{"id":14876,"date":"2013-09-27T00:01:43","date_gmt":"2013-09-27T05:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/?p=14876"},"modified":"2013-09-26T22:10:01","modified_gmt":"2013-09-27T03:10:01","slug":"esther-415-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/2013\/09\/27\/esther-415-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Esther – Chapter 4:15-17"},"content":{"rendered":"

What strengths has God given you ‘for such a time as this<\/em>?’\u00a0 \u00a0Think about it for a minute. \u00a0God has placed you in a position for a purpose.\u00a0 Everything that happens to us is either ordained by God or\u00a0allowed by God.\u00a0 And as Christians, we know<\/strong><\/em> He will deliver us!<\/p>\n

Mordecai expected a divine deliverance, didn’t he? \u00a0Esther and Mordecai believed in God’s care and, because they acted at the right time, God used them to move His people. \u00a0By calling for a fast, Esther is asking the Jewish people to also pray for God’s help on this dangerous mission. \u00a0Verse 15: “Go gather together all the Jews that are present on Shushah and fast for me; neither eat or drink for 3 days and nights. I also and my maids will fast as you do. Then I will go to the king, though is against the law and if I perish, I perish.” \u00a0Fasting and prayer moves mountains. Jesus fasted in the desert and prayed to His Father.<\/p>\n

Fasting is the most important and greatest spiritual discipline for<\/span> seeking God’s intervention. Together, combined with prayer, they’re the most critical weapon in spiritual warfare, which leads to deliverance in our lives.\u00a0 Fasting does not manipulate God into doing exactly what we want nor does it mean that all our wishes and desire will come into fruition, but it does convey to Him exactly that we desire that His will be done in our lives.\u00a0 In Mathew 9:15, Jesus told us that fasting would be necessary for His disciples after He ascends into Heaven, “The time will come when the Bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.”<\/p>\n

\"Wk4_Esther_KimSpring\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Esther was brave.\u00a0 When God’s people feel pressed, His mighty power kicks in in\u00a0a mighty way. In our own power, we are nothing, but God can turn us into mighty warriors if we allow Him to work through us.\u00a0 Notice in this chapter, the roles are reversed for Esther and Mordecai—Esther is now the instructor, and Mordecai listens and obeys.\u00a0 You can feel as you read these passages, the commanding power of God through this small, humble, yet beautiful woman moving into action. Isn’t this like our God?\u00a0 Doesn’t He do this within the body of believers in the church? Regardless of sex or position\/lack of position, in 1 Corinthians 11:1 , Paul says for us to “imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ.”\u00a0\u00a0God had set Esther under Mordecai to watch over her and guide her. But now, God switched her into a leadership position over Mordecai.\u00a0 What about you?\u00a0 Are you ready to step into such a role if or when God needs you?<\/p>\n

I cannot let the fact that Esther was willing to lose her life for this cause go unnoticed.\u00a0 \u00a0She knew her life would be in danger if she approached the King yet she was ok with it. \u00a0 She was putting the lives of her people above her own life,\u00a0and showing\u00a0a great\u00a0example of selflessness. \u00a0How beautifully her words picture this identification of the believer with the death of Jesus Christ. \u00a0He died for you, and you died with Him;\u00a0\u00a0nothing you can do will ever affect that. \u00a0 And just like Esther, the evil one cannot lay his hands upon you any longer.\u00a0 You are not in bondage.\u00a0 You are a believer and your deliverance rests upon an unchangeable fact!!!<\/p>\n

This is a story of your heritage.\u00a0 Consider that this story is still going on and you are a character and part of this story.\u00a0 And just as God was working in the lives of these characters in Esther, He’s busy today working in<\/span> yours! \u00a0It’s His-story and we are all in it, thanks to Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n

So today as you go about your life, remember that no matter what you face, or what you need to be delivered from, He is able.\u00a0 He will deliver you. \u00a0His promises are still proving true and He is the same God of Esther and Mordecai. \u00a0My challenge for you today is this: think about what role He has you in today; can you see the purpose yet?\u00a0 Or are you just walking in faith? \u00a0Cannot wait to hear from you!<\/p>\n

* *\u00a0* * *<\/p>\n

Let’s Pray<\/span>: <\/strong><\/p>\n

Dearest Lord,\u00a0 Today we come to You as Your children in need of Your grace and mercy.\u00a0 You have taught us so much through this study; that the Holy Spirit is ours and is here to guide us in our everyday life as well as in our ministry work for You. \u00a0We praise You and worship You. God, You want us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love, like Jesus did in everything. We take our lead from Jesus and He keeps us in step with each other.\u00a0\u00a0 May we be filled with the knowledge of Your will and may we clothe ourselves in kindness and mercy and humility.\u00a0\u00a0 Above all things, we put on love and let the peace of God rule in our hearts. \u00a0May we be one body and may we seek to tell all about the deliverance that we have experienced in our own lives. May we be brave like Esther and obedient like Mordecai. In Jesus’s name we pray.<\/p>\n

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

What strengths has God given you ‘for such a time as this?’\u00a0 \u00a0Think about it for a minute. \u00a0God has placed you in a position for a purpose.\u00a0 Everything that happens to us is either ordained by God or\u00a0allowed by God.\u00a0 And as Christians, we know He will deliver us! Mordecai expected a divine deliverance, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":14906,"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":[1973,3475,2052,3889,3512,2056,425,3882,589,3877,2054,1141],"class_list":["post-14876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-womens","tag-1-corinthians-111","tag-darlene-schacht","tag-esther","tag-esther-415-17","tag-esther-the-beauty-of-courageous-submission","tag-fasting","tag-girlfriends-coffee-hour","tag-godly-submission","tag-kim-spring","tag-matthew-915","tag-mordecai","tag-womens-online-bible-study","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Wk4_Esther_KimSpring.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p39pHp-3RW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14876","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=14876"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14926,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14876\/revisions\/14926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/girlfriendscoffeehour.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}