Another Coffee Break - By Regner Capener
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Preparing the Bride of Christ For His Return By Janet Van Hierdan
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Sunday, February 20, 2011
Heaven X: Samuel
Greetings!
A few weeks ago, I shared with you the transition we’ve been going through with our ministry and the fact that we have suspended our regular daily operation of River Worship Center in preparation for team ministry traveling throughout the arctic.
Shortly thereafter, I talked with Dwain McKenzie (who has been a lifelong friend and co-laborer in the Gospel) who, with his wife Suzy, has moved back to Alaska and currently lives in Glenallen. Dwain said that he was going to Barrow to preach for a couple of weeks (the church there (AofG) had just lost its pastor, and he would try to get a sense of what the Spirit of the Lord was doing and saying on the arctic coast.
I just talked with him yesterday and it turns out there is good reason for the emphasis the Holy Spirit has been putting in Della and me to return to the north and minister in the villages. Every single AofG church across the north coast – Point Hope, Wainwright, Barrow, Nuiqsut and Kaktovik on Barter Island – are without pastors. Not only that, both of the Presbyterian churches in Wainwright and Barrow have lost their pastors. An old friend of ours who was the Presbyterian pastor in Barrow back in the 1960’s – John Chambers – has returned to Barrow to preach on an interim basis, but as he indicated, “this is strictly temporary until we can find someone permanent to take this church.”
What has happened is that (and I don’t want to point fingers here judgmentally) people who should be true shepherds and remain with their people until other shepherds can take over the responsibility have simply walked away from their pastorates like “hirelings” would.
Ezekiel had a strong Word from the Lord concerning this. “And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.
“Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD; As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock; therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;
“Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves anymore; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.
“For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.” (Ezekiel 34:5-12)
Pretty strong, isn’t it? Della and I both understand why also the Holy Spirit has made clear to us that we will take on this ministry throughout these communities at our own expense. That’s to say, the Lord will make provision for this ministry – this team ministry – without any need for us to “take up offerings” in the villages in order to travel and teach, preach and prophesy the spiritual health these folks need.
It is the Lord Jesus Christ who will direct the gathering. He is, after all, the Chief Shepherd! It is the Holy Spirit who will deliver the people from all the places where they have been scattered. It is His calling and His responsibility that He is implanting in us in order to “heal the hurt of the daughter of My people.” (Jeremiah 8:11)
Now, let’s get on with today’s sharing. Oh…and by the way…better get your cup of java poured if’n you haven’t already.
When I wrote about David in this series, I commented that he perhaps more than any other Biblical character has had an impact on my life. The things he shared, the Psalms he penned, and the life of praise and worship he led have been a part of my thought processes and unfolding revelation in my spirit for nearly sixty years as of this writing.
As a young boy, however, my experiences with angelic appearances and that first appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ in my bedroom at age seven prompted my mother to take me to the events surrounding the calling of the prophet Samuel as a youngster as it is described in Scripture. Mom had a way of sharing events and stories from the Bible so that you were almost a participant in those Biblical events. She had a flair for the dramatic and loved to dramatize Bible stories so that my brother and I – and all the kids she taught in Sunday School – were immersed in the events by her story-telling. Mom realized that the Lord was dealing with me and revealing Himself to me in a way that – in many respects – paralleled that of Samuel.
That said, I was anxious to talk to Samuel in person when the Lord gave me the opportunity to meet and talk to anyone I desired during that first trip to Heaven. The fact that the Lord first called him in his early youth made him someone I could easily relate to, and I wanted to hear him talk about what he experienced.
Samuel was another one of those folks I had a mental image of as an aged prophet. It was easy to see him as an eight-year-old with Eli, the High Priest, and I could envision him much later in life as the old bearded prophet and mentor of David. What I saw in fact was very much like everyone else – a young-looking, but mature man who was hale and hearty, filled with vim, vigor and vitality. Seeing Samuel was one more reminder that folks don’t age in the presence of the Lord. In fact, age is totally irrelevant since we as spiritual beings are eternal, made in the image and likeness of the Lord God. There is nothing about Jesus that is old, and despite the fact that Father God is described as “the Ancient of Days” He simply does not age in any way.
My first question to Samuel related to his age when he first heard the voice of God. “How old were you when you first heard the Lord call your name?”
He smiled as he responded, “Not that far off from where you are now – and perhaps closer to your age when the Lord Jesus first appeared at your bedside to call you. I was eight years of age. Unlike your experience, however, visions, dreams and angelic visitations had become a rarity in Israel. Though the priesthood should have been regularly experiencing communication with God because of entering into the Holy of Holies once a year, it had been generations since there had been a High Priest who really reverenced the Lord, or had any real perception of what it meant to fear the Lord and His Holiness.
“Eli had received the Word of the Lord concerning his lack of respect for the sacrifices and the way in which he permitted his two sons to continue as priests despite their utter disregard for the Lord as well as their perverse behavior and contamination of the sacrifices – and he did nothing to stop them. But he had never personally received angelic visitations; and he had never personally heard the Lord. For that matter, neither had any of his recent predecessor High Priests. There simply was no open vision of the Lord or of the Heavenly realm in those days. We had no visible manifestation of the presence or power of God in the way that Moses and Joshua had experienced.
“All of Israel knew – I knew – that we were a people who were supposed to be chosen by God. I knew that we had priests who were supposed to represent us before God, but I’d never seen any demonstration of Him that I was aware of, and I’d certainly never heard of anyone hearing or talking to God in any recent times. When the voice of God first spoke in my hearing, it was different from Eli’s voice and yet I thought instinctively that it had to be Eli calling me from another room. I had no expectation of God talking to me. After all, I was a young boy! Who was I that He would talk to me?!”
This was different. In my conversation with Abraham earlier, he had said, “Once you’ve heard the voice of God, there is no other,” meaning of course that His voice is distinctively different from all human voices. That begged the following question from me.
“How would you have not known instantly that this was the Lord speaking?” I asked. “Surely you would have known in your inner self that it was God!”
My question came from my own reference point, of course. I’d had three years of non-stop visitations from angels, followed by the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ at my bedside. His voice was filled with an indescribable peace and presence I don’t to this day know how to adequately put into words. No one would ever be able to tell me I hadn’t heard or seen Him, and no one would ever be able to sell me on a Him being a false Christ or demonic apparition. In the years since that event I have seen demonic spirits visibly and I can promise you that there is no peace or presence of the Lord that accompanies them.
Samuel answered me, “Thinking back, I did know the difference but as I said, there had never been any reference point for the voice of the Lord to me. I just didn’t know Him yet and He had never revealed Himself to me up to this time. My reactions were based in my own reasoning. It had to be Eli calling me. Who else would it be?
“Not until it had happened three times and Eli instructed me to say, ‘Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth,’ did it actually register that this was truly the voice of God. Then when the Lord spoke to me and told me what He was going to do to Eli and his household, the last thing I wanted to do was to share any of it with Eli.
“Eli’s acknowledgement and acceptance of that Word of judgment sealed in me the realization that God had indeed talked to me and that the Word was going to be fulfilled. I never had to guess again as to whether it was the Lord speaking. I knew! In the months and years that followed, He spoke to me on numerous occasions – and each time He spoke I received more revelation of Who He is. There was a distinct impartation and revelation that came with His voice and an inner knowing that He would fulfill everything He spoke to me.”
Everything Samuel was speaking confirmed my own personal experiences with the Lord up to this time. I could easily recall the pictures – the visions, if you will – of the Jews being able to return to their homeland as Israel was once again declared a nation. Those pictures had been engraved in the back of my mind, and not too many months thereafter I saw a copy of Life Magazine with photographs of the very same thing. The Lord had said to me during that first visitation that Israel was being restored as a nation, and now I had seen the photographic proof exactly as He had implanted the visions. The Word of the Lord had been confirmed to me in the same way that He had confirmed His Word to Samuel.
“One more question before I change the topic,” I said. “How many years went by before God’s judgment fell on Eli and his house? When did you become the High Priest in Israel?”
“There is one thing you ought to keep in mind,” Samuel answered. “This will help you in the years to come in understanding that God has a specific timing in the way He does things. He’s not in a hurry, and He is never late. There is a mathematical order to Him and numbers with God have great spiritual significance. Because of that there is a principle of maturity and responsibility.
“Within the life of Israel as a people, when a young man is first released into his years of training and preparation by his father to assume the family name and responsibility, he is usually about twelve years of age. There have always been a few exceptions – me being one of those exceptions – where the training begins earlier. That period of training usually lasts about seventeen years, give or take a couple depending on the responsiveness of the young man.
“Usually by the age of 30 the father calls friends and family together and there is a public ceremony or pronouncement that the son has accomplished his years of preparation and is now taking on the responsibility of the father’s business. The son now has the authority to speak and act in his father’s name; and everything he does from now on carries the weight of his father’s character and integrity – his name and his rank.
“That tradition has come out of the way God has dealt with His people. Isaac was nearing 30 years of age when Abraham was instructed to offer him up as a sacrifice to the Lord. If you remember your Scriptures, Jesus was about 30 years of age when Father God placed His stamp of approval on Him and released Him to minister and to speak in Father’s name and on His behalf.
“In that same way, I was about 30 years of age when the Philistines invaded Israel and took the Ark of the Covenant. The two sons of Eli were killed in the ensuing battle and Eli fell over and broke his neck, dying instantly when he heard the news. Though Eli had in many ways mentored me for more than 21 years, it was the continual and growing relationship with Father God throughout those years that prepared me. It was His voice that released me. It was His voice in me and through me that caused Israel to respond and accept me as God’s spokesman to them.
