Speaker: Pastor Brian Naidoo
Series: January 2015
Scripture: Esther 4:12
Although the Pastor had intended the Wednesday Service to take the form of an Old Fashioned Prayer Meeting, somehow the Lord came in, towards evening time, with some thought to encourage the saints. The inspiration for the thought comes from the events of the last 3 days. Since the start of the 2015 calendar year, the minister has been preaching on creating a supernatural atmosphere. Only the supernatural atmosphere is able to insulate the believer from the things of the world. Now the devil came around to test the ministry on that revelation.
Firstly, the devil raised a storm which destroyed the ceiling of the physical building in which Spoken Word Tabernacle (SWT) holds services. However, the Lord intervened, through the insurance for the building, which undertook to do repairs to the roof to the tune of half a million South African Rands. Obviously Satan wanted to destroy the human temple in which God resides through the Holy Ghost, failing which he attacked the brick and mortar structure under which the saints assemble in line with the scripture.
The second and recent attack happened some three days ago when the same building was invaded. The Insurance had started to remove the roof tiles in order to reconstruct the damaged ceiling when the devil came in. The musical instruments and furniture were unlawfully attached by the landlord. In fact, he hijacked the building in violation of the lease agreement which is in place (with 15 years remaining). Why the attack on musical instruments? The minister had preached on the Order of the Battle a few days before. King Jehoshaphat of Judah assigned musicians to the frontline of the battle, followed by the soldiers. And when the praises of God went forth through the praise and worship of musicians, God set ambushments against Moab, Ammon and Mt Seir inhabitants. The enemies destroyed themselves as God’s children praised their Master. The minister emphasized the central role of music in praise and worship, and how powerful it is in creating a supernatural atmosphere.
Despite the setbacks of having to run around for alternative instruments, the minister reported for duty and God did the rest. Guitars, drums and keyboards were in service regardless. Jehovah Jireh manifested Himself in providing for Himself instruments of music. Throughout the day, the devil’s arrows attempted to break the supernatural atmosphere by dragging the minister to the law enforcement authorities (police, courts) in a battle with the landlord. However, minister refused to bow down to the pressure.
By His foreknowledge, the Lord had already availed EW Hobbs Primary School as God’s provided place for worship by the SWT family. Even more strikingly, the school has a greater seating capacity than the building under repair. These events simply point to the fact that the SWT has outgrown the old building which the landlord hijacked. And God is going to provide a place for us.
In the book of Esther, we see a conspiracy engineered by Haman against the Jews. Modecai informs Queen Esther that she must know her position and the reason for her being in the palace. Maybe God has placed her in the palace for such a time like this. (This is the inspiration for the title). If, however, she does not act according to the revelation of her position, God is able to bring enlargement and deliverance from some other place.
The apostle Paul comes around in Romans and says that the sufferings we go through are not worthy to be compared to the glory which will be displayed in us. There is absolutely no need to compare the present suffering to the future glory. The two are incomparable. There is no basis for comparison at all. Therefore there is no need to start thinking of problems which merely take away attention from the promises of God.
When Jehoshaphat was confronted by the 3 enemies, he sought God. He did not look for an alliance with some other neighbouring kings, as he had done previously with Ahab. King Jehoshaphat went to seek God’s face in the sanctuary. Deliverance came after praise and worship. And if God could come down in a sanctuary of stone, if God could honour the natural temple in which Judah gathered to pray, how much more will God honour our prayers? We are living in the age in which the real sanctuary came down and was destroyed so we could receive His Spirit.
We therefore need to be sober, vigilant and resist the devil by building up our immune system. The devil will always come to destroy our peace but we thank God for having the Redemption Plan already in place. This is what he did in the Garden of Eden when he came to Eve. The devil will test us on the purpose of our existence, on our position in the body of Christ. Trials will always be there. That is why there is no one who has ever given a request to receive trials and temptations. Only thanks-giving testimonies and prayer requests for deliverance are heard from God’s children. The troubles are enough as the scripture says; Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof. This means that the devil comes every day to check on us and give a challenge for that particular time.
