From the moment I was saved I had a passion to read the Word and to study it. I was in a dysfunctional marriage and the desperate need to be loved drew me close to God in search of love and in search of understanding it. I started writing poetry as soon as I was saved but it was not until my youngest son was killed that I had a desire to write books and Bible Studies. I did not think of where it would lead me; it was in my heart and I had to do it. I had a hope inside my heart that I could not let go of—it was a hope for love, a hope for my aching heart to be healed, a hope that God would give me a better life and a hope that one day I would be with Him for an eternity and forever away from the heartache of the world.
(Zechariah 9:11-12) “As for you, because of the blood of My covenant with you,
I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit. Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.â€
(Esther 2:12) “Before a girl’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics.â€
Are you waiting on an answered prayer or a ministry desire to begin? Then become a prisoner of hope. Wait on the Lord for He says, “Be still and know that I am God.†Esther started out an orphan and became Queen.
You are a Princess undergoing the Lord’s special beauty treatments! Your appointed time is still to come!
(Esther 2:8-12) “When the king’s order and edict had been proclaimed, many girls were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem. The girl pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven maids selected from the king’s palace and moved her and her maids into the best place in the harem. Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. Every day he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her. Before a girl’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics.â€
You have been born again and new emotions and desires started welling up inside of you. New passions and desires to do something for the Lord; but then life hit! Fear not! God’s purpose will surely be fulfilled! Upon salvation you start undergoing beauty treatments as Esther did. The past mistakes and wrong decisions are all gone as far as God is concerned. There may be scar tissue that needs healed, but that is all part of His special beauty treatments.
(I John 1:7-9) “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.â€
(Isaiah 46:10) “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.â€
God is already pleased with you and He loves you with an everlasting love!
(Jeremiah 31:3-4) ““I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful. “
II. You are a Princess with a mission for God!
(Psalm 45:13) “All glorious is the princess within [her chamber]; her gown is interwoven with gold.â€â€”How awesome! You have gold-which is the deity of Christ and His glory-interwoven in you!
God has placed desires in you as well as desires that you have as an individual and they will be fulfilled, but first you must be transformed into His likeness. You have years of the world in you but your heart was transformed the moment you received Christ. Your mind still needs to be renewed.
(Psalm 37:4) “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.â€
(II Corinthians 3:18) “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.â€
(Romans 12:1-2) “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.â€
You are His Princess already and He is already pleased with you. Have patience with Him as He renews your mind and helps you to grow in the gifts He plants in your heart for the purpose He created in advance for you to do.
(Ephesians 2:10) “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.â€
III. The Beauty Treatments
Esther went through 12 months of beauty treatments 1st. Just like us, we need to be transformed and all the weeds from our past need to be uprooted and new fruit grown in its place. Transformed and renewed day by day.
First-- The first six months we receive the oil of myrrh this is a 2 part process—first our soul through the atonement that came through Jesus Christ is cleansed and purified. He gives us His Holy Spirit to live and dwell within us and we are born anew Myrrh is a perfume and our old self through the atonement of Christ which was as “filthy rags†before is made new and sweet smelling through Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. Our old is forgotten. Esther received a new name for the palace, signifying she is now a princess as we are. Her Hebrew name Hadassah- means myrtle (sweet aroma to Christ) and Esther means star. We are all stars in the eyes of our Lord!
Hadassah is the Hebrew name of Esther.—the name Hadassah means myrtle. The myrtle is a perennial shrub with white flowers that are used for perfume. Since this plant is quite common in Palestine, the Bible uses the myrtle a few times symbolically. Most notable is the Zechariahan scene of the horsemen who stand among the myrtle trees (Zechariah 1:8) “During the night I had a vision, and there before me was a man mounted on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, brown and white horses.â€
This verse has a two-fold meaning in the light of the myrtle trees mentioned; myrtle referring to the aroma the given off; in Christ we are the aroma of His saving grace. (II Corinthians 2:15) “For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.â€
First the red horse stands for bloodshed and to us who receive Jesus it is the blood He shed on the cross that purifies us from all sin.
(I John 1:7) “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.â€
To the one who rejects it is the wrath of God.
(John 3:36) “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them.â€
The next horse mentioned is the brown one and the Hebrew word for it is “sorrel†which means “having a ruddy tinge over white.†The brown here is our humanity for we are all, (Isaiah 64:6) “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.†It stands for our humanity and the cross of Jesus who took our sins upon Himself and hung on the cross, nailing the sins of humanity to it so we may receive His righteousness from it by believing and receiving.
