Standing and Prospering in an Evil Time

The Times Square Church Pulpit Series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. You are welcome to make additional cassettes of this message for free distribution to friends.

However, for all other forms of reproduction or electronic transmission, existing copyright laws apply. My message today is entitled, Standing and Prospering in an Evil Time. Standing and Prospering in an Evil Time.

Will you join me in prayer? Father, I do give you all the glory, because Lord, you are the Lord of glory. Lord, you've come in this place and you've gathered a people. And I pray, O God, that you would reveal yourself in the way that we need to understand you today.

Holy Spirit, come and lift up Jesus Christ. Lord, strengthen us now. Strengthen us and give us the ability, O God, to be what you've placed in our hearts that we are longing to be.

And that is a light for you, a light in a dark hour. I thank you, O God, for those that don't know you in this place, that Lord, you will shine a light and you will be heard and loved in this place. And we will give you all the praise and all the glory, for it belongs to you alone.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen and amen. I'm always amazed when I read scripture and the Holy Spirit quickens to me just how up-to-date and how relevant the Old Testament is.

And I would like if you would turn with me to the book of Esther and around chapter 4 in the Old Testament. And the Lord has dropped into my heart a truth from this book. And I see it so clearly today.

I have spoken from this book numerous times. In fact, this is one of the messages that I spoke in Italy. And yet even since coming back, the Lord has added to this word.

And it is a book that talks about how God triumphs over evil in perilous times. But it's much more than that. You know, we've heard a lot about perilous times.

We hear a lot about an evil time. I would like to give you my definition of what I think evil times is. And we'll see if that's maybe a time we're living in now.

But I believe that a perilous time is when evil seeks to dominate men's life. When it seeks to kill and crush and destroy and hide all that is right and true and all that is godly in a society. An evil time is when it starts to speak to the hearts of men and women in it that good is evil and evil is good.

And that the only way to prosper and the only way to get ahead is when we must be a partaker of darkness around us. That in other words, it is foolish, it is naive, it is being hopelessly simple to think that right or righteousness or godliness can prevail in the hour that is among them. It is a time when if anyone takes a stand for righteousness in so many places you would stand alone and you would stand opposed.

We've visited, we've had the privilege of visiting many nations and we truly have been to places where intimidation and violence is the way of life. But I think that what is happening in this nation in North America is kind of an insidious evil time. Because part of being the evil time is that it is such a mask and a cover-up.

It will seek to explain itself in a way that doesn't look evil, that doesn't look as corrupting, that doesn't look as vicious, doesn't look as god-corrupting as it is. And in the book of Esther, it is a picture and it is a time of a time that you and I live in. And the characters in this book, I think we're going to see ourselves in them very clearly.

Because you see, in the book of Esther, it talks about a king having a vast kingdom with unchallenged power. And the scripture tells us that his queen is a believer but that is unknown to the king. And the scripture tells us a man named Mordecai who is kinsman to the queen.

And he is a godly man, he is a man full of faith. And we can see on one level the story of Esther as a woman who's chosen to be queen for her beauty. And that's a type, you know, of a Christian where Christ comes into our life, gives us another spirit and makes us desirable and sets us apart as different from others.

But she was counseled for a season not to reveal that she was a believer. And Mordecai, her kinsman, is a godly man. And at that time, the scripture tells us clearly that an ungodly man, Haman, rises up and he becomes counselor to the king.

And this man represents all that is evil in a society. His name is Haman the Agagite, means the fiery one. And that fiery one, in his rulership, in his dominion, he wants to quench out everything of life, everything of faith, everything of light, everything that pertains to god-fearing people in a god-fearing nation.

He is against. He hates and opposes everything of the spirit of God. And the scripture tells us that this man, Haman, in a picture of what it is to live in an evil society, he wants everything and everybody in this kingdom to bow to him.

And the scripture tells us in the book of Esther that Mordecai, the man of faith, would not bow. That this man, Mordecai, he could recognize evil and he could resist evil. And as I thought about this man, I realized that the only way that anyone can recognize or resist evil is through faith.

But when I began to understand, Lord, faith, faith, that surely is the call, the high call of a believer to live in faith and move in faith. But Lord, how do we get faith? And I think by examining my own heart and looking at the lives of those around me where I see a sincere faith, a growing faith, a faith like Mordecai, I could honestly say the one common denominator is that that faith has in back of it an honesty and a sincere heart. Because you see, beloved, there are lessons of faith.

