When the Father knocks on the door of our Hearts
God’s rejection of Cain’s gift had nothing to do with the gift, but the attitude of the giver. One example is when Cain rejects divine counsel because of being so self absorbed by his emotions. Swayed by the anger that burns within his soul, Cain can no longer reason. He incorrectly believes that he is alone and is given the right to sabotage his brother. He fails to understand his responsibility to care for his brother’s life. What he chooses and what he pursues is in opposition to the Lord’s gracious leadership.
God’s rejection of Cain’s gift had nothing to do with the gift, but the attitude of the giver. One example is when Cain rejects divine counsel because of being so self absorbed by his emotions. Swayed by the anger that burns within his soul, Cain can no longer reason. He incorrectly believes that he is alone and is given the right to sabotage his brother. He fails to understand his responsibility to care for his brother’s life. What he chooses and what he pursues is in opposition to the Lord’s gracious leadership.
The Lord requires you and I to serve our brothers interests in order to walk in integrity. How then can we bend our heart’s towards the Lord’s counsel? I believe the first truth is, at times an attempt to remove anyone who causes us pain. For example, Cain has to experience the pain of facing his faults in order to be healthy. Another example is, I’m sure that the Lord allowed Cain to experience rejection so that he would develop his faith so he could conquer his anger.
One major problem that still is evident today, just like in the days of Cain, is that we don’t know how to live with ourselves and with each other. Yet I can’t focus so much on Cain’s behavior, I must focus on the Lord’s heart towards an unrepentant individual. Cain’s actions can confuse us, however God’s dealings moves our hearts to want to know the Lord more. The Lord protected Cain even though he embezzled his future. What Cain did was make a decision when he was angry, disconnected, offended, rejected and resentful. However the Lord isn’t an angry Father, anger isn’t His default. The Father lives with a conviction and when humanity lives without moral conviction they cease to live.
The loving Father puts our conscience in check so we would pause and listen. Simply because our Father doesn’t want us to fail to inherit His promises. The Father came to Cain because He wanted him to live well, otherwise Cain would fulfill his own lust and then ask God for mercy. We have to realize there are moments when the Father knocks on the door of our hearts.
So why is Cain protected? Why are the guilty protected and yet the innocent unprotected? Is this justice? Why isn’t the innocent warned? Why wasn’t Abel warned about his brother’s plan to end his life? By not allowing Cain to be killed, is the Lord disregarding the standards of justice? In other words, does the Lord have a defect in His justice? Does the Lord delight in hurting Abel, does He delight in hurting us? Disregarding the standards of justice?
I believe the answer isn’t as complicated as we think, the Lord doesn’t just give us a revelation of Himself, the Lord graciously gives us a revelation of us. Because there was greater evil in Cain then when he murdered his brother, it was his indifference to murder. Cain had become indifferent towards the evil in his own heart. Indifference is the the opposite of the Lord’s heart towards humanity simple because indifference is self centered. Indifference is idolatry because it doesn’t consider its neighbor. Simple concern for our neighbor is the greatest act of justice whether that neighbor shares our ideology or not. So what is the answer? Abel is still speaking Cain isn’t. Hebrews 11:4: “By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.” Abel’s offering cost him his life, what am I giving that cost me my life?
We all have filters that interpret our experiences, but what if those filters are inaccurate?
The Hebrew prophets confronted the priests because the priests were dedicated to their ceremonies more than an inner attachment to the Lord. These leaders did not resolve to honor the Lord in their hearts. I believe that they fell into the trap of pleasing powerful people instead of pleasing the all powerful Lord. That is why the Lord began to speak through His servants. Because Israel needed individuals who ascended to the hill of Lord. God’s people needed the kind of prophets who would chose a pure heart over a successful ministry. Prophets who gave more thought about the love God felt for His people than a greater platform or more economic blessing. What set theses men and women apart was that they made mention what the Lord was in love with more than the religious agenda of the priests and politicians. They understood that the Spirit was able to beat the swords of men into plow-shears and give them the peace they longed for. Therefore, their message wasn’t just about punishment because punishment isn’t the greatest deterrent for humanity. They preached that if people saw the beauty of what was promised, then they would turn towards a loving God.
The Hebrew prophets confronted the priests because the priests were dedicated to their ceremonies more than an inner attachment to the Lord. These leaders did not resolve to honor the Lord in their hearts. I believe that they fell into the trap of pleasing powerful people instead of pleasing the all powerful Lord. That is why the Lord began to speak through His servants. Because Israel needed individuals who ascended to the hill of Lord. God’s people needed the kind of prophets who would chose a pure heart over a successful ministry. Prophets who gave more thought about the love God felt for His people than a greater platform or more economic blessing. What set theses men and women apart was that they made mention what the Lord was in love with more than the religious agenda of the priests and politicians. They understood that the Spirit was able to beat the swords of men into plow-shears and give them the peace they longed for. Therefore, their message wasn’t just about punishment because punishment isn’t the greatest deterrent for humanity. They preached that if people saw the beauty of what was promised, then they would turn towards a loving God.
