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ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: SUPERNATURAL MATURITY, Part 14
August
19, 2022
Greetings and Solutions! Today, we were going to move on to the
second part of Jesus' use of the two metaphors describing our authority in the
earth -- the first one was the way we permeate and "season" our
homes, our neighborhoods, our communities, etc., as salt -- and the second being
our function in Christ as "the light of the world." We WERE going to
move on to that second part, but I got to thinking about some experiences that
really illustrate our "saltiness" and decided to share those today.
We'll move on to the sharing on being light next week.
First
of all, here again is the amplification to Matthew 5:13.
"In the same way that salt personifies the need for
seasoning, restraint and protection from spoilage or rotting, and preparation
for soil to produce; in the same way that salt represents wisdom and grace in
one’s speech and behavior, you are that grace and wisdom, that seasoning and
protection for the world. You are that which restrains and holds back the
execution of my judgment upon a world corrupted, spoiling and decaying in sin. If
you lose the ability to season and influence the world around, you lose your
usefulness [to the Kingdom] and, like salt that has lost its ability to make
things palatable, and winds up being thrown out, you become worthless [to the
Kingdom] and cease to have (spiritual) value, requiring
that you be cast aside." (Matthew 5:13, RAC
Translation and Amplification)
I
may have shared the following with you in the past, and if I'm being
repetitive, well…be blessed! (grin!) During my years at Long Beach Christian
Center, I found a house for the family on Harding Street in North Long Beach,
perhaps a mile and a half or two miles from the church. It was in this house
that the Lord stirred me to begin fasting at least once each year for forty
days.
Following
one of those early fasts, I just felt in my spirit to begin walking the
neighborhood each morning. In Deuteronomy 11:24, we read of Moses’ prophesying
in part to Israel prior to their entrance into the Land of Promise, “Every place whereon the soles of your
feet shall tread shall be yours.”
That
scripture went through me like a shot! The emphasis of the Holy Spirit was that
I should “possess” the territory where I lived – not by buying up all of the
houses and property, but by exercising the authority of the Lord in a tangible
way. I was also fulfilling the mandate of being "salt" for our
neighborhood.
As
my walks began, I started one block at a time. Each morning, I would walk the
complete circumference of the block, praying over each home on that block,
occasionally stretching out my hand toward a home as I was directed by the Lord
and speaking something like this, “Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, I
establish your Kingdom authority in this home. Raise up righteousness here.
Bring salvation, healing and deliverance. I claim this home and this family for
the Kingdom of God.”
Over
a period of weeks and many months, the practice continued. I began to enlarge
the territory. For awhile it was simply one block. Then it was two. Then it
increased to three, then four, then five, then six, and so forth, until I was
covering a pretty large territory.
The
practice was always the same. As I walked, I would pray in tongues. Sometimes I
would pray with my understanding, saying, “Father, I agree with your Word, and
I take this territory for your Kingdom. Everywhere the soles of my feet tread,
I take this territory and possess it for your Kingdom.”
I
frequently extended my hand towards homes, towards the public schools, toward
businesses, praying over the occupants, the school children, the school
administration, the businesses and their owners. There were other churches in
the area, and I would extend my hand toward them, declaring the release of
Kingdom authority and revelation by Holy Spirit. There wasn’t any visible
effect from my prayers for perhaps as much as two years. One by one, I began to
hear of or meet families in the homes I was praying over. Very few of them
actually came to our church, but I began to find that many of these families
were coming to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
Frequently,
as I met the families, they would tell me where they had begun to attend a
church or become involved in some fellowship. In some cases, I actually met
their pastors. People began to be saved, healed of various diseases and
afflictions, and set free from evil spirits – all as a direct result of simply
consistently walking the territory, praying over them and extending the
authority of the Lord Jesus Christ as I walked and prayed.
