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.

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?

The Prophet

The prophet sees the Lord’s vision for humanity. Because they feel fiercely, tears flow from their eyes because many aren’t even conscious that the word of God is disregarded. The prophetic message that is spoken isn’t to be shunned because the Lord has concern for all of His creation. Prophets aren’t worried about if their the minority because they have learned to maintain their loyalty to the Lord over popular opinion. They seem to live out of a much different kind of value system.

Because their testimony didn’t originate from themselves they don’t just burn for a season, their words burn for eternity. They have been touched by the eternal word of God which has extinguished the self centered ego that plagues humanity. Any need to prove themselves, has been replaced by a tenderness for the heart of the Father. The decree they speak isn’t necessarily a message of comfort, but a message that challenges. When the rights of others are forsaken they scream, and when human obligations are neglected, they weep. Their hatred towards sin doesn’t produce hostility towards others, it exhibits a desire for reconciliation. Their wholeheartedness for the honor of God is at times misinterpreted as an anger towards men and women who don’t share their beliefs.

For the prophet, to refuse to worship God is scandalous. The prophet doesn’t ask who men and women owe their ultimate allegiance to, for the prophet this is never a question but a demand. In other words, the prophet understands that ultimately autonomy that is fueled by human ambition leads to social confusion. The prophet of God may be misunderstood, however they are really pleading for the well being and prosperity of the nations. They passionately forgive and serve those who have rejected their words. With certainty, they preach not only the sense of indebtedness to God but a sense of indebtedness to every son and daughter of Adam.

Greatness isn’t something prophets attempt to obtain through their own ambition, it’s a gift. Because they’ve chosen to adhere to the relational expectations the Lord has laid out. In other words, to cultivate indifference for a prophet is the result of a conscience that is silenced by a culture that is unaware of the divine presence. Prophets champion the oppressed that are to broken to speak. The appeal for justice isn’t something the prophet can shake off, because the need for justices burns in their hearts. For anything that threatens the very source of life must be confronted.

Those who automatically have a prophetic voice never lose sight and never lose drive towards what matters to God. How God thinks, how God feels, how God acts, never leaves the prophets conscience. The prophet isn’t shaped by impulse, the prophet is shaped by the inner conviction that God is ever present in everything we do. Without an ambition for what is vain, without an infatuation with success, the prophet is entirely content being a friend of God.

Sincerely,

John Harke Team

Activating Your Prophetic Word

Proverbs 18:21 (KJVA) Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

There is tremendous power in your words. Many scriptures speak of the power of the tongue and it’s for good reason. Your words are powerful because they have in it a capacity to build the future that you will live in. That’s why in this moment in time, it seems harder and harder to open your mouth and speak and I don’t mean words that others expect you to say or that prevent you from rocking the boat, I mean the words that are inside of you that speak to the purpose that is shouting inside of you to make an appearance into the reality of your surroundings.

Those are the words that God is after and those are the words that if left unspoken, could meet the tragedy of never coming into existence. That is why the prophetic is so valuable. They help provide a language and an awareness of that very thing inside of you that needs to come out. Words spoken over you in prophecy are vital. They not only illuminate your future and the potential that you carry but also give you weapons to war with to achieve the victory of your purpose.

When we pair the prophetic word over our lives with the words that come out of our own mouths, it’s a prophetic physical action that we can take to lay hold and take claim of our promise that God has released for us to walk in. This is not something very hard to do and it does not take a lot of time.

Here is a practical process you can use to begin turning your prophetic words into a weapon of war:

1. Listen or read back the prophetic words that have been spoken over your life

2. Ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate to you the parts of the word that He wants to activate in your life now

3. Turn those prophetic words into declarations

4. For example, if the prophecy states that you have a mantle to affect and bless nations, turn it into a declaration that reads something like “In the name of Jesus, I declare that I walk in a mantle that blesses the nations of this world. I declare that my feet will tread on many nations and that the gospel of the Kingdom will come from my mouth over people of every culture, language and location throughout the earth…."

   1. I want to speak to this a little more, don’t be surprised that when you start declaring the prophetic word that you don’t also begin to get into a prophetic flow of prophesying and prophetically declaring and expounding on the word. Allow the Holy Spirit to prophecy through you as well!

5. Place Passion and Intensity Behind Your Prophetic Declarations

6. When you really honestly and truly believe something, when it is something that you are passionate about, your body reflects that belief. Hence we should declare loudly, with authority and with passion.

7. Do this 3 times a day for at least 3 days and see what happens!

Sincerely,

John Harke Team

Finding your identity through Prophetic Perspective

Fear, doubt and unbelief produce horrible things. They can wreak havoc on our minds, emotions and, if allowed to fester unopposed, can derail our destiny and leave our potential undiscovered. We have to wage war against these things so that we can fully express who we were created to be and operate. The good news is that God doesn’t want us to have any of this in our lives. In fact, He has given us every tool imaginable to make sure that we can walk in total and complete victory.

One tool He has given us is the capacity to see as He sees. We see Jesus demonstrate this when after the healing at the pool of Bethesda, He declares that He does what He sees His Father doing. This speaks of divine perspective and the capacity that God’s children have to access and walk in it. Sadly, this is one of the most under-utilized privileges in the Body of Christ.

When we look around us, we see a culture that is terrorized by their past, powerless in their present and hopeless about their future. All of this is clear evidence of a generation that is not seeing from God’s divine perspective. They are looking through a very dark, soul crushing pair of binoculars with lenses of fear, inadequacy and doubt. What an incredible opportunity for The Church to rise up with believers that demonstrate the opposite by seeing from a divine perspective. God’s perspective not only sees into the past and present but also into the future. God, the Alpha and Omega sees with an eternal view, beginning to end, front to back. I believe that the world is crying out for leaders with that kind of vision.

We need a prophetic generation with the courage to look beyond their current situation and through the eyes of The Father to find a way to lead others forward.

Are you a part of this bold generation?

If so, one of the most important areas that we must apply this to is when it comes to our identity and position with Him. In fact, this area is essential if we are to experience the fullness of the life that God has for us. Throughout history, the strategy of the enemy has been the same. When a leader is about to be raised up, the enemy will come against their identity, looking for a weakness to exploit, to topple them before they even get out of the gates. Examples of this are Moses at the burning bush, where he gave every reason in the book about how he was not a deliverer or a leader. Gideon grapples with his identity as a judge over Israel to the point where he tests God with a fleece. Even Jesus, after being baptized, is brought into the wilderness where His identity is challenged by the enemy.

When you choose to be a prophetic leader, you will encounter this assault on identity countless times. That is why God’s perspective in this area is of the utmost importance. Allowing this to take place will dramatically reduce the warfare that the enemy will try to bring.

Take time today to seek the Lord, to allow Him to speak to you about how He sees you. Take some areas of your life where you believe something about yourself and ask Him if that is truly the case or is there some illumination that needs to come to see things as He does. Make this a regular practice and see the fruit that God brings from it.

Sincerely,

John Harke 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