“The Word of the Lord was holy to me. I reverenced Him and I reverenced His Word; and I wasn’t about to allow anything He revealed to me go to waste. With Eli’s death, I now had a solemn responsibility before Israel to act on their behalf towards God and plead Israel’s case. My relationship of trust with Him made it imperative that I do or say nothing to lose His trust, nor Israel’s trust.”
We now switched topics as I asked him, “Would you tell me about anointing both Saul and David to become King over Israel? What was so significant about pouring oil over them? Why did that set them apart?”
“You’ll remember that God instructed Moses to set Aaron and his sons apart from the rest of Israel’s leadership. A specially prepared oil was poured upon them, and then rubbed on them. It signified the anointing of the Spirit of God. The oil represented the Holy Spirit. The rubbing in meant that this was something more than “skin deep.” It was to saturate them in such a way that they became a separated people unto the Lord. The Lord would hear them when they interceded and offered up the sacrifices for the sins of the people because He had set them apart for that purpose.
“In that same way I was acting on behalf of the Lord to set Saul apart to become God’s leader and king over the people. Israel’s elders had decided they didn’t want to be different from the other nations in having a High Priest and Prophet to judge them. Rather they wanted to have a king so they would look like the other nations surrounding them. I warned the elders that this would be a huge mistake, but they wouldn’t listen. So the Lord picked someone out of their midst who would look like a king in their eyes and in the eyes of the surrounding nations.
“When I first poured the vial of oil on Saul, you’d have thought he had become a prophet like me. The impact of that anointing caused an impartation of the Spirit of God to Saul and when he came in contact with a company of prophets he began to prophesy as though he’d set apart as God’s spokesman to the nation. You’ll remember that it didn’t take long for the people to accept him as their king.”
“I guess I don’t understand why he rebelled against the Word of the Lord the way he did,” I responded. “How could someone with the anointing he had get so far out of line? What would make him think he could get away with offering sacrifices in your place? Why, after such exacting instructions from the Lord through you, would he save Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and keep the best of the sheep and oxen?”
Samuel laughed. “The anointing is not a substitute for relationship,” he said. “The anointing is an empowering that comes by the Spirit of God so that a person can accomplish tasks that would normally be beyond their capability. You are forgetting also what happened with Lucifer. Remember how Isaiah prophesied of him how he had become lifted up in his own eyes and thought he could take over the throne of God? If Lucifer could fall like that, men can fall as well.
“Even David with his anointing, his heart after the Lord and the wonderful experiences he had in God messed up. David’s salvation was his intense desire to please God and to fulfill His heart’s desire. David’s salvation was the fact that he truly knew how to repent. Saul wasn’t the least bit sorry for what he had done; he was only sorry that he got caught.
“David was a different breed entirely. Israel never had another king like him. It wasn’t just his anointing, either; it was his pursuit of the Lord and his desire to see that Israel became a living picture of God’s chosen people in the earth. David wanted to see that the Lord received the honor and Glory due Him.
“The day I was instructed to pour oil over David and anoint him to become King of Israel, when I saw him I knew the Lord had deliberately chosen him and that the timing in his choosing was specific so that Israel – and the world around – would have a revelation of the Lord God in a way that had never before taken place. Although I didn’t get to see it in the natural, I certainly got to witness it through the eyes of the Lord once I was here with Him.”
That, my friends, is as far as I can take this discussion today. I’ve run a bit long, but I’m sure you will appreciate the significance of the revelation that unfolded in this conversation.
Next: HEAVEN XI: Isaiah.
Though 2011 has already been a difficult year – and it is going to get even more difficult in the weeks and months ahead -- God is going to show His hand on behalf of His people, especially those who believe His Word and trust Him implicitly!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 515-0133
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Greetings!
A few weeks ago, I shared with you the transition we’ve been going through with our ministry and the fact that we have suspended our regular daily operation of River Worship Center in preparation for team ministry traveling throughout the arctic.
Shortly thereafter, I talked with Dwain McKenzie (who has been a lifelong friend and co-laborer in the Gospel) who, with his wife Suzy, has moved back to Alaska and currently lives in Glenallen. Dwain said that he was going to Barrow to preach for a couple of weeks (the church there (AofG) had just lost its pastor, and he would try to get a sense of what the Spirit of the Lord was doing and saying on the arctic coast.
I just talked with him yesterday and it turns out there is good reason for the emphasis the Holy Spirit has been putting in Della and me to return to the north and minister in the villages. Every single AofG church across the north coast – Point Hope, Wainwright, Barrow, Nuiqsut and Kaktovik on Barter Island – are without pastors. Not only that, both of the Presbyterian churches in Wainwright and Barrow have lost their pastors. An old friend of ours who was the Presbyterian pastor in Barrow back in the 1960’s – John Chambers – has returned to Barrow to preach on an interim basis, but as he indicated, “this is strictly temporary until we can find someone permanent to take this church.”
What has happened is that (and I don’t want to point fingers here judgmentally) people who should be true shepherds and remain with their people until other shepherds can take over the responsibility have simply walked away from their pastorates like “hirelings” would.
Ezekiel had a strong Word from the Lord concerning this. “And they were scattered, because there is no shepherd: and they became meat to all the beasts of the field, when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and upon every high hill: yea, my flock was scattered upon all the face of the earth, and none did search or seek after them.
“Therefore, ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD; As I live, saith the Lord GOD, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock; therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the LORD;
“Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves anymore; for I will deliver my flock from their mouth, that they may not be meat for them.
“For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.” (Ezekiel 34:5-12)
Pretty strong, isn’t it? Della and I both understand why also the Holy Spirit has made clear to us that we will take on this ministry throughout these communities at our own expense. That’s to say, the Lord will make provision for this ministry – this team ministry – without any need for us to “take up offerings” in the villages in order to travel and teach, preach and prophesy the spiritual health these folks need.
It is the Lord Jesus Christ who will direct the gathering. He is, after all, the Chief Shepherd! It is the Holy Spirit who will deliver the people from all the places where they have been scattered. It is His calling and His responsibility that He is implanting in us in order to “heal the hurt of the daughter of My people.” (Jeremiah 8:11)
Now, let’s get on with today’s sharing. Oh…and by the way…better get your cup of java poured if’n you haven’t already.
When I wrote about David in this series, I commented that he perhaps more than any other Biblical character has had an impact on my life. The things he shared, the Psalms he penned, and the life of praise and worship he led have been a part of my thought processes and unfolding revelation in my spirit for nearly sixty years as of this writing.
As a young boy, however, my experiences with angelic appearances and that first appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ in my bedroom at age seven prompted my mother to take me to the events surrounding the calling of the prophet Samuel as a youngster as it is described in Scripture. Mom had a way of sharing events and stories from the Bible so that you were almost a participant in those Biblical events. She had a flair for the dramatic and loved to dramatize Bible stories so that my brother and I – and all the kids she taught in Sunday School – were immersed in the events by her story-telling. Mom realized that the Lord was dealing with me and revealing Himself to me in a way that – in many respects – paralleled that of Samuel.
That said, I was anxious to talk to Samuel in person when the Lord gave me the opportunity to meet and talk to anyone I desired during that first trip to Heaven. The fact that the Lord first called him in his early youth made him someone I could easily relate to, and I wanted to hear him talk about what he experienced.
Samuel was another one of those folks I had a mental image of as an aged prophet. It was easy to see him as an eight-year-old with Eli, the High Priest, and I could envision him much later in life as the old bearded prophet and mentor of David. What I saw in fact was very much like everyone else – a young-looking, but mature man who was hale and hearty, filled with vim, vigor and vitality. Seeing Samuel was one more reminder that folks don’t age in the presence of the Lord. In fact, age is totally irrelevant since we as spiritual beings are eternal, made in the image and likeness of the Lord God. There is nothing about Jesus that is old, and despite the fact that Father God is described as “the Ancient of Days” He simply does not age in any way.
My first question to Samuel related to his age when he first heard the voice of God. “How old were you when you first heard the Lord call your name?”
He smiled as he responded, “Not that far off from where you are now – and perhaps closer to your age when the Lord Jesus first appeared at your bedside to call you. I was eight years of age. Unlike your experience, however, visions, dreams and angelic visitations had become a rarity in Israel. Though the priesthood should have been regularly experiencing communication with God because of entering into the Holy of Holies once a year, it had been generations since there had been a High Priest who really reverenced the Lord, or had any real perception of what it meant to fear the Lord and His Holiness.
“Eli had received the Word of the Lord concerning his lack of respect for the sacrifices and the way in which he permitted his two sons to continue as priests despite their utter disregard for the Lord as well as their perverse behavior and contamination of the sacrifices – and he did nothing to stop them. But he had never personally received angelic visitations; and he had never personally heard the Lord. For that matter, neither had any of his recent predecessor High Priests. There simply was no open vision of the Lord or of the Heavenly realm in those days. We had no visible manifestation of the presence or power of God in the way that Moses and Joshua had experienced.
“All of Israel knew – I knew – that we were a people who were supposed to be chosen by God. I knew that we had priests who were supposed to represent us before God, but I’d never seen any demonstration of Him that I was aware of, and I’d certainly never heard of anyone hearing or talking to God in any recent times. When the voice of God first spoke in my hearing, it was different from Eli’s voice and yet I thought instinctively that it had to be Eli calling me from another room. I had no expectation of God talking to me. After all, I was a young boy! Who was I that He would talk to me?!”
This was different. In my conversation with Abraham earlier, he had said, “Once you’ve heard the voice of God, there is no other,” meaning of course that His voice is distinctively different from all human voices. That begged the following question from me.
“How would you have not known instantly that this was the Lord speaking?” I asked. “Surely you would have known in your inner self that it was God!”
