September 2, 2016

 

People have asked me over the years how I can share like this on these families of fear and deliverance from fear.  The answer is quite simple.  Growing up and seeing the Enemy do his best to take your life on some 30 different occasions, going all the way back to when I was two years of age, tends to have an impact on you!

 

 Experiencing the deliverance of the Lord in the midst of it time after time after time – and even hearing the angel of the Lord speak audibly to you saying, “Nothing is going to happen to you” – really brings a revelation based in the Word and lived out in a practical dimension.

 

I honestly cannot think back to a time where I was afflicted with the Fear of Evil, and that I credit to the fact of growing up with angels, having the Lord appear visibly to me at age seven, and then at age nine, and repeating at age ten, experiencing my first two visits to Heaven.  There was a love for the Lord instilled in the core of my being at an early age – a love that banished all fear of Him and/or any thought that I needed to behave in some way or engage in ritualistic traditions to please Him.

 

It’s a funny thing, though.  You’d think that with all of that in my background, there wouldn’t be any room for the Fear of Man.  NONE of these fears can enter into your life and cause you to compromise the Word unless you open the door to them.  That is exactly what happened to me with the enormous success of my businesses in the little and very remote town of Barrow, Alaska.

 

Let me continue where I left off last week.

 

The Fear of Man always generates the need to please others.  The fear part of it is strictly subconscious but it still manipulates you to do whatever it takes — even going to extravagant lengths — to please others and to be seen in a good light by them.  It frequently results in something we all know as “passing the buck” when something happens to put us in a bad light with our peers or those in charge to whom we answer.  We see this in operation in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were caught in their fear.  Watch this scene unfold in Genesis 3: 11-13.

 

“And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?   And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.   And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”

 

First, we see Adam pass the buck.  He can’t take responsibility for his own disobedience so he blames Eve.  More than that, he tries to put off some of the blame on God Himself!

 

Do you see it?  “The woman whom thou gavest to be with me.”  Riiiiiiigghhhhttt!!!  If God hadn’t given Adam Eve in the first place, none of this would have happened!  Never mind the fact that Adam and Eve have functioned together in ruling over the earth for something on the order of a couple of thousand years by this time.  And now Adam blames God while blaming Eve?  THAT, my friends, is the Fear of Man in full view!

And it doesn’t stop.  Eve does exactly the same thing.  She can’t blame Adam or pass the buck to him, but she can blame the serpent.  ”And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.”

 

What we see the Fear of Man doing here is to cause both Adam and Eve to avoid their own responsibility.  Think what would have happened if Adam had accepted responsibility in the first place and said to the Lord, “This was my fault and my disobedience.  Had I paid attention to what was happening and taken the authority to cancel what Eve had done as her husband, we wouldn’t be here today.”  In fact, he had acted redemptively, but his decision was made in human reasoning — NOT according to the Word of the Lord.

 

You see, don’t you, what happens when we eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?  We make decisions based on whether we see things in a “good” light or an “evil” perspective.  They are “soul” decisions made from a contaminated soul, a soul contaminated with either the Fear of Death, the Fear of Man or the Fear of Evil.

 

David fully understood the contamination of the soul.  He understood what an un-restored soul was capable of.  David realized that without the restoration of our soul — the return of our soul to that where we were first created — we would be unable to walk with the Lord in the Paths of Righteousness and mature in our relationship with Him so that His Glory would be seen in us.  He understood that the objective of our restoration would ultimately bring us to the place where we could — and would — dwell in the House of the Lord forever!

 

It was in the fall of 1982 that I was invited to speak at a Full Gospel Businessmen’s conference in Fairbanks. The Lord had been revealing to me the nature of the families of fear, and He had just shown me pictures of how the Fear of Man operates.  I saw my own failure and the collapse of Arctic Slope Audio (as well as that of North Slope Communications — and that’s another story) as a product of submitting to and opening the door in my life to the Fear of Man.  That experience had seared me internally.  It was a fresh, burning revelation I knew the body of Christ needed.  I shared my experiences at this conference and in so doing, repented openly for my disobedience to the Lord.

 

There were pastors and business leaders present at that conference who immediately stood to their feet, repented publicly for their own yielding to the Fear of Man, and then gathered around me to minister deliverance from that fear.

 

Now do you see the surgery that had to be performed in order to be set free and restored?  The very fact that Jesus experienced these things Himself equipped Him to minister to us and to restore us.

 

Consider how Paul describes Jesus as he writes his letter to the Hebrews.

 

Hebrews 2:10:  For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

 

Then there’s this one:

 

Hebrews 5:8-9:  Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;  And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

 

The Greek word used in both of these verses for “suffering” is the same: pathema.  J. H. Thayer renders it like this: that which one has suffered or is suffering as a result of misfortune, calamity or evil.

