Bob Hartley:
God of Hope Who Keeps His Promises
The Promise Keeper Face of God
In recent encounters, I find myself seated at the Counsel Table of the Lord
with various leaders from the Body of Christ. The Lord begins to share His heart
regarding the challenges and the advancement in 2011. He speaks of the
hope-filled 2012 that He is walking us into. In this place He reveals His face
as the Promise Keeper to me, proclaiming that this is the face, the part of His
nature that He desires to reveal to the Body of Christ in 2012. He stands at His
table, calling us to press through to engage Him as God, to believe in Him again
as the God of all life, to believe both His heart and His strength to accomplish
the hope-filled promises that He has spoken over our lives this year.
Looking Back at 2011 Together
He begins to tenderly look back at 2011 with us, speaking about how 2011 was
a year of great challenge. It was a year of transition where arrows to the mind
and perplexities created a high level of exhaustion in us all. It was a year of
transition that required unique hope. Isaiah 58:11 speaks of this transition of
unique hope and divine guidance in the midst of perplexities.
Isaiah 58:11 The Lord
will guide you always; He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and
will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a
spring whose waters never fail.
We felt this across the Body of Christ. We felt sun scorched, like burnt
living stones in many ways, but despite our experience of challenge and
perplexity, the Lord reassured us that there was GREAT ADVANCEMENT in 2011!
The Deeper Revealing of the Promise Keeper Face of God
When we look deeper at this Promise Keeper face of God that He is making
known to us in 2012, we see that it is a face of patriarchal love. This is not a
face that is stern or harsh or full of expectations we can never fulfill. This
is the face of patriarchal love that we see in Luke 15 where the father loves
the son more than the wounds of his own soul. The Luke 15 father loves his son
so much that he doesn't just receive him back, he doesn't greet him with eyes of
disappointment or words of correction, when he sees him "far off" he runs to
embrace him and meets him with eyes of love. This is the heart and face of the
Promise Keeper God.
An Inheritance of Hope
As the Patriarchal God of Hope, He gives us an inheritance of hope
and promises over our lives, and however we treat them and Him, He will remain
the love-filled Luke 15 father in our lives. We can know that despite
all failings and weakness, if we return to Him, He will always run to receive us
back into His arms with eyes full, not of disappointment, but of love for us.
The Promise Keeper has bound Himself to us in FAITH, HOPE, and LOVE above all
else, and He has the strength to keep His hope-filled promises even when our
strength fails. It is not our strength that secures the promises...it is
HIS!
He is the Promise and the Promise Keeper
In
Proverbs 13:12 it says,
"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled
is a tree of life." When we truly see His face as the Promise Keeper, the
deep love in His eyes as He proclaims and keeps His hope-filled promises, then
we will have our tree of life. The Promise Keeper Himself is our hope, our
promise, and our great reward.
Receiving Our Inheritance
When we are secured in His love, when we are fixed on His face, then
we will not easily give away our inheritance for convenience or the day's bread
like Esau did. We will be like the 2 Kings 4 woman who pursued the
return of her inheritance, her son, from God through the prophet Elijah. She
believed in the God of the trump card, the God who – when it seems like all the
aces are stacked up against us – steps in with the trump card, the thing we
can't see, and takes the day for us. When we know this face of God we will, like
Abraham, receive our inheritance through faith. Abraham knew God as the Promise
Keeper, so much so that he believed God would keep His promise, even if it meant
resurrecting that promise, his son, from the dead. Abraham knew the face and
heart of the Promise Keeper, Himself, the Promise Keeper who would later give
everything in His own Son, to keep His promises to those He loved.
Wise Counsel from the Lord for 2012
The Promise Keeper God now speaks wise counsel to us, showing us how we might
walk this out in 2012. He speaks of "double adoration" – where we focus on His
face as the Promise Keeper, and on His heart as the Patriarchal God of Hope. He
speaks of "acceleration by association," where we walk into the promises
together. He speaks of 2012 as a year of communities of hope, healthy hope
centers where people are encouraged by living close to one another in true
community.
"You can have a mandate, but not an agenda in
2012," He says. In 2012 we are not to operate out of a Nimrod spirit,
which extends our own platform and agenda. The Lord says,
"My way is not the CEO way where you build more and more
divisions and try to control it while building your own name vs. My
name."
In John 7:18 it says, "He who speaks of himself seeks his own glory..."
In 2012 we are to build not upon who we are but upon who Jesus really
is, and we are to focus on building other people's houses this year.
