15 Steps LIII 

Good Morning, all you blessed people!

How're Y'all doing?  Supercalifragilistic Expialidocious?  Riiiiiiigghhhhttt!

Every so often I find out -- after I've posted, of course -- that I've made some pretty serious typos in my Coffee Breaks that really alter what I've intended to say.  Like the last one, for example.

Here's what went out before I had a chance to see it and correct it.

David's description of the "House of the Lord" is that place where we are functionally on the same level with the Lord Jesus Christ.  Please note that I've said "functionally" -- NOT positionally.  Do go off half-cocked and start suggesting that Regner Capener is preaching the errant Mormon doctrine that "as Christ once was, we now are; as He now is, we shall become."  That's not what this is about.  We are heirs and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.

Without Jesus Christ we cannot be seated together with Him in Heavenly Places.  We will never replace Him at the right hand of the Father.  He will always have that preeminent position.

That said, it is His will, His desire, His ultimate plan and purpose for us to function exactly like He does with that same divine power and authority that He has been building in us.  And that power and authority can only function through agape -- God's Love.  Thus, agape has to become part and parcel of our nature, our character, the very essence of our existence so that we can dwell together with Him in His house -- FOREVER!

OOOPPPSSSS!

That should have read "DON'T go off half-cocked....."  My kids laugh about the fact that I type pretty fast (anywhere from 70 to 100 wpm).  (I've been doing this since I was 14 or 15 years old).  Typing fast is fine, but I generally type as I think, and sometimes I forget to proof-read what I've actually written.  When that happens, I get these silly typos.

The point I was making in the previous Coffee Break was that when we reach the "House of the Lord," in this walk and in the development of our relationship with Jesus Christ, He has raised us up to sit with Him in Heavenly places.  THAT, my friends, is a place of supreme authority!

Maybe I've shared this before, but some months ago during one of our times of morning prayer and worship, the Lord gave me a vision of the Throne and a perspective of the Throne I'd never seen before.  I saw us seated on the Throne with the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Throne literally stretched out beyond my horizon.  I saw the Father seated in His place on the Throne with Jesus Christ at His right hand.  We were seated next to Jesus at His right hand.

Ephesians 2:6-7 just leaped to life in my understanding.  That's where Paul writes, "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus."

That phrase, "sit together" comes from the Greek, óõãêáèßæù -- sugkathizo, which literally translates to: to give (or take) a seat in company with.

You don't take a seat "in company with" the Lord Jesus Christ without first being invited, and then given that seat.  What was it that Isaiah prophesied?

"I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images." (Isaiah 42:8)

We'll get to the concept of "glory" momentarily, but do you see the picture?  Being seated with Jesus Christ in Heavenly places is a place of shared glory, shared authority, shared power, shared blessing, shared EVERYTHING!  And He doesn't lightly give that.  He certainly does not give it to those whose lives and worship are contaminated with the adoration of title, position, power, money, people, possessions -- STUFF!

Let's return to the discussion on glory we began in our previous Coffee Break.

The fact that the love-relationship between Adam and Eve and God was lost because of their having chosen to violate God's command and eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil also signified the loss of agape (the Hebrew equivalent is áä•S --aòheòb) being manifested through human flesh.  That loss necessitated a continuance of the original plan (not "Plan B", since the Lord was not taken off-guard when this happened) being implemented so that agape could be returned and manifested through a people who purposely chose to make the Lord their Shepherd, and were willing for the Lord to work whatever was necessary in them to restore the flow of agape between God and man.

Adam and Eve were, for all intents and purposes, kicked out of "the House of the Lord" when they chose academic and experientially-gained knowledge over the revelation that comes through agape.  With agape comes kheseed.  With agape and kheseed comes glory.  This isn't just for our sake: this is for His sake -- His name's sake, His onoma's sake!

