A (0:00)

Welcome to Brunch and Bible, where we navigate womanhood through the Word. I'm your host, Heaven, and this is more than a podcast, it's a movement. At Brunch and Bible, women gather, grow spiritually, embrace the complexities of life through word driven discussions and find practical applications for their own journeys. In this episode, we dive into the journey of discovering purpose. We unpack key lessons, including God's intentionality concerning our purpose and the life of Esther and how her journey shows us what it means to walk in purpose through pain and uncertainty. If you've ever asked God, what am I called to do? This episode will give you perspective, encouragement and wisdom for the journey ahead. Don't miss this conversation. Listen now. Welcome everyone to another episode of Brunch and Bible and thank you. If you have followed us thus far, if you have been liking sharing, subscribing, subscribing, God bless you. And here we are still on this journey of becoming. And today we're going to talk about the topic purpose. And the question is, why me? Why me? I think that the modern day woman, right, is very consumed with the matter and the question of purpose. Like what am I called to do? What has God called me to? What are the rooms that and spaces that he's called me in? And you know, I think these are very valid questions. We do even things such as skills assessments and we're taking tests that will pair, you know, our strong suits to see where I would say God has called us to be or the things that has called us to. But I personally think that there's no better assessment than the word of God, and that's what we're going to be delving into today. So if you're with me and you have your Bibles, we're going to be in our Bibles today. This episode is going to be slightly different. It's going to be a little bit of a study and we're using the case study of Esther. Okay, let's recap on Esther. A lot of us know the story. If you are, you know, a Christian and you grew up in church, you know the story of Esther. But if you don't, I want to recap the story of Esther for you. Esther ultimately was a woman of purpose, right, who became the queen of Persia and God used all of her circumstances, right, to come into this place of destiny where she was able to save the Jews, which was her people. And so I want us now to look at the life of Esther in retrospect and I want us to go back to when Esther was a child, right. The Bible proclaims that Esther didn't have a normal upbringing. Esther didn't grow up like the normal and average child would have grown up in a two parent household with normal things and normal occurrences and being brought up and raised normally. The Bible actually recounts that her uncle Mordecai was who raised her. And asked myself this question, okay, if it's her uncle that raised her, what happened? And the truth of the matter is that the scripture declares that Esther's parents actually died. So Esther was an orphan. And again, I want us to put ourselves in the shoes of little Esther. The Bible doesn't recount how Esther lost her parents. The Bible doesn't recount if she lost them one after the other, or if she lost them at the same time, or even what caused the death of her parents. But all the Bible tells us is that they died. And so I asked myself again, although the Bible doesn't recount this, you know, how was little Esther feeling, you know, in the time where she lost her parents and she had to now be raised by someone who wasn't her parent, who was her uncle? I'm wondering if in those seasons of life she was questioning God, you know, I'm wondering if she was asking God questions like, God, where are you? God, this is painful. I've lost both of my parents. Like, what is this for? You know, you have put me in this season and I didn't even ask to be here. You know, what are you doing? And I believe that it's very interesting that sometimes God uses pain for purpose. Well, let's first start here. If Esther never lost her parents, Esther would have never been raised by Mordecai. If Esther was never raised by Mordecai, she would have never known that the king was in search for a queen. And had she not known that, she would not have been able to rise to a place of destiny where God has called her to in order to save a people, in order to save a generation. This tells me that every experience that you've been through has a purpose. Everything that you've been through has a purpose. And even the painful things in your life has a purpose. I want us to go to the book of Romans 28 and it says, all things work together for good to those who love God and those who are the called according to his purpose. And this tells me that God uses every single thing in your life for, for his purpose and his goodwill. And sometimes you may ask yourself, well, why me? You know, why was I Born in this dysfunctional family, right? Why does my voice sound this way? Why am I this weight? Why am I this tall? And this tells me that God uses factors, especially the uncontrollable factors of your life, to produce purpose. And I think that was something that Esther, at a certain point, needed to come to terms with. And sometimes we rob ourselves of certain experiences, and we rob ourselves of what God is trying to do when we become a victim of our environment and when we become a victim of the things that life throws at us. And sometimes it's not a matter of why me? But it's a matter of God, what are you trying to teach me? And what are you trying to produce in me that you are putting me through this, right? And so many of us have despised our place of destiny, right? And many of us are asking God for him to place us in purpose. When you are right in the middle of it right now, purpose sometimes looks like the greater picture. Purpose sometimes looks like a certain finished result. But I'm here to tell you that where you are right now is in purpose. The family that God has called you to, the school that