The Stewardship of God's Grace 2: Understanding Your Kiros Moment

Song of Songs 2:3-4 “And compared to other youths, my lover is like the finest apple tree in the orchard. I am seated in his delightful shade, and his fruit is delicious to eat. He brings me to the banquet hall, so everyone can see how much he loves me NLT.

In our walk of preparation and development to reach our destinies in Chris Jesus, we come to different levels in our relationship with Him. The moment we accept to have a relationship with Jesus we become God’s children, adopted by Him to be led by His Spirit in our daily lives. Next we get called to evolve into a friendship with Him that requires our obedience as we grow the seeds of faith God endows us with for the things He has promised and the authority to walk them out in the earth realm.

Abraham is a good example of this. James 2:23 says that Abraham believed God, and because of this he was considered to be a righteous person, and he was even called a friend of God. So faith and trust in God and our belief in His promises help us become friends of God. Friendship with God is also a sign of maturity.  It is more than just being His children because even in the natural realm, we grow into different levels in our relationship with our parents. We do not become friends with our parents until we have reached a certain age in which we can be entrusted with much more. Before that, we get training and coaching, but when we reach our adulthood, at this point we can handle the responsibility of moving out of our parent’s home.

Moses was also considered a friend of God and the Lord could speak to him face to face (His secrets) as stated in Exodus 33:11. This happens to us when we seek God and pursue His presence in worship and the reading of His Word, and seek His heart and the revelations that will help us continue to walk steadily in the path to our destinies with steadfast obedience to His commands for us. Then He can entrust us with more.

This happens because we have grown as doers of the word according to our faith levels and have learned to take steps according to His commands because we have found our hearts being consumed with the things that are in His heart. We want what He wants, we talk the way He talks, we concern ourselves with pleasing him, and doing His will becomes our most important priority no matter what we’re going through because we have learned to not question His commands, but to submit to them whether we understand them or not. This way we are being developed into becoming His bride without spot or wrinkle from the influence of the world around us because we are in it, but are not of it. Then we can reach a whole new level of intimacy with Him that others can see and learn to taste because we can pour out and influence them from what influences us—love. Esther is another great example for us. Esther 2:12-17 informs us that,

¹²Before each woman was taken to the king’s bed, she was given a prescribed twelve months of beauty treatments—six months with oil of myrrh, followed by six months with special perfumes and ointments. ¹³ When the time came for her to go in to the king, she was given her choice of whatever clothing or jewelry she wanted to enhance her beauty.”  ¹⁴That evening she was taken to the king’s private rooms, and the next morning she was brought to the second harem, where the king’s wives lived. There she would be under the care of Shaashgaz, another of the king’s eunuchs. She would live there for the rest of her live, never going to the king again unless he had specially enjoyed her and requested her by name. ¹⁵When it was Esther’s turn to go to the king, she accepted the advice of Hegai (a representation of the Holy Spirit), the eunuch in charge of the harem. She asked for nothing except what he suggested, and she was admired by everyone who saw her. ¹⁶When Esther was taken to King Xerxes at the royal palace in early winter of the seventh year of his reign, ¹⁷the king loved her more than any of the other young women. He was delighted with her that he set the royal crown on her head and declared her queen instead of Vashti” NLT (Emphasis mine).

As you bare with me for the length of the passage, and see that these women all had to go through their “prescribed” development before they were called to go before the king, only one was found with the heart to please the king no matter what was asked of her because the king’s will became more important to her than any personal desire she may have. The other women chose what they wanted instead which in a way shows the condition of their hearts towards the things of God. They were excited to go before the king, but in their hearts, their agendas were more important than the king’s heart and  His agenda. They were more consumed with the “things” they could get than what was in the heart of the king and did not realize that those “things” were only a by-product of the blessing of being called to be with Him, but were not the blessing itself.

This is also the reason why Vashti was replaced by Esther. In Esther 1:11-12 it is said that Vashti was a woman fair to look on, and the king sent for her because he wanted to show her to the masses, but she refused to fulfill the command to come and do what was asked of her thereby infuriating the king. Here there is an important thing to highlight: neither the concubines nor Vashti recognized the Kairos time that had approached. This was an appointed time, but Vashti did not recognize it because she had not prepared properly for it. In fact, she had missed some steps in the process because of rebellion that caused her to lose the crown in the end. Vashti also may have had a heart for the king, but just like the concubines that were not chosen for the crown, there were hidden agendas that kept her from obeying every command.

In addition, this shows that Vashti`s disobedience was a pattern and this last disobedience became the catalyst that made the king decide he could no longer keep her in that position of authority over the kingdom. This pattern of disobedience blinded her from recognizing when the appointed time for her to be brought to the forefront had come so she could lead others to the same pattern of steadfast obedience that was expected and required of her. In her heart, she thought that possessing half the kingdom was about living in luxury and enjoying the pleasures of life she took for granted.

Moreover, true honor was not part of Vashti’s character. To her, honor meant to receive obeisance from those around her just because of her position. It is true that her position called for her to be honored, but she actually demanded that others vowed to her. Everything she did, she did with the mindset of “what is in it for me” instead of what is in it for the king—the answer to that is always the glory that is due His name. Vashti became so haughty that she even thought she had the same rights as the king and could demand honor from him as well, but instead, she was demoted as one more of the concubines!

I encourage you to read the whole book of Esther to see that on the other hand, and with the help of her cousin Mordecai, (main representation of the Holy Spirit in this book) Esther recognized the position she was given was a strategic one and for a specific task on behalf of her people. In verse 16 of the first chapter, it says that this happened during the winter of the seventh year of the king’s reign—this means that there was a specific and appointed time for Esther to come that others did not pay attention to—only she knew when she could go in because she desired for everything to be perfected in her before going to be with the king more than what she could get out of it. We are called to be perfect because He’s perfect (Matthew 5:48)—we can do this only when our faith is made perfect through love.

