The Esther Hour
Esther is a prototype of history’s hinge: a courageous woman who humbly and artfully spoke truth to power. Facing witchcraft and dark conspiracies in Persia’s power base, Queen Esther risked her life, armed with nothing but an undying love for her people, a providential position of authority, her own dignity and the secret arsenal of corporate prayer and fasting. Through her, a nation was spared annihilation.
Three years ago in a leaders summit in Fredericksburg, Virginia, our meeting was sovereignly hijacked as the Lord shifted our focus toward the hidden taproot of strength in the godly women of America. We began to envision something of a million women gathering on the mall in Washington, D.C., similar to the Promise Keepers gathering, that would be a last-stand breakthrough to hold back darkness in America. Those hours of corporate intercession were as strong and clear as any prophetic moment I have ever encountered in 30-plus years of prayer, but at the time we could not see how it could be brought to pass. Habakkuk’s statement seemed to be the counsel of the Lord to us, “If [the vision} delays, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay” (Hab. 2:3b).
The Truly Empowered Woman
That moment arrived Jan. 21, 2017, the day after the inauguration of President Donald J. Trump, as we watched hundreds of thousands of women take to the streets with the purported aim of “empowering women.” A vacuum had been created by this election, by historic women’s injustices, and it seemed a false heiress rushed in and was seeking now to become the hinge of history by framing the narrative of a future America that does not acknowledge God’s exalted view of women and His biblical design for her glorious purpose in the earth. Instinctively, we had a corporate knowing: It was the time for the true empowered woman to stand up, for the meek (strength-filled humility) shall inherit the earth.
Hundreds of thousands of women watched the March, heard the vitriol and could not identify with the radical ideologies being expressed that would not acknowledge God’s Word and ways in the public controversy. This new woman declared deep inside her heart, This is not my revolution. Now, like Esther, she is arising for such a time as this. It’s time for this corporate Esther to frame the future by recognizing and taking up her God-given role of persistent public persuasion in the open square as well as that of her humble appeal to God in prayer.
Fasting Through Purim
The Women’s March was the first shot across the bow, heralding a revolutionary rise against the president of the United States, “We the people” and in reality, the foundational biblical truths upon which our nation was founded. Soon after, the second shot was manifested publicly: an unprecedented global summons of witchcraft to curse President Trump, his Cabinet and all of those aligned with a biblical worldview. Suddenly, the whole controversy was elevated to a global spiritual dimension, inaugurating a spiritual battle that cannot be won on the playing field of protests and political arguments.
Only the church has the answer to this unprecedented manifestation of witchcraft. Spiritual strategy must be used to overcome this open-faced, brazen challenge of the powers.
According to Derek Prince, Haman (the adversary in the Book of Esther), was practicing divination through the casting of lots and was clearly aligning himself with demonic spiritual powers to destroy the whole Jewish population in the earth. Esther’s three-day fast broke the spiritual power channeled by Haman’s witchcraft. It effectively reversed the curse and shifted the whole public policy of the Persian Empire towards the Jewish people. I cannot stress this enough: We are in a similar day and a cataclysmic battle for the soul of our nation. We cannot live the same way we lived yesterday.
Recently, two women contacted me and asked me to use my influence to call for a three-day Esther Fast to answer this challenge. Immediately after, I experienced a life-changing dream where I saw a nation-wide Esther movement arising that alone could break a major spiritual power of death.
I knew then that I was to take my place as a Mordecai and call not only “Esther and her handmaidens” but the whole nation, to fast and pray for three days leading up to Purim. The Jewish holiday Purim celebrates God’s deliverance of the Jews through Esther’s fasting, sacrifice and courage. This year, Purim begins on Saturday evening, March 11.
Therefore, we are seizing this sudden moment for a three-day Esther Fast from sundown on Wednesday, March 8, through the evening of Saturday, March 11, to counter this witchcraft, to stand against the rising anti-Semitism, pray for the president and contend for the uprising of an Esther movement in America that will, among many things, reverse the decree of ’73, Roe v. Wade, just as Haman’s decree was reversed.
Let the women (and the nation) arise as Esther’s for such a time as this and take their place in the courts of heaven and in the public courts of man to shape history in this hour. If your heart burns, mobilize this fast to all your connections. Blow the trumpet in Zion! Call a fast! 
Lou Engle is a revivalist, visionar, and co-founder of TheCall, Inc. For more than three decades, Lou’s passion has been to call believers into radical consecration through prayer, fasting and acts of justice.