Tag Archives: King

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Consider Esther

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As I study the book of Esther, I can’t help but think she typifies the Church. Esther lived during the time that the Jews were living in exile from Israel. Nebuchadnezzar had taken the princes, royal family and the top of Jewish society with him to Babylon. Later the Medes and the Persians had taken over the territory of Babylon and King Ashasuerus (Also known as Xerxes) was sitting on the throne, ruling over 127 provinces. He decides to throw a great feast, inviting all of the princes of these provinces, chief officers of the Persian and Median military, the nobles and governors, all of the ‘who’s who’ of his society. Then he invites all the men, both great and small to come for seven days of parties. His wife, Queen Vashti, not to be outdone, does the same thing for the women.

At some point during the celebration the King calls for Vashti, wanting to show off her beauty. She point blank refuses. As a young Christian, I used to think “Good for her!” Fortunately, now I have a better understanding of the rebellion in Vashi’s heart. Ashasuerus is King. King’s have complete authority. Period. We have no reason to assume he was an evil king, in fact later in the book of Esther, we find information contrary to that fact. Here is where the spiritual implications come in.

If Jesus is my King, shouldn’t I obey His every command? Whether I understand His request, or agree with it? What if it is not convenient for me to do what He says, right when He asks? Vashti may have been beautiful on the outside, but inside she was a rebellious and disobedient woman. Her disobedience is a bad example to all the woman, great and small, in the 127 provinces who are witnesses of her actions. What example are we, the Bride of Christ, setting for the world?

Ashasuerus has not choice, he has to divorce her, put her away! Another queen must be found. Jesus turned from the Jews, and chose a new love to pursue, the gentiles. He chose us, just as King Ashasuerus chose Esther. Unlike him, God didn’t clean us up first, there were no beauty treatments to get us ready. He chose us in our mess and dirt. Our purification comes after, not before.

Esther is a woman of obedience. She obeys her Uncle Mordecai, who raised her. After she was taken into the harem of the king, she finds favor with the chief Eunuch, Hegai. It is safe to assume that her humble behavior and her submissive attitude is what bring her that favor. There are countless beautiful woman there, who are all virgins. There is something different about our Esther.

When the women are allowed to take anything they want with them when they go to see the king, Esther only took what Hegai advised her to take. She deferred to the one who knew the king. It paid off for her; she is chosen above all others to be queen in Vashti’s place. Once sitting in her place of honor, she continues to obey her uncle.
We are all familiar with the story of Esther. How evil Haman desires to destroy her uncle and all of the Jews, even getting the king to sign into law a day of Jew killing, with a reward. Doing as her uncle requests, she goes uninvited into the throne room, which was punishable by death. But the king in his generosity and love for his queen, offers to give her up to half of his kingdom. Through Esther’s bravery and obedience, not only is her uncle saved, but her people as well, and evil Haman is hung on the gallows he has built for Mordecai. She put her life in the hands of the King and won the right for her people to fight back against those who would harm her. The Jews celebrate Purim to this day, marking their victory.

As modern day Esther’s, we don’t have to fear for our lives. We can boldly come to the throne of our King. Unlike Ashasuerus, our King has given us all of His kingdom, not just half. Our obedience is important. We have the whole world watching us!

Are we going rebel like Vashti?
Or obey, like Esther?