And Christ is going to, if we follow him and if we allow him to bind us to him, he's going to take us down roads that we don't understand, but it's all lessons of faith. And he's going to bring us through to triumph. He will cause us to triumph.

But lessons of faith are an incredible thing. And I know that Mordecai, to be able to stand in an evil day and not be intimidated by the spirit of his age, went down a road of faith and learned some lessons of faith. And I'm sure I know one of those lessons can be summed up in the Psalms where it says, when my heart and my strength fail, then God is the strength of my heart.

When my heart and my strength fail, you know, beloved, we are going to get to that point where that happens to us. We're in all our good intentions and desire of wanting to stand among our coworkers or stand in our family. And yet a faintness of heart will come upon us.

And yet the scripture clearly tells us through the spirit of God, by the pen of David, it says, when my heart and my strength fail, I can hear David say, let them fail. Let them be proven for what they are, that my heart and my flesh can only take me so far. But the lesson of faith is when my heart and my flesh and my faint heart of this fail, then I'm going to come to a clear understanding that God is the strength of my life and my heart.

And that is one giant forward step in faith. When we walk and we feel that we are not equal to the task of faith, we remember God in my own understanding or in my own wanting faith, it will fail me. But as I cry out to you with an honest heart and say, I cannot God be the strength of my heart, we become people of faith.

Scripture says when my heart condemns me, God is greater than my heart. This is a very necessary lesson in the walk of faith, because our heart is going to condemn us. If we have been touched by God and we want to walk the faith that we are going to feel our failure and our lack very keenly.

We are going to have an open door because we have a tender heart for the enemy to oppress us. But the scripture says that when my heart condemns me, God is greater than my heart. And we learn to say, God, you have given me an honest heart for you, a sincere heart, and I'm not going to live in anything but the truth.

And when this heart comes to condemn me and underline my failure, I'm going to say, God is greater than my heart. And the salvation that he has provided for me is full and complete. And I'm going to trust in that salvation.

And that God, if you're not condemning me because I have a heart that wants you, in spite of my fear and my failure, you say that is enough, that I cover you and I see no failure. God, you're greater than a heart that wants to condemn me. That was a very necessary path.

That's a very necessary road down the journey of faith. I know that Mordecai would have had to experience and be able to stand before him and the truth in the scripture where it says that God shall teach him in the way that he shall choose. Beloved, there is so much that we need to understand and learn in this journey of faith.

And the only way we learn the lessons is when, God, we say you have to choose the path of my learning. You know what issue to bring up when. You know what it is that I need to face, and I'm going to trust you in it.

I'm going to think, I can sometimes think that this needs to happen. If only this could happen, Lord, then I could move ahead with you. But when we realize the truth and that he shall teach him in the way that he shall choose, and we say, God, what is the issue in my life now is of your choosing for me to see, for me to deal with, for me to bring it to you, for me to keep bringing it to you, for me to trust you in places I've never trusted you before.

This is a walk of faith. When we say, God, you have so ordained my path, my steps are ordered because I have come to you in a simple faith. I have come to you to ask you to be Lord of my life.

I have come trusting that my sin is put away, and God, that I'm walking in a way that will please you. And the enemy will say, I don't please you. And my own heart will say, I don't please you.

And my understanding of things will say, how can this please you? But I'm understanding that you choose the path, you choose the issues, and you're building into me a life of faith that's going to be able to stand in an evil time. Scripture says, many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he that trusts in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. That scripture says that sorrows come to the just and the unjust.

The scripture says that many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but it's saying that those that are learning to trust God is saying, Lord, I'm going to see you compass me in mercy in the midst of all my sorrow. That, Lord, you're not going to let me fall down and not rise again. That, Lord, your mercy is going to compass me, and when I seemingly could be overcome by the sorrow that's in my heart and the anguish in my mind, you say that mercy will come and surround me and pick me up and cause me to take another step forward in faith.

When it is absolutely impossible for my own heart, my own flesh, my own reasoning, my own desire even, to allow me to take another step, your mercy will come in the midst of my sorrow. You will compass me about. And that's a step forward in faith.

