The main story begins from now. What we have shared up until this point was like the introduction to the movie. Now the movie finally begins.

Finding Vashti's Replacement

We have to do something. We have to find somebody to replace Queen Vashti. The king said,

"Vashti is no use. Let's dump her as soon as possible."

Vashti can no longer be the queen. She can no longer be our companion, our comfort and the one who meets our needs because she is not responding to those deep inner needs that we have.

So King Ahasuerus makes a decree. Vashti is now removed as queen. She will no longer come before the king. She has been demoted and kicked out.

It doesn't take long for the alcohol to wear off and for Ahasuerus to get to the place where he says,

"I feel like a woman."

"Well we don't have one."

"I want my queen."

"You don't have one anymore."

The Search Begins

Oh dear we have a problem here. I have this yearning need and deep lack inside of me. How do I satisfy it?

And so a search begins. The king's advisors say,

"Why don't you do this? Search through the kingdom and find a new woman who can take the place of Vashti? Go and find yourself a new queen.

Out of all the beautiful women out there, there has to be at least one that is better than Vashti, that will satisfy you and that you know is the right one for you."

So the decree goes out to bring in all the beautiful ladies. We will have a beauty competition and the king will be the judge.

You know in beauty competitions they go through various stages. You have the swimsuit competition, the ball gown competition and various others. They also ask the contestants questions.

Well in this case the final test is one night with the king. So who is going to win this beauty competition?

Looking to the Flesh

Where is the king looking in his kingdom? Where do we start looking when we realize there is something missing deep inside?

We look in the wrong place. We start looking to the flesh again. We start looking to the body or looking into the world and we try different things.

We try alcohol or drugs. We might try Eastern mysticism, yoga and all sorts of things that all sit in the realm of the flesh and the body. We try to find something that will satisfy that deep lack that takes place inside of us.

This then is the first thing that happens in the life of an unbeliever outside of Christ when they finally come to the place where they realize,

"I need something. I don't know what it is, but something is missing deep down inside and I need to find it."

Introducing the Holy Spirit

The king doesn't realize that there is somebody in his kingdom who is going to provide him the solution. This person is a guy by the name of Mordecai who is a picture of the Holy Spirit.

He had been there all along but in the background. He was not a major part of the kingdom; just a servant serving the king. He was sitting there, not pushing himself and not imposing himself in any way.

That is what the Holy Spirit is like. God does not impose Himself on us. He doesn't push, but He is there when we need Him at all times. He is ready to offer the solution to the problem that we have.

The unbeliever doesn't see Him though. He or she sees everything else and starts searching for what they want.

Enter Esther

And so Mordecai takes a step. He sees that the king is looking for his new wife, and he takes his adopted daughter who is the daughter of his uncle. Her parents died so he brought her up as his own daughter.

What is Esther a picture of? Esther is the replacement for Vashti. Vashti was a picture of the old human spirit that is unredeemed and unborn again.

It will never be suitable for us. We are looking for a new spirit that is related to God's Spirit. We are searching for a new spirit that will satisfy that deep inner need.

So Mordecai already begins to act. And in the same way the Holy Spirit begins to act on this person outside of Christ. As they begin to search they don't know what they are looking for. But in the middle of it God will meet them at the point of their search.

You see now is the time when the person may be ready to hear the gospel. Now is the time that they may be ready to listen and for us to present to them the good news.

We need to tell them that the Lord has something better for them than what they have had until now.

And so in comes Esther. She is totally subject to Mordecai. He is a father to her and she obeys his instructions. So the king searches and searches. He tries one young woman after another, and they are all pretty good but not good enough.

You see before you came to the Lord you may have done the same thing. You may have even looked for religion.

The Solution is Found

You might have looked for satisfaction in so many things. You taste and try each one of them, but nothing satisfies until you taste Esther. One taste of Esther and the king was hooked. He said,

"Wow, this is what I have been looking for! This is the ultimate wife for me; the ultimate queen for me to have by my side."

He didn't even need to have a second look. From that very first time they had together, he knew this was the woman of his dreams.

He immediately chose her to be the queen. He put the crown on her and appointed her to be the queen.

I have often used the story of the boy who chewed rubber. He was a young guy who chewed rubber all the time, not realizing that he lacked sulphur in his body.

The doctors discovered that he lacked sulphur. That was when they realized why every time he chewed rubber he felt good.

You see an unbeliever needs to come to the place where they start chewing the rubber. They start tasting everything until they find the truth of the gospel. Then when they hear the good news they say,

"That is what I have been looking for. I have found it."

That is when the rebirth takes place.

Salvation is Accomplished

So Esther is brought into the palace. And this is the salvation experience that takes place.

When this happens, a person finally realizes that in the Lord and in the new Spirit that He can give us, lies the full satisfaction of everything that we have been desiring in life.

As exciting as what they are, all the parties and the pomp, the wealth and the pleasures of this world do not meet that inner need.

But then the Lord comes into our life. His Spirit begins to move upon us. He touches our spirit and it is born again, a new spirit is created and the old spirit is displaced.

Into that inner sanctuary or inner palace of our lives now comes a new person; a new spirit. It is somebody very closely connected with the Holy Spirit.

Esther was still very closely connected with Mordecai. And so in the same way your new human spirit that is recreated in Christ takes center stage in the story.

