Why did a Pastor walk away from his mega church?

                                          HADASSAH MINISTRY

Dear Saints,

                                    Why did a Pastor of a mega church just walk away?

No it is not what you think!

I would just like to thank you all for your prayers I am recovering very well, getting my strength back.

Well the answer to the above question will astound you, he started his ministry in his lounge, and it grew into a mega church of several thousand. One day he realised that several thousand people were coming to the church to see and hear him exercising his gift which was preaching.

It made him think that the church was not fulfilling the commission that Jesus had given us.

Mat 28:18  And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority is given to Me in Heaven and in earth. 

Mat 28:19  Therefore go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 

Mat 28:20  teaching them to observe all things, whatever I commanded you. And, behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the world. Amen.

Jesus said “go and make disciples” all he was doing was preaching. Besides this mega church also costs millions of dollars to upkeep. Money which could be spent to send missionaries, train new pastors, teach people to use your gifts.

Another thing that struck him was that Jesus said we were to love one another, but how can several thousand people coming to one church really get to know each other and love each other. Every Sunday you sit next to other people, you greet them but you do not know their needs, you cannot pray for them, as there just is no time, what with the program that has to be maintained.

He visited a small church and there was a lady who had given birth to twins, one died and she was bleeding and very weak, a family took the surviving baby as well as her other children and looked after them until she had recovered. He knew that this was not happening in his mega church, and it saddened him. He did not have time to visit all the members in his mega church, and so he did not know what needs there were in the congregation, unless they came forward and asked.

I have been in ministry for about 30 years and have many gifts that the Lord has blessed me with, so I attended a new church after I moved into the area, was told they were very anointed. BUT all I could do was go to church on Sunday and sit there and listen to the sermon, I was not allowed to practice my gifts as I was told that members had to first go through their Bible School, which was good, but I had already gone through a Bible School. I was hoping that I could attend a house church where I may have the opportunity to practise my gifts, I filled in a form, hoping that someone from the church would come visit and I would find out where the nearest cell was, only to be informed by a member of the church that there was no cell in my area. My place is too small for me to hold a cell. I can understand the Pastor’s frustration. He left the church and then started a small group, which when they multiplied he then trained someone to lead a new group. No costs, as each member then used their living rooms, could continue to work, and all the money from the tithes and offerings, could be used to help those in need. That is how the underground church in China started and they now have millions of people in small groups which preach the gospel, make disciples and everyone can practice their gifts.

One thing that I noticed lately visiting some churches, I was amazed at what I found. I call them “ fast food” churches. You come in for an early service, they play and sing two songs, then they read the announcements for the week, maybe mention some answers to prayer requests, and give out some requests for prayer. Then you stand up and sing one more song, (no time to get into the anointing) in fact there is no anointing, I do not think the Holy Spirit turned up. The Pastor then rushes through his sermon, he says a closing prayer, and you are ushered out the side door, as the next session is coming in. No time for the Holy Spirit to minister, no time to meet and get to know anyone, no ministry to the sick, and those that need deliverance. Apparently you have to hope that it may happen at the next conference.

Sad but true, what has happened to the church. I do not blame that Pastor for walking away from that Mega church. I am now sitting at home, frustrated because I cannot find a spiritual home. Even my friend that came every week, that I was mentoring, has abandoned me, which is just as well, as lately she only argues about each lesson that I try to teach her, as she just wants to prophesy over my what she hears at her church, and I keep telling her I am not in a desert. Ok it is funny, but some people are just not teachable.

I hope this blog has given you food for thought, just know that I love you all and appreciate you all.

Shalom

Catharina

Don’t forget my prayer altar ministry, send me your prayers I lay my hands on them and lift them up before God.

 If these letters have touched your heart, please pass them on to others. Consider putting them on my email list.   If you need salvation, contact me so that I can give you the necessary information.    Thank you to those who are sowing into this work. May God bless you abundantly!!

