By Bunni Pounds - This article was originally published by The Stream.

Leadership is not created in a vacuum. There are decisions that we make every day that prepare us for what lies ahead.

I keep hearing the Lord say over and over in my heart, since last summer: “Prepare leaders for the days ahead.” It is like an alarm going off constantly in my spirit: “Get ready and prepare others.”

We have a leadership crisis currently in this nation and we must have godly leaders, not only in church ministry, but in every place of influence in our culture.

When I think about leadership development for America, I keep going back to the heroic stories of Nehemiah (I created a whole Bible study on his leadership) and the heroic story of Esther.

The Story of Esther

Simply put — the story of Esther goes like this (if you haven’t read it recently) … 

There was an orphan girl, Hadassah, who was adopted by her cousin, Mordecai.

Key point to the story is this: Hadassah was a Jew in the foreign land of Persia.

The Persian King was relatively a man of honor, though I could make the case that he was self-absorbed most of the time — not unlike many of our current leaders. He didn’t have the smartest people working for him. His wife, Vashti, was removed as Queen because she refused to “obey her husband” at his party. Then God raises up Hadassah, now called Esther, who had obtained favor with the King. By a miracle of God, she became the new Queen.

Out of the preparation time, God gave Esther His favor.

This was a Jew in a foreign nation now in a place of close proximity to national power.

Mordecai always remained loyal to the King — attempting to be his faithful servant. He overheard a plot to assassinate the ruler and put a stop to it.

Another man, high up in the King’s court, Haman, plotted to eradicate the people of God — the Jewish people. Out of his own arrogance, and envy of Mordecai, he worked toward the destruction of the people of God. Because Mordecai wouldn’t bow and worship Haman at the King’s front gate, this one action led to a chain of events that this faithful servant could never have imagined.

Let’s just say that Esther gained the king’s favor at the exact right time and was prepared by God “for such a time as this.” (Esther 4:14)

With evil Haman asking the King for permission to kill every Jew in the kingdom, Esther had to muster up the courage to step out.

What would she do? How would she do it?

I believe that in our culture we must be willing to step out and take a stand against evil in our generation. As the people of Israel were faced with a choice in Deuteronomy 30:19-20, so we have a choice to make:

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.

There is much we can learn from Esther’s story of boldness, but especially the preparation that she underwent, not just the moment she became famous for.

Esther yielded to God’s preparation in her life and moved into her destiny at the right time.

Overcoming an Orphan Mentality

First, Esther had to overcome an orphan mentality.

Remember, this little Jewish girl was without the stable presence of her parents in her life. Her parents had died and she had been raised by her cousin Mordecai. We don’t know how they died, but as a young girl, can you imagine her feelings of loss?

She could have lamented the loss her entire life and stayed in a place where she felt she never had enough, but instead she was thankful for Mordecai in her life, and pushed forward into her destiny.

My father passed away at age 72 with a glioblastoma brain tumor. In seven weeks from the time he was diagnosed, he was gone. Instead of constantly mourning that he was not with me, in my darkest moments and in my moments of greatest victory, I envisioned him in the great cloud of witnesses cheering me on, knowing he was proud of me. (Hebrews 12:1)

We all must overcome something. We can’t let the pain in our past hinder us for our future.

Philippians 3:13 says, “Brothers, I do not consider myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead.”

Walking Through the Purification Process

As the King was looking for a new queen, Esther was chosen to appear and participate in a beauty contest. Before she could appear before the King though, she had to go through an extensive purification and beautification process — “six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with perfumes and preparations for beautifying women.” (Esther 2:12b) Can you imagine those salon treatments?

If she had said “no” to those months of preparation — she wouldn’t have stood before the King and been considered for that high position.

When I made a 180-degree turn into Bible school at the age of 18, I did it because God broke in with His Word, showing me all my pride. My identity was in my own talents and gifts. I thought I was going to pursue theatre and music at the University of North Texas to “make Jesus famous,” but my motivation was really myself.

God led me into a season of just weeping over His Word, reading Joy Dawson’s classic book — Intimate Friendship with God: Through Understanding the Fear of the Lord, and spending more time in prayer.

That process with God continued through my two years of Bible school, where I knew I had to continue to lay down my pride and my identity that was in my musical abilities and allow God to purify my motives.

1 Timothy 4:12 teaches us: “Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”

Esther submitted herself to the process of preparation to go before the King. She desired to be useful for the kingdom that she resided in, but she couldn’t just step into her place of authority without the process.

How often do we just try to “arrive” at our destiny without allowing the Lord to purify us and make us more like Him?

Hebrews 12:4 advises: “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.”

Out of the preparation time, God gave Esther His favor.

Esther 2:17 explains: “The king loved Esther more than all the other women, and she obtained grace and favor in his sight more than all the virgins; so he set the royal crown upon her head and made her queen instead of Vashti.”

She Stood Up at the Right Time

We have heard the expression that “timing is everything.”

Well, Esther’s timing couldn’t have been more critical. It was coming down to the wire. A decree had gone forth and “letters were sent by couriers into all the king’s provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all the Jews, both young and old, little children and women.” (Esther 3:13a)

Here this beautiful young woman was in the court of a foreign king as his queen at a strategic moment in her people’s history.

The Jewish people to this current time still read her story each year and celebrate her boldness during the festival of Purim.

Cousin Mordecai spoke over her — destiny and purpose in that moment — as he had probably been doing her entire life.

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? (Esther 4:13-14)

She had a choice to make. Would she be bold and courageous and stand up for her people in their moment of crisis?

Going before the King without being summoned could have led to her death. He had to extend the scepter to her or else … .

This was her moment of decision that would define her life.

She stepped out against the possibility of death and saved her people.

In 2021, 18 months into the establishment of our ministry, Christians Engaged, we were denied our tax-exempt status and a letter from the Internal Revenue Service brought our small Texas-based ministry into the national spotlight. The IRS defined “biblical teaching” as partisan speech. Our leadership team had a decision to make. It would have been easier to have just ignored that letter and moved on. But we knew if we didn’t stand up, it could ultimately affect every ministry and church in America. We made a choice to fight the decision. It turned out to be a national victory. (The full story is here.)

Jesus told us in Matthew 10:18-19:

You will be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, do not worry about how or what you should speak. For it will be given to you in that hour what you should speak.

Leadership That Was Ready

Esther demonstrated leadership that was ready for whatever God had in her future.

She had overcome her orphan mentality, had allowed the process of purification to open the door to favor, and when the time was right … she stepped out boldly into her destiny.

The secret to being ready for leadership is to live each day and each moment — not in the future or the past — but in the present. We must cherish every conversation, every opportunity, every friendship, every boss, mentor or job — learning, pushing past hurts, disappointments, failures into our future.

We don’t just wake up one day and decide that it is our destiny to save a nation, but as followers of Christ we live every day — loving Him, walking with Him, and being a daily disciple carrying His glory. So that when we are needed, we will be leadership-ready.

God likes to transform simple orphan girls and make them queens to save a nation.

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