For Such a Time as This

Do you ever have experiences in your life that just simply stick in your mind as if it had happened yesterday?  A number of years ago while in the jungles of Peru, I was speaking to a group of people, and at the end of the sharing time, I asked if anyone wanted to be prayed for.  Quite a few responded to that request, so the team and I began praying for each person.  I remember praying for one person, and I heard something in my mind that I sensed God wanted them to hear, but I remember not wanting to tell them.  Still while I was praying, I sensed God saying to me that if I did not say anything, He would tell someone else to say it to them.  I recognized at that point that the words I was supposed to say to that person were words that God also wanted to say to me.  As I began to tell this person through an interpreter what I had seen and heard in my mind, the person dropped to the floor weeping.  A few minutes later after praying for some other people, I came back to that person, and they began to share with me that they thought for the first time they had heard the voice of God but really did not know what to think or what to believe.  They went on to describe that as I was speaking to them, I was speaking word for word what they had already heard from God and were trying to decipher what it meant.  

At that point, I was immediately reminded of Esther in the Bible.  She was brought into the king's palace, given the absolute best that the king had to offer.  Esther was given this opportunity because of her beauty and from the anger of the king against the current queen.  The story goes on to say that there were individuals who were trying to put her Uncle Mordecai to death along with other Jews.  When Esther found out about the plot to kill the Jews, she was asked by Mordecai to talk to the king about the situation.  Fearing for her life and not sure what to do, she responded as though to protect her own life.  Mordecai responded back to her with some very key phrases that many of us know in scripture.  His response to Esther was, "For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place and you and your father's house will perish.  And who knows whether you have not attained royalty for such a time as this?"  Esther 4:14   Esther then asked Mordecai to fast and pray so that she would know what to do and how to do it.  As the story goes, the king not only listened to her but acted upon those who were a threat to the Jews.
 
I think we as Christians today should take note of this story in the Bible.  God has put us in this place at this time for this purpose.  If you read the book of Esther closely, you will begin to realize that likely there were other smaller “what ifs” in her life.  Are there ways that you have heard God speak in the past?  Each time you act upon the spoken Word of God, courage becomes a part of your life.  We also see in Esther the awareness of what God wanted to do in the natural, and we need to note that there was unity of purpose that took place among the Jews for God to accomplish his purposes.  It is important that we are discerners of the time in which we live.  

What is God saying?  What is God doing in the world today through his church?  Are you willing to join me in the journey to seek out your purpose for such a time as this?

Blessings,
Pastor Dan