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ARE YOU MANTLED?

HADASSAH MINISTRY

Dear Saints,

ARE YOU MANTLED?

Luke 24:48 You are witnesses of these things.

24:49 And behold, I will send forth upon you what My Father has promised; but remain in the city [Jerusalem] until you are clothed(fully equipped) with power from on high.
Mantled for worship, for intercession, for warfare, for specific type of ministry.

Most people only know about the 5 fold ministry most nominal churches only have Pastors, and evangelists and some have missionaries. But if you look at the people in the New Testament that went out to proclaim the Gospel, you will find many different callings on these people, I want to make you aware that you can have a mantle for a ministry that is on your life and you may not even know it.
What is a mantle? – It represents the authority that has been conferred upon you. It rests upon you! It represents the Power and authority and ability of the one who placed it upon whom He has chosen to wear it.
Take a look at Elijah and Elisha, they were both prophets, but only Elijah was called, what happened was that Elisha asked for the mantle that God gave to Elijah to be transferred to him and he received it when Elijah was taken up into heaven. The same thing happened when Kathryn Kuhlman died and the mantle was transferred to Benny Hinn.

I was given a forerunner mantle by God and a prophet saw me coming out of the wilderness like John the Baptist, he was a forerunner messenger. I did not understand how this was possible in this modern age, until I discovered that God was sending me to churches as a messenger. You can have more than one mantle and I discovered that I had received another mantle – that of an intercessor, and I discovered that this mantle gave me a lot of authority in prayer. That was awesome. In prayer one day I received two mantles in a vision that was representing evangelism. God confirmed all this through audible voice and prophetic words.

It is from the mantle placed upon you that you demonstrate the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God.
What is in the mantle?
Authority in the realm of the spirit
Assignments
God’s timing to do the assignments
Provision and protection
Angelic assistance
Spiritual gifting
Divine connections
Specific weapons for warfare.
There is no power that can overcome the mantle that God gives you.

If you are doing some kind of ministry work, be it praying for the lost in your closet, preaching to people in the street, praying for people to be healed, singing in the choir, feeding the poor. Then you have a mantle, that God gave you for the work in the Kingdom.
I hope this helped you to discover that you are mantled and that God can use you to do His work here on earth.
Shalom
Catharina

Don’t forget my prayer altar ministry, send me your prayers I lay my hands on them and lift them up before God. If these letters have touched your heart, please pass them on to others. Consider putting them on my email list. If you need salvation, contact me so that I can give you the necessary information. Thank you to those who are sowing into this work. May God bless you abundantly!!
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THE THIRD WAVE

HADASSAH MINISTRY
 

Dear Saints,
The Third wave
I just want to thank all of you for your prayers while I am recovering from this Bells Palsy, I feel so blessed and am confident that I will fully recover, in Jesus Name.
I see many prominent ministers and strong Christians under attack with accidents, and sicknesses and financial attacks. When these things happen there is usually something big coming and I was reading up on a Prophesy from Smith Wigglesworth, He was telling about waves of Holy Spirit visitations on the earth during the past decades. He said that we would experience a third wave of visitation that would be different from the previous ones in that it would be greater waves of the glory.
Twenty seven years ago the Lord called me into ministry and told me to separate myself and pray, use Joel 2 and I was given a tape with a story of a revival on it. The first assignment I was sent on I prayed my heart out for a revival, I prayed Joel 2
2:28 And afterward I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions.
2:29 Even upon the menservants and upon the maidservants in those days will I pour out My Spirit.
I prayed this daily for years, in a small church that just would not grow and eventually God closed the ministry, I was not impressed, but then a new ministry took over the building and guess what a revival happened. Later at another ministry the Lord showed me a revival of fire with a mushroom cloud and waves of fire, but I am still waiting for that one. I received a prophesy that I would bring in a host of souls and that I have a gathering anointing. Still waiting on that one. That made me wonder what this revival would look like and Smith said that it would be a falling glory using all 9 gifts of the spirit.
I find that when I speak to most Christians they are operating in one or two of the gifts, some are not even doing that, they go to church, read their bible, and pray a little, most do not even do bible studies, no evangelizing, or speaking to people about the Lord, most do not even use their testimony of how God saved them.
When I found out about the gifts in the bible and a preacher preached it at church, I was very interested in how this could impact my life and ministry. He told us that we should pray and ask the Holy Spirit that all nine gifts of the spirit should operate in our lives. Now I know that the Holy Spirit will use you in a gift as He wills. I was hungry, very hungry for the things of God, I decided to try this out and every day I prayed and asked the Holy Spirit to use me. As time went on I noticed that the gifts were operating in different situations. As we wind down this year, and prepare to enter a new year, consider making it your new years resolution, ask the Holy Spirit to use all nine the gifts in your life as you step out to minister in the year. I will study up on the gifts and next year God willing I will give you a teaching on it. God said “you have not because you ask not” Let us make ourselves affective in the Kingdom, by being equipped for God to use us. The world needs salvation, healing and a touch from God, we are the instruments that He uses.