My question came from my own reference point, of course. I’d had three years of non-stop visitations from angels, followed by the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ at my bedside. His voice was filled with an indescribable peace and presence I don’t to this day know how to adequately put into words. No one would ever be able to tell me I hadn’t heard or seen Him, and no one would ever be able to sell me on a Him being a false Christ or demonic apparition. In the years since that event I have seen demonic spirits visibly and I can promise you that there is no peace or presence of the Lord that accompanies them.
Samuel answered me, “Thinking back, I did know the difference but as I said, there had never been any reference point for the voice of the Lord to me. I just didn’t know Him yet and He had never revealed Himself to me up to this time. My reactions were based in my own reasoning. It had to be Eli calling me. Who else would it be?
“Not until it had happened three times and Eli instructed me to say, ‘Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth,’ did it actually register that this was truly the voice of God. Then when the Lord spoke to me and told me what He was going to do to Eli and his household, the last thing I wanted to do was to share any of it with Eli.
“Eli’s acknowledgement and acceptance of that Word of judgment sealed in me the realization that God had indeed talked to me and that the Word was going to be fulfilled. I never had to guess again as to whether it was the Lord speaking. I knew! In the months and years that followed, He spoke to me on numerous occasions – and each time He spoke I received more revelation of Who He is. There was a distinct impartation and revelation that came with His voice and an inner knowing that He would fulfill everything He spoke to me.”
Everything Samuel was speaking confirmed my own personal experiences with the Lord up to this time. I could easily recall the pictures – the visions, if you will – of the Jews being able to return to their homeland as Israel was once again declared a nation. Those pictures had been engraved in the back of my mind, and not too many months thereafter I saw a copy of Life Magazine with photographs of the very same thing. The Lord had said to me during that first visitation that Israel was being restored as a nation, and now I had seen the photographic proof exactly as He had implanted the visions. The Word of the Lord had been confirmed to me in the same way that He had confirmed His Word to Samuel.
“One more question before I change the topic,” I said. “How many years went by before God’s judgment fell on Eli and his house? When did you become the High Priest in Israel?”
“There is one thing you ought to keep in mind,” Samuel answered. “This will help you in the years to come in understanding that God has a specific timing in the way He does things. He’s not in a hurry, and He is never late. There is a mathematical order to Him and numbers with God have great spiritual significance. Because of that there is a principle of maturity and responsibility.
“Within the life of Israel as a people, when a young man is first released into his years of training and preparation by his father to assume the family name and responsibility, he is usually about twelve years of age. There have always been a few exceptions – me being one of those exceptions – where the training begins earlier. That period of training usually lasts about seventeen years, give or take a couple depending on the responsiveness of the young man.
“Usually by the age of 30 the father calls friends and family together and there is a public ceremony or pronouncement that the son has accomplished his years of preparation and is now taking on the responsibility of the father’s business. The son now has the authority to speak and act in his father’s name; and everything he does from now on carries the weight of his father’s character and integrity – his name and his rank.
“That tradition has come out of the way God has dealt with His people. Isaac was nearing 30 years of age when Abraham was instructed to offer him up as a sacrifice to the Lord. If you remember your Scriptures, Jesus was about 30 years of age when Father God placed His stamp of approval on Him and released Him to minister and to speak in Father’s name and on His behalf.
“In that same way, I was about 30 years of age when the Philistines invaded Israel and took the Ark of the Covenant. The two sons of Eli were killed in the ensuing battle and Eli fell over and broke his neck, dying instantly when he heard the news. Though Eli had in many ways mentored me for more than 21 years, it was the continual and growing relationship with Father God throughout those years that prepared me. It was His voice that released me. It was His voice in me and through me that caused Israel to respond and accept me as God’s spokesman to them.
“The Word of the Lord was holy to me. I reverenced Him and I reverenced His Word; and I wasn’t about to allow anything He revealed to me go to waste. With Eli’s death, I now had a solemn responsibility before Israel to act on their behalf towards God and plead Israel’s case. My relationship of trust with Him made it imperative that I do or say nothing to lose His trust, nor Israel’s trust.”
We now switched topics as I asked him, “Would you tell me about anointing both Saul and David to become King over Israel? What was so significant about pouring oil over them? Why did that set them apart?”
“You’ll remember that God instructed Moses to set Aaron and his sons apart from the rest of Israel’s leadership. A specially prepared oil was poured upon them, and then rubbed on them. It signified the anointing of the Spirit of God. The oil represented the Holy Spirit. The rubbing in meant that this was something more than “skin deep.” It was to saturate them in such a way that they became a separated people unto the Lord. The Lord would hear them when they interceded and offered up the sacrifices for the sins of the people because He had set them apart for that purpose.
“In that same way I was acting on behalf of the Lord to set Saul apart to become God’s leader and king over the people. Israel’s elders had decided they didn’t want to be different from the other nations in having a High Priest and Prophet to judge them. Rather they wanted to have a king so they would look like the other nations surrounding them. I warned the elders that this would be a huge mistake, but they wouldn’t listen. So the Lord picked someone out of their midst who would look like a king in their eyes and in the eyes of the surrounding nations.
“When I first poured the vial of oil on Saul, you’d have thought he had become a prophet like me. The impact of that anointing caused an impartation of the Spirit of God to Saul and when he came in contact with a company of prophets he began to prophesy as though he’d set apart as God’s spokesman to the nation. You’ll remember that it didn’t take long for the people to accept him as their king.”
“I guess I don’t understand why he rebelled against the Word of the Lord the way he did,” I responded. “How could someone with the anointing he had get so far out of line? What would make him think he could get away with offering sacrifices in your place? Why, after such exacting instructions from the Lord through you, would he save Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and keep the best of the sheep and oxen?”
Samuel laughed. “The anointing is not a substitute for relationship,” he said. “The anointing is an empowering that comes by the Spirit of God so that a person can accomplish tasks that would normally be beyond their capability. You are forgetting also what happened with Lucifer. Remember how Isaiah prophesied of him how he had become lifted up in his own eyes and thought he could take over the throne of God? If Lucifer could fall like that, men can fall as well.
“Even David with his anointing, his heart after the Lord and the wonderful experiences he had in God messed up. David’s salvation was his intense desire to please God and to fulfill His heart’s desire. David’s salvation was the fact that he truly knew how to repent. Saul wasn’t the least bit sorry for what he had done; he was only sorry that he got caught.
“David was a different breed entirely. Israel never had another king like him. It wasn’t just his anointing, either; it was his pursuit of the Lord and his desire to see that Israel became a living picture of God’s chosen people in the earth. David wanted to see that the Lord received the honor and Glory due Him.
“The day I was instructed to pour oil over David and anoint him to become King of Israel, when I saw him I knew the Lord had deliberately chosen him and that the timing in his choosing was specific so that Israel – and the world around – would have a revelation of the Lord God in a way that had never before taken place. Although I didn’t get to see it in the natural, I certainly got to witness it through the eyes of the Lord once I was here with Him.”
That, my friends, is as far as I can take this discussion today. I’ve run a bit long, but I’m sure you will appreciate the significance of the revelation that unfolded in this conversation.
Next: HEAVEN XI: Isaiah.
Though 2011 has already been a difficult year – and it is going to get even more difficult in the weeks and months ahead -- God is going to show His hand on behalf of His people, especially those who believe His Word and trust Him implicitly!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(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.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Heaven IX: Moses & Israel
Good Morning!
Longtime friend and former VP of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Jim Bramlett, sent me the following link to some pretty amazing footage out of Egypt. At about 1:19 into the piece shown on MSNBC (see the piece on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWQKOj9Sxkg) there is a very clear image of a pale green rider on a pale green horse appearing in the crowd, riding through the crowd and vanishing into thin air. As Jim aptly comments, “Has the Lord actually allowed us to see the horse and rider of Revelation 6:8, in Cairo? The word "pale" in that above verse is the Greek word chloros (Greek # 5515), which means green.”
The timing of this is absolutely fascinating since Della and I have been discussing this pale rider in Revelation 6 during the past couple of weeks with Mary Ellen Olnick – our close friend and sister in Red Deer, Alberta. There is another fascinating prophetic word which seems to be unfolding as we speak – and it is one you don’t hear much about among so-called “end-time” preachers – and it is extremely relevant to this day and hour. That is the ten-nation confederacy and conspiracy against Israel revealed by Asaph in Psalm 83.
When you understand the modern-day significance of each of the nations or tribes mentioned in verses 6 – 8, you literally have a picture of the nations or Islamic peoples that fill the Middle East, including (but not limited to) Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. I will try to do a specific Coffee Break on this prophecy in Psalm 83 in the days to come. The events revealed in this Psalm bear watching at this critical juncture in history.
In my entire lifetime, I’ve met one – perhaps two – people who’ve had similar experiences to mine of being in Heaven and having conversations with people there – especially Biblical characters. I’ve met or heard of many people throughout the years who’ve been to Heaven, but the experiences that the Lord gave to me seem to be fairly unique – so much so that there are folks who question the validity of the things I’m sharing. Nevertheless, my parents, my brother, an evangelist by the name of Homer Rugwell and a missionary sister named Harriet Brown were all present in our home the morning after this event and heard me share these experiences.
As already noted, this is the first time in my life I’ve ever put down on paper the details of my experiences – many of which are as fresh today as they were all those years ago. Throughout the years, I’ve shared bits and pieces with some folks – some of the conversations with Abraham, or David, or perhaps one of the prophets or the apostles, but never the complete experience.
Obviously my objective here is to encourage and to lift up brothers and sisters in the Lord. If there could be said to be a central theme to my encounters and conversations in Heaven, that theme would be the importance of hearing and responding to the heart’s desire of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have an assignment and a commission from the Lord as believers everywhere. That commission is to see the Kingdom of God rule and reign over the entire earth.
