RULING AND REIGNING WITH GOD

Part 24

 

January 15, 2021

 

Watching God move in such spectacular ways in the past days has only reinforced the benefits of God’s people ruling and reigning through prayer, fasting, decrees, declarations and exercising the authority of the Lord.  This is a normal part of our existence as committed believers.  You understand, of course, that commitment demands that we respond proactively to every Word of the Lord given to us.

 

I’ve said this a thousand times before, and I continue to say it.  We don’t get to pick and choose what we want to obey, and what we want to ignore.   Remember the Word that Mary said to the servants at the feast? (See John 2)

“Whatever He says to you, do it!”

 

That’s where we are!  That’s the requirement for us if we are to rule and reign with the Lord Jesus Christ.  Let’s take this the next step.

 

Anyone who thinks authority is automatically given without there being a testing and trying period is living in some kind of dreamland.  Think about authority in a natural sense, for a minute.

 

When a person is first born, even in the sense of someone who is born to royalty, they may have vested in them the authority that goes with their family or title, but they will never get to use that authority until they have learned what it is all about.  Even then it has to be tested and practiced until one is seasoned properly.  You’ve heard me share this before, but here it is again! Here’s how the apostle Paul put it when talking about who we are and what we have vested in us.

 

II Timothy 2:15-17:  Be instantly responsive to the Lord, making yourself available to Him in the midst of the crucible, a tried and tested laborer who has no fear of being examined – one who, by virtue of God’s testing and the time spent in the crucible with Him, knows the proven Word of Truth.

 

Stand aloof from, and avoid the untested, untried “word” which comes forth from those who would propagate speculation and create their own doctrines.  These profane speculations and so-called “words” are empty babblings which will only serve to advance ungodliness;

 

And those who spread these doctrines will only yield a gangrene pasture – a source of poison to those who ingest their “word”…..  and we point out Hymenaeus and Philetus as examples.   (RAC Translation & Amplification)

 

You see it, don’t you?  Everything that God has for us and in us is tested in a crucible.  The crucible — as seen in the picture on the first page — is a vessel where precious metals such as gold or silver are heated again and again to the melting place, poured out into another vessel where the impurities — the dross — forms on top and is scooped out.

 

This is how purity and value are established.  In the same way, we are being processed and trested and tried — again and again — until everything that would contaminate and compromised the presence and authority of the Lord in us is removed.

The apostle Peter put it like this:

 

I Peter 4:12-19, KJV: Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.

 

For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

 

Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.

 

I have shared the following principles in the past.  This is an unfolding picture of the processes that occur in our lives as we progress from birth to maturity and grow up into the person of faith, authority and power that we’ve been designed and destined for.  Let me first begin by quoting from some that Paul wrote to the Galatians.

 

Galatians 4:1-7, KJV:  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.

Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

 

And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

 

You see what Paul is driving at.   It doesn’t matter what we’ve been born into!  What matters is how we respond to the “tutors and governors” that God assigns to teach and govern us until we have reached the place that He can trust us with His authority and power.

 

I shared these five words in a recent series of Coffee Breaks, but for the sake of this discussion, let me briefly recap. 

 

Brephosis a word which describes the process of development in the womb as a child prepares to come to birth; and the first eight days immediately following birth up to circumcision. 

 

Nepios describes a babe-in-arms between the time of circumcision and being weaned from the breast (or the bottle). 

Paidion is a child who has been weaned from the milk, but has not yet reached the age of reason (Bar-Mitzvah for boys -- age 12, and Bat-Mitzvah for girls -- age 13)). 

 

From this point forward children are referred to as teknon(s).  Now the young person (still referred to sometimes as a "child"), having reached the age of reason, begins to undergo very strict training and preparation so that he/she is thoroughly metamorphosed into the thoughts, the ways, the practices, the business dealings, and the very heart of the Father.

 

Hence, the apostle Paul describes this period of time for Jesus in his epistle to the Hebrews:

 

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;

 

It is intense.  It is corrective.  It is administrative.  But it is also revelatory.  This is that time when a person comes to understand, agree with, and flow with Father's desires. 

 

Father and son (or Father and daughter) develop a place of intimate and intuitive understanding with each other so that when a point of complete maturity is reached (generally around age 30), Father can release the son to act on His behalf, run His business, speak for Him and conduct any negotiations for Him as though Father were there in person.

 

When that day is reached (and that day is Father's prerogative -- it is not fixed in stone) a ceremony takes place in which Father announces, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."  Father takes the ring off his hand which bears the seal of his authority and places it on the finger of His son.

 

A baptism takes place in which the "child" goes down into the water, is raised out of the water with the "child" now dead and gone, and a fully mature adult (the Greek word for this is "Huios") on display for the world to see.

 

Are you seeing the parallels to what Jesus lived and walked?  Are you now beginning to grasp a better picture of what the Holy Spirit has been doing in our lives ever since we first said, "Yes," to the Lordship of Jesus Christ?

 

We all know what Jesus experienced, what He went through in order to cancel the curse and restore us to the place of fellowship with Father that He originally established with the creation of Adam and Eve.  We know about the savage and brutal stripes, the ripping of His flesh to the point that He was barely recognizable as a human being.  We know about His crucifixion.  We know about His death on the Cross and His subsequent resurrection from the dead.

 

Paul gets a real revelation of all this and is given complete understanding of what Father did for Jesus, and said to Him once He had completed His redemptive mission.  Watch!

 

Hebrews 1:8-14:  But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.

Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands: ¹¹They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;  And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

 

But to which of the angels said he at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool?  Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

 

Jesus is our exemplar!  He is the pattern Son for all of us.  It cost Jesus everything in order to gain a Bride for Himself — a broad-based people who would overcome in the same way that He did. There is a day ahead of celebration and victory for all those who have overcome, who have fulfilled the destiny set before them, who have become the family of the Lord Jesus Christ — a family of God!

