Choose to Engage in the Season You Are In

Many Are Called But Few Are Chosen

Did you know that there are other people on planet earth besides you? There are people who live in the same city, the same town, even the same home. In fact, beyond geography and time, there may be other people living in the same season of life or circumstances as you are. You live in the same political climate as your next door neighbor, you have the same boss as your co-worker, you might eat at the same restaurant as all your friends. However, this does not mean that your experience or what you get out of things are the same as others.

When the giant Goliath came out to challenge the Israelites, David was not the only one in attendance. He was not the sole recipient of Goliaths’ threats, David was not singled out and challenged by the giant. There were tens of thousands of people experiencing the same moment and situation as David was. However there was only one that chose to run to the battle line and engage with the enemy of the season to bring the victory that was needed.

David demonstrates a characteristic that God is calling for in this season. It is a willingness to engage in the season that you are in; to squeeze out every bit of potential that God has placed within it. This is a characteristic of kingship. David’s brothers and the other soldiers on the field demonstrate what not choosing to engage with your season looks like. Probably the strongest example of this is Saul who didn’t even bother to come out of his tent. Talk about fear driven apathy.

So let me ask you this, have you been engaging in the season that God has placed you in? Could not engaging fully in the way you know God is requiring of you because of feelings, fear, apprehension, unworthiness or any other factor be the main reason why you feel like your advancement has reached a stalemate? Could it be that if you demonstrate a posture like David and engage in your season, even if things in the natural fight for you to do the opposite, you could unlock many of the things that God has promised you?

If you have not engaged in your season, I encourage you, God wants to show you how. Ask Him, then do it.

Sincerely, John Harke Team

The Prophet's Heart

The prophet’s heart has been nurtured by a desire to know God. They’ve come to know that they are being pursued by the Almighty. The taste of what is to come drives them forward and upward towards Heaven. The glamour of the current narrative doesn’t have any resemblance of truth to the prophet. They seem to constantly probe the soul to find the places in their hearts that still having feelings for something beyond their numbness. For the prophet ethics are not up for debate they are absolutes in order for civilization to exist.

Abandonment isn’t some misfortune but a joyous privilege simply because what makes a man or woman of God, is the vision they have for God. The prophet realizes that there is an expensive toll to pay for intimacy, that toll is vulnerability. Because intimacy will require the greatest investment, which is time. It also requires partnership with the prophetic word which makes the community sustainable. Prophets desire deliverance and healing for others because it’s an ambition for excellence. This is the essence of servanthood, the nucleus for self emptying and humility. The prophetic word gives the prophet the opportunity to bring about social change. In other words, because of spiritual apathy there is a deafness in the lives of humanity and a prophet must open the ears of men and women. The prophet must move people from all walks of life to identify the needs of others before culture can receive a true revelation of what it means to have compassion. What the prophet confronts is a culture that identifies with personal wants, more than they identify with the weak.

There’s a society that lives with opposition by intimidation, and that opposition cripples their dreams, hopes and desires. In other words, if the Lord has truly raised us up, then the opposition from men and the demonic influences will not burn us out. It seems that the prophet is the kind of individual that possesses a focus that is much greater than the intimidation of demonic opposition. The need for justice has arrested the heart of the prophet. Because whatever or whoever has arrested our hearts, that is what our lives seem to be engaged in. The prophet will always challenge the worlds views and values. Those appointed to this type of ministry are people of virtue and values, convictions and commitments. They are guided by principle rather than personal ambition, and servanthood rather than being served. Their will has been confronted by a divine burden to build what the Lord yearns to be built.

For the prophet, the erosion of empathy for others is not tolerated. It must be confronted. However this will take an attitude towards others that refuses to degrade or treat people without dignity. Because the prophet has a heart that aches for God, their reward is hearing the Lord’s thoughts. Immersed in the thoughts of God, the prophet trumpets a call for humility to come and see. To know and to be known by the Almighty God.

Sincerely,

John Harke Team  

The Platform of Tears

Tears are given to the church to relieve the pain. But has the body of Christ forgotten to weep? Is there a house that welcomes tears? Tears are a deep yearning for the voice of God to break in. We cry because we long for God to see, hear and act. We want the Lord to set our bones on fire. We no longer want the Lord to be a distant observer but a Father who is intimately connected with our suffering.

The groaning of our hearts feel the anguish of those who have had their identity erased. The ache for healing and restoration has become the sign that we have become fully engaged with humanity’s affliction. Apathy and indifference has been replaced with concern for our neighbor. The intense desire to bring emotional and spiritual comfort aches within our soul. We are broken with grief because we have been deeply affected by the distress of nations. The sight of abortion, the cover narrative of sexual promiscuity, the objectification of women and children caught in the trap of human trafficking, the lust for silver and gold and it’s purchasing power have lost its luster in the midst of sorrow. That burning sorrow for our neighbor frees us from the narcissistic attitude of our society. We then minimize our need to sustain our selfish causes and yearn to sustain our neighbor.

