An Open Invitation: Come Up Higher to the Presence of the Lord
As we enter this new year of 2009, it is blatantly obvious that we are all facing serious challenges to our faith and life. These challenges come at personal level, as well as in the arena of our professions, our friendships, our workplace, and our centers of worship. On top of all these personal settings, we are clearly facing national and international pressures in a more intense way than most of us can remember. It seems clear to me as I reflect on my own life that the level of commitment to Jesus that sustained me through this past year will not be sufficient for the days that are ahead. I must know Him in a deeper way, and somehow must get hold of His power for the issues that confront me at every level on a daily basis. Perhaps you feel some of the same needs as I do.
I want to draw your attention to a short statement found in Revelation 4:1 – “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me saying, ‘Come up here . . .’”
These words were spoken by an angel to John, the old apostle who was exiled on Patmos Island at the end of the 1st Century. He was in the midst of a radical encounter with God in which he would witness the battle plan of Jesus to take over the kingdoms of the earth, including the implications that this strategy has for followers of Jesus as well as for the entire human race. John was about to see some truly awesome and terrible things, and it is significant for us to see the first things that God decided to reveal to John.
Before the Lord revealed the wonders and horrors that would accompany the coming of Jesus to Planet Earth, the angel was directed to show John the realm of God’s presence: His beauty, His personality, His power, His holiness, and His perfect justice in doing what He is about to do. This strategy was so important to John, and it is important to us as well. Like John, we must become settled in the ultimate beauty, kindness, power, and righteousness of the God who is orchestrating the transition from this present evil age to the wonder and majesty of His Kingdom that is coming to the earth.
A Throne Set In Heaven
Here’s the first thing John saw: there is a throne set in heaven. This is very powerful for us, because it is far more than a nice religious picture or sentiment. There is a place of ultimate authority and power, and it is essential that we know this deeply and personally. The culture that we live in has gone to extreme lengths to eliminate any sense of absolute truth or authority. “No one can tell me what to do!” is the cry of our spoiled-brat society. We have become our own gods, and we are reaping the fruit of our self-worship. The values that have held America together are no longer embraced, and the enemy is strengthening his grip. King David wrote Psalm 11 and declared that “if the foundations are shaken, what can the righteous do?” The answer that David came to is the same for us: there is a throne in heaven, and there is One seated there who is holy, beautiful, righteous, and just, and He is ultimately and personally involved in what is happening here on earth.
God has a clear and present strategy for this planet, for His people, and for all those who oppose Him. His plan is beginning to unfold. His desire is that we would be so settled in the experiential knowledge of His goodness and kindness that we will not be shaken by the decisions Jesus makes as He comes to take His place as the King of all kings, the Lord of heaven and earth.
In the next article, we’ll take a glance at the One who sits on this throne, that we might be filled with wonder and delight as our eyes behold this One who is beautiful and holy.
Blessings on you!
Gary Wiens
The Gift of Woundedness
Greetings, Everyone!
I recently received the following article by Francis Frangipane. Marie and I were powerfully blessed by this word, and wanted to share it with you. Blessings on you!
“The Gift of Woundedness”
by Francis Frangipane
Nov 30, 2008
The world and all it contains was created for one purpose: to showcase the grandeur of God’s Son. In Jesus, the nature of God is magnificently and perfectly revealed; He is the “express image” of God (Hebrews 1:3). Yet to gaze upon Christ is also to see God’s pattern for man. As we seek to be like Him, we discover that our need was created for His sufficiency. We also see that, once the redemptive nature of Christ begins to triumph in our lives, mercy begins to triumph in the world around us.
How will we recognize revival when it comes? Behold, here is the awakening we seek: men and women, young and old, all conformed to Jesus. When will revival begin? It starts the moment we say yes to becoming like Him; it spreads to others as Christ is revealed through us.
Yet to embrace Christ’s attitude toward mercy is but a first step in our spiritual growth. The process of being truly conformed to Christ compels us into deeper degrees of transformation. Indeed, just as Jesus learned obedience through the things that He suffered (see Hebrews 5:8), so also must we. And it is here, even while we stand in intercession or service to God, that Christ gives us the gift of woundedness.