 

Most of you have heard me share this, or bits and pieces of it, but let me repeat this picture again.

 

Della and I were in Cochrane, Alberta, staying with friends and helping them with a specific task.  We were staying in their 6600 sq-ft log home.  We had a very large bedroom with a huge desk in it.  I would get up early each morning and sit at the desk, meditate on the Word and wait on the Lord.

 

One morning as I was waiting on the Lord, a portal opened in front of me into Eternity.  An angel of the Lord was standing there, and he said to me, “Come with me.”Immediately, I was ushered to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.  The scene was something no one could possible imagine in their wildest fancies.  The sounds of the praise, worship and celebration exceeded any sound human ears have ever heard in this world.

 

In a book I am writing on the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, I have described the sounds of the accompanying instruments something like this: 10,000 trumpets, 10,000 trombones, 10,000 violins, 10,000 cellos, 10,000 basses, 10,000 timpani, etc., etc.   Then you have a multi-millon ensemble of the bridal company, all the hosts of Heaven, the four and twenty elders — all with interweaving harmonies, the likes of which musicians and arrangers here on earth rarely even conceive.

 

There came a moment of union — at least that how I saw it — between the Bridegroom and Bride when they merged together as one complete being.  There was a sound associated with it that I can’t even begin to describe!

 

An interesting side-note to all this is that whenever I meet or hear a worship musician and leader who has been to Heaven and heard the extraordinary worship, they come up with chord sequences on their instruments that are easily distinguishable.

 

As I was watching this incredible event unfold, I happened to see Isaiah, the prophet.  I had visited with him on my first trip to Heaven at age nine and recognized him.  He likewise recognized me (that’s a funny thing, because no one on my first trip saw me as a nine-year-old) and walked over to talk.  He began to share with me the exceitement that he felt at all that was unfolding and said to me, “You know, I saw all of this taking place in my spirit more than 700 years before Jesus was even born.  Words fail me!”

 

A short time later, Jesus came to me and interrupted our conversation.  He said, “Would you like to see how I have gotten me this Bride?”

 

Immediately, I said, “Yes sir, I would!”

 

That began a sequence of events that unfolded over the next three months-plus in which I traveled in time back to see the lives of key individuals unfold as they responded in faith to the quickening in their spirits with obedience.

 

(For those of you who’ve read the book titled, A TALE OF TWO BRIDES,   that book is a small sampling of what I saw with numerous individuals.)

 

Eventually, we went forward in time to the thousand years of peace, the battle that ensued when Satan was released from the pit, the final victory of God’s people with the help of the Hosts of Heaven, the destruction of the earth as it now exists, and the unfolding of the new Heavens and the new Earth.

 

I saw beyond time and understood that the thousand years of peace, the period we refer to as “the Millenium,” where we rule and reign with Christ Jesus as nothing more than a warm-up for eternity.

 

The extravagance of what awaits those willing to overcome all, the endurance of those who experience the crucible again and again and again as they are prepared — well, all I can say is that there is a dimension of ruling and reigning that awaits the faithful in Christ Jesus that exceeds the ability of the human mind to cope with.

 

I had intended to take you into the lives of King David, and the apostle Paul to provide some insight into the preparation processes that they experienced as they were prepared for ruling and reigning, but it would make today’s discussion very, very long!  I thought better of it and decided I would end today’s sharing with some brief tidbits to prepare you for next week, and perhaps the week after.

 

Early on in this series, we spent some time looking at all that Joseph experienced as he went from shepherd boy, to being sold into slavery, to winding up in the house of Potiphar, the head of the Egyptian military, being lied about by Potiphar’s wife and winding up in prison for a number of years before ultimately being brought out of prison to serve as the Prime Minister of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh.

 

Joseph’s trek was a unique one, but it spelled out a series of steps and processes that we can certainly liken to the crucible prior to ultimately coming to a place of real authority.

 

David’s preparation was not unlike that of Joseph.  He began his years as a shepherd boy, looked down upon by his family because of the way he came into this world.  When Samuel came along and anointed David King over Israel, David was only 17 years of age.  There was no way he was going assume the throne in the place of King Saul at that age.  He had no preparation for the throne.

 

It wasn’t long before Saul heard about this shepherd who was speaking out about the likes of Goliath, who was challenging Israel.  David offered to kill Goliath.  Saul thought David needed his armour to take on Goliath, but David refused.  In short order David killed Goliath with one stone in his sling and cut off his head.  David had Saul’s favor for awhile and began to go out to battle with Saul’s armies, killing a whole lot of Philistines.

 

When Saul heard the women of Israel singing, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands, that was enough for Saul and he began to look for ways to kill David.  Eventually David was on the run for his life — a period of quite a few years.

 

Not until Saul was killed in battle against the Philistines, did David first be given Kingship over Judah and Benjamin.  Saul’s son tried to rule over the remaining tribes unsuccessfully and was ultimately assassinated with David being given Kingship over all Israel.

 

Think about these parallels between Josph and David.

 

Joseph was 17 years of age when he was captured and sold into slavery in Egypt.  A span of 13 years passed with all of the intervening years of his slavery and imprisonment before he was made Prime Minister at age 30.

 

David was 17 years of age when Samuel anointed him to be King over Israel.  13 years passed while he was on the run, during which Saul was ultimately killed, and David assuming the throne of Israel at age 30.

 

Jesus was 30 years of age when He was baptized and began His ministry.  Do you see it?

 

More next week.

 

In case you are missing out on real fellowship in an environment of Ekklesia, ourSunday 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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