Dear Friends, In repeated encounters over the past few months I have heard the Lord encouraging us to “open the door” to welcome His harvest. I hear the Lord saying: “Open the door! Go, stand at the door and watch: your harvest is coming in!” For the past year, my husband and I have taken specific steps to open the door for those God sent to worship, study, or pray with us at home - the house one visitor lovingly named “My Father’s House.” Today, the Lord impressed me to release this word to the broader Body of Christ as well. I sense such an expansive desire in God’s heart to reach many more souls with His love. I want to encourage you: be ready for the seeking ones God will send to your home at this time! While the pandemic has caused some doors to close to the public, I believe the Lord desires to open new doors to families, homes, and hearts. He is welcoming those who, for various reasons, have become increasingly hungry and thirsty for His Presence. In one vision, I saw an elaborate table set by the Father in His royal house. I saw that He had pulled out all the stops and set a table laden with good things for His people. A dividing wall between two large rooms had been broken down within His house to expand the capacity to receive His children. These hungry ones, He said, will come on buses and will be treated as kings! 
Just as the father of the prodigal son welcomed His lost child home by giving him the very best from within His house, so the Father will now welcome by the busload those who are hungry and thirsty for Him again. John 1:12 is His theme: all who receive Him and believe in His Name are given the right to become children of God. I hear the Father echoing words spoken through the apostle Paul: “I am putting no obstacles in anyone’s way… I have spoken freely to you… My heart is wide open. I am not withholding My affection from you… I speak to My children: open wide your hearts also!” (2 Corinthians 6:3;11-13). MARYS, MARTHAS, AND JAELSThis morning, the Lord highlighted the story of Mary and Martha to me in eight simple words, saying: “Martha opened her house; Mary opened her heart.” The Father is looking for those who will open the external doors of their homes in hospitality, as well as the interior doors of their hearts in communion. Those who do so will be rewarded. Like Abraham, Martha excelled in the gift of hospitality. Her gift made room not for angels but for King Jesus Himself! It was Martha who eagerly ran to meet Christ when He returned to her home after Lazarus’s death. Like the Queen of Sheba seeking king Solomon’s wisdom, Mary had a seeking heart. Her desire to listen to King Jesus opened the door to an intuitive ministry of ongoing communion with the Lord. This desire for communion later positioned Mary to be the first person in the right place at the right time after Christ’s resurrection. Speaking of Mary’s choice to seek and listen, Jesus said: “her portion will not be taken from her.” (For contrast, see Acts 8:31.) Yet there is a third woman whose hospitality is also mentioned in the Bible. Like Joshua, whose tabernacle worship transformed him into a mighty warrior, Jael transformed herself from a tent-dweller to a strategic soldier. She knew the power of luring the enemy onto her turf so that she could use what was available at home to her advantage. Her hospitality became an ambush, dealing deadly blows to an unsuspecting enemy! Jael went out to greet Sisera and said to him, “Come in, my lord. Come in with me. Do not be afraid.” So he entered her tent, and she covered him with a blanket. Sisera said to her, “Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.” So she opened a container of milk, gave him a drink, and covered him again. “Stand at the entrance to the tent,” he said, “and if anyone comes and asks you, ‘Is there a man here?’ say, ‘No.’ ” But as he lay sleeping from exhaustion, Heber’s wife Jael took a tent peg, grabbed a hammer, and went silently to Sisera. She drove the peg through his temple and into the ground, and he died. When Barak arrived in pursuit of Sisera, Jael went out to greet him and said to him, “Come, and I will show you the man you are seeking.” So he went in with her, and there lay Sisera dead, with a tent peg through his temple. On that day God subdued Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites. And the hand of the Israelites grew stronger and stronger against Jabin, king of Canaan until they destroyed him. (Judges 4:17-24) Those who experience supernatural encounters and victories in our time will be hospitable in both their hearts and their homes. Like Jael, they’ll be open to showing kindness even to the enemy in their “tent!” Romans 12:20-21 and Proverbs 25:21-22 read: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by doing so