 

When Paul says that Jesus learned obedience by the things that he went through, we see the word, hupakoe, for obedience.  That word means: to listen attentively, to submit and comply [with the instruction or command given.]

 

Most Christians do not consider for a moment the idea that Jesus learned obedience to the Word or instruction of Father through His own mistakes or missteps.  What they fail to realize is that Jesus was still a teknon — one under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father (see Galatians 4:2) — until He was baptized in the Jordan River.

 

That’s a hard concept for some folks to swallow, but between the age of 12 (when He confounded the priests in the temple with His knowledge of the Word) and 30 when He was baptized, Jesus was learning Father’s ways of conducting business in a practical sense, and probably making a few missteps along the way.  Father’s Word was becoming Jesus’ flesh.  In a very real way, He was learning how to walk out that same Word he had confounded the priests, the scribes and Pharisees with at age 12.

 

He did not become huios (one released with Father’s full approval to conduct business in Father’s name and authority) until Father spoke from Heaven when Jesus came up out of the River Jordan and said, “This is my Beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased.”

 

Thus John could write (see John 1:14), “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”

 

With Father’s announcement, and the expression of Divine anointing that came upon Him in the form of the dove settling on his shoulder, Jesus now being made perfect (teleios — complete), he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.  Jesus was now ready to author and complete our restoration through the things He was about to go through.

 

What Jesus had learned as a teknon prepared Him for that which was to come, once He became a huios.  Without that period of preparation in His life, He would not have been prepared to experience the unbelievable stripes which ripped His flesh apart and the suffering of the Cross on our behalf.

 

A few years ago, I shared the parallels between the seven nations that occupied Canaan and the seven letters that open up the book of Revelation.  Each of the seven nations had driving master spirits that represented their character and nature.  What Israel was commanded to overcome and obliterate in destroying these nations, they failed because of compromise.  They acted after the flesh and did not succeed in their quest, ultimately resulting in the nation being carried away into captivity.

 

It is not my purpose or objective today to try and cover that ground again, but I would like you to see a revelation in the third of the seven letters.  My objective is to show you an area of restoration that we cannot escape from if we are to become representatives of the Glory of the Lord, and — as David put it — “dwell in the House of the Lord forever.”

 

This letter is written to the Ekklesia in Pergamos, and the central theme of God's dealings with them was "The Fear of Man."

 

"…. Thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam ...... and ...... also, them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which thing I hate."

 

The Fear of Man?  O.K.  For starters, let's just take a look at Balaam.

 

Balak, the king of Moab, sends his counselors and advisors to Balaam, asking Balaam to pronounce a curse upon Israel (see Numbers 22, 23, 24).  Of course, Balak sends along "the rewards of divination" -- a nice metaphor for a heap of money, and other goodies -- as an enticement.

 

Why?  Why would money be an enticement to anyone to pronounce a curse -- especially when the one being enticed is reasonably well off, and has at least two servants?

 

First, the motivation behind the enticement: "Moab was sore afraid of the people...."  Get it?  It's called "The Fear of Man."  Those who suffer from the Fear of Man seek to impress man.

 

Secondly, those who fear man believe that money brings status: hence, respect, power, and even fear, from other men.  Those who suffer from the Fear of Man also believe that all other men suffer from the Fear of Man. It is a subconscious, driving force in their lives.

 

Did Balaam suffer from the Fear of Man” Look at his actions!

 

Twice, the "honorable men" from Moab came to entice him.  The Lord has already said, "No!"  So they come the second time with an offer Balaam can't resist, "I will promote thee to very great honor."  Not enough?  O.K.  How about this?  "And I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me."

 

Wow!  How's that for power and authority!

 

Did Balaam suffer from the Fear of Man?  Look at what he did.

 

First, he says all the right words, "If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less, or more."

Riiiight!

 

Oh, we must impress them with our righteousness, mustn't we?  We really have to let them know that this is "my God," and not "their God."  We are very elite, and exclusive, aren't we?

 

Sorry to leave you hanging in the middle of this but the picture of Balaam, as well as that of the Nicolaitanes, is a revelation of just how far the obstinacy of the Fear of Man will take people.  See you next week.

 

 I remind those of you in need of ministry that our Healing Prayer Call normally takes place on the first Monday of each month at 7:00 PM Eastern (4:00 PM Pacific).  Our call-in number is (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 (605) 562-3140, and the access code is 308640#.  We hope to make these gatherings available by Skype or Talk Fusion before long.  If you miss the live call, you can dial (605) 562-3149, enter the same access code and listen in later.

 

Blessings on you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES

RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Sunnyside, Washington 98944

Email Contact: Admin@RiverWorshipCenter.org

 

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