Reigning as Kings and Queens

It seems we can easily forget what Christ has purchased for us. So we begin to live a much lower standard than what Jesus has called us to live. To reign as kings and queens means much more than monetary success, public recognition and thousands of likes on Facebook. To reign as kings means to not come up short from the image of God. It’s finding victory on the inside, where our emotions are, to have control over our own spirit. It doesn’t mean that we are completely free from crisis, but it means we are seated above it. We tap into divine wisdom and we prophesy to the situations that don’t represent the beauty of God.

God has a goal for us individually and corporately, and that is to form us into a prophetic voice on the earth, prophesying liberty from bondage and decay. Creation is yearning for sons and daughters to speak what the Lord is speaking! In an atmosphere of repentance, respect, honor, and love, our identities flourish and our roles become clearly defined. When this is properly modeled, that Kingdom of God is authentically demonstrated.

4 “Again He said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: “Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. 6 I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you; and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord.” ’ ”

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and suddenly a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to bone.” (Ezekiel 37: 4-7)

By prophesying His heart, we come into agreement with what God sees, for He sees beauty in the midst of our deformity. When Ezekiel found himself in a valley, he wasn’t told to pray about the spiritual conditions — he was told to prophesy to them. His words began to transform the people.

• Will we do the same in our time?

• Will we prophesy the wonderful grace upon the slain that are on the battlefield of life?

Without the wealth of grace there isn’t any true wealth in the soul. The wealth of grace allows us to rule with the knowledge of the Kingdom and not rule as those who haven’t been regenerated. We reign from a place of intimacy, not from a place of legality. Life becomes more of a joy because we witness supernatural interventions in our spiritual lives, relationships and finances. We live the way Jesus lived when He was on the earth: reigning over sickness, demonic attacks, and economic lack. We become yoked to His peace, free from the yoke of anxiety and fear.

The body of believers who reign as kings will repair the wrongs in society and restore human dignity by bringing the knowledge of the truth to every sphere. Living like kings means thinking and speaking like kings, weighing out our words because they declare who we really are. The words we speak build the kind of kingdom we live in. And through the gift of righteousness we can rule with the same heart of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Sincerely,

John Harke Team

A Divine Partnership

God is not looking for our knowledge, He’s looking for our trust. By eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, it would change the very nature of Adam and Eve. Meaning, what we eat spiritually changes our very nature. That is why we must eat right. A sense of vulnerability, shame, exploitation and exposure happens when we eat from the wrong source. Although the Lord prohibited Adam and Eve from eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the serpent told them “why forfeit your personal rights? Just eat whatever you want.” The serpent seemed to capitalize upon their love and loyalty.

That’s why divine partnership is so crucial in our spiritual development. By choosing to partner with the serpent, Adam and Eve failed to not partner with God, but also by not partnering with each other. The serpent was never a suitable helper. Because finding the appropriate partner allows us to walk in the fullness of our humanity.

One of the greatest tragedies in the garden was that Eve lost her dignity because of Adam’s silence. For in Genesis two, the Lord was teaching Adam how to value Eve, however by not protecting the partnership, Adam doesn’t value her like he should. Therefore Eve is left to fight the serpent herself while Adam just stands there.

I believe Adam and Eve forgot who they were because of the intense battle with the serpent. They failed to remember that in the creative order of God, they were the only ones in the Lord’s creation that could pray, because they were able to commune with God. One of the truths that seems to be before us is that without exercising our true God given identity we are taken advantage of by the enemy. Our curiosity becomes catastrophic because of our hearts ability to trust in the goodness of God is compromised. Because like Eve, we begin to question the Lord’s heart towards us.

We also must discernibly look at the reality of why Adam demonstrates absolutely no resistance when Eve offered him the fruit. Why? Simply because trusting God’s heart is so intimately related to resistance. In other words, when we possess the correct core convictions we won’t allow the enemy to exploit the vulnerability of those who we are in partnership with us.

I believe the cure is to find refuge, not in restrictions but in appreciation. Because without exercising appreciation we are trapped in an attitude of indifference. Since knowledge without appreciation turns into self deception. Therefore we must operate with love in our dealings with each other if we are going to maintain a healthy partnership. We can’t afford to keep ourselves away from the Lord’s eyes. Absorbed with a selfish attitude and attempting to hide in our own manufactured identity. Partnership permits exposure and when love is at the center of the community, the guilty get forgiven and empowered.

Sincerely,

John Harke Team

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.

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

Finding Contentment

What we are filling our hearts with and what we are conceiving in our hearts, are the two most important questions we could ask. Because what we conceive in our hearts forms behaviors. This is why contentment is so vital to our emotional and spiritual livelihood. Contentment is when we tell Jesus that His presence is enough to meet our every need. It’s a sign of spiritual maturity, it isn’t being complacent with the ordinary because there isn’t anything ordinary about Jesus. It’s the call to be completely absorbed in a vision much higher than ourselves. This narrative is where He lives in absolute contentment, and the greatest news is that our Lord has given us an invitation to never thirst again. For in that place we discover what Jesus has a passion for.