Shalom
Catharina
Don’t forget my prayer altar ministry, send me your prayers I lay my hands on them and lift them up before God. If these letters have touched your heart, please pass them on to others. Consider putting them on my e- mail list. If you need salvation contact me so I can give you the necessary information. Thank you to those who are sowing into this work. May God bless you abundantly!!
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How to pray for an hour

How to pray for an hour

HADASSAH MINISTRY
V&V
Dear Saints,
How to spend an hour in prayer
An hour seems a very long time to spend in prayer, especially for young Christians. How can I spend an hour in prayer meaningfully without repeating myself and without it becoming boring and a burden? Dick Eastman suggests in his book ‘The hour that changes the world’ that we divide and hour into 12 period of 5 minutes each. You change to another form of prayer after every 5 minutes. The following is his method:
1. Praise and Worship
2. Waiting on the Lord
3. Confession
4. Praying Scripture
5. Watching
6. Intercession
7. Petitions
8. Thanksgiving
9. Song
10. Meditation
11. Listening
12. Praise
(The above illustration is taken from “The Hour that Changes the World” by Dick Eastman C 1978 by Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI)
This book of Dick Eastman is a valuable asset and one can hardly improve on it. I would wholeheartedly recommend it. There is a summary at the end of each of the twelve chapters.
The following is a short synopsis of each of the 12 aspects of prayer.
1. Praise – is an act of commitment to God. Through praise we acknowledge God for who He is, exalt Him with our words, our whole being and our attitude, in prayer. All prayer should start with praise. Psalm 115:1 says: “Not to us, O Lord, not to us but to Your Name be the Glory, because of Your Love and Faithfulness”. We praise Him for His Name, His Justice, Love, Holiness, Omnipotence, Greatness, Faithfulness, His Word, His Creation, His Redemption, etc. You can for instance, use a different theme each time in this time span of Praise and Worship. Expand on this them as much as possible, meditate on it, weigh the practical implications of it on your life and the lives of others. Watch out, though for a mere repetition of words.
2. Waiting on the Lord – is an act of silent love or adoration of God. It incorporates
worship and praise to God for who He is. It is to worship God and to praise Him for who He is. During this period of silence we tune in to (adjust ourselves to) God Himself, we direct our whole being to Him and commit ourselves to Him anew. We rejoice in and over His Presence.
Psalm 46:10 says: “Be still and know that I am God.” We can say that this is a very intimate form of communication between God and ourselves, it is I, as the limited (shackled) and finite being before God who is the Unlimited and Infinite Being. We make sure at this point that we are in contact with God. This time of waiting on the Lord cannot be hurried, there is no place for impatience and haste here. During this time you think of nothing else but God The Father,
His Son Jesus your Redeemer and The Holy Spirit. You need not express your thoughts in words. Concentrate on your relationship with God and your love for Him.
3. Confession is the condition to admission to God. This is a time of self-examination (introspection) and allowing the Holy Spirit to point out any unconfessed sin to you. I acknowledge my sin and sinfulness before the Lord during this period; I confess my sin and turn my back on it; I break with my sin and accept the Lords’ forgiveness. Confession is the cleansing of the Christian. Sin builds a wall between us and God so that God will not hear us (Isaiah 59:1-2). Our sins are paid for and forgiven solely through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on the grounds of his death on the Cross. I don’t ask God to change the circumstances during confession but that He will forgive and change me. Confess each form of failure, negligence and sin.
