crisis-1200x630Recently, I took our youngest daughter to a butterfly garden. The garden was filled with all types of butterflies. It was a beautiful experience. These creatures are so delicate, yet colorful divine creations. While we were there my daughter was on a mission. She wanted a butterfly to land on her hand. She walked around all over the place trying to get one to just land on her hand. It wasn’t happening. In order to divert her attention, I took her over to the larva box to show her the process of how butterfliles come into being. She looked at it for a moment, but she wasn’t too impressed. Instead, she wanted to continue to get a butterfly to land on her hand. Finally, it happened! Mission accomplished.

While we were there it got me thinking about The Anatomy of Transformation. Watching the butterfly I realized again that transformation is a process that takes time. There are stages that take place from being a creeping, crawling caterpillar limited to the laws of gravity to become a beautiful, aerial, winged creature in God’s creation called a butterfly. You don’t start out as a butterfly. First, you have to experience the grounded life of a caterpillar. This process of transformation is what science calls, metamorphosis…when a caterpillar transforms in stages into a brilliant butterfly.

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What I learned was…caterpillars are good, butterflies are great. Let’s be honest caterpillars are not as loved, adored or prized as a butterfly. A caterpillar just doesn’t have that extra cute factor. It’s grounded. It’s green. It’s adequate. But the destiny of a caterpillar is not to stay a caterpillar, but rather to become a butterfly. The caterpillar stage is temporary.

As you read this I need to tell you Southern-style that some of y’ll need to know that this stage you are in right now is the in-between stage of where you are and where God is taking you. It’s not permanent. It’s not your fate. It’s not your destiny. There is more. You might look up and see butterflies flying all around you flapping their wings but remember one day they were caterpillars just like you. They had to go through a transformation process in order to get to where they are today. I must encourage somebody that is feeling grounded. Somebody that is asking, “how long?”. Somebody needs to know that this stage is temporary.

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God has you in the stage you are supposed to be in. So don’t let yourself or anyone else judge you because of the season you are in. Because your story ain’t over. In fact, it has barely begun. It hasn’t even gotten off the ground just yet. So, relax in the transformation process. God has you right where He wants you. He is not surprised. He is not anxious. He knows what He is doing. Let me say it again: God has you right where He wants you, and where He has you is right where you are supposed to be. Again, relax and enjoy your caterpillar season. God knows what He is doing. He is not taken off guard because of where you are and the state that you are in.

Can I keep preaching to you? It’s going to be ok. God is still on the throne. He hasn’t been unseated. There hasn’t been a coup. The enemy is not winning. He has got the whole world in His hands… He is not too far away from you where you cannot call on Him. His hand is not so short that He can’t reach you. It’s ok. Get ready…cuz you are about to be transformed from the temporary caterpillar state into a gravity-defying airborne butterfly. And what you used to have to climb to, you will now soar over. What you used to look up to, you will now land on. What looked impossible to get to, will now be just a flap of the wings and boom you are there. It used to be difficult, but you have to be transformed and given the ability to go where you born to go. I declare an OK-NESS in your stage. It is ok to be right where God has you.

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In our text, we discover the anatomy of transformation. In Esther 4 we have a CRISIS. Has anyone ever been in a crisis? Some of us are in a crisis right now. I am talking about a time where your world or even the world is turned upside down and you don’t know how you are going to turn it right side up. It is a time in your life where the circumstances are so overwhelming, so overpowering, so devastating that you are taken off-guard. I mean it’s a tsunami that you didn’t see coming and all you know to do is run for cover. It’s a crisis. A crisis has the ability to demolish destiny. It has the power to impair your purpose and future. A good old-fashioned crisis can get you into a mode of desperation where you can’t think straight, act right, talk politely, behave, keep your demeanor and be nice not because you don’t want to, but in this particular moment, you don’t know how to. You have never been here before. It’s all-consuming. It’s beyond you.