One
day, about a block south of our home, I happened to see the Long Beach police
conduct a raid on one of the houses I had prayed over. It was a house I had really
felt strange about, but was new enough to this kind of prayer and intercession
not to recognize what I was sensing. It was a house I consistently proclaimed
the authority of the Kingdom of God over.
Turns
out the house was being used for the manufacture and distribution of drugs –
heroin and cocaine. The police shut it down and put the drug dealers out of
business – at least in my neighborhood. I knew it was a direct result of the
prayers and the consistent walking of the area.
A
few months later, a house on the opposite side of the street and down a half
block from our home was raided by the police and shut down. It was a whore
house. Again, the Holy Spirit made clear to me the fact that it was because of
the exercise of spiritual authority taking place.
I
became emboldened. I called up Dick Parrish, who also served on the pastoral
staff of Long Beach Christian Center, and asked him to join me in some of these
walks. Then Dwain McKenzie (who had been my lifetime friend, brother in the
Lord, and was the senior pastor at LBCC) began to join in the walks. We began
to walk the territory near the church.
About
two blocks from the church was a home where some bikers lived. Every time we
walked past the place, I stretched out my hand toward the home and proclaimed
the establishment of the Kingdom of God.
Nearly
twenty years passed after we had walked that territory when the Lord
orchestrated an opportunity for Della and I to meet the bikers who had occupied
that home Dwain, Dick and I had walked past and prayed over. Della and I were
in Atlin, British Columbia sharing and ministering
with friends from Anchorage. We were invited to come over for dinner to the
home of an artist and sculptor who lived in Atlin
with his family. Sitting around the dinner table that night, we happened to
mention Long Beach. The artist perked up his ears, as did his wife.
“You
were in Long Beach, California?” he asked. “When was that?” I responded that I
had been there for about five years in the early and mid-1970’s. “Wow, what a
coincidence,” he exclaimed. “So did we!”
I
asked him what part of Long Beach he had lived in, and he described the street
where Dwain, Dick and I had walked. Now it was my turn to be amazed. He and his
wife went on to tell us that they had been a part of the biker crowd, living a
pretty wild, hippie kind of life. I started to laugh. “We never met during
those days,” I said, “but you were surely some of the people we prayed for as
we walked the neighborhood.”
He
almost came out of his chair. “You! You! I used to watch you stop in front of
our house and stretch out your hand toward us. Never could hear what you were
saying, but we figured you must have been praying or something like that.
That’s when my wife and I experienced the Lord Jesus Christ coming into our
lives and convicting us. That’s when we came to know the Lord for the first
time in our lives!”
I
continued to walk the neighborhood where I lived, gradually increasing the size
of the territory where I walked until I was walking portions of Atlantic and
Long Beach Blvds. One day as I was walking Long Beach
Blvd., I was shocked to see an X-rated porn theater that had just opened up.
Something rose up inside of me in anger that Satan would attempt to so brazenly
encroach on territory I had been claiming for the Lord. I walked right up to the
front of the theater, put my hands on the building and began to proclaim the
establishing of the Kingdom of God in the place.
Despite
the fact that folks were standing out front of the place and staring at me like
I’d lost my marbles or something, I began to speak out loud, “Father, in the
name of Jesus, I establish your Kingdom authority in this place. I shut this
theater down!” It was several weeks later that I was driving down Long Beach
Blvd. and decided to check on the porn theater. Not too surprisingly, it was
shut down. All of the billboards and placards were gone and the theater marquee
was empty. I thought to myself, Wow, this is just too good to pass up!
I
parked my car and walked over to the front of the building, and again I placed
my hand on the outside of the place and began to proclaim the Word of God. I
said, “Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, I again establish your Kingdom in
this place, and I raise up righteousness. Let this building become something
that will serve your purposes and be to your Glory.” Then I got back in my car
and drove away.
Again
it was some weeks that passed before I thought of the theater and decided to go
and check on it. As I drove towards the building, I saw a man standing on a
ladder putting letters on the theater marquee. I pulled over and parked and
watched him spell out the following, one letter at a time: E – V – A – N – G –
E – L T – E – M – P – L – E.