“Gift?” you ask. Yes, to be wounded in the service of mercy and, instead of closing our hearts, allow woundedness to crown love, is to release God’s power in redemption. The steadfast prayer of the wounded intercessor holds great sway upon the heart of God.
We cannot become Christlike without being wounded. You see, even after we come to Christ, we carry encoded within us preset limits concerning how far we will go for love, and how much we are willing to suffer for redemption. When God allows us to be wounded, He exposes those human boundaries and reveals what we lack of His nature.
The path narrows as we seek true transformation. Indeed, many Christians fall short of Christ’s stature because they have been hurt and offended by people. They leave churches discouraged, vowing never again to serve or lead or contribute because, when they offered themselves, their gift was marred by unloving people. To be struck or rejected in the administration of our service can become a great offense to us, especially as we are waiting for, and even expecting, a reward for our good efforts.
Yet wounding is inevitable if we are following Christ. Jesus was both “marred” (Isaiah 52:14) and “wounded” (Zechariah 13:6), and if we are sincere in our pursuit of His nature, we will suffer as well. How else will love be perfected?
Yet, let us beware. We will either become Christlike and forgive the offenders or we will enter a spiritual time warp where we abide continually in the memory of our wounding. Like a systemic disease, the hurtful memories infect every aspect of our existence. In truth, apart from God, the wounding that life inflicts is incurable. God has decreed that only Christ in us can survive.
The Wounds of a Prayer Warrior
Intercessors live on the frontier of change. We are positioned to stand between the needs of man and the provision of God. Because we are the agents of redemption, satan will always seek the means to offend, discourage, silence, or otherwise steal the strength of our prayers. The wounding we receive must be interpreted in light of God’s promise to reverse the effects of evil and make injustice work for our good (see Romans 8:28). Since spiritual assaults are inevitable, we must discover how God uses our wounds as the means to greater power. This was exactly how Christ brought redemption to the world.
Jesus knew that maintaining love and forgiveness in the midst of suffering was the key that unlocked the power of redemption. Isaiah 53:11 tells us, “By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, as He will bear their iniquities.”
Jesus possessed revelation knowledge into the mystery of God. He knew that the secret to unleashing world-transforming power was found at the Cross, in suffering. At the Cross, payment for sin was made. As Christ forgave His enemies, Heaven’s power rent the temple veil in two. Christ’s stripes purchased our healing. I am not just talking about suffering, but the suffering of love.
The terrible offense of the Cross became the place of redemption for the world. Yet, remember, Jesus calls us to a Cross as well (see Matthew 16:24). Wounding is simply an altar upon which our sacrifice to God is prepared.
Listen again to Isaiah’s prophetic description of Jesus’ life. His words at first seem startling, but as we read, we discover a most profound truth concerning the power of woundedness. He wrote, “But the Lord was pleased to crush Him, putting Him to grief; if He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand” (Isaiah 53:10).
How did the power of God’s pleasure prosper in Christ’s hand? During His times of crushing, woundedness and devastation, instead of retaliating, Jesus rendered Himself “as a guilt offering.”
The crushing is not a disaster; it is an opportunity. You see, our purposeful love may or may not touch the sinner’s heart, but it always touches the heart of God. We are crushed by people, but we need to allow the crushing to ascend as an offering to God. The greatest benefit of all is the effect our mercy has on the Father. If we truly want to be instruments of God’s good pleasure, then it is redemption, not wrath, that must prosper in our hands. If we are Christ-followers, we must offer ourselves as an offering for the guilt of others.
Conformed to the Lamb
When Christ encounters conflict, though He is the Lion of Judah, He comes as the Lamb of God. Even when He is outwardly stern, His heart is always mindful that He is the “guilt offering.” Thus, Jesus not only asks the Father to forgive those who have wounded Him, but also numbers Himself with the transgressors and intercedes for them (see Isaiah 53:12). He does this because the Father takes “no pleasure in the death of the wicked” (Ezekiel 33:11), and it is the pleasure of God that Jesus seeks.
