5 LESSONS LEARNED FROM Esther

King Xerxes was the man in charge – feared by his enemies and his subjects.

Esther was an orphan.

King Xerxes lived in a palace and had lavish banquets lasting several months.

Esther was taken in by her cousin, Mordecai, and his family.

When King Xerxes gave a command, he would not countermand it – even if he regretted the decision.

Esther was a humble Israelite who followed her cousin's instructions.

They were an unlikely pair. Yet God's plan was for Esther to be queen, and queen she would be.  

God was making provision to thwart an evil plan that hadn't even been spoken yet. God knew there was a man named Haman who would eventually convince the king to kill the Jews. And so before Haman was even promoted to a place of authority, God arranged for Esther to be chosen as queen. 

Don’t you love that God is always out in front of the enemy? He knows the plan of the enemy before it’s even formulated!

Haman's plan to execute all the Jews in King Xerxes' provinces eventually surfaced, and Mordecai came to Esther. She began to fast and pray.  She asked God what He wanted her to do about it. 

Lesson 1: When you need direction, fast and pray. 

But not only did she fast and pray, she instructed her own servants, family and fellow Jews to do so with her. She instinctively knew that it is better to ask for help than to try to go it alone. 

Lesson 2: We need each other.

Esther's first notable action as queen was to enter the king's court without invitation. No one entered King Xerxes' court without an invitation. Not unless they desired to die. But Esther was courageous. She took a step of faith, and found favor with the King.

Lesson 3: Walking by faith isn’t for the faint of heart.  

“If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14 NLT)

Lesson 4: God will make His way happen with or without us. 

The Jews would have relief because God spoke it. Esther's family lived because she chose to be a part of God's plan. We have the privilege to choose to be a part of His plans! 

Esther used wisdom and grace to gain favor with King Xerxes. She fasted, prayed, and waited on God for a plan to form. Then she went before the King to tell of Haman's plans to kill her and her people. 

Lesson 5: Sometimes God's plan for us takes time. 

We love to hear about the promises of God, but waiting for them to happen is not our favorite part.

Before she was needed, God put her in the place she needed to be. And then when it was time for God to use her, she courageously walked by faith and saved not only her family, but also all the Israelites living in King Xerxes' provinces.  

Humility. Courage. Faith. Timing.

Where has God placed you?  And for what time and purpose?  Whose life depends on you to make the right choices? Will you?

by Brandi Burton 

Chosen

He had no clue that the day his father sent him in search of their lost donkeys, he would encounter the prophet Samuel instead. The idea that he could one day be king of Israel, that he would be chosen to save Israel out of the hands of the Philistines, probably never crossed his mind. But in his search for donkeys, he found divine destiny.

Chosen- adj: selected from several; preferred; elect

Choose- verb: to select from a number of possibilities; pick by preference; to prefer or decide; to want or desire

Selected among all the tribes of Israel… Saul became Israel’s first king. Anointed, chosen. And things went well for a while...until a single choice changed everything.

In 1 Samuel 13, we find that Saul waited for Samuel for 7 days to offer the sacrifice before battle. The Philistines were many and were ready for battle. Saul’s men were hiding and scattering from fear. (Some of them even joined the Philistines!) But instead of building the faith of his men, Saul let fear overtake his faith and he took matters into his own hands…he performed the sacrifice meant for the prophet.

You can almost hear Saul’s desperation as he tries to justify to Samuel why he didn’t wait.

“My men were leaving me…”

“You didn’t come when you said you would…”

“Look at those Philistines!”

But deep down, Saul knew that the choice he had made was wrong. He got complacent. He let the crown ON his head go TO his head.

Just because he was chosen, didn’t mean he was free to do things his way. On the contrary, he was the one the people looked to for leadership. He was to set the example. He, of all people, was to walk uprightly and obey God’s commands.

I Peter 2:9 says we are a chosen people. And like Saul, even though we are chosen, we still must make the right choices. We must follow the commands and guidelines laid out for us in the Bible. We must walk uprightly. We must fulfill our destiny. We must build God’s kingdom!

Saul was chosen, but forfeited his purpose. You have been chosen…what choices will you make?

Brandi Burton

The Things That Are Not

Scientists said it couldn’t be done. Chuck Yeager had different plans. On October 14, 1947, he took a flight that broke the sound barrier and its “invisible brick wall.” The doom and gloom experts who predicted that both the pilot and aircraft could not endure such speed without damage were mystified. Yeager attained an air speed of 700 miles per hour in his Bell Aviation X-1 airplane. Three weeks later he accelerated to an incredible 1,612 miles per hour. So much for the impenetrable barrier.

In his autobiography, Yeager reflects, “After all the anxiety, after all the anticipation, breaking the sound barrier was really a letdown. The sonic barrier, the unknown, was just a poke through JELL-O, a perfectly paved speedway.” The historical, myth-destroying event turned out to be a walk in the park. All the hoopla surrounding breaking down flight barriers existed only in people’s minds. Yeager continued, “Later, I realized that this mission had to end in a letdown because the real barrier wasn’t in the sky, but rather in our knowledge and experience of supersonic flight.”

What so-called “invisible brick walls” are stunting your ability to grow? BEWARE: The “human barriers” contrived in your mind produce impenetrable personal limitations. This is the reason most people do not succeed in attaining those lofty spiritual goals they have set for themselves. People spend so much time dwelling on the barrier that they fail to realize that the barrier is between their ears. The real spiritual growth that should be transpiring in people’s lives is aborted because the enemy got into their mind and convinced them that they couldn’t survive any longer. They became so fixated on what happened, what may happen, and whatever impossibilities may exist, that they forgot the rest of the equation.

In a relationship with God, the probability for normal success is non-existent; that is, if you are truly a child of faith. The sound barrier was a barrier only because man had never punched through it. What we have available to us in the context of God’s covenant is far greater than any barrier that Satan could attempt to use to circumvent God’s promise and plan. God has no boundaries, yet much of what we will possess we have yet to even see.

When we purpose to extend our expectations and release a floodtide of faith, it is automatic that resistance will follow. I wonder how many people had dreamed of becoming the first man to break the sound barrier before Chuck Yeager stepped forward to prove that it could be done. As someone once said, “Those who live in fear live in chains.”

You should not be afraid to push away from the shore or even step out of the boat entirely. God speaks those things that are not as though they were. I have heard it said many times: “There is nowhere that you can go that He hasn’t been first.” How true it is. There is no problem you will ever encounter that He does not already have the solution for. That’s why He’s God.

On your journey to God you will encounter many barriers -- walls that the Devil will build to hem you into a field of mediocrity. You must look beyond the wall and see a fresh field of revelation. God did not put you into the oven of purification for you to come out half-baked. Stay in God’s process. It gives way to the power.

Friends and family members are likely to become the loudest voices of criticism and can easily stir up a fog of confusion. It’s now that you have to choose which voice you will listen to. The crowd of low expectations rarely celebrates with one who has set a pace of excellence and holiness. The wilderness is a lonesome place but the place of promise is not.

Your refusal to accept anything less than what God has for you is the step of anticipation that will take you across a flooded Jordan. Don’t pay attention to the barrier, or it may just become a facilitator of fear. With faith and determination, the things that are not will become certain reality.

Bishop J. Todd Nichols

Excerpt from Bishop's book Transfigured.  You may buy it at www.greaterfaithchurch.org/store