So then why were their hearts so hard, why didn’t they fear the Lord? Why didn’t they feel the burden of their guilt? One reason is because of the abuse of power from those who were in a position of leadership exploited others through their lust for personal ambition. A heart filled with arrogance and pride doesn’t fear the Lord nor does it feel guilty. The Lords response is by sending a man or women of God to awaken a sense of justice, a sense of righteousness. A submitted vessel who possesses an inner identification with God’s will and a concern for the safety of others. For within the inner heart of these prophets they have to warn us because of what they’re seeing. Not to prove how right they are, but to protect the people God loves.
To the prophet, the Lord isn’t an idea to be discussed, but a King to be praised. Their message is to see what the Lord sees and to feel what the Lord feels. Nothing proves the sincerity of the prophet’s beliefs like their willingness to suffer for them. That is the reason why every prophet suffered for what they believed about God and humanity. Prophets suffer because men and women are held hostage by deception and pride. You see, the prophet is a man or woman who burns with eternal love, a love which has been imparted by the heart of the Father. They have traded in any respectability, for spiritual wisdom and revelation. The stigma that comes from walking in the supernatural doesn’t faze them because of their personal bond with the everlasting God.
I believe in this generation we are going to witness an awakening of the “prophetic conscience” men and women who share within their inner selves the same burden and passion of the Hebrew prophets.
Sincerely,
John Harke Team
The Nature of Deception
How do we react when our influence begins to diminish? Simon the sorcerer was baptized, followed Phillip around but still operated like a sorcerer.
Is that the fruit of salvation?
Is that behavior the evidence of a transformed heart?
Do I long to marvel at people with the gifts of the Spirit?
Or do I live to love God with genuine faith and a passion to walk in a relationship with Christ?
How do we react when our influence begins to diminish? Simon the sorcerer was baptized, followed Phillip around but still operated like a sorcerer.
Is that the fruit of salvation?
Is that behavior the evidence of a transformed heart?
Do I long to marvel at people with the gifts of the Spirit?
Or do I live to love God with genuine faith and a passion to walk in a relationship with Christ?
When we look at the book of Acts chapter eight, Simon’s demonic activity has desensitized the masses in Samaria. His influence and control promoted an agenda of deception and an awareness of manipulation which the culture embraced. This led to untold unhappiness, misery and fear. Something evil was behind all the brokenness, the pain, the confusion. Sickness and diseases were running rapid through the city. People suffering wasn’t just a governmental problem, or an educational problem, it was an intellectual problem because evil was ruling over the hearts and minds of an entire region. There is no order when a society has been affected by witchcraft.
In an atmosphere like that, people are looking to be fascinated by anyone or anything. However because of heightened persecution, Phillip the Evangelist came preaching Christ along with the evidence of miracles and deliverance. Yet evidence of supernatural power isn’t enough to save by itself, as we see in the case of Simon. Phillip’s preaching and authentic power wasn’t a distorted gospel, however when we look Simon we witness a distorted heart. In other words Simon believes but is never taken out of the world’s system. And as we study Acts eight I believe there can be what we call a “false conversion”. People can be delusional and come under deep deception. Like Simon, there was a certain intellectual belief, as well as an outward baptism, but with no change of heart.
What is so self evident is that Simon is completely attentive to the miracles that are operating through Philip, but never attentive to the source of those miracles. There was this sense of assumed ownership that Simon thought he could possibly possess. Simply because of the long standing influence that he had over the hearts and minds of the people in Samaria. When that influence began to diminish he reveals his true heart condition.
Beloved, to be saved is to be under the control of the Spirit of God. Unfortunately Simon’s speech betrays him when he requested to buy the Holy Spirit from Peter. True repentance and humility were not evident in Simon’s soul, only bitterness and iniquity. Sure he gave up the practice of sorcery but sorcery was still lodged in his heart. When reading Peter’s words of correction we see that Simon feared punishment more that he feared God. This attitude left him in the state of deception. He wanted power more than he wanted authentic salvation, he got neither. So what are the takeaways from this narrative? I believe at this hour the prophetic has to be at times confrontational especially when we are dealing with spiritual warfare. Because through out the book of Acts the occult was consistently attempting to undermine the message of the gospel. This takes courage and the infilling of the Holy Spirit. My prayer is that the Lord will anoint the church so they can break the demonic influence over individuals and over territories.
