RULING AND REIGNING WITH GOD

Part 11

 

October 9, 2020

 

Four weeks ago, we left off with Jesus’ discussion at the well with the woman of Samaria. She didn’t really understand worship. For her, it was a physical act in some geographical place. Jesus made it clear to here that worship actually occurred in the realm of the Spirit — not in the flesh. That’s where we will pick up our discussion today.

 

Without belaboring the point, Jesus went beyond just saying that those who worship God must worship Him in spirit. He added the phrase, "and in truth." In so doing, He pointed back once again to that place where Adam and Eve had once lived in the Garden. So long as they were clothed in the absoluteness of the onoma of the Lord, so long as they lived enveloped in that place of Truth -- that place where His Word, His Rhema, His revelation (they are all one and the same) formed the very essence of their existence -- His throne was operational in and through them. They lived worship.

 

Jesus was saying to the woman of Samaria that relationship with the Lord, that worship, that intimacy with Him has nothing whatever to do with human reasoning, thought processes, or the knowledge of good or evil. He was saying that "worship" and "knowledge" are not compatible. Everything which occurs outside the realm of the Spirit functions in the place of intellect, reasoning and knowledge. Worship -- which can only occur in the Spirit -- must be in Truth.

 

As previously noted, Truth vanishes with knowledge, whether it be the "knowledge of good," or the "knowledge of evil." If Truth disappears, the Throne goes with it, along with all the authority and power of the Throne. Worship, therefore, "in Truth," needs no help. Worship in the Spirit, and in Truth, is the sum and substance -- the totality, if you will -- of being One with the Lord Jesus Christ, with the Father, with the Holy Spirit. To worship "in Truth" is to worship in the totality of Jesus' onoma-- the very essence of His being. He is that Truth!

 

Now let’s return to the discussion on the necessity of Jesus taking the "axe to the root of the tree." It was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which divided His created-to-be Bride from union and fellowship with Him. The Plan, to which we have referred earlier, incorporated the necessity of destroying the life and power of that tree so that it would no longer infect and destroy His chosen and called out people.

 

The power of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was death. It brought a reign of terror upon mankind because that knowledge brought the three families of Fear: namely, (1) The Fear of Evil; (2) The Fear of Man; and (3) The Fear of Death.

 

The Fear of Evil attacked men and women at the level of their spirit existence, and specifically, their relationship with God. The Fear of Man attacked them in the realm of their relationships with one another -- their soul, their minds, their emotions, their will. The Fear of Death attacked them in their flesh, creating one disease after another, and causing mankind to react to anything which threatened their well being. Those families of fear robbed men and women of true power and authority, keeping them in subjugation to the wiles of Satan.

 

The "Knowledge of Good" brought pride, arrogance, rebellion, and -- most of all -- religion, as a substitute for love and intimate relationship with the Lord. It brought the "doing of good works," of "ministry," as a substitute for just being with and in Him. It created the need to be busy "serving the needs of mankind," and in so doing, cheated them out of the intimacy of pure worship. The "Knowledge of Good" counterfeited the joy of being One with Jesus Christ by making individuals feel "good" and "useful to society." By giving individuals a sense of "self-accomplishment," it substituted that feeling for the true joy which comes in His presence, robbing them of seeing and experiencing His provision, His ministry, His service to His Bride.

 

The Tree of Knowledge had to be severed at its roots, and Jesus did so in style. Throughout His earthly life, and the three and-a-half years of His ministry, Jesus ruled constantly over every effort of Satan to threaten or deceive Him into submission. Knowing in advance that Satan would give up trying to bring Him under his control, and create a conspiracy to kill Him, He had established centuries and millennia before the picture of the lamb being offered as a sacrifice. That picture began only a few years after Adam and Eve exited the Garden, and their son, Abel offered up the sacrifice of his firstling lambs unto the Lord -- a sacrifice which pleased the Lord.

 

It continued throughout the centuries to the time when Abraham, as a picture of The Father, went to the top of Mount Moriah to offer up Isaac -- who was a forerunner of The Son -- in obedience to the Lord's command. In this case, the Angel of the Lord stayed Abraham's hand and provided the ram in the thicket. When the Law was given through Moses, the lamb became the symbol for Israel of that which was to come in Christ Jesus, becoming the offering and sacrifice for sin.

 

While still in His place in the Heavenlies, Jesus had possessed the Crown and Throne of the Universe. He had functionally given up that place in order to come to redeem His Bride. Now the time of redemption had come, and Jesus was going to take His Crown -- as the Lamb! With Satan's conspiracy in full bloom, Judas betrayed Jesus to the Pharisees and Sadducees, who had Him tried and convicted in Pilate's court, and sentenced to die on a cross. Both Peter and Paul recognized that cross as the tree, and referred to it as such on numerous occasions in their epistles.