Is this not the wonder and mystery, yes, and the power, of Christ’s Cross? In anguish and sorrow, wounded in heart and soul, still He offered Himself for His executioners’ sins. Without visible evidence of success, deemed a sinner and a failure before man, He courageously held true to mercy. In the depth of terrible crushing, He let love attain its most glorious perfection. He uttered the immortal words, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).
Christ could have escaped. He told Peter as the Romans came to arrest Him, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matthew 26:53). In less than a heartbeat, the skies would have been flooded with thousands of warring angels. Yes, Jesus could have escaped, but mankind would have perished. Christ chose to go to hell for us rather than return to Heaven without us. Instead of condemning mankind, He rendered “Himself as a guilt offering” (Isaiah 53:10, italics mine). He prayed the mercy prayer, “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34).
Jesus said, “He who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also” (John 14:12). We assume He meant that we would work His miracles, but Jesus did not limit His definition of “works” to the miraculous. The works He did – the redemptive life, the mercy cry, the identification with sinners, rendering Himself a guilt offering – all the works He did, we will “do also.”
Thus, because He lives within us, we see that Isaiah 53 does not apply exclusively to Jesus; it also becomes the blueprint for Christ in us. Indeed, was this not part of His reward, that He would see His offspring? (see Isaiah 53:10) Beloved, we are the progeny of Christ!
Read these words from Paul’s heart:
“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His Body, which is the Church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions” (Colossians 1:24).
What did the apostle mean? Did not Christ fully pay mankind’s debts once and for all? Did Paul imply that we now take Jesus’ place? No, we will never take Jesus’ place. It means that Jesus has come to take our place. The Son of God manifests all the aspects of His redemptive, sacrificial life through us. Indeed, “as He is, so also are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).
Paul not only identified with Christ in his personal salvation, but he was also consumed with Christ’s purpose. He wrote, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death” (Philippians 3:10).
For those who blame others for the decline of our nation, to be a follower of the Lamb, you must render yourself as an offering for their sin. By your wounds they shall be healed.
What a wondrous reality is the “fellowship of His sufferings.” Here, in choosing to yoke our existence with Christ’s purpose, we find true friendship with Jesus. This is intimacy with Christ. The sufferings of Christ are not the sorrows typically endured by mankind; they are the afflictions of love. They bring us closer to Jesus. We learn how precious is the gift of woundedness.
Let’s pray: Father, I see You have had no other purpose in my life but to manifest through me the nature of Your Son. I receive the gift of woundedness. In response, in surrender to Christ, I render myself an offering for those You’ve used to crush me. May the fragrance of my worship remind You of Jesus, and may You forgive, sprinkle and cleanse the world around me.
Francis Frangipane
Living Today With An Eye To Eternity
It’s been said that a person can be “so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good.” On the surface that sounds like a good proverb, encouraging us to keep our feet on the firm ground of practical living, rather than being captivated by some vague notion of heaven that is more closely related to Greek mythology than it is to Biblical truth. But beyond the superficial perspectives that that hold many followers of Jesus in the grip of ignorance, we find this truth: if we are not heavenly minded in the correct way, we will be no earthly good at all, because we will find ourselves living for the wrong reasons, using the wrong strategies, and aiming at the wrong goals.
The way we as followers of Jesus live today should be directed by one reality: Jesus is coming back to the earth to take over the leadership of the planet, and His plan is to give rewards to His people according to how we have carried out our existence here. I don’t know for sure how much thought you have given to the statement you just read, but if you’re like most believers in America, you’ve not given much thought to it at all. The idea of Jesus actually returning to the earth to establish His Kingdom here has probably been a vague thought in the back of your mind, with little or no influence upon the decisions you make moment by moment, and day by day.
But I want to encourage you to think about this with a fresh perspective. Jesus was very clear with His disciples that He is coming again to evaluate the lives of His followers, and to reward them with assignments based on what they did with the stewardship they were given. Consider the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:
14 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. 15 And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability; and immediately he went on a journey. 16 Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. 17 And likewise he who had received two gained two more also. 18 But he who had received one went and dug in the ground, and hid his lord’s money. 19 After a long time the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.