Beloved, ultimately every man or woman of faith stands and declares it is by grace I stand. It is by grace that anything in me that can trust him in an impossible time is because he has been merciful to me. He has been compassionate to me in my fear and in my failure, in my stubbornness that never deterred him from keep reaching out to me.

It never brought me to a point where he did not reach his hand out and say, I'm God, I'm bigger than this in you. Because if we have an honest heart and a sincere heart, God says I will never stop extending my hand. I'll show you when you stand in faith.

It is because I have given you grace to stand in that place. And that ultimately is a man or a woman of faith. And we see that Mordecai stands in an evil time because he has learned these lessons.

He has learned and he knows now the truth of the scripture, the Psalms that says, oh, how great is thy goodness. How great is thy goodness, which you have laid out for them that trust you before the sons of men. God's saying that I am building in a faith because ultimately those that know they stand by grace, by mercy, when I have kept reaching down to them in their lowest point, in their highest point of pride, in their deepest rebellion.

I did not stop reaching out and said, I'm a God that can even conquer what pulls you away from me. Will you trust me in that? And all those that with a sincere heart said, yes, Lord, I want to trust you in that. God stirred a faith.

God created an ability to trust. And the faith they have, they know it is now by the son of God, if we're New Testament believers. And ultimately God is putting a faith in us because he says that he wants men to be able and women to stand in an evil time before the sons of men, confident of this one thing.

That God will never put to shame those that will stand for him. That God will never cause the enemies of those that put their trust in him to triumph over them. Never.

God says, I needed a man and a woman that I have brought on that journey of faith and so understand that it is by grace in the faith that they stand that I can put them fearless, not because they are fearless, but they have a testimony. They have a history. They have an experience with God that has taught them that he will not fail them who at the bottom of their heart saying, God, I want to trust you with all my heart, all my soul.

And because that cries in their heart, God gave them a history and now they have experience with God. And there comes a time there is a Mordecai people that can stand in an evil time before the sons of men, before evil men and women and stand. Unintimidated.

Now, Haman, second only to the king, intimidated by fear, intimidated because he seemed to have everything going his way. And everyone would bow except this man who had a history, who had a real experience with his God that caused him to stay on his feet when others would bow and rightly related to God, truly sown in him that God will never hand a man of faith over to the will of his enemies. This man stands out.

He's able to stand alone because at the bottom of this confrontation, God wants to provide a contrast and God wants to bring a victory. God knows that in an evil time, he has a plan to triumph over that evil. And those that have had a history that know that their faith is by grace and know that their God won't fail them.

And they're standing in an evil time. They're going to start to have an understanding of things. And the first thing is that they don't have to bow.

And so they stand upright. And the scripture says the righteous are as bold as a lion in the day of abounding fear. The righteous are as bold as a lion.

And their history now causes them to say that I know for many of you, some of your most favorite verses is Psalm 27, where it says, the Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? But only those that know their own light is small, their own strength is almost non-existent in an evil day and have drawn on the power and strength of their God can say these words truthfully.

You know, there is a time and it says it in Psalm 27, there is a time in the time of trouble. He shall hide me in his pavilion. There is a time in a day of trouble where God says, I will make those that are mine.

I will cause them to be invisible. I will cause them because of my time and my reasonings and my understanding where their enemies can't even find them. But then there is another time.

And that is the time where it says he shall set me upon a rock and my head will be lifted up above my enemies. There is a time and it's an evil time where God starts to say, this is what I want to do with those that have a history with me. This is what I want to do.

I need someone that will follow me now, that will trust me now, that I may set you up on a rock. And I say to you, your head will be lifted up above your enemies and you will be able to see things others cannot see. And you, because I have built into you a life of faith, little by little, experience by experience, after failures and fears and rebellion and pride, you found out I was still faithful to you.

And you will learn and we will learn not to bend. And because he was willing to stand and not bend, Haman set his eyes upon him and his mission became to destroy Mordecai. His mission began to be Haman, that all that Mordecai stood for was a direct affront to him.

And he was consumed with destroying this man and destroying all the people of Mordecai. Beloved, when this happens, so often, even the believers, fellow believers, begin to wish the Mordecai people would bend a little. There is a time where those who are not as well taught in the things of faith, or are resisting that path, those that will stand, those that will in an evil time speak, they will feel that the Mordecai's are the troublers of Israel.

That charge was put to Elijah one day, when he who had a living word, who was going to lead his people out of bondage, he was told, you are the problem. You are the troubler of Israel. There would be those, even among fellow believers, that would say, be quiet, soften, sidestep.