The higher we climb into God, the easier it is to be pulled down by the devil. We become more visible as we climb higher up into the stature of a Perfect Man, which is a pyramid. As we go up higher and higher, the road gets steeper as well. The minister illustrated how easy it is for Brother George, who was standing down, to tug at his hand and pull him down from the ½ metre high stage on which he was preaching from. On the other, he could not pull up nor lift Brother George up to the stage with his one hand. But Brother George could pull him down with one strong tug of the arm because he is on higher ground. Therefore we should not be unequally yoked with the world.
When the beast came to Eve, he brought Eve down to his own level. The words spoken by the serpent went beyond the reasoning, they passed the mind and went right into the soul. The beast attacked the control tower of the soul, where faith should rule. Eve just quoted the Word from memory, which is a different thing from quoting by revelation. The knowledge of the Word confined to the human memory is not enough to fight those Word-twisting attacks by the devil, as the story of the Fall shows. Just imagine it was only one Word that Eve had to keep, about eating from the tree in the middle of the garden. There were no other books and scriptures to keep in that age. But Eve, just like the second Eve (church), failed the Word test. But we thank God there is a third and final Eve who will not be defeated on the Word Test. We need revelation. The importance of revelation to a true believer cannot be over-emphasised, as says the Prophet. He goes on to say that one can go to heaven with just the revelation of one scripture in the Word of God.
There is a time when Esther was in the kingdom and was at ease. She was being oiled. She was being sprayed with the different ointments like myrrh etc. She was being pampered. The same applies to David, with Goliath’s head in his hands and women singing songs of praise (plus previous testimonies of killing bears and lions in the wilderness). He was in favour with the people, having arisen from the sheepcote to fame. And even when he played music in Pastor Saul’s church, demons left the man of God and the congregation was pleased. Job of old had similar times when God’s blessings rested on him. We also have similar episodes in our lives. We pray and God undertakes for us. We ask for jobs and God grants them to us.
But when trials come, we do not anoint that portion of the Scripture which deals with the hard part. The prophet Samuel came and anointed David and things changed. King Saul was now after him day and night. The king would hunt him down in the caves and wilderness. Even his wife, Michal, is given to another man during those difficult times of exile. And when she comes back, she brings 5 children from another man. Shimei spits at him and even Joab turns against him. Even Job asks the directions to God’s house so he can go there and knock at his door for an answer to his challenges during trials. No wonder Nimrod caught inspiration about finding a way to God’s house and knock at the door. By building the tower of Babel, he was attempting to find the door to God’s house and talk to him.
It is a different thing when we hear the good side. If asked to take the role of Moses as a goodly child and deliverer, many of us would quickly volunteer. But God does not show the other side of the calling. He only mentions the goodliness and delivering part of Moses’ ministry. The rest of the challenges are not revealed in advance.
There is a sister who was confined to a wheelchair during the Prophet’s time. She was prayed for on several occasions and was not delivered. Then she wanted to know why God is not delivering her. She was told that in that wheelchair condition, she was a blessing to others. God was pleased with how she inspired others despite her condition. Therefore she had a position of inspiring others, regardless of the condition, which was pitiful in other people’s eyes.
Paul asks about who can separate us from the love of God. In saying who, he is pointing to the fact that the hindrance is a human being as opposed to a thing (what). This shows the incarnation of the devil in flesh to hinder God’s program.
There is a conspiracy by Haman against the spiritual Jews today. Several people in Islamic countries have been held hostage for the Word of God. We need to pray for them. We need to pray at dispensational level and intercede for others at the further ends of the world. We need to pray locally for the ministry and then personally for ourselves. Otherwise we will not escape the Haman conspiracy against us. The closure of SWT tabernacle is just a glimpse of the squeeze raising its head at the bride. It is high time we took note.