Matt. 25:20 “So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, ‘Lord, you delivered to me five talents; look, I have gained five more talents besides them.’ 21 His lord said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’ 22 He also who had received two talents came and said, “Lord, you delivered to me two talents; look, I have gained two more talents besides them.’ 23 His lord said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’
Matt. 25:24 “Then he who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown, and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 And I was afraid, and went and hid your talent in the ground. Look, there you have what is yours.’
Matt. 25:26 “But his lord answered and said to him, ‘You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown, and gather where I have not scattered seed. 27 So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him, and give it to him who has ten talents.
Matt. 25:29 “For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Most of us have read that parable with very little understanding. Perhaps we’ve known that there is some sort of accountability over how we use our gifts and abilities, but what Jesus is laying out here is very specific and very sobering. He has given each of us a deposit, a stewardship of time, energy, and money, and He expects a return on His investment. For those that are faithful with what they’ve been given, and who invest their resources of time, energy and money in a way that is consistent with His character, there will be tangible, earthly, and eternal rewards. You see, the Kingdom of God is really coming to the earth, and Jesus really intends to have a leadership team that is made up of people that have embraced His agenda during this life. We are not going to spend eternity in a mythological heaven that is removed from the earth and has no tangible reality to it. Jesus is bringing heaven here, and He intends to do the Father’s will on earth in cooperation with people who have followed His lead in this life as preparation for the age to come.
Please understand that I am not speaking here of salvation. We gain entrance into the Kingdom of God by the power of the blood of Jesus, by confession of sin, repentance from evil ways, and by believing in our hearts that Jesus is the Son of God. Salvation – entrance into God’s Kingdom – is free and cannot be earned in any way. However, the Bible repeatedly refers to the reality of assessment, the accountability that Jesus, the Lord of the Kingdom, will demand from each of us as stewards in that Kingdom.
Therefore, the choices we make today about how we spend our time, energy, and money, about what we do with our thought life, and how we behave when no one is watching – those choices all have eternal consequences. There is continuity between this age and the age to come, and the individual choices we make from day to day matter more than we can imagine. Therefore it is very important that we gain understanding of what is important to Jesus, and begin to live in that way. We will give an account for the life we live, and the choices we make, and we will be rewarded magnificently if we are found faithful.
I encourage you to read through the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), and through the first two chapters of the Book of Revelation. That’s where Jesus is speaking to the churches that are prophetic pictures of the Church at the end of the age. He gives strong exhortations in both those sections, but in every instance, the call to obedience is motivated by the promise of great reward in the age to come. Jesus is wise. He created us with a longing for greatness, and He promises to deliver it to us if we will walk in a faithful stewardship of what we’ve been given.
Blessings on you all as you consider these things.
The Cry of a Woman’s Heart — Marie Wiens
Some years ago, when I was living in Seattle, I spoke with a friend named Peter Sheenstra, who was the Director of a counseling service in the Seattle area. Curious about his work in this field, I asked him what the most common symptoms of breakdown were in the marriages that he got involved with as a counselor. His reply came quickly and pointedly. He reported that the most common symptom was that the wife, frustrated and unfulfilled in the marriage, would start to nag her husband. She would begin to say things like “If only you would take more spiritual leadership in our home, if only you would pay more attention to me, if only you would help more with the kids, if only you would. . . (fill in the blank), then our marriage would be better.” Please notice that these statements are symptomatic of the breakdown, not the cause of the breakdown. The answer is not merely for the woman to keep quiet; rather, other things must be set in place to prevent the frustration levels from becoming overwhelming. That is the point of this book, and we’ll address some solutions later.
Peter went on to say that invariably the husband would endure the nagging for awhile, and then respond by either silent withdrawal and isolation, or by rising up in anger and wounding the wife, either verbally, physically, or both. In either case, the fractures in the marriage relationship would be exposed, and the couple would eventually come to a crisis point.