4. Praying Scripture – To be able to pray in a balanced way, I have to spend time in The Word. I must get to know God’s promises and pray them to God. The Promises of God create faith. In the first place The Bible is a Book that has to be believed and obeyed. During this period I ask: “Lord what promises can I make my own; what commands must I obey, what warnings must I pay attention to?” The Word is our prayer manual. We must remind the Lord of His promises in His Word day and night. As you read Scripture, ask the Lord how to apply it in your life and in your prayer time. Your prayers must become quotations from Scripture more and more.
5. Watching – a time of spiritual perception (observation) to be spiritually aware of matters to pray for. It will lead to praying for the needs of others and some of your own needs. You tune into the Lord and ask The Holy spirit specifically to draw your attention to specific matters so that you can pray for them. Be especially wary and alert for the onslaughts of the evil one during this time. Pray and ask The Holy Spirit to show you the plans, methods, strongholds and strategies of the evil one. Paul teaches us to watch and pray with thanksgiving. “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” (Col.4:2) Satan will certainly try to keep you from praying and confuse you so that you can not concentrate. Be wary, rebuke and resist
him. Be sure to pray purposefully. What are the problems people experience while teaching the Gospel? Pray for that. Are there things reported in the newspapers, things that we hear on the radio or see on the television that we should pray for; things like economic problems, political unrest, wars, etc.
6. Intercession – to intercede for others, to pray for other. In intercession we concentrate on the needs and distress of others – we stand in the gap for someone else. Intercession is God’s method to get His children involved in His plan for the World. We become involved in World evangelization during intercession. When you intercede you stand at God’s side and you work with Him for the salvation or the benefit of some else. By faithful intercession you can do as much as those who are physically in the field. Work out a systematic plan for intercession,
start with your own household and family, then your friends and church, then your town, your country and lastly the whole World. Every Christian should have a burden for lost souls and a World in need. Remember the church of the Lord also needs intercession. Intercession is not only on behalf of unbelievers. Spiritual warfare is an element of intercessory prayer that deserves a specific place in our prayer time. Pray and ask the Lord to show you through the working of The Holy Spirit where the powers of evil are working. Binding evil forces in Jesus’ Name, break their strongholds and resist them. Resist the devil, don’t give him a hold in your
life. Jesus conquered the evil one on the Cross. We as believers must proclaim his victory in each area of life. Spiritual warfare will also be part of your prayer time during Watching and Petition.
7. Petition – for your personal needs. The believer may and should come to his Father and pray for his own personal needs. And he can pray expectantly, even for the smallest things. During this period we pray for our “daily bread” and we also pray for spiritual strengthening and equipment for our lives and work as believers. I look to the Lord in total dependence to meet my needs. We must never ask out of selfishness. No, our requests must bring Praise to Our Father. Anticipate what your needs are going to be during the day in this period and pray for them.
John Rice said: “Prayer is asking and receiving.” Tell the Lord why you ask these things from Him, thus ensuring that your intentions are pure. Come with frankness as our Father wants to meet our needs gladly.
8. Thanksgiving – is to acknowledge your appreciation to the Lord for what He has done for you and others. During this period I thank God for who He is, His gifts, His answers to my prayers, His care and provision. Thank the Lord for spiritual, material, physical and any other blessings. Be specific in your thanksgiving and beware of generalizations. Tell the Lord why you are grateful. Think about the day or days gone by and thank the Lord for everything which you have received from Him.