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The Dead Do Not Inherit

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An inheritance is for the living. When you go to hear the reading of the last will and testament of a person who has passed on, the room is not full of corpses. Instead it is full of the living relatives, and beneficiaries of the deceased.
God says that we are heirs and joint heirs with Christ, (Romans 8:17). He also says that we are seated in Heaven with Christ, (Ephesians 2:6). God gave Adam everything. Adam gave it over to Satan. Jesus took it back on the cross and went to hell to even get the keys to Satan’s eternal home. At Jesus’ death on the cross-we inherited everything from Him. At His death, a New Testament came into being. We inherited the Kingdom of Heaven, as well as all things on this earth. We don’t have to wait until we die to have Heaven. Heaven isn’t just a place. It’s a Kingdom. Jesus is the King, and we are His royal family. Heaven is ours, now! Salvation and everything that comes with it, is our now, isn’t waiting for us to die. Only the living receive an inheritance.
Jesus didn’t die to bring us to Heaven. If that was His only purpose, we’d be there now. Jesus came to bring Heaven to us, here on earth. His Kingdom needs to be enlarged. That can only happen if we stand in our rightful places as sons and daughters of the Most High God. We have to accept the inheritance, use it, and do what God asks us to do-love Him with all our hearts, and to seek and save the lost. It’s not just for our benefit. We are to heal the sick, raise the dead and set the captives free. That’s our job. We can sit around a pray about it, (and prayer is wonderful!), but God wants us to act on our faith. We are Royalty with authority.
No longer say, “I am a sinner saved by grace.” You were a sinner, and you were saved by grace. But if you have accepted Jesus and his finished work on the cross, you aren’t a sinner any longer. Sin is the nature of another kingdom, the kingdom of darkness. It’s no longer our nature. We have the nature of the King and the Kingdom that we submit ourselves under. God has made us brand new creatures, our old nature is dead, all things are new.
So what’s allowed in heaven? Is guilt, condemnation? Of course not. Then you can’t be guilty or condemned. You are seated in Heaven with Christ. He took our guilt. It’s gone! Now only one is judged, and that is Satan. He is judged guilty. His attacks against born again children of God is unlawful. Jesus followed all the legalities in getting our inheritance for us. Satan can find nothing in us to accuse us of to The Father. The Father only see’s us as righteous. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, yes, so that we can turn back to God, but He also convinces us of righteousness. He constantly reminds us of who God is and who we are in Christ. Jesus redeemed us from the curse and reconciled us back to right standing with The Father.
Does that mean we never sin? No-but if our hearts are given over to a New King, He is quick to forgive and chooses to forget. He doesn’t hold it against us. If we aren’t guilty is that the “ok” to sin. Paul says, “God forbid,” to that. All things are lawful, but all things are not beneficial. The closer we get to Him, the less we will sin. You’ll see that things that once tempted us will no longer pull us away from God. Don’t let Satan, the world, or even your own flesh tell you who you are or what to feel. Only God sees us for who we truly are. He says you are accepted in the beloved. He calls you blessed. He has called us sons and daughters. You aren’t who you once were. God didn’t scrub us clean-He made us brand new. He didn’t remodel or remake, He built you brand new from the foundation to the attic and filled you with good things!

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Living Beyond the Cross: Part One

