God Of Miracle Turnarounds | Claire Buntrock

This podcast explores the powerful biblical story of Book of Esther and the celebration of Purim, highlighting how God can turn impossible situations into miraculous victories. Through the story of Esther, an unlikely orphan who becomes queen, listeners are reminded that every person has a purpose in God’s timeline. The message emphasizes courage, prayer, and faith in moments of pressure—showing how what was meant for destruction can be reversed into deliverance. Ultimately, it challenges believers to recognize their own role “for such a time as this,” trusting that God can flip the script in both history and personal life.

Transcript

Setting The Moment And Mood

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I want to start because the world there are there are people gnashing their teeth right now and they are the evil ones. Hallelujah. But the there are some people rejoicing tonight. And there have been Christians that have been praying for this moment. And I want to see if you recognize this language that we're about to play on the screen. Go ahead, Lee. Play that. And we sing it in English, and they sing it in Farsi. And God has answered their prayers. What an awesome time. So I just want to, we are all part of this timeline, and I I've got some things. You know, the feast of Purim begins tomorrow at sundown. And that is a time where uh Jewish uh culture celebrates the life of Esther and her stand. And we're gonna go, we're gonna dig into the book of Esther again tonight. We haven't done that in a little bit. The last time I ministered on this subject was in 2020, uh, or the end of 2019, and y'all remember what was going on then, and we were about to go into a season of where we felt like the Jewish people that were oppressed, and um but as we know, I'm in and so uh but but the book of Esther is set in the in the Persian Empire, modern day Iran, and so there are many parallels. I am not the only one speaking about it. Um many the the Jewish world right now is lit up. This is Perm, Perm. We're you know, we've been liberated from this despot in Iran that was attacking us and trying to kill us, and now just like our ancient enemy in that region, then the anti-Semitic, the antichrist spirit of Haman was hanged on the gallows instead of the Jews were supposed to be hung on that, and and then God flipped it. Everybody say flipped it. So uh, so God's flipping, he's flipping some things, and let's see where we fit into this timeline and how God can flip some things in our own life. So our title tonight is Your Part in God's Miracle Turnaround. Your part in God's miracle turnaround. So we're gonna study Esther and what she had to do and say about how to save her people. She was a Jew, a secret Jew in the Persian Empire, the the kingdom of Babylon, where the Jews had been hidden, had been carried away captive. And it was a painful and awful time. The Babylonians had raided their land, had taken all of the Jews away and taken all of the holy things out of the temple, and the gold and the silver and the devoted things in the temple, the valuables, and they had carried everything and all the wealth and all the people to Babylon as slaves. And um, and so I want to show you a timeline of where that is uh in the Bible. And James is gonna point that out. He's got my pointer. I don't think it'll work on this bright screen here, but you might be able to look in where where Esther is. So, James, will you point to um the uh Adam and Eve, like at the beginning there, that's uh there in Genesis, and then um in case you can't read, you don't have your binoculars on, uh the uh that that whole yellow part at the end there from 500 to uh to 100 BC, so all of that is like a like a big silence. God is kind of silent there. Um and then you'll notice that the actual starting point of scripture uh is when the scriptures were actually written down. Before that, everybody had been speaking the scripture over and over again, so there was not a book, there were not scrolls, but that was happening right around the time of Esther. And it looks like on this timeline that Esther happens right before Ezra and Nehemiah. Uh so you can see like the kings and and and Joshua is way back, but you know, you got Moses and Joshua and all the kings and chronicles and whatever. And this is after all of that. So, right, the kingdom has fallen. Now all the Jews are in Babylon, and um and the second temple has been rebuilt, but nobody's really there to keep it up. And so Ezra and Nehemiah haven't really done their work yet to go back and build the walls and all of that. And um, so I just wanted to put you there, and when we talk about stuff, I want you to kind of have that, and then you'll see that uh then there's like about 500 years, and then Jesus comes. And uh, and so she had a role in history, she was not a paper cup floating on the oceans of history and of life, and you are not a paper cup floating on the oceans of life. God sets you in this time, and someday somebody's gonna look at a timeline in heaven and you're gonna be on it. Psalm 139 says, you know, in in your book, all my days were written when there were none of them yet. Your your your life is written. You still have choices. God just knows what they're gonna be. And somewhere they're written in his book. And the most important thing is your name, that your name be written in the Lamb's book of life if you've accept Jesus as your Lord. Amen. But you have it, there's a plan for you. And there was a plan for Esther at this time. So she here she is, her people are oppressed, and she's living in this uh, and we can turn to Esther, and I'm gonna give you kind of an overview of the things. But um, as you may know, uh I'll just in in