you're in, the church that you attend, right? Even down to your physical appearance, the intonation of your voice, every single thing is for purpose. And I'm here to tell you that you serve an intentional God, you know, a God who is so interested in every single detail of your life and is ready to use it for his glory if you allow him. I want us to go over something of reflection, and we kind of talked about, you know, the fact that we sometimes despise our place of destiny because of what it looks like. And I want you to ask yourself, what part of my life have I despised? What part of my life have I deemed no good or ugly or not worth it? And I just want you to actually just take this moment as we're talking, to just repent, right? And repenting is a change of mindset. God is asking you in this moment to change your perspective, you know, of what destiny looks like, of what family God has placed you to. I don't know why there's an emphasis on that. But you know, what family God has placed you into as a woman, what your physical appearance is, you know, as a woman, the. The sound of your voice. You know, sometimes we say, yo, I don't know why, but I'm loud. Like, naturally I'm loud. God has a plan and a purpose for that. It's because He. He needs the nations to hear your voice, right? And then there's others of us who are very soft spoken, right? And God has given us that ability to speak peace right into tumultuous situations. And so look at every part of your life as intentional. Nothing is wasted. And I think in this moment, what we need to do is to start to embrace, you know, the moments and the season in which God has called us currently, right. Rather than wishing that we should be in a certain place. Because in this, we're able to trust that God's timing is perfect and that not a single moment is wasted. And I want to kind of get into a story, right, of my quest for purpose. My quest for purpose. I personally began to ask God about purpose at the tender age of 14. And I'll tell you how I think I mentioned in episodes past that, you know, I had a lovely cousin. I have a lovely cousin who is in a certain state. And this is very interesting that we didn't grow up together, right? We met at the age of 14. And how we met was a certain. A certain family member was getting married, and it required us to go to where she was, obviously to be a part of the wedding celebrations. And, you know, my parents had told me, you know, you have a certain cousin and you guys are so much alike, you don't even know it. You've never met her, but you're gonna meet her and it's gonna be amazing. And, you know, my aunt said the same thing, and, you know, I was ready, I brought my suitcases, headed out there, and for some reason, I guess it got lost in translation. And no one, you know, told her that after the wedding, I'd be saying the whole summer, you know, at her house, right? So the first few days of me settling into what would be my home for the next two to three months was slightly. A bit awkward, right? Imagine a young girl coming into your space, you don't know who it is, and you're just told that, yeah, she's going to be with you for the next two to three months, so enjoy, right? And so that was kind of the outlook of my cousin. She didn't do it on purpose. Love you. Yes, by the way, she do. On purpose. But I remember one of the first few nights of us staying together, for some reason, we began to talk about relationships, and she, you know, started to spill the information about her, how her and her current, you know, boyfriend had gotten together. And this kind of led her to now begin to speak about, you know, her past previous relationships. And it got really gisty. Like, we stayed up all night Talking about this. And from then on, we were locked in. We're like two peas in a pod. We'd go up and down everywhere. People would call us Twin Towers. Like, you know, it was really a thing. And one thing that I noticed, right, is that, you know, my cousin loved God. She served God, and she had. And she has an amazing gift to sing. She's an amazing worshiper, an amazing singer, and quite literally, her entire family is gifted with the ability of music. Very, very gifted. And so she would literally drag me around to all her services and her ministrations and. And our choir rehearsals, right? And from then on, I began to now meet other young people who were also very comfortable in their giftings, right? So she had the gift of singing. And, you know, some other people had the gift of prophecy, and others knew that they were going to be in ministry. And, you know, other. Other people were also gifted in music. And this person could play the piano, this person could play the drums. This person could preach. And mind you, again, we are not over 18 at this point. So you can imagine how I was marveling over the fact that they were so young. And I felt like they knew their purpose, right? And so then I began to ask the Lord, I said, lord, what is my purpose? You know, what is my purpose? And guess what, guys? For eight years, the Lord did not answer me. Eight years. And for a long time, you know, I was very. I was very confused on why God didn't want to answer me. Because I felt like, you know, Lord, I'm not waiting until I'm old and great to try to figure this thing out. Like, I want to do this thing, and I want to do it while I'm young. And it wasn't until I fully gave my life to Christ at the age of 22 that in that season, I wasn't focused on purpose, right? In that season, I was focused on fully knowing who he was and nothing else. And what I realized is that in doing that, the Lord did something that I never would have imagined. Like I said, it was a season where I was focused on the fullness of knowing him. I just wanted to be with him, right? I wasn't concerned or even asking the question of purpose. I just wanted to be with the Lord. And I remember it was a time of consecration and prayer. Very intense prayer. Very, very, very