I have for the most part enjoyed being a woman, but at the same time I have resented not being a man because of the privileges and honor that seem to go hand in hand with being male. As a business woman it seemed I was always struggling with being heard or being taken seriously. When I won the Women of Enterprise national entrepreneurial award in 1990 I found out that all of the other women who had won experienced the same difficulties. The issue of being a woman with leadership gifts in a man’s world has been an ongoing point of tension in my life. Let me share a simple story that illustrates my point.
My husband Gary and I recently had a day off from our schedule of traveling and teaching, and we decided to take the time to play a round of golf at a nice public course in Kansas City. After finding the best price at lastminutegolfer.com, we found ourselves paired with two businessmen who were partners in a rapidly emerging business based in the area. They were delightful guys, kind and genial, and we had an enjoyable and even hilarious time, even though our quality of golfing left much to be desired. One thing, however, prodded a sensitive spot in my heart—the lack of regard for the presence and well-being of women that is typical of men in our culture. This lack of regard was expressed in a harmless way—the two men simply but repeatedly forgot that I was playing, and when the three guys were finished with their tee shots, these men jumped in their cart and forged ahead, forgetting that I was preparing to hit from the women’s tees. More than half the time Gary had to whistle at them to wait for me to tee off, and they repeatedly apologized for their forgetfulness. Finally Gary remarked that they must not have many women working in their company, and they replied that they did indeed have lots of women employees. I could not help but wonder whether they regarded their female employees as valuable beyond the mere implications for the bottom line.
While the whole experience was certainly not damaging to me, it tweaked an issue in my heart that has been painful to me for some time. That issue is the place that women hold in the cultures of our day, and the negative attitudes in the hearts of men that are expressed in a variety of ways, ranging from simple indifference and disregard to outright rage and murderous hatred. For example, in much of the Church in America, it is rare to find a woman in leadership, or even to have a voice in what God might be saying to the Church. In addition, in the secular culture the plight of women is increasingly horrific. Sex trafficking, the molestation of girls, rape and the physical abuse of women is rampant, and on the rise. Another telling statistic is the rise in the number of single moms raising their children alone because of divorce.
During the summer of 2006 I was in the prayer room at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, crying out to the Lord regarding His women. I was in such a place of pain because the Holy Spirit was highlighting to me the abuse inflicted upon women and female children. I actually asked the Lord if He hated women, if He did not value the female gender as much as He did the male gender. I wondered about all the young girls that are being kidnapped and raped and those that are dying or being beaten at the hands of men, in many cases their own fathers. I wept when I heard the current news report of a father in India who took his six-day-old twin baby girls and buried them alive so that he would not have to pay their dowries when they reached marrying age. He had been upset because he wanted a son, and instead got two daughters. So, he killed them in an unimaginably brutal way.
I also began to ask the Lord why women have such difficulty in the work place and why, apart from a few notable exceptions, they do not have much of a voice in the institutional Church. What are the reasons behind the brokenness that we see? Why are women patronized, marginalized, and brutalized the way they are, and why are men so constantly involved in such negative behavior toward women? The gender war, smoldering for centuries, has exploded into a full-blown firestorm, and I was determined to find the root system of it.
The Lord gave me the most stunning answer to my cry. The root causes behind these problems trace all the way back to the fall of mankind into sin, as recorded in Genesis 3. As we have begun to study and teach the things that you will read in this book, we have been amazed at the amount of understanding and healing that is coming to couples as well as singles.
The issue of the physical abuse of women is not the only thing that bothers me. I am continually dismayed by today’s clothing styles that ignore any limits of modesty. Recently Gary and I were in Seattle teaching at a conference. We were having breakfast in a local restaurant when I noticed a teenaged girl in the booth ahead of us. Her clothing was so revealing that it was embarrassing for me. Later I noticed that many of the girls were dressed in tops that were startling even for my eyes. While watching the news in Seattle we noticed that much attention was being given to the new trend in drive-thru coffee kiosks where female attendants wear sexually provocative clothing. Sales have increased significantly, apparently justifying the decision to dehumanize these girls by making them fantasy objects rather than human beings with any dignity. We’ve also seen that so many young boys wear their pants so low that only their underwear covers them. We continually wonder at the current state of things.
