Isaiah 58:8, Esther 4:16 and Esther 5:2
The Kings of those days regularly commanded executions. If Ester had not found favour with the King who lifted the sceptre for her, she would have been executed. The key was that the glory of the LORD was her rear guard and the Holy Spirit overshadowed her. This was the promise that was made to the Virgin Mary. She said, “How can I conceive since I am a virgin”? The angel said the Holy Spirit will overshadow you and she became the mother of our Saviour. King Abimelech could not touch Sarah even though he took her and was interested in sleeping with her, but the glory of the LORD would not allow it. The glory of the LORD did not allow Daniel to be eaten by lions. Shedrach, Meschack and Abednego were not burnt by fire because the ‘fourth man’, Jesus was there, guarding them. The glory of God will be our guard when we fast and pray. God will come upon us, around us and be with us to deal in seemingly dangerous or impossible situations without harm. The ‘impossible’ will become so easily possible, it will be unbelievable. That’s what God can do. Esther said, “Fast for me and I will go into a dangerous situation”. To make us know how dangerous the situation was, she added this chilling statement “if I perish I perish”. She did not perish; instead she found favour as the glory of God gave her victory. This year, all I want for New Year is God, God in His fullness, God in His glory and God in His manifest presence. What about you?
Isaiah 58:8 says “Your righteousness shall go before you”. This means we will have awesome testimonies for God and that God will give us influence like never ever before. We will be shinning lights before God for the world to see. In Luke 1:15, the bible talks about John the Baptist, his consecration and his honour even in heaven. John the Baptist took a Nazarene vow to avoid alcohol totally all the days of his life and the power of his ministry was evident. He had the power to call a dead nation back to life. As an illustration, we know how many miracles of healings have happened in the nation of Nigeria. There is however a difference between raising the dead and raising a whole nation from spiritual death? That was John the Baptist’s achievement. That’s the kind of influence he had. Prayer/Affirmation: As we fast and pray, God’s grace that shines righteousness forth and grants untold influence will fall over us in the mighty name of Jesus.
