Esther 4:14
14"For if you remain completely
silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from
another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who
knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"
Queen
Esther or Hadassah (Jewish name) is my absolute FAVORITE woman of the
Bible! I have read it over and over and even bought the re-enacted film,
"One Night with the King," which I have played over and over. I did not
understand that God was using THIS entire Book of the Old Testament to
teach and prepare me for what to me, seemed like my most difficult
task. Queen Esther is the reason the Jews celebrate the festival of
Purim every year. For it was Queen Esther's courage and willingness to
die for what she believed that revealed the plans of the wicked and
saved God's people from the sword. God used her to correct an act of
disobedience committed by King Saul nearly 500 years before. It is also
the reason why God's people lived on and the lineage of David continued
so that our Savior, Jesus Christ, would be born. In this scripture,
Queen Esther's guardian, her cousin, Mordecai, who raised her after she
was orphaned, wrote to her as she did fear approaching the King, her
husband, on behalf of the Jews. To go unsummoned before the King in
Persia meant death. Not only that but no one in the palace knew she was a
Jew. Mordecai had given Hadassah a new name, Esther, to hide her
identity so that she would live when all the women had been taken in the
search for the king's new bride. But when Mordecai put it to Esther so
bluntly that if she kept silent her line would perish and that God
brought her to the level of authority she was in that He could use her
for good, Esther, was willing to confront the king, even if it meant
death.
I had no idea when God told me to write my second book, Shh Don't Tell
on abuse that it would really become a cause. I had no idea that a
major advocacy group in our Nation's Capitol would even consider
partnering with me as the director wrote to me, "we have a kindred
cause." A representative of a government agency in DC said to me, "while
we can not endorse anything, we do understand what you are doing and
want to point you in the right direction." All I knew when I started was
that I had to get another level of healing and it would mean
deliverance and healing in others. The battlefield to get to this place
was by no means short. When deliverance is involved, the battle is
steep. God was so determined to get this book out of me that you all
went without a daily message for 34 days. In that time the majority of
the first section of the book was complete. With each step of writing, Shh Don't Tell, the
enemy raised up three people, whom I thought were friends and
subsequently two understood my cause way more than I can explain.
Through the door of envy, they began taking the gift of intercessory
prayer and the gift of discernment to see in the spirit realm what God
was doing and to deliberately pray against whatever God was doing. And
no, I am not exaggerating. For God brought two prophets and one with the
gift of prophecy, all three ordained ministers who had not spoken to
each other on the matter, to confirm what I perceived the Holy Spirit
was saying to me. One of the three perpetrators was so bold as to jump
on my home church's Bible Study call after realizing God had cut off
information to them. The person really believed they would go unnoticed,
by a PRAISE GOD for the prophet of our house, our assistant pastor, who
called it out on the call. The Holy Spirit revealed who it was and the
person gave themselves away as a confirmation later. The second of the
three perpetrators began dabbling with the dark arts as a way to add
insult and manipulated the third person who they knew was in a place of
depression. I even endured ridicule from other who I thought would
understand the cause but they spoke against me as well when they
realized my attention was no longer on the common goal we once shared.
When I made it clear my focus was on the assignment God said had to be
completed they began to say things against me to someone close to them.
The closer the book came to being finished the enemy threw more darts.
God said I had to move. When one of the three discovered I moved, they
started following me and even created an alias on facebook to gain
access as they had been blocked. I even silenced a fellow author from
announcing the book until it was confirmed it was in print. I endured
criticism from one even closer to me because the sensitivity of abuse
and it was like a bad rift. That's how bad it was. God said the task
must be completed no matter what! See, at sixteen years old, shortly
after my confession of Christ, I had a terrible nightmare. I was shown
children all over the city on roof tops dying. And I heard a voice that
scared me very badly saying, "You cannot save them all!" And the objective
was made clear that attempts would be made to take me out. It took
20years and this project to understand the meaning of that dream. It
meant I had to be willing to die publicly for what I believe. Now, I
PRAISE GOD!! For clearly, I am in the kingdom of God for such a time as
this.
What do you believe? What if God told you a task had to be done no matter what consequences and fight you had to go through? How courageous would you be for what you believe if you knew it could save lives?
P.S. Looking forward to seeing many of you tomorrow, Saturday, October 5th from 2-4pm at Caribou Coffee House at 1800 M Street!