But if you can gather your druthers, you will realize that a crisis is a moment where you have to lean into God and hear from Him to get your marching orders. If you don’t meet with God it could easily go from bad to worse. If you don’t hear from Him and take the advice of your comforters, Job, then you would end up cursing God and ultimately cursing yourself and missing out on the double portion that is at the end of this dark, lonely tunnel called crisis. But how you view crisis is important. Crisis must be viewed as an opportunity to exercise my faith to see God miraculously work on my behalf. It’s an opening to the supernatural realm. You can’t have a victory without a fight. You can’t have healing without a sickness. You can’t have a calm without a storm. God sets one against the other, so that His power can be displayed in the earth. He has transferred this power to us. We have the capacity and potential for this power. Power over crisis. It starts with faith and moves into action. Faith must be acted upon. Faith without works is dead. Works without faith is exhausting. We need both…working at the same time.

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In Esther 4 we discover a crisis that requires faith action. If you only read this chapter you can miss it. There is a backstory to this story. It just didn’t happen. Something had to happen in order for what is about to happen to happen. We all have a backstory. A backstory is a story that led us to the story we are now in. In the church we call it a testimony. Does anyone have a testimony? Someone can tell how He picked you up, turned you around and set your feet on solid ground…yeah you!

In Esther 4 there is a story behind the story. Esther is the queen of Shushan. She is the king’s wife. She is royalty. She is in the palace. Honestly, it’s a really cool spot to be in. Not queen for a day, but for a lifetime. She snaps and someone brings a Snapple. She claps and the lights turn on. She taps and a soy, vanilla, caramel, chocolate chip frapp is put into her hand. She naps and people fan her and drop grapes into her mouth. This is a gig of a lifetime. Her name Esther means star. She is treated like a star.

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It’s nice, but if you look at the story you need to realize that there is a backstory for Esther. There is alignment to her assignment. There is an anatomy to this royal reality and supernatural opportunity. Esther was chosen as queen, first because the former queen Vashtai was rebellious and would not come to the King’s party when asked. So, Vashtai was removed and Esther was placed in a group of possible candidates to become Shushan’s Next Top Queen. It was kind of like the pilot show to the Bachelor, where all the ladies are chosen from all over the kingdom, and only one will get the rose and have the opportunity to marry the King. And of course, Esther was the chosen one. She got the final rose.

But…there is a backstory to this backstory. By herself, Esther, could not accomplish what God wanted to do in her day. There were particular players who accomplished God’s purpose together. Esther was born beautiful. But there were ones who birthed her (parents – the source that made her), raised her (cousin named Mordecai – the voice that shaped her), selected her (a servant of the king named Hegei – an opportunity that elevated her), chose her (a king that loved her), connected her (a servant of the queen named Hathach – gave divine details to her), challenged her (a cousin named Mordecai – that gave clarity to her). And if you look at the back story of Esther you realize that your destiny is tied to others. Their destinies were tied to hers and hers to theirs. This is how destiny works.

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Because of this grand opportunity and these people in her life, Esther had the heritage, the training, the beauty, the chance, the platform, and the position to do what she was born to do. Esther was brought to the kingdom for relief and deliverance, not just to sit pretty in the palace. Yes, she was beautiful. Can I tell you, yes, you are beautiful? But you are not just cute, you are called. How God made you. Who God made you. When God made you. Where God made you. What God made you, IS PURPOSEFUL. He put you in the right place (palace) at the right time (a holocaust) with the right people (Mordecai, Hegei, Hathach, King) to do the right thing (Spike Lee). See, God has a plan and He is sticking to it with or without you. He is intentional.

The crisis that you are now in is actually the opportunity that you were born for. As Zoolander would say, “Earth to Esther, we need you to be you right now!” It is time for you…to step up to the plate. This is a kairos time. You were born for such a time as this. What time? Here is some quick back-back-way back-backstory. Esther was Jewish. She didn’t tell anyone. But at that time in the kingdom a man named Haman, who was a prince and a counselor to the king, made a plot to kill all the Jews. Haman hated Mordecai, Esther’s cousin, because Mordecai refused to bow down to Haman, so Haman plotted to destroy the Jewish people. In a speech, Haman told the king, “There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the peoples in all the provinces of your realm. Their laws are different from those of every other people’s, and they do not observe the king’s laws; therefore it is not befitting the king to tolerate them.” Esther 3:8. The king gave the fate of the Jewish people to Haman, to do as he pleased to them. Haman planned to exterminate all of the Jews.

