ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: THE TABLE OF THE LORD XII

[Regner A Capener]

THE TABLE OF THE LORD XII

Power in the Blood, Part 2

Thought I was going to move on for awhile to another topic, but realized we hadn't quite wrapped up this revelation yet -- or at least that part the Holy Spirit has downloaded in me. (Grin)

The next Coffee Break is already written, but I needed to delay its posting until we at least finish up this part of the discussion on the Table of the Lord. There's still lots more revelation to share on the Table of the Lord, but I will take a break for a few weeks following this post to deal with a prophetic outlook for the next year that needs to be shared.

This past Wednesday morning, following our early morning time of prayer and intercession, a fire and smoke alarm next to the kitchen began to sound off. There was no smoke in the house, and nothing was on the stove in the kitchen. After looking around for some cause and finding none, I grabbed a towel from the bathroom and began waving it in the air next to the alarm thinking there might be some pollutants in the air that I couldn't see. Nothing. Nada. Zip. The thing kept chirping and occasionally sounding off.

Minutes later, the fire and smoke alarm in the guest bedroom (only a few feet away) began to do the same thing. Now I WAS puzzled! Did the same thing with the towel with the same results. The alarm kept going off. Now there were two alarms sounding. It couldn't have been five minutes later when the alarm in our theater room (set up with a large HD flatscreen, seven-channel surround sound system, satellite receivers and Internet capability – in other words, lots of electronic components) also began to chirp and sound off. My first thought was that maybe some component was failing and creating fumes or pollutants triggering the rest of the alarms. We have five alarms throughout the house, by the way, but only three were sounding off.

A careful check of the equipment in the theater room made clear that there were no issues there. Finally, I gave up, got a ladder out of the garage, climbed up and began to remove each of the backup batteries from each of the alarms. The same three alarms continued their chirps and beeps. Della looked at me and said, "Honey, I want to study and spend time with the Lord, but I can't continue to put up with these alarms."

The next process was to disconnect each alarm from its electrical wiring and set it on the island in the kitchen with its appropriate backup battery. The alarms continued to sound off! NO, that's not a typo. The batteries are removed. The alarms are disconnected from the electrical wiring and physically removed from their mounts. All three are sitting beside each other on the island in the kitchen, and they are continuing to sound off! And they continued to sound off for the next two hours! Any of you readers who are electricians or electrical engineers know that what I'm describing is simply impossible. There's just no way for an electrical device to work without electricity or some kind of electrical supply source.

Almost at the same moment, Della and I looked at each other, raised our arms up in the air and said, "OK, Lord! Are you trying to get our attention or something? Are you trying to give us some kind of warning?"

Earlier in the day I'd printed a prophetic word out from the Elijah List (http://ElijahList.com). It was a Word given by Bobby Connor (a brother in the Lord whom I originally met more than 30 years ago, and whose ministry is well proven, and whose prophetic words have proven throughout the years to be extremely accurate), and it began: "Dread Champions, Arise to to Contend and Defend! Do you hear the battle alarm? It is ringing loud and clear! We are entering a very serious season -- a season of confrontation. Our lukewarm "business as usual" attitude must die.

The Spirit of God is awakening and arousing the Church, prompting us to arise and take a strong stand for Divine Truth! The war is raging and we must prepare for battle."

I strongly recommend that you go to the following link and read the entire prophetic word. It is a critical word for this hour. http://www.elijahlist.com/words/textonly.html?ID=8428. Let me also recommend to you that you subscribe to the Elijah List in order to receive these prophetic words that come from various parts of the Body of Christ.

That said, getting back to the alarms, and the Word of the Lord that came through Bobby Connor, we were certainly put on alert. God is doing these kinds of extraordinary things to get the attention of Christians and let them know we are living and functioning in a most critical hour. The return of the Lord Jesus Christ is sooner than most folks think, and He's not coming back for lukewarm, "name only" Christians. He's coming back for a people Daniel described like this: "And such as do wickedly (rasha': violate, condemn) against the Covenant shall he [the king of the north] corrupt by flatteries; but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits." (Daniel 11:32b)

"Such as do wickedly" incorporates a whole lot more than just those who are not believing-Christians. Sadly, there are many folks who call themselves Christians who in fact violate the Covenant that Jesus made with us and for us. They cash in on the name "Christian" but live to please their flesh and their own personal desires rather than entering into a real love-relationship with Jesus Christ.

