Can you prepare a banquet?

On the third day of the fast, Esther put on her royal robes and entered the inner court of the palace, just across from the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne, facing the entrance. Esther 5:1

⁴ And Esther replied, “If it please the king, let the king and Haman come today to a banquet I have prepared for the king.” Esther 5:4

As believers in this time and age, we have been blessed with so much access. There are so many platforms you can be connected to, in addition to your local assembly, in order to grow in word and in prayer. It is simply awesome. However, I’m learning that regardless of where you are connecting you must pay attention to the season you’re in and God’s dealings with you.

I’m learning that when it comes to prayer and manifesting the victory God has given us, there is a season or birthing in the Spirit. That’s usually a season of intense spiritual activity such as prayer and fasting. Depending on how God decides to release the breakthrough, this season might be followed with a season of action and execution that releases the victory birthed in prayer into the earth.

In the book of Esther, Haman, an enemy of the Jews wanted all the Jews dead. He went ahead to set his plan in motion and a decree was passed to have the Jews executed on a specific day. The Jews heard about it and went into a fast for three days. On the third day of the fast Queen Esther takes off her mourning clothes (a symbol of humbling yourself before God in prayer) and puts on her royal robe. Gets into the palace and prepares a banquet for the king and Haman, with no mention of the issue at hand. I want you to think about this for a moment, assuming you were a Jew in those days and you did not have the privilege of knowing what transpired between Mordecai and Esther, what would your response be when you hear about the Queen feasting with the King when her people are about to be executed?

How can you can be eating and drinking, not just with the King but with the very one who wants to destroy your people? Dear Queen Esther, shouldn’t you stay in prayer until there’s a breakthrough? In my religious mind, a breakthrough would be the King sending for her. But God is not a man and His ways are higher.

I believe the victory the Jews needed was birthed in the place of prayer, however there were certain steps needed on the outside in order for the victory to be made manifest. Esther was given a strategy that seem counter intuitive and wrongly timed. But Esther had the courage to stop praying & fasting, get up, change her clothes and execute.

What the Holy Spirit has been impressing on my heart lately is that many victories have been birthed in the place of prayer, but most of us have no risen from prayer to execute the instructions placed in our hearts because of numerous reasons.

For some the instructions seem to be wrongly timed, “I should not be feasting and having a banquet when there’s a death sentence over my life and my people”. “Everyone is on the third day of the fast and I am here feasting and enjoying a banquet”. I can only imagine what Esther was thinking.

For another, the instructions you have received does not look very spiritual, so your mind tells you to stay praying, trusting God for a breakthrough on the outside without obeying that instruction. Maybe Esther also pondered if it was really God leading her to set a banquet for the King and Haman. What would have become of the Jews is Esther prayed but never got up to obey an instruction that did not seem appropriate in the moment? The instruction impressed in your heart may not be as spiritual or religious but be sure to obey. The victory you’ve birthed in prayer will be manifest as you take action.

For others, it is the fear of what people would say. I wonder what would have been said of Esther by those who had no idea what the plan was? I can imagine some Jews thinking “We are all fasting and praying for our lives to be spared and our only hope of reaching the King to plead for mercy decides this was the time for her to go give a banquet and feast with the king. I guess she doesn’t care if we die”

My question to you today is: Do you have the courage to prepare a banquet? Do you have the courage to rise from a place of prayer and take the steps you should or have you defined persisting in prayer by praying until God miraculously changes something on the outside?

Do you have the courage to prepare a banquet when it doesn’t make sense? Could it be that the answer to the promotion you seek at work is not in the certifications and prayer chain you’re engaging in? Could it be God has answered with the nudging in your heart to go for coffee with your boss and go for lunch with your colleagues?

What happens when the answer to your prayer comes as an action that seems so casual, so unspiritual and maybe so wrongly timed from a logical perspective. Would you have the courage to receive or would you be too spiritual to even sense it? For many reading this post today, I believe there are answers you have birthed in the place of prayer but are yet to be manifested. The key to manifesting that victory may not another season of fasting or praying, it may be in rising up and acting consistent with the instruction or nudging in your heart.

Going back to where I started from, learning this lesson has saved me a lot of guilt that sometimes comes from not participating on certain activities on the different spiritual platforms I’m privileged to be a part of. I’m learning that every call to prayer or fasting is not for me and it doesn’t make me less spiritual. I don’t want to be in my prayer closet when I should be preparing a banquet, I must understand what season I’m in and respond accordingly. So, if like me you sometimes feel guilty or not so spiritual for not joining some programs, find rest.  

A season of execution does not mean prayerlessness, it just means the emphasis has changed and it’s important to act accordingly. If you sense a note of victory after a season of prayer, it may be time to arise, prepare a banquet and let that victory find expression on earth. There’s a sound of victory, it’s a season of manifestation. Don’t stay in your prayer closet if you should be preparing a banquet.

Love always

Obebi