in let's go in modern times right now. You know that I'm not the news flash. Most of you know that the U.S. and Israel have just uh completed a joint mission or in the midst of a joint mission to liberate the Persian people, the people of Iran, uh many of whom are Christians, many of whom are not Islamic, but they've been forced to act like they are and wear the hijab and be oppressed by that dictator or at hazard of their lives. And they've been under that regime all of this time, since 47 years, and they've been under this regime. And recently there was an uprising, and about I've there are different estimates, but it could be as many as 36,000 people were who were rising up and trying to overthrow that oppressive dictatorship, but they were killed recently, since about December or so. And um, James and I had a chance to meet a man last night from Iran. His name is Mani Irfan, and he is a believer who is a businessman here in in Houston who has funded many underground churches in Iran. And he is a uh very active and involved, and he said he has lost 19 of his own associates there in those slaughters from that dictator. And so uh, but he said, you know what, yesterday, which would have been Friday, when when the US and Israel completed that attack and took down the that dictator, he said, every this changes everything, it changes everything. And as dad said this morning, the the the doors are gonna be open for the gospel. It's gonna change everything, and they're and and literally the Christians there are liberating. I'm just uh seeing all the videos of the women taking off their hijabs, returning, but I mean it it is it's chilling and awesome, and just um, and and there are many uh there's an estimate that about 1% of our population here in the United States is Iranian, and not all of them are Islamists, though. Many of them fled that regime, and some of them, uh although many of them voted, tended to vote with the left. Uh this man that we talked to last night said, well, they used to vote for the left. It used to be about 90%, and now it's completely flipped. They are so excited, they are celebrating in the streets, and um, and so because and so that and so now we've got Jews in Israel, I mean, and and and Iranians celebrating together this liberation, and it's a how cool that it's happening right here in the Feast of Purim. So, what can we glean from this? Let's read about it. Um, so the Feast of Purim is is also called the festival of Lot. Purim is uh is is dice, like you know, they cast lots, and um, so it's a Jewish holiday that commemorates the the events of the book of Esther. And get this the deliverance of the Jewish people from a genocidal plot in the ancient Persian Empire around the 5th century BC, and uh and it it talks about um that um it's hidden, it symbolizes hidden miracles. Everybody say hidden miracles and reversal of fortunes. How many of you could use some uncovering of the hidden miracles? How many of you need your your, you know, the what the devil planned for you? Would you you would like to completely flip that around? I I would like that. And uh so that's what this feast is celebrating, and that begins tomorrow, so let's see what they're celebrating. So there was a um, there are some characters, and this is a beautiful story, and it's a very quick read, and you should read it this week, the book of Esther. You should open your Bible tomorrow on the feast of Perm and you should read this because it's awesome, because God is the most brilliant author, and this is a beautiful, not only a love letter to us and a work of destiny in our lives, it's a beautiful piece of literature that talks about, and it's got four, and and today, and like the Jews are now acting this out like a play. They dress up like the characters in the play when the evil, when the when the the bad guy in the play has mentioned his name, they all drown it out with loud noises and stuff, like boo and hiss and whatever. And I mean it's it's a draw, it's a drama. It's a drama. So let's let's know about it. So you have four main characters. You have Mordecai the Jew, and here he is, he is in exile, he's an oppressed person that happens to be living in the capital city of the Persian Empire Empire, and that city is called Shushan. And uh in uh I believe in chapter 2, verse 5 of Esther, it says, In Shushan the citadel, there was a certain Jew his name was Mordecai, son of Jaher, the son of Shemeh, the son of Kish, a Benjaminite. And Kish had been carried away uh from Jerusalem with all the cast, so that his entire tribe was carried away to Babylon. And uh Mordecai had brought up Hadassah, that is Esther, his uncle's daughter, for she had neither father nor mother. So we have an orphan, there's another, so we have Mordecai the Jew as a character, and then his adopted daughter, Esther. And the young woman was lovely and beautiful, and when her father and mother died, Mordecai took her as his own daughter. And so it was when the king's command uh and decree were heard, when uh and many young women were gathered at Shushan, the citadel, under the under custody of this guy, uh that the young women, the woman pleased the the the head of the king's harem, and uh, and she pleased him, and so she had favor. And in the context of this is the king of Persia is looking for a new queen. His queen had let him down, she had disobeyed him publicly, and he could not have that, so he didn't kill her, he just kind of shuffled her to the side, and he is looking for a new queen. So he's got all of this hair. I mean, he's gonna pick one, and we know the story. He picks Queen Esther after she uh uh goes through uh many purification uh rituals and and she wins the favor of the people in charge there. So she is another character. Then