You are the peril to us, not Haman. If you would bend a little, it would be well with us. And beloved, an evil time is a time of confusion.

It's a time where there's no understanding, even among people of light. Because if we will not walk a path of faith, we will not have light. And there's so many opinions, there's so much confusion, there's so much accusations where men begin to lean on their own understanding.

And those that will stand in the light look like they're the problem. But beloved, God has created this time. God is the one who is calling Mordecai to stand in a faith and a trust in him.

Because God would deliver his people in perilous times. This is of God's orchestrating. This is a God-appointed time.

Now the scripture tells us in Esther 4.1 that Mordecai perceived all that was done. He's understanding now that Haman not is only seeking his life, but he sends a decree throughout all the land and he is now hunting for the life of every believer. That he wants to shut down, shut out all of God in his society.

Mordecai represents one of many and he is determined now that everything within his power, he will kill and destroy the light in the land. Scripture says Mordecai perceives all this and he goes and he cries in the city. The scripture says he puts on sackcloth and his life before it is his testimony of faith that is speaking and now the anguish in him and the anguish in him when he's putting on a sackcloth is adding emphasis.

And he's crying out to a city. And in Esther 4.4 he sends word to the queen and the scripture tells us that the queen is exceedingly grieved and she sends Raymond to take away his sackcloth. And I thought about this woman.

maybe she's embarrassed, you know, maybe she was saying, you know, I was told to keep quiet, Mordecai, from you and now here you are in the midst of the city and this weeping and this wailing. I wonder if she wondered in her own heart she didn't see him and is a particularly great threat. She could have said, I live in the palace and I don't see it like you see it.

Maybe she thought I personally don't care for the man but the scripture tells us that Mordecai perceived the hour and I believe that her reaction to him says that she did not understand the hour in the time. She did not understand what was at stake. I began thinking about this man Mordecai because when he went to the king's gate and he went to send word to this woman, it was because Mordecai was realizing God was asking him to speak to this believer, Esther, with this level of understanding and he was going to send her a word that in this hour of trial she was to be the deliverer.

You know, in my own understanding and I'm sure in your own understanding, we could say God sent Mordecai. The man knows the times and he has the anointing. He has that history of faith.

He knows what he is in you. He knows what you're about. But God is sending this man of God with a word to a woman, to a people, to a church age with no perceiving of the hour they live in and saying you must be the hope.

Doesn't a Haman time require the confronting by a Mordecai type of believer? That stature and that anointing but the scripture tells us in Esther 4.8 that Mordecai sends word to Esther to charge her that she should go in unto the king to make supplication unto him and to make requests before him for her people. And her answer in 4.11 and 12, she basically tells him, don't look here for help. She tells him in Esther 4.11, she says all the king's servants and the people of the king's province do know that whosoever whether man or woman shall come into the king into the inner court who is not called there is one law of his to put him to death except such to one whom the king shall hold out the golden scepter that he may live but I have not been called to come in unto the king these 30 days and they told to Mordecai Esther's words.

This is where Mordecai needed probably every ounce of faith ever taught him or deposited in him to stand. But these were kinsmen. I believe that you know the scripture tells that Mordecai was her uncle and I believe that's a picture.

They shared the same heart. That Esther did have a sincere and honest heart. But Esther was Esther.

And I got to thinking who is that woman? And who in the 21st century where you and I live, what is she saying to us? And I believe that when we look into Esther, we look at her circumstances, beloved, we're going to glance into our own souls, male or female, when we hear this woman speak. If we are not Mordecai in our faith, then truly if we've been touched with God, we are Esther. Esther, you know, speaks to me of a person who has been beautified by salvation.

And they live a life of there's a desire to do good works and a desire to live right and to be kind. To say, God, I want to live a life that is unselfish in motives. And these are needed things.

But there comes a point where there's a line drawn in this life. And there is no declaration in this life. There is no saying a line has been crossed in live or die.

I am the Lord. It's a faith. But it's a faith that wants it to tell it to me on the bright side.

Give me faith and give me examples where I don't have to declare myself and stand apart and stand alone. It's kind of a faith and a walk that sometimes wants to see itself as the beauty queen, but not the warrior. It says, you know, my faith has brought me to a good place.