Our assignment is to see that Jesus Christ receives His full inheritance in us. We’ve been redeemed from the curse by the Lord so that He could have the family He started out to receive in the first place. Father sent Him here so the
covenant first established through Adam could be restored. Jesus paid for it, folks, and He deserves to get what He paid for!
My experiences in Heaven cumulatively gave me a revelation of Jesus Christ in a dimension that has grown throughout the years. Every conversation, every encounter, every experience enlarged my understanding of the Lord Jesus, His plan and purposes, Who He is in us, and who we are in Him. In the years that have passed since these trips took place there has been increasing revelation of the whole purpose of creation and seeing the intent of the Lord to have for Himself a family of beings who are just like Him with His likeness and image.
Thus far we talked about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David – and now Moses. I will try to finish my conversations with Moses in today’s sharing.
My conversation with Moses now turned to Israel and his experiences in leading them in the wilderness. I won’t try to cover every detail because it would make this discussion overly long, so let me just cover two or perhaps three major points of my conversation.
I was, of course, very interested in the ten plagues that God brought upon Egypt when Pharaoh rebelled against the Word of the Lord; and I was likewise interested in the parting of the Red Sea. We had some discussion on those, but the three major things I want to focus on in this Coffee Break are (1) the return and reports of the spies when they were sent into the Promised Land; (2) Moses’ own disobedience to the Lord when he struck the rock instead of speaking to it; and (3) his personal reaction at seeing the Promised Land from Mount Pisgah, and not being able to enter.
Our discussions now turned to the period of time not long after Israel had left
Egypt. They were encamped near Kadesh (their first encampment there) in the wilderness of Paran.
“You sent the twelve spies to have a look at the Land of Promise,” I said to Moses. “When they returned after almost six weeks, they were bearing a gigantic cluster of grapes on a staff between two of the men. They all talked positively about the land as being a ‘land of milk and honey’ and showed some of the fruit of the land including pomegranates and figs. Yet ten of the spies were warning against going into the land because of the presence of strong, walled cities with giants. In fact, their statement was one filled with fear and trembling saying that they were grasshoppers compared to the giants, and that there was no way they could take the land.”
Moses’ face became stern as he thought back to the event.
I now put the question to him, “Why after being so recently delivered from Egypt by the hand of God with such a powerful demonstration were they so afraid to go into a land God had already promised? Did they really think the Lord would not deliver them from the giants?”
“You are looking at something that has baffled many people throughout the centuries – and yet it is a natural reaction for a people who grew up with a bondage mentality. Think about it for a minute!
“Here is a nation of people who had never had a land of their own. They had the promise and covenant that God made with Abraham that He would give them this land, but it really wasn’t real to them. Israel had prospered greatly in
Egypt during the years that Joseph was Prime Minister and for many years thereafter under the Pharaohs who were part of that dynasty.
“When a different Pharaoh came to the throne of Egypt through a series of wars and assassinations who was not part of that previous dynasty, he had neither knowledge of Joseph nor any interest whatever in retaining any friendship with the Hebrews. They were leaches on “his land” as far as he was concerned and he was going to use them to create a name and memorial for himself.
“Israel became a worker class of people under him and his successors. For centuries they were systematically pillaged and used. Generations of people grew up being told daily that their lives were worth nothing. They were treated continually as the scum of Egypt.
“You don’t grow up being programmed daily like that and not have it affect your whole mindset – your way of thinking.”
“But,” I argued, “Israel had a Covenant with God that had to have been a constant remembrance for them. They had to have known that they were His Chosen People!”
Moses chuckled. “It’s one thing to be reminded of that heritage and another thing altogether to rise above that in the face of daily hard labor and bondage to a Pharaoh whose servants did everything they could to demean, to insult, to put down and to create in the minds of the people that the only reason they were alive was to serve him.
“The people had no self-worth, no image whatever of who God was, nor any life track record of God’s intervention and provision for them as a people. They still thought of themselves according to all they’d been programmed with under Pharaoh.
“Sure, God had delivered us from Egypt’s power with a series of breathtaking plagues upon the Egyptians! He had done the unthinkable and impossible by opening up the Red Sea for us so we could escape from Pharaoh. He subsequently destroyed Pharaoh’s royal armies as the waters rushed back over them when they tried to follow. It should have been enough, but for that generation it wasn’t.”
“Joshua and Caleb were certainly of a different mindset, then,” I answered. “How could they be so different from the other leaders?”
“If you talk to them, you’ll realize that they had a level of faith that exceeded the unbelief of their fellow-spies. When God began to show His hand on behalf of our people, both of them were filled with faith and courage and an unwavering trust in God. They were a different breed somehow. They were almost oblivious to the obstacles and dangers that lay ahead. They certainly were aware of them, but God’s Word and His promises to take us into a land and give it to us obliterated the obstacles as far as their thinking went. They were a joy to watch and be with!”
Perhaps one of the most fascinating things that took place during my discussions with Moses – and I have shared this as happening with some of the others – was the vision of seeing Moses in the midst of the actual circumstances that unfolded. In some cases those visions have stayed with me in more clarity than the conversations.
I saw the Red Sea open for the Israelites and then close over the pursuing armies. I saw Moses strike the rock in his anger against Israel’s rebellion. I was also able to see what he saw from Mount Pisgah. It was like being there in person in many instances. The conversations were often reinforced by the seeing of the events as they had unfolded centuries and millennia before. Many of those pictures are etched in my mind and in my spirit as though I had been a first-person participant or observer.
This discussion began with my question. “Moses,” I asked, “What provoked you to strike the rock after the Lord had instructed you to speak to it? You had done so well in leading Israel up to that point. From all I’ve read, the Lord was pretty happy with you.”
FYI, if you want to read about this event, take a look at Exodus 17 to begin with, and then read Numbers 20.
Moses’ eyes seemed to look off in the distance as he remembered the events. “Let me refresh your memory concerning the striking of the rock,” he said. “You’ll recall that shortly after we left Egypt, the children of Israel were a pretty angry and fearful lot of people.
“They became angry over not having enough food. Aaron and I took things to the Lord and He sent Manna from Heaven to feed them. They complained about not having meat and the Lord sent them the quail in abundance. Then they complained about not having water to drink.
“We were at Mount Horeb when the answer of the Lord was to strike the rock. Water came forth like a river out of the rock. It flowed down the hill and through the camp of Israel like a gusher. So long as we were camped there in Rephidim they had that water from the rock flowing continually. It was a perpetual miracle in their sight.
“Now,” he continued, “Let’s skip forward in time for more than 35 years. I had been through a lot with Israel. Despite all the miracles God had done for us in Egypt, leaving Egypt and our years in the wilderness, despite the fact that
He had clearly demonstrated to the surrounding nations His Blessing on us and the fact that we were a unique people in the earth, there was still non-stop
complaining, criticism and accusations against the Lord in our midst.
“Honestly, I’d had about all I could take! We had seen the nonstop provision of the Lord through all of our years of wanderings. We were nearing the end of the forty years of wandering in the wilderness while the generation that came out of Egypt died off. You remember what happened when certain of the fathers in Israel decided they were going to appoint for themselves a captain or leader and head back to Egypt because of the fear generated by the negative report of the ten spies? God had said to them that their generation would wander in the wilderness for forty years – that their carcasses would bleach in the desert while their children were taken into the Land of Promise.
“Just as God had said, that generation was dying off. In fact, most of that generation was already dead by this time. The nation had been watching as God’s Word was being fulfilled before their eyes. They were watching the judgment of the Lord upon a rebellious generation. Here we are now at Kadesh. My sister Miriam had just died and been buried.
“The place where we were encamped was quite dry and there was no ready water supply. Once again the grumbling and complaining started, and I was being accused of bad leadership. The same old accusation began making the rounds again that I had led Israel to this desert place to kill them off. My frustration level was at its limit as it was with Aaron, my brother.
“We went into the Tabernacle and fell on our faces before God crying out for answers. The Word of the Lord was clear and unmistakable. ‘Take the Rod of Authority and stand before Israel. Speak to the rock,’ He said. ‘Do this in their presence before their eyes. Watch me bring forth water out of the rock once again.’
“I really had no excuse for striking the rock. God’s Word was clear. ‘Speak,’ He said. Not ‘strike’ like He had the previous time. When I stood before the people this time, I was seething inside. Anger took hold and in that moment of emotional upheaval I disobeyed the Lord. Not just once, but twice I struck that rock – hard!
“God still showed His hand of deliverance for the people that day and water came out of the rock in abundance. My disobedience, however, and my moment of irritated rebellion cost me! The Lord immediately spoke to me and judgment was in His voice. That single act and emotional outburst had a prophetic significance I failed to see in that moment and it was going to cost me the privilege of leading Israel into Canaan.”
Implicit in Moses’ voice was a warning – not only to me but to all of us as believers – not to succumb to our emotions in times of stress, frustration and anger: particularly when we have heard a direct Word from the Lord which requires specific obedience.
“Those words from the Lord must have really sounded throughout your whole being from that moment until He took you to Mount Pisgah a couple of years later to see the land you could have and should have entered,” I said.
He nodded his head. “There was disappointment in me, of course. Standing and looking over the land, seeing the treasure that God had in this place for His people was awe-inspiring. At the same time, there was an indescribable peace inside my being. God was a Covenant-keeping God!
He had promised this land to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. He had instructed me to lead their descendants – His chosen people – from bondage and poverty to this wealthy place. He had kept His Word and I had been God’s instrument of promise to accomplish it.
“At one hundred twenty years of age, I was as strong as the day I left Egypt – perhaps stronger – and yet I knew that the assignment for taking this land and routing its wicked occupants belonged to Joshua, and the next generation. I was very grateful to the Lord for the privilege and the responsibility He had entrusted to me, and Israel was taking Canaan!”
