The Power of Unity
“Therefore I, the prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk worthy of
the calling you have received, with all humility and gentleness,
with patience, accepting one another in love, diligently keeping
the unity of the Spirit with the peace that binds us.
(Ephesians 4: 1 – 3) Holman Christian Standard Translation
Very recently Esther’s Academy celebrated it’s 10th Anniversary of existence as we hosted our 8th Annual Women’s Retreat. It is our custom to begin planning the next year’s Retreat as soon as the current year is behind us. So for all intents and purposes the planning is year round. My staff and I found ourselves faced with challenges this year that we never incurred before. You name it, we got hit with it. Family issues, illnesses, and hospitalizations within our core group and their families, unexpected concerns with the venue, promotional / publicity challenges and of course financial and budgetary limitations.
Although I never questioned if I had missed the mind of God, admittedly I was growing weary of the daily punches. You see when you’re the leader you are the enemy’s primary target. So after a period of time I felt for the sake of the morale of the team it was not wisdom to share all that we were up against. In fact I asked God day by day, incident by incident what I was to reveal and what should be kept and dealt with only between Him and me. At times it was a scary, lonely journey but I rested on the fact that God never failed in 10 years and I did not expect Him to do so now!
About two months prior to our 8th Annual Retreat my Administrator stated in a staff email while addressing one of our many challenges two simple words . . . I BELIEVE! Those words struck a chord in my spirit and I held on to them “for dear life” (a phrase my Mom used all the time). Shortly thereafter I sent an email to the staff that every form of communication relating to this Retreat must include the words I BELIEVE. Without hesitation or surprise to me they fell right in line and immediately instituted the mandate given. I BELIEVE right then and there came the turning point for this Retreat. Two words settled us and spoke peace to us in the natural and in the spiritual. This one unified effort engineered so much momentum that the power behind it was unstoppable. We expected nothing less than success no matter the odds that attempted to prevail.
In the final days and weeks leading up to the Retreat we endured a lot but the end result was that we learned more about the omnipotence of our God. Through His omnipotence we engaged the power of unity like never before. We supported one another, prayed for and with one another, and moved full steam ahead unreservedly toward our common goal. Not only did He get us through but He exceeded ALL our expectations — emotionally, physically, financially, spiritually.
We had a common goal that God would bless our efforts and that every woman who attend this Retreat would personally experience a supernatural encounter with God. The reports are still flowing in and the final analysis is GOD DID IT!