Sin is so degrading to the human frame and so destructive to our existence that overnight change and transformation -- restoration, if you will -- back to that place of the Glory of the Lord must be step-by-step, stage-by-stage, Glory-to-Glory, until the work is completed.  Sinful flesh simply cannot handle the Glory of the Lord.  Flesh -- though our mind and our will, and despite our purpose to walk with God -- has within its genetic DNA the residual demands and commands of a way of life totally contrary to glory.  Since everything about the Lord manifests His Glory, and everything He is bringing us back to is to reveal that Glory, our DNA must be changed back.

You understand, of course, what I'm talking about when I refer to our DNA?  I'm referring to the fact that Adam and Eve's sin changed and contaminated that original DNA created by God when Adam was first formed, and then God breathed into him the breath of His life.

Here's a not-so-quick side-note for you.  One of the objectives of water baptism is to put to death (perhaps more accurately, to symbolize the death that has taken place by faith) the old man.  The individual who comes up out of the water is a person who has been resurrected supernaturally by the saving power of Jesus Christ.  The baptized person has the breath of God effectively breathed into them so that they are now alive by and because of the Spirit of God.  They are alive by virtue of a new spiritual DNA.

Remember when the Angel of the Lord came to Mary?  "And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.  And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.  He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end.

"Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?  And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God........... And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her."

Do you see the picture?  You know, of course, that it is primarily the blood and the DNA of the father that enters a child when it is formed in the womb.  Jesus qualified as a human being because He was born of a woman, but the DNA in Him that gave Him the overcoming power and authority to defeat Satan was the DNA of His Father.

THAT's the DNA that we have as baptized believers.  There's a whole lot more to this picture that we'll take up at some later date, but I wanted to draw this example for you to demonstrate the basis of God's Glory.

There is a process to the revealing of God's Glory, and it follows this sequence: (1) Love -- Agape (the Love of God) -- empowers Faith.  (2) Faith becomes operational by the Word of God.  (3) The Word of God becomes substance -- manifested reality, if I can put it that way -- when it is verbalized and spoken out of that Faith.  (4) The Substance produced by the Word, spoken in Faith, empowered by Love, becomes the Glory.

Remember Moses' prophecy?  "But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD."  (Numbers 14:21)

Then Isaiah prophesied, "And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it."  (Isaiah 40:5)

It was John who later wrote, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." (John 1:14)

How did that happen?  The Word first came to Mary by the Angel Gabriel.  Faith came to Mary by hearing that Word and, in and by that Faith, she declared, "Be it unto me according to thy Word."  Thus, by Mary's word, which agreed with the Word of God, the Word became flesh -- Jesus Christ, who was the manifestation of that Word, which John says was the Glory of the Father.

Now do you see it?  I may be taking a somewhat circuitous route to get there, but the process which brings the Glory of God is very clearly defined by the Word.

Let's talk about God's concept of glory.

The very first time we see this word, glory, occur in Scripture (in our English texts) is with reference to Jacob's wealth and riches (Genesis 31:1).  The word in the Hebrew text is: ãBákÈ -- kaòboòd.  It translates to the following: weight, to be heavy with riches and honor, to be multiplied innumerably, splendor, copiousness.

The word, kaòboòd, appears well before the Genesis 31 reference, however.  In Genesis 13:2, the word is translated like this: "And Abram was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold."

Are you seeing the picture?  "Glory" has an outward manifestation that everyone can see.  Contrary to popular thought (and religious mythology), "Glory" isn't some kind of halo around someone's head, or a bright light shining on them.

Glory is the supernatural (I really don't like that word!) manifestation of the Word.  Glory is the product of Faith, which is driven and motivated by Love.

I don't much like the word, "supernatural," because it coveys and implies a false picture of "natural."  Sin -- and very specifically, eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil -- has turned the entire human race into a species of "sub-natural" beings who operate far below that which God originally designed.  The concept of "supernatural" is only "super-" when the reference is "sub-."

Taken within that frame of reference, "Glory" is not "super-natural": it is the natural manifestation of love>faith>spoken word.  The "House of the Lord" incorporates "natural" life as designed and ordained by the Lord.