That has to be it for today. There was more, of course, but I want to move on to one more individual whose life and calling made a huge impact on me as a young person – especially in view of how God had already been dealing with me.
Next: HEAVEN X: Samuel.
Though 2011 has already been a difficult year – and it is going to get even more difficult in the weeks and months ahead -- God is going to show His hand on behalf of His people, especially those who believe His Word and trust Him implicitly!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(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.
Good Morning!
Longtime friend and former VP of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Jim Bramlett, sent me the following link to some pretty amazing footage out of Egypt. At about 1:19 into the piece shown on MSNBC (see the piece on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWQKOj9Sxkg) there is a very clear image of a pale green rider on a pale green horse appearing in the crowd, riding through the crowd and vanishing into thin air. As Jim aptly comments, “Has the Lord actually allowed us to see the horse and rider of Revelation 6:8, in Cairo? The word "pale" in that above verse is the Greek word chloros (Greek # 5515), which means green.”
The timing of this is absolutely fascinating since Della and I have been discussing this pale rider in Revelation 6 during the past couple of weeks with Mary Ellen Olnick – our close friend and sister in Red Deer, Alberta. There is another fascinating prophetic word which seems to be unfolding as we speak – and it is one you don’t hear much about among so-called “end-time” preachers – and it is extremely relevant to this day and hour. That is the ten-nation confederacy and conspiracy against Israel revealed by Asaph in Psalm 83.
When you understand the modern-day significance of each of the nations or tribes mentioned in verses 6 – 8, you literally have a picture of the nations or Islamic peoples that fill the Middle East, including (but not limited to) Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. I will try to do a specific Coffee Break on this prophecy in Psalm 83 in the days to come. The events revealed in this Psalm bear watching at this critical juncture in history.
In my entire lifetime, I’ve met one – perhaps two – people who’ve had similar experiences to mine of being in Heaven and having conversations with people there – especially Biblical characters. I’ve met or heard of many people throughout the years who’ve been to Heaven, but the experiences that the Lord gave to me seem to be fairly unique – so much so that there are folks who question the validity of the things I’m sharing. Nevertheless, my parents, my brother, an evangelist by the name of Homer Rugwell and a missionary sister named Harriet Brown were all present in our home the morning after this event and heard me share these experiences.
As already noted, this is the first time in my life I’ve ever put down on paper the details of my experiences – many of which are as fresh today as they were all those years ago. Throughout the years, I’ve shared bits and pieces with some folks – some of the conversations with Abraham, or David, or perhaps one of the prophets or the apostles, but never the complete experience.
Obviously my objective here is to encourage and to lift up brothers and sisters in the Lord. If there could be said to be a central theme to my encounters and conversations in Heaven, that theme would be the importance of hearing and responding to the heart’s desire of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have an assignment and a commission from the Lord as believers everywhere. That commission is to see the Kingdom of God rule and reign over the entire earth.
Our assignment is to see that Jesus Christ receives His full inheritance in us. We’ve been redeemed from the curse by the Lord so that He could have the family He started out to receive in the first place. Father sent Him here so the
covenant first established through Adam could be restored. Jesus paid for it, folks, and He deserves to get what He paid for!
My experiences in Heaven cumulatively gave me a revelation of Jesus Christ in a dimension that has grown throughout the years. Every conversation, every encounter, every experience enlarged my understanding of the Lord Jesus, His plan and purposes, Who He is in us, and who we are in Him. In the years that have passed since these trips took place there has been increasing revelation of the whole purpose of creation and seeing the intent of the Lord to have for Himself a family of beings who are just like Him with His likeness and image.
Thus far we talked about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David – and now Moses. I will try to finish my conversations with Moses in today’s sharing.
My conversation with Moses now turned to Israel and his experiences in leading them in the wilderness. I won’t try to cover every detail because it would make this discussion overly long, so let me just cover two or perhaps three major points of my conversation.
I was, of course, very interested in the ten plagues that God brought upon Egypt when Pharaoh rebelled against the Word of the Lord; and I was likewise interested in the parting of the Red Sea. We had some discussion on those, but the three major things I want to focus on in this Coffee Break are (1) the return and reports of the spies when they were sent into the Promised Land; (2) Moses’ own disobedience to the Lord when he struck the rock instead of speaking to it; and (3) his personal reaction at seeing the Promised Land from Mount Pisgah, and not being able to enter.
Our discussions now turned to the period of time not long after Israel had left
Egypt. They were encamped near Kadesh (their first encampment there) in the wilderness of Paran.
“You sent the twelve spies to have a look at the Land of Promise,” I said to Moses. “When they returned after almost six weeks, they were bearing a gigantic cluster of grapes on a staff between two of the men. They all talked positively about the land as being a ‘land of milk and honey’ and showed some of the fruit of the land including pomegranates and figs. Yet ten of the spies were warning against going into the land because of the presence of strong, walled cities with giants. In fact, their statement was one filled with fear and trembling saying that they were grasshoppers compared to the giants, and that there was no way they could take the land.”
Moses’ face became stern as he thought back to the event.
I now put the question to him, “Why after being so recently delivered from Egypt by the hand of God with such a powerful demonstration were they so afraid to go into a land God had already promised? Did they really think the Lord would not deliver them from the giants?”
“You are looking at something that has baffled many people throughout the centuries – and yet it is a natural reaction for a people who grew up with a bondage mentality. Think about it for a minute!
“Here is a nation of people who had never had a land of their own. They had the promise and covenant that God made with Abraham that He would give them this land, but it really wasn’t real to them. Israel had prospered greatly in
Egypt during the years that Joseph was Prime Minister and for many years thereafter under the Pharaohs who were part of that dynasty.
“When a different Pharaoh came to the throne of Egypt through a series of wars and assassinations who was not part of that previous dynasty, he had neither knowledge of Joseph nor any interest whatever in retaining any friendship with the Hebrews. They were leaches on “his land” as far as he was concerned and he was going to use them to create a name and memorial for himself.
“Israel became a worker class of people under him and his successors. For centuries they were systematically pillaged and used. Generations of people grew up being told daily that their lives were worth nothing. They were treated continually as the scum of Egypt.
“You don’t grow up being programmed daily like that and not have it affect your whole mindset – your way of thinking.”
“But,” I argued, “Israel had a Covenant with God that had to have been a constant remembrance for them. They had to have known that they were His Chosen People!”
Moses chuckled. “It’s one thing to be reminded of that heritage and another thing altogether to rise above that in the face of daily hard labor and bondage to a Pharaoh whose servants did everything they could to demean, to insult, to put down and to create in the minds of the people that the only reason they were alive was to serve him.
“The people had no self-worth, no image whatever of who God was, nor any life track record of God’s intervention and provision for them as a people. They still thought of themselves according to all they’d been programmed with under Pharaoh.
“Sure, God had delivered us from Egypt’s power with a series of breathtaking plagues upon the Egyptians! He had done the unthinkable and impossible by opening up the Red Sea for us so we could escape from Pharaoh. He subsequently destroyed Pharaoh’s royal armies as the waters rushed back over them when they tried to follow. It should have been enough, but for that generation it wasn’t.”
“Joshua and Caleb were certainly of a different mindset, then,” I answered. “How could they be so different from the other leaders?”
“If you talk to them, you’ll realize that they had a level of faith that exceeded the unbelief of their fellow-spies. When God began to show His hand on behalf of our people, both of them were filled with faith and courage and an unwavering trust in God. They were a different breed somehow. They were almost oblivious to the obstacles and dangers that lay ahead. They certainly were aware of them, but God’s Word and His promises to take us into a land and give it to us obliterated the obstacles as far as their thinking went. They were a joy to watch and be with!”
Perhaps one of the most fascinating things that took place during my discussions with Moses – and I have shared this as happening with some of the others – was the vision of seeing Moses in the midst of the actual circumstances that unfolded. In some cases those visions have stayed with me in more clarity than the conversations.
I saw the Red Sea open for the Israelites and then close over the pursuing armies. I saw Moses strike the rock in his anger against Israel’s rebellion. I was also able to see what he saw from Mount Pisgah. It was like being there in person in many instances. The conversations were often reinforced by the seeing of the events as they had unfolded centuries and millennia before. Many of those pictures are etched in my mind and in my spirit as though I had been a first-person participant or observer.
This discussion began with my question. “Moses,” I asked, “What provoked you to strike the rock after the Lord had instructed you to speak to it? You had done so well in leading Israel up to that point. From all I’ve read, the Lord was pretty happy with you.”
FYI, if you want to read about this event, take a look at Exodus 17 to begin with, and then read Numbers 20.
Moses’ eyes seemed to look off in the distance as he remembered the events. “Let me refresh your memory concerning the striking of the rock,” he said. “You’ll recall that shortly after we left Egypt, the children of Israel were a pretty angry and fearful lot of people.
“They became angry over not having enough food. Aaron and I took things to the Lord and He sent Manna from Heaven to feed them. They complained about not having meat and the Lord sent them the quail in abundance. Then they complained about not having water to drink.
“We were at Mount Horeb when the answer of the Lord was to strike the rock. Water came forth like a river out of the rock. It flowed down the hill and through the camp of Israel like a gusher. So long as we were camped there in Rephidim they had that water from the rock flowing continually. It was a perpetual miracle in their sight.
“Now,” he continued, “Let’s skip forward in time for more than 35 years. I had been through a lot with Israel. Despite all the miracles God had done for us in Egypt, leaving Egypt and our years in the wilderness, despite the fact that
He had clearly demonstrated to the surrounding nations His Blessing on us and the fact that we were a unique people in the earth, there was still non-stop
complaining, criticism and accusations against the Lord in our midst.
