Another Coffee Break:
Aphiémi Healing, Part 23
March 28, 2014
Last Sunday, we had Keith and
Elsie Gerner with us from Ireland. Keith
is one of God's Generals -- a man who was heavily involved in the birth of the
Charismatic Renewal 40+ years ago in Ireland, and saw Holy Spirit break down
the walls between those who called themselves "Protestants" and those
who were Catholic as the Spirit of God fell upon people who desired all that
God had for them.
Following a time of teaching
and sharing, Keith began to walk among the folks in our gathering, prophesying
over them, ministering healing as well as the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Della was back in the group praying with him
over Ashley, who received her prayer language rather liberally. :-) Keith turned around and began prophesying
over Della and when he took her hand, the power of God hit her and she started
to fall. Keith grabbed her by one arm
while Gary hustled behind her to stop her from hitting the concrete floor. Della twisted her body as she struggled to
regain her balance and in that moment her hip, which had been severely
dislocated in a fall the day before, slid into place and extreme pain she'd
been suffering vanished. Funny, isn't
it? Brother! Never put God in a box when it comes to
healing.
When the Holy Spirit launched us
into this area of study some weeks back, I freely admit that I had no idea of
the ramifications and the depth of revelation to which we would be taken.
Although I am sharing from a place
of current and still unfolding revelation, it is obvious that Della and I have
both been recipients of some pretty amazing areas of healing where we had no
previous awareness of demonic footholds and opportunities for the Enemy to
afflict us.
Jesus began His ministry by reading
from the Isaiah Scroll in order to reveal the priorities He would follow for
restoring people to a proper relationship with Father.
Isaiah 61:1-3: The
Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to
preach good tidings unto the meek (åéðòÈ -aònaòyv:depressed in mind and circumstances, humble, lowly, poor); he
hath sent me to bind up (Láç - chaòbash:to wrap fully, to heal, to gather back together) the
brokenhearted (øáLÜ
- shaòbar:crushed, broken in pieces, torn apart -- + -- áìÅ - leòb:[the heart, metaphorically] feelings, the
emotions, the will or intellect), to
proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that
are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the
day of vengeance of our God; to comfort (íçð - naòcham:to breathe strongly upon, to ease) all
that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto
them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for
the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the
planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
Notice the sequence of Jesus’
priorities once He’s been anointed:
1. To preach the good news that those in poverty no longer
need live that way;
2. To heal wounded, shattered, splintered and fragmented
souls;
3.
To publish and declare liberty and freedom for those
held in demonic bondage;
4. To open the doors of mental, emotional, and spiritual
prisons; to untie the cords that hold people captive.
The
healing that Jesus provides begins with the revelation of how the Enemy has
gained his footholds in our souls, our minds and our emotions.
There
is a rather dramatic picture in Mark Chapter 5 that most of our English
translations obscure.
Mark 5:1-17: "And they came over unto
the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was
come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with
an unclean spirit, Who had his
dwelling(*) among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with
chains: Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, and the
chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces:
neither could any man tame him.
"And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and
in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran
and worshipped him, And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do
with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? I adjure thee by God,
that thou torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou
unclean spirit.
"And he asked him, What is thy name? And he
answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. And he besought
him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was
there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils
besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And
forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered
into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea,
(they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.
"And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in
the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was
done. And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil,
and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were
afraid. And they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed
with the devil, and also concerning the swine. And they began to pray
him to depart out of their coasts."
Both
Matthew and Luke record this event as well (See Matthew 8:28 and Luke
8:26). Three times in the passage from
Mark’s Gospel we are told that this man had his dwelling among “the tombs.”
In
all the years and many dozens of times I’ve read these Scripture passages, I’d
never actually read this in the Greek text – which is revelatory to say the
least – until Della and I heard Katy Souza share in one of her teachings.
Each
time the word “tomb” occurs the Greek word is:
ìíçìåsïí - mnemion.
This
word may not strike an immediate chord for some folks, but we have a word in
the English language which is a direct derivative of the Greek: mnemonics.
Webster’s
Unabridged Dictionary defines mnemonics
like this: The
science or art of improving the memory, as by the use of certain formulas; aids
to help in remembering.