you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” These verses reveal an essential key for those who want to be overcomers in times of oppression. The key of hospitality will unlock the door to God’s goodness. It will release both supernatural revelation and unusual victories! Jabin was king of Hazor, which means “castle.” Note the irony here: it was the weapons of Jael’s meager tent - nothing more than a tent peg and a hammer - that Jael used to kill Sisera, the commander of king Jabin’s mighty army! I decree that the hammer of God’s Word in your hand and the “tent peg” that is Christ Himself will be sufficient to defeat those who rise up against you and your families, causing an expansion of the Kingdom of God right where you live! Do not retreat at this critical time! It is time to enlarge your tent and strengthen your stakes so that you can dispossess the nations. Despite all the warfare coming against you, there is a door the enemy will never be able to close, and over which you retain absolute control: the door of your heart. As you open your home and heart to worship with the wandering, you will see the Lord go to battle, setting others free: “My anger burns against the shepherds, and I will punish the leaders; for the Lord Almighty will care for his flock, the people of Judah, and make them like a proud horse in battle. From Judah will come the cornerstone, from him the TENT PEG, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler. Together they will be like warriors in battle trampling their enemy into the mud of the streets. They will fight because the Lord is with them, and they will put the enemy horsemen to shame.” ~Zechariah 10:3-5 “The voice of the Lord will shatter Assyria; with his rod he will strike them down. Every stroke the Lord lays on them with his punishing club will be to the music of timbrels and harps, as he fights them in battle with the blows of his arm.” ~Isaiah 30:31-32 FAMILIES WITH A MISSIONIn 2017, I published a prophetic word on the His Inscriptions blog concerning “Families with a Mission.” I saw that families would begin to emerge more and more as cell groups of wisdom and teaching in God’s Word; compact training grounds for the next generation. At the time, there was no way I could have anticipated the global shutdowns we are now seeing. Yet the Lord was emphasizing to me how important both the home and the family would become to leaders training new disciples. The Lord said then: “Families will see the need to welcome into their homes the lonely, isolated, social outcasts, spiritually lost, and even people on the fringes of society. Love will do the heavy lifting that breaks down barriers of pride, independence, fear, and rejection. Watch for these: they are “Families with a Mission!” Make ready a place in your hearts and homes for those who will come looking for Me in you. Don’t expect the millions but the ones, for I will send you the exact number of people I know you can handle! Each of you has a part to play in this harvest, for this is not about the “superstars” but about the “common man,” the one whose simple faith in Me is enough to share with the friends I bring to his door. “Feed My sheep” is a mandate for the church in this hour! The door of God’s heart is open wide to people He has created and dearly loves. Christ IS the door that stands open to all who will come to Him! Some of you are being called to open the door of your heart to a supernatural secret place. You have an invitation to lay aside distractions and enter into the deeper place of heart-to-heart communion with your Bridegroom. Some are being invited to open the door of your house to host a Bible study or a home group. Finally, some who have been hindered by fear or delayed by warfare need to respond to the Lord's command to advance, not retreat, at this time. The Lord wants to give you victory through your obedience, ambushing the enemy right in your own home! Today, I believe Christ is knocking at the doors of many homes and hearts, inviting us to receive timely supernatural encounters, unexpected victories, and unusual expansion for the Kingdom. One question remains: When you hear Him, will you open the door? Will you welcome those He sends? Deborah |
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Deborah Perkins 
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January 2023
AuthorA severe hearing loss from childhood caused Deborah Perkins to develop what she now calls her secret weapon: tuning in to God's voice. A Wellesley College graduate and an award-winning writer, Deborah is now a wife and mother of 3 boys. Deborah has devoted over 25 years to professional and lay Christian ministry in New England and beyond. Her passion is inspiring people to cultivate greater intimacy with God. 
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