutes, but
first, take a look at one of the paradigms in which we see persecution.
Matthew 10:32-42:
Whosoever therefore shall confess me
before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him
will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
Think not that I am come to send peace
on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance
against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in
law against her mother in law. And a
man’s foes shall be they of his own household.
He that loveth father or mother more
than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is
not worthy of me.
And he that taketh not his cross, and
followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for
my sake shall find it. He that
receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent
me.
He that receiveth a prophet in the
name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a
righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s
reward.
And whosoever shall give to drink unto
one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a
disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.
What
Jesus says here sounds almost contradictory to what we’ve just considered in
our last two sessions on being or becoming the means to command God’s peace.
The way our English translations phrase it almost sounds like He is saying that
He has purposely set families against each other, and that He has come to make
war, and THAT would deliberately create confrontational circumstances that
would bring persecution.
That
IS true, and it’s NOT true.
Let’s
take a minute to retranslate a portion of what Jesus is saying out of the Greek
text.
Matthew 10:32-36:
Whoever will covenant with me and
speak their agreement with My Word in the sight of all men will I acknowledge
and declare to be in covenant with My Father in Heaven.
But anyone who seeks to disavow,
contradict or renounce me in the sight of men will I refuse [the covenant
relationship], and disregard before My Father in Heaven.
Don’t consider or begin to think that
I have come to simply create global peace and compromise with all men; that’s
NOT my purpose; I have come to clearly delineate the war that exists between
the Kingdom of God and the fleshly kingdoms of this world.
In fact, men who covenant with me will
be at odds with their non-covenant fathers, covenant daughters will find their
mothers to be their adversaries, and covenanting daughters-in-law will see
their mothers-in-law alienated.
Men and women in a covenant
relationship with Me will find their non-covenanting family members to be their
hostile adversaries (who will fight and oppose them).
(RAC
Translation & Amplification)
Makes
things pretty clear, doesn’t it? Jesus
hasn’t come to make war, He came to make war.
Brotherrr!! Sounds like double
talk.
What
He is really saying is that war and opposition are already here if we walk and
live in our covenant relationship with Him.
Satan has already been defeated — legally — but that doesn’t mean he
doesn’t still wage battles against us as believers — and he certainly continues
to do his snow job on unbelievers, making every effort to use them against us
in every possible way!
Next
week let's take this up again and talk about the historical pictures of
persecution within the Body of Christ, and the ultimate long-term blessing that
came from that persecution.
I remind those of you in need of ministry that our Healing Prayer Call
takes place on Mondays at 7:00 PM Eastern (4:00 PM Pacific). Once again, the number to call for healing is
(805) 399-1000. Then enter the access
code: 124763#.
At the same time, in case you are missing out on real fellowship in an
environment of Ekklesia, our Sunday
worship gatherings are available by conference call – usually at about 10:45AM
Pacific. That conference number is (559)
726-1300, and the access code is 308640#.
We hope to make these gatherings available by Skype or Talk Fusion
before long.
Blessings
on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Email Contact: Admin@RiverWorshipCenter.org
Our book, A
Tale of Two Brides, published by Destiny Image, is available on
Amazon.com as an E-book: http://www.amazon.com/Tale-Two-Brides-Relationship-ebook/dp/B00BSV6HZC/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1363139096&sr=8-8&keywords=A+Tale+of+Two+Brides#_
All Coffee Break articles are
copyright by Regner A. Capener, but authorization for reprinting, reposting,
copying or re-use, in whole or in part, is granted –provided proper attribution
and this notice are included intact. Older Coffee Break archives are available
at http://www.RegnersMorningCoffee.com. Coffee Break
articles are normally published weekly.
If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.To remove yourself from the mailing list, please send a blank email to Unsubscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.
If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.To remove yourself from the mailing list, please send a blank email to Unsubscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.
CAPENER MINISTRIES is a tax-exempt church ministry.