This year there will be kings that help other kings, giving preference to the
vision of another. It is the Jonathan and David spirit coming alive on the
Earth. The Lord also says, regarding disagreements over doctrines,
"Don't worry about it, it will all be clear very
soon," meaning who's right and who's not. As we put aside our differences
and come together at the table of the Lord, we will be strengthened and there
will be a revamping of the seven mountains and arenas of influence in
society.
The Promise of Isaiah 58:12
In 2012 we will see the Isaiah 58:12 ancient ruins, which is the knowledge of
God, restored. He has shown me that the ancient ruins of Isaiah 58:12 are God,
not that He has been ruined, but rather that our perceptions of Him have been
ruined. The word "ruins" literally means "drought." We have been in a
sun-scorched land without the true knowledge of Him.
God wants to remove
the drought, to clear away these ruins of the misunderstanding of His nature
that create doubt and unbelief.
This Isaiah 58:12 "rebuilding the ancient ruins" is rebuilding the knowledge
of God on another level, where adoration is established. The Hope Reformation is
a restoration and rebuilding of the true knowledge of God in our day. In 2012 He
is revealing Himself again as the Promise Keeper with the heart of the
Patriarchal father of Luke 15; for when we truly know that we are a son or
daughter, we will not become a slave to anything.
The Promise Keeper
face of God and the other faces of God that have been forgotten through the
generations WILL BE RESTORED once again.
The Age of Restoration
The Body of Christ coming to know His Promise Keeper face will usher in an
age of restoration where there will be houses like Bethel, houses of God where
the gates of Heaven are open and you can see into other dimensions.
There will be a restoration of lost inheritances in this time.
The "poorest of the poor" will be remembered. The oppressed of Leviticus
26:12-13 will be set free in every way. Part of this transition to freedom is
the new hope-filled operating system based in rest that He has given us for
2012. In this, He is showing us how to enter into His promises in rest vs.
striving.
Advancing Through the Door of Hope Together
In 2012 we will advance through the "door of hope" together! We will raise up
the "age old foundations" as we decree hope together, for to decree is literally
to "raise up!" We will remember the hopes and promises fulfilled in 2011, both
in Him as our "great reward," and in our lives! We will remember all the faces
of Himself that He has revealed to us again and again, of His face as the
Builder, Supplier, Redeemer, and Wise God in our lives! We will remember that we
have encountered Him again and again as the Patriarchal God of Hope who sees a
long way out for us and who speaks hope over our lives as a Patriarchal Father,
who teaches us how to live, not as orphans, but as sons and daughters every day!
As we remember these things together, we are raising up the "age old
foundations." Rising up to decree these hopes and promises together is bringing
forth the commanded blessings for 2012!
The Call: Decreeing His Heart of Hope Together
The Lord is calling us to stop and appreciate this season that He is taking
us into in 2012. He is calling us to stop and focus on His face, the face of the
Promise Keeper. He has been underestimated and misperceived and He wants us to
take time to see what He
is doing instead of what He isn't doing. We do
this by remembering the hopes and promises that He has already fulfilled in our
lives. We do this by stepping forth together to decree the hope that is to come
for us in 2012: the promises of Isaiah 58:12, the building of healthy hope
centers across the Earth, and the transformation of the seven mountains of
influence in society. From a place of rest, take time, with us, to pray as we
enter into this new season. See that He is the Promise Keeper and Patriarchal
Father of Luke 15 and decree the promises yet to be fulfilled as you look into
His heart.
Bob Hartley
Deeper Waters Ministry
Email:
deeperwatersinc@gmail.com
About Bob Hartley: Bob Hartley is the founder of Hartley
Institute/Deeper Waters Ministry in Kansas City, Missouri. Bob served as a
pastor at Metro Christian Fellowship with Mike Bickle before entering the
marketplace in 1983, with a vision to see the marketplace redeemed and cities
established that value and love the person of Jesus. He is also the Chief
Executive Officer of the Hartley Group, a "Hope Center" for the marketplace,
consisting of Hartley's Executive Cleaning, Swift Chemicals & Supply, Prize
Properties and H&H Management in Kansas City, Missouri. Bob is a frequent
speaker to youth, churches, businesses and national leaders throughout America
and the world. His quest has been to bring the Kingdom of God into every arena
of life and give spiritual tools and equipping to those seeking to know and love
God in the midst of their everyday lives. Currently, Bob resides in Kansas City
with his wife and four children.
A Time of Summing Up!
