Dear People Who Keep Company With God,
From the time we were children we have all had dreams and hopes of destiny. Some of those dreams came from God. Biblically, Joseph is a great example of this. In fact his brothers called him a dreamer, albeit in a derogatory way (Gen. 37:19). At seventeen years old he had two dreams that prophetically foretold his future destiny. And in spite of thirteen years of seeming injustice and disappointment, those dreams were finally fulfilled.
I am sure there were many days during those years that Joseph wondered what had happened to his life. Why did it go so wrong? Why so much failure? Why all the hurt, confusion and offense? Why does no one else see the dream? Was the dream really from God?
Most of us know and relate with these types of thoughts and feelings. God gives us a taste of our destiny in the dreams, but we forget that sweet flavor in all the brokenhearted disappointment that surround our dreams.
But God has not forgotten our destiny. No matter how many times you have failed, how old, hurt, tired or burned out you may be, God still sees your destiny and desires to help you get into it. In fact, if you look at Joseph’s life you will discover all the seeming injustice and disappointments were really God’s means of preparing Joseph so his dreams would be fulfilled.
One of the dreams revealed that God would make Joseph a ruler over Egypt. If Joseph was going to be a ruler over Egypt, God had to get Joseph into Egypt. So He arranged to have his brothers turn against him and sell him as a slave into Egypt. There, Joseph began to learn the language, culture, customs and business practices of the Egyptians. And Joseph became such a good businessman that his boss/owner retired and let Joseph run all his business enterprises.
But Joseph also needed to learn how the government functioned. So God transferred him to Pharaoh’s federal prison system. Unfortunately, God arranged for Joseph to be accused of attempted rape in order to get him on the inside of the prison. It was there that Joseph learned the ways of the Egyptian government. And Joseph excelled as a government employee/prisoner. It wasn’t long before he was the assistant warden of the prison.
We may be tempted to think it was his gifting that enabled him to fulfill his destiny. No, his gift got him before Pharaoh, but it was the thirteen years of preparation that enabled him to fulfill his destiny.
Joseph, Moses, David, Paul, Peter and even the Lord Jesus Himself all had to go through God’s prep school. It is naïve for us to think God is not going to prepare, educate and mature us so we can stand in our destiny. But in the mean time, we all can excel right where we are because of God’s favor.
Somewhere along the way some of us have forgotten that sweet flavor of destiny and life has become colorless and seems adrift. If that is you, remember Joseph and all those whose lives stand as a testimony that God will finish what He started if we allow it.
Many Blessings, BW