Lessons to learn from the book of Esther

I was thinking about Esther and how she went from being “nobody” to “the queen.” Queen in a kingdom so huge it covered most of the world. Nothing suggested she would be queen and in that palace. How far away, sometimes life can take us from where God would eventually take us, and God allows it. I wonder if anyone thought Esther would be great having lost both parents and was left in the care of a poor relative. As the hymn write says “God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform.” Interestingly, wherever you are at, He is there with you and working to ensure that heaven makes the right turns at the right time. This is the reason I can say with certainty that you will not be a day longer in that pain than you ought.

Job 23: 10 “But he knows where I am going. And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold.”

Obviously, a man’s destiny cannot be determined from where he is at; for with God, the pattern drawn by a man’s life may not almost suggest where they will end up. The experiences may add to build character in him though; character that enables one function with godly wisdom in that predestined role. I love all the degrees from the ivy league schools, which of course help in their own way but they do not determine the course of a man’s life nor do they determine his/her destiny. At the very best, they serve to enhance the expression of what the person was destined to be when they enter the role so that there is no need to kill, steal and destroy, because you want your children to go to schools that you cannot reasonably afford. 

God is mindful of the destiny of the children He gave you and will arrange all that is required for them to have all they need to fulfill that destiny. Since every child’s life and/or destiny is different, please be careful how you make decisions concerning your children. If you have to do terrible things to pay for what you consider “a good life” them, you are probably tampering with their destiny. They would ultimately loose that which God has not given them or have to steal and maybe kill to keep it and still lose it eventually. Who would have thought Vashti would one day be dethroned? When it was time for Esther to step into her role, she had to relinquish that role. We must never find ourselves struggling to draw honor from a role; roles come and go but when God’s honor is upon a person, it is permanent whether or not they are in that role. 

Proverbs 31: 30 “Charm is deceptive, and beauty does not last; but a woman who fears the Lord will be greatly praised.”

Beauty is good but as we learn from Vashti’s story, it does not guarantee anything. At best, it can only enhance what you already have. Sometimes we are deceived into thinking that beauty gave Esther the throne but it didn’t. All the ladies chosen for the contest were beautiful and nowhere does the bible say she was the most beautiful of them all. It was her character that won her the place of Queen. Esther was wise and humble enough to give the eunuch the right to make all her beauty decisions for that special night. She obviously had behaved well enough for him to like her enough to “put his best foot forward” for her. Meanwhile, he had been at the job for long enough to know what the king appreciates in a woman. She must have known that if God did not give her the role, no one could.

It is yours … God gave it to you

Every word of scripture is powerful and very meaningful; but at various times, one scripture or the other just leaps out at one and really sticks. The scripture in Deuteronomy below is one of such scriptures for me.  This scripture makes it difficult for me to understand why a believer would be envious of any one. How I hate those evil twins - envy and jealousy: vile and deadly yet very subtle. They are so subtle and simple sometimes that you may even think them harmless. The world now talks about healthy jealousy and/or rivalry amongst siblings or friends. They say it is not harmful instead it provokes healthy competition. Another huge lie from hell! Nothing good comes from satan.

Job 5: 2 “Surely resentment destroys the fool, and jealousy kills the simple.”

Satan is behind it and his aim is always to steal from man, to kill and destroy him. Hell is never confused about its purpose so that even if it appears to be doing good, its ultimate goal is your destruction. Another thing about envy and/or jealousy is that they hurt the person incubating them the most. It is always a sign that satan is hot on the chase of the ‘incubator’ i.e. desperate to destroy them. Unfortunately, sometimes the person you are jealous of may be totally oblivious of what is going on inside you. While you are being eaten up, God in a twist of faith is more often than not, blessing them. It is time to realize that we don’t need everything; we just need what is ours which is what has been given to us by heaven and we need it to come to us at the right time. So my favorite scripture is below: 

Deuteronomy 2: 4 – 6 “You have been wandering around in this hill country long enough; turn to the north. Give these orders to the people: ‘You will pass through the Country belonging to your relatives the Edomites, the descendants of Esau, who live in Seir. The Edomites will feel threatened, so be careful. Do not bother them, for I have given them all the hill country around Mount Seir as their property, and I will not give you even one square foot of their land. If you need food to eat or water to drink, pay them for it.”

Very clearly, God is telling us that whatever He gives you is yours except you give it up. He is also letting us know that if you take what belongs to another, God will never give it to you and it will eventually be taken from you. Heaven will never support your owning it. If however, you refuse to own what is yours, God may give it to another, because He obviously abhors vacuums, the principle of replacement comes in and that is God’s prerogative. If you bitch, kill and steal, it wouldn’t change anything: if it has been taken from you like the kingdom was taken from Saul or Esau’s birthright was taken from him, there is nothing you can do about it, it has been taken and you gave it up.

Psalm 127: 1b “Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with a sentry will do no good.”

Let us stop wasting useful energy on useless things so that we will have energy to work while it is yet day that we may attain onto the heights that God has ordained for us. If you do your own bit, be assured that God will not forget that He gave it to you. He will not give it to another so leave other people and focus on applying yourself to doing that which your hands find to do and the God of heaven will guard your territory for you so that you don’t need to guard it yourself.

