Walking in the Spirit

Day three hundred thirty-seven

Today I am just filled with gratitude.  Not for one thing in particular, but for everything.  I wanted to let the Lord know that I appreciate Him and love Him.  I have been feeling His love for me in my life and I thought it appropriate to say thank you.  My prayer was filled with lots of “thank you’s” this morning!

Esther 8-10

In the previous chapters the king had made a decree saying that all the Jews should be destroyed which caused Mordecai and Esther to work together to plead for the people.  Esther exposes the bad guy, Haman’s, plan and the king has him killed.  However, the problem still remains that the decree cannot be retracted.  The Jews are still in danger. 

In chapter 8 both Mordecai and Esther are rewarded for their part in exposing Haman with high ranking positions and wealth.  Here Esther and Mordecai have been blessed and rewarded, but they aren't celebrating, they are not even focused on their blessing, all they can think about is their countrymen who are still in danger.  I think that is a perfect picture of where our hearts should be, but too often are not.

So Esther once again goes before the king to seek help for her people.  She is given permission to write an edict that will allow the Jews to protect themselves:

"Wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people and province that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take the spoil of them for a prey" (Esther 8:11)

What is interesting is that the Jews are not going to do that.  They only defended themselves against their attackers, they kill only the men.  They didn’t take any of the plunder, none of the spoil.  Instead of vengeance, they simply vindicated themselves. This would be an amazing act of restraint.

They had the freedom to take the spoils from those they annihilated, those who would have annihilated them, but they did not. They defended themselves, but went no further. They protected themselves and didn’t carry it to the extreme. How did this happen throughout the whole region?

This is one of the finer moments in Jewish history, here we see the Jewish people walking in the Spirit: 

"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.  But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law." (Gal 5:16-18)

They yielded to the Spirit. A fruit of the Spirit is self-control.  What an amazing connection they must have felt that day.

Have you ever been part of a group where all parties involved seem to be on the same page?  Where everyone is working together for the same goal as one unit? 

This is an interesting experience.  Often times I think we don’t recognize what is really going on when the Spirit works in us.  Instead we find ourselves thinking, this is way too easy, or where are the problems, there is always at least one problem!  We aren't used to it, we tend to doubt it, and we look for the flaw in it.

What could we accomplish if we would yield to the Spirit more? How much more good could we do if we were united in action?

The amazing thing is that when we are walking in the Spirit together we can accomplish incredible things, Godly things.   In a world filled with all sorts of wickedness, we can be like the Jews in these chapters and through our actions be an example of what God’s people should be like.  What a great display of God’s power it would be if all Christians could put aside their differences and pray for the Spirit to guide us a whole.  What a testimony builder it would be to be a part of that and what a witness of God it would be for those around us!  Let’s not wait for a negative situation to force us into action, we can pray for this blessing now.  It starts with you and me!