there's another, so we've got Mordecai, his adopted daughter Esther, who becomes queen eventually, and then the evil, diabolical Haman. He is the Antichrist spirit, and he is that's Haman spirit, is alive and well today, sadly. And that is what we have seen through the Ayatollahs in Iran, that uh death to Jews, death to America. Um, it is uh uh we we see that antichrist spirit and at we know that someday when the church is taken away, the antichrist, actual antichrist, will rise up and and join with the beast and the and and they will they will have reign on the earth for us for a short time before Jesus deals with them. But that's all coming, but the spirit of that antichrist, though the physical manifestation has not yet been revealed, we see the things lining up in how many of you notice the things in the world kind of lining up? Uh it's it people call it globalism. It is um it's a disturbing trend that that crushes freedoms and individualism and and Christianity particularly. And and so we we are called as the church to stand against that spirit. We are the restraining force, Thessalonians says. Paul says to the Thessalonians, we are the restraining force. The Holy Spirit in us is restraining that power at all times. So there is symbolism here. There's that spirit, Haman, and he's the guy who is the high official at the time. He has the king has given him this great position of honor that when people see Haman in the street, they are supposed to bow down to him. Oh, he is very important and he likes it a lot. And then so Mordecai the Jew, though, won't do it. Mordecai the Jew is a practicing, he's practicing the commandments, and the commandments number two, and I'm sorry, Exodus 20, commandment number two, you will not bow down to any other God. You will not bow down. And so he was just obeying. How many of you have just been obeying the word of God and you have felt persecuted for your faith? I know I did. Um I I just remember, I remember standing against that antichrist spirit. For us, the last time I ministered on this, it was it looked like you know what? I know there's nothing wrong per se with wearing a mask, but I felt like the Antichrist spirit was telling me to wear the mask, and therefore I wasn't gonna wear the mask because it was that spirit behind it of control, of fierce, you know, and then we all learned that it was doing no good. Later, all the facts came out that the virus was too small to, you know, it would have just gone in and out like mosquitoes out of a chain-link fence. All the things, it was really just about the fear and control. And and and so, and I remember and not getting a vaccine, not letting them squirt whatever that was in my veins. I I mean, I just remember standing in, and many of y'all, we helped you, we wrote letters to try to help save your jobs. And um, and some of you it worked, some sometimes it didn't, and and and some of us paid a price and had to lose our job or whatever because we would not bow to the we would not bow to that spirit, right? Would not bow to it, and so anyway, that was that's that spirit. So he Haman, and then of course the king, King Ahasaris. Who is the king? Let's know who he is in this in this narrative. He is um historians agree that this is actually Xerxes I of the Persian Empire. You can read about him, and um, and so where he fits in, like you'll remember there are some Persian kings all of a sudden in this part, you know, Esther Esther and then Ezra and Nehemiah. There are some Persian kings that start having favor for the people of Israel that start favoring them. You remember Cyrus the Great that funded the rebuilding of the temple. That was two kings before this guy. And then then there was this guy's dad, Darius, who also helped fund things and sent the Jews back to go and rebuild their temple. Then there's this guy who has favor on Esther, and then his son later says to Ezra, hey, you go. His son is uh Arta Xerxes, and he sent, and he's the guy that sends Ezra back to the people of it to Israel. And he said, Look, I'm sorry we took all of your devoted things out of the temple, all your gold and silver. You can take them back now. Now that y'all have rebuilt that temple on our dime, you just go ahead and take them back, and you can take all the people that you need to with you to go worship your God. And here's some money also, so you can buy all your sacrifices and do everything you need to for the temple of God, because we think it's really good that you're doing that. And we're real sorry. And so they, I mean, God just reversed everything. And so Esther was caught up in the middle of all this, and the devil, even in the midst of that shining favor, the devil wanted, he had a plan. And so I just don't want to get complacent as a Christian and say, oh, yay, Lude, not a time. He's doing he's doing good things for the church. And we just get um, we just get so complacent. Well, I live in Texas, it's real red, you know, and I just uh and we just get real complacent and we don't, and I I'm making this a political thing because y'all, I really believe these regimes have a plan. I that same dictatorial antichrist spirit that took Iran, nobody thought it could take Iran. I was alive in the 70s when Iran was a kind of a good place to live. There were pretty ladies walking around in bell bottoms, they didn't have hijabs, the girls went to school there. It was a normal Western place, and in my lifetime, it turned into an Islamist hellhole. Thank you. I just quoting Susie. I would never say that, Susie. That's rude. But you know, we the church has been quiet and silent and just been nice, nice, nice and let these things happen. And you know, there was a the devil had a plan to do that to us in 2020, and I believe God thwarted