Servant & The Principle of Authority – For Such a Time closes the four-part overview of the redemptive gift of Servant. Like skipping a pebble across a lake, initial ripples on the surface are visible, while beneath the watery face is much more depth and volume.
Such is the case with all seven of the redemptive gifts. And why should it not be, when the study of the redemptive gifts is really about who God is, what He is like, and how we reflect His nature. He is without end.
Like each redemptive gift, the Servant portion of our human spirit has areas of struggle that hinder or threaten to keep us in bondage to a victim mindset. Servant’s victories come in the exercise of redemptive, godly authority.
Servant’s Major Areas of Struggle
Noted on the Servant redemptive gift checklist as major weaknesses, they represent Servant’s battleground. Let’s look deeper at the enemy’s tools of choice to keep Servant from walking in dominion.
Battle for Self-Worth
Servant’s battle for self-worth is one with which Esther was familiar. Loss marked her life. She had every human right to have legitimacy issues. Yet, God used Mordecai and his unique design to care for her, be vigilant, and speak into Esther’s life at a crucial time. As Chuck Wales 1 well captured, “When Esther heard Mordecai’s words stating, ‘Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?’, she set aside her legitimacy issues and began to rise to her God-given position of authority.” 2
Those who know the battle for self-worth and value and believing God’s truth about them, may well identify with how Esther must have struggled to move in the opposite spirit. Servant tends to feel unqualified for spiritual leadership; and Esther held low estimation of her ability to influence the king.
How the gallows turned when God’s Spirit moved in Esther to be a life-giver according to her design. Her story in scripture exhibits a powerful redemption of Servant’s weaknesses, as she turned aside from them to rise up in God’s strength. Esther, who contained within her being all that she had been given for life and godliness, was perfectly suited for such a time. Because she was responsive to the need and the Spirit of God, death was aborted. For a life-giver who desires to empower others to achieve their best and do their work, what great fulfillment!
Worry / Anxiety
Worry and anxiety is a common marker of Servant’s inclination to take on other people’s problems, accompanied by worrying about the problem. And this, on top of worry and anxiousness about oneself, let alone anyone else. In fact, it is so common that to walk in redemptive refusal to worry is most uncommon. It is night and day difference between denial and faith’s certainty of Christ.
Worry is not a frame of mind to be exalted or excused. Left unaddressed, worry carries the soul into anxiety-ridden ground filled with fear, nervousness, unease, and underlying apprehension. Jesus, the Prince of Peace, said, “Do not worry…” within a frame of realistic reference concerning our life and livelihood, safety and defense.3 SERVANT of servants, He has all authority – equal to every single need. Though we know in our head there are some things that remain out of our control, our heart may be inscribed with messages that do not agree with the redemptive power and authority of Christ Jesus.
Servant, particularly, attracts dishonor and tends to be exploited by others. There again is the ugly double-knot of the enemy at work, all in effort to diminish Servant’s birthright of walking in dominion – redemptive opposite of remaining and walking out life tangled in the grave wrappings of a victim spirit.
God-gauntlet
It is telling that the Greek describes worry/worrying, in part as, to raise in mid-air and suspend. Worry – the antagonist of Servant, who is designed to partner with God to cleanse the spiritual and physical atmosphere. Worry will not stop God’s will, but it can waste a lot of time by suspending our movement in accordance with His hand in the very real and present time of need. As Mordecai said to Esther, “And who knows if you have attained to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4:14 Literal) Mordecai’s message also included the God-gauntlet precursor that if she was completely silent with hope of delivering herself in the king’s house more than all the Jews, God would bring the Jews relief and deliverance from another source, but she and her father’s house would perish.
I believe the strength of Mordecai’s challenge / question sparked a fire in Esther’s spirit – for such a time. Surely, Esther’s Servant portion grew exponentially because of her responsiveness. The key to her stand in dominion was her posture of prayer first. She would take no action without God. That is our key, too.
Enabling
Servant’s third major weakness is one that makes for a wearisome battleground. That of enabling, which in Servant’s case is the propensity to do a task instead of teaching others to do it and releasing it to them.
The Servant redemptive gift checklist contains several statements of behavioral characteristics related to the issue. Reams of psychology have been written on the subject, but the root iniquity remains peace at any cost. Be it bad habit indulged, learned response to another’s spirit of helplessness, or victim mindset making its own determination of what is needed to keep the peace, enabling begets immaturity.
More could be written here as well; however, the purpose of embracing your design for redemptive living is a call to believers to grow and mature by engaging your personal life with the life of Christ. All seven redemptive gift portions find health and strength in spirit relating to God’s Spirit, before horizontal relationships can realize the outflow of the health and strength that only God can initiate and sustain.4
Therein is the essence of the nurture and development of the human spirit, designed to overcome. And Servant is the portion that is imprinted especially to overcome the victim spirit and walk in dominion – godly, redemptive authority – as the Spirit orchestrates in response to God’s personal and perfect will.
~ Nancy
1 Roll the Credits 2 Esther 4:9-11 3 Matt. 6:28,31,34; 10:19; Mark 13:11; Luke 12:11,22,29 4 Luke 10:27
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Hi Nancy. I enjoyed reading this newest one with new eyes. After our last conversation, I could receive this more, for those seasons and times when God has called, is calling, and may yet call me into a servant role. Thanks for all the work you do to put these out!
Pamela ~ I appreciate your student heart ♥ The Lord especially does, even more than I. You’re welcome.