My faith has brought me to a blessed place and I'm enjoying my salvation. And beloved, that's true with many. And wanting to have a life of good works, that's a good element and that's a needed element in our faith.

But there is a resistance in this kind of immature faith that says, I don't want to be moved to the front where the enemy lives. I don't want to be moved to the front lines. I want to stay support staff.

I want to be a spectator in an evil time. I want to stay sidelined in an evil time. I want to stay where I am.

You know, Esther also speaks to me, of me, of many, that at times in their life says, the king has not called me in 30 days. It speaks about a prayerless life, a largely prayerless life. Where for many, Sunday is the only connection to God, the only vital one.

There could be prayers on the run. There can be devotionals read while eating toast in the subway over it. But it's more to pacify our conscience.

It's not a vital connection. And that which was to be our lifeline and that which would be our life, our source of supply, that which was to feed our faith, we are cut off from. And it's been 30 days since I know what it is to stand in his presence and hear a word from him.

Esther can also be that Christian that feels broken and defeated because forsaken, because I'm not called, bind them up. There is such a spirit of rejection. There is a spirit of oppression on them.

And it's like the gospel can't be preached. The truth can't be preached. You cannot preach to them except they hear everything through a spirit of rejection or oppression that says, I'm not called.

I'm not worthy. I, I, I'm not vital. I'm not needed.

Let Mordecai do it. I cannot. It's an evil time, but I'm afraid I am powerless.

I am sidelined. Esther says, Mordecai, not me, not now. I'm powerless.

And there's Mordecai. And I would risk too much by stepping out. I would risk too much.

But beloved God's messenger has lived his message, Mordecai. And God's plan is that he is going to raise up men and women of faith. Who are going to live the life.

Who are saying, you can look into my life and you can look to me because it's my grace. I am what I am. I am because of who he is.

I do what I do because it's his power in me. It's because when he speaks the word, he's given me grace to latch onto it. That he says my head will be lifted up around my enemies and he will give me strength to stand in an evil time before the sons of men.

And that I will not be triumphed over evil because God, your plan is to destroy evil. And you will give me the grace to stand when even no one else can, even though I will be reviled and misunderstood by those in whom I'm actually fighting for. And God, if you're asking me to go to an Esther that seems so fainthearted, that seems so incapable of standing in truth, I will go because God, that's your heart for her.

You're going to ask her to look into my life and you're going to say, Esther, I'm no different from you, but I am farther down the road in faith by grace. God said, I'm not sending a Mordecai. I'm sending Mordecai with a message to you, Esther.

Because I'm calling you to be the deliverer, to stand maybe for the first time and understand that those that will put their trust in me in places where they could never trust before, but will let my word to them be a source of life and be a source of strength and be a source of power for the first time. Look to me, Esther Mordecai, I'm a man. I'm a one like you are.

I stand by grace. And if you will believe it, so will you. And God's messenger, bold and unintimidated.

He obeyed God by not bowing, but now he was going to obey God by delivering the complete message to her. And the complete message to her in Esther four, verse 13 said, then Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, think not with thyself that thou shall escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether hold us by peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place, but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed.

And who knows whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. Beloved, you may not recognize that's one of the greatest grace messages we've ever heard. But God is saying to her that you, I want to use you.

And that even in your state, even where I find you now in the palace, so cowed down, so at times unbelieving, so wanting to serve me yet feeling so incapable, so intimidated. He's saying, but I'm reaching out to you. And he is saying that I can still use you.

Your fear, your failure does not limit me. But he's also saying, Esther, understand something. When I bring light to you, you must deal with the light you have.

And I tell you it is an evil time. And the evil will consume all those that will not stand in truth and will not trust me. He's saying it's such an evil time that deliverance will come.

Deliverance has to come to my people. Enlargement will come. But he said, for those that are understanding, I'm offering you through my grace, through my compassion, through my mercy, the offer to stand and the offer to trust me because I will not fail you.

He's saying when I put out my hand, know that if you refuse, the hour is so evil that those who will not trust will be swallowed by their compromise. It is such an evil time that those that choose compromise, that choose fear, that choose, Lord, I can walk this walk of faith my terms, my way. God says in an evil time, those and their house will be destroyed.

But he's saying, Esther, listen to me. Deliverance is coming. Enlargement is coming.

