15 Steps L 

Hi, Y'all!

Dis yere's wun supa cala frag alistic day!  Ayyup!  Better be!!  Now, aincha glad I ast?

Hey, whaddaya know.  It actually came out on paper like it sounds: stooopid!  Shhhhh..... don't tell anyone I actually talk like that.

Oh well.  Got your coffee poured, yet?

We were talking about David's refusal to touch God's anointed in our last Coffee Break discussion, and I lamented the tendency within the body of Christ to so cavalierly and arrogantly do just that.  We have this tendency among Christians to point fingers at and criticize our fellow-believers if they happen to do or say something, or hold to a doctrine of some kind that we disagree with.

Take a look on the w-w-w, and you'll see exactly what I mean.  There are websites devoted to nothing more than scandalizing folks like Kenneth Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer and a fistful of the more prominent leaders and ministries around the world.  If they aren't attacked for their doctrine, they get attacked for their lifestyle.  If they aren't attacked for their lifestyle, they get attacked for the way they dress.  If they aren't attacked for the way they dress, their attacked for the way they talk or phrase things.

Hey, you wanna know something?  I don't agree with everything I hear from various preachers and ministries (and of course you just KNOW I'm the arbiter of the Truth......doncha?  Huhh?  Huhh?).  Brotherrrr!  I have a bridge for sale, cheap, if you believe that.  Who cares if we agree on everything or not?   There's nothing in the Word that says we have to believe everything just like everybody else.

Besides, what is it the apostle Paul writes?  "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace........... ........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 fulness of Christ."  (Ephesians 4:3,13)

Got it?  We can keep a unity of the Spirit without everyone having the same growth and/or understanding of the things of God.  It isn't my business to compel you to think like I do, else we cease having fellowship with each other.  It IS my business -- on the other hand -- to walk after the Spirit and maintain the unity of that same Spirit with my fellow-believers, my fellow-leaders in the body of Christ, even if we are miles apart in our understanding concerning some of the things of God.

It is the business of the Holy Spirit to bring us to the unity of the faith -- and He does that through apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers whom He has anointed for that purpose.  It used to offend me when some of my fellow-leaders in the body would say to me, "Reg, I don't know what you are, but you sure aren't a pastor!"  That griped me to no end.  But you see, I was trying to be something I wasn't called or anointed to be.  Neither am I an evangelist.  The Lord hasn't given me what it takes to get out and preach salvation to the lost -- NOT, anyway, as a regular thing.

I can pastor (the better word is to "shepherd") -- and do so when it fits God's particular plan and timing at the moment.  I can preach evangelistically -- and have done so with some amazing results that followed.  I love to teach -- and do so on a regular basis -- but my preaching and teaching both come out of a rather specific prophetic anointing.  I use that description advisedly, and not because I'm trying to be something I'm not.

The prophetic anointing -- and I'll speak from my own peculiar perspective -- has come as the Holy Spirit has given to me a very clear objective and goal.  That goal is to grow up God's people into mature and seasoned faith-walking, faith-talking, faith-producing believers whose lives produce the kind of fruit that remains on a permanent basis.  I see the future of God's people.  I see where God is taking us.  So my preaching and teaching take specific aim at that goal so that the Lord Jesus Christ receives His just and due inheritance in His people.

I'm not a future-teller.  Not in the ordinary sense of the word.  I don't stand and prophesy about events that are going to happen on July 7, 2007, or December 25, 2010 -- or any other date.  I don't prophesy about doom and gloom, although I do warn people from time to time about the wrath to come "upon the children of disobedience."  My calling, and my anointing is to see that the Glory of the Lord is revealed in the body of Christ.

Understand?  Hmmmm..... How did I get here?  Guess I just digressed a bit.  Anyway, what I'm trying to point out is that there is a human, fleshly tendency to criticize folks who don't operate the way we do, or whose callings and ministries are not "conservative."  The flashier someone is, the more of a target they become.

I took my mother-in-law and my aunt to a Benny Hinn meeting one time.  I'd seen Benny Hinn sweep his hand across an area of people before on television and seen them almost fly out of their chairs under the power of God when he did so.  To be honest, I was skeptical about it.  Benny Hinn is one of those flamboyant individuals.  Yup.  He really is!