Brother,
did I ever let out a war whoop! It had worked! What was once an X-rated porn
theater was shut down, and a church and worship center opened up in its place.
I’ve no idea how long that church functioned in that building, but years later
when I came back to Long Beach for a visit, it was still operating.
Naturally,
I wasted no time in sharing it with the folks at Long Beach Christian Center.
Dave Dobbs, who was also part of the pastoral staff, happened to be driving
with his wife in the San Fernando Valley some months later. They came across a
huge construction site where a large number of construction workers and a lot
of equipment were busy building some very elegant appearing structure.
Dave
drove around the place out of curiosity to see what was being built. A large
sign with an artist’s rendition displayed a future Buddhist temple. Dave remembered
my experience and sharing about the theater and thought, This is a
principle we need to apply here.
He
and his wife parked their car, got out and walked to the chain link fence that
surrounded the property. They stretched their hands towards the partially
constructed building and proclaimed, “Father, in Jesus’ name, we establish your
Kingdom over this place, and we shut down this project now!”
It
must have been two or three months that passed before they happened to be back
in the Valley and thought about the incident. They drove back to the
construction site of that building, and –- to their astonishment –- saw weeds
grown up around the place. Construction had ceased almost from the day they had
spoken the word of authority.
It
must have been almost a year later that Dave was back in the Valley and thought
about checking on the place one more time. The Buddhist trappings of the place
were gone, and it had been redesigned into a nice office building.
By
now, you are beginning to understand what I mean when I talk about our ability
to season and alter the taste (to the Lord) of the areas where we live. That is
the authority of the Holy Spirit working in folks who are submitted to the Lord
and sensitive to His voice and leading. That's the authority that comes when
you function IN Christ Jesus as the Salt of the Earth!
That’s
the kind of authority that brings healing. That’s the kind of authority that
brings deliverance to people in captivity to Satan. That’s the kind of
authority that tears down the thrones of spiritual rulers – the apostle Paul
refers to them in the Greek text of Ephesians 6 as kosmokrator: world rulers of darkness – demon
princes who exercise power and influence to execute wickedness.
What
is so incredible is that Joe everyday Christian has access to that authority,
if he only knew it. Folks get cheated out of living and walking in this realm
because of false teaching, because of screwball doctrines, and mostly because
of fear, doubt and unbelief. If Christians could see themselves in Christ
Jesus, and Him in them, they would understand their role as salt right where
they live! If Christians would begin to exercise this kind of authority right
in the neighborhoods where they live, we would have a radically different world
today.
I
said it last week, and I'll say it again! That means that those people will
truly season, add savor, and alter the status quo in the earth the way they are
supposed to. We have been commanded to be the salt of Heaven in the earth. We
have been commissioned to be God’s salt to restrain, to hold back, to preserve
this earth.
We
have been commanded and commissioned to season the societies that live therein
until the day our role as salt has completed that purpose. That role can never
be minimized or degraded, or else we suffer the consequence of losing our “saltness,” and cease to fulfill the destiny He has set
before us.
Let's
do it, folks! Let's bring back an America under God! Let's restore the savor of
God's presence in this nation, and on this continent! Let's be the seasoning of
Heaven!
OK.
Now we can move on to being the "Light of the World" -- next week,
that is.
I remind those of you in need of ministry that our Healing
Prayer Call takes place on Mondays at 7:00 PM Eastern (4:00 PM Pacific). Once
again, the number to call for healing is (805) 399-1000. Then enter the access
code: 124763#.
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 (559) 726-1300, and the access code is 308640#. We
hope to make these gatherings available by Skype or Talk Fusion before long.
Blessings
on you!
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Regner
A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER
WORSHIP CENTER
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Email
Contact: Admin@RiverWorshipCenter.org
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