it. And he used many of you. And and so um we are and but that plan did not go away. That's why we're so vigilant to do what we do. That plan never does go away, but God is with us when we do our part to stand against it, and and then we can and so I'm applying this in a macro way, but look at your own life. What has the what has the Lord delivered you from? How many of you remember a time in your life when you were in the fire and God snatched you out, and he said a different thing. There was condemnation against you, there was something spoken against you, and God said no, and he turned it around. Yes, he did. All right, so um, so there's the there are these characters, and um, all right, and so um I feel like I need to like give a yes, we will give an overview, an overview of this. Okay, so um let's just go to Esther right now. I'm gonna have to get my glasses out. All right, so it's right before Job. And I already flipped away from it. Alright, so Mordecai the Jew will not bow down. Everybody say he won't bow down, won't bow down to Haman. And the king's put Haman in charge, and everybody's supposed to bow. And then Mordecai, but then Esther gets caught up in this harem, and she's like considered, hey, king's looking for a new queen. Maybe it'll be Esther, maybe it will be. So she's going through all of these beauty treatments and she's preparing herself, and sure enough, he chooses her and she becomes queen. But meanwhile, Haman hatches this plot because he's so mad at this is true, this is still true today. He's mad that Mordecai will not bow down to him, and then he finds out Mordecai's a Jew. So instead of just wanting to kill Mordecai, that's not good enough. He has to kill all the Jews. What? There are Jews all over the kingdom. Hey, king, king, there's Jews everywhere, all across the kingdom of the Meds and the Persians, and we've got to kill all of them. And we're gonna take their money too. Let's make a decree. And so the king says, Yes, that sounds like a great idea, Haman. Let's do that. And he takes this signet ring and he seals the decree that Haman wrote, and it's basically the death wish, the death warrant for all of the Jews in the entire kingdom. And on a particular day, on a particular day, they are supposed to be all of them put to death, and their stuff is supposed to be taken into the king's treasury, and they are gonna they're gonna be extinguished on that day. And uh now the king doesn't know that his beautiful new queen is Jewish, she's been keeping it a secret because Mordecai told her, and she was an obedient daughter. He said, don't let it out. And um so anyway, so Esther's now in the court, and then re we remember, we remember this is everybody's favorite scripture. If you're a woman, many times this is my might be your favorite scripture in the Old Testament. Uh let's go there, Esther 4. All right. If this is it, Mordecai told them to uh so he Esther finds out about this plot and she is very distraught that her people are about to die, and and Mordecai comes to her and he says, Do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other Jews, 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? Esther 4 14. Who knows whether you have come into the kingdom for such a time as this? You have come into this kingdom for such a time as this, and God has a plan for you. And so we know that the story, she was not supposed to go before the king unless she was requested by name. And anybody who went before the king and was not received by him, by him stretching out his scepter to receive that person, would what would happen to them? Okay, so she didn't want to be risked, uh risk put be being put to death, but she laid it all on the line. There is a time that we have to be willing to say, God, this is too important, and I've got to have you back me up on this, and I'm gonna lay it on the line. This is this is for not just for me, but this is for this is to save many. And so she did that. She said, she told them, verse 15, Go, told Mordecai, go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, fast for me, neither eat or drink three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law, and if I perish, I perish. She had all of the kingdom praying for all the Jews in the kingdom. She knew the power of prayer. She was praying, she was having them pray. Everybody was in a spirit. Not only they they, I'm sure they were shocked at the decree, but they didn't just stay shocked, they did something about it, they prayed. Paul said in Philippians, don't worry. Don't don't worry, but pray. Be anxious for nothing, but in all things, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your request be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes understanding, will guard your heart and your mind. Have you received bad news? Don't worry. Pray. Speak out against the bad news, do something, pray, and then God's peace came on her, and she did what was right. She stepped in. You know, fear could have been in her head, but she did what was right in her heart. So it happened on the third day that Esther prayed first. She had a lot of time prayer. Then, chapter 5, verse 1, put on her royal robes. I'm gonna say royal robes. So um, in the spirit, how we dress matters. Esther was the queen, she had been given an allowance and a and a and a wardrobe to look like who she was in Christ. And it matters. Man looks on the outside, but God looks on the heart. Matters how you look on the inside, and it matters how you look. It does matter. Man does look on the outside. We wish he didn't, but he does look. Uh, so she not only dressed for success, she not only dressed for success, but she had on, I mean, we need to have on our righteous garments that Jesus gave us. We need to be washed in