In our previous Coffee Break, I said that it is God's will, His desire, His ultimate plan and purpose for us to function exactly like He does with that same divine power and authority that He has been building in us.  And that power and authority function through Love/Faith/Word.

The entire purpose of our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ in the paths of righteousness is to bring us to the place where His Love, His Faith, and His Word become part and parcel of our nature, our character: the very essence of our existence, so that we can dwell together with Him in His house -- FOREVER!

This Hebrew word, kaòboòd (and its variants) occurs something over 500 times throughout the Old Testament.  It ALWAYS is used to demonstrate something visible, something tangible, something that people can relate to in a superlative sense.  Our English texts of the Old Testament alternately translate kaòboòd as: riches, wealth, and great honor.

For Abraham, for Isaac, for Jacob, and for a host of others throughout the Old Testament, the Glory of the Lord was manifested to an onlooking world in the rather spectacular wealth they displayed.  One of the translations of kaòboòd is “heavy,�?and it takes no great imagination to see that in the excess of gold and silver Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had to transport in their travels.

The apostle Paul made the statement, “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich."  (II Corinthians 8:9)

Key words in the Greek text of this statement read like this: “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich (plousios: wealthy, increased with goods), yet for your sakes he became (or took upon Himself) poor, (ptocheuo: indigent, to become a beggar) that ye through his poverty (ptocheia: indigence -- in a figurative sense [J.H. Thayer]) might be rich (plousios: wealthy, increased with goods)."

There are numerous references in Scripture which make clear the fact that Jesus was a wealthy person in a natural sense.  Literally hours before He was tried and crucified on the Cross, we have the picture in John 12 where Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, takes a pound of spikenard (worth roughly three years wages) and washes Jesus' feet with it.  Judas, who was afflicted with a spirit of poverty, gripes and says, "Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?"

John's comment afterwards was, "This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what was put therein."  John's remark demonstrates that Judas' personal priorities were still about money -- that "money" (or Mammon) owned him instead of the other way around.

This "bag" as it is described by John has some rather interesting connotations.  The Greek word, ãëùóóüêïìïí -- glossokomon, parallels the Hebrew, ñékÄ-- kiys, which describes an ornamental and decorated bag the very-rich wore around their waists to carry their gold and silver.  This bag was a symbol of wealth, stature and position in society.  Jesus, therefore, wasn't "poor" in the actual sense of being poor right up to the very end of His earthly ministry.  Rather, He took poverty upon Himself as He went to the Cross to deprive Satan of his use of the curse of poverty upon those who accepted Jesus' redemptive act on their behalf.

We've taken somewhat of a side-trip here, but my objective is to show you that wealth and riches were used by God to demonstrate "Glory."  Those riches were something tangible the world could relate to.  The fact that Abraham became "very rich" by the hand of God, by virtue of the Blessing that was upon him, became a sign to the world that what Abraham had was a very personal relationship with the I AM, The Creator of Heaven and Earth, the Lord Jesus Christ.  It was a drawing card for the world to look at in order to know that a return to the Garden experience, and the kind of walk with God that Adam and Eve once knew, was available by Faith.

When David ended the 23rd Psalm with, "I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever," he was showing the Glory, the manifestation of the Blessing, the result of a walk in the paths of righteousness with the Lord as his Shepherd as the culmination, the evidence, the proof-text for what happens when one makes Jesus Christ Lord and Shepherd of their lives.

We're not quite finished yet, and we'll wrap up this discussion and (hopefully) conclude this series of Coffee Breaks when we get together again.  I've been running behind all week because of the exceptional busyness of things here, so if I don't get to post on Friday, we'll finish this next Monday.

The Bible is neither a collection of laws and commandments nor a book of rules.  It contains 66 bags of seed that we can plant in our lives.  As long as we actually plant that seed, and then water it appropriately with our daily confession of faith, we will receive the expected and very tangible harvest.

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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