Should you desire to participate and covenant with us as partners in this
ministry, please contact us at either of the above email or physical addresses,
or visit: http://www.RiverWorshipCenter.org.
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Another
Coffee Break:
Supernatural Maturity, Part 8
May 8, 2015
In this week's Coffee Break, while we continue with the same
theme we began last week in dealing with being God's peacemakers, I'd like to
share with you a story from my early childhood years -- a story which marked
the beginning of my parents' miraculous years of ministry in Alaska -- a story
which illustrates the authority that we have.
Once again, here is what Jesus said:
Matthew 5:9:
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they
shall be called the children of God.
And
-- again -- as we did last week, here is an amplified translation of that
verse.
“Blessed and highly favored by the
King [of Kings] are those who know what it means to have the peace of God —
those who pursue with all diligence that peace in their being and in their
environment — for God will cause them to be known and referred to as His mature
and responsible sons (to whom He has entrusted His business.” (RAC Translation and Amplification)
We
talked last week about Jesus being out in the storm — in this case, a virtual
tornado or large waterspout on the Sea of Galilee (and this was no ordinary
storm) — and simply commanding, “Peace,
be still!” That storm died
instantly.
In
the summer of 1944, my father was at sea during the seven-week fishing season,
hoping to make enough money with the fish he caught to pay off the thousand
dollar debt on the church building he had built in Ilwaco, Washington.
Ilwaco
was known as a salmon fishing port, but this year the Japanese current had
swung way off course and was bringing Albacore Tuna into the pacific
waters. Dad was not a fisherman at all
by trade, and in fact had never fished commercially in his life. He was, by all accounts, a “landlubber” — a
farm boy from Minnesota and North Dakota — whom God had called to Alaska. Ilwaco was just a stop on the way to Alaska,
and 1944 was the year for the family to make the move north.
Dad
felt that he could not leave for Alaska and leave an unpaid debt behind on the
church he had built in this fishing community.
Having no other means at hand, he convinced a local cannery owner from
Raymond, Washington to loan him a boat so that he could try his hand at
fishing. When the fishing season opened,
the cannery owner reluctantly provided Dad with a 30-foot boat. The boat had no cabin so he was at the whim
of the elements.
That
first week of the fishing season saw God provide a catch of fish that shocked
both the cannery owner, and the professional fisherman from the area. The owner decided he’d underestimated this
landlubber-preacher, and provided him with a 50-foot boat with a cabin to
finish the season.
1944
Fishing Season
Week
after week after week, the size of Dad’s catch of fish amazed the fishing
community and the Associated Press decided to cover this crazy
“Landlubber-Preacher-Fisherman.
Without
getting into the whole story here, we come to the seventh and final week of the
fishing season. Dad had been routinely
fishing a hundred or so miles to the west of Astoria. The seasoned fisherman saw the makings of a
big storm at sea and decided it was time to head back into port.
The
lack of experience at sea left Dad with no indicators that anything was amiss
with the weather, and by late Wednesday the seas were tossing the boat like a
cork. By Thursday morning, the boat was
cracking and making noises such that he knew this just couldn’t continue.
The
waves had increased to the point that they were fifty and sixty feet high, and
frequently breaking over the top of the boat, submerging it momentarily before
it bobbed back to the surface.
In
his cabin, Dad prayed and said, “Lord, I know you didn’t call me to Alaska just
to have me drown at sea.” He got to his
feet stood at the cabin door and waited for one of the big waves to pass. He opened the door, ran out on the deck and
stretched his hand over the water.
“In
the name of Jesus, I command you, Peace!
Be Still!”
Then
he ran back into the cabin and waited.
Within twenty minutes the storm had ceased and the waters were glassy
calm. The storm had blown him more than
two hundred miles out to sea — well beyond the range of his ability to return
to shore. A gentle breeze sprang up and
began to blow him back towards the Oregon coast.
Meanwhile,
the fish began to bite. Dad had no money
to purchase professional fishing gear so he had simply strung out a bunch of
lines over the side of the boat.