holiness. We need, and and you know, we didn't we skipped over that whole part in chapter two where she's like bathing in in oil and six months of this kind of oil, and another six months in that kind of oil, and she is, you know, she smells good. And that's important. Anyway, but what I'm saying is she's got holiness, she's been sanctified and set apart for something. She didn't just come in on any old way, and uh, and so she used everything that she had at her disposal. What has God given you? What has his covenant provided for you? When it's all on the line, and you have to stand in that day. You have tools in your arsenal that God has given you. You don't leave those behind. All right, and God sees you as clean and and pure. So she stands there, and sure enough, he does receive her. He stretches out his scepter. So she goes in there and he says, What do you wish, Queen Esther? What is your request? It shall be given to you up to half the kingdom. I will give you half the kingdom. And she said, and right now, today, she has already planned for this moment. She has already planned a banquet. And she said, I just came to invite you to my banquet. So she basically saves her people with two dinner parties, y'all. Two dinner parties. That is such a Southern bell. We have a Southern Bell visiting today. God bless you, Allie. Um, but with two dinner parties, she saves her people. This is dinner party number one. And so, okay, just I'm inviting, you know, I want you to come. Please it's the king. Let the king and Haman Haman also. So, oh, not just the king, but I'm gonna invite this enemy that wants to kill me. I'm gonna invite him to dinner. So Southernville. I love it. She probably just stared him down, anyway. And um, and so Haman, so then at the banquet, and she waits for the timing of the Lord. What is your and so then now he's still wondering, like, okay, so you invited me to what do you really want? What is your petition, verse 6? What is your request? It's still up to half the kingdom. I'll I'll do it. And she said, Well, if I found favor, I want you to come to another party tomorrow. You bring Haman now, you come and you bring him, and we're gonna have another party tomorrow. Well, notice her timing. So that night, so so if she would have just sprung it on, hey, I want you to kill Haman. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. She worked her business. She had timing of the Lord. How many of y'all know that's important when you have timing of the Lord to work the business? So then, so the next day, so but what she did not know, and she cannot, you cannot orchestrate what God has already orchestrated. He you just have to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit and let him guide you. She had no idea these two things were gonna happen overnight. Listen to what happened overnight. Number one, Haman starts feeling like, oh, the queen really thinks I'm great. I think that she, you know, uh, I think that uh she really likes me, and there the king is probably about to honor me with a big dinner. I mean, a dinner, and I'm probably gonna get some big award. I mean, something great's gonna happen to me. And um, and and you know what, Mordecai, and I'm gonna get while I'm in favor like this, I'm gonna get him to go ahead and hang Mordecai the Jew right now. I and so that night he built a gallows to hang Mordecai that very night, between dinner party number one and dinner party number two. He builds a gallows for Haman. I mean, Haman builds it for Mordecai. And and the king happens to not be able to sleep that night, and he's tossing and turning. And oh, I need some reading material. Will somebody bring me the chronicles of the kings? I want to read what's been going on in my kingdom, some things I didn't know about. And so, lo and behold, he reads a time when Mordecai literally saved his life by telling about two uh conspirators that were gonna kill him. And Mordecai was the one that found out the conspiracy and told uh and made made known to the king, and so it saved his life. And he had he didn't know about that, he'd forgotten about that, and so then it uh he said, Well, what should be done to honor this man? No one, no one ever honored him. He did this great thing to save my life, nobody ever honored him. And so then the next morning he gets up and he asks Haman, What should be done to him whom the king will honor? And Haman thinks, oh, he must be about to honor me. I think he should be given new clothes, he should be given this special horse to ride on, and um, and I believe it in and uh let me see. And um, and and so he's still so sad that that uh Haman is so sad and tells all his wife and everything how how Mordecai won't bow down to him. And um anyway, and so he asks for uh this those three things, uh, the horse, and I believe it's a signet ring. Um anyway, but it's somewhere in chapter six. Uh yeah, yeah, and then parade him on horseback through the city square and proclaim before him, thus shall it be done. He wanted like a big parade. The king and um and so um so that was really pleasing to more and to to Haman, and then and so he just thought this was his big day. So he comes to the he comes to the banquet, dinner party number two. King says, sir, so beautiful. What can I do? What what do you need? What do you what's really what do you want? And uh she said, Well, my people are under duress, King, and we're all about to die on this particular day. You signed the decree with your signet ring to to put us to death, and um, and it was all done by this wicked Haman. And then so Haman's eyes filled with terror, he realizes, oh no, and so that very day he is hung on the gallows that he made for Mordecai. Y'all know that story? It's awesome. And then on the day, on the very