ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: DEALING WITH FEAR, Part 1
June 27, 2014
Peter and Janet Van Hierdan are
friends we've known for the past nine years. We met under rather unusual
circumstances during a tour of the National Cemetery in Washington, DC. Peter
was walking in front of us, engaged in an animated discussion with a Canadian
friend. I couldn't help overhearing them as Peter was describing a series of
puzzling events that were taking place in his home with his teenage children.
It seems that they'd been having Bible studies with other kids
from the area. Peter and Janet had been supervising and leading these Bible
studies and things had taken a decidedly unusual turn -- especially for folks
whose church and faith background was rooted in the Netherlands Reformed
Congregation. After the time of Bible study was finished, the kids would get
together and begin praying. One evening without any warning, some of them began
speaking in tongues.
Soon those who'd been baptized in the Holy Spirit began laying
hands on others, and it spread like fire. They started praying for one another
and seeing healings take place. For families who had no background whatever in
these kinds of displays it was a source of consternation.
Overhearing Peter's discussion during our walk in the National
Cemetery and his puzzlement over what he was seeing and hearing, I couldn't
help but insert myself into the conversation. It resulted in Peter and Janet
coming to our hotel room that night while Della and I shared with them. We laid
hands on them to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit that night, and while
we didn't see or hear any immediate manifestation of their speaking in tongues,
the seeds were planted -- seeds that would shortly explode with humorous
manifestation. All of us had been in DC for a conference and when the
conference ended, we shared telephone numbers and addresses (Peter and Janet
live in Lethbridge, Alberta), and we headed our
respective ways.
A few days later Peter calls me. "I just received a phone
call from my wife -- at least I'm pretty sure it's my wife -- but I can't
understand a word she's speaking!" He explained that Janet regularly went
on prayer walks just to be alone with the Lord. On this occasion as Janet had
been praying, she received a royal download of her prayer language, to the
point where (as I shared with you in the last Coffee Break about my own
experience) she couldn't speak English. I assured Peter that this was not
unusual, and that he should expect more of this.
In the weeks, months and years that followed, Della and I were
able to be with them in their home and see the continual growth and the gifts
and manifestations of the Holy Spirit abound in their family to the point that
their sons and their daughters developed unusual prophetic giftings.
I've really only scratched the surface of this story but my
purpose in sharing is to introduce Janet to you and to let you know that she
has published a rather unique book titled, Preparing the Bride of Christ for
His Return. This book is a chronicle of her own experiences and revelations
developed during her prayer walks and times with the Lord. When Janet first
began to share the book with me, I saw it as an extraordinary and very
inspirational daily devotional and recommended that she chapterize
it in that manner.
The book is currently available at Amazon.com in both softcover and e-book form. A link is available on our
website at www.RegnersMorningCoffee.com.
Simply click on the photo of the book cover. You won't be disappointed!
OK,
my introductions today got a bit windy, so let's see if we can get cracking on
this new series.
In
the thirty-plus years that have gone by since Holy Spirit first began to
download into me the revelation of the families of fear, my understanding has
grown by a quantum leap of just how pervasive these families are, and the
extent to which these wicked spirits conceal themselves as part of the
character or personality of individuals.
In
1981, I was invited to speak on a Sunday night at the Presbyterian church in
Fairbanks, Alaska on the subject of deliverance. One of the elders of the
church was a gentleman whom I'd known as a teenager, growing up in Barrow, and
he'd heard me share in a Charismatic conference on deliverance from fear. He
shared what he'd heard with the pastor, and as a result I was given the
invitation to come and teach.
When
I began to teach, I made the statement that "If you get stirred inside, if
anger rises up inside you or you get really fidgety while hearing this message,
that's a good sign! The Enemy who has hidden himself inside you -- an enemy who
has camouflaged himself as part of your nature and makeup -- does NOT want you
to hear and receive the truth that you have authority over him, and that you
can be rid of him." When I finished sharing that night, the first person
to the front of the church to receive deliverance was the pastor. More than
three-quarters of the church followed him to the front. As they followed me in
a prayer of deliverance, there were a few cases of folks who began to cough
almost uncontrollably, some began to experience convulsing as though they were
about to vomit and some made hissing noises but most of them very calmly
exercised the authority they had in Christ Jesus to receive their deliverance.