We agonize for those who were supposed to be the guardians of public trust, politicians, clergy and law in enforcement who have fallen into error and corruption. Because a community without the value of empathy, dehumanizes its neighbor and leaves a generation in captivity. What’s needed at this moment is the tone of prophetic intercession. These prayers are cries of hope, cries that plead for justice and mercy in the midst of the community’s exhaustion. Without shrinking into disrepair, these Intercessors weep for the redemption of the past, present and future. Physical necessities, personal safety, honor, and human dignity are what causes the shedding of tears for these prophets.

The only platform they have is the lament of their soul. For the cry of the intercessor is what keeps them from being numb for the carelessness of the unsympathetic. When there is an absence of emotion, society cannot reach out within the range of human emotions. Because prophetic intercession crafts the correct words to comfort nations. No one is able to overpower their hope because the awareness of God is greater than the awareness of suffering. For many, weeping for the disenfranchised turns into action. Simply because they understand that denial affects the social life of people living in a world which hides their pain.

Let us learn from the prophets of old who wept before they spoke, let us learn from leaders who wept before they acted. May our tears touch the Father’s heart so we can do what only He can do. Because weeping isn’t the end of the story it’s only the beginning. 

Sincerely,

John Harke Team

Word of The Lord for 2019

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

1. There is a grace in this season to address repeated pathological behavior that continues to keep you from moving forward. 

2. Have a Spiritual Perspective on Your Priorities

3. 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. 

4. When God is With You… Choose to Live in a Way That Shows You Believe It

5. 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 Wants to Partner with You

During this holiday season we are reminded of the arrival of the ultimate gift any of us will ever receive. When Jesus paid the ultimate price for our redemption and freedom, it was a present with incomparable value.. 

On top of being able to go to Heaven, much of the New Testament teaches us about things that we now have access to; the gift of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, total freedom, supernatural joy and strength, the list goes on and on. But it doesn’t stop there. Along with gifts, we have tremendous authority. To me this new life is kind of like the story of Rip Van Winkle. In the story, Rip decided to take a nap in the forest but he ended up sleeping for like 50 years. When he finally woke up the world as he knew it had completely changed. 

That’s what I believe happens when we allow ourselves to be born again. It’s like we have been asleep all this time, a slumber brought on by our sinful nature, our selfish desires, our pain and a host of other things that have fought to keep us down. Then Jesus shows up on the scene and comes into our heart, awakening us to a whole new world, the world of the believer. It doesn’t stop there. 

Once we wake up from our slumber, the Holy Spirit is right there handing us our new passport (identity) a duffle bag full of supplies (the amazing blessings and gifts we have access to because of our salvation) and also a full arsenal of weapons (our authority in Christ). It’s that last part I want to discuss in the rest of this post. The letters from the Apostle Paul throughout the New Testament all speak of a tremendous authority that we now carry as believers. 

But what is all this authority for?  The immediate answer is, He gave you authority so that you could use it. The larger answer is this;  God wants to partner with YOU. 

Yes YOU. 

He wants to actively work with you every single minute of every day to live and breathe with purpose. Not just any old purpose, but the one that He has set and destined for you to walk in. That's the whole point of Him giving you authority, it's proof that He wants to do something with you. 

 I am a person that loves to be in the middle of anything exciting. 

“Oh, you’re going to Walmart at 2:30 in the morning? I’m in.” 

“Oh, and it’s not the one in Florida but the one in Los Angeles? Even…better. “

So the fact that I get to partner with God is the best thing ever, I don’t want to just sit on the sidelines of what He’s up to in the world today and I know that most of you are the same way. What makes things even more wonderful is that it is His heart that you be in the middle of the action also.

 Don’t believe me? Just look throughout the Old Testament when God wanted to do something in the earth. He could have just gone in and done it Himself but He didn’t. Prime example of this is when God would raise up Judges to deliver the children of Israel from the hands of their persecutors and captors. God could have totally gone in there, sent a few angels and bring them to freedom on their own but He didn’t do that. Instead He raised up a man or a woman that would partner with him so they could do it together. God wants to do the same thing with you in your life. GOD WANTS TO PARTNER WITH YOU!

When we understand this one point, it settles a lot of the weird baggage that some of us carry from some of our previous seasons about the heart of God towards us. It helps to bring clarity in the midst of the noise. With everyone yelling and shouting about what you should and should not do, about the latest and greatest revelation coming to the Body of Christ at any given second, it can be easy for many of us to get lost in it’s tidal wave and not know what to do. The fact that God wants to partner with you, gives you confidence to ask your partner, “God, what are we partnering to do?” Starting a conversation with someone that you know wants to help you and talk to you is a whole lot easier and more effective than when we assume we are being a burden or the person we are asking is somewhat indifferent to our plight or our mission. It’s a simple key but this key has the ability to set a whole lot of people free from the feeling of being stuck. 

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.

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