day that the Jews were supposed to die, that became a feast day for them. It became a big party, and now the decree, the signet ring would was used to now decree a new thing, canceling the death warrant, and now issuing, hey, now we are allowing all the Jews across the land to rise up and take vengeance on their enemies and defend themselves from this antichrist spirit. And they did, and I think they killed like 75,000 enemies of of the Jews, and they defended themselves all by that signet ring. So, how did God flip the script? There's just a few things, Lord Jesus. Um, so uh number one, an orphan becomes a queen and co-ruler. So an unlikely, an unlikely person participates in the plan of God. How many of you are an unlikely people? How many of you can think of people in the Bible that were unlikely to do anything good? David? Least likely. Gideon, least likely. Uh the apostle Paul was killing Christians, and then God used him. Uh, and we could go into great detail. Rahab the harlot. She was a harlot, uh, a temple uh harlot for another god. But she had favor on the Jews and she and she made sure that that uh that the spies were hidden when they came to Jericho. And then she ended up being in the family line of Jesus. She married Boaz's uh dad, I believe. And so wait, was she Boaz's mother or grandmother? But anyway, Rahab the harlot, wonderful, and then you know, and then Boaz begot Jesse, who begot David, who begot, begot, begot, begot Jesus. It's awesome. It's unlikely people used in the plan of God and that giant timeline. That giant, you don't know where you are in the timeline, but you you might be unlikely. You were because uh you were once alienated from the life of Christ, Ephesians 2 said you were just you were stuck in the under the spirit of this age. You were just uh living this life away and apart from God, but he you he brought you into his kingdom. You were unlikely, and now you're in. You're in, and he has a plan for you. So so he flips the script by using unlikely people in the plan of God. Uh symbols of death now become symbols of victory. So the gallows, gallows would have been very when when Mordecai saw those gallows, when Esther saw those gallows, she had no idea that I mean it looked like it was gonna, they she knew it was gonna be used against her. It was a symbol of death, and she still went to that dinner party number two and just boldly asked for what she needed from the Lord. I mean, we just bold, we gotta come boldly to the throne, and and there was no what you're going through right now, you it might look really dark. It probably does. It probably looks like there's no way out, and that's the way it works sometimes. We don't see it's a hidden miracle, it's not hidden from you, it's hidden for you. So no one else is gonna find it and discover it. If this whole plan, I mean, Haman was he would have avoided it, he would have found another way, but this he this completely took him by surprise. It took Satan by surprise that Jesus uh rose from the dead. Satan thought Jesus uh was the loser. Oh, I killed him, I sent him to hell. He's gone. Three days later, that was not the case. Our God is the God who flips us, and even in this is a time of exile from the people of God. The people of God have been crushed, they have been imprisoned, they have been taken away from their homeland. There was another time where the people of God were crushed in prison and taken from their homeland. It was way back in Genesis, or yeah, in Genesis, when Joe, remember Joseph and the people, and uh, and and and they here they were in Egypt. They weren't really slaves yet, but they they were in a time of famine, and God sent God always makes a way, and then Joseph was persecuted and sent to prison for a long time for something he did not do. There is a recurring theme in the Bible, and when the Bible repeats itself, and then history comes back and repeats those patterns, we got to pay attention to those. God wants to deliver you, and so don't believe the lie of the devil that you were ensnared and entrapped and enslaved forever. No, this is right before the greatest moment of victory they had the Jews had ever seen. It was awesome, it was a miracle. So the gallows became a symbol of, they were a symbol of death, but they became a symbol of victory. The cross be it was a symbol of death and shame. Anybody who died on the cross was the most hated, the most, only the worst criminal, the most common. It was disgusting to die on a cross. And it became something that we wear as jewelry because we're so proud of what Jesus Christ has done for all of humanity and for us personally, each and every one of us. And so we wear that proudly. It is a symbol of absolute victory over death. The signet ring used to seal the doom of the Jews became the signet ring that sealed their defense and victory. So, what is a symbol of your suffering? What is that thing that the devil would like to hang around you? What is that thing that when you see it, it reminds you of something so awful? And it's just a symbol of death in your life. What is that thing? And I I how could I, but how can God turn that around for you? What would it take? And can we believe God that that symbol that is so painful and so fearsome for you that God would turn it all around? It's time. It's for such a time. A lot of times we see this in church ministry, just that people who have the greatest pain, that they had something really awful happen to them, it becomes their powerful force. The thing that they they use to draw from when they minister to other people, it's like a superpower. Our children's ministry, we do a great job. I'm so proud of the people. Every one of them that serves in there has a heart for God. And um, but if if if that person who