Are you in or are you out? And I can use you in it. Such a grace message. And I love her response because when she heard that word, a woman with a true heart, a woman with an honest heart, that's me.

A woman with a sincere heart. The word of God comes and it is light to her. The scripture says unto the upright, there arises light in the darkness.

If we don't close our eyes. Unto the upright, there will arise light in the darkness for everyone that has a sincere and honest heart and says, God, in an evil time, I cannot stand, but I want to stand. God, my mouth has been closed for so long.

God, there's so much in me that keeps me back from fully trusting you. But God, in the bottom of my heart, you know, I want it. And I hear your word and I hear the grace in it.

And I hear that you're painting, you're telling me the whole truth. And I have a decision to make. And the scripture says that word stirred her.

Mordecai's life stirred her. And there was starting to be hope and light in this. And the scripture says, I will go to him.

We will fast. We will pray. I will go to the king.

And if I perish, I perish for every Esther in this place. And I speak to myself, God has said something to me. He says, Teresa, something has to perish.

But when I come to him and I come to him with an honest and sincere heart, I see it's my lack of trust that will perish. I will see it's my fear. I will see it is my own ways.

And feeling I have, I'm so wrapped around it. But God, if I'm willing to trust you, something will perish. And that which kept me back from believing you and trusting you and following you and being able to be willing to stand in an evil time, that's what will perish.

You know, she didn't want to go because going at one level meant risking everything. But when the word of God came to her, she could see very clearly, really, what am I risking? By risking, by obeying him, by risking, by trusting him with everything. What were the alternatives? He said in an evil time, all those that will not trust you, your house, the people you have influenced, the people that I would send you to, the ministry I would put into your hand if you would obey me, all that will perish.

But he's saying those that will say, God, whatever has to perish in my following, you let it perish. God's not asking the successful to stand and the powerful to stand and the anointed to stand and the uncompromising to stand. He's asking the Esthers to stand alongside the Mordecais.

And then he said, did I not bring you to the kingdom for such a time as this? Did I not bring you? Did I not bring those that have not this wonderful history of faith? Did I not bring you to the kingdom that I may show myself, God, to the society around when the Esthers stand up and say, if I perish, I perish, but God, I've heard your word and it's created something in me, a longing to trust you no matter what the cost. And she went forward. Hallelujah.

And she goes to the king and she doesn't receive just your life, but she receives an abundance of mercy and an abundance of grace. And that's what happens when we go. The enemy will paint the picture.

Yes, you go and you will perish and he will paint the blackest picture. But I remind you, fellow believers, he's the father of lies and you can be sure everything he will say to us at the bottom of it, at the root of it is a lie. And so she goes and she finds abundance and grace, abundance and mercy.

She finds that God can use her. She finds that she can lift up her voice for her people. She finds that she can lift up her voice for her household and herself and the ministry God has entrusted into her.

And she gets nothing but grace, nothing but favor, nothing but fulfillment of all that she asked for. And she unmasked the plan of the enemy. It was not a Mordecai because that was not God's plan.

God's plan was an Esther. God used Mordecai, but God's plan was an Esther to unmask the enemy at this evil time. And God wants to use us, you and me, to unmask the enemy in an evil time.

He can be unmasked. It doesn't matter how evil the days get. There is an abundance and there is a prosperity in those that will trust the Lord.

And we found unmasking the plans of the enemy if we would but trust and follow him. Haman never thought his threat was from Esther. He thought it was from Mordecai.

He never thought there was a cry in the heart of this woman and everyone like her, if I perish, I perish, I'll trust you. And she unmasked the plans of the enemy. If you turn with me in Esther 8, verse 7 and 8, it says, I have given halfway in the middle of that verse of verse 7 in chapter 8, I have given Esther the house of Haman.

I have given Esther the house of Haman in an evil time where she was supposed to be part of those who were destroyed by her trust. God says that I not only cause you to stand, I'm going to cause you to prosper. I'm going to cause you to spoil the enemy's goods.

He's going to cause people who have an honest heart and say, I'm a man, I'm a woman, very little faith. But God, that does not stop your hand from creating in me a heart that will follow you and a heart that will trust you. You are not limited by my littleness.

God, I'm going to trust you. Oh, the little I have, I bring it to you. The little I am, I bring it to you because that's what Esther did.

And Esther was given the house of Haman. And it also tells us in verse 8, write ye also for the Jews as it likes you. It was given to her now because she had an abandonment to her God.