Let’s take the Apostle Peter for example, he felt very discontented when he was disconnected to Christ in his denial. Yet more alive than ever when reconnected with Christ on the shores of Galilee. Peter learned to trust the Lord with his heart and it created in him a peace that was supernatural. This made a lifestyle of contentment the very way Peter led his life from that point on. His agenda changed from one of discontentment to one of grace and power. Peter was no longer crippled by his mistakes, and now Jesus has complete access to this his affections. Peter wants what the Lord wants, he burns for what the Lord burns for. That’s contentment.

His self worth has been reinstated in the presence of Christ. While some find self worth in performance and possessions, Peter discovers self worth in his relationship with the Son of God. That’s why it’s so crucial that we know the source of what we believe. Because in the society that we live in there are those that make personal opinions the reliable source of truth. Whenever those feelings begin to develop we tend to miss a continuous comprehensive revelation of Christ. The results of this is that our self worth gets constructed by the wrong builder.

Lets take this example, I believe that one of the greatest obstacles is being able to resist opportunity for personal advancement at the expense of others. Although opportunities are wonderful, do they bring the emotional contentment that you and I long for, or do opportunities add more pressure and fracture the most important relationships? Because without contentment we have absolutely no buffer against any bitterness towards our own shortcomings. This in turn erects a discontentment that doesn’t just bring punishment upon others but upon ourselves. With it, brings the absence of self worth, debt, inappropriate desires for things we don’t need in our lives and a restlessness that seems to never be satisfied. Who would really want that?

In Peter’s second epistle it says: “We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” (2 Peter 1:19)

Beloved you and I have been give a better opportunity, because spiritual growth happens when our hearts and minds connect daily to what is completely reliable. Peter discovered that the only individual that was completely reliable, was our Lord Jesus and in our Lord’s will was the wellspring of contentment.

Sincerely,

John Harke Team

A Season to Sow

I want to take a moment to encourage you about something that is near and dear to my heart; sowing. Before you groan and roll your eyes at me, take stock of that very reaction if that is the one you are experiencing. If this is the case with you, I want to apologize on behalf of leaders or voices in your life that have improperly communicated the true value of sowing. I hope that what comes will give you a different perspective on just how important it is in our lives.

We all understand that sowing doesn’t have to do entirely with money, it is just that in our western culture, money is the closest approximation to the fruits of our labor. Cane and Abel had crops and livestock that they brought before the Lord, Hannah committed her son to the House of God, Solomon built an entire temple; all of these things had a common thread, what they sowed and offered to God represented their time, energy and source of survival and provision.

When we sow in this manner, it is a beautiful, powerful declaration that the entirety of our trust, provision and survival comes from God. It is a reaffirmation of our redeemed nature that eradicates the seeds of what brought the fall of man, the desire to seek a source other than The Creator.

So you see, sowing is not just throwing money into an offering bucket, it is about the fact that as one redeemed and restored to the Father, it is now your privilege and right as a believer to sow into the fact that God has restored you to your position and your purpose. God is your source and more of Him is the fruit that you desire.

Now there are so many other aspects of sowing but I believe that this concept is foundational if we are to truly have a right understanding on the importance of sowing. Sowing points your focus, you actions and your resources as a declaration that God is your source of life. What comes from this among many things, is that you begin to understand the type of favor that truly is on your life. It also allows you to walk in a level of supernatural peace. I will unpack more on sowing in the future.

Sincerely,

John Hark Team

The Dynamics of Divine Timing

It’s the ever-present topic or statement heard around every post-service meal table all over the world. How do I make sure I am in right timing with God?

“I just want to make sure that I’m not moving ahead of God” or “I just don’t want to let my impatience get the best of me, after all, we are the microwave generation, we want everything now now now, Bless God.” These are noble intentions and taken at face value, are important considerations when walking in your divine purpose. The best place to be in divine timing is right smack dab in the middle of it, not too far ahead and certainly not behind. This is a world that many Christians find themselves in. Every single decision is weighed with the utmost fear and uncertainty, looking at it in the traditional sense can give someone a complex even if they don’t have one. It becomes the most un-fun tightrope walking performance ever.

What’s even worse is that most are paralyzed out of fear of not wanting to miss God and thus rather than risk doing something at the wrong time, they do nothing at all. (Parable of the servant with the one talent anyone?) The good news is that God doesn’t want you to live this way! God never created you to worry, to fret or to fear. God wants you to prosper and be in right timing with Him in a way that releases you into greater freedom, not fear. This usually happens when we make what is not the issue, the main issue.

The issue of divine timing has very little to do with time at all. God lives outside of time, He is not limited by time nor is He under its control. We see evidence to this when time literally stands still as Joshua and the Israelites need more time to destroy their enemies on their way to the promised land. What’s very important to notice in that story is that God bent the laws of time in order to fit His purpose for the Children of Israel. Timing is a servant of God’s purpose, not a dictator of it.

Likewise, God’s timing in your life is about fulfilling HIs purpose in your life. Divine Timing has very little to do with chronological time at all. Timing is a tool and instrument that God uses to mold us and craft us into something extraordinary. So the next time you are wondering whether it’s time to move on something that God has spoken to you about, consider asking God a different question, “Lord, what is your highest purpose at this very moment, that you want me to partner with?” It’s a small change, but when we ask, get ready to be surprised by the amount of clarity you get in response.

Look for next weeks post on, discerning God’s commands in your life.

Sincerely,

John Harke Team