Have you received a dream or promise from the Lord? How long have you been waiting on the manifestation? Or have you forgotten? The Bible says that God is not forgetful and though the vision tarries to wait for it. 2 Peter 3:9 & Habakkuk 2:3. God is never in a hurry, but He’s never late. The waiting period between the dream and the manifestation is maturing us to handle a God sized dream. Most of us believe we’re ready but we are not. I know I wasn’t, and the longer I had to wait the more I realized the wisdom and sovereignty of my loving Father, and I thank Him daily for the maturation process.
We’ll be taking a look at the life of Joseph. Here was a young man, favored by his father and full of promise. God knew something about Joseph that neither he nor Jacob knew. But his was a life that we can say with absolute certainty, that at the onset the dream didn’t match up. Like Joseph, most of us won’t enjoy the process. The dream never comes with all the details nor a fulfillment date. That’s where faith and trust in God’s faithfulness will need to take center stage. This is hot off the press like all the messages are, so I’m excited to see where He takes me.
Genesis 37:1-11: “Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.” His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.”
There are some dreams that did we know the full extent of it, we would probably ask God to pass us by. Lol But the fact is He knows what He’s created us for. I am certain when 17 year old Joseph was sharing his dreams with his family he had no idea where those dreams would take him. But the Dream Giver did. His brothers already couldn’t stand the fact that their father favored him, and now he had dreams of them bowing down to him. Jacob may have rebuked him, but he knew, having encountered Jehovah himself, that these were no ordinary dreams. Let’s continue:
Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.” “Very well,” he replied. So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem, a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?” He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?” “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams. When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.”
Genesis 37:12-24 NIV
The plot thickens. Joseph had no idea what was about to happen, and how his young life was about to change in an instant. The dream didn’t match up. While they planned to stop the dreams, the Dream Giver had other plans, but first the detours. Joseph shared the dreams, they assumed the interpretation, and plotted to get rid of him on an assumption. Not even Joseph knew how this was supposed to go down. Parents in my audience, let me caution you. Do not treat your children differently than their siblings, no matter how different they are in their personalities. God made them that way on purpose. Sibling rivalry is real as we can attest to in this account. Jacob loved Joseph not just because he was the son of his old age, but because he was the son of his love. He worked 14 years for Joseph’s mama and he never hid that fact. Jealousy cost Joseph his freedom, but God could trust him to go through the process before the manifestation. Could it be that our manifestation is being held up because we won’t go through the process? The dream doesn’t match what we’re going through?🤔
Keep reading: “As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed. So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. He went back to his brothers and said, “The boy isn’t there! Where can I turn now?” Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.” He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.” Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days.
Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.”
Genesis 37:25-34, 36 NIV
The road to manifestation isn’t always smooth sailing. Preparation is, as I mentioned earlier, a part of the process. Some of us want to lead before we’ve learned how to follow. I’ve known people who God has a call on their lives, who couldn’t wait and tried to make things happen prematurely. It didn’t end well. The call doesn’t always mean tomorrow. Sometimes it takes years. Impatience has ruined some very talented -even anointed -people. We have the dream, but it isn’t ours to fulfill. That’s the work of the Dream Giver. He knows the day and the hour. And whenever it happens, if we’re willing to wait, it’s the right time. The right thing at the wrong time, is still the wrong thing. In Joseph’s case, he had nothing at all to do with how his life was shaping up. All he did was share the dreams. It’s not like he said;”hey guys I’ve been thinking that at some point in my life I’d like it if you all bowed down to me.” He had no part to play in this. He didn’t ask for the dreams.
None of us, well at least I know I didn’t, ask God for anything I’m doing now. I never prayed to be a writer, never dreamed of teaching anyone or anything. To be honest I had not set any goals or plans as it pertained to my life. Whatever I’m currently doing was decided for me, I just said yes. I cried out to God when my daughter left for college, for a dream of my own. He decided what that would look like. As a teenager and young adult I thought I’d be a singer, because that’s something I was really good at. But that wasn’t His plan. I thought I’d retire at a certain age, that wasn’t His plan. I thought, now that He’s given me a dream I’d be doing a lot of things but....you got it lol and most of you could say the same thing. When you’re His, He charts the course. So I’ve learned to stop complaining and enjoy the journey for now. Things can change as Joseph discovered.
So poor Joseph got sold as a slave by his jealous brothers. He went down to Egypt but though a slave, the Lord was with him. Everything Joseph touched prospered. He had favor with his boss. The kid had to grow up fast. I’m sure at night he’d ask God why the dream didn’t match his situation. Why did his brothers turn on him for sharing his dreams? Why isn’t his father trying to find him? He probably was asking his coworkers if anyone was enquiring about him. Trying to explain that he shouldn’t be there. He probably thought his brothers would feel badly and come get him. But days turned to weeks, weeks into months and months to years. Still no one came looking for him. So he settled in to make the best of a rotten situation. Then this happens.
“So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her. One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.” She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. Then she told him this story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.” When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger. Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison......go read it lol
Genesis 39:6-20 NIV
The dream doesn’t match. Poor Joe. Could his life get any worse? He had just gotten used to the fact that he was never going to see his family again. But at least he was being treated well. His boss loved him because God blessed his house as long as Joseph was there. As far as slaves go, Joseph was top man. Trusted, because in spite of everything he was a man of integrity who feared God. He may not have understood the process, but he had no choice but to make the best of it. I wonder if he ever had the dreams while in Egypt? Maybe that’s what kept him going. His father must’ve told him as a young man about the faithfulness of God, having experienced it himself. We may not know when the dream will materialize, but if we trust the Dream Giver, we won’t lose heart no matter what our current situation looks like. So poor innocent Joseph is put in prison because Mrs. Potiphar had a lust problem. Joseph must’ve been the first one to turn her down, because she was angry! But the lie only served to further promote God’s plan. There are some lessons that cannot be learned in a classroom. God’s favor followed Joseph to prison. He was given a leadership position, in prison. Satan cannot alter God’s plan for us. We just need to let God fight our battles. I never read where Joseph pleaded with Potiphar. He had learned at seventeen that if your own family could sell you out of jealousy and anger, it was no use trying to convince an angry husband that his wife was lying. He’d have to trust Jehovah again.
Father, in the Name of Jesus,
I know that you’re always looking out for what’s best for me. Though I cannot see how the promises will come to pass, I trust the process. I readily admit that the dreams don’t match what I’m currently going through, but like Joseph I’ll serve when I don’t understand and walk in integrity. You have never failed me. Give me the grace to face each day and the challenges they bring. The dreams will come to pass, because Your promises are yes and amen.
Expectation shortens time. Don’t quit in the middle of your greatest breakthrough.
Written by permission of the Holy Spirit
W. Tennant