Intercession: The Throne Ministry # 21

"For Ever, O Lord, Thy Word is Settled in Heaven" (continued)

[3]  (Esther 5:13) Haman went forth that day with a glad heart thinking he was even in greater favor with the king because of Esther's request. However, as he went, he saw Mordecai in the king's gate and his hatred of Mordecai, the Jew, rose up in him - a bitter hatred that had accumulated throughout the generations of Amalek, for it was the bitter and venomous hatred of the serpent himself against "The Seed" of the woman. And Haman said to his wife: "yet all this availeth me nothing, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the kings' gate." The underlined phrase is the Acrostic, and this time the letters are at the end of each word and the word is spelled backward, thus speaking of the Lord overruling and turning back the counsel of the enemy; and in the English it may be freely rendered:

saD foR nO avaiL ... (LORD).

And, even though Haman does not realize it, with his own voice he has sealed his and his descendants' doom, because God is overruling and turning back the enemy's counsel. The Eternal Word, the Lord of all, is executing judgment upon His enemies, "Because with secret hand the Lord fighteth against Amalek from generation to generation" (Exodus 17:16)

[4] (Esther7:7). At last the time has come and Esther's intercession draws to a climax as the king, moved by the hidden power of God, grants her petition. Now, in God's appointed timing, Esther discloses the fact that she is a Jew and that the wicked Haman had plotted the murder of her and her people. Then Haman realizes that his end is near: "for he saw that there was evil determined against him by the king." Again, the Acrostic is underlined and in the English is translated thus:

eviL tO feaR determineD ... (LORD).

So, the enemy of God is taken in his own craftiness, and Haman is hung on the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai. Beloved, no matter what our trials or circumstances, we must come to realize that the hidden power of God proclaims in His Word, with intricate detail, that the Alpha and Omega is The Beginning and the Ending: He is Lord! Hence, the Word of God has determined that the diabolical plots of the enemy against The Christ and His people must proclaim, and consummate in, the unequivocal fact that Jesus Christ is Lord. No wonder satan hates the Word!

[5] (Esther 7:5) And now, in the midst of Haman's end, we come to the last alphabetical Acrostic in Esther; last because it is different from the other four in that it proclaims the "I AM." When Esther told the king of the adversary's plot, the king exclaimed, "WHO IS HE, AND WHERE IS HE?" In the original the Acrostic is formed by the final letters of the king's question, and The Name is spelled backwards. Therefore, controlled by the hidden power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, the king unconsciously utters the words which spell the Name of The "I AM". The Great "I AM" of Exodus 3:14, The One Who sees the beginning unto the ending, The One Who had delivered His people out of the hand of Pharaoh, was again breaking the power of His enemy - "with secret hand the Lord fighteth." So the king, controlled by the hidden power of God, proclaims The "I AM" Who said,

"This is my Name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations, by this Name I AM to be remembered to all generations."

This is not saying that God has to remember as if He forgets, or that we have to remember Him, but it is saying that sealed, kept, and fully controlled in the Eternal Memory of God is His Purpose In the Christ. And In His Eternal Memory, kept there by His hidden power, are the ones chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

Therefore, when the enemy is doing his worst against the people of God because of his hatred of Christ, the "I AM", the One Whose Name lives for ever, "with Secret Hand fighteth." An whether it is a pagan king or an emissary of satan or satan himself, they must consciously or unconsciously, willingly or unwillingly, confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. So from Esther's experience we learn that Philippians 2:10 and 11 is being fulfilled in each and every age and generation.

That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Dear ones, in each generation the intercessors like Mordecai and Esther choose to proclaim His Lordship no matter what the circumstances. They do this by faith, for they have come to know Him Who Is The Beginning and the Ending. They know by trusting Him and taking Him as Lord that "The Alpha and The Omega" is working all things after the counsel of His Own Will. And in the depths of their innermost being, which through Christ has become one with the Eternal Memory of God, they know that the "I AM" is always there for His people, not always to make things right in the earthly realm, but always to bring forth a greater increase of The Christ.

Beloved, intercession is a Royal Work, it is the Throne Ministry that is energized and kept by the Right Hand of God: IS IS THE SECRET HAND OF GOD THAT FIGHTETH! Intercession is the "HIDDEN POWER OF GOD" at Work: it is the Great and Royal Work of God's Spirit, Who, in union with "the faithful" of each and every age, is bringing forth and maintaining and completing that which God has Purposed in The Christ. This Royal Work has included in its faithful throng those such as Mordecai and Esther: may it also include us, may we remain among the faithful.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 22 - (Praying the Word)