9. Song – is melodious Worship. Song does not have to be used during communal worship only. The intercessor can sing his own (new) song to the Lord or make use of existing songs as circumstances determine. Song and Spiritual warfare (our battle with the evil one) are inextricably linked to each other. During this period one Praises, Worships, Exalts and Adores his Father in song. Your singing can take the form of praise songs, songs that testify to God’s
power and grace, Thanksgiving and songs about God’s Name. To sing to the Glory of the Lord is definitely a command from God (Ps.100). Sing enthusiastically and heartily, because you are Exalting God. The attitude of your heart and the fact that you are carrying out His instructions are of greater value to the Lord than whether you can sing beautifully or can sing in tune.
10. Meditation – means to reflect upon or examine a matter more closely (deeply) to
evaluate it spiritually. During this period I think about the Being and the nature of the Triune God, his creation and great deeds. You can use a portion of Scripture to reflect upon, a Psalm for instance, but also other portions. Christian meditation is the opposite of Eastern meditation. To the Christian, meditation is an active process of evaluation, searching and pondering, where he uses his full intellect and is led by Scripture and the Holy Spirit in his meditation. Meditation is to ponder in a disciplined way. Beware that Satan does not plant his thoughts into your mind. Also beware of negative thoughts during this time. Consider everything that is true, pure, noble,
right, beautiful and praise worthy. When you meditate on a certain portion of Scripture you must ask yourself among other things what this portion means to you.
11. Listening – is a period during which you ask the Lord to reveal new things to you, things that He wants you to notice and pay attention to. You deliberately ask God to reveal His Will and Strategies/Plans to you. In waiting on The Lord the emphasis is on loving God. During meditation we want to learn more from God. During the period of listening we want to hear what God wants to say to us. During this period I ask: “Lord, what do you expect from me; What is Your Will for me?” You can also ask the Lord specific questions, perhaps some difficult questions that you do not have the answers to. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Write down all the thoughts that come from the Lord in your opinion, and put them to the test in the Scripture. Use them as directives for the execution of God’s command. Be careful not to say immediately
that: “The Lord said this and that to me.” Always test if the Lord is still with you in the matter and be prepared to make a change of course, if necessary.
12. Worship – to exalt God and say of Him: ” I know who I am praying to and I Trust Him with my prayers (supplications.”). This is a period of jubilation before the Lord. Let your AMEN be strong at the end and confirm thus that you believe that God has heard you and will answer you. Amen means – it is true and sure, so shall it be. This “method” of prayer can be applied meaningfully by individuals and by prayer groups. Of course you don’t have to keep to 5 minutes. It can be shorter or longer. Eventually each individual will develop his own method or style. All the elements do not have to be present during each prayer session. You will also notice that some of these sections over-lap each other. Initially keep to the scheme, but be free to do it in a different order or to incorporate two or three aspects with each other.
Shalom
Catharina
Don’t forget my prayer altar ministry, send me your prayers I lay my hands on them and lift them up before God. If these letters have touched your heart, please pass them on to others. Consider putting them on my e- mail list. If you need salvation contact me so I can give you the necessary information. Thank you to those who are sowing into this work. May God bless you abundantly!!
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Daily Devotion

