{"id":14749,"date":"2013-09-20T00:01:41","date_gmt":"2013-09-20T05:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=14749"},"modified":"2013-09-19T22:57:42","modified_gmt":"2013-09-20T03:57:42","slug":"esther-chapter-3-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/09\/20\/esther-chapter-3-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"Esther – Chapter 3 Recap"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Wk3_Recap_Spring\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have found the story of Esther to be a story of your life and mine.\u00a0 You are the king and you have an influence on all who know you and all who come in contact with you.\u00a0 You, too, have found a new queen when your spirit was made new and alive in the Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 In this place of communion, have you sensed the Holy Spirit\u2019s influence on your life?\u00a0 He\u2019s always at battle for you against the enemy who has an evil plan for your life.\u00a0 Esther\u2019s story retraces the story of our lives.<\/p>\n

In chapter 3, we will see the process of evil unveiling in a humans life along with the way God can and will deliver us from it.\u00a0 Read Esther 3:1-5. Verse 5 says,\u201dWhen Haman saw that Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor, he was enraged.\u201d W ho is Haman?\u00a0 What\u2019s behind the conflict between these two—Mordecai and Haman?\u00a0 Haman is an Agagite, which means he is a descendant of a man named Agag.<\/p>\n

Haman represents the evil that is at work in all of our hearts.\u00a0 Mordecai represents the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 In Galatians 5:17, we read: \u201cThe flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary one to the other.\u00a0 This story of Haman, Mordecai and Ahasuerus is clearly representative of this battle we have as Christians.\u00a0 We constantly mess up and try to justify our sins.\u00a0 This is where the Holy Spirit comes in and opposes this influence in us that has come to destroy us.\u00a0 He came to deliver us as we will see in this story.<\/p>\n

Have you found that when you became a Christian, you had more trouble than you had before?\u00a0 You were cruising through life pretty smoothly until you accepted Jesus.\u00a0 Then you find yourself being attacked sometimes from all sides.\u00a0 The enemy realized just how much you mean to the Kingdom of Heaven and he felt threatened.\u00a0 So he comes at you to catch you off guard, to see if he can possibly knock down one of God\u2019s warriors.\u00a0 The enemy is threatened, just as Haman is threatened by Mordecai.\u00a0 The king doesn\u2019t recognize Haman as the enemy. Friends, we must recognize the enemy and how he works, and then wage war against him.\u00a0 We have Jesus on our side and we will overpower the enemy<\/strong><\/em>!!!<\/p>\n

Haman, the enemy in this story, comes up with a plan to kill the Jews.\u00a0 Apparently his anger, bitterness, and resentment has gotten the best of him.\u00a0 It has manifested itself in him and given him the desire to actually kill God\u2019s people.\u00a0 In Esther 3:6-7, notice that Haman begins with Mordecai\u2019s people and not Mordecai.\u00a0 How many times does the enemy start in areas of our lives that we are unaware of, such as our attitudes rather than our convictions.\u00a0 We are to live a life that shows God\u2019s work in our lives.<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 Our kingdom should see the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.\u00a0 Galatians 5:22-23 tells us, \u201c But the fruit of the spirit is love,\u00a0 joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.\u201d\u00a0 These are \u201cthe people of Mordecai\u201d in our lives.\u00a0 This is where the enemy attacks.<\/p>\n

Verse 7:\u00a0 Haman wants to cast lots to decide when the Jews will actually be killed. He\u2019s bringing in black magic to the kingdom Finding a \u201clucky\u201d day in which to actually murder them.<\/p>\n

Verses 8-11:\u00a0 Haman openly suggests that Mordecai\u2019s people are really unprofitable to the king but he is going to make him rich by paying $10,000,000 to the kings treasury.<\/p>\n

Has Haman been talking to you lately?\u00a0 Has he suggested that maybe honesty isn\u2019t always best or that speed limits are only good if you\u2019re not running late?\u00a0 God allows us to be tempted but not past a certain point<\/strong><\/em>.\u00a0 Ultimately the decision is ours and in these verses, the king decides to side with Haman.\u00a0 He decided<\/strong>!\u00a0 As we decide in our own lives sometimes.\u00a0 The enemy is just like Haman and he puts things in our paths.\u00a0 Darlene mentions 1 Peter 1:7 as a truth to cling to. It says, \u201cThat the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ….\u201d<\/p>\n

Have you ever thought about how your decisions affect others in your life?\u00a0 Your decisions will touch all who know you in some way.\u00a0 Even if you don\u2019t share your decisions, your actions will eventually represent them.\u00a0 The king decided….peoples lives were about to be changed.<\/p>\n

Have you lost your sense of direction lately?\u00a0 Maybe you started out good and strong but somehow you\u2019ve gotten distracted and you don\u2019t know what to do next.\u00a0 Good news: Jesus does!\u00a0 He says in Matthew 6:22-23, \u201cIf your eye be single, your whole body will be filled with light…but if the light which is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness.\u201d\u00a0 There is a way out and the Holy Spirit will show you.\u00a0 When you believe what He tells you about the enemy, then you will begin to discover what that way out is!<\/p>\n

Remember, He overcame the world!!<\/p>\n

Let’s Pray<\/span>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Lord God, our Father, we praise Your Holy name.\u00a0 You alone are our stronghold and our Fortress forever.\u00a0 Thank You for loving us unconditionally and for grace when we make decisions that aren’t in our best interest or for the best interest of Your Kingdom.\u00a0 Lord, we give in to temptation sometimes, whether we are aware of it or not; and the Holy Spirit is always there to guide us and deliver us from the wrong choices we have made.\u00a0 We always have You to forgive us and cleanse our hearts of all unrighteousness.\u00a0 Help us to be the example that You would have us to be so that we may win others for Your Kingdom.\u00a0 We love You.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name.<\/p>\n

Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have found the story of Esther to be a story of your life and mine.\u00a0 You are the king and you have an influence on all who know you and all who come in contact with you.\u00a0 You, too, have found a new queen when your spirit was made new and alive in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":14772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[3792,3512,3569,3791,408,425,3793,506,938,3590],"class_list":["post-14749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens","tag-1-peter-17","tag-esther-the-beauty-of-courageous-submission","tag-estherthe-beauty-of-courageous-submission","tag-galatians-517","tag-galatians-522-23","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-haman-and-mordecai","tag-holy-spirit","tag-scripture","tag-time-warp-wife-blogspot-com","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Wk3_Recap_Spring.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-3PT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14749"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14749\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14775,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14749\/revisions\/14775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}