Jun 1, '08 1:41 AM

 

And a Great Gettin' up Mornin' to ya!

Like I said in our last Coffee Break, so much is happening even as I write that it's hard to keep up.  Grab that cup of good really dark roasted coffee, maybe a "vitamin" or two, and let's not waste any time getting started today.

There's been a new development with the three-year-old girl who was raised from the dead two weeks ago, but because the details I have are sketchy, I will wait to share until I have the whole story.

We've just had an absolutely wild experience in the realm of the so-called "supernatural."  I add the caveat "so-called" because what the world around us calls supernatural is simply normal for those who will walk in the realm of the Spirit.  Each time we see the word, "miracle", in our English translations of the New Testament, the actual Greek word is either semeion, or its root word, semaino.  In neither case is our modern concept of "miracle" or supernatural event implied.

J. H. Thayer, in his Greek-English Lexicon, tells us that these words are applied universally in Greek grammar to signify "that by which a person or thing is distinguished from others and known."  These were signs or evidentiary proofs of the authorship, the power, or the authority of a person or a message being delivered or announced.

The fact that you or I can articulate words and communicate thoughts with each other is nothing more or less than the evidentiary proof that we are not of the animal kingdom -- that we are human beings created in the image and likeness of God.  Were an animal able to consider the difference between human beings and animals, our power of speech would seem "miraculous" in today's sphere of thinking.

The ability to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons and speak in languages through and by the power of the Holy Spirit that we've never learned is nothing more and nothing less than the promised evidence of the indwelling and infilling of the Holy Spirit as part of God's innate existence functioning in and through us.

Brother!  Did that come out OK?  All right.  Let me put it another way.

Jesus healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons, etc., etc., as a normal, everyday part of His life and ministry while He walked and talked in person here on earth.  He made it abundantly clear through numerous promises that, "Verily, Verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do because I go to my Father."  (John 14:12)

He also said, "The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness (or testify with evidentiary proof) of me."  (John 10:25)

The ability, therefore, for us to do these "works" is nothing more than the evidence and witness of the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ dwelling in and functioning through us.

That said, let me another one of these "evidences" or "distinguishing signs" with you.

First off, however, let me share the Scriptural basis for this "sign."

There are three verses of Scripture I will reference before sharing this event.  The first comes from Psalm 91:11-12: "For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.  They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone."

The second comes from Psalm 103:20: "Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word."

Finally, the third reference comes from Paul's letter to the Hebrews (Hebrews 1:4) and is a direct quote from Psalm 104:4: "And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire."

Paul follows his comments on angels in the same chapter by describing their function in the earth, "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for themwho shall be heirs of salvation?"  (Hebrews 1:14)

From each of these portions of the Word, it becomes very clear that angels are sent to minister for and on behalf of God's people -- and more specifically, on behalf of those who are or shall be "heirs of soteria > sozo: salvation, healing, deliverance, wholeness, prosperity, safety."

Della and I have long understood that angels are subject to us as believers and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ; that they are available to our commands when those commands incorporate the voice or sound of His Word.  Since His Word specifies that the angels are sent forth to minister for us as heirs, whenever we have a specific need as it relates to life and our ongoing walk with the Lord, we have the ability and the opportunity to command angels.

Some fifteen years ago as we were gathered together in corporate worship, Della had an "open vision."  The Lord opened her eyes to see the angelic hosts arrayed in front of us.  The captain of that host of angels came before her and dropped to one knee while holding his spear upright.  The Lord spoke to her almost audibly in that instant and said, "Command him."

It was a command to send forth the hosts to do whatever she instructed.  We sort of knew -- intellectually, at least -- that the angels were available to do our bidding, but this was the first time there was a rhema (a direct, spoken Word) from the Lord which confirmed it.  From that moment on, we've had a much better grasp of the authority we have, both on earth and in the heavenlies.

Now!  To the present event.

Two weeks ago, while we were still at Mary Ellen's place in Red Deer, Alberta, our oldest son, Chris, called from Alaska in somewhat of a panic.

"Dad, you remember when I asked you to go to Bank of America about six weeks ago and pick up a cashier's check for $3875 and send it to Citi-Mortgage for my past due house payments on the house in Alaska?"  I said, "Sure.  I picked up that check and sent it by express mail to Citi-Mortgage.  I still have the mail receipt."

