ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: APHIEMI HEALING, Part 4
November
15, 2013
Greetings!
Some years back, Della and I were at Saint Paul Island, Alaska
helping my parents. Dad's health was failing and he needed to get off the
island for some medical attention, so we put aside our personal affairs for
about a year to help prepare for the winter ahead.
Della had taken the opportunity to enroll in some extension
courses being offered by the University of Alaska while there and headed out
the door one night for her computer class. Less than a hundred feet from
the front door, she was stricken with a severe attack on her kidneys. The
doctor had already told her that her kidneys were failing and that she should
expect major surgery in the months or years ahead. The potential for a
kidney transplant loomed in the background.
She managed to make it back to the house to tell me what she was
fighting and then passed out from the excruciating pain. I picked her up
and carried her across the way to the church building where we had our
bedroom. Laying her on the bed, I knelt down, placed my hand on her
abdomen and began praying in tongues with a great deal of volume (!) and
continued on for some 30 minutes nonstop.
She awoke and sat up on the bed, tested things rather gingerly
and realized that she was totally pain-free. The evidence of the miracle
that had taken place, however, took place over a period of weeks and months as
we both realized that the Lord had healed her completely of all kidney
issues. That took place some 25 years ago, and to this day, Della has been
completely free of kidney problems and all related pain. She was delivered
from what had been years of kidney issues and recurring pain.
My sharing of this event is simply to make you aware that
sometimes it is that kind of persistence which is required to bring about the
miracle(s) of healing we need.
Once
again we pick up with our discussion from Mark 9:41-50 from the Amplified
Version:
"For I tell you
truly, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to and bear
the name of Christ will by no means fail to get his reward. And
whoever causes one of these little ones (these believers) who acknowledge and cleave
to Me to stumble and sin, it would be better (more profitable
and wholesome) for him if a [huge] millstone were hung about his neck, and he
were thrown into the sea.
"And if
your hand puts a stumbling block before you and causes you to
sin, cut it off! It is more profitable and wholesome for
you to go into life [that is really worthwhile] maimed than with two hands to
go to hell (Gehenna), into the fire that cannot be
put out.
"And if
your foot is a cause of stumbling and sin to you, cut it off!
It is more profitable and wholesome for you to enter into life
[that is really worthwhile] crippled than, having two feet, to be cast into
hell (Gehenna).
"And if your eye
causes you to stumble and sin, pluck it out! It is more
profitable and wholesome for you to enter the kingdom of God
with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell (Gehenna),
"Where
their worm [which preys on the inhabitants and is a symbol of the wounds
inflicted on the man himself by his sins] does not die, and the fire is not put
out. For
everyone shall be salted with fire. Salt is good (beneficial), but if salt has lost its saltness, how will you restore [the saltness
to] it? Have salt within yourselves, and be at peace and live
in harmony with one another."
We're
focusing today on verse 47 -- the picture of one's eye causing them to
stumble. We will get back to the subject of the foot and tie things
together as we proceed in this discussion.
At
first glance it almost seems obvious when we talk about one's eye causing them
to stumble. It takes no rocket science to realize that many folks are
brought down by allowing their flesh the tantalizing (?) fantasies of looking
at pornography or watching X-rated flicks. It rouses the flesh, stirs the
emotions and causes men and women to get lost in erotic fantasies that destroy
their marriages, their families, their jobs and any real
relationships. Worse, the focus of attention on these images ruins one's
ability to listen to the voice of Holy Spirit. It becomes an addiction
that warps one's capacity to relate in a marriage in a healthy, productive and
satisfying manner.
The
Fear of Death takes over and the sudden need to reproduce oneself in order to
"perpetuate the species" rules the mind and spirit. It
monopolizes one's mind and -- depending on how far the addiction has progressed
-- transforms a person's character into exactly what Solomon describes in
Proverbs 23:7.
"As [a man] thinketh in his
heart, so is he."
The
Hebrew text really opens this verse up. "As
a man (or woman) opens up the gate of his(her) mind and soul [by what is
focused upon], so is he conformed [to that image]."
Let's
get away from the more obvious topic of pornography and get to the heart of
what Jesus is warning. Consider what happened to Eve in the Garden and the
sequence of events that followed.
"And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely
die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes
shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and
evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good
for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes,
and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the
fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did
eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that
they were naked."
We
begin with Satan's lie: "In the day you eat, your eyes of your
soul will be opened and you'll be able to see just like God sees and be on par
with Him."
Get
it? The beginning place of all temptation was with what the eyes focused
upon.
Next,
we are told that Eve did exactly that and focused her attention on the Tree of
the Knowledge of Good and Evil. She SAW that the tree was producing
tantalizingly-appearing, luscious fruit. The Hebrew text uses the
word, ta'avah,
which our KJV translates as "pleasant." In fact, this word
draws a picture of lust, a longing for, something that greedily sucks a
person into.
Once
Eve's attention was focused on this attraction, she got sucked into
it. She grabbed (the Hebrew, laqach, in this instance could be
translated, "seized") that fruit and did exactly what God had
commanded her NOT to do! She ate of it.