Sincerely,
John Harke Team
Word of The Lord for 2019
When seeking God for this year, He brought me to Isaiah 7 and the story of King Ahaz, the king of Judah. The context of these verses is that the King of Israel and the King of Syria had formed an alliance with each other for the sole purpose of destroying Judah and its people.
Now the house of David was told, “Aram has allied itself with Ephraim”; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.
Isaiah 7:2
Lessons Learned From King Ahaz
When seeking God for this year, He brought me to Isaiah 7 and the story of King Ahaz, the king of Judah. The context of these verses is that the King of Israel and the King of Syria had formed an alliance with each other for the sole purpose of destroying Judah and its people.
Now the house of David was told, “Aram has allied itself with Ephraim”; so the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.
Isaiah 7:2
What We Are Told Has Major Significance on What We Believe
We need to take inventory of the voices that we listen to and what we allow ourselves to hear. This is hard to do especially in today’s social media driven society where tens of millions of voices and opinions are a few clicks away but nothing could be more essential in this season. What we hear and are told will shape our belief and how we approach the season we are in. Hear the wrong thing and it could have far reaching consequences. In verse 2, King Ahaz heard the news and it shaped their belief of what the future held for them, destruction. Their belief caused fear to come in.
Who We Really Are is Discovered Under Pressure
The pressure caused King Ahaz and his people to step into fear. The news of the coming attack revealed what was in the heart of the king and the people all along.
This is not a season to run from the pressure. It is also not a time to wallow in it with a victim identity or a sense of hopelessness. It is not a time to run or wallow but a time to engage. There are many that seek to avoid pressure because like a tube of toothpaste, what is inside will come out and what is inside is who we truly are and who we are is sometimes not very pretty.
God does not reveal for the purpose of shame, He reveals for the purpose of bringing things to life. When we remove the stigma of shame around the areas of our life (the parts we try to hide) that might be like dead flesh and allow the light of God to come in (that often comes in the form of pressure) with a heart to allow Him to restore it, it will produce life and not death.
We must not run from the pressure because then we lose out on what God is wanting to reveal about ourselves.
King Ahaz is Dominated by Anxiety
A sad but comical point in this story is in verse 3 when God tells the Prophet Isaiah where to find the king to deliver his message. It’s not in the palace, not while he is seated in his kingly court, sitting on his throne, rather he is standing by where people wash their clothes and by the aquaducts of the city. Fear had caused anxiety to grip him so badly that he clearly wasn’t even in his right mind.
Fear and Anxiety will cause you to do and behave in a way that are not in alignment with the position that God has given you. We cannot allow anxiety, which is worry about the future have any place in our lives. Don’t make a prophet have to come and find you in the laundry room.
Emotional Brutality
Ahaz Became a Slave to the Wrong Words Which Brought Upon Him Emotional Brutality. Brutality means savage physical violence; great cruelty. As referenced in the previous section, it is clear that Ahaz was so vexed and full of anxiety that it caused him to enter into a place of great torment. If we guard against anxiety, it prevents us from experiencing the type of emotional brutality that the enemy wishes to bring against God’s children. Anxiety is emotional torture.
Practical Keys:
Set a daily practice to seek the voice of God
Take an Audit of the Primary Voices You Listen to and Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you on how to sift through what you should and should not be hearing.
Allow what resonates with what the Holy Spirit is saying over you be the tuning fork.
Pair the guiding of the Holy Spirit with a new fervor to study what the Word of God in the Bible Says and allow that to further align you with what God is saying and to remove everything else.
Isaiah 7:4 ( BBE )
And say to him, Take care and be quiet; have no fear, and do not let your heart be feeble, because of these two ends of smoking fire-wood, because of the bitter wrath of Rezin and Aram, and of the son of Remaliah.
The Council of Isaiah is One of Hope. God Wants to Release a Message of Hope to Us.
In verse 4, God raises up a prophet to go and give a prophetic word to king Ahaz. The theme of the prophetic word was Hope. God wanted to bring a message of hope to the king so that he could break his partnership with fear and anxiety. In this season, God is releasing words of hope for our situations and circumstances.
Partake of a New Nature
The prophet Isaiah spoke to King Ahaz because the Lord wanted this king to partake of a different nature then the one he had. When God speaks, it is an invitation to step out of the prison of our present (mindset, will, emotions, position) and into an environment of faith. In an atmosphere of faith, mountains become molehills and nothing is impossible.