Chris continued.  "I just received a phone call from Citi-Mortgage.  They claim they never received it, and because I am now almost four payments behind according to them, they are going to begin foreclosure proceedings.  I've talked to them about the cashier's check and they say they've never received it.  I called Sandra at Bank of America and asked her to cancel that check and reissue a new one in its place, but she says that B of A has a policy of waiting for 90 days after a cashier's check is issued.  If the check is not cashed within that time, they will cancel and reissue a new one.

"Dad," he continued, "I told Sandra that I can't wait for ninety days or I'll lose all of that investment in our Alaska house."

I called Della and Mary Ellen to come to the phone and then said to Chris, "Son, we're going to command the angel of the Lord to go and find, and retrieve that check and place it in front of whoever needs to have it."

Chris has seen us do this sort of thing before, and the panic began to die down in him.  "OK, Dad.  I'm going to send Chelsi to the bank tomorrow morning and have her sit down with Sandra to see what we can work out.  I'll let you know what happens."

Mary Ellen joined Della and me and we commanded the angel of the Lord to retrieve that lost cashier's check.  24 hours later Chris called again.  The voice on the other end of the phone was a radically different voice than we'd heard the day before.  He was bouncing off the walls.

"You won't believe what happened," he shouted.  Chris proceeded to tell us just how effective that prayer of command was.  Chelsi had gone into Bank of America and sat down in Sandra's office.  Sandra is our longtime personal banker with B of A, and when Chris and family moved from Alaska to Sunnyside, we connected them together so that Chris could begin establishing banking relations with Bank of America.

Sandra called Citi-Mortgage with Chelsi in her office.  As it happened, the woman who answered the phone was the person to the cashier's check had been originally directed.  As Sandra described the situation to her, she responded, "I remember receiving that check.  The problem was that when it arrived, the remitter was a Christian Carpenter.  (The girl who had prepared the cashier's check for Chris had spaced it out when she was printing it and mis-spelled the last name.)  For the life of me, I couldn't find any account in that name, and I didn't connect it with Christian Capener.  I held the cashier's check for 30 days, and when there was no follow-up phone call and we had no way to apply it to an account, I put the check into the shredder and destroyed it."

She continued.  "Since I can tell you as one bank officer to another that the cashier's check is destroyed, you can simply cancel it and reissue a new one to the Capeners."

Sandra's face took on a look of both consternation and frustration.  "Ma'am, Bank of America has a 90-day cancellation policy.  I can't reissue the check until 90 days have passed."

You have the picture, I'm sure.  Sandra is sitting in her office with Chelsi sitting across from her, on the phone to the woman at Citi-Mortgage who verifies that she received the cashier's check, and then destroyed it after 30 days had passed without being able to credit it to an account.  Sandra is sitting there, phone in hand, and suddenly the cashier's check appears on her desk in front of her, INTACT!

She says to the lady on the phone, "Hang on just a minute."  She picks up the check, blinks her eyes more than a few times, then turns it around and shows it to Chelsi.

"Chelsi, is this the cashier's check?"  Chelsi can't quite believe her eyes, either.  "That's it" she exclaims.  The woman at Citi-Mortgage in Las Vegas is hearing this dialogue and shouts into the phone, "That's impossible!  I shredded that check here in Las Vegas.  There is no way it can be on your desk, intact, in Sunnyside, Washington!"

But it was!  The angel of the Lord hadn't just retrieved it in its shredded pieces: the check had been restored and placed right in front of Sandra while she was talking to the woman who had destroyed it.

Was that a miracle?  How do you get a shredded check from Las Vegas, Nevada to Sunnyside, Washington and have it suddenly appear 1100 miles away intact?

I'll tell you what it was.  That's the angel of the Lord doing exactly what he's been sent to do.  It was the evidence, the testimony of the power and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ working in and through us as faith-speaking believers.

The end of that story was that Sandra cancelled the check immediately, put the funds back in Chris and Chelsi's bank account and then wired the funds to Citi-Mortgage.  Problem solved!  Not only that, Chris was given retroactive credit for making his payments on time.

Don't you just love the way God works?  Don't you thoroughly enjoy the blessing of His presence, and the way His Word works in and through us?

Yup.  You betcha!  More to come, folks.

Here's an update for you on the streaming video from the Lakeland Outpouring with Todd Bentley on GOD TV.  There's a new server connection athttp://www.god.tv/stream.

 

Healing is the gift of God.  It is part of the Blessing of Abraham restored by the Lord Jesus Christ to and for all who believe.  Do not for a minute think that sickness or infirmity is a blessing from the Lord.  It is a curse from Satan.  Jesus came to redeem us from that curse!

The Blessing of the Lord: it makes rich and He adds no painful toil and sorrow!  (Proverbs 10:22)  Be blessed!