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.
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