(Colossians 2:13-15) “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.â€
The last horse is the white one and through nailing our sins to the cross and being cleansed by the blood of Jesus the white one here is the risen Lord and He will rise in our hearts and our sins become white as snow and we become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
(Isaiah 1:18) “Come now, let us settle the matter," says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.â€
(II Corinthians 5:21) “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.â€
And again to the one who rejects Him it is Christ Himself who will be their judge.
(Revelation 19:11) “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice He judges and wages war.â€
(Psalm 50:56) “And the heavens shall declare His righteousness: for God is judge Himself.â€
Second—the weeds of our heart and all the scar tissue is uprooted. This takes time. Upon conversion, we have the fruit of the Spirit and with each trial we come through, as we trust God to mold us and bring us through victoriously, weeds are pulled the fruit of the Spirit grows more and more.
(Matthew 15:13) “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.â€
(Galatians 5:22-23) “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.â€
(I Thessalonians 5:23-24) “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.â€
If you will trust God and let Him teach you, you will come out victoriously and not having to go around the same mountain again and again.
Third—the six months of perfume and cosmetics is the icing on the cake- you will start growing in the gifts He has planted in you for His purpose and His glory.
(Isaiah 43:7) “Everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.â€
(I Corinthians 12:4-6) “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.â€
(Acts 1:8) “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.â€
John the Baptist said I baptize with water but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. – need to ask He says If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"—Luke 11:13
You are being transformed for His purpose and His glory and to me that is humbling that God, the creator of all not only died for me, but He has faith in me, that He can use me for His glory!
Esther was just an ordinary person like you and I and God used her to give the Jewish people hope and to save their lives. All she had to do is say yes to the call, and then have faith in His love and ability to deliver and obey. He can use us in our everyday lives if you give your heart to Him in faith, keep believing even in long periods of nothingness or darkness, obey, wait on Him trusting Him completely to live up to what He promises in His Word and continue to have a teachable spirit.
(Isaiah 43:7) “Everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.â€
If you have a desire in your heart to do something for the Lord take heart you are undergoing His beauty treatments! Praise Him for the beautification process and have patience with Him and He will bring it to pass!
He says, (Isaiah 46:10) I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.
You are a princess already and dearly loved by God. Give yourself to Him and become a Prisoner of His Eternal Hope. He will perfect those gifts in you and then He will send you out!
(Zechariah 9:11-12) “As for you, because of the blood of My covenant with you,
I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit. Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.â€
(Esther 2:12) “Before a girl’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics.â€
Are you waiting on an answered prayer or a ministry desire to begin? Then become a prisoner of hope. Wait on the Lord for He says, “Be still and know that I am God.†Esther started out an orphan and became Queen.
You are a Princess undergoing the Lord’s special beauty treatments! Your appointed time is still to come!
(Esther 2:8-12) “When the king’s order and edict had been proclaimed, many girls were brought to the citadel of Susa and put under the care of Hegai. Esther also was taken to the king’s palace and entrusted to Hegai, who had charge of the harem. The girl pleased him and won his favor. Immediately he provided her with her beauty treatments and special food. He assigned to her seven maids selected from the king’s palace and moved her and her maids into the best place in the harem. Esther had not revealed her nationality and family background, because Mordecai had forbidden her to do so. Every day he walked back and forth near the courtyard of the harem to find out how Esther was and what was happening to her. Before a girl’s turn came to go in to King Xerxes, she had to complete twelve months of beauty treatments prescribed for the women, six months with oil of myrrh and six with perfumes and cosmetics.â€
- The Beginning
You have been born again and new emotions and desires started welling up inside of you. New passions and desires to do something for the Lord; but then life hit! Fear not! God’s purpose will surely be fulfilled! Upon salvation you start undergoing beauty treatments as Esther did. The past mistakes and wrong decisions are all gone as far as God is concerned. There may be scar tissue that needs healed, but that is all part of His special beauty treatments.
(I John 1:7-9) “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.â€
(Isaiah 46:10) “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.â€
God is already pleased with you and He loves you with an everlasting love!
(Jeremiah 31:3-4) ““I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful. “
II. You are a Princess with a mission for God!
(Psalm 45:13) “All glorious is the princess within [her chamber]; her gown is interwoven with gold.â€â€”How awesome! You have gold-which is the deity of Christ and His glory-interwoven in you!
God has placed desires in you as well as desires that you have as an individual and they will be fulfilled, but first you must be transformed into His likeness. You have years of the world in you but your heart was transformed the moment you received Christ. Your mind still needs to be renewed.
(Psalm 37:4) “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.â€
(II Corinthians 3:18) “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.â€
(Romans 12:1-2) “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.â€
You are His Princess already and He is already pleased with you. Have patience with Him as He renews your mind and helps you to grow in the gifts He plants in your heart for the purpose He created in advance for you to do.