But I don't give a rip about flamboyance if the goods are there, if lives are changed, if the power of God is manifested, people are healed and set free, and Jesus is glorified.  And that's exactly what I got to see.  Lives changed.  The power of God on display.  Brother, was it on display!  Benny swept his hand across the section of bleachers where I was sitting with my mother-in-law and aunt.  People literally flew out of their seats backwards.  They were hit by the power of God in a stupendous display.  Demons fled out people, screaming as they fled.  Diseases fled.  Although the row we were sitting in didn't get "slain in the Spirit" (to use an old Pentecostal phrase), there wasn't a one of us who didn't get hit with a jolt of the power of God as though we'd been struck by lightning.  Can I explain it?  Nope.  But I don't need to.  God doesn't always do things the way I think He ought to.  Wonder why?

Again I digress.  Sorry 'bout that.  What this all boils down to is that despite Benny Hinn's methodologies and flamboyance, and despite the fact that he sometimes says and does things I wouldn't, I've seen hardened criminals' lives changed by the Gospel; I've seen people healed of completely debilitating diseases, I've seen the lame walk, the blind see, the deaf hear -- you name it.  Are there a few phonies in the pile out there to see what they can get for themselves?  Sure.  But they are a microscopic minority.

You see, King Saul was anointed by God to lead Israel.  And God knew beforehand of Saul's frailties and fleshly weaknesses.  God knew beforehand that Saul would ultimately fail the test of leadership and responsibility to God.  But he still anointed him -- and he remained king to his death.  David knew Saul had failed God.  David also knew that the anointing for kingly leadership had been taken from Saul and given to him; yet he absolutely would not touch Saul in any way, shape or form because of his reverence for that anointing of the Lord.

Christians -- no, forget that -- Americans, Russians, Canadians, Mexicans, Aussies, New Zealanders, Romanians, French, Spanish -- you name it -- all need to have reverence for the anointing of their respective leaders, understanding that no one can be in a place of leadership except God permit.  Paul makes it even stronger in his letter to the Romans, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher [powers] authorities. For there is no [power] authority but of God: the [powers] authorities that be are ordained (arranged, assigned and ordered) of God."  (Romans 13:1)

OOOOOPS!  Hmmmm....  That means -- like it or not -- that President Bush has been ordained, assigned and ordered of God.  That means that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been ordained, assigned and ordered of God.  That means that British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been ordained, assigned and ordered by God.  That means that Australian Prime Minister John Howard has been ordained, assigned and ordered by God.

Helllllooooo?  Am I coming through?  It also means that Russian President Vladimir Putin has been ordained, assigned and ordered by God.  Folks, God has an objective.  He has a sovereign purpose for His people, and He will turn the schemes of men to accomplish righteousness -- so long as we cooperate with Him and pray for "kings and all that are in authority."  Our elections notwithstanding, the outcomes are there so that Jesus Christ will ultimately receive His inheritance in an overcoming, power-working, authoritative body of people whose primary goal and objective is to show His grace and love to a sick and dying world.

THAT, my friends, is what Jesus meant when He instructed His disciples to pray, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is (already done) in Heaven."

We're here as believers in Christ to bring upon this earth the rulership of the Lord demonstrably, and it has to begin in us before we can export it to our neighborhoods, our cities, our states and provinces, our nations, and the entire world.  If His love isn't working in and through us, we've got nothing to export but more death and sickness through religion and futile religious pomp, form, and ritual exercises.

We've sort of gone around a forty-acre field to get here, but let's get back to David and Jonathan and "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life."

We quoted this statement from David in Monday's discussion, and I'll repeat it.  David understood the heart of God when he said and wrote, "Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm."  (I Chronicles 16:22, Psalm 105:15)

"Mine anointed" is not just a reference to "prophets": it applies to every individual whom God calls, anoints and positions in a place of leadership, or to serve in whatever capacity He so elects.  That's why David felt so strongly about not touching Saul.

David knew that touching God's anointed would be tantamount to stretching forth his hand against the Lord Himself.  He understood that if Saul was God's anointed, then God had to be the one to deal with Him.  We come back to I Samuel 26:10-25.

"David said furthermore, As the LORD liveth, the LORD shall smite him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle, and perish.  he LORD forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against the LORD’S anointed: but, I pray thee, take thou now the spear that is at his bolster, and the cruse of water, and let us go.  So David took the spear and the cruse of water from Saul’s bolster; and they gat them away, and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither awaked: for they were all asleep; because a deep sleep from the LORD was fallen upon them."

And once more, Saul is going to see the goodness and mercy of the Lord as it is displayed in David.

"Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of an hill afar off; a great space being between them: And David cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, Answerest thou not, Abner? Then Abner answered and said, Who art thou that criest to the king?  And David said to Abner, Art not thou a valiant man? and who is like to thee in Israel? wherefore then hast thou not kept thy lord the king? for there came one of the people in to destroy the king thy lord.  This thing is not good that thou hast done. As the LORD liveth, ye are worthy to die, because ye have not kept your master, the LORD’S anointed. And now see where the king’s spear is, and the cruse of water that was at his bolster."

NOW we're getting a bit humorous!  David is rebuking Abner, Captain of Saul's Armies, for not keeping his "master, the Lord's anointed."

"And Saul knew David’s voice, and said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And David said, It is my voice, my lord, O king.  And he said, Wherefore doth my lord thus pursue after his servant? for what have I done? or what evil is in mine hand?  Now therefore, I pray thee, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If the LORD have stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering: but if they be the children of men, cursed be they before the LORD; for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the LORD, saying, Go, serve other gods.

"Now therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth before the face of the LORD: for the king of Israel is come out to seek a flea, as when one doth hunt a partridge in the mountains.

"Then said Saul, I have sinned: return, my son David: for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day: behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.  And David answered and said, Behold the king’s spear! and let one of the young men come over and fetch it.  The LORD render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness: for the LORD delivered thee into my hand to day, but I would not stretch forth mine hand against the LORD’S anointed."

Tell you what.  This thing about touching the Lord's anointed was enormous.  David reverenced that anointing as He did the Lord Himself.

"And, behold, as thy life was much set by this day in mine eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of the LORD, and let him deliver me out of all tribulation.  Then Saul said to David, Blessed be thou, my son David: thou shalt both do great things, and also shalt still prevail. So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place."

This picture has always amazed me.  Saul always says the right words, but his intentions and actions never match.  Twice his life has been in David's hands.  Twice David showed great mercy.  And still Saul kept coming after him.  The mercy that David showed to Saul was nothing less than the mercy of God, giving Saul a chance at repentance and real turning.  Despite the fact that the authority of the throne had been taken away from Saul, the Lord -- through David -- gave Saul every conceivable opportunity to genuinely repent of his rebellion.

Here's the extraordinary aspect of this.  Despite David's anointing to rule, he was in no hurry to take the throne.  David was no politician.  He wasn't about to take the throne until it was clear that God's timing was in place.  He was not one who sought after public approval -- for ANYTHING!  The only approval he wanted was God's, and he knew that in that place he was invincible.

And in the place of that kind of approval and invincibility, the goodness of the Lord, and the mercy of the Lord chased after him.  Bob Mumford used to refer to "goodness and mercy" as two puppy dogs that follow the love-filled and faith-filled believer.  It's an illustration I've always remembered.  It takes no imagination to see two panting puppies bouncing and bumping and jumping up and down as they follow their master.

THAT is exactly how goodness and mercy work for the believer who has come this far in his growth and walk with the Lord.

The finish to this particular picture of David and the display of goodness and mercy occurs when -- some seventeen months later -- the entire host of the Philistine army arrays itself against Saul and the armies of Israel.  David has been hiding out in the land of the Philistines for this period, and when the Philistine king, Achish, begins preparing for this battle against Israel, his aides fear that David will take up arms against the Philistines with Saul.  Thus David is sent away.

When he reaches the city -- Ziklag --  which has been his home, and the home of all those who've been fighting alongside him for these many years, it turns out that the Amalekites have taken the city, taken his family and the families of all his men captive and burned the city with fire.  Suddenly, David has his own battles to fight -- never mind what Israel may be engaged in against the Philistines.

Of course the Lord gives him great victory over the Amalekites.  Saul and Jonathan are not so fortunate.  In the battle with the Philistines, Jonathan is killed and Saul is mortally wounded.  An Amalekite soldier happens upon Saul just as he is attempting to finish his life by falling on his own spear.

The story unfolds in II Samuel 1 as this young soldier runs to give David the news.

That's where we'll have to pick this up next Wednesday.  Guess I got so windy talking about David's sense of reverence for the anointing that there isn't time to finish this today.  As noted on Monday, there will be no Coffee Breaks on Friday or next Monday because of the holiday.  We will continue this series a week from today.

Faithfulness is nothing more and nothing less than continuing to do the last thing Jesus told you to do, until such time as He says to do something else.

Blessings on you!



Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
700 South 6th Street
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
(509) 837-4657

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