The
Greek word, mnemion, is drawn from
Greek mythology and comes from the name of the goddess Mnemosyne – the
mythological mother of Zeus, and the deity (actually, demonic entity) who
caused people to retain memories of past events.
Mnemion, therefore,
literally means: a
remembrance; a monument or marker which causes a recall of the past.
J.H.
Thayer, in his Greek-English Lexicon, adds: a visible monument to the past, a visible marker for preserving
a memorial of a person, a thing, or some past event.
By
now, it should become obvious why the Gadarene demoniac was so tormented. He literally re-lived his past failures, the
betrayals of his past, events which had traumatized his thoughts, his feelings
and his emotions. He lived every day
being reminded of how he had been either mistreated,
sexually abused (the word “unclean” in the Greek text implies this directly) or
belittled – and he was tormented by spirits of fear which literally drove him
insane.
One
item worth noting before we continue is the word “dwelling” in verse 2 of Mark
5. This word in the Greek text is: êáôïßêçóéò - katoikesis: mansion, place of residence, to reside permanently.
The
man of Gadara, therefore, lived and dwelled permanently in the torment of past
memories. When he came and threw himself
at Jesus’ feet, it was not the man who spoke or cried out. Rather it was the “unclean spirit.” That spirit said a couple of things that are
remarkable for what is said, and what is NOT said, “What
have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the Most High God? I adjure
thee by God, that thou torment me not.”
Matthew
notes the following question, “art thou come hither to
torment us before the time?”
The
first question
should be phrased more properly, “What do you and I have in common?”
Jesus
had NOTHING in common with either the man of Gadara, or the evil spirits that
had taken hold of him. Jesus had no
place of wounding, no place of offense, no place of personal hurt by which evil
spirits could gain a foothold in his mind, his thoughts, his emotions or his
spirit. There was no place in Jesus that
needed healing or restoration. There was
no place in Him where evil spirits had any kind of foothold. He was ready instead to minister healing and
deliverance.
The
second question
put to Jesus by the demons was revelatory: “Have you come to torment us before
the appointed time?”
Understand?
The
evil spirits KNOW with a certainty that there is a day of eternal judgment,
damnation and hell fire that awaits them.
They know a day awaits when they will be bound and cast into “The
Pit.” Those spirits also knew that
Jesus had absolute authority from Father Himself – that He could command them
to go into the bottomless pit before that appointed time – and they were
fearful that Jesus would do just that!
Time, you see, is nothing more than an envelope to contain Satan.
When
Jesus spoke to “the unclean spirit” He asked the question, “What is your
name?” Once again we have an answer
which reveals the nature of the demonic torment this man of Gadara suffered.
“My name is Legion, for we are many.”
Do
you see it? The “spokesdemon” for the
group uses a specific Roman military term, thus identifying the fact that these
evil spirits had declared war on this man – as well as all those others around
him – (and we’ll cover this more momentarily) using a military strategy.
In
case you’ve never been exposed to this terminology, a Roman Legion consisted of
6,600 foot-soldiers and 172 horse-drawn charioteers with precision bowmen ready
to use their weapons.
Some
folks have speculated that the demon’s answer was more metaphoric than anything
and that it was figurative rather than precise; but I find very little – if any
– Scripture chosen by the Holy Spirit that has not been given for any other
purpose than to draw some very precise and graphic pictures for the sake of our
understanding and revelation. Once you
begin to see this overall picture from a spiritual perspective, you realize
that evil spirits look for every opportunity to work in the lives of people in
much the same way as Franco’s “Fifth Column.”
During
the early days preceding WWII, Spanish General Francisco Franco was recognized
as the head of Nationalist Spain by the Nazi regime. During the next three years he led a revolt
against the Popular Front in Spain and set out to capture Madrid. One of Hitler’s military aides was sent to
question him concerning his plans to take the city.
“Well,
I have four columns of Infantry – one on the north, one on the south, one on
the east and one on the west.”
“And
which one will you use to take the city,” came the query.
“I
will use my Fifth Column,” he responded.
“Your
Fifth Column? Where is that?” Hitler’s
aide asked.
“They
are in the city already. They are
dressed and appear as ordinary Spanish citizens who go about their day just
like everyone else. They run businesses,
they serve in public positions, they teach in the schools, and they are
musicians on the street. But they are
loyal to me,” Franco continued. “When I
give the word, they will rise up all at the same time and take over. The city will fall with very little
bloodshed. It will be mine.”