Suddenly all of the lines were tugging and he began to pull in one fish
after another. Hour after hour after
hour he pulled in the fish. Before long
the hold was completely full, so he began throwing fish in the cabin.
Back
at port, the Ilwaco fishermen came to visit Mom and said, “Mrs. Capener, we’re
really sorry about the loss of your husband at sea. If you like, we’ll begin making preparations
for his funeral.” They meant well, but
had no idea what God was doing, and the kind of display He was about to put on
for them.
You
see, the overwhelming majority of the fishermen had already begun the process
of cleaning their boats and gear and putting things away for the season. They recognized the storm as a killer storm
and had no intention of being caught in it.
Besides, they had all had pretty good seasons and were not going to take
any chances.
For
the commercial fishermen, and for the people of Ilwaco, Dad had lost his life
in the storm. There had been no sign of
him since the storm hit. He had no radio
gear on board and no way to let folks know that he was still alive.
Mom,
likewise knew that God wasn’t going to pull the plug on them after having
called them to Alaska and she put off the fishermen’s offer saying, “Thanks,
but we’ll wait. God has everything well
in control.”
Early
Saturday, the well-meaning fishermen made one more try. “Mrs. Capener, really! You have to face reality! No one could have survived that storm. Please let us begin making preparations for
the funeral.”
Her
answer was short and sweet. “No, we’ll
wait.”
Late
Saturday afternoon, someone spotted a dot on the horizon and by the time Dad
made it into port, much of the community was there to greet him. They couldn’t believe their eyes!
Dad
was standing knee-deep in fish. The
Albacore Tuna covered the decks, were covering the floor of the cabin, over and
under his bunk and camp stove, and all around the wheel house. The decks were riding not more than four or
five inches above the water line.
When
he stepped out on the deck and commanded, “Peace,” not only did the storm die,
but nature cooperated with the command.
The elements were “set in order”.
The
breezes blew him back into port so that he didn’t have to use up his fuel
supply, and the fish began to bite. It
proved to be a record catch of fish and a record-setting season that has never
been broken to this day. 39,000 pounds
of tuna, all caught by hand during the seven-week fishing season, and it
brought Dad $6.300.00. The debt on the
church was paid off and we were able to move to Alaska in October of that year
for ministry to begin among the native villages.
Albacore Tuna from the 1944 Fishing Miracle
We
like to sing the verses from Philippians 4:7-8, but consider them in the
context of what we are sharing today.
Philippians 4:7-9:
And the peace of God, which passeth
all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are
true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just,
whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and
if there be any praise, think on these things. Those things, which ye have both learned, and
received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with
you.
When
the peace of God commands our minds, our thoughts, and the words which come out
of our mouths, we become “peacemakers.”
Peace surrounds us. We bring
peace with us wherever we go.
I
should have included verse 6 in this passage which goes like this:
Be careful for nothing; but in
everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be
made known unto God.
That
word, “careful,” is a translation of the Greek word, merimnao, which means: to be troubled with
cares, to be fretful, to be anxious and worried.
So
many people have made their own needs and crises the most important thing in
their lives, and they’ve put their trust in money, in “stuff”, in homes, in
family, or in any number of things that ARE NOT the Lord Jesus Christ.
There
is no peace in them, and they are not allowing the peace of God to rule in
their hearts and minds and thoughts — or any part of their being.
Over
the past months, Della and I have fielded literally hundreds of phone calls
from people in various stages of utter panic — some people calling three and
four and five times a day looking for some morsel of information that would put
them at peace. There’s a huge difference
between getting some kind of information that will satiate worry and actually
having God’s peace dictate our thoughts and conversation.
For
us to be “peacemakers,” we must first allow the peace of God to rule in
us. Once again, peace is a ruler. God’s peace has the ability to overrule every
conceivable concern, fretfulness or worry that the Enemy would like for us to
focus on.
