Several years ago America was at a strategic crossroads in history with the presidential election. The President that we elected is determining the direction the United States will take for the next forty years. He is choosing the Supreme Court judges who will either continue to limit the abortion of unborn babies or open the flood gates on full birth abortions with no restrictions while forcing American citizens to pay for it. The leaders we choose are not standing with Israel. These two issues alone will cause America to continue to come under sever judgment. How we vote as Christians is going to determine what the future holds for us. We will either elect godly rule and continue to live in safety; or face increased opposition and even martyrdom for our Christian beliefs.

Esther Arose at a Time of National Crisis to Spare People from Destruction

2008 was marked by many new doors of blessing and opportunities to increase God’s Kingdom. The number eight means God giving man the ability to transcend limits of physical existence, teachers arising with fresh spiritual insights in the scriptures, new birth or new beginnings being established in our lives and an abounding in God’s “joyous” strength, not that of the flesh.

Genesis 1:1–4 states that “In the beginning God created”, He spoke our world and the universe into existence through the creative force of light he held within His being. He took the formless and void things of darkness and transformed them with His words into light and life. We can gain valuable insights for creating our new beginnings from this verse. God spoke and a creative force was released that enabled Him to see the world He created. Thus, the words we speak will frame or create “open gates” to the world and circumstances that daily surround us.

Job 22:21–22 further tell us how to bring prosperity into our lives. “Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you. Accept instruction from his mouth and lay up his words in your heart.”

God promises that if we are faithful to decree things He will establish them by bringing them into existence. Job 22:27–29, “You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you, and you will pay your vows. You will also declare a thing, and it will be established for you; so light will shine on your ways. When they cast you down, and you say, 'Exaltation will come!' Then He will save the humble person.”

The bible says, “Decree a thing and it will be established for you!” This works for both positive decrees of life and negative decrees of death. The words of our mouth create life and death. In the book of Esther chapter 3: The wicked Hamon issued a written death decree that was sent out to all the proveniences against the people of God. This decree caused the Jews to fear for their lives but through prayer and fasting the declared curse of death that was decreed was reversed. His words established his own death and the death of his household as they swung from the end of the gallows he constructed. Hamon’s evil decrees of hate, murder, jealousy, control, and fear, were causeless. Esther and Mordecai answered with a righteous decree of deliverance, a new strategy of hope released faith, and love, backed by a unified militant response.

All of us have Harmon’s in our lives who currently have the ear of the king. They are willing to invest their money, time and efforts to see us destroyed, killed, and annihilated so they can plunder our goods. They sit with the king in their drunkenness while we are bewildered at their evil decrees against us.

Mordecai came to Esther at the Gates of the palace and told her, “If you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father's family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"

Queen Esther, Mordecai, and the King issued another decree that allowed the people of God to defend themselves against their enemies. Esther 8:3–9:1 Esther again pleaded with the king, falling at his feet and weeping. She begged him to put an end to the evil plan of Haman, which he had devised against the Jews. King Xerxes replied to Queen Esther and to Mordecai the Jew, "Because Haman attacked the Jews, I have given his estate to Esther, and they have hanged him on the gallows. (Proverbs13:22 says, the wealth of the wicked will be transferred to the righteous). Now write another decree in the king's name in behalf of the Jews as seems best to you, and seal it with the king's signet ring. The king's edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble (come into unity) and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate any armed force of any nationality or province that might attack them and their women and children; and to plunder the property of their enemies.(No weapon formed against you shall prosper!) The new decree enabled the Jews to be ready to avenge themselves on their enemies. And many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews seized them. Psalms 111:10, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow his precepts have good understanding. To him belongs eternal praise.”

In these ‘new beginnings’ we have learned how to properly discern by the Spirit and apply the living Word which is sharp, powerful, and able to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. The Word of God is going to be extremely important to fashion the building blocks of our lives. John 1:1-2 declares, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He (Jesus) was with God in the beginning.” Since God is light and love, love is the message we will begin and end with. 1 John 3:11, “This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another.” God is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. New beginnings often mean there is a starting over that needs to take place. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a “new creation”.