was um abused and neglected as a child, and they rise up and say, I don't ever want another child to go through what I went through. I want to make sure every kid in this church is absolutely loved, that they would know the plan of God for their lives, they would know the word of God, and they would defend themselves against all the evil that I I suffered. I it's beautiful, it's a picture of redemption. And uh a lot of times you're you know, your greatest pain can become your superpower. And um, and so there are symbols that that God wants to that He wants to completely switch for you and make them a symbol of victory. Which um, you know, flags, flags are symbols. Um Lee, do you have that? There's one more video I have queued up, maybe in the back. Hello, hello. What do y'all notice? What flags are waving there? I see an Israeli flag. Wait, I see an Iranian flag. Okay, we can fade out now. When did Israel and Iran ever celebrate together and jump around in the streets? Have y'all ever seen that have chills? We are witnessing history right now. Do you know Jesus spoke Aramaic? Aramaic was a conglomeration of the Hebrew language and the Arabic language around him. He himself was an absolute bridge of these two people groups. And and we, the church, are a bridge of all of the people groups. Every tribe and tongue and people and nation are called out from among the people of this world, and we are made into a kingdom of priests and to our God, and we shall reign on the earth. Uh, Revelation said, God has called us out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. I have chills, and we can celebrate together, and I also will note that I do not think that is a charismatic church service or Pentecostal or word of fact. I don't think that's even a Mark Hankins meeting or anything like that. But um, but those people were excited, and uh, and so if they can get excited and jump around in the streets, and I believe that was in London recently, like two days ago. So if they can get it, we could get excited in church, and we can show forth the praises of our God. But I'm telling you, that is a symbol of victory. I've never seen that anyway. Okay, so symbols of death become symbols of victory. Day of destruction becomes this feast. That time, that one date that you thought everything was gonna live or die on this date. Oh, I hate that date. That's a date somebody died. It's the anniversary of somebody's death. Oh, I hate that date. Every time it comes, it's the day my divorce is final. I can't hate that date. I hate that date. It's a feast. God is redeeming all of that mess, and he's taking every day on the calendar that you hate so much that you dread, and he's turning it into a feast. It's time. Also, um, the people who were the oppressors, the intimidators, they fall to their own devices. They're caught in the net they laid for you. That is a biblical theme. The Bible said we could have that. That's a blessing. That's a blessing of obedience to the law. That we would have protection from our enemies, that they would fall in the net that they set for us. Haman and all of his ten sons were hung on the gallows for which that he had made he made for the Jews. You know, we're supposed to pray for our enemies. We've been teaching on love on Wednesday nights. We're praying for those. Despitefully use us. But for those who do not respond to that prayer, who do not receive the love of the Lord in their lives, and He has good things for He's called every one of them to repentance. He's called them to be your brother and sister in the Lord. No matter what they did for you. We're supposed to pray for our enemy. But if they do not respond to that, then that prayer becomes a judgment against them. But we don't pray for that reason. We we want to we want to have love in our hearts for people. By love, I mean we don't have to love them right up close. We can sometimes, if they if they have crossed a boundary, we have to maintain our boundaries and we got to love them from a distance. But we can still pray, we can still wish good for them. We can still want their salvation and for them to participate in the plan of the Lord. We don't know who is a Saul and who's a Haman. We don't get to always know that. We can't look on the heart like God can. But that same prayer will become a prayer of judgment upon them if they don't respond. And um anyway, so how how do we cooperate quickly? Uh do not submit to the spirit of Haman, do not bow, be a Mordecai who stands up and says, No, no, no. Look for those ways to, when you see the spirit, you will know in your in your heart, the Holy Spirit is on the inside of you. It will light up when there is an antichrist spirit at work in your life trying to control you. That contract at work that says, oh, by the way, you have to affirm the LGBT person or whatever. Or that whatever, what however it presents itself to you, God will give you grace to stand in that day and do not bow to it. God will bless you. He won't, he might make a He might make an Esther out of you in that moment. Might not be that moment, might be the one ten times after that. But make a habit of being the Esther who stands up in that fame, will not bow, and the Mordecai who will not bow. Um, yeah, we had an entertainer that uh comes to the church, hallelujah. I will not mention, but uh, when he first came, he came up for prayer, he was crushed because he had um just shared his own personal testimony um about some his family life in the past, and it wasn't flattering to gay people. Um and so when he shared that publicly on social media, he had quite a large following, and so all of the rainbow mafia came out against him, and they said evil, vile, awful, terrible things about him. They used to love him, but they turned