Your Frustrations May Suggest That You Are Highly Favored

How often have you wondered if God remembers you? Have you been through those times when though you know that God is with you, because the evidence of His hand upon your life is undeniable, but yet He is silent on issues that mean a lot to you? Those times when though you know He is with you, yet you are frustrated because your life isn’t going the way you thought it would? So you have many questions but no one is able to give you answers that satisfy your spirit. You try to explain the contradictions inside you but you are unable to articulate them; and even if you do, it is hard for people to understand. How can they when God has not explained it to them? 

Luke 2: 19 “but Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.”

There are things that happen in a man’s life, when God’s hand is upon them for a specific purpose that can only be pondered on in one’s heart. Just like the move of the Spirit of God cannot be understood, no other believer can fully grasp it except God explains it to them. They just cannot understand it no matter how hard you try to explain it. They can only interpret what you say in the context of what they know so their suggestions are unable to resolve your dilemma. It takes a believer who has been or is there, to understand where you are at and know that they can’t really help you except God tells them what to do. 

John 3: 8 “Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going…” 

God’s favor on a man can so upturn the man’s life that he wants to hide from everyone. I am not talking about God’s dealings in a life to bring them to maturity; I am talking about favor that makes God choose/call a man for a purpose; upturning or interrupting the life in such a way that they are unable to explain what is going on in their lives. It is interesting how believers want to ask you questions about your life at times like this; questions that you have no answers for so that you want to stay away from them. Yet you can’t; so you have to endure the questions despite the turmoil inside you. 

Of course some such believers only want to remind you that you have outstanding issues in your life. Others have judged you because they think they know you but they don’t. They have no idea what it cost to be you and cannot pay the price you are paying. How can they know you when they don’t see the fears inside despite your faith; nor do they know the depth of pain you ache with and maybe the shame you struggle with on the  inside, despite the joy you have. Do they understand the “aloneness” you feel in those moments when you wrestle with God? Take solace in the fact that it must have happened to Mary when she got pregnant which was also as a result of her finding favor with God.

Luke 1: 30 “Fear not Mary, the angel told her, for you have found favor with God.”

The truth is God’s goodness and favor have ways of expressing themselves in our lives and it is often not in the way we had ordered our lives. The one thing I can assure you of is that God is not unrighteous nor is He wicked. He has His own way of restoring all He appears to have taken from you though not in the way and time you had it all planned out. It will be tough but we must learn to draw strength from Him in those tough times, confident in the fact that His thoughts toward you are thoughts of good.

Psalm 23: 3 “He renews my strength, He guides me along right paths, brining honour to His name.”

He is Still Parting Red Seas

I think I may have a suggestion as to why we often get frustrated with God and His processes then end up frustrated and miserable. According to Bishop Jakes, “God orders steps and not elevators” because “the steps of a righteous man are ordered by God.” If you are a good man, then your life would have to be built on steps, which describes process. Unfortunately, we like elevators or lifts since they are faster and require us to do nothing. We are often in such a hurry for the manifestation of that which God has revealed to us in our spirits that we start living our lives like as if the vision has physically manifested. 

My intention here is not to dampen your faith but I must warn against presumption. God shows us in our spirit and then it becomes our responsibility to find out from Him what steps and/or strategy we need, to walk in the manifestation. God’s process demands that we learn patience. Recall that though Elijah heard the sound of an abundance of rain and told the king, his servant initially saw nothing. Elijah was not presumptuous; he tarried in the place of prayer, instead of going to relax like some of us would. Relaxing may be strategy for someone else  but is that your God given strategy? 

1 Kings 18: 41 “Then Elijah said to Ahab, ‘Go get something to eat and drink for I hear a mighty rainstorm coming.’ So Ahab went to eat and drink but Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel and bowed low to the ground and prayed with his face between his knees.

Elijah not only sent his servant once but several times while he prayed and even when his servant  said he had seen a cloud the size of a man’s hand, Elijah continued in prayer until the rain came down. He understood God enough to know that there is usually a process that precedes the physical manifestation of what God shows you. Moses strategy for crossing the Red sea was to stretch out his rod and it took God all night to part the red sea. Some of us would never have had the patience to wait all night especially when your enemies are right behind you and your argument would be that you heard God say “tell the people to go forward.” 

Exodus 14: 15 - 16 “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving! Pick up your staff and raise your hand over the sea.”

You would never wait to receive a strategy and then wait for the parting of the sea. Sadly, a number of believers have “died in the Red sea” and others have had their miracles aborted because of impatience. We then get frustrated; instead of repenting before God, we weep and begin a pity-party which we expect other people who are struggling to endure their own process to attend and if they don’t, then they must be mean. Sadly, frustration, pity-party, misery and such like, only serve to ensure that we never see the manifestation of the vision. God shows you the vision to strengthen you; He does not intend to skip due process. 

God is not being wicked in putting a process in place for the process has benefits. One of such being that a lot of things about you will be revealed to you in that time so you can deal with them and be prepared for that outpouring of goodness. You will also get the opportunity of knowing who truly cares about you as you go through the process because success is attractive. Don’t be in a hurry. What is yours can never go to another except you are irresponsible enough to refuse to” step up to the plate.”