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Understand the enemy. He works overtime. One way or another. This way or that way. He works. In every generation there is a plot to steal, kill and destroy God’s people. But God’s people keep going. Even until the end of the world. He can try through war and persecution, through sickness and disease, but those things actually increase God’s people. In Exodus 1 we know that the harder Pharaoh made it on the Israelites the stronger they grew. It won’t work. The only thing that can stop God’s people is lethargy. Lethargy is the #1 killer of God’s plan. It is Revelation 3: the church at Laodecia. Lukewarm people. Lethargy is an ease that causes one to put down their defenses to their destiny. Can somebody say: Hello Samson! So the only one who could do anything about this Haman situation was the queen, Esther. She was in the right place at the right time.

Her beauty got her into the right place. She was stunning, attractive, gorgeous, and ridiculously good-looking. But if she was just known for her beauty or her talent this would not be a story. Dime-a-dozen. It’s not a story of beauty, but of destiny. Beauty (talent, ability, education, know-how, smarts, intelligence) was a door opener, but not the difference-maker. Beauty can be a distraction for the beautiful because they are more enamored with beauty than with destiny and miss why they were made beautiful, talented or whatever it was in the first place. The challenge was this: Are you going to miss this opportunity? Your beauty opportunity led to this destiny moment.

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What got you here won’t get you there. You can’t pretty your way through this. This one doesn’t require pretty. Pretty won’t cut it. Pretty opened the door. But pretty was for yesterday. Don’t get stuck on pretty. Yes, you are still pretty, but this requires something different. I am going to reveal something I have placed inside of you internally that you have not used in your story yet. In fact, you didn’t even know you had it within you. You didn’t need it before. It was not necessary. Now it is crucial. The way for me to release is to allow something you have never faced before to come at you. It will come for you. There is no escape. You escaped a lot of stuff before based on pretty, but not this time. It’s not coming to be nice. It is not enamored by what got you here, in fact, you are despised, hated and plotted against because of what got you here and that you are still here.

So, I allow it to come. How I am going to bring it out in is in this very difficult moment I am going to challenge the destiny out of you. Some of y’all know what I am saying. You know you. You won’t do a thing if you are sitting pretty. As long as you are comfortable, celebrated, positioned, taken care of, loved and things are ok, then you are ok. PUSH. Mother eagles must push their baby eaglets out of the nest at a certain age in order to get them to fly. (offense can come – She pushed me, How could you?) But it is in the fall that the baby eaglet discovers what these previously inconvenient, unnecessary, pointless wings are for. That is when what is built inside of them kicks into gear and all of sudden they are using muscles they never used before. All along they had those muscles/wings but in the comfort of the nest where the amenities of food, water, shelter, warmth, comradery, are readily available there was no need to use them. But NOW! In the descent its FLY or DIE. Its FLAP or SLAP. That is when you discover something you have that you didn’t know you had. ESTHER!!!

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This is the moment where the voices give you choices and you must chose correctly. So, Mordecai (her cousin), the type of the Holy Spirit in this story, says these powerful words to Esther: I am calling out at this time what you have always had in you, even if you didn’t know that it was there. Always there. It’s innate. It’s a part of who God made you to be. You were born for this. You were brought to the kingdom for such a time as this. For this moment. For this opportunity. For this challenge. For this crisis. You didn’t know it, but you, beyond your beauty, which got you there, were positioned to accomplish this mission. You were faced, placed, and graced for this particular race. For others, it would be impossible, unthinkable, unbearable, but for you it is inevitable. You are not just cute, you are called. If your life ends and you were just cute. Just made it. Just lived it and lived it up. Then you would miss it. There is more. So much more. You are called to destroy plots of the enemy, schemes of the devil. If you remain silent you and your house will perish. But all across the land, there are people (your people) who need you to step up now. Take your place. Move from beauty to destiny.

And that is what Esther did. She changed a crisis into a victory.

In grace, Patrick Kiteley

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Follow-Through-Enter-Into:

Personally: Name one area in your life where you have experienced a crisis? (Confide)

Practically: Make a list of things you can do to remain in faith in the midst of crisis. (Decide)

Prayerfully: Father God, I ask you today to help me in my crisis. I need you, Holy Spirit, to give me strength. I want to live with purpose, passion, and peace. Please help me God, because I want to learn how to trust, submit and to rest in You. In Jesus’ name, Amen! (Applied)

Scripture Reading: Read Esther 4