on a dime and hate it, hate it, hated, vehemently came against him. And uh the Lord showed it, no, no, there's more people with you than there are with them. There's more people, there's more, there's angels, prints of God, there's God, God is on your side, we're with you. And there, and you know what? It all came to nothing, and it's okay. It's okay. God's favor is still on his life, but it he had to stand in that day, and it was hard. We can't be friends with the with the world. We've gotta we've gotta stand against it, James chapter 2 says. Um and then he says, if we won't be friends with the world, uh, if we will be friends with the world, we make ourselves an enemy of God. Because God's jealous over you, he wants you to serve the one God, Him. He does not want you to bow to the things of this world. And it says, but He was because God resists that proud, that Haman spirit, that spirit of pride on this earth that tries to take control of your life, but he gives grace to the humble. So if we're humble ourselves and be have the fear of God, then um then God, and then it says uh in verse 10 in James 2, 10, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up. He He lifted up Esther, she humbled herself, she was obedient to Mordecai, she did whatever the people in the court said was the right thing or whatever. She but then when she had to stand, she stood for something. And um, and she put it all on the line. Okay, so number two, um, submit to God. Submit to God. Um Esther prepared herself. Submit, submit yourself to God. He will challenge you. Esther 414. Those were stiff words from Mordecai when he said, uh, look, you're there's gonna be a curse on you if you don't stand up right now. And you know what? God's still gonna find a way to deliver the people, but you're in position right now, it's on you, and you're here for such a time as this. He challenged her. God challenges us. It's not wrong. If you're a parent, don't you challenge your kids sometimes? Don't you want to see the best come out in them? So you challenge them, and that's what God does for us. He challenges us, and but go ahead and submit to his plan, and he will exalt you in due time. Humble yourself. So submit him to him for him to challenge you, to humble you. It was not her great beauty, it looked like God used her beauty, but it was really just all part of his plan, God's plan. And um, and then submit to him to orchestrate the timing. Do you see how much important it was for the timing? She didn't just make it happen. She wanted to get this over with. You know she did. Oh, I just wish I could get that interview over with. I wanted to, no, I mean, let it work out in God's timing. There's a time to push, and then there's a time to wait, and God can show you what that is. All right, and then prayer. Prayer paves the way. All that she had everybody praying together, everybody fasting. I love our Thursday night prayer meetings. Our Thursday night prayer meetings are awesome. First of all, James and I feel so supported with everything we do. There are things that spirits of the Antichrist here in Harris County that we make them mad sometimes. And uh mostly James. I'm nice. I don't, but James makes them mad. And uh in some of the state capitals, I mean, they people don't like it when we bring worship into that capital. They don't, they're they're antichrist spirit. I mean, uh, I believe it was was it in Michigan that had like a Satanist? No, that was Wisconsin. Anyway, I just know there are Satanists that literally do try in some capitals, not where we are yet, but Satanists try to have displays in capitals. You know, that's a thing. That's a thing. In Kansas, they had like this Baal statue or something. Anyway, um, but praise God. We're uh we're not gonna bow to that either. And we're gonna pray, and we do on Thursday night. Y'all pray and lift us up. It's awesome. Prayer is what caused Ahasrus to not sleep that night and to look at the scrolls. Move the heart of the king. Prayer. The prayers of the people of Iran, the Christians of Iran prayed that in. They prayed, and then God moved the heart of Donald Trump. Donald Trump, another unlikely person. Very unlikely. Very. But now we look and we say, that was God's plan. We had a part in it, and it felt like all hell broke loose just because we said we liked him. You know, if you were one of those people who happen to say that, and you did you feel all the shame trying to heap up on you from the spirit of Antichrist? I'm not saying he is like the savior of the world or anything, he's just a man. But God used him, and God will use you. Okay, and then finally, for obey in faith and uh and don't listen to fear. You can have fear in your head, but there's faith in your heart. Obey that. Obey that, stand before the king, stand in that day. Having done all the stand, stand therefore. Having your loins gird about with truth, your helmet of salvation, sword of the spirit, Ephesians 6. Stand in the day. Go ahead and say, having done all the stand. That's hard though. Oh, the enemy. Hey man, stop talking about the enemy. Just stand there. Know how big your God is, and He will He will bring this, He will turn it all around for you. He will, he is turning it around. There's a Spirit of God even tonight to give you strength in your soul. Your spirit has strength. If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you have a measure of the Holy Spirit on the inside of you. Your spirit is connected with God all the time. And uh all you have to do is pray a little bit, and God will put strength in your spirit, but your mind, your mind can get focused on the wrong things. And so we're not gonna let that happen. We are gonna focus on the right things and be strong in the Lord.

unknown 52:53

Amen.