And
that is precisely how Francisco Franco took control of Spain in April of 1939:
its cities and its government fell because of the infiltration of “the Fifth
Column.”
The
man of Gadara fell to the Fifth Column of evil spirits who took advantage of
the fact that he continued to nurse his wounds of the past. He lived perpetually amongst the reminders of
his wounds. He rehearsed daily the
failures or mistakes of past months and years. One by one this Fifth Column of
demons began to take advantage of each wound, each hurt, each offense, each
event in which he had been taken advantage of, and each place of
belittlement. Over a period of time,
because the man was unaware of the tactics and oblivious to the encroachment of
the Enemy, he was taken over and tormented in increasing ways.
Anger
and hatred filled his being. Rage became
his mantra. Vengeance against his past
persecutors or offenders became a driving force. The local magistrates and officials tried to
capture him and hold him in chains to no avail.
Every restraint they put upon him was broken in such demonic displays of
power and might that the whole countryside was put in fear.
When
Jesus commanded the Legion of evil spirits to come out of the man, they had no
choice but to obey. They requested that
they be allowed to enter the herds of swine feeding nearby – just so they could
have physical bodies to dwell in. We all
know the end of that episode. The swine
couldn’t handle the presence of the demons and ran, panic-driven, over the
cliff and right into the sea.
The
man of Gadara was set free completely.
Jesus healed him of his past wounds and set him free from the Legion of
evil spirits. Not only was the man set
free from the demons, the footholds they had in him were eradicated.
There
is a history lesson in this story as well as a wonderful picture of the healing
of wounded souls.
Gadara
was located in a territory referred to as “the land of the Gergesenes.” The Gergesenes derived their name from their
ancient father, Gerges, whom we know historically as one of the sons of Canaan. During the days of the Patriarchs – and more
specifically, the days of Moses and Joshua, they were referred to among the
seven condemned nations as the Girgashites.
They
were the only nation of people who did not stand and fight against Israel. Almost to a man, they fled before Israel and
settled down for centuries among the Assyrians and the Ammonites (modern-day
Jordanians and Iraqis). Most of their
national identity was lost and they intermarried with those among whom they
dwelled, but the cowardly, non-confrontational spirit that epitomized the
Girgashites remained.
The
man from Gadara was easily taken by the Legion of evil spirits because there
was no place of resistance to or against the thoughts and memories he could
have avoided.
This
is a classic lesson for all of us. The
apostle Paul wrote the Corinthian Ekklesia and said something that is critical
in our understanding (this is my expansion from the Greek):
II Corinthians 10:3-5 (RAC Translation
& Amplification): For though we live, deport and
comport ourselves by that which we see, hear, taste, smell and touch, we do not
contend with, war after and execute military strategies [against Satan] by that
which we see and hear, know intellectually, or have opinions of: For the
weapons and instruments of our war and executed actions [against Satan] do not
have their origins and [weak, impotent] operation in natural flesh and human
abilities, but they are skillful, potent and powerful – like dynamite – through
God to the demolition and extinction of all fortified and guarded places of
opinions in opposition, Bringing down violently and demolishing (to total
extinction) all mental reasonings and thought processes, and every mental
barrier or arrogant and self-elevated attitude that justifies itself in
opposition to the knowledge of God; bringing into captivity and making a
prisoner every perception of the intellect and every mental purpose or
determination to the compliance and submission of Christ and His anointing [in
the same way that He complied with the will and desire of the Father];
“Bringing
into captivity every thought” means bringing under discipline every single
place where the Enemy attempts to define us by our previous mistakes, our hurts
and offenses. We're talking about
another area of healing here, folks!
This is healing which we can partake of on a daily basis as we sit, eat
and drink at the Table of the Lord, breaking the Bread of Life and drinking
from the Cup of Covenant -- the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus!
And we will
continue on!
If you are in need of healing please join
our prayer conference calls on either Monday, Wednesday or Friday of each week
at 7:00 PM Eastern. Once again, the
number to call is (805) 399-1000. Then
enter the access code: 124763#. Let us
minister to your need for healing!
Blessings on you!
Regner
Regner A.
Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP
CENTER
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
Email
Contact: Admin@RiverWorshipCenter.org
Our
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