HADASSAH MINISTRY
Pray, pray, pray, saints keep praying
DAILY DEVOTION
John 8:23-26 (Of This World)
by Beejai

Jesus continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You belong to this world; I do not. That is why I said that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am who I claim to be, you will die in your sins.”
“Who are you?” they demanded.
Jesus replied, “The one I have always claimed to be. I have much to say about you and much to condemn, but I won’t. For I say only what I have heard from the one who sent me, and he is completely truthful.” (John 8:23-26)
Read: 2 Kings 13:12-13, 2 Kings 14:1 – 15:5, 2 Chronicles 25:1 – 26:21, Jonah 1:1 – 4:11
Relate: I recently started reading Ted Dekker’s book, Heaven’s Wager. I didn’t get very far in when I read this:
“I had no idea there was more than one Disneyland.”
“Heaven’s, Mother,” Gloria said. “There’s been more than one Disney park for years now. You really need to get out more.”
“No, thank you. No, no. I get out quite enough, thank you.” She said it with a grin, but her tone rang with sincerity. “My being a stranger in that world out there is just fine by me.”
“I’m sure it is. But you don’t have to sequester yourself.”
“Who said I was sequestering myself? I don’t even know what sequestering means, for goodness’ sake. And what does this have to do with my not knowing about a Disneyland in Paris anyway?”
“Nothing. You were the one who brought up being a stranger. I’m just balancing things out a bit, that’s all.” God knew Helen could use a little balance in her life.
Her mother’s eyes sparkled. She grinned softly, taking up the challenge. “Balance? Things are already out of balance, Honey. Upside down out of balance. You take one hundred pounds of Christian meat, and I guarantee you that ninety-eight of those pounds are sucking up to the world. It’s tipping the scale right over, love.”
React: That’s about as far as I got in the book. Every now and then something random that I read, or see, or hear seems to just knock me over. This was one of those moments. I put my book down as I felt God asking me, “How ‘balanced’ are you?” I started thinking about how much time I spent watching TV or movies. I thought about how much time I spent reading Sports Illustrated religiously. I thought about the time wasted in stupid “smartphone” games. Mindless distractions that waste my life away. Yes they are. They are purposeless distractions. They waste away one of the most precious gifts God has given us… time. They divert our gaze off the One to whom our eyes should always be fixed. They are tools being used by the enemy to create a lazy, apathetic, bored church. And they are far more effective in that they don’t in the least appear as insidious as they truly are.
So back to the question God asked me, it is one we all need to regularly ask. How “balanced” is my life. Am I using words like “balance” and “relevance” as a justification for the sad truth that far too much of me still belongs to this world?
Respond:
God, set my sights higher. Raise my vision up. All too often I find myself looking at things, and wasting my time on the stupid, the mundane, the pointless, and the worthless. I am allowing the entertainment “diversions” of this world take me away from You. Make me heavenly minded. Help me to see how earthly things, though seemingly innocuous, are really no good. I want You, more of You, and only You. Give me a Higher Love.

PROPETIC WORD – Russ walden.

The Father says today your assignment today is to reclaim the inner ground that Satan has staked out within you today. The enemy has conspired to rob you of your composure and your calm. Push back against the enemy with your composure and your calmness. Your calmness in the face of assault demoralizes the enemy and leaves him tired and deflated. Give the concerns and fears and distractions to Me. Give them to Me says the Father for they are not yours they are Mine. I will take your cares and you will take My glory. Casting all your cares upon Me for I am caring for you.

You are not a carrier of burdens and falseness you are the carrier of My Glory. I am not willing to bring the glory into the earth that doesn’t not flow powerfully to you and freely out from you. I am not willing to do the things in the earth that I am going to do without you. There are many more FOR you than are against you. You and I are a majority against the hordes of Satan who seek to impugn My faithfulness in your behalf. Be encouraged this day today. Choose a GLORY PERCEPTION and not a FEAR PERCEPTION. Join the company of the redeemed who take no prisoners and push through to full immersion in My purposes in their lives.

