Calling All Ester(s) 5: The Seed of Service in the Community

In this new teaching from another excerpt from my upcoming book, I want to exemplify and give my testimony of how God has used me to bless my community and help others in their time of need. It is important that we become conduits that are available for God to bring salvation, healing, restoration, deliverance, and the provision they require in their time of necessity. When they cry out to God and He wants to answer, we need to be ready and able in obedience to provide what is needed for them when God chooses us to be or provide the answer to their prayers. We do not live for our own selves, but everything God does in us, for us, and through us, and the things He has provided for our lives and godliness, as well as our preparation and development, are to help others be able to have what they need in their time,  in order for them to continue learning to walk in the ways of the Kingdom of God and have Jesus be the All in all in their lives. Like Esther and other Bible personalities who took many risks and faced challenges, and even persecution because of their determination, vision, and obedience to be used as deliverers of a better way for God’s people, we make ourselves available so that God can prove Himself as the only living God that is very present in their time of need, and for His glory alone. By this we will also be sowing seeds that we will reap during times when we need it the most because we need of each other and are a community of believers that have everything in common (Acts 4:34-35).

The Seed of Service in the Community

To help those in my community the Lord woke me up around 4:00 am one morning in 2002 and told me to pray for different businesses around the area where I lived at the time. Then He especially gave me a vision of a bakery that I used to drive by almost daily. The Lord directed me to pray for the owners and the business, and then told me He wanted me to be at that place at 10:00 am to pray in person. When I got there I told the person behind the counter who turned out to be one of the owners the reason for my visit to that establishment and he got very excited. He asked if I would wait while he ran to get his wife who was in the kitchen area. I agreed to wait and soon after there came the couple eager to have me pray with them. They explained that their lease was up and the landlord was refusing to sign a new one after they had been occupying that space for many years. They also mentioned that they had been crying out to God for someone to come and pray for them at the business. Well, God answered them, and I had the privilege to be used of the Lord to be the answer to that prayer and armed me with the breaker anointing to break through for them (Micah 2:13). Several years later I continued to drive by the bakery and it was still there with the same owners until they decided to sell the business. I happened to see the wife at a women’s meeting at church and she recognized me after several years and greeted me with a hug. What a marvelous God we serve. It blesses me to see things work out even better when we obey His promptings to be an answer to prayer.

After praying for the bakery and the owners, the Lord directed me to also go and pray for other businesses in the area. I did that, and was thrilled to see that not one person turned down my offer to pray for them and the businesses, and all those businesses are still there after many years since I went to pray for them, except for the bakery that was sold about five years ago. This was an awesome opportunity to sow seed at the command of the Lord because I knew I will be opening my own business some day. So blessing other businesses was also a great time for seed planting towards my own business. I went for a week to different businesses in my community and was welcomed with open arms, except for a restaurant that was very busy at the time, and the person in charge was not the manager. I still chose to pray for them and leave a blessing spoken for them from my car.

Another thing that the Lord did to make me more conscious of helping my community was that one Thursday afternoon I was driving home from running errands and noticed that on the street I had turned to get to my house there was garbage that had been dropped by the garbage truck as it turned the corner on a hill. At that moment the Lord spoke to me and said to pick up that garbage so the street would look clean again. I then went home to get everything I needed to do it. This same scenario repeated itself for about six or seven weeks. I live in Seattle so even in the pouring rain I had to do this. One of those times a man that lived across the street from where the garbage had been dropped came walking toward me in the rain to thank me for what I was doing because he knew I did not live on that street. I didn’t feel bad that he didn’t help me because I understood that was not his assignment from the Lord, but this was for me to do. So when the Lord figured I had passed my test, the garbage truck never dropped any more garbage on that street again.

The times we are faced with laying down our desires and wants to put others  ahead of us is not something to dread because at the right time and in the right season all those blessings will come back to us, especially when we need them the most. Galatians 6:9 says, ⁹ And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. In many cases, the next generations will reap the benefits of our obedience in ways we can’t imagine. This is another way in which the Lord is glorified through us and in us.

One last example mentioned in the Old Testament of God’s people who laid down their lives to follow this principle of putting others first, is found in Joshua 1:12-15, ¹²And to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh Joshua spoke saying, ¹³“Remember the word of the LORD which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, saying, ‘The LORD your God is giving you rest and is giving you this land.’ ¹⁴Your wives, your little ones, and your livestock shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side of the Jordan. But you shall pass before your brethren armed, all your mighty men of valor, and help them, ¹⁵until the LORD has given your brethren rest, as He gave you, and they also have taken possession of the land which the LORD your God is giving them. Then you shall return to the land of your possession and enjoy it, which Moses the LORD’s servant gave you on this side of the Jordan toward the sunrise.” To Him alone be all the Glory!