The
Word of God is replete with examples of the power and stupendous authority that
the peace of God — the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ — can and does exercise
for those who yield their own minds, thought processes and conversations to the
mind of Christ. Let me wrap up this
discussion with a translation that I did from II Corinthians 10:4-6.
For the weapons and instruments of our
war and executed actions [against Satan] do not have their origins and [weak,
impotent] operation in natural flesh and human abilities, but they are
skillful, potent and powerful – like dynamite – through God to the
demolition and extinction of all fortified and guarded places of opinions in opposition,
Bringing down violently and demolishing (to total extinction) all mental
reasonings and thought processes, and every mental barrier or arrogant and
self-elevated attitude that justifies itself in opposition to the knowledge of
God; bringing into captivity and making a prisoner every perception of the
intellect and every mental purpose or determination to the compliance and
submission of Christ and His anointing [in the same way that He complied with
the will and desire of the Father]; And holding in readiness and preparedness
the [spiritual] fitness to vindicate and punish all refusal to hear what the
Spirit is saying when your attentive and obedient submission has been satisfied
fully and executed. (RAC Translation and Amplification)
Next
week we will talk about the blessing of persecution! OK, don't look at me in that tone of
voice. I'm serious! But you'll have to wait until next week to
see what I mean.
I remind those of you in need of ministry that our Healing Prayer Call
takes place on Mondays at 7:00 PM Eastern (4:00 PM Pacific). Once again, the number to call for healing is
(805) 399-1000. Then enter the access
code: 124763#.
At the same time, in case you are missing out on real fellowship in an
environment of Ekklesia, our Sunday worship
gatherings are available by conference call – usually at about 10:45AM
Pacific. That conference number is (559)
726-1300, and the access code is 308640#.
We hope to make these gatherings available by Skype or Talk Fusion
before long.
Blessings
on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Email Contact: Admin@RiverWorshipCenter.org
Our book, A
Tale of Two Brides, published by Destiny Image, is available on
Amazon.com as an E-book: http://www.amazon.com/Tale-Two-Brides-Relationship-ebook/dp/B00BSV6HZC/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1363139096&sr=8-8&keywords=A+Tale+of+Two+Brides#_
All Coffee Break articles are
copyright by Regner A. Capener, but authorization for reprinting, reposting,
copying or re-use, in whole or in part, is granted –provided proper attribution
and this notice are included intact. Older Coffee Break archives are available
at http://www.RegnersMorningCoffee.com. Coffee Break
articles are normally published weekly.
If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.To remove yourself from the mailing list, please send a blank email to Unsubscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.
If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: Subscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.To remove yourself from the mailing list, please send a blank email to Unsubscribe@AnotherCoffeeBreak.com.
CAPENER MINISTRIES is a tax-exempt church ministry.
Should you desire to participate and covenant with us as partners in this
ministry, please contact us at either of the above email or physical addresses,
or visit: http://www.RiverWorshipCenter.org.
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Another
Coffee Break:
Supernatural Maturity, Part 7
May 1, 2015
In the next couple of Coffee Breaks, as we continue with the
truths of Jesus' character expressed in the Sermon on the Mount, I'd like to
deal with something that some folks may consider as controversial and even
heretical -- and that is the ability we have IN CHRIST to literally change the
chaos and strife around us by the same simple declaration that Jesus used.
We are prone, even as Christians, to argue and even bring
division among folks rather than exercise this part of the nature of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The world often sees this
more in a political realm than as a spiritual characteristic. The problem is that it more often than not
becomes an effort to generate compromise -- sometimes at any price -- when the
truth is that true peace is a natural byproduct of the presence of the Lord,
and His Spirit being permitted to rule in and over the circumstances.
Let me show you what I mean.
Consider Jesus' declaration:
Matthew 5:9:
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they
shall be called the children of God.
Here
again is a verse that we need to amplify in the same way that we have looked at
some of the previous verses.