During that same time period we were listening to Dr. James Dobson’s show on radio. His guests were the All-Star baseball player Albert Pujols and his wife Deidre. Deidre was explaining that she travels with her husband most of the time as a protection for both of them. She went on to talk about the sexually explicit emails she receives directed at her husband and the scantily-dressed girls that she sees at the baseball games. Dr. Dobson acknowledged the change that has taken place in women today, adding his observations on how they fight and curse like never before. Although the program served to highlight this very issue in a strong way, no practical solutions were offered to bring correction and resolution to the matter.
It seems to both Gary and me that women young and old are desperate to find a sense of their own identity and destiny, but are feeling an ever-increasing load of despair and heartsickness. The noisy and brazen sounds coming from broken people like Rosie O’Donnell are nothing more than cries from shattered little girls longing for significance and power. It is as if something inside them is saying, “Will someone notice me and think I am great and beautiful?” It seems that, even in the face of a long history of abuse and neglect, women are bent on getting man’s approval one way or the other even if it is destructive to their heart and soul. The purpose of this book is to explore the reasons behind these issues, and to propose some radical ideas that, if taken to heart, will profoundly change the hearts of both men and women, and affect the status of women everywhere. We believe that the truths stated here—if embraced and acted upon—will result in a restoration of what God had in mind when He started the whole thing in the first place.
Our prayer is that you will read this book with a heart that is tuned to the heartbeat of our Father God, and to the mind of the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. The good news the Bible brings us is that there is a way for us to achieve greatness in our lives. The Lord will not leave us alone in these struggles, but will send His Holy Spirit to show us the right way to grow in self-esteem and authority. What does He have in store for us as His people, and particularly for His women in the days and years to come, as we prepare for His return to the earth? May the Lord bless you as you search for His heart.
The Urgency Of Intimacy With God — Gary Wiens
Many of us as believers in Jesus who have a growing desire to follow Him in a focused way find ourselves stymied by a fundamental issue. It’s an issue that, if unaddressed, will render us ineffective in prayer and frustrated by the circumstances and events of our lives. This issue is the need for deepened intimacy with God as our Father, and with Jesus as our Bridegroom-King, in the place of personal and corporate prayer.
Each of us has our own story of how Jesus laid hold of our lives, and most of those stories involve some sort of rescue process. Like the Biblical Esther, the refugee girl who became the Queen and ultimately the effective intercessor, we were held captive by the power of the enemy until the King summoned us. We were invited into the process of being prepared for His pleasure, and we found that the initial blessings of the King’s house were far superior to the depressing and defeating atmosphere of the refugee camp. We were rescued and brought out of darkness into the light of Jesus’ presence and power. We received healing for our spiritual and emotional wounds, perhaps for our physical bodies, and our hearts were restored to a measure of wholeness just by being in the King’s house.
This is the point at which many of our stories bog down, and we find ourselves in an increasingly stale position. We’ve been redeemed from death, snatched from the enemy’s fire, yet we have not laid hold of the compelling reality of our destiny. We have unrealized hopes, unfulfilled prophecies, and fading dreams, and we are not sure how to get past the spot we’re in. The faith that seemed so alive when we first encountered Jesus is now dormant and barely smoldering, and we live in the constant temptation to pretend that our lives are vibrant when in fact we know they are not.
How do we find help to get out of these spiritual ruts, to escape the spiritual boredom that opens the door for all sorts of wrong stuff? The answer is in the story of Esther, who used the pressure of a difficult circumstance to drive her to her appointed destiny as an intercessor, as a partner with her King in the salvation of her people.
In Esther’s story, she was quite content to live in the Queen’s quarters, and to have occasional access to the King at His bidding. Her needs were met, her circumstances were blessed, and she was infinitely better off than she had been in the refugee camp. However, she did not comprehend that her destiny was to hold a much higher position of authority. God had a design for her life that was far beyond her expectation, that involved a place of authority and influence that she could not imagine. In addition, she had a secret that would prove to be detrimental in her own self-perception. She was Jewish, a fact that had not been made known to the King, but that would play into her role as the intercessor for her people.