It was like, rewrite the story. Would you like the chance to rewrite the story of your family? Would you like the chance to rewrite the story, our history in God? Do we want the chance? Do we want the grace given to us to rewrite, write it as you like the King says, because those that will abandon themselves to me and will trust me in places they've never trusted me before. God says, I'll bring them a history of faith and I will allow them to come to me because they have a clean heart and abandoned heart to me.

And it says, rewrite what you like. I will give it to you. Will the Mordecai's, those with the people of faith, allow themselves to know that their lives are having an influence more than they know.

And that the Mordecai's many times when those who are called to teach and preach, really the message is a faith being built in to cause the Esther's to stand. Mordecai's don't be sidetracked. The way has been rough.

The path has been sorrowful. At times you have never understood what God was doing, but in an evil time, in the darkest of time, that light will shine the brightest and have the greatest influence. Now, beloved, the Lord gave me three scriptures at the end that I didn't understand when I wrote this message, except I just wrote them in faith.

And I will just give them to you. I feel that God is saying for many that are rising up and saying, God, I hear you. I'm Esther, but I hear you.

And I want to trust you in those hardest of places because you're going to get the glory. You're going to do things that are beyond my thinking and knowing. And God, you know who I am and you know my consistent ability to fail you.

But God, I'm entrusting it all to you, everything that's in my heart. I'm going to give it to you every day and I'm going to see you create faith and you're going to cause me to stand alongside of the Mordecai's. You're calling, you've got a ministry, you've got a call on my life.

And the scripture in Colossians says, take heed to the ministry that thou has received in the Lord that thou fulfill it. Take heed. This is not a light thing.

This is not a message. This is truth. This is reality.

God's saying that those that I can stir that have an honest and sincere heart, I'm putting the ministry into your hands. There are some here that God is calling you to go and preach in nursing homes, to preach in campuses, to preach in schools, that God is saying now I've deposited things in you and you know you are a humble servant. And I can entrust you to stand now because you'll not be preaching yourself, you'll be preaching me.

He says, stand in an evil time, no matter who is against you. Know that it is my word and that I will bring it forth. But the word that I felt that God was wanting me to close with is in Colossians 4.5, where it says, walk in wisdom towards them that are without.

Walk in wisdom towards them that are without. And also let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with fault, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. And I feel that so many are going to accept what God is calling them to, and many here have already.

But beloved, there is a disconnect because having and hearing the word of God and Him creating faith in us, when we get out among unbelievers, when we get into places where we're among family that say they're believers, and with our head being lifted up because we are becoming people of faith, we can see things they cannot. And yet our speech is not being seasoned with fault, that we're beginning to speak. And you know, this was so confirmed by the message this morning, where God was saying, out of what spirit are we speaking? But we who are the people of faith, do we have the spirit of God when we speak? That so often we can have so much deposited in us, but when we get out there, God says that there is a multitude He wants to reach and will reach and touch if the people of faith will have a speech that is seasoned with grace, seasoned with fault.

Beloved, Mordecai's words had such impact because I believe he understood who he was. He didn't see himself as some great tower of faith. He saw himself as a man that God had never forsaken, that God had not turned His back on, and that God, because He was gracious to him, taught Him lessons.

And when He spoke, and He had the ability to speak the truth to Esther, but to stir her, that His words had an ability, they had a grace in them that was full of hope, it was full of entreaty, it was full of pleading. Beloved, when those, you know, our speech is called to have salt. We're called with our speech to heal, to preserve, to make the conversation, to make the spirit in your mouth, to make your mouth sweeter, flavorful, to cause thirst.

Beloved, if we are determined to have speech like this, then when we go to the office, we may be the only one speaking falterly. Don't back down. Don't back down, Mordecai.

Stand. Let our words, let the weight of God be in our words. So often, we go full of faith, but when we get out, and it's like the evil time overpowers us, and we get intimidated, and we back up.

And all of a sudden, our speech starts to betray this backing up, and this intimidation. And God is saying He wants the people out in this world whose words, whose speech will mean something. It will be a certain sound, and it will not be intimidated.

That God will give us the grace and the wisdom what to say, and when to say it, but by the grace of God, we need to say it. And then among ourselves, let us have this grace. Friday night, I was sharing in a class, and the Lord just so impressed that with so many times we use words as clubs with each other.