“Blessed and highly favored by the
King [of Kings] are those who know what it means to have the peace of God —
those who pursue with all diligence that peace in their being and in their
environment — for God will cause them to be known and referred to as His mature
and responsible sons (to whom He has entrusted His business.” (RAC Translation and Amplification)
We’ll
come back to this verse in a bit, but I’d like to demonstrate exactly what I
believe Jesus is talking about by sharing an event that took place with my
father in the summer of 1956. Let me
first say that to be a “peace-maker” within the context of Jesus’ statement, we
become an “enforcer” in a manner of speaking.
By that I mean that we bring and enact the peace of God where the Enemy
has disrupted things and brought confusion and discontent and conflict.
We
were living in Barrow, Alaska at the time, and construction of the new church
building there was proceeding in stages.
The
church had been built in close proximity to a couple of Eskimo homes — one of
which was occupied by a widowed woman named Susan (I’ll omit last names in this
instance) who had two daughters, Mary Ann and Margaret. Susan had taken up with Simeon, and he was an
alcoholic of the worst order. One
morning, Mary Ann (who was probably about 12 years old at the time) came
running over to our place and pounded on the door. Dad answered and Mary Ann screamed, “Simeon’s
trying to kill my mom!”
Wasting
no time, Dad ran across the alley to the house and opened the door in time to
see Simeon, in a drunken rage, raising an axe over the head of Susan to take
her head off. Immediately, he raised his
right hand in the air and spoke one single word, “Peace!”
Simeon’s
face and entire demeanor went through an instant change. He dropped the axe and fell to his knees,
crying. A very battered Susan had been
cowering on the floor, and she got to her feet and moved over to the nearby bed
to sit down.
Within
moments, Simeon had sobered up. A
miracle had taken place as Dad led him to Jesus Christ.
It
began a process that would emerge in the coming days and weeks as the entire
family accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Mary Ann wound up spending more and more time
in our home as Mom ministered to her, and she ultimately became our unofficially
adopted “sister” — her sister, Margaret, as well, although perhaps to a lesser
degree.
Simeon
was no mean musician and over the months that followed became a favorite banjo
picker who joined my brother and I, and a couple other Eskimo brothers in a
string praise band for our Sunday (and mid-week) services.
It
was a classic example of the rulership of God’s peace. The KJV uses the term, “peace-maker” as a
translation of the Greek word, eirenopoios, which is a
conjunction of two words, eirene
(to join together, to set at one
again),
and poieo (to make, to execute, to
perform, to ordain, to cause).
Several
years ago, I put a couple of verses from Colossians 3:15-16 to music, like
this:
Let the
Word of Christ dwell in you richly
In all
wisdom;
Teaching
and admonishing one another
In Psalms
and hymns and spiritual songs,
Singing
with grace in your hearts to the Lord -
And Let
the peace of God rule in your hearts
Let the
Word of Christ dwell in you!
And let
the Peace of God rule in your hearts
Rule in
your hearts
Rule in
your hearts
To the
which also ye are called
In One
Body
And be
ye thankful!
(Repeat
Verse 16)
The
word in the Greek text translated, “rule,” is the word, brabeuo.
This
word literally means:
to direct, to control, to decide, to
determine, to rule.
This
is not a passive word by any means. It
is active and it perfectly describes just how we are expected to operate with
the peace of God. The last two
descriptive meanings spell it out as clearly as anything can be. This is rulership over chaos. It is the manifestation of His presence in
the midst of conflict.
God’s
peace is NOT an absence of conflict but a serenity of spirit that literally
overtakes and overcomes the violence and confusion, the sin and iniquity and
darkness that pervades the earth and our societies at large. Neither is God's peace an absence of
war. God's peace is a declaration of war
-- AND VICTORY -- over spiritual forces in opposition to His presence.