My
very first experience with ministering deliverance from fear occurred a decade
earlier in Salt Lake City. An 18-year-old girl sat on the front row of the
church as I was teaching, and when I finished she immediately volunteered the
fact that she lived her life in constant fear, doubt, and uncertainty, reacting
to sudden noises or events around her as though something was going to kill or
injure her. When I spoke to the spirit of fear and commanded it to leave her,
the sound that came out of her mouth was almost unbelievable. It was akin to
the sound of a steam locomotive with a deafening hiss and something approaching
a scream.
Have
to admit, the look of shock on her face and the faces of those sitting near her
was something to behold! But the manifestation of her deliverance from fear and
the boldness that developed in her life in the years that followed was a story
all by itself. Although I left Salt Lake City the following year to minister
with Dwain McKenzie at Long Beach Christian Center (in California), events
transpired which allowed me to see this young woman's life unfold and keep
track of her for a number of years to come. She eventually went on to become a
stock broker, an investment advisor, and -- eventually -- a managing director
for Smith-Barney (now Morgan Stanley Smith Barney).
With
that, let's lay some foundations from the Word.
II Timothy 1:7 (KJV): "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of
power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
Let's
expand this a bit from the Greek text: "For God has not
endowed, or committed to our being and existence the spirit (the very breath
and speaking forth) of fear, timidity and faithlessness; but of miraculous
power, might and strength, and of agape love, and of a disciplined
mind (under control and not subject to "flights of
fancy")." (RAC
Translation and Amplification)
Then
we pick up with a verse shared in the previous Coffee Break from I
John 4:18 (KJV): "There is no fear in
love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear
hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in
love."
Once
again, here is the same verse amplified from the Greek text:
"There is never any alarm or fright or excessive concern in
the love feast [we have with Jesus]; but completed and mature love throws out
any fright or excessive concern: because fright and alarm bring torment. He who
allows himself [the luxury] of alarm, or fright, or excessive concern does not
permit the finished work and maturity of God's love feast in Christ Jesus in
us." (RAC
Translation and Amplification)
Now,
take another look at the way the Greek phrases II Timothy 1:7: "For God has not endowed, or committed to our being and
existence the spirit (the very breath and speaking forth) of fear, timidity and
faithlessness; but of miraculous power, might and strength, and of agape love,
and of a disciplined mind (under control and not subject to "flights of
fancy")."
Do
you see it? God HAS NOT endowed us with any spirit of fear. We were never given
the breath of an evil spirit at Creation. Adam and Eve were endowed with and
imbued with the breath of God, and His breath became their spirit. For the
2,000 years or so they lived in the Garden, their lives exemplified what John
describes in his Gospel like this:
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All
things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was
made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men." (John
1:1-4 KJV)
When
God breathed the breath of life into Adam and Eve, He breathed into them HIS
life, and that life was light -- both in the sense of what flowed in their
veins AND in the context of the revelation that filled their beings. Adam
and Eve never had to go to school to learn anything. They didn't graduate from
Eden University. They never had to attend Garden Tech in order to learn how to
tend the Garden. Eve didn't have a PhD in child-rearing or home economics. Adam
didn't attend four or eight years at the Divine Institute of Technology in
order to transition between dimensions or to become expert in zoology.
OK.
You can laugh at me if you like, but you get the picture! The naturally
supernatural ability to do what they did came with the Breath of God being
breathed into their beings. It brought all the revelation they would ever need
to fulfill every commission God gave them.
