Spiritual Hierarchy & Authority, Part 21

 

 

March 9, 2018

 

As we get underway today, let me share just a tiny bit of something I watched unfold in person when the Lord took me back into the Garden.  I watched the temptation unfold, and I saw into Adam’s thoughts and his spirit.  I also saw into the thoughts and motives of the Serpent .  Hopefully, this bit of sharing will be as revelatory for you as it was for me.

 

Because everything that God spoke was founded in Truth, there was an absoluteness to everything which occurred.  The very foundations of the Universe rested upon that Truth.  Truth, therefore, is a part of the invincible foundation of the Throne.  (We will return to this, momentarily.)

 

Now, consider again Adam and Eve.  So long as they dwelled in the place of unity and communion with the Lord, they were clothed in Truth.  What truth?  The truth that they were created in the image of God.  The truth that they were created in His likeness.  The truth that they were like Him -- i.e., "like God."  The truth that in Him was every piece of understanding, every piece of wisdom, every piece of revelation they would ever need to exist -- PERIOD.  END OF PARAGRAPH!  EXCLAMATION MARK!

 

There was absolutely nothing in the way of knowledge, understanding, or wisdom they would ever need in order to live and function as the supreme rulers of this world outside of Truth.  In fact, the Lord warned them that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which stood in the midst of the Garden near the Tree of Life, was the one tree of which they should not eat because it contained a lethal virus which would bring death to them "in the day you eat thereof."

 

Return with me to the Garden for a minute to consider the following:

 

And Adam reaches to take the fruit from his beloved, Eve, to the utter horror and surprise of the serpent.  He will partake of it, and in so doing, redeem her from the separation from him which would otherwise surely come.  Though Eve will know death, it will not be the kind of death which would have come had she been ripped from his fellowship, companionship and protection.  Adam will gladly take the death to himself, and in so doing, prevent the serpent from having her to his exclusive domain.

 

You can see the astonishment on the serpent's visage.  He had hoped to have the woman for himself.  They would become one -- or so he had thought -- and he would have his revenge against the Lord.  He would have what the Lord did not have -- a counterpart, an “other self,” a co-equal to fulfill his onoma.

 

Such arrogance!  Such pride!  This picture of brazenness takes us back to what we saw in Haman.  Haman was the perfect specimen of Lucifer -- the serpent, Satan -- as he sought to accomplish precisely the same thing with the destruction of Esther and her people, and gain the throne by the overthrow of Xerxes (Ahasuerus).

 

And again it has come to naught.  Oh, the serpent will have Adam and Eve under his dominion.  Though they will still be One, they will be his slaves, and he will have prevented the Lord from having His Bride........or so he thinks.  His efforts to have a bride for himself will not cease.  He will change his approach many times in the ages to come.

 

He will greatly fear the human race, even though they are under his dominion.  He will seek in every possible way to prevent them from ever seeing the heart and purposes of the Lord to have for Himself a counterpart.  His approaches will become more and more camouflaged as he strives to gain the heart of a people.  He will become even more crafty.  And in the end, it will still come to naught.

 

Adam's act will condemn them both to removal from the Garden, and separation from the Lord God, and the intimate relationship they have known with Him.  Outside the Garden and beyond this place, this portal where eternity has ruled, a time clock will begin ticking.  Adam and Eve will begin to feel -- albeit slowly, at first -- the effects of aging.  The clock will tick for nine hundred and thirty years for Adam and Eve, and they will die, as surely as the Lord had warned them.  They will die "in the day they ate thereof."

 

Just as they were created on the "sixth day," where "a day with the Lord is as a thousand years," and dwelled with the Lord through the sixth and seventh days, they will die before the end of the eighth day, some nine hundred thirty years following their departure from the Garden.

 

If measured within the framework of time as we have known time, their lives would stretch from their exiting of the Garden to the day when David erected his tabernacle.  No human beings -- ever -- will dwell on the face of the earth for a span of time to equal that of Adam and Eve -- unless it be us........but we will not get into that today!

 

An extraordinary thing will have happened, however.  Adam's act of participating with Eve and eating of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil will have thwarted the Serpent's plan.  He thought he was going to rob Adam of Eve, and in so doing, prevent the Plan of the Lord God from going forth in the earth.  True, the Serpent did now have Adam and Eve living under his dominion -- so to speak -- but the Plan of the Lord God was even more surely established in the earth.

 

Adam has demonstrated the onoma of the Lord.  He chose to die for his beloved Eve rather than allow her to be forever separated from him, and imprisoned to the abuses of the serpent, whose true colors became evident as he spoke his lies and opposition to the expressed word and warning of the Lord.  He would go down in history as "the first Adam," having redeemed his bride from destruction, separation, and imprisonment.

 

Yes, they and their descendants born outside the Garden would be subject to the wiles, the torments, the treachery of the serpent, who would henceforth be called, Satan.  Yes, they would now have to "work for a living" by tilling the ground instead of watching it simply spring forth spontaneously as it had in the Garden.  Yes, they would know disease and sickness, labor and hardship.  They would see their descendants fight among themselves and kill one another.  They would live to see such evil come upon the earth as could scarcely be imagined.

 

They would see the true effects of eating of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil as death reigned in the earth.  They would know that although they had been given the Tree of Knowledge -- along with the Tree of Life in the Garden -- and the freedom to choose whether to partake or to heed the warnings of the Lord God, it was their choices which had separated them from Him.

 

Yet, in the midst of it all, hope and a promise would spring forth in their beings, for in the midst of their removal from the Garden of Eden, the Lord had spoken.  As the Serpent was transformed from a creature of beauty and loveliness into a hated snake who would be forever condemned to crawl on his belly in the dust of the earth, trodden over and despised of the human race, God had spoken, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; and it shall overwhelm and crush your head, and you shall snap at and attempt to bruise his heel."