Have
you ever considered how Paul begins virtually every single letter or epistle he
writes in the New Testament? Here’s how
he begins his first letter to the Ekklesia in Corinth:
I Corinthians 1:3:
Grace be unto you, and peace,
from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do
you see it? The peace of God is the same
peace we have in Christ Jesus. It’s that
same peace that literally superintends our environment when we are in Christ,
and He is in us!
And
here, again, we have the same root word in Greek that we find in Matthew 5:9,
which is eirene (to join together, to set at one again).
Understand?
In
the same way that the word, brabeuo, denotes action or force or control, the
word, eirene, also denotes action — rulership over a negative situation. God’s peace sets things right. It brings order in the midst of chaos, and
that applies in more than just mental, emotional, physical or spiritual
situations.
I’ll
share with you another story in next week's Coffee Break from my father’s
experiences that has been with me since my very early childhood, but let me
first lay a foundation for that story and show you a couple demonstrations from
Jesus’ life.
Mark 4:35-41: And the same day, when the even was come, he saith
unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away
the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also
with him other little ships.
And there arose a great storm of wind,
and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the
ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
And he arose, and rebuked the wind,
and said unto the sea, Peace, be still.
And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful?
how is it that ye have no faith?
And they feared exceedingly, and said
one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey
him?
Are
you seeing this picture? When we talk
about the peace of God that passes all understanding, we are talking about a
spiritual force which easily overrules the elements, wind, rain, snow,
hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards -- you name it. I can't tell you how many times Della and I
have commanded storms to either cease, stop in place, or steer another
direction, and see the immediate manifestation.
That's a different story that I'll get to another time.
Then
we see and consider the time when Jesus gathered His disciples together and
sent them forth to minister and extend the domain of the Kingdom of God in His
authority and power. This is peacemaking
with some of its most visible and demonstrable manifestations.
Matthew 19:7-15: And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven
is at hand. Heal the sick, cleanse the
lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.
Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor
brass in your purses, Nor
scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet
staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat.
And into whatsoever city or town ye
shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy; and there abide till ye go thence. And when ye come into an house, salute
it.
And if the house be worthy, let your
peace come upon it: but if it be not worthy, let your peace return to you. And whosoever shall not receive you,
nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the
dust of your feet.
Verily I say unto you, It shall be
more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than
for that city.
The
illustration that comes from Jesus’ teaching is that when we go forth in His
Kingdom authority, we have command of environments; we have command over
spirits of confusion and contention. We
have command over demonic spirits of every characteristic and nature. We have command over sickness, infirmity,
disease and physical manifestations of weakness. Even more, we have command of death with the
ability to raise people from the dead and restore life to them.
I
must say, however, that there is a catch to this. This ability to command takes place when we
are in Christ, and He is in us.
In
this picture that Jesus describes, He declares that when we speak peace in a
situation where the household is anaxios
(the
same word that appears in Paul’s description of our partaking of the Table of
the Lord) — treating the presence of the Lord as “commonplace” (unworthy, KJV),
that peace comes back to us, and judgment falls upon that place, not unlike
that which happened to Sodom and Gomorrah.
That's
where we will take things next week.
I remind those of you in need of ministry that our Healing Prayer Call
takes place on Mondays at 7:00 PM Eastern (4:00 PM Pacific). Once again, the number to call for healing is
(805) 399-1000. Then enter the access
code: 124763#.
At the same time, in case you are missing out on real fellowship in an
environment of Ekklesia, our Sunday
worship gatherings are available by conference call – usually at about 10:45AM
Pacific. That conference number is (559)
726-1300, and the access code is 308640#.
We hope to make these gatherings available by Skype or Talk Fusion
before long.
Blessings
on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Email Contact: Admin@RiverWorshipCenter.org
Our book, A
Tale of Two Brides, published by Destiny Image, is available on
Amazon.com as an E-book: http://www.amazon.com/Tale-Two-Brides-Relationship-ebook/dp/B00BSV6HZC/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1363139096&sr=8-8&keywords=A+Tale+of+Two+Brides#_
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