We take the word literally as a sword and run each other through, because a little bit of Bible is a very dangerous thing. And as we heard this morning, if we're not living it, be careful when we speak it. God will not be mocked.

Yet, there is such power in words full of grace and seasoned with salt. Such power. When words are full of grace, there's a humility in them.

Ourselves, we know who we are. But when our words are graceful, there is a confidence in God. When there's a grace in our word, there's a caring for those we're speaking to.

We're not soapboxing. We're not preaching to them. We're asking the spirit of God for the key to their heart and their mind.

We know who we are, but we are confident in our God. It's one thing to be stirred to faith. But when Esther went before the king, her words were few.

And as God was unmasking the evil, the plan of Haman, she said, come, I would like to offer you a banquet. And when they got there, she said, would you come again tomorrow? Because that very night, Haman was building the gallows for Mordecai. And when she unmasked the enemy, the next day, all she had to do was point to the gallows and say, see, everything I'm telling you about him is true.

Look there. There is a time and a grace. And I just want to close today by saying, I saw the power of gracious words in a very unusual way when I was in Nigeria this past trip.

And I'm not boasting. I just tell you the truth. I saw a grace on my husband when he spoke.

In the pulpit, it was an anointing. But I saw grace when he was called to banquets, when he was called to stand before kings and governors, when he was called to stand and receive applause. I saw grace upon him.

And I heard such a grace in his lips that astounded me. And I saw that even those that were maybe not one with us in the mission or those that were skeptical of us, I saw their hearts turn. I saw how they became one with us.

I saw how God softened the hearts and brought down the walls through right words. I saw how the kingdom of God was advanced because the words in them contained an incredible confidence in God, but a humility from the vessel and a caring for those they were speaking to. And I saw miracles happen through gracious words.

Beloved God is calling us to faith and a right speaking. Hallelujah. Would you stand with me? As the musicians come, God wants to minister to those that are hearing in this, God, I want to trust you where I've never trusted you before.

In my point of failure, these altars are open for those that are saying, God, I need you to get a hold of my lips. I want to have an answer. I want your words and your spirit upon me when I speak to those that you say you will give into my hand, to those that you are calling, because through my words, you will awaken them just as Mordecai awakened Esther.

But God, I want to commit my lips to you. I want to commit, oh God, that ability to entrust you in this area of my life. And for those that say, God, I want an abandonment to you that I'll say, if I perish, I perish.

But knowing that those that from the bottom of their heart have that cry, God says, that's how I prosper you. That is the path to power. That's the key to Haman's house.

And rewriting the history is an abandonment to me. Those that are so little in faith, who are poor in spirit, the hope, the promise is made to us. I can make you mighty in me.

If you can trust me, allow this word to become your reality. Allow my word to be the truth to you. Grip onto me.

Beloved, those that have come to the altar, God is asking great things of you and of me. He's asking us to believe us that he's going to cause us to stand in an evil time. And he's going to cause us to prosper in an evil time.

God says, all those that are mine know the end is victory. Everyone that is mine, the end is victory. Beloved, by faith, by our very little faith, we're going to trust him.

And he's going to cause us to stand. And we're going to be able to do things that we never thought we could do. And we're going to be prosperous.

And the things that God puts us into our hands, we're going to spoil the goods of the enemy. We're going to rewrite our history. And we're going to give all the glory to God.

Of salt, of seasoned speech, with a way to our words, where before we were confounded, we did not know what to say. We are now going to believe God. He's going to give us the presence of mind when not to speak, when to speak, what to say, how to say it.

We're not going to allow the enemy to second guess us and say, you shouldn't have said that. We're going to learn to tell the enemy to shut up and ask God to open our mouth. Now let's give him the praise.

Lord, we come believing stood before us. So God, we ask you to strengthen them. We ask you Lord to bless them.

We ask you to continue them on a path of faith. Oh God. And we ask you to give them grace to keep speaking into our lives.

The Esther's Oh God, for you have determined to put deliverance into our hands. Oh God, into our families, into our worlds, into our testimonies, into our ministries. God, we thank you for this.

Lord, we look not to ourselves, but we look to an awesome God that cannot fail. Now, Lord, we give you our praise and our joy. It's a sign that we've heard you and we believe you in Jesus name and give him the glory.

This is the conclusion of the message.