Depending on God Part 2- The Wisdom of Esther

Continued from previous post.

Esther 4:16  Go, gather together all the Jews that are present in Shushan, and fast ye for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise; and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law: and if I perish, I perish.

Esther was a woman who was in a place of influence to effect the deliverance of the Jews just like Moses. She was married to the most powerful man in the then known world. Esther could have gone in to see the king depending on her feminine appeal, as it had worked wonders before. Remember, she was so beautiful, that she won the king's heart from the several women, from all over the world, who competed  to catch the king's attention. So surely her beauty would have been able to secure favor for her from the king. If this was not enough to change the kings mind, She was his wife and the king had gone through a lot of trouble to find someone suitable enough to replace his first wife. Would he want to go through all that again? Surely not! So why would he not favor Esther?

Esther ,however, did not put her confidence in any of these! Instead she called for a fast for Jews, Her and her maidens. She put aside any confidence in the resources available to her and asked for prayer mobilization for the task at hand. This is not a portrait of one who is confident in her own ability. She knew that despite all her abilities and endowments, she needed the help of God.

In the case of Moses, spoken about earlier, we never saw a place where Moses sort the help of God at first to carry out the task. He was confident he could do it until he met with failure and fled. He later succeeded, when he came back a much changed man having dropped(submitted) his rod(authority) to God.

How does all this relate to you?

Can you sing? So much so, that you no longer see the need to pray and seek God's help before you minister? Maybe you are good at public speaking or you have one ability or the other that you can exercise very well. If this ability has rubbed you of your dependence on God then, it will be your greatest handicap! Being an excellent preacher without being an excellent prayerful individual, will produce a ministry that lacks eternal impact but may be pleasant in time.

The verdict of Jesus in John 15:5b...for without me ye can do nothings still rings true.

You can achieve much in human terms but Jesus considers these achievements nothing. This is the reason why many men come to the end of their lives with so many regrets after achieving so much.

Except you submit your endowments to God in prayer it can not serve any purpose to Him! God will not use what you have until you lay it down(surrender it).

I end with the words of Watchman Nee in his book the Spiritual Man:

''God wants everyone to come to Him in a spirit of utter dependency, completely submissive to His Holy Spirit and humbly waiting upon Him''- Watchman Nee, Spiritual Man, Vol. 1 page 113.

Depending on God PART 1- Considering The Ability of Man

Heb 2:16  Clearly, it is not angels that Jesus helps. He helps the people who are from Abraham.
Our greatest handicap in life lies not in what we know we are deficient in ourselves to achieve without the help of God, but in the things we feel we are capable of doing without the help or input of God. I guess that statement may shock some of us but let me say this to you again. Your strengthens in life, may actual be your weakness before God.

Now, before you give up on me as a hopeless case, I urge you to please read on to understand what I mean.

Act 7:22-25  And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:  For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.


In telling the story of Moses, Stephen highlighted a significant fact for us to see. Moses was gifted with a lot of gifts. He was a Prince, mighty in words and deed. Leadership came easily to him. He could command a following with his words. He was well equipped.

Also Moses had an inclination that he was to be used of God to be a deliverer to Israel even when he was a Prince in Egypt. He then was ready to act on this inclination and felt that given his position, influence and status the people would understand that God had placed him in a position to effect their deliverance. He went about trying to do what he had always known was his purpose for being so close to the throne, without seeking the help of God. I mean who needs help when you have the position and the influence? He must have thought. He failed in his first attempt with all he had going for him. 

Friends, it is better for a man to fail in an endeavor that he embarked upon which is devoid of God's input, than for such a man to actually succeed. For instance, you will agree with me that it was better for Jonah to have his journey to Tarshish aborted, than for him to make it safe and sound there. If he had made it to Tarshish, a place where God did not direct him to, what would have become of his life? At best he would have been one of the merchants of the city and his life will not serve the purpose of the King he once served.