 

Jesus therefore went willingly to the sacrifice as The Lamb, to be offered up on the Tree. That Tree had been responsible for the death and separation of His Bride-to-be from His intended union with her. So He went to the Tree to be offered up, in order to redeem His Bride from the power of that Tree. And He did it by rising from the dead on the third day.

 

The parallels here are so striking as to astound any observant person.

 

Adam and Eve died on the third day, as a result of having eaten of the Tree of Knowledge. Consider for a moment the illustration that "a thousand years with the Lord is as a day, and a day is as a thousand years." (see II Peter 3:8) Adam and Eve were created at the beginning of the Sixth day of Creation. They lived with Him in the Garden on the Sixth and Seventh days (or two thousand years.) On the Eighth day, they partook of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The Lord had said to them, "In the day that you eat from it, you shall surely die," and so they did -- 950 years later -- within the third thousand-year day.

 

Jesus died on the Tree, and then rose from the dead on the third day. In so doing, He nullified the life and power of the Tree, laying the axe to its root.

 

Adam and Eve lost their crown and their dominion with the Tree of Knowledge.

 

Jesus regained that Crown with His death on the Tree, and subsequent resurrection, making it available once again for all of the descendants of Adam and Eve who would become One with Him.

 

Adam and Eve's son, Abel, found acceptance in the eyes of the Lordbecause of the sacrifice of his firstborn lambs as an offering to Him. He was killed by his jealous brother.

 

Jesus' brethren killed Him,making HimThe Lamb who was offered up as an atoning sacrifice, an offering acceptable in the eyes of God the Father-- and under the Law!

 

The Serpent had subdued Adam and Eveunder him and his power, along with all of their descendants, making them subservient to his wishes and commands.

 

Jesus subdued the Serpent, and crushed his power under His heel,making Satan and all his hordes of spirits subservient to those descendants of Adam and Eve who would become One with Him.

 

Though He was a meek and mild lamb, offered up in order to redeem His intended Bride, the Lamb of God took -- and now possesses, once and for all -- the Crown, and the Throne!

 

A pattern of the Throne was laid out for that chosen people called as a pattern of the Bride, Israel. It began with God's promise to Abraham (see Genesis 15:18-21) to give to him and to his descendants, the lands of the Hittites, the Hivites (referred to in Genesis 15 as "the Rephaim"), the Perizzites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites. Three other nations -- the Kenites, the Kenizzites, and the Kadmonites -- were also mentioned as being a part of Abraham's inheritance, but the other seven are the object of particular interest in this study, since God commanded the destruction and removal of these seven nations.

 

The Land of Inheritance, which was referred to in an overall sense as Canaan, was a picture -- a metaphor, if you please -- of Eden, the Garden of God. Under the premise that Adam and Eve would become "gods" if they would eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, the Serpent, Satan, robbed them of the land of their inheritance.

 

There was a unique significance to the naming of each of the seven nations which occupied Canaan. Each name represented an onoma. Each onoma was a part of the overall makeup of Satan, and characterized one of the seven dominant spirits of Satan(**see note). The collective total of the seven represented the makeup, the character, the identity, the very essence of Satan.

 

(**Note: Some have questioned the idea that there are seven dominant spirits which make up the totality of Satan, but one must remember that he was created by God originally as Lucifer. Ezekiel was instructed by the Lord to take up a prophecy against him. Part of that prophecy incorporates the following statements:

 

"You had the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty; ......On the day that you were created, they [every precious stone] were prepared. You were the anointed cherub who covers, and I placed you there." (See Ezekiel 28:12-14)

The number, seven, representative of God, is the number of perfection. Ezekiel also states in his prophecy that "You were internally filled with violence, and you sinned; Therefore I have cast you as profane from the mountain of God." (verse 16) Therefore, although Lucifer was created as the "seal of perfection," he "profaned" that perfection, changing and perverting the onoma of each spirit within his makeup.)

 

Just as a curse had been pronounced on the Serpent for his deception, lies, and theft of Adam and Eve's inheritance, so had a curse also been pronounced upon Canaan. If you will recall an event which took place following the abatement of the Flood when Noah and his sons had established vineyards in the region of Ararat, Ham went into his father's tent after Noah became drunk. We are told (Genesis 8:22) that Ham "saw the nakedness of his father, and [nagad] told his two brothers outside."