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We tend to set up camp at the cross, when that was never the Father’s intention. We have come to the cross to confess our sin, accepting Jesus’ atonement…and then stayed there. Some even worship the cross. We have to go beyond the cross. The work of the cross is finished. How do I know that? Because Jesus said, “it is finished!” If it wasn’t, he wouldn’t have said it. Notice he didn’t say, “it is being finished”, “the work of the cross is continual,” no he said FINISHED. Period. We respect and reverence what Jesus did there, the price he paid, the blood he shed there, but we can’t live there, can’t stay there. We have to move past. Jesus said that he was the door-we don’t stand in doors, we go through. Jesus was the door to the Father.
So what’s on the other side of the cross? The cross is the door to the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is on the other side-the throne room. Jesus sits on that throne; he isn’t hanging on a cross. The cross couldn’t hold him, hell and the grave couldn’t hold him. He was destined, before the foundation of the world to sit on that throne. We are seated there with him, those of us who have accepted the finished work of the cross (Ephesians 2:5). Who sits on a throne? A king. Who has authority in that Kingdom? The king. The King of Kings sits on his throne in Heaven ruling his Kingdom and what does he call us? “Kings and Priests” (Revelations 5:10). What is the job of a king? To rule and reign, to use their authority to prosper the Kingdom.
I am learning-and trying to walk in this authority. It isn’t something new to me. Our Senior Pastor always talks about “A King, a Kingdom and a Royal Family.” But the word says that “Faith comes by hearing, and continuing to hear, the Word of God.” So sometimes we have to hear it over and over to get it from our heads into our hearts. Faith never takes place in our heads, always in our hearts. What our heads can’t comprehend our heart can believe. We don’t have to understand it all, just believe it all. Even the little Revelation I have received on this subject, I sometimes forget. I go back to the cross…habit, and to be honest I love to remember the love of the cross. Through some classes last week on healing and the Kingdom, some of those wrong thinking patterns were broken. So some of what I am sharing is from those classes. I hope it frees you up the way it has me.
Jesus didn’t “plead the blood”. He never said, “By the stripes on my back you are healed.” He didn’t ask his Father to heal. He prayed often, frequently all through the night, but he didn’t pray for God to heal. He hadn’t shed his blood; the cross was still in his future. But that didn’t stop him from doing his Father’s work. He healed the sick, cast out demons, cleansed lepers the list is endless. He did all of this as a man, not God. Through the power of the Holy Spirit and obedience to God’s will, motivated by their love, he did these mighty works. He knew his position, knew who he was. He didn’t let the fact that he was here as a man stop him. He knew who his Father was and that all power and authority came from the Father. “I only do what I see my Father do, I only say what he says.” He continually told the Religious people of the day that his power came from the Father.
Now, he did die, hang on that cross, shed his blood, went to Hell, took the Keys, stripped Satan of his power, and was resurrected. All of that is true, and wonderful! But he also ascended into heaven where he sits on his Throne of Power and Authority. Before he left he told us to do what he did. He told us to preach. Preach what? The cross? No the Kingdom. The Kingdom is the love of the Father that wants to see his children blessed, set free, stand and walk in their authority. To be on the offensive not just defend. Take territory; don’t just try to protect the little we have. He wants his family to grow! He told us to heal the sick. We do it, through the Holy Spirit working in us. Cast out demons. Not pray them out, cast them out. Tell them to leave. They have no authority. You do.
I know some religious toes have been stepped on and some sacred cows slaughtered. But religion stinks! It’s a set of do’s and don’ts that can only dictate how to behave. It never changes a heart. Relationship with the Father, now that changes our hearts and life’s. Now we do his work out of love for him. I swallowed hard at least a dozen times over the course of this class. I kept hearing this word ‘but’ in my head. Look at it this way, the cross, the beatings, the stripes and the blood, they were all to get us to the Throne of Grace. Important, necessary and wonderful? Yes, of course. The cross was the means to an end. The work of the cross tells us ‘how’ we got in the family of God, ‘why’ we are able to be healed, delivered and saved. ‘Why’ we have our authority. It the reason we can say to the sick, “be healed,” say to those in bondage to sin and the devil, “be free.” His stripes did heal us. His blood did cleanse us. So we are healed and clean. We don’t have to ask God to do these things, they are done. Accept it. Live like its true!
When we keep going back to the cross, it’s as if we crucify him again. Wasn’t once enough? God’s word tells us it was “once for all.” Just think about that for a minute…
Can you hear him calling you from the Throne of Grace?
So maybe you screwed up yesterday, you fell away, stumbled into some old sin…so what? There is Grace in the Throne room of God. Turn from the sin. That’s all repentance is, really. It’s already under that blood. It’s already been forgiven. When we live in the Kingdom, we become his ambassadors. We find that we don’t mess up as often, we stumble less. We are, like Jesus, only doing what the Father said and saying what he told us to say. We are part of that Royal Family sharing the goodness of the King. Who wouldn’t want to come out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light with us? If you are one of those who declare themselves “a sinner saved by Grace,” stop it! God said not to call unclean the things he has made clean. Jesus’ blood cleansed us; we are clean, no more sinners but saints, Sons no longer servants. God said, he never lies.

More tomorrow…

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Jesus My Everything

Jesus, I thank you for your shed blood.
When I needed redemption, you were the Sacrifice in my place.
Jesus, I thank you for your love.
When I was unloved and lonely, you were the Lover of my soul.
You were the bridegroom and your Father chose me as your bride.
Jesus, I thank you for your strength.
When I was weak and weary, you were the Mighty Warrior King,
Captain of the host of heaven, and you rescued me.
Jesus, I thank you for your Word.
When I was lost and living in darkness, you were the Light that brightened my day and enlightened my future.
Jesus, I thank you for your peace.
When I was tossed on every wave, you stilled the storm and calmed my heart.
Jesus, I thank you for your forgiveness.
When I stumbled and fell, you picked me up, and were a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
Jesus, I thank you for your gentleness.
When I came to you broken and bent, you were the Master Potter who remade me into a vessel of honor.