“Honestly, I’d had about all I could take! We had seen the nonstop provision of the Lord through all of our years of wanderings. We were nearing the end of the forty years of wandering in the wilderness while the generation that came out of Egypt died off. You remember what happened when certain of the fathers in Israel decided they were going to appoint for themselves a captain or leader and head back to Egypt because of the fear generated by the negative report of the ten spies? God had said to them that their generation would wander in the wilderness for forty years – that their carcasses would bleach in the desert while their children were taken into the Land of Promise.
“Just as God had said, that generation was dying off. In fact, most of that generation was already dead by this time. The nation had been watching as God’s Word was being fulfilled before their eyes. They were watching the judgment of the Lord upon a rebellious generation. Here we are now at Kadesh. My sister Miriam had just died and been buried.
“The place where we were encamped was quite dry and there was no ready water supply. Once again the grumbling and complaining started, and I was being accused of bad leadership. The same old accusation began making the rounds again that I had led Israel to this desert place to kill them off. My frustration level was at its limit as it was with Aaron, my brother.
“We went into the Tabernacle and fell on our faces before God crying out for answers. The Word of the Lord was clear and unmistakable. ‘Take the Rod of Authority and stand before Israel. Speak to the rock,’ He said. ‘Do this in their presence before their eyes. Watch me bring forth water out of the rock once again.’
“I really had no excuse for striking the rock. God’s Word was clear. ‘Speak,’ He said. Not ‘strike’ like He had the previous time. When I stood before the people this time, I was seething inside. Anger took hold and in that moment of emotional upheaval I disobeyed the Lord. Not just once, but twice I struck that rock – hard!
“God still showed His hand of deliverance for the people that day and water came out of the rock in abundance. My disobedience, however, and my moment of irritated rebellion cost me! The Lord immediately spoke to me and judgment was in His voice. That single act and emotional outburst had a prophetic significance I failed to see in that moment and it was going to cost me the privilege of leading Israel into Canaan.”
Implicit in Moses’ voice was a warning – not only to me but to all of us as believers – not to succumb to our emotions in times of stress, frustration and anger: particularly when we have heard a direct Word from the Lord which requires specific obedience.
“Those words from the Lord must have really sounded throughout your whole being from that moment until He took you to Mount Pisgah a couple of years later to see the land you could have and should have entered,” I said.
He nodded his head. “There was disappointment in me, of course. Standing and looking over the land, seeing the treasure that God had in this place for His people was awe-inspiring. At the same time, there was an indescribable peace inside my being. God was a Covenant-keeping God!
He had promised this land to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. He had instructed me to lead their descendants – His chosen people – from bondage and poverty to this wealthy place. He had kept His Word and I had been God’s instrument of promise to accomplish it.
“At one hundred twenty years of age, I was as strong as the day I left Egypt – perhaps stronger – and yet I knew that the assignment for taking this land and routing its wicked occupants belonged to Joshua, and the next generation. I was very grateful to the Lord for the privilege and the responsibility He had entrusted to me, and Israel was taking Canaan!”
That has to be it for today. There was more, of course, but I want to move on to one more individual whose life and calling made a huge impact on me as a young person – especially in view of how God had already been dealing with me.
Next: HEAVEN X: Samuel.
Though 2011 has already been a difficult year – and it is going to get even more difficult in the weeks and months ahead -- God is going to show His hand on behalf of His people, especially those who believe His Word and trust Him implicitly!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(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.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Heaven VIII: Moses
Having been called to a prophetic ministry when I was very young, I have become increasingly aware throughout the years that this is a very controversial area of ministry – and one which requires the utmost integrity.
There is a level of responsibility that goes with speaking, declaring or decreeing something “in the name of the Lord” as His representative and spokesman that goes beyond normal preaching and teaching. Those of us who walk and live in this realm have a higher standard to live by because if we speak falsely or declare something that the Holy Spirit has not actually said – or if we add to or take away from something He is saying – we effectively discredit His Word and create conditions that Satan uses to deafen people to hear the actual prophetic Word.
This is true also of evangelists, pastors and teachers to a lesser degree, but the one who speaks and says in essence, “Thus saith the Lord,” had better KNOW that the Lord is truly speaking that Word for that moment in time and that the fruit or evidence must follow. I’m saying this because I’m realizing that the Holy Spirit is really pulling us up short so that we are cautious and careful – and yet bold to speak no matter the consequences.
Thank God for the grace He has given throughout the years as I – and my fellow brothers and sisters who operate in this realm of ministry – grow and mature into the accuracy that must accompany us along with the personal integrity required! I have not always been accurate. In years gone by I have said things that obviously came out of a superheated imagination. They didn’t come to pass as I said. And each time that has taken place, there has been an “OUCH” inside because I missed God. His grace has covered my failures but He has used each failure to teach me.
I’ve said all that to say this. There is a sifting taking place in the prophetic “movement” (if I can use that descriptor) in this hour. There is a shaking taking place for the purpose of sorting out those who are truly anointed by the Holy Spirit and wear a prophetic mantle, and those who prophesy in the name of the Lord for personal gain and self-aggrandizement. There must be a separation that takes place so that as the apostle Paul wrote, “that they which are approved [by God] may be made manifest among you.”
That word “approved” in the Greek text is the word, dokimos. It is an ancient word that was commonly used among those who refined gold and silver for the purpose of creating coins with certain and fixed value, and it speaks of the smelting process – heating gold or silver in a crucible to the boiling point so that the impurities come to the surface and get scooped off. In the end, what remains is the pure gold or pure silver.
That’s exactly what the Holy Spirit is doing – and has been doing – among those who are called to declare, decree and speak forth in the onoma (name) – the character, the essence, the nature and makeup of the Lord Jesus Christ. We must be proven in the fire, and the Word tested and tried in us. The Word that comes forth must be a proven and demonstrable Word.
Just as there have been a number of preachers, teachers and evangelists who have misused the truth of the message of prosperity for their own gain, there have been those in the prophetic realm who have likewise misused their anointing, pointing accusing fingers at certain individuals whose gifting, anointing and sharing has been misunderstood and as a result brought discredit to themselves and confusion in the Body of Christ. This sifting of the Holy Spirit, therefore, and separation between the “approved” and those who walk in error must, of necessity, take place.
A certain young lady named Shamir brought my attention to the fact that in my recent defense of some of the accused, I was doing the same thing as those who were pointing accusing fingers. It was a warning I both received and appreciated. When in our zeal to defend certain individuals or truths we strongly believe, we use the same tactics as those who speak in error and unbelief, we bring the same discredit to the Gospel. Naming names and pointing fingers at individuals, accusing them of heresy, is both unscriptural and in opposition to the command of the Lord (see I John 5:16).
Our responsibility is to minister forgiveness – not condemnation! Somehow we have to get past the place where we feel any necessity to defend the Lord or defend His Word. The Word of God defends itself and stands because of the integrity of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no need for our getting into doctrinal disputations.
For my part I am glad when the Holy Spirit brings correction and admonishment to me. After sixty-plus years of walking with the Lord in a very personal relationship I know that correction comes in His love and His purpose to bring me to the fulfillment of His destiny in and for me. We live in the declining seconds of an age that is rapidly drawing to a close and it is critical that we all walk circumspectly with an increasing thirst for the manifested presence of the Lord in us.
‘Nuff said on that topic for now! Let’s get back to our discussions on Heaven and the important sharing that took place. What I’ve just shared is relevant to my discussions with Moses.
My conversation with Moses followed the succession of my conversations with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – and indeed, with the exception of Joseph, all of my conversations followed in the chronological order of the lives of those individuals throughout the centuries. Because I was remembering so much of my experiences and conversations with David, I took him out of sequence in these Coffee Breaks.
Joseph was the one exception to the order of things. Other than a brief meeting with him on this first trip to Heaven, I did not have a real in-depth conversation with him until some two years later on my second trip to Heaven. In fact, he was the entire focus of my second trip, and it was a very different experience from this first one.
As previously noted, virtually everyone I met and spoke with appeared in the prime of life. It’s a funny thing, but I suppose because Moses didn’t even begin leading Israel until he was 80 years of age I somehow expected him to look like a stereotypical 80-year old. Wrong! He was strong, muscular and appearing vibrantly healthy – much, I would suppose – as he did when he fled from the courts and palace after Pharaoh found out who he was and how he had killed an Egyptian.
My questions to Moses centered briefly on his life as Pharaoh’s grandson, then his experiences with the burning bush and the voice of God, next his return to Egypt to face a Pharaoh he would likely have known as an heir to the throne before he fled into Midian, and finally the things he experienced with Israel as they were in the wilderness. I was curious about his responses to the Lord and how, after spending so much of his early life in Egyptian culture, he was able to respond to God. His answers were a bit of a surprise since there was nothing in my reading of Scripture that had indicated the picture he drew for me.
Our conversation began after my introduction to him like this: “Moses, I always thought you grew up in Pharaoh’s palace without any real awareness of God, and that He introduced Himself to you for the first time in the burning bush. What did you think when you first heard the Lord?”
He smiled and then laughed. “I suppose a lot of folks think that’s the way it happened, but if you think back to the account in Exodus you’ll remember that my sister, Miriam, offered to get a nurse for me when Pharaoh’s daughter found me in the river. You’ll also remember that it was my mother who Miriam got as my nurse.
“Now think about it for a minute. I spent more of my early years with my real parents than I did in Pharaoh’s palace. My mother spent a great deal of time talking about the God of Israel and telling me about our heritage as descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I wasn’t unfamiliar with God. We’d just never met personally until that day on Mount Horeb.
“Yes, I spent a great deal of time with my adoptive Egyptian mother, Pharaoh’s daughter, and she made certain that I was treated as a possible heir to the throne of Egypt. Pharaoh never knew of my birth as a Hebrew. Had he known, he would easily have killed his own daughter – and me!”