intense prayer that God blew my mind. In three days, God sent three people to confirm and reaffirm the call on my life, the details of destiny and purpose concerning me. And, you know, obviously, I was happy When God had let me know this because I felt like, you know, an eight year long prayer request had finally been answered. But then I began to ask him, lord, why did you wait until this very moment, you know, to let me know what the details of my destiny was, you know, or parts of the details, because we don't know everything, right? But what my purpose was and what I realized that at the age of 14, if he would have let me know what my purpose was, then I would have mishandled that information that I wasn't mature enough to handle in those seasons. And another thing of what would have happened is that I would have been held accountable for the details of my destiny. And God being an all knowing and sovereign God, knew the seasons ahead, that I would enter into the seasons of the back and forth, of the hot and cold, the highs and the lows, the valleys and the mountains seeking him and then dropping it. And in those seasons you don't want to be held accountable for that certain information because now there's a demand on your life, right? And so God's timing is just and it's perfect. God reveals purpose in his perfect timing and not on our time. Another thing that would have happened had he told me what my purpose was at that age is that it would have changed my viewpoint of God and shaped it, right? For me to be purpose hungry and not God hungry. And I feel like becoming purpose hungry. I believe that becoming purpose hungry can easily lead a place to idolatry, right? Because when purpose takes God's place in the throne of your heart, it opens you up to pride, it opens you up to greed, it opens you up to selfishness. And God desires right for us to be hungry for him and not purpose. We should always naturally have a desire to do the will of the Father, right? But not to be purpose hungry in your becoming. I want you to prioritize your knowledge of God and the knowledge of the One who sent you over. Being sent, purpose right is found in God and is found in God alone. And as you seek him, you become who you're supposed to be. I like to say it like this. When you know him, you know who you are. And in knowing him practically ways that you can do that is spending time in his presence, right? Spending time in his presence through prayer, through seeking him, through worship, through studying. Even in the place of service, you can still be seeking God, right? And so focus on building intimacy with God, inviting God to dwell with with you in deep intimacy and love. So now that I've shared my story I want us to get back into the text, and we're going to be looking at Esther 2, and I want us to look at it together. And we're in Esther 2, verse 2. And it says then the king's servants who attended to him said, let beautiful young virgins be sought for the king. And let the king appoint officers in all the provinces of his kingdom that they may gather all the beautiful young virgins to Shushan the citadel into the women's quarters under the custody of Haggai, the king's eunuch, custodian of the women. And let beauty preparations be given to them. Let the young woman who pleases the king be queen. Instead of Ashti. I want us to do a deeper dive into this. When I was studying this, I realized right after doing research that when they were gathering the virgins, there was actually 400 women who gathered. And that baffled me. You know, I don't know why. For some reason I thought it might have been 10 or 20 or 30 or even 40, but 400 is a very large number. And so I began to ask myself, and we actually begin to see this unravel from chapter two, that what was it about Esther, right, that was different than the other 399 women that caused her to obtain favor before the king? Because we know that she ended up being queen. And we realized quickly that as we read through the text, that it wasn't anything else but the favor of God, right? And so my question to you is, what is that thing, right, that makes you unique? And now we're talking about very practical steps to walking in purpose. You know, we laid the foundation that, you know, we're not purpose hungry, we're God hungry, right? We're just wanting to do his will. So basically, in the search of wanting to do his will, what is that thing, right, that makes you unique in your journey of becoming? You have to realize that there is something about you that is different from every single other person. And until you realize that, you will always compare yourself and you'll rob yourself of what God is trying to do in you because you are focused on what you do or do not have, right? There is a uniqueness about you. And I pray that the Lord would open your eyes to the unique thing that God has gifted you with. He's endowed you with for his glory and for his divine purpose is, you know, Esther had something very unique about her as well. And it was the fact that God used her beauty, you know, through his favor, God used her beauty. And, you know, I believe that in the place of purpose, you know, there's passions, there's desires, there's things that you're naturally gifted with. But can I implore you not to stop there, right? God may have given you the passion to be able to sing. God may have been able to give you the passion to play an instrument or to organize or to do so many things. And what we fail to realize is that your passion does not equate purpose. Your passion is the doorway to purpose. And so until you realize that again, you will cap what God is trying to do in your life, right? Because you have limited him. You have limited him to your voice. You have limited him. You have limited him to your talents, right? When God wants to do more with that, right? The Bible talks about how a man who is diligent in all his ways will be able to stand before kings, right? But we must