Oh,
and by the way, when God breathed into Adam, and then into Eve after He took a
rib from Adam and made her, He didn't conduct a ceremony in which He stood
before them and performed some kind of ritual. God blessed them with His
declaration, "Be
fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it [using all its vast
resources in the service of God and man]; and have dominion over the fish of
the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves upon
the earth. And God
said, See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of
all the land and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for
food. And to
all the animals on the earth and to every bird of the air and to everything
that creeps on the ground—to everything in which there is the breath of life—I
have given every green plant for food." (Genesis
1:28-30 Amplified Bible)
What
Adam and Eve received from the Lord with His Spirit being breathed into them,
AND the blessing He declared over them, was total dominion over the earth.
David
makes this clear in Psalm 115:16 when he writes, "The heaven, even the heavens, are the
LORD’S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men." (KJV)
It's
even clearer when you read it in the Hebrew text: "The Heaven, even the Heavens [past, present and future],
are the Lord's: but the earth has He appointed, assigned, delivered and charged
to the sons [and daughters] and descendants of Adam."
By
now you are seeing it, aren't you? What happens when someone is given complete
dominion -- full authority?
They
are given the control of things! No one, no being, no
entity has the power or authority to take it away. If the one with dominion and
authority cedes any part of that authority to someone else, then that
"someone else" has the ability to function or to exercise some rule
in the stead of the grantor.
Let's
put it another way. The grantor has the final authority. He is a king. The one
to whom some portion of power or authority is granted is still subject to the
king. That individual is regarded as a prince.
It
may seem like I'm really going around a 40-acre field but my objective is to
show you some contrasts, and in the process help you understand the nature and
the foundation for the creation of, or basis for fear.
Once
again, what was it that first happened with Adam and Eve? "And God blessed them......." With God's Blessing
came His authority! With God's Blessing, Adam and Eve had full revelation of
God's plan for the Garden; they had all their needs supplied; they had the
creative ability to call each of the animals, the birds of the air and the fish
of the sea and endue them with their respective nature, their character, their
personality and their makeup.
Here's
one thing most folks miss in this picture: Adam had dominion over the serpent!
The serpent was subject to him. The serpent was answerable to him. Despite the
fact that Satan had entered into the serpent, causing it to take on Satan's character
and makeup, the serpent still remained a serpent -- a reptile (or creeping
thing), if you will -- over which Adam had all rule and authority.
When the serpent deceived Eve through cunning and subtlety into eating of the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, he tricked Eve into violating God's command and warning that doing so would induce death.
Adam acted with
purpose, not being deceived, and he acted emotionally, not fully considering or
comprehending the long-term consequences of his action when he took the fruit
from Eve and ate of it himself. God specifically commanded Adam and Eve not to
eat of that tree -- NOT because He was trying to keep something good from them,
but because the human frame was never designed for any knowledge acquired by
anything other than revelation.
What
Adam did not comprehend was that when an individual eats of the Tree of the
Knowledge of Good and Evil, three serious consequences follow: (1) the
Knowledge of Good produces pride and arrogance; (2) the Knowledge of Evil
produces the Fear of Evil, and along with it a host of other fear families; and
(3) that kind of fear produces a chain reaction in human cells and human DNA
resulting in ultimate death.
Adam
and Eve were never designed to die. They were created in the image and likeness
of God, Who is Eternal. They had dwelled in the Garden for some 2,000 years
(give or take), walking and talking with the Lord and functioning
inter-dimensionally between earth and the heavenlies.
The fact that partaking of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
began marking a point in their existence at which life would terminate produced
in them (and all their descendants) the Fear of Death.
Next
week we will explore the events that unfolded in Scripture when Adam and Eve
ate of the fruit of that tree, and watch each specific event that followed,
along with a visual demonstration of the families of fear as they activated in
both of them.
Again, if you are in need of healing -- especially if you have
some terminal disease or prognosis of a very short time to live from the
doctors -- please join our prayer conference calls on either Monday or
Wednesday of each week at 7:00 PM Eastern. Once again, the number to call
is (805) 399-1000. Then enter the access code: 124763#. To get into
the queue for prayer, when Randy opens the call up for everyone, hit *6-1 on
your keypad. Let us minister to your need for healing!
Blessings
on you!
Regner
A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER
WORSHIP CENTER
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Email
Contact: Admin@RiverWorshipCenter.org
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