“So you pretty much knew, then, that you were not an Egyptian during your growing-up years?” I asked. “Was it hard to keep the secret? Did you look enough like an Egyptian that no one asked?”
Moses just chuckled. “Egyptians and Jews look a lot alike. Dress an Egyptian in the clothing of a Hebrew shepherd and you’d never know. Put me in the typical garb of a member of the royal family and to all practical intents I was Egyptian. No one ever questioned that I was a prince.”
He continued. “I didn’t really spend a lot of time among Pharaoh’s family until after I was 12 years of age. They’d seen enough of me during my earlier years that I wasn’t a stranger, but you have to understand that children who were of the house of Pharaoh didn’t really have the run of Pharaoh’s palaces during their nursing years and even up until they were perhaps eight years of age. When they reached that age they were being schooled as members of the royal family. Pharaoh’s daughter eased me in stages into my preparation as a prince of Egypt.
“Those first years of my life with my parents teaching me about my heritage as a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – being a Hebrew – became so instilled in me that when, as I grew older, I began to see the bondage and hard labor of the Jews under the hand of Pharaoh. An anger and rebellion began to grow inside of me at the treatment I was seeing. I wasn’t good at expressing myself verbally so my frustrations just grew greater and greater as they were pent up.
“Nearing the age of 40, everything exploded in me one day when I saw a taskmaster beating a young Hebrew who was under his charge. Rage took over and before I realized what had happened, I had killed that Egyptian. I dug out some sand and quickly buried him, unaware that my actions had been witnessed.
“Everything was still seething in me the next day when I saw a fight unfold between a couple of my fellow Hebrews. When I stepped in to intervene, the man who provoked the fight somehow knew that I was not a prince of Egypt but rather a Hebrew like him. When he angrily responded, ‘Who made you our prince and judge? Are you going to kill me like you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’ it shook me to realize that my identity as someone other than a prince of Egypt had been discovered. I knew that news would travel fast and eventually reach Pharaoh’s ears.
“It did! It wasn’t a matter of more than a few weeks and Pharaoh found out about the deception. From that moment there was an edict against me and my life was done in Egypt. There was nothing to do but run for my life.
“It took me many days of walking and running to cross what you would see as more than a hundred miles of desert and wilderness until I wound up spent and famished among the fields and herds of Jethro, the Midianite. You pretty much know the story. Jethro took me in; and after discovering that we were related to each other distantly through Abraham he gave me his daughter, Zipporah, as my wife.
“For most of the next forty years, I was a farmer and a shepherd – at first taking care of Jethro’s flocks and herds, and then having my own. Zipporah and I had a couple of sons whom we raised to likewise be farmers and shepherds.”
“So you lived a completely different life than you had in Egypt,” I said. “Wow! How hard was that? After the palace and royalty, now you are … well… like a regular person!”
“This was an important part of my life,” Moses responded. He was obviously amused at my analogy of his becoming “a regular person.”
“God had to take the Egypt out of me,” he said. “For every year I had spent in Egyptian life, living both as a prince of Egypt, and also as a Hebrew seeing the hard bondage of travail of my people and being frustrated over not being able to do anything about it, the Lord had to completely re-educate me, year for year. My mindset had to change completely. I didn’t realize that the nomadic life of a shepherd and herdsman was preparation for my future leadership of Israel and the years that were going to be spent moving about like nomads in the wilderness.”
“So you were 80 years old – or almost 80 – when you first saw the burning bush,” I mused, thinking back to the Scriptures I had read. “What did you think when you first saw that bush?”
“It wasn’t just the bush that wouldn’t burn up, it was the appearance of the Angel of the Lord in the midst of it,” he responded. “At first I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and then to see the Angel in the midst of the fire…well…I’d heard stories about Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and their experiences with the Angel of the Lord, but this was not just a story! I was seeing this with my eyes and hearing the Angel of the Lord with my ears! It stopped me in my tracks.
“It was the Lord God talking to me through this Angel! You can believe that when I heard him say, ‘Take your shoes off: you are standing on holy ground,’ I took my shoes off and dropped to the ground afraid to look.”
I interrupted him to ask, “What I don’t understand is why when The Lord told you that you were His chosen vessel to deliver Israel from the Egyptians – and especially after you had the two signs of the rod turning into a serpent and your hand becoming white with leprosy – you argued with Him, and continued to argue with Him, and told Him that you couldn’t speak and that they wouldn’t hear you! Why would you argue with God in the face of such power and authority?”
“That’s a good and honest question,” he answered. “Looking back in retrospect, I’d have to say that there was a place of fear that still existed in me. Despite having been out of Egypt for 40 years I was still contaminated with the some of its remnants. Everything about Egypt was fear. Pharaoh ruled by fear and intimidation. The people – both the Egyptian people and we as Hebrews – lived our lives in constant fear. A sword hung over the land continually.
“At that point in my life, I really had no personal experience of walking with God. Despite all the things I’d been told by my parents about the Lord and all the things I’d heard about God’s Covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, it was all second hand. None of it was personal for me. God was showing Himself to me in that moment and it should have been enough, but there was still enough residual fear in me to contaminate my trust in Him.”
Moses stopped his explanation momentarily and pointed his finger at me. “Let me tell you something, young man! The Lord has given you this experience, just as He has already given you many other experiences with Him and with angels to establish a baseline of trust and confidence in Him. You’re going to need it! We wouldn’t be having this conversation if you didn’t have some very important purpose in His Kingdom economy in the years to come.
“Satan will try to fill you with fear. He will make every effort to contaminate you just like I was. In the years to come you will have many contrary experiences. You will probably blunder just like I did and make decisions and choices you’d like to undo. Don’t let your regrets and missed opportunities deter you. Don’t forget, God is a God of second chances. If you miss it the first time, He’ll give you another opportunity.
“Your ability to trust the Lord completely no matter what you see and no matter what experiences you have that seem totally contrary to His Word and His commands to you. Your life will depend on your ability to trust Him and have confident faith that whatever He tells you to do, you CAN do, and you MUST do knowing that He most certainly will fulfill His Word to you. Speak His Word no matter the people and no matter the circumstances. He will back you up just like He backed me up.”
Those words registered in my being in that moment and just as Moses had indicated, in the years to come I would get sidetracked and contaminated by fear. I had no idea just how much the Enemy was going to try and sabotage the Word in me and prevent me from fulfilling God’s commission in me.
Obviously I’m not going to have time today to talk about Moses’ leadership and his experiences in dealing with Israel and bringing them out of Egypt, not to mention his frustration with them in the wilderness. We’ll save that for our next discussion.
Next: HEAVEN: Moses & Israel.
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. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(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, January 24, 2011
Heaven VII: David’s Tabernacle
CHANGE!!!If ever there was a word that describes our ongoing walk with the
Lord, that’s it! If we are to ever reach our destiny in Him, we
must continually be changing, conforming to His Will and His Word and the
development of His character in us. More than that, we must be
ever willing to lay aside our plans and our visions – even when those visions
have been given to us by the Lord – so that He can implement His purposes for the Kingdom AND His timing with us.
That said, before I get on with today’s continued sharing of my
experiences in Heaven let me say that we are in the midst of even greater change and transition. A series of events has unfolded which I need to
share.
I’m sharing this out of sequence in my trip to Heaven, but one of
the last things that Jesus said to me before we stepped back through the gate
and I was returned to Earth was this: “I’m going to pour out my Spirit across
the state of Alaska, and you’re going to be an integral part of
it.”
When you hear something like that you naturally think it’s going
to take place soon. Of course we saw some dramatic things take
place throughout the years. Growing up with parents who were
pioneers and missionaries (apostles to the arctic) provided me with a faith
environment in which a steady stream of miracles was the norm. Nevertheless, we never saw anything approaching the outpouring that the
Lord had promised and shown me.
In early 1953, following a period in which my folks had been
asking God concerning our next move (we’d been in Nome for 9 years) and Dad had taken a reconnaissance trip to Barrow, he was in prayer one day when he heard the audible voice of God speak the following Word from Psalm 2:8, “Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.”
It was a clear indicator for Dad, and we began the process of making the move to Barrow. Dad did ask the Lord, and we saw the fruit from it in an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in 1956 and 1957 that eventually stretched across the arctic into Canada and Greenland. Yet neither Dad or Mom – or me – saw the enormous move of God we expected.
When Dad was preparing to change addresses in 1986 (he spent the
last few months of his life in our home) he apologized to me several times that “I don’t have a good inheritance to leave you.” He was, of course, referring to Proverbs 13:22. My answer to him was, “Dad, you have no need to apologize. I have received an inheritance in God from you that money can’t buy.”
This last Monday night as we were participating in and streaming a
gathering with Steven Shelley, Paul Keith Davis and Paul Cain, the Lord reminded me of His Word to Dad and he said, “I am passing the inheritance that I gave your father on to you. Ask of me…”
Over the past few months we have seen a number of families depart
from River Worship Center – some of them moving away from the area completely – and have been asking God what His next move is for us, or if we are to stand fast and expect things to rebuild. Della and I have been
increasingly sensing that our next move is to assemble a team (or teams) for
ministry and begin traveling throughout Alaska – particularly the native
villages scattered across the arctic, western Alaska and the Aleutian chain – to
share with them the prophetic Word of the Lord that is coming forth
now.
If ever there was a period in time when people need to be awakened to the urgency of this hour and the need to embrace the fire of the Holy Spirit for cleansing and purification, that period is NOW! People desperately need to understand what it means to live in, pour forth and exhibit the presence – the Parousia – of the Lord Jesus Christ for the world around them to witness. That is the burden that Della and I share.
