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!