For Such A Time As This?***

The Holy One calls to me this morning.  We as a nation are in the lead up to another election of our President and legislative leaders.  We are placed at a crossroad and again being offered 2 choices each of which represents a world view, and a set of values upon which the candidates stand and promise to accordingly rule this nation. 

Professing Christians have an obligation and privilege to lend their vote in each and every great contest and yet fear or apathy seems to immobilize them. 

Politics is government and God has His eyes on the government of nations…all of them.  If God is interested in who governs His people shouldn’t we be interested as well?  He sees behind the scenes and has exposed much for us to consider in these epic and historical elections.  Even if we cannot know the "heart" of the candidate we can absolutely know the platform upon which they stand and intend to govern. 

History in governing shows us the truth about where the two parties stand and how each might go about enacting their agenda.  Day to day the political waters may get muddied, but the platform of each party does not change:  Law and order or chaos in the streets.  Protect the sanctity of life or support infanticide at any point in the development of a human.  The list goes on and the differences are clear cut.

Buyer beware of those who want to fundamentally change our nation and overturn and upend the foundation upon which our nation has stood for all these years. We are a democratic republic and one nation under God.  We are a different nation than any who have come and gone before. We are a blessed nation and must look to the One who has blessed us and then fight for what we have and how our founders under Divine guidance established the form of government that has protected it's citizens over the course of history and time.       

Sometimes the best way to assess and process where we are in our life and nation today, is to take a look back in scripture to learn how God made a way for Israel to survive and prosper even in their land of exile. The Holy Spirit takes me to the account and life of Esther who was elevated through interesting circumstance to become Queen of Persia.   

Queen Esther was living the life of royalty not by her own desire but by God’s Design.  In her position, she was not necessarily subject to the threat that had been leveled against her people, (the Jews) living in Persia, their land of exile, but she was given a huge role to play in their ultimate survival.   

Mordecai, Esther’s beloved uncle became aware of the threat and brought it to the Queen.  For sake of the symbolism and application of the lesson for our days and time, I will share it in today’s terms:   

An executive order written by an enemy of the God’s chosen people went out to all the states that they (God’s people) were to be destroyed, killed, annihilated: all of God’s chosen, both young and old, little children and women…and in one day to plunder their possessions….I.E. take their bank accounts, businesses, homes, properties ….The executive order was published and sent to all the provinces for execution of the order and for all the people in all the provinces to be ready for that day.

Confusion entered the faith community, for they had lived in peace with their neighbors and provided no reason for the genocide executive order.  There was great mourning among God’s people with fasting and weeping and wailing. 

I cannot speak for God in the matter of these elections, but I hear Him say to me: “For such a time as this”.   

When the Holy One speaks to my heart, there are times when He starts a sentence He wants me to finish and this is one of those times.  The book of Esther is recorded in the Old testament.  This is a testimony of God’s deliverance of His people orchestrated through the natural circumstances they were facing at the time. Esther was in a strategic position in history to influence the survival of the nation of Israel.  

To understand the character of our God, it is important to realize that He is a God of Precedents.  Precedents are revealed as His acts in the Old Testament days and through the Biblical history of Israel, that He will enact in like kind today.  Even the miracles that Jesus executed in the New Testament are available and act as precedents for us to ask for and even prayerfully expect in our lives today. 

Our God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow…He never changes so things He did in days gone by, He can and will repeat in our days.

Back to the account of Esther and God’s people set up for destruction.  Esther fasted for 3 days along with the rest of her people in a petition for Divine favor from the King.    

Since the genocide executive order was sealed by the authority of the King, it could not be revoked or rescinded.  Favor came to Esther as the wicked plot was revealed to the King, and the King who loved Esther, offered the opportunity to write a new executive order whereby God’s people could defend themselves. 

The 2^nd edict (executive order) permitted Gods people to gather together and protect their lives thereby empowering them to fight against all who would assault them.  The “battle” ensued and the day that the enemies of God’s people had hoped to overpower them, the opposite occurred in that Gods people overpowered those who hated them….

We may ask ourselves why we have come to this in our nation?  In God’s economy, maybe it is to rally the troops and unify the Body against the threats that would silence our voices for years and years to come.  Perhaps this is a day like for Esther but as a citizen with a vote to cast and a stand to make.  Maybe we are here with feet on planet earth “for such a time as this”.   

I pray this is a precedent the Lord has provided us and intends to repeat in this our One Nation Under God "elections".  I pray this is our time to defeat the evil plot against us in the land.  I pray we will all gather together to defend ourselves and crush those whose agenda is for the destruction of our faith and our traditional Biblical values. 

I pray we might all see the great influence our vote may have on the survival of the church in America.  And I pray that we stand together in unity as “One nation under God”.  All for the glory of our Kingdom and our King.

The Spirit is calling.  Can you hear Him?