Month: February 2018

Vashti’s Refusal

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***I wrote this on Sunday morning***
 
We are four days away from Purim, the day the Jews celebrate the Feast of Purim, a time when Hamaan was hung on the gallows he made for Mordecai. Little did I know when I read Esther 1 this morning, that Purim was on Wednesday, but when I heard it, I knew God was setting us up to say some things to us through the book of Esther. As I was reading Esther 1 this morning in the Septuagint, which is the Greek version of the Old Testament, I found some of the language very insightful and revelation began to break open on the pages of scripture as I read. I believe this chapter is prophetic for where many are right now.
 
In Esther 1 we read that King Artaxerxes throws a marriage feast for 180 days, then at the end of that 180 days, he throws another party for those who were still in town. For 6 more days he is banqueting with those in his palace, while Vashti is doing the same with the women. On the 7th day…slow down when you read and you will hear the Lord speak…on the 7th day, the king sends his chamberlains to get Vashti. Here is what the Septuagint says as to why he sent for her, “He sent seven of his chamberlain servants to bring in the queen to him, to enthrone her, to crown her with a diadem, to show her to the princes and to show her beauty to the nations, for she was beautiful” (Esther 1:11). Did you catch that, the king was not trying to get her to dress scantily and dance for his drunk guests, no, he wanted to enthrone her, crown her, and show her off to the princes and nations, for she was beautiful.
 
May I propose to you, that the king was proud of his bride and not some guy who wanted a trophy wife on his arm. May I suggest that he was seeking to honor her before the nations, but she refused to come to him. For you that have ears to hear, you can already tell where we are going. But let me just break this down, based on what I sensed the Lord was saying. Vashti, the bible says, “hearkened not to him to come” (Esther 1:12). The king was inviting her to be enthroned, crowned and shown off to the nations, but she was not interested in coming to see the king, when he called for her. Esther 1:12 goes on to say, “the king was grieved and angry.”
 
What I sense in this refusal of Vashti to come at the invitation, when her king called, is a prophetic picture of what many Christians have done to the King of kings. He has been inviting His church to come away with him (Song of Solomon 2), to come up here (Revelation 4), to hear him standing at the door and knocking asking to come in (Revelation 3), but the modern-day church has refused His offer. The same thing happened in the book of Acts, when Paul said, “The Holy Spirit rightly spoke through Isaiah the prophet to your fathers, saying, go to the people and say the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts and return and I would heal them” (Acts 28:25-27). The church, like Vashti has said, no to her king.
 
Vashti’s refusal grieved and angered the king and lost her position as his queen. Which made room for a new queen to be sought for. I believe this is a prophetic picture in the sense that Yahweh was grieved over Israel as they refused him, so in the words of Paul in Acts 28:28, “Therefore, let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will also listen.” But what I see has happened is that the church has done to Jesus what Israel did to Yahweh and they have fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy of having eyes but can’t see and ears but can’t hear and a heart that has become dull, so can’t turn to God and be healed (Isaiah 6:9-10). And because of this refusal of the church to come to Jesus, their King, when He called, He was grieved and angry, just like Artaxerxes was when Vashti refused him.
 
The king will not be denied a queen though, so Artaxerxes went to find a queen, and I believe Jesus has been looking for a bride. Just as Esther was not in the system of Persia, so the bride is not in the system of the church as we know it. Vashti’s refusal, opened the door for Esther, just as the Jews refusal opened the door for the Gentiles and the church’s refusal has opened the door for the bride (those who have said yes to his invitation to be set apart for Him only). Vashti’s refusal brought grief to the king, just like the Jews refusal brought grief to Yahweh and the church’s refusal has brought grief to Jesus, but the search has went on and we are about to see how Vashti’s refusal gave us Esther and how the church’s refusal is giving us the bride!
 
Esther was the one who was willing to be set apart so she because queen and God used her to deliver the Jews from Hamaan. I believe those who said yes to God’s invitation in this hour have been set apart to be deliverers, like Esther was, for the people of God, who the enemy has sought to destroy. The Esther’s have been in purification and beautification treatments, they have favor with the king and they are going to be used as deliverers in this hour. Vashti’s refusal, opened the door for Esther’s arrival.

 

Maturity Precedes Victory

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Have you ever wondered what the wait is all about? Have you asked the Lord, when am I going to see the promises fulfilled that you have spoken over my life? Have you ever wondered if you did something wrong and that is why you are being, what feels like, delayed from fulfilling your destiny? Have you struggled with disappointment fatigue? I have struggled with all of these questions, for I do not believe there is a victory without a battle. But what I have learned in this process is that the battle is not with some external person or force that is hindering me, it is a battle within me. It is Jacob wrestling with God, saying, I won’t let you go unless you bless me, kind of battle. I think I am speaking to people who can relate, which is why when the Lord spoke this to me this morning, I knew I had to release it to my fellow women and men who are wrestling until they are blessed.

Maturity preceded victory is what the Lord told me this morning.

