Spiritual Hierarchy & Authority, Part 22

 

 

March 16, 2018

 

We left off last week talking about the problem that takes place when we exchange revelation for humanly acquired knowledge.  The only real authority is that which comes in the place of our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.  The corollary to that is that embodied in our relationship with the Lord is the fact that we live by the revelation that comes in the place of that relationship.  During the next couple weeks I want to talk about the ruling and the authority that comes through worship.

 

When we begin to operate out of our own wisdom and understanding, invariably we get ahead of God and mess things up royally.  Our word doesn’t accomplish what it was intended to, and our authority is diminished, if not eliminated.

 

Let me be clear.  I’m not suggesting that we lose all authority.  We do, however, lose it in any place where we try to operate out of our own “wisdom” and understanding instead of waiting on the Lord to see what He wants us to do or say, or where He wants us to go, depending on the circumstances at hand.

 

Because the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil became the focal point for the loss of relationship with the Lord, it must, of necessity, also be the focal point at which that relationship was returned.  When Jesus' ministry began, therefore, John the Baptist prophesied the following of Jesus:

 

Matthew 3:10:  And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the tree.

 

In so prophesying, he made it clear that Jesus' purpose was to cut down the Tree of Knowledge, and sever it at the root.

 

Because of the enormous significance of the Tree, and the fact that it caused the death and downfall of this species of beings specifically created for fellowship with the Lord, He chose to lay the axe in such a demonstrable action as would clearly illustrate for all time his love and desire for His Bride.  In previous discussions, we’ve talked about the plan set in motion even before the words were spoken, "Let there be light."  We talked about the legal significance of Jesus' acts, and how each step represented the gathering together of every aspect of the Serpent's control over the human race.

 

Consider these aspects.

 

Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and thus were separated (evicted, actually) from the Garden, and from their place of intimate relationship with the Lord.  That removal condemned their seed to being perpetually infected with the "Knowledge Virus," and with it, the death incorporated into its very essence.

 

Until Jesus' birth, no human being on the face of the earth had ever been born who was not infected.  Jesus, by virtue of His spiritual genetics, although He was born of a woman, did not carry in His flesh the proclivity for "knowledge."

 

Being born of a woman qualified Him as a genuine member of the human race.  Having the genesis of the Holy Spirit in His DNA, He also had -- in His human form -- all of the qualities of His Throne in the Heavenlies, and the rulership and authority which went with that place of dominion.  It was imperative -- for the sake of His Bride-to-be -- that this dominion be worked in His being as a human.  It was critical and necessary that He put down the knowledge of good, and the knowledge of evil, and that He rule over the tendency of the flesh to be lured by the lust for knowledge.

 

He must of necessity squash "under His feet" human reasoning and rationale by responding only to the dictates of His Father.  And He did!  Jesus could therefore freely state the following.

 

John 8:28-29: I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.  And He that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please Him.

 

This word, "please," is of great significance in the Greek text.  The word used here is: arestos.  We define arestos (which comes from the root word, aresko) as much more than just to please.  It means: to be in agreement with; to accommodate one's self to the opinions, desires, and interests of (the intended individual).

 

Hence, "to please" is not to merely acquiesce to someone's wishes and desires -- even if you don't necessarily completely agree.  Arestos is to be in a place of complete unity and agreement, and to therefore "please," or "bring pleasure," through the active fulfillment of those opinions, desires and interests.

 

Being in that place of complete unity and agreement with the Father meant that He was in complete agreement with the Throne of the Universe, and was therefore acting on its behalf.  As a result, He could walk and talk -- in human form -- and at the same time function from the Throne, ruling, and overruling the flesh, the emotions, the lust for the knowledge of good and evil, that old serpent Satan, and every evil spirit pitted against Him.

 

Jesus walked as the personification of perfect agreement, perfect sumphoneo -- perfect accord -- with the Father, and with the Holy Spirit, Who would shortly come to fulfill His bidding in the preparation of His long awaited Bride.  How did He do this?  It was simple!  Though He walked in human flesh, He lived in the realm of the Spirit.

 

That union, that accord, that agreement -- that place of demonstrated authority -- all existed because He lived in the realm of the Spirit.  Let me explain.

 

When Jesus visited that day with the Samaritan woman at the well, and she began to talk about worship, relating to worship in a physical sense with physical acts in a geographical place, Jesus stopped her with the statement:

 

John 4:22-24, NASB: You worship that which you do not know ............. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.  God is a spirit, and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth.

 

The point He makes is that worship is neither a physical act, nor a function in a physical or geographical place.  Worship is not the doing of things.  Worship is not something which occurs in a church or a synagogue.  Worship is not even the doing of things which please the Father.  Although true worship will certainly result in our doing things which please Him, it is a place of union, a place of intimate love in the Spirit.

 

Again, 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.

 

We’ve talked about this many times in the past (and I continue to emphasize the fact).  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.  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 Peter gives us in his second letter to the Ekklesia at large:

 

II Peter 3:8: But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that a thousand years with the Lord is as a day, and a day is as a thousand years.

 

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.

 

This is a long list, and I think I will stop here and finish this part next week.

 

For those of you who’ve participated during the past three years in our Monday night Healing Prayer Conference Call, this is just a reminder that the calls have resumed on a once-a-month basis, the first Monday of each month.  If you have a need for healing, or you have friends in need of healing, here is the number to call: (712) 775-7035.  The Access Code is: 323859#.  For Canadians who have difficulty getting in to this number, you can call (559) 546-1400.   If someone answers and asks what your original call-in number was, you can give them the 712 number and access code.

 

At the same time, 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 10:45AM Pacific.  That conference number is (712) 770-4160, and the access code is 308640#.  We are now making these gatherings available by Skype.  If you wish to participate by video on Skype, my Skype ID is regner.capener.  If you miss the live voice call, 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 A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES

RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Temple, Texas 76504

Email Contact: CapenerMinistries@protonmail.com

 

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