As we who live in the Kingdom of God respond to our enemies in God’s love we will experience a creative spirit releasing new ideas, products, strategies, insights, and revelation. This creative spirit is going to revive hope in us so we will, once again, begin to have great expectations to receive the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Psalms says, “Teach me your way, O LORD; lead me in a straight path because of my oppressors. Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes, for false witnesses rise up against me, breathing out violence. I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living”. The power that is resident in a blessing is much greater than the power of a curse. This is why the Bible tells us to bless those who curse you and despitefully use and persecute you.

When Rebekah was leaving her family in Genesis 24:60 to begin a new life, in a new land, with a new husband, her family blessed her with increase and ability for her children to possess the gates of her enemies. We must cut our enemies off from us so they do not follow us through the new gates into the promises of our future. New large doors and gates will be opened to those who are able to respond in love and forgiveness. Deuteronomy 11:18–21, “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds (love the Lord your God). Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.”

There are doors open in heaven awaiting us to complete the preparation process that is necessary to enter in. Rev.3, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches."

What voices are your ears tuned to hear? (God’s voice is not the voice of the accuser of the brethren, or the pointing of the finger, malicious, slanderous talk, evil speaking, judgmental, or critical). If your ears are tuned to hear these voices you will not hear the knock on the door or what the Spirit of God has to say to his bride. You will be trapped in the old patterns of death and destruction. Pray Psalms 119:35–37, “Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight. Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word.” 

Barbie L. Breathitt
Author of “Dream Encounters” Seeing Your Destiny from God’s Perspective
Breath of the Spirit Ministries
www.BarbieBreathitt.com
www.MyOnar.com

Modern Day Mordecais

With James W. Goll In the Spirit of Esther and Mordecai

It is time for us to pray, read, and live out the book of Esther again.  God is raising up new Mordecais who have His grace upon them to prepare the corporate Esther (the Body of believers) to do radical exploits in His name on behalf of God’s purposes amongst the Jewish people worldwide and in Israel particularly.

The Holy Spirit wants to inject the burden of the Lord for the purposes of God among the Jewish people into the global prayer movement - like a nurse with a fully loaded needle. We need a potent injection of God’s heart into our heart! That is why God wants to raise up a Mordecai anointing to prepare Esther for a time of intervention.  We know what Esther accomplished, but what was Mordecai’s task? What was his divine assignment?

Mordecai’s job was to raise up and prepare Esther for her hour of influence before the king. Mordecai raised Esther as his own daughter. He did not bow down or pay homage to Haman, who sought the destruction of the Jews, but worshipped the one true God only. He intercepted Haman’s scheme of the enemy and revealed it with wisdom to those in authority. He walked in prophetic counsel and instilled courage into Esther.

Esther, properly tutored and mentored by the counsel of Mordecai, seized the moment through prayer and fasting. Esther was anointed to intervene and stand in the gap, yet she had to walk in cooperation with the preparation of Mordecai, the spiritual authority God had placed in her life.

God chose to work through Mordecai to alert Esther to her destiny and timing of her intercessory acts on behalf of the Jews. God is looking for modern day Mordecai’s to prepare From deliverance from plot of Haman (who represents the enemy of God and His people).  Every year I call on Christians to sacrifice our time, our comfort and our agendas to undertake a three-day Esther Mandate Fast at Purim. This spiritual investment of the Worldwide Prayer Movement in the global body of Christ will not fail. It will bring about nothing less than “God’s will on earth as it is in heaven” for the Jewish people and the nation of Israel.

The Cry for Israel’s Sake

In the name of the Lord, I boldly and humbly call for The Cry, a yearly, three-day time of prayer and fasting corresponding with Purim. May this time of crisis intervention prayer and fasting for the purposes of God among the Jewish people and the nation of Israel arise “until Jerusalem is established as a praise in the earth” (Isaiah 62:6-7).

I have a challenge for all who read this: Whose supplications will be heard? Who will lift up their voice to fill up a golden bowl in heaven (see Revelation 5:8)? Will you join me and hundreds of others?

The holiday of Purim falls on the Hebrew calendar date of Adar 14. The date in the civil calendar is March 19-20, 2011. Please note that the Jewish calendar date begins at sundown of the night beforehand. Thus holiday observances begin at sunset of the first secular date listed (with the Purim night Megillah reading taking place that evening), and the holiday concludes at nightfall the following day. Join me as we seek the face of God once again as a bride prepared for her king. These are the days for The Cry during Purim– an Esther Mandate Fast – a time to approach the King for intervention for such a time as this!

On the Walls for Jerusalem’s Sake!

James W. Goll