The key component to this story is the introduction of pressure in the person of an enemy of God’s people. A man named Haman emerges with great authority in the King’s house. He is an evil man who hates the Jews because of a heritage of war and animosity between his ancestors and the people of God. Haman uses his place of authority to contrive a strategy against the Jews, his goal being to exterminate them. In this story, Haman is a prophetic picture of the anti-Christ, a real man who is emerging at the end of the age, and who will personify evil beyond any character in history. God’s purpose with Haman and His purpose with the anti-Christ is the same: to drive the King’s Bride into her destiny of authority, and to bring judgment on evil in the world.
As Haman publishes his plan to annihilate the Jews, Esther is forced into the center of the drama. It becomes clear that she is the only one who can turn the King’s heart to change the situation in favor of the Jews. Esther’s problem is that she has this secret identity. She herself is Jewish, and that identity condemns her by law. She has a secret that by law and in her mind condemns her, that separates her from the King. She is being required to expose her secret, to test the King’s heart, and to risk everything she is and has in order to appeal to the King. Under any normal circumstance, she would not do this. However, the circumstances are no longer normal. There is a serious threat, a death sentence that will be carried out unless she comes forward and takes the authority she is meant to have. There is an urgency of intimacy that forces her into a place she would not go without the pressure.
This is what is happening to many of us as followers of Jesus. The pressures of life at the end of the age are increasing. It no longer seems possible to approach our lives in a “business as usual” kind of way. Drastic measures are required, and we are being driven into a level of intimacy and authority that none of us ever imagined. There is bad news and good news to this. The bad news is that the pressures are going to continue to increase until we respond and take our place of intimacy that leads to authority in prayer. The good news is that we will indeed respond and step into the identity and destiny God has prepared for us.
But it always boils down to personal choices that must be made in the crucible of daily life. Will I take the time to make intimate friendship with Jesus the top priority of my life? I mean this not merely in a theoretical sense, but in the real day-to-day choices of how I spend my time, energy, and money. Will I turn away from things that separate me from the King? Will I dress myself in righteousness and truth, and trust the King’s heart to love me in a way greater than His law?
Esther made these choices, and the result for her was that the King’s heart was powerfully moved by love to protect her and to rescue her people. Esther stepped into her rightful place of authority, and the enemy was completely defeated in the process. She became glorious in her maturity, a full partner in the King’s act of redemption. We can make these choices as well, and we must make them. There is an urgency to intimacy in our time that goes beyond our own comfort and drives us into our destiny. God is allowing the pressure to grow until we take our place, and He will not relent until we come to the glorious fulfillment that He designed us for.
Press into the Lord. Make your time with Him the first priority of your life. Disclose yourself fully to Him, for you will never know the ecstasy of unconditional love until you let Him know who you really are. Learn to listen to and obey His voice. Speak back to Him the things He shows you in His Word, and order your life around what He says. You will find that your intimacy with Him will increase, your joy will deepen, and your authority in prayer will expand. It is urgent that we do so, and we’ll be glad that we did.
The Persuasive Voice – Gary Wiens
The lifelong journey toward intimacy with Jesus, once we begin to taste His beauty and understand His passion for us, is a journey that is compelling and irresistible. Learning how to pray from a posture of intimacy may be the most important part of that journey. For until we as the Bride of Christ begin to understand His language of love, and begin to respond to Him in the language He prefers, we will be left with a stunted prayer life and unsatisfied hearts.
Why Do We Pray – Gary Wiens
This past weekend we celebrated Memorial Day, 2008 with a barbecue in our yard, to which we invited about forty friends and family members. A number of those who came are involved with us in the beginnings of the International House of Prayer Northwest, which is just beginning to be established in the city of Tacoma, Washington. A group of us was talking together about the emerging prayer movement around the world, and especially the little prayer groups that are popping up all over the greater Seattle area. There is an explosion of interest in night and day prayer, and the reality of that was the focus of our conversation. Read more