ask ourselves, why does God need us to stand before Kings, right? Why? Why is he bringing us into these rooms, right? He's not bringing us into these rooms and dropping us there to showcase our gifts, right? But it's for his divine plans and his divine purposes, right? God may have given you a voice, but he's also given you a message. Does that make sense? God may have given you, right, an ability to do something, a unnatural right, grace to do something, but he has given every single one of us a message. And I am here to ask you, what is your message? What is your message? God didn't just give you that beauty for any. For. For just any reason. God didn't just give you that ability for not any reason. But what is the message behind what I carry? What is the message behind what I carry? And I think that it's very interesting how we see the story of Esther play out and eventually she becomes queen, right? We understand that part. She becomes queen. But then there's a time in the scripture, right, where she becomes a bit complacent in her queenship and she kind of gets comfortable, you know, on the throne until a situation demanded of her to rise into the place of destiny and purpose. That is why she was called to the queenship, not because of her beauty, not because of even her favor, but because there was an assignment attached to these things. There was an assignment attached to the favor that God needed her to carry out in this earth for a people and for a generation. I want us to look at Esther 4. We're going to be in Esther 4, verse 14. And before we go there, I want to take us through the text that Esther at this point was on the throne, there was a bad man. His name is Haman. Haman was very close to the king at this time. He was very close to King Ahasuerus. He had a lot of power and a lot of influence. And so what he wanted people to do, right, was to bow down to him as he was walking through the city or walking through the land or what have you. And Mordecai, because he was a Jew, meaning he believed in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, would not bow to him. And what happened was that truly angered Haman. And so one way or the other, he was able to finesse the king, right, and get a decree to be written that on a specific day, I mean, a very specific date to come, that the entire Jews would be annihilated in the land. And so Mordecai became privy of this knowledge, and he went to the one who was called for the moment. And he says this. Actually, let's start from verse seven. I want us to read this so that we really get the context of what's happening. It says, and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him and the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king's treasuries to destroy the Jews, it says, and he also gave him a copy of the written decree for their destruction, which was given at Shushan, that he might show it to Esther and explain it to her, and that he might command her to go into the king to make supplication to him and plead before him for her people. So it says. So Hathach returned and told Esther the words of Mordecai. Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him a command for Mordecai, and this is what she says. All the king's servants and the peoples of the king's servants provinces know that any man or woman who goes into the inner court to the king who has not been called, he has but one law put all to death, except the one to whom the king holds out the golden scepter, that he may live yet I myself have not been called to go into the king these 30 days. So they told Mordecai Esther's words. And then this is where I really want us to pay attention here. Verse 13 and 14, it says, Mordecai told them to answer, Esther, do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this. This was Esther's moment of arising in destiny. And I just want to share with you all that. Don't allow fear and doubt and second guessing yourself be the reason why you don't walk in purpose. Be sharp, be ready. Do not allow fear to hold you back. For you have been called at such a time as this. This was the moment for where Esther was called. And I believe in every Christian woman's life there is a moment for which you are called. And when you do get to that moment, whether it be now, whether it be in five months, whether it be in five years, be quick, right? To respond to destiny, to respond to purpose, because you don't know who is dependent on the other side of your obedience. An entire generation, an entire nation was relying on Esther and her rising in her calling, rising in a place of purpose, rising in destiny in order to survive. And I've studied Esther multiple times. And one of the first times that I had read Esther, God told me something that grace for one person is mercy for an entire generation. And what that means is that God will place a grace on you, a certain anointing on you. And that anointing for you is not for yourself, that anointing for you is not so you can gloat, that anointing for you is not so that you can be seen, but so that a people can be saved. And I want to leave you with this here and I want to encourage you in a place of purpose as you have been hungry for God and not hungry for purpose, as you have realized the uniqueness about you and what God has called you to, I'm charging you to rise. I'm charging you to rise with boldness, without limits, without excuses, without the voices of men influencing you, so that you can be the woman who God has called you to be and be able to save the nation, the generation, the population that God has called you to, I'll leave you here, right? Maybe we'll pick up this topic of purpose with, with some ladies so we can really, really flesh it out. But if you are blessed at all by this episode, if you are blessed in any way, shape or form, I want you to like, comment, share, subscribe. God bless you as you support the work and we will catch you on the next episode of brunch and Bible.