(Ephesians 2:10) “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.â€
III. The Beauty Treatments
Esther went through 12 months of beauty treatments 1st. Just like us, we need to be transformed and all the weeds from our past need to be uprooted and new fruit grown in its place. Transformed and renewed day by day.
First-- The first six months we receive the oil of myrrh this is a 2 part process—first our soul through the atonement that came through Jesus Christ is cleansed and purified. He gives us His Holy Spirit to live and dwell within us and we are born anew Myrrh is a perfume and our old self through the atonement of Christ which was as “filthy rags†before is made new and sweet smelling through Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. Our old is forgotten. Esther received a new name for the palace, signifying she is now a princess as we are. Her Hebrew name Hadassah- means myrtle (sweet aroma to Christ) and Esther means star. We are all stars in the eyes of our Lord!
Hadassah is the Hebrew name of Esther.—the name Hadassah means myrtle. The myrtle is a perennial shrub with white flowers that are used for perfume. Since this plant is quite common in Palestine, the Bible uses the myrtle a few times symbolically. Most notable is the Zechariahan scene of the horsemen who stand among the myrtle trees (Zechariah 1:8) “During the night I had a vision, and there before me was a man mounted on a red horse. He was standing among the myrtle trees in a ravine. Behind him were red, brown and white horses.â€
This verse has a two-fold meaning in the light of the myrtle trees mentioned; myrtle referring to the aroma the given off; in Christ we are the aroma of His saving grace. (II Corinthians 2:15) “For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.â€
First the red horse stands for bloodshed and to us who receive Jesus it is the blood He shed on the cross that purifies us from all sin.
(I John 1:7) “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.â€
To the one who rejects it is the wrath of God.
(John 3:36) “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on them.â€
The next horse mentioned is the brown one and the Hebrew word for it is “sorrel†which means “having a ruddy tinge over white.†The brown here is our humanity for we are all, (Isaiah 64:6) “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.†It stands for our humanity and the cross of Jesus who took our sins upon Himself and hung on the cross, nailing the sins of humanity to it so we may receive His righteousness from it by believing and receiving.
(Colossians 2:13-15) “When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.â€
The last horse is the white one and through nailing our sins to the cross and being cleansed by the blood of Jesus the white one here is the risen Lord and He will rise in our hearts and our sins become white as snow and we become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
(Isaiah 1:18) “Come now, let us settle the matter," says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.â€
(II Corinthians 5:21) “God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.â€
And again to the one who rejects Him it is Christ Himself who will be their judge.
(Revelation 19:11) “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice He judges and wages war.â€
(Psalm 50:56) “And the heavens shall declare His righteousness: for God is judge Himself.â€
Second—the weeds of our heart and all the scar tissue is uprooted. This takes time. Upon conversion, we have the fruit of the Spirit and with each trial we come through, as we trust God to mold us and bring us through victoriously, weeds are pulled the fruit of the Spirit grows more and more.
(Matthew 15:13) “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots.â€
(Galatians 5:22-23) “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.â€
(I Thessalonians 5:23-24) “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.â€
If you will trust God and let Him teach you, you will come out victoriously and not having to go around the same mountain again and again.
Third—the six months of perfume and cosmetics is the icing on the cake- you will start growing in the gifts He has planted in you for His purpose and His glory.
(Isaiah 43:7) “Everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.â€
(I Corinthians 12:4-6) “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.â€
(Acts 1:8) “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.â€
John the Baptist said I baptize with water but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. – need to ask He says If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"—Luke 11:13
You are being transformed for His purpose and His glory and to me that is humbling that God, the creator of all not only died for me, but He has faith in me, that He can use me for His glory!
Esther was just an ordinary person like you and I and God used her to give the Jewish people hope and to save their lives. All she had to do is say yes to the call, and then have faith in His love and ability to deliver and obey. He can use us in our everyday lives if you give your heart to Him in faith, keep believing even in long periods of nothingness or darkness, obey, wait on Him trusting Him completely to live up to what He promises in His Word and continue to have a teachable spirit.
(Isaiah 43:7) “Everyone who is called by My name, whom I created for My glory, whom I formed and made.â€
If you have a desire in your heart to do something for the Lord take heart you are undergoing His beauty treatments! Praise Him for the beautification process and have patience with Him and He will bring it to pass!
He says, (Isaiah 46:10) I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.
You are a princess already and dearly loved by God. Give yourself to Him and become a Prisoner of His Eternal Hope. He will perfect those gifts in you and then He will send you out!