Anything that represents "cost" to them, their personal relationships with family or friends, their "good name," their reputation -- and/or their pocketbooks they justify in setting aside or pretending that the Lord is not requiring it of them. Those who enter into a real intimate relationship with the Lord, contending for and striving after His best and His heart's desire are the people whom Daniel describes as "the people that do know their God."

OK? 'Nuff said. Let's see what we can do here to fill out the picture of Jesus' Blood.

In the last Coffee Break I posed the question, “Why would blood have to be shed in order for forgiveness to take place?”

Let’s revisit a picture taken from the Encarta Encyclopedia (I won't reprint that article here, but you can go back to The Table of the Lord XI).

Consider Jesus’ statement to the disciples as they sat at the Last Supper:

Matthew 26:26-28: "And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body. And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins."

We know from the Encarta explanation that blood serves many purposes.

1. Blood carries oxygen from the lungs to all parts of the body.

2. Blood washes the body of waste products, (a) dispersing carbon dioxide out of the body through the exhaling of breath from the lungs, and (b) sending urea and uric acid to the kidneys where they are converted to urine and eliminated.

3. Blood serves as a means of transporting life throughout the body.

4. Blood becomes the vehicle by which chemicals and hormones are moved throughout the body to regulate the function of the various organs.

5. Blood fights disease, resists infection and keeps the body’s immune system operating properly.

6. The flow of blood throughout the body keeps one part of the body from becoming overactive and overheated by triggering the enlargement or shrinkage of blood vessels in order to regulate our body’s temperature and keep things in balance.

Now are you seeing the spiritual parallels?

1. The Blood of Jesus carries with it the breath of God to all parts of the Body.

2. The Blood of Jesus washes our spirits and our souls of those things that contaminate our daily walk with God. Consider these following Scriptures for a minute:

Revelation 1:5: And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

Revelation 7:14: And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

3. The Blood of Jesus – when shed on the Cross for our sins – canceled out the curse of death and restored eternal life for us.

Hebrews 9:27-28: And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

4. The Blood of Jesus is the means by which we as believers in Christ Jesus become one Body. The Blood of Jesus regulates the development of the Body through the transport and movement of “spiritual chemicals and hormones” and ensures proper growth and development.

Let me pause in this illustration to remind you of a point that we’ve discussed in previous times of sharing – namely, that when Jesus shed His Blood and died, He was raised from the dead by the Spirit of God. Paul, writing to the Romans, said:

Romans 8:11: But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you.

Notice that when Jesus rose from the dead it was because He was raised by the Spirit. There was no fresh infusion of blood to make Him alive. He was alive now by the Holy Spirit. We, likewise, are made alive in Christ Jesus by the Spirit of God. It is the Spirit – replacing the Blood, and acting in the place of the Blood – that flows through the Body of Christ.

That same Spirit regulates the growth and development of the Body of Christ by His choice – not ours. That same Spirit appoints and moves throughout the Body, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors (shepherds) and teachers for the regulation and upbuilding and strengthening of the Body as a whole.

Ephesians 4:11-16: And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:

“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

“From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

In this sense, the Holy Spirit becomes the blood-flow of the Lord Jesus Christ – the life-flow – that regulates and stimulates growth through the five facets of Jesus’ ministry character and makeup.

5. The Blood of Jesus provides the legal means by which we fight off the infection of sin and iniquity. The Blood of Jesus legally provides us our immunity – both from Satan’s contamination and in a literal sense from disease, sickness and infirmity, weakness, poverty and everything that renders us powerless against the infection of sin.

The apostle Paul put it like this: Romans 8:1-2: There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

6. Just as blood in a natural sense regulates the body’s temperature by increasing its flow when certain parts of the body become too overheated, and restricting its flow by shrinking the size of the blood vessels in order to cause the body to warm, the Holy Spirit regulates the temperature of the Body of Christ by moving throughout with what we’ve come to refer to as “moves of the Spirit.” The regulation of the body’s temperature – in a natural or physical sense – enables us to walk and live healthy lives.