Wisdom is Wise Behavior
True wisdom is demonstrated with action. We cannot just know what is the right thing to do, we also have to be willing to take the actions necessary to live that reality. This seems like common sense but is difficult to do when the pressure of life is applied.
Do Not Violate Your Values for Immediate Relief
The caution here is that when the pressure comes, people will often violate their values to meet their immediate needs. These needs often present themselves as the need for emotional relief from the pressure of the situation. Our brains are wired to try and find an immediate resolve to what is causing us pain or pressure, even if the long-term affects are catastrophic. This brings us to the next point…
Short Term Fear Can Result in Long Term Irresponsibility
Human nature is to just put band aids (short term) on things that actually require deep surgery (long term). We have to sacrifice the actions that bring a possibility of immediate relief and choose the promise of reaping long-term blessings. God will require us to have a long-term view of our present situations so we can avoid the pitfalls of setline for a bowl of soup instead of our birthright. (See Jacob and Esau)
The Choice Between Faith or Fear
When the prophet gives the king the message, it was an invitation to step into the realm of faith. In order to do that, he needed to divorce himself from fear. We will be presented with continual choices between what we partner with.
Silence Under Pressure
There is tremendous power in the words that we use and release even when we are under pressure. Blinded by the swirl adversity around us, it is often best to remain silent, allow God to strengthen us, and then take steps forward. There is a short-term relief that happens when we talk about our adversity and the struggle we are faced with. It also feels good to have others hear about it, however we have to be careful and discern whether by us doing this, it prevents us from getting through it to the other side quickly. Sometimes silence under pressure is best.
The Prophetic that Disrupts
God raised up a prophet to disrupt the atmosphere of fear that the king and his people were under. For those that are prophets and prophetic people, be ready because God will often embolden you with a word that is designed to disrupt (read confront) the death and fear that is in operation of those that you would minister to. Temper this with love.
Isaiah 7:9 ( NASB )
and the head of Ephraim is Samaria and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
If you will not believe, you surely shall not last.”
The Slave master of Ego
Why Didn’t Ahaz believe the word of the Prophet? Because he wasn’t aware of his inner enslavement to his ego. Ego doesn’t just mean you think you are better than everybody. Ego is about comparison. It is the pride of our intellect taking stock of who we are and how we stack up with others and our circumstances. Ahaz did this with himself and his kingdom and determined that there were no way the prophet’s words could be true. We have to shut down the voice of ego no matter how it manifests itself. We do this by rejecting comparison.
The World Looks Much More Different When We Are Consumed by Fear
Have you ever heard the phrase “making mountains out of molehills”? That is exactly what fear does when it consumes us. It is like everything around us rises like mountains around us and we are in continually risk of being crushed under the vastness of our world. That is why vigilance against fear is so key. Take a look at some of the circumstances in your world and ask yourself, is how I see these circumstances a product of my vision that is clouded with fear? When we identify these areas, we need to start commanding the fear to go ask God to change our vision.
Allow Your Faith to Be Built in the Scaffolding of Ambiguity
God intentionally allows some prophetic words to be vague. You might want to shout at this one. Why in the world would God want to be vague about His word? The answer is so that those who hear them enter into the process of growing their faith. Anyone can take action and do when all the details and variables are laid out for them, but it takes someone of faith to be willing to take steps forward when they don’t have the full picture. Think of Abraham and the first order God gave him; to leave his homeland and his family and go to a land that He would show him. Pretty vague to say the least. God didn’t even give him a destination let alone details about how He was going to get Abraham there.
If you are unclear about the details, take heart, you are in good company! However, this is not an excuse for inactivity, it is an invitation to take action so that in the midst of it, your faith is raised up.
Identify and Reinforce Your Convictions
Without core convictions fear becomes the only alternative. When pressure is applied to your life, your convictions, the stance of your life, destiny and position I Christ will be revealed. If there is nothing there, its void will be filled with fear.
Isaiah 7:11 ( AMP )
Ask for yourself a sign (a token or proof) of the Lord your God [one that will convince you that God has spoken and will keep His word]; ask it either in the depth below or in the height above [let it be as deep as Sheol or as high as heaven].
King Ahaz teaches us the politics can’t escape the prophetic.
God is raising up voices in this hour that will be able to stand at the gates of the city and release prophetic words that causes a shift. These voices must have fear purged from their life in order to be able to carry the responsibility well.
Take Your Prophetic Words Seriously… Take Action
I wonder if king Ahaz took the prophet Isaiah seriously? Because there is any repentance, no reform and no brokenness, rather, there was limp wristed apathy. There is a difference between hearing a prophetic word and receiving a prophetic word. To receive a word is to take it into your heart and respond with corresponding action. Prophecy is not a delivery, it is a spiritual transaction, a divine exchange. To test if you are taking your prophetic words seriously, ask yourself, “what actions have I taken to respond to the words that I’ve been given?”