[Let
me break away from this narrative for just a minute to share something that I
saw in person when the Angel of the Lord transported me in the Spirit into the
Garden some years back to watch the temptation unfold. Adam had not been
privy to the conversation taking place between the Serpent and Eve, but he
walked in on the conversation just as Eve was eating of the fruit. The
horror on his face spoke volumes!
The
thought of his suddenly losing Eve to the Serpent because of her sin was
intolerable. It was unthinkable! Forgetting who he was and what he
was (as having been created in the image and likeness of The Elohim), he
allowed the sight of Eve's action and her subsequent offering of the fruit to
him to blind his spiritual eyesight. Adam did the rational thing
(rational, you understand, from a human emotional perspective): he took the
offered fruit and ate of it, too.]
On
a natural, thinking, human level, Adam's thought processes were
redemptive. The Serpent wasn't going to get to have Eve! On a
spiritual level, they were reactive and out of keeping with the redemptive
ability he had, spiritually speaking, as Eve's husband. The consequences
of his and Eve's actions were deadly, not only to them, but to the human race
as their descendants.
The
unredeemed, flesh-seeing eye -- as Jesus so perfectly described it -- causes
men and women to rationalize, to think with their emotions or their natural
desires. It causes folks to "think things out" instead of
listening to and responding obediently to the Word of the Lord. The eye
then becomes that catalyst for disobedience and offense -- both to the Lord and
to others around us.
Watch
the sequence that unfolds.
1. What
a person sees, he focuses on and begins to think about.
2. The
more he thinks about a course of action, the more likely he is to engage in
business activities and relationships that are contrary to what Holy Spirit
dictates. Thus, the eye causes the hand to become the means by which
people stumble, cause others to stumble and place stones of stumbling before
others.
3. What
the person sees and thinks about becomes integrated into his character and
makeup. With that flaw (or flaws) in thinking, choices are made as to what
path or course of action to take. The eye therefore becomes the means by
which our foot causes us to stumble. We head down a path of danger,
potential destruction and ultimate death -- and in the process, take others
with us. We not only become an offense to the Lord and to those around us,
we cause others to likewise offend.
Consider
the sequence that unfolded as a result of Adam and Eve's sin.
For
a couple of thousand years, they had lived, walked and talked with God, enjoyed
the fruits of the Garden environment. Never had there been any suggestion
that they were unclothed. (This is a discussion I'd like to take farther,
but I won't take the time in this series.) Fact is, Adam and Eve never
needed clothing -- at least not the kind of clothing we wear in today's
world. They were clothed in the Glory of the Lord. That Glory ruled
their perceptions of one another. They simply didn't see each other as
"naked." And they weren't!
What
happened once they began to eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and
Evil? Now their perceptions were based on what the natural eye could see,
and that "seeing" was predicated in humanly-acquired
knowledge. It wasn't "good" that they didn't have clothes on.
So
how come they suddenly needed clothes? The Glory of the Lord had been
stripped away from them. They WERE naked. They were lacking in the
essential ingredient that had clothed them for the past two thousand years in
the Garden. They no longer had the ability to see one another after the
Spirit. Now they could only see after the eyes of flesh.
The
three families of fear were immediately introduced into their beings. They
had, after all, opened the gate into their minds, their souls and their
bodies. The knowledge of Evil opened the gateway to the granddaddy of all
evil spirits: Fear of Evil.
The
entry of the Fear of Evil into their beings brought with it the Fear of
Man. Witness the "blame game" that followed as soon as they were
challenged by God as to their disobedience."The woman whom THOU gavest me, SHE gave me of the tree and I did eat!" Riiiiggghhhhttt!!! Well, OK! "And the
woman said, THE SERPENT beguiled me -- he tricked me into eating!" Yup! We've
all heard the same routine.
But
wait! There's more. What was it that God had warned Adam and Eve
about? Oh, yeah...."But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die."
Yessirree!!! Adam and Eve
had never been designed to die. They were, after all, created in the image
and likeness of God, and He IS -- past, present and future. In Him is
eternity. In Him is the eternity of the eternities! For the first
time in their existence, cells began to die. Sickness was introduced into
the human frame. A terminus to their existence suddenly loomed in their
minds, their thoughts and their spirits. And the Fear of Death became a
compromising entity in their beings.
See
how the eye caused Adam and Eve to stumble? See how it brought an offense
to them? See what it did to all their descendants?
Here's
what Jesus had to say about it: "Where their worm [which preys on the inhabitants and is a symbol
of the wounds inflicted on the man himself by his sins] does not die, and the
fire is not put out."
Ahhh, but here's
where aphiémi kicks
in for those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh (the seeing
of things with the natural eye, the conducting of business after the manner and
mindset of the Beast, or the walking in paths of destruction), but after the
Spirit.
Is
this picture from Mark 9 becoming more and more clear to you? Great!
Next
week I'll try to bring all of this together to show you the picture of aphiémi, and how we have redemption and
healing available as a result of the new Covenant.
A reminder: If you are in need of healing please join our prayer
conference calls on either Monday, Wednesday or Friday of each week at 7:00 PM
Eastern. Once again, the number to call is (805) 399-1000. Then enter
the access code: 124763#.
Blessings
on you!
Regner
A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER
WORSHIP CENTER
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Email
Contact: Admin@RiverWorshipCenter.org
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