Unlike Jonah, a few people manage to succeed in a path that God is not asked to make an input in. Men do sometimes embark on and achieve "great" things without the help of God (in time or in the here and now these things are great but in eternity they hold no value). Examples of one of such men is Cain. He left the presence of God and built a city-Gen. 4:16-17(Is that not impressive?). The greatest prayer one can pray is may I not succeed in doing what is outside of Gods plan for my life.

Given what I said about Moses, You may then be left wondering, Is using my position to advance the cause of God's people wrong? or is being capable of doing something is wrong? or if using your natural abilities, endowments or gifting is such a bad thing.

These questions are valid questions and I can only answer them by presenting to you the wisdom of Esther.

Please go to the concluding part of this article titled- Depending on God Part 2- The Wisdom of Esther.

When The Church Seeks to Be Entertained By The World

Romans 14:17  For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. 

A recent trend that seems to be gaining ground in the Church today, is the invitation of comedians or entertainers to the pulpit of many churches. Musicians who are well known for performing secular songs, have found their way on the platform of churches singing songs that they have added a few christian phrases to. Barbecue Nights, football watching in Church and 'Holy Ghost' Party are all modern trends in the Church. Most will claim that all of these strategies are being employed, to catch the attention of a youthful generation.

Looking at this trend, one may be tempted to offer various reasons why this is being done, but if we are truly honest, this trend points to a far greater sickness that has eaten deep in the heart of the church of our day. Lets look at some of the hidden issues that this trend highlights.

The Bible says in Psalm 16:11  Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Here the bible speaks of fullness of joy and pleasures that are found in His presence. So for the church to seek to bring entertainment into its walls  we can, based on this scripture, interpret this to mean the lack of His presence that brings joy and has pleasures. The church no longer is content with being in the presence of God or lacks the presence of God and so seeks additional external pleasures.

Secondly, when the comedian has been given the pulpit to 'minister' or entertain from, when the Pastor takes over, what makes his words or presentation different from that of the comedian? In a church were all sorts of jokers can be accommodated on the pulpit, what will happen with regards to the eternal destinies of men?  Men like Jonathan Edwards saw the pulpit as a place to discharge a sacred duty, leaned over and preached his message that called to repentance, and several were drawn to Christ.

The next question I would like to ask, for those who believe that these programs are meant to draw the unsaved to church, is this, did Christ not say that if he is lifted up He will draw all men to Himself? Why seek to draw men using  the same PR strategies used by big corporations? The exalted Christ can draw men! There is no need for these activities that excite the flesh as a bait to bring men  to church. 

Lastly, for the church that seeks  worldly entertainment to spice up their worship, the words of John in 1Jn 2:15 are most appropriate   Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. You can not serve two masters, either you love the one and hate the other. If our hearts are been taken over by our desire for worldly entertainment, it then means that we have loved the world at the expense of our devotion and love for God the Father. 

The Kingdom of God is not set up to meet your carnal desires and pleasures(meat and drink) but it feeds the life of God within us. Some may warn the Church of our day not to be too heavenly minded and earthly useless(I have never known this to be the case, for anyone who is heavenly minded can never be useless in the agenda of God on the earth).  I think the Church needs rather to be warned against being too earthly minded that they are useless to the agenda of heaven. This is more the case than the former. Check most of what is preached and you will see this trend.

 True success in life and ministry can not be fully defined on earth because  the most successful men on earth may not be termed successful on the day of Gods judgement. Some said 'we cast out devils in your name' but the Master said 'I never knew you'. 


Let your heart be on fire, your passion and devotion be to the eternal King. Let His Kingdom come and his dominion be established in our heart.

WHEN THE KING NEEDS MEN

Judges 5:23  Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the LORD, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof; because they came not to the help of the LORD, to the help of the LORD against the mighty.

In Judges chapter 4, an epic battle had just been won. Israel had just recorded a victory against Sisera. A lot of interesting things can be deduced from this chapter of scripture. For one, men where spurred on to go into battle by the prophetic voice of a woman, Deborah. When Israel was subjected to oppression, God used a woman to offer prophetic direction.