For that reason and because of the diminished need for River Worship Center to operate as a church fellowship, we are suspending its operations for the present time, effectively giving it and the vision that accompanies it back to the Lord for His orchestration, implementation and timing. Capener Ministries – the parent organization and overall covering – will continue to operate; and the prophetic and apostolic ministries that this organization fosters will go forth in organic teamwork (as opposed to “organizational” teamwork) to fulfill the command of the Lord.
These Coffee Breaks will continue to be published (although they
may be less frequent at times) but the heading, Another Coffee Break, will
likely undergo change or revision of some kind. That said; let’s continue with today’s discussion.
This sharing is out of sequence a bit since I should have included my discussions with David concerning the Tabernacle he set up on Mount Moriah before getting to the Temple.
My questions to David about the Tabernacle centered on several areas: (1) What prompted him to set up a separate tabernacle apart from the
Tabernacle of Moses that was situated in Gibeah; (2) What was the principle of 24 hours of praise, worship, prayer and intercession he instituted with his
tabernacle, and what did he expect to accomplish with it; (3) How did he happen to choose the families of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun; and finally (4) Why did he alter their function apart from the rest of the praisers and musicians so that they basically became musical prophets. His answers were more than enlightening and revelatory.
“During the entire 20 years that Saul ruled as King of Israel and
the first seven years of my rule over Judah, the Ark of the Covenant was either in the hands of the Philistines or at Kirjathjearim, and not in the Tabernacle of Moses. For those 27 years the priests and Levites had no access to it. They couldn’t go in and present the sins of the people and
pour blood on the Mercy Seat, and there was no representation of the Holiness of the Lord anywhere in the nation. In the past, the Tabernacle of
Moses with its Outer Court, Holy Place and Holy of Holies represented both the presence of the Lord and the place where Israel could meet with Him.
“There was, of course, Samuel the Prophet who spoke for the Lord, but that was different. He was a unique individual all by himself, and the fact that God had him for His voice in the nation was critical during that era. There was no one like him – but he still didn’t replace the Ark.
“Because of what I’d seen in my visions and what the Lord had shown me about Himself, retrieving the Ark and putting it – all by itself – on public display in an enclosure of its own where Israel could easily and readily see it was paramount in my spirit and in my thoughts. I’d begun to realize just how significant the Ark was, and how it demonstrated our Covenant with the Lord God. We were supposed to be married to him – if I can use Isaiah’s metaphor – and the Ark signified our marriage Covenant. Israel HAD to see it! We were a nation out of touch with Him! We had violated our vows to the Lord!”
As David was talking I was beginning to grasp the picture, but I still hadn’t gotten an understanding of why he had the praise and worship families appointed, or how that fit the picture he was seeking to create and demonstrate before the nation. He saw my thoughts and picked it up
right away. “You remember the furnishings in Moses’ Tabernacle, don’t you?” he asked.
I nodded my head. “The altar of sacrifice, the laver, the altar of incense, the table of showbread and the golden candlestick,” I replied.
“Each one of those things has great significance concerning our relationship to the Lord, but it was the golden candlestick I wanted to focus attention to,” he said. In that moment a golden candlestick appeared before us and he began to describe it in detail.
“You see the bowls on each of the arms that project from the center? You’ll remember that they were filled with a special oil – an oil that came from a pretty severe crushing process. The flame that burns from each bowl is never supposed to go out.
“The bowls are a picture of us as a people passionately in love with the Lord. The oil represents the anointing that comes as a result of our allowing our flesh to be crushed, subduing it and bringing it into submission to His will and desire and His purpose for us. The flame that burns as it is fed by that oil is a picture of our flame of passion and love for the Lord Jesus Christ.”
David paused in his description. I immediately began to see the picture. The families of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun became a living golden candlestick. Their lives, the lives of their children and their generations to follow throughout the centuries were a constant picture of the crushing process. At different times throughout Israel’s history, they were defamed, robbed, cheated, deprived of homes and possessions and dishonored in ways that none of their Levite brethren were. Yet they were always ready to offer praise and worship to the Lord. Even when the ministry of praise and worship was disbanded at different times by wicked kings who neither understood nor wanted the presence of the Lord, and treated this ministry as an unnecessary and excessive expense to the royal treasury, the descendant families of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun were always sensitive to the Lord and ready to resume.
David laughed as he saw the expression on my face and the growing
recognition of the prophetic significance of his appointment of these
families.
“I instructed the chief among the Levites to select from among them those who would most appropriately serve in this ministry of praise, worship, prayer and intercession. Asaph (his name certainly described him) was a collector of Psalms and hymns. He had already assembled a number of the Psalms and the prayers that I had written down, and he was a ready and noisy praiser. Asaph was a natural leader who had the ability to get people to work together.
“Heman, of course, was Samuel the Prophet’s grandson. The prophetic mantle of his grandfather had passed to him, and he was skilled musically. He was steady, firm and faithful in every respect and he was a wonderful choice to become part of this continuous stream of praise and worship and adoration to the Lord.
“Jeduthun – he was more known in Levitical circles as Ethan – knew how to worship in ways that his brothers had never learned. More than that, he had the ability to persevere through hardness and difficulty – and he was going to need it. Like Asaph, Jeduthun was a natural leader and his brethren respected him and his sense of authority.
“With these families rotating in shifts and ministering before the simple tent housing the Ark of the Covenant on a continuous basis, day and night, Israel was provided with a constant reminder of our Covenant relationship with God. God honored that kind of ministry to Him and we saw the benefits as a nation. Israel prospered as it had never prospered as a nation and God gave us victory over all of our enemies.
“Throughout the years the families of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun grew and their children and grandchildren took on the same responsibilities for ministry to the Lord. Before I handed the reins of leadership over to Solomon the Spirit of the Lord prompted me to make a change in their
focus. Under the leadership of Chenaniah, who was both a musical genius and knew how to train others, the families had become not only unusually
skilled as musicians and singers, they had developed a sensitivity to the heart
and Spirit of God like no one else.
“With that spiritual sensitivity it was only natural to commission them as prophetic musicians so that when they began to sing and to praise and to
worship, decrees and declarations came forth that would affect the whole of the life of the nation. They would prophesy the heart of the Lord and
create peace, prosperity and blessing through their prophetic singing and
playing. This was the legacy and heritage I wanted to leave for Solomon so that by the time the Temple was finished and ready for use, Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, their families and the greatly enlarged assembly of praisers, worshipers and intercessors would have effectively prepared the proper spiritual environment over the nation.”
In the years since, I have thought back many times to my reading of I Chronicles 25 and the picture in the Word of this enlarged contingent of
singers and musicians and realized that they indeed fulfilled the assignment
given to them by David. Even saying it that way makes me realize that it was the Spirit of the Lord that directed David to do this.
Although he was the vessel through which the Lord accomplished His
desires, it really was the work of the Holy Spirit to elevate Israel in the eyes
of the world as God’s chosen people and to demonstrate to them what could be available if they would join in this Covenant of love.
It was more than 35 years ago that the Holy Spirit brought this vision of the Tabernacle of David back to me and enlarged my understanding of how much this realm of ministry was needed in this generation. Even in the years since, bits and pieces of my conversations with David have come back to me as further revelation has unfolded.
The truth of David’s Tabernacle has emerged as a real force in the Body of Christ within the past 15 – 20 years. The emergence of Rick Joyner and Morningstar Ministries, along with Mike Bickle and the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City, not to mention numerous others who’ve followed their lead, has been a real blessing to me. There’ve been a number of personal efforts to establish this kind of ministry on a 24-hour basis as David did including a period of time in Fairbanks, Alaska some 30 years ago.
It was in the spring of 1983 that the Lord sent a woman from South Carolina to see me at my office at CBN-Alaska, Inc. I didn’t know her, and in fact had never met her. She had a message for me, the essence of which was, “For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it shall surely come, it will not tarry.” It was a quotation from Habakkuk 2:3.
Then she said, “Write the vision and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.” With that she turned and walked out of my office. I never saw or heard from her again. Indeed, I’ve often wondered if in fact she was an Angel sent from God in human form.
Five years passed and another abortive effort to recreate a modern Tabernacle of David ministry took place. With that failure, the Holy Spirit reminded me that I had not yet written the vision. I immediately wrote and self-published an in-depth piece titled, A VISION FOR PRAISE. It was widely distributed – to anyone who take a copy.
A couple more efforts to create a 24-hour ministry of praise and worship took place – neither of which succeeded to the degree I’d expected – but in 2005, Della and I were in Washington, DC for a conference when we ran into a young man with a satchel over his shoulder bearing the imprint of the U.S.
Supreme Court. I stopped him and asked him if he clerked for one of the justices. He said that he did not but rather that he was part of a gathering of people who met daily on the steps of the Supreme Court to pray over the justices and the various courts of the land.
When I asked how all of this had started he told me that his pastor had been sent a copy of an article titled A VISION FOR PRAISE, and that this ministry had grown up as a byproduct of that article. When I began to share with him how the Lord had instructed me to write that article, he reached out to shake my hand and said to me, “I am a product of that article and your obedience to the Lord.”
I have to admit I was pretty overwhelmed. It was the first time in many years that I began to realize just how far reaching that typewritten article had spread. Though we’ve had marginal success throughout the years in trying to establish a pattern among believers for the concept of the Tabernacle of David – and there have been some rather spectacular experiences along the way – the impact of the article which grew out of my personal conversations with David in Heaven and the renewed vision the Lord gave to me while at Long Beach Christian Center have been more far-reaching than I could have imagined.
My conversations with David actually consumed a fair amount of my time in Heaven relative to my other visits with others among the patriarchs, prophets and apostles, and I have really only skimmed the highlights of those conversations thus far. Nevertheless, we need to move along in this sharing. I’ve yet to talk about my discussions with Moses – and that’s where we’ll take this up again in our next Coffee Break.
Next: HEAVEN: Moses.
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. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(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.
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