 

The particular usage of this word, nagad, in this instance is in the sense of: bragging; showing a thing openly; making a public exhibition of something.

 

The usage of the phrase, "[he] saw the nakedness of (his father...") occurs numerous times throughout the Old Testament with a specific significance. It is a Hebrew metaphor which means: to take advantage of; to uncover for the purpose of intercourse; to benefit from seeing one's weaknesses and profit therefrom.

In this instance we are given a picture of Ham taking advantage of his father's drunken state in order to have homosexual intercourse. That picture is further clarified in the statement in verse 24, "When Noah awoke from his wine, he knew what his youngest son had done to him."

 

Canaan was Ham's firstborn son. He represented Ham's future, his inheritance in the land. He also carried the aberrant seed of his father. Noah therefore pronounced God's curse upon that seed, and all who would come forth from Canaan.

 

Each of the seven nations, upon whom God's judgment fell, descended from Canaan. The Hittites were the sons of Heth, Canaan's second born son. The Jebusites were descended from Jerus, the son of Canaan, whose name was changed to Jebus by his children because of his propensity for "crushing" everything in his path -- even his wheat and grains. The Amorites were the sons of Emor. The Canaanites were descended from Sidon, Canaan's firstborn son, and became an amalgamation of the descendants of several sons. And so it went.

 

Each nation represented one of the seven dominant spirits of Satan. Without getting into a study of each of them, I will simply identify each nation with its presiding spirit. Each of these spirits, incidentally, is identified otherwise in Scripture, and Paul refers to them in Ephesians 6 as kosmokrator:world rulers of darkness. Each nation/presiding spirit is listed below:

 

(1) The Hittites The Fear of Evil

 

(2) The Hivites The Fear of Man

 

(3) The Girgashites The Fear of Death

 

(4) The Amorites Rebellion/Witchcraft*

 

(5) The Jebusites Pride/Threshing**

 

(6)The Perizzites Democracy***

 

(7) The Canaanites Greed/Merchandising****

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

 

Notes: * The presiding spirit of the Amorites, which we have identified as Rebellion and/or Witchcraft, was clearly exhibited in the characteristics of Jezebel, whose father was an Amorite king. The Amorites sought to control others through witchcraft, and were the undisputed masters of hierarchical government. The spirit of Jezebel was responsible for blurring the lines between male and female, and perverting sexual relationships to the extreme.

 

** The Jebusites were a proud, arrogant people who were noted for "threshing," a technique by which wheat and other grains were winnowed and beaten. The end product was good for nothing but preparation in breads and pastries, it was lacking in real nutrition. Because of the way in which the grains were threshed, the seeds could not be planted, and no new harvest could come forth.

 

*** The spirit of Democracy prevailed among the Perizzites. Their national motto was "Openness with All." Their version of "love" was what we have come to call "sloppy agape." They had no qualms about counterfeiting fellowship and open relationships with people of other nations and tribes for the purpose of gaining control over them.

 

**** The Canaanites were noted for greed. They engaged in all manner of business and trade. There was nothing they would not sell for a price -- including their friends and relatives.

 

All of the seed of Canaan, no matter what nation or tribe, carried the genesis of Ham's sexual perversion, and it became part and parcel of their existence, and their cultic religious rites.

 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

All of the things described above were intolerable in God's people, and the Lord warned them against intermarriage and intermingling of any kind with any of the above nations. Prior to Moses' death, and Joshua's taking command, Moses stood before the people to deliver the following word of the Lord,

 

"When the Lord your God shall bring you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and shall clear away many nations before you -- the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites -- seven nations greater and stronger than you, and when the Lord your God shall deliver them before you, and you shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them.

 

You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons.

For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you.

 

But thus shall you do to them: you shall tear down their altars, and smash their sacred pillars and hew down their Asherim (idols to Ashtaroth), and burn their graven images with fire.

 

For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth." (see Deuteronomy 7:1-11) NASB

 

Lots more to go. See you next week.

 

In case you are missing out on real fellowship in an environment of Ekklesia, our Sunday worship gatherings are available by conference call – usually at about 10:30AM Pacific. That conference number is (712) 770-4160, and the access code is 308640#. We are now making these gatherings available on video usingZOOM. If you wish to participate by video on ZOOM, our login ID is 835-926-513. If you miss the live voice-onlycall, you can dial (712) 770-4169, enter the same access code and listen in later. The video call, of course, is not recorded – not yet, anyway.

 

Blessings on you!

 

Regner

Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES

RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Temple, Texas 76502

Email Contact: CapenerMinistries@protonmail.com

 

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