As we all know from history, the Body of Christ became extremely ill – virtually dormant – for centuries. The Dark Ages, with religion that had all but snuffed out the flow of the Holy Spirit, was very properly named as such since it was a dark and sick time for God’s people.

(a) The Reformation was the beginning of a new flow of life within the Body as the Holy Spirit began to transport some life and heat back with the revelation that “the just shall live by faith.” (b) The Reformation was followed by several sequential “moves” as the sovereignty of God was revealed, water baptism by immersion, and then a crack in the Nicolaitan doctrine of “power over the people” by an elite few began to widen into a complete break with “high church” structure.

(c) A “Great Awakening” to salvation through Jesus Christ by grace and faith began in Ireland and England and came to full flower in America just as the United States became a reality. (d) That was followed by a second “Great Awakening in the 1800’s in which evangelism began to flourish as never before in history. (e) At the turn of the 20th Century, we saw Azusa Street and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit with speaking in tongues and the gifts of the Spirit in full manifestation.

(f) By the 1940’s and 50’s, the Latter Rain movement took hold with miracles on display such as the world has never known. (g) During the 1950’s and 60’s and 70’s we saw great evangelical moves with individuals like William Branham, A. A. Allen, (both of whom were intrinsic to the Latter Rain movement) Oral Roberts, Billy Graham, T. L. Osborn and others. Mass evangelism began to be seen on a scale the Body of Christ had not previously seen.

(h) The early 60’s and throughout the 70’s brought the Charismatic Renewal, and in the 1980’s, there began to be heard a depth of teaching and a flowering of understanding of “the five-fold ministries. (i) The late 1980’s saw the development of ministries such as IHOP and Morningstar with an accent on the Tabernacle of David and 24-hour praise, worship, prayer and intercession. (j) At the same time folks like Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Fred Price and Charles Capps emerged as powerful teachers and proponents of God’s people being restored to prosperous living.

(k) In the past decade and a half we have seen prophetic and apostolic ministries flourish as the Body of Christ has once again begun to come alive and assert the anointing and authority of the Kingdom of God in the earth.

Throughout the ages there have always been a tiny remnant of God’s people keeping the blood-flow of the Lord Jesus Christ alive and moving; and despite numerous attempts of Satan to snuff out the life of the Spirit, the flame of the Holy Spirit has continued to burn and move from place to place.

There have been teachers, preachers, evangelists and missionaries throughout the centuries who have had personal visitations from the Lord and have been faithful to the Word God has given them in order to keep the blood-flow and the life-flow of the Holy Spirit alive and moving throughout the Body of Christ. Many of them have been virtually unknown “no-names” whose faithfulness in sharing the life and revelation of the Holy Spirit has led to other, more prominent teachers and leaders – apostles and prophets and evangelists – restoring the life-flow of the Holy Spirit to the body at large.

We’ve seen an ebb and flow, but the life of the Body of Christ has continued to grow, mature and take hold in the world as the original vision and purpose of God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit has been being brought to fruition.

The Body of Christ IS growing up into HIM – a whole body, a living body, a ruling body; and it all began to happen when Jesus shed His Blood for us.

Jesus' Blood did a whole lot more than simply remitting our sins. It forever restored our access to the same relationship with the Father that Adam and Eve once enjoyed. It restored our access to the Heavenlies. It took away the penalty for death and restored eternity.

Jesus' Blood eradicated death and the dying process. Along with the dying process went all sickness, all disease, all bondage to Satan (no matter what form that bondage takes), and all weakness or infirmity.

Jesus' Blood restored the Abrahamic Covenant -- and the Blessing of Abraham.

Jesus' Blood canceled the curse of the Law.

Jesus' Blood canceled poverty. Jesus' Blood canceled the need to work for a living and redeemed work so that we can now "work for a giving" instead -- just like He did.

We'll come back to this topic in a few weeks when we talk about The Table of the Lord and the picture of Multiplication.

"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (Galatians 2:20)

Be blessed!

Regner

Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
455 North River Road
Prosser, Washington 99350-6554
[phone]

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