 

Thus was there promised to Eve -- and to Adam -- the coming of a descendant who would turn the tables on the serpent -- one who would crush him and destroy his power over the human race.  That One would come in the likeness of Adam, who redeemed his bride from destruction.

 

Do you see what cost Adam and Eve the Throne?  Do you see beyond the actual events which unfolded to the principle which is revealed by the Lord?

 

Though Adam willingly gave himself for Eve, he nevertheless traded Truth for "knowledge."  Enticed by the lure of the "Knowledge of Good and Evil," and forgetting that they had something in their relationship with the Lord far greater than "knowledge" -- namely, "revelation" -- Eve succumbed to a lie.  It is a lie which has been the pervasive undercurrent in all of society from that day forth.

 

Consider the events which followed immediately after Adam and Eve partook of that fruit.

 

Genesis 3:7-11 NASB:  "And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves loin coverings.  And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.  Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, 'Where are you?'  And he said, 'I heard the sound of Thee in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.'  And He said, 'Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?'"

 

How come after all these years of walking with the Lord and enjoying the intimacy of their fellowship and union with Him, they just now discovered that they were naked?  Hmmmm.......  Would you believe that they weren't naked before?  Oh yes, Genesis 2:25 says, "And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed," but the word used in this instance in the Hebrew text is: arom (pronounced, aw-rohm).

 

It means: to be nude (in the physical sense), to be without clothing or garments of cloth.  It is a different word, however, which occurs in Genesis 3:7-11.  In this instance, the word in the Hebrew text is: erom (pronounced, ey-rome).  While it has the same root as the previous word, its application differs in that it is used primarily in the case of having been stripped; having one's covering removed.

 

The significance of this is seen in the fact that not once during the period of all those years in fellowship with the Lord did they ever see themselves as naked.  True, they had no clothes on, but they were not naked.  They were clothed in Truth!  They were clothed in Righteousness.  They were clothed in the glory of the Lord.  And they enjoyed a relationship of love with Jesus, their Creator.

 

And in that place of being clothed, they ruled!  They functioned in unquestioned authority.

 

A funny thing happened when they ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  They were stripped.  And of course, we know they had no clothes to be removed.  But they were stripped, nonetheless.  They were stripped of Truth.  They were stripped of Righteousness.  They were stripped of the glory of the Lord.

 

What’s more, they were stripped of the authority they once held over the Serpent, Satan.  And their intimate relationship with the Lord was history.

 

Now, they were naked!

 

Interesting, isn't it?  Now Adam and Eve had the very thing the sages of this world strive for.  Now they possessed that quantifiable knowledge men and women the world over seek for in their colleges, universities and seminaries -- ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth!

 

Adam and Eve had given up Truth in exchange for knowledge.  When they got that knowledge, it robbed them of the throne.  It stole their crown.  It exchanged the Truth for a lie.

 

And it left them naked!  It left them defenseless against that old Serpent, Satan, who took them into slavery and bondage.

 

Had they been naked all that time?  Not in God's eyes.  Who cares whether knowledge sees you that way?  Knowledge -- regardless of how factual it may be -- perpetrates a lie.  Knowledge robs men and women of relationship.  Knowledge steals love and intimacy.  Knowledge deprives God's people of love, of power, and of a sound mind.  Knowledge brings Fear.

 

In this case, Adam and Eve were infected with the Fear of Evil, and they reacted to it instantly.  They did what every rational(?), reasoning member of the human race has done from that day to this when faced with Evil (or whatever is perceived as Evil): they ran and hid themselves.

 

Why had they not run and hid before?  Had the natural circumstances changed?  No!  But they had.  They had traded revelation for knowledge.  They had been tricked into exchanging the Life of Truth for the death and lie of knowledge.

 

And they learned -- the hard way -- that Truth, a loving relationship with the Lord, the Throne, the Crown, and the glory of the Lord were all inextricably, inseparably woven together.  Without Truth, there was no throne of God.  Without relationship and love, there was no crown for them.  Knowledge did not make them "as God!"  It turned them into slaves held captive in cruel bondage to the great pretender, the father of all lies, who wanted the throne for himself.

 

If it seems like I’m being somewhat repetitious and redundant in the coverage of this revelation, bear with me.  As you well know, repetition is intrinsic to retaining knowledge, and the territory we are covering bears more on a revelation of who and what Jesus Christ is in us, and the essential character and makeup of the authority and dominion He has imbued in us and with us.  If we are walking in Truth, His dominion and authority are the natural byproduct of our entire existence.

 

We’re just getting started with this aspect of authority.  I still have a lot of ground to cover here, so let’s pause for today and we’ll take the next step in this study 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

 

All Coffee Break articles are copyright by Regner A. Capener, but authorization for reprinting, reposting, copying or re-use, in whole or in part, is granted –provided proper attribution and this notice are included intact. Older Coffee Break archives are available at http://www.RegnersMorningCoffee.com. Coffee Break articles are normally published weekly.

If you would like to have these articles arrive each morning in your email, please send a blank email to: AnotherCoffeeBreak@protonmail.com with the word, “Subscribe” in the subject line.  To remove yourself from the mailing list, please send a blank email to AnotherCoffeeBreak@protonmail.com with the word “Unsubscribe” in the subject line.

 

CAPENER MINISTRIES is a tax-exempt church ministry. Should you desire to participate and covenant with us as partners in this ministry, please contact us at either of the above email or physical addresses, or visit: http://www.RiverWorshipCenter.org.