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Daily Devotion

HADASSAH MINISTRY
DAILY DEVOTION

Talent Is Not Enough
by BJ

Read: Isaiah 60:1-62:5, Philippians 1:27-2:18, Psalm 72:1-20, Proverbs 24:11-12
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed. He has sent me to tell those who mourn that the time of the Lord’s favor has come… Instead of shame and dishonor, you will enjoy a double share of honor. You will possess a double portion of prosperity in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours. (Isaiah 61:1,7)For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. (Philippians 2:13
Relate: At it’s peak it is estimated that about 50 million people lived in the Persian empire at its peak. That was 2 in 5 people living on the planet were its subjects. The queen of all these people, Vashti, upset her husband and he had her deposed. This, of course, means it is time to go find a new queen and the bureaucrats are tasked with collecting the prettiest women from “all the land” to present to the king for him to chose from. We don’t know how many were actually chosen but it was probably a hundred or so at most… out of tens of millions to chose from.
Have you ever seen a beauty pageant? I haven’t ever intentionally sat down to watch one but I have vague memories of watching a bit with my sister and mom back in the day. They all look the same to me. There’s pretty, beautiful, and very beautiful. Once someone reaches that “very beautiful” stage there’s no real way to tell between them. It’s all arbitrary. At least that’s my opinion and I think I’m standing on solid ground because my mom was rooting for one, my sister another and I was rooting for New York (of course). I’m pretty sure none of our picks made the finals so the judges all had their own opinions, different from ours. If you collected a group of a hundred random people to pick the prettiest one in a pageant, I’m sure you’d have at least ten favorites with no clear winner. Beauty, beyond a certain point is completely arbitrary. So here you have a beauty pageant going on for the king of Persia. These girls are prettied up as good as you can get. They’re all beautiful. They’re all being given the best hair, makeup, and fashionable clothes that the most powerful man in the world at that time can buy. But it says that Esther, a minority orphan girl who happened to be one of the contestants “won the favor of everyone who saw her.” Everyone. That doesn’t happen in beauty pageants. It’s not possible. There is something supernatural going on here.
React: Each and every one of us is given natural gifts and talents. Mine and Esthers are clearly not the same. No matter how much I look at my face in the mirror and convince myself that I am the most handsome man in the world, nobody else seems to agree with me. Not even my mom. (I have three brothers and they’re all younger, taller, with better tans and more hair on their heads) No matter. It doesn’t matter how abundant our gifts or how devoted we are to sharpening our talents, it is not enough. There will always be someone else with just as much and at a certain level, the intangibles will come into play. That is where we, as Christians, have a leg up. God is the ultimate intangible. When our talents and gifts are moving in the same direction as God’s will and anointing we are unstoppable. So what is His will and for what purpose is His anointing? To proclaim good news to the poor, comfort for the brokenhearted, release for the captives, freedom for the prisoners and blessing for those who mourn. Ultimately Esther won her beauty pageant so that she might be queen when her people, an oppressed minority, needed rescuing. God positioned her in just the right place to maximize her gifts. When we use our talents to bring spiritual and social justice to our world we are unstoppable. When we use our gifts and talents for our own selfish purposes, they are wasted. And it will never be enough.
Respond: God, first of all I want to thank You again for the gifts and the talents You have given me. Help me to live a disciplined life that I might sharpen and develop them more and more. Like Esther I ask that You position me so that they might be maximized. I want to be a chain breaker. I want to be a world changer. Through You, I know that it can and that it is happening. Show me how.

PROPHETIC WORD from Russ walden
The Father says today that My voice is a voice that can be seen and heard and sensed by every part of your being. Pause to hear. Enter into the silence between your own thoughts for there I will commune with you and tell you things to come. As I speak so I shall confirm as I said in My word and every word will be established. Do not be timid in these times of intimacy to ask and to articulate your heart’s desires. I want to be heard and I want you to act promptly on what I am saying to you. Your response time to Me in obedience will be My response time to you in blessing.
Do not allow the past to drown out what I am speaking into your NOW season. Allow My promise to speak with greater authority than past experience or disappointments. Do not allow the voice of present distresses to dampen your confidence in My plans to promote and bless you. Do not allow the dire predictions of troubles unrealized to rob you of the security and assurance I am bringing to your future.
The sky isn’t falling says the Father the Kingdom is coming! Rise up and let My voice galvanize you to action.

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