If you are reading this and you feel disqualified from being used of God because of your gender, then this verse of scripture challenges that. In fact one of the greatest people that worked in the power of the Holy Spirit was a woman named Kathryn Kuhlman, a woman who dared to believe in the miracle working power of God and to this generation, she was a sign. Don't listen to men, God has a plan for you and He does not consider your gender as inferior. Its the heart you carry that He looks at.

Going back to our discussion, having secured the victory, Deborah and Barak started to praise God in Chapter 5. The summary of the whole of this chapter is stated in in the first two verses of this chapter. In fact, Judges 5:2 started by stating clearly their intention. It says:

Praise ye the LORD for the avenging of Israel, when the people willingly offered themselves.


Please note that, God avenged His people but His people willingly offered themselves. The great Evangelist, Reinhard Boonke, said God needs manpower, man needs God's power, and God works, when Man works. This statement clearly agrees with the scripture above. 

For those who wonder why God needs men, when He is all powerful. The answer is that for God to intervene in the affairs of men, He needs the permission of a man. God has given the administration of the earth to the sons of men. Its like the Certificate of Occupancy (C of O) we get for the government, for while all land belongs to the government, a C of O is given for us to 'own' a portion of that land by the government until a certain number of years expire. As long as we have that C of O the land belongs to us and we are entitled to compensation if the government intends to reclaim the land. Your life and your existence on the earth is your right to the earth. Unfortunately, man was not created to be master of himself. However, men are called to choose who they submit to. Whoever, you yield it to becomes your master.

The issue of choices also features in our story above. Some men choose not to come for the battle. In this battle, a careful record was kept of those who fought and those who did not. From the summary of their initial intention as discussed, I do not think Deborah intended to call out curses on those who did not come to battle ,but as it so often is the case in an atmosphere of true worship, the prophetic switched on. She revealed an incidence that was happening behind the scenes. According to her prophetic insight, an angel of the Lord, called for curses on the people of Meroz for not helping out in the day of battle. 

This twist in the reading concerned me. Why was it necessary to call for a curse on these people? The battle had already been won and the enemy overcome. Why was it necessary to pronounce this curse over these people? I will attempt an answer.These people where going to benefit from the battle but they did not offer themselves to fight in it. Secondly, the entire kingdom was on the verge of being destroyed but these people had no care.

As I thought on the above reasons, I must say that many in the church today could be called up for the same curses. Horrible thought, I know but please before you dismiss me, consider the attitude of the saved in the church today and if you dare to be honest, look closely at your own life.

 Many are unconcerned about the cause of Christ.Many are afraid to stand up for what they believe in. For some, when God wants to use their vocal cords to preach they gospel they will not yield. They are unconcerned about the cause of Christ in the earth and do not contribute to the advancement of God's kingdom. Their lives are lived for their selfish reasons and will not be bothered if the Church suffers. If you live all your life without finding out why you were put on this earth, or even why Christ saved you, then you are no different from the people of Meroz. If your life is lived with no thought of God and the advancement of His Kingdom, then you are no different from these people.

Unless we strive to locate the heart beat of God for us and seek that His purposes come to pass in our land and time, we are no different from the people of Meroz.

Friend, Don't just live for yourself, Live for Him who died for you. Our King has need of men to advance His Kingdom, may you come to his aid in a time like this.

THE GUIDING LIGHT - Let there be Light!!

Dan_5:11  There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar thy father, the king, I say, thy father, made master of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers; 

Dan_5:14  I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of the gods is in thee, and that light and understanding and excellent wisdom is found in thee.

Based on the principle of first mention, we can deduce from the very first words that God spoke in the book of Genesis, that He calls for light to lighten dark situations. I have often wondered where this first light that God commanded into existence came from, because based on biblical record the Sun and the moon came into existence later. I will leave off discussing this point but I would like to stress that the light by which creation began was not based on that given off by the Sun or the Moon.