Pay Attention to What You AREN’T saying.
It wasn’t what King Ahaz did that brought him into captivity it’s what he didn’t say. This is a very important point because sometimes we remain silent in order to give fear a place to hide. Worse, sometimes we provide fear with ground cover by saying all the things we expect people of faith to say while all the while there is a narrative of fear running through our minds that we hope no one, including ourselves will notice. We cannot allow this to happen in this season of our lives.
- God is raising up leaders that will not Compromise Hearing His Voice
- Ahaz is endangering himself and his people by not paying attention to the prophet. We must have a deep sensitivity to hear and pay attention when the Lord speaks.
Isaiah 7:14
“Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.”
Identify Repeated Behavior That Holds You Back
There is a grace in this season to address repeated pathological behavior that continues to keep you from moving forward.
Have a Spiritual Perspective on Your Priorities
Ahaz ‘s indifference had blinded him from valuing what was important. God wants to show you how to place the main things that He has for you at the top of your vision and give you strategies to let go of the insignificant and the distracting.
When God is With You… Choose to Live in a Way That Shows You Believe It
The king chooses to live as if God isn’t with him even though He is. As a result, he misses out on what God wanted to do in the moment for him and his people. We cannot allow this to happen in our lives. When God says He is with us in our situation, we need to let go of all the actions and postures associated with where we were before and take on the new behavior of a victor that has God on their side.
Sincerely,
John Harke Team
God is still reaching out His hand to you
The moment we become overwhelmed by what the someone thinks, is when we can easily neglect the reality of the situation. In other words, our concern should be for truth even when the truth isn’t welcomed.
Ahab’s prophet’s were just echoes, to be an echo isn’t difficult since it requires no life of prayer nor connection with the Lord. Therefore, we must understand that echoes don’t have the word of the Lord. Partly because they were under the spell of Jezebel and had lost all sensitivity to the reality of the Lord’s presence. The lesson we must learn from this narrative in 1 Kings 22 is, we can’t counsel anyone who can seduce us and that political alliances can sometimes run deeper than obeying the voice of the Lord.
The moment we become overwhelmed by what the someone thinks, is when we can easily neglect the reality of the situation. In other words, our concern should be for truth even when the truth isn’t welcomed.
Ahab’s prophet’s were just echoes, to be an echo isn’t difficult since it requires no life of prayer nor connection with the Lord. Therefore, we must understand that echoes don’t have the word of the Lord. Partly because they were under the spell of Jezebel and had lost all sensitivity to the reality of the Lord’s presence. The lesson we must learn from this narrative in 1 Kings 22 is, we can’t counsel anyone who can seduce us and that political alliances can sometimes run deeper than obeying the voice of the Lord.
It’s easy to pretend to be a prophet before a king, but it’s absolutely impossible to pretend to be a prophet before the Lord. All of us to need to be flexible in situations that happen in our lives, however, when it comes to truth there isn’t any room for flexibility.
Echoes are always culturally flexible towards current trends, while authentic prophetic voices are stern without being cruel. As we grow in humility we discern when we are to be flexible and when we are to be steadfast. When leaders, who are absolutely unwavering towards the truth, they become the type of leaders who are the most transformative. They seem to passionately delight in the Lord’s voice even if His voice doesn’t agree with their personal vision. They adjust their roles and dreams to be in perfect alignment with God’s will.
When we glance upon King Ahab we see him clinging to his own affections for personal ambition over the clear word of the Lord through one prophet. He loses focus of what truly is important which inevitably leads to his demise. Because real vision doesn’t ignore the brutal facts. All of us are in a battle, but this narrative conveys so emphatically that there are certain battles that we are not supposed to be in. When we look at the decline of Ahab, it certainly wasn’t because there was an absence of God’s voice, it was because in his pride he felt a false sense of invulnerability.
And like King Ahab, who didn’t invite the prophetic word into his chariot, when a denomination or organization doesn’t welcome the word of Lord, they begin to corporately bleed to death. I believe that what’s really being conveyed here isn’t just judgement, but the obvious evidence of the sovereignty of God in the lives of Kings, individuals, and nations. Even though it seems that people are failing to cooperate with the Lord’s loving rule, He is still reaching out His hand towards His people. Prophets still confront to transform, Evangelists still make calls to salvation, Pastors still patiently shepherd the sheep, Teachers still unveil the truth of scripture, and Apostles still create movements. One day, authenticity will drown out the echo.
Sincerely,
John Harke Team
