Esther 8:11 – “The king’s edict granted the Jews in every city the right to assemble and protect themselves; to destroy, kill and annihilate any armed force of any nationality or province that might attack them and their women and children; and to plunder the property of their enemies.”

An interesting feature of the story of Esther is that even when the King discovers the plot to exterminate the Jews (Haman was planning to commit genocide), there was no measure taken to prevent this from occurring.  Instead, Mordecai and Esther convinced the King to authorize resistance by God’s people against their enemies.  This was partly due to an unusual feature of ancient Persian law, which made the previous edict irrevocable; the best they could do was try to offset it or cancel it out with an equal counter-measure.  Instead of prohibiting anyone from attacking the Jews, the new edict simply authorized the Jews to assemble and to protect themselves, and to destroy any who attacked them.

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Esther 2:7 – “Mordecai had a cousin named Hadassah, whom he had brought up because she had neither father nor mother.  This girl, who was also known as Esther, was lovely in form and features, and Mordecai had taken her as his own daughter when her father and mother died.”

Esther, the wife of King Xerxes of the Persian Empire, is a prophetic symbol of the bride of Christ.  The bride of Christ is the faithful church (See Ephesians 5:25-27; Revelation 19:7; Revelation 21:2; Revelation 21:9; Revelation 22:17).

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Esther 6:6-10 – When Haman entered, the king asked him, “What should be done for the man the king delights to honor?” Now Haman thought to himself, “Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?”

So he answered the king, “For the man the king delights to honor, have them bring a royal robe the king has worn and a horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on its head.”

We see here a picture of the mentality of many religious leaders – self-promotion and seeking glory, and being oblivious to the Lord’s purposes.  Men seek to be elevated or have control over others.  The Lord carries out his project without glorifying man or yielding control to any human being.

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Romans 14:17-20 – “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.”

Here, Paul explains the meaning of the Work of God. We define “the Work of God” as the way we serve Christ and please God, as this passage says. The Kingdom of God has righteousness, peace, and joy as three of its defining characteristics, and these three things should always be pervasive in God’s Work.

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Ephesians 5:25-27 – “…Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”

The Bible teaches that Jesus gave his life on Calvary for the sake of a church that is “radiant” (NIV) or “glorious” (KJV). This church is not just a religious organization, or a Christian ministry. It is a living entity, holy, cleansed from sin and impurity. It is Jesus’ bride. Yet there are many “churches,” denominations, and Christian organizations that do not fit the description here. There is a difference between a “religion” (i.e., Christianity) and a radiant or glorious church.

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Here we summarize seven points that we have found most important for having the Holy Spirit work more freely – and more powerfully – in our midst. These are the seven concepts we most want to share with others, the points that we believe will make the most difference in your church or group.

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1 John 1:5-7 – “…This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin…”

God gives us His light by His revelation. He gives us this so that He might prepare a Faithful Church to live in His presence forever. His light is what guides us day by day to this holy and perfect destination.

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Genesis 20:12-13 (KJV)

“And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.  And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said unto her, ‘This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother.’”

Twice during his wanderings in Genesis, Abraham encounters situations where the local ruler takes Sarah into his harem (pagan kings back then had a large collection of wives, of course).  The first time was with Pharaoh in Genesis 12, and the second was with Abimelech in Genesis 20.  In each case, before any harm comes to Sarah at all, the Lord intervened and rebuked the ruler, so that Sarah came back to Abraham immediately.  Prophetically, this illustrates how we as believers are both Christ’s brothers, as well as the Bride of Christ collectively.   continue

1 Kings 3:26-27 – “The woman whose son was alive was filled with compassion for her son and said to the king, ‘Please, my lord, give her the living baby!  Don’t kill him!’”  But the other said, ‘Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!; Then the king gave his ruling: ‘Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother…’”

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Micah 7:14 - Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance,
which lives by itself in a forest, in fertile pasturelands.
Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in days long ago.

God’s “flock” is the faithful church, the Body of Christ in the world today. Prophetically, the Body of Christ reaches a special stage of full development or maturity immediately before the Rapture (see Eph. 4:11-16). Micah and other Old Testament prophets foresaw the spiritual Body, God’s flock, of the Last Days. We live in the moment when these prophecies reach their fulfillment.

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