In the natural, their are different sources of light that we can use to find our way.  Light is used to light up paths and help one find direction. Without light, we become like blind men and without direction.

In the Scriptural verse above, when King Belshazzar required insight or interpretation of the words written on the wall, he asked for a man that had three things: light, understanding and wisdom. I can understand the need for understanding and wisdom but what does the light do? Surely, this King was not referring to ordinary kind of light that we are used to? He definitely was not!

Light in this case, therefore, referred to inspired thoughts or insight into a matter, that proceeds from a source that is outside of the natural or that which humans unaided can access. When we speak of light we are talking here about inspired thoughts or insight. (Please bear this definition in mind as we continue in this teaching)

This brings us to a point where we need to define the different sources of light or inspiration or insight that men can walk by.

Rev_22:5  And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

I will use these light sources, in the above scripture and add a few more, as an analogy to drive home my point.

The Sun:You can walk by the light of the Sun. This light source is available to everyone to see by. In this teaching, the sun's light,based on its availability to everyone, can be used to represent worldly wisdom or the wisdom that is generally accessible to all men. Many walk by this natural worldly inspiration. What defines their life , where they live and what they pursue as an ambition in life and their value system are based on what is generally acceptable by men.

Friend, if you are living your life based on the direction of the society around you, or what is socially acceptable for you is what the society defines as acceptable, then you are walking by the light of the 'sun'. If your definitions and perceptions  in life  always agrees with the unsaved world around you, then you, my friend, are walking by the light of the 'sun'.

However, there is a light brighter than the sun at noon day( At noon when the sun is at its brightest and best). God struck Paul blind with a light that is brighter than the noonday sun. Unless your perception is changed by God, you can not seek to be guided by a more superior light. The disadvantage that the light that comes from this world has is that it, like the sun, does not last for ever! It goes down at the night seasons of life! In the worst of situations, it fails men.


Artificial Light(Candle): Those who walk by this light, I will describe as men who have enhanced their understanding and have gained more knowledge than the average man. If all you do in life is based on the brilliance  that comes from your mind, if you have planned the course of your life without God's involvement then you my friend are walking by this light.  A lot have started businesses based on good feasibility studies but never found out if that was the course that God wanted their lives to take. Regrettably, they have succeeded and have thus planned out a way of existence without any need for God.This light also goes out, when power goes.

The Moon: This is a source of light that though weak, some walk by it. The magicians walked by some form of light. Some have realized the deficiency of their mind and the ordinary way of getting direction and have turned to darkness for this form of light. Several live their lives by the directions gotten from Horoscopes, Ouija board, fortune tellers etc


The Life that is light: This is the ultimate source of light or inspiration that every believer should walk by.

John1:4 says In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 

Job 29:3  When his candle shined upon my head, and when by his light I walked through darkness;
 
John 8:12  Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

This ought to be the way the believer get direction in life. Our minds ought to be enlightened by the spirit of God and hence we draw our bearing from the very throne of God.Those who walk by this light are those whose lives are as dictated from God. Job said he walked through darkness by the light of God. This light is brighter than the Sun at its brightest, it exceeds the wisdom found in darkness as can be seen in the in the book of Daniel(because the magicians could not interpret the writings), the brilliance of Gods guidance, even though it may seem foolish to men, exceeds our best minds and what they can conceptualize. Friend, the scripture declares that the foolishness of God is wiser than men. 

Is the course of your life as dictated from the world? or you have conceived it from your brilliant and analytical mind? You will never arrive at God's purpose for your life, except you are led by the guiding light that comes from God. This light can first be accessed from the Word of God and by the Spirit of God within us. Without it our lives will be ordinary and without a mark that is made in eternity. 

Let Jesus direct the course of your life, by His light you will go through darkness and like the Psalmist prayed: Psa 18:28  For thou wilt light my candle: the LORD my God will enlighten my darkness. Your spirit is the candle of God(Prov. 20:27) and this light can lit by the inner working of Gods spirit, any other way, will lead to destruction.