Maturity is a character issue. Think about it for a minute, when we were immature, we were impatient, unkind, selfish, insecure, all about us all the time. But then as we matured, got married, had kids, got that job, went on that vacation, made some more money, bought that first house, maybe been through a divorce, maybe had to bury a loved one, and the list goes on, we matured. Maturity is a character issue and maturity precedes victory. Biblically, we see maturity in 2 Peter 1 where Peter talks about how God has given us everything we need for living a godly life (v.3); how He has given us great and precious promises (v.4); then he goes on to say, “In light of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises”. Peter exhorts us to respond by becoming mature, by adding to one-character quality like knowledge, another character quality called self-control, the list goes on of what he is inviting us to add. Peter concludes by telling us this character development will make you mature, productive, useful.

Victory on the other hand is not a character issue, but a soul issue. Once we have matured, by developing the character qualities we need to be productive and useful, then God brings us into the process of dealing with the issues in our soul. We see this most clearly in James 1, where James exhorts us about finding joy in our trials and testings, so endurance can grow. James even says, when endurance is grown, we are fully developed, perfect, complete, lacking nothing. Trials, tests, and may I add time, heal our souls from the wounds inflicted on us that have caused us to believe, God is not good, God can’t be trusted, God has forgotten me, God doesn’t love me. These are soul issues that God is working out in us through the trials, testings and time. 3 John 2 says, “…May you prosper, even as your soul prospers!” God has been prospering our souls because He wants us to be victorious.

Maturity precedes victory because it takes maturity to endure to the place of victory. Jesus is coming back for a victorious church, a beautiful bride, and for that to happen He matures us in our character, then heals us in our souls, so we can be victorious. The voices that are about to arise and are already arising our voices of victory, because they have not only matured, but they have a prosperous soul, so they are walking in the victory they are proclaiming. They have learned what is means to be more than a conqueror, they exude they are an overcomer, they are victorious. Jesus has matured their character and healed their soul, so they can reign and rule as a victor, not a victim. Men and women alike all have to mature in character, prosper in their soul, so they can be a voice of victory in this hour. The church is about to be victorious again, because the voices of victory are here and they are rising.

Salt the River Within

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While at lunch with one of my mentors, I was pouring out my heart in regards to some pressure that I am under and she looked right at me, without hesitation, but with determination saying, “You need to salt the river within.” I looked at her and said, what do you mean? She said, you have been salting the rivers in our land and now you need to salt the river that is your land. I was stunned by her statement, but knew it was the Holy Spirit speaking through her, so heeded her thoughts overnight, before pulling out a glass of warm water the next morning and putting salt in it. I then drank the salt water and declared 2 Kings 2:19-22 which says, “The men of the city said to Elisha, behold now, the situation of this city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad and the land is unfruitful. Elisha said, bring me a new jar, and put salt in it. So they brought it to him. He went to the spring of water and threw salt in it and said, Thus says the Lord, I have purified these waters, there shall not be from there death or unfruitfulness any longer. So the waters have been purified to this day, according to the word of Elisha, which he spoke.” Immediately after I did this prophetic act, the Lord revealed to me that our mouths need to be purified, for there is death in them.

The city that the men in these verses were referencing is Jericho. Jericho was a city that Joshua decreed should not be rebuilt by saying, “At that time (after the walls of Jericho fell) Joshua pronounced this solemn oath: Cursed before the LORD is the one who undertakes to rebuild this city, Jericho: At the cost of his firstborn son he will lay its foundations and at the cost of his youngest he will set up its gates” (Joshua 6:26). Now in 2 Kings, Elisha’s men are saying, the city is pleasant but the water is bad, why? Because the man who rebuilt this city, paid for it with the death of two of his sons (1 Kings 16:34), based on what Joshua decreed. Therefore, the water was bad, because there was death in the water that ran through the city. Elisha comes and says, we are going to break this curse over this city, over this land, by salting the spring. The spring was the mouth of the river that ran through the city. Can you see the connection and why God is calling us to salt our springs (mouths)?

Proverbs 18:21 says, “The tongue has the power of life and death and those who love it will eat its fruit”. The Lord is inviting us to salt the river within, because there is death in the water and He wants to purify the waters within our lives, so we are only producing life and fruit that nourishes us and others. The old saying, you are what you eat is true, for we eat the fruit of our lips and if we are complaining, grumbling, fearing, doubting, or any other death producing fruit, we are releasing water that has death in it. The Rabbi’s believe, the 4 rivers in the garden of Eden are the 4 chambers of our hearts, there is a mystery here, but think of that, if out of the abundance of the heart our mouth speaks and the 4 chambers in our hearts are 4 rivers, that means if death comes out of our mouth, there is death in the rivers of our heart. It is time to salt the river within.

Now, death has many levels, it can be cursing someone or it can be complaining; it can be fear or it can be murder; so know that just because you are not doing something extreme, if there is any death coming out of your mouth, it is making your land unfruitful and the water inside of you is bad. This is not something to be ashamed of, but when we hear truth, we need to confess it as truth to God, ask for forgiveness and then turn away from it. I did not see, what I was saying as death, but when she said, you need to salt the river within, I knew she was right, so I went to the LORD and dealt with the death in my river and salted my spring (mouth). If we are honest, we all need to salt the river within. It’s not about being perfect, but it is about being honest. The LORD is wanting to make us oracles to the nations, but for that to happen, we must salt the river within.