Esther has been brought into the palace, and the queen is now close to the king. He is spending time with her and enjoying her, but he still doesn't know that Mordecai exists.

Mordecai is still there serving the king in the background. He is just one of the nobodies; one of the no names. He is there and has actually been responsible for this beautiful queen that the king now has, but he doesn't know it yet.

Becoming Aware of the Lord

Here now comes the next stage of the spiritual life. After a person is born again he has to start becoming aware of the existence of the Lord in his life.

The only one who knows Mordecai is Esther. And in you, the only part of you that knows God is your recreated spirit. The soul - your mind and your body - do not know of the existence of God yet.

It is up to Esther to bring Mordecai into the picture. So the first part of you that God works in, in order to bring the Lord into focus, is going to start in your human spirit.

Because your human spirit is so deep inside of you it doesn't come out loud. The queen didn't walk up to the king on the first day and say,

"Hey, I want to tell you about my dad, Mordecai. You need to get to know him better."

It wasn't time yet. It had to happen slowly and gradually. God had an agenda.

God always has an agenda. Each person has a flow or a series of stages that they must go through in their life, before they come to the full realization of who the Lord is and the role that He can play in their life.

The Enemy Wants to Destroy

Mordecai discovers a plot to kill the king. He is watching over the king from the background. And although you may not be aware of it when you are born again, the Lord and His Spirit are watching over you.

He is watching over you, because now you have become a threat to the enemy who wants to destroy you and to kill you. He is keeping his eye on you to protect you.

So Mordecai becomes aware of this plot to kill King Ahasuerus. But he doesn't go in, knock on the king's door and say,

"Hey king, I discovered that someone wants to kill you."

The Holy Spirit never imposes Himself on us in any way. He doesn't interfere, or suddenly overwhelm us and appear as a lightning bolt from heaven.

He works deep down in our spirits in that new recreated spirit. That is where He deposits His message.

Mordecai goes to Esther and says,

"I have discovered a plot to kill the king. You do something about it."

Esther acts very quickly. She exposes the plot, and the traitors are brought to trial and executed. The queen is the one who brings the solution but Mordecai is the originator.

The Holy Spirit Protects

And so in the beginning of your spiritual life God begins to work upon you. But He works deep down in your human spirit.

Your human spirit will now start to become more sensitive. It will start to protect you. And if you will listen carefully, it will give you warnings from deep down inside.

Before you were saved you could do what you wanted to do and didn't feel a thing. There was no sense of conscience or conviction. But now suddenly there comes a new awareness from deep down inside.

There is a new voice that is speaking to you that wasn't there before. It is starting to prompt you and to warn you,

"Be careful; watch out. There is death and destruction. There is somebody who wants to destroy you."

There comes a warning from deep inside, and it takes a while for that influence to come out.

Queen Esther did not have the liberty to just go and speak to the king yet, even when she wanted to. We will see later in the story, that if she did she would stand in peril of death.

If she were to suddenly appear in the throne room uninvited, she could be put to death.

Your human spirit works the same way. It is influenced by the Holy Spirit, and He never imposes Himself or forces Himself on us in any way.

A Gentle Nudge

And so the human spirit gives its messages very gently as an appeal from deep within. And for a person who has now entered into the spiritual life and gets to know the Lord, it takes a while for them to even recognize that voice.

Although a person is born again and they have the Spirit of God living within them, it is very possible for them to go back and continue living the way they were.

You see the king didn't have to call for Esther. If he wasn't in the mood he just ignored her.

When he called on her she was responsive and there immediately. She wasn't like Vashti who refused. Every time he called on Esther she was there to meet his needs.

And so the new recreated spirit is there and available. But God cannot force Himself, and your spirit will not impose itself on you. It will speak gently and make appeals from deep within.

Summary of the Salvation Experience

This is how the spiritual life begins. This is a picture of a person who is now born again. He or she is starting to learn and understand some of the realm of the spirit but is still very ignorant.

The story has taken a happy turn. Things are starting to move well. We expect progress to take place now that eventually Esther will be able to bring Mordecai in.

The king will get to meet Mordecai. He will realize who he is and let him become an active part of the kingdom.

And they all lived happily ever after! It doesn't happen that way in the movies though. It doesn't happen that way in real life, and it didn't happen that way in the book of Esther.

Conflict Begins

Just when it looked like everything was really going well, suddenly a new character appears in the story. Enter a new actor who up until now wasn't known. Suddenly he steps in, and we see the first sign of the antagonist in the story.

Now comes the first major conflict in the story. It is a picture of the conflict that takes place in our new spiritual life as we choose to serve the Lord and follow Him.

There is one major conflict that shows itself almost immediately. This is what we are going to look at in Section 02.

The spiritual life has several important stages to it. The book of Esther graphically portrays these stages.

We have looked at the first stage which is the spiritual rebirth. In the next section we are going to look at the first major problem of conflict that takes place in the spiritual life.

In preparation for this I would like to suggest you go and read Chapters 3 and 4 of the book of Esther which cover this. You can also read the first two chapters so that you can catch up on what we covered in this Section.

In the next Section we will cover Chapters 3 and 4 and cover a very important part of what takes place in our spiritual life. I will show you how we are to overcome probably the major conflict that takes place.