Therefore,  Esther did the right things, no matter how hard or how long she had to endure hardship. Through every trial and tribulation she recognized that the time she was chosen to come before the king was not only for her to benefit from,  but that she was being prepared because there was a great group of people that needed to learn what was put in her during her time of preparation, so they too could be free to worship God without oppression. Her understanding of this important time in her life made everything come into alignment for her to become the next queen. This is what caused her to win the favor of the king and be chosen queen “for such a time as this.”

God is calling us in this hour to recognize our appointed time for which we have been prepared. Seeking Him, exalting Him, and obeying everything He tells us to do is extremely important in this hour. We have come to a time in which we will reap what we have sown and receive the reward of Jesus according to His will and the preparation we yielded to (Rev. 22:12). The great divide has begun to open and we are being positioned in the place that God has prepared for us. To Him alone be all the glory.∎

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The Stewardship of God's Grace 1: Standing Firm in His Righteousness

Ephesians 3:1-2

¹FOR THIS reason [because I preached that you are thus built up together], I, Paul, [am] the prisoner of Jesus the Christ for the sake and on behalf of you Gentiles—²Assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace (His unmerited favor) that was entrusted to me [to dispense to you] for your benefit, AMP

The Lord has given us, His church, a dispensation of His grace for us to do the things He has called us to do. We are continually being developed to become the Lord’s bride without spot or wrinkle that can be presented to others in order for them to become hungry for Him just as He has made us hungry and thirsty for more of Him and of His righteousness and holiness. But many have not stewarded His grace properly—they walk and live as enemies of the Cross of Christ (Philippians 3:18) thereby making themselves objects of judgment.

 Galatians 5:4 says, ⁴ If  you seek to be justified and declared righteous and to be given a right standing with God through the Law, you are brought to nothing and so separated (severed) from Christ. You have fallen away from grace (from God’s gracious favor and unmerited blessing) AMP.

In my book soon-to-be released, I present an example of someone that did not steward the grace she was given so freely and without measure, and instead became the object of judgment that led to her death. Her name is Rachel, and although the Lord Jesus will come with a reward to each one according to what they have done (Revelation 22:12), many have lost their place assigned to them in the body because they did not make use of His grace to make Him known as the only True God, but instead allowed the influence of the world and its humanistic ways to guide their daily lives and the way they led and influenced those entrusted to them.

Others are already prepared to take those positions to honor God and teach the people He loves to also honor Him so they don’t continue to perish for lack of knowledge of Him and of His ways (Hosea 4:6). In this excerpt from my book, God intents to open the eyes of His people so they can repent and produce fruit in keeping with repentance (Luke 3:8a).

              “Rachel’s Downfall

               Another perspective of the present state of the church and how God compares her actions to Rachel’s behavior towards Jacob is found in Genesis 31. Jacob, at the direction of the Lord, decided to leave the land where he had served Laban, his uncle, and with his family went on a journey back to the land of his ancestors, Abraham and Isaac. He had served Laban for 20 years. Fourteen of those years he served just so he could marry Rachel. But while leaving her home land to follow Jacob, Rachel decided to steal her father’s idols, and even denied stealing them when her father came after them looking for the idols.

               In verse 32 a curse was released for the person with whom the idols were found—it was a death sentence. Laban never found his idols because Rachel hid them by sitting on them, but the curse was in effect nevertheless, so in Genesis 35:16-19 Rachel had a hard labor while giving birth to Benjamin and died. This was the consequence Rachel received for refusing to start a new life with her husband without the idols she had learned to worship as a child since she was of Syrian descent. She thought she could have both: her husband and the idols.

               Rachel’s downfall caused her to not be able to raise her two children—Joseph and Benjamin, neither could she be with the man who had paid a great price (physically and financially) to become her husband, nor could she take her place as the bride whom her husband truly loved. The truth is she was very insecure, and paid more attention to what she didn’t have than to submitting and following Jacob wholeheartedly.

               There were also two instances mentioned in Genesis 30 in which Rachel forfeited precious time of intimacy with her husband. In verses 1-3, she complained to him when she could not bear his children instead of giving that to God in prayer to fulfill her heart’s desire. She compromised by offering to him her maid Bilhah, just so she could have an instant gratification without paying the price of waiting for God’s timing and way of obtaining the desires of her heart. Then in verses 14-16 she traded her time of intimacy, this time with her sister Leah for some mandrakes Leah’s son, Reuben, had found in the field. Rachel’s desire to fulfill the lust of her flesh was greater than pursuing and submitting to her husband.

               The church has in a great part done the same in forfeiting precious time of intimacy with Jesus who paid the great price of shedding His blood for her. She has lusted after the idols of the world from where God had already redeemed her. She also refused to leave those idols behind, causing her to be unable to raise her children properly and has committed spiritual whoredom by following after the gods of the world instead of the One who loved her first and died for her sin…”

Let’s examine our hearts and seek the Lord who truly loves us enough to have shed His blood for us. He chose to be cursed for us and to be mocked and ridiculed, so He could have to Himself a bride that reciprocates that love back to Him. He is worthy of all praise, therefore let’s give ourselves to Him to learn to worship Him in Spirit and in truth (John 4:23) and apart from the ways of the world and the enemy’s craftiness to keep us bound to it. Also, let’s cry out to Him for the forgiveness of our sins in accordance to 2 Chronicles 7:14 which says, If My people who are called by My name shall humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin (this sin of idolatry), and I will heal their land (Emphasis mine). To Him alone be all the glory∎.