People of Destiny
GTCOTR/SS120802
Point #177 At this moment, you could be the sole reason your ancestors ever existed at all.
Point #185 We are often tested and developed in secret places before being used and exalted in public places.
It seems to me that many people throughout history have been free to carry on their lives without much of the weight of eternity upon them, while others are those upon which purpose and destiny must hinge.
These People of Destiny are much handled by the Lord and fitted for the Master’s use. Often disallowed the free course of their own devices, denied choice and pressed into service, peace, joy and fulfillment, if ever found at all, comes from an inner source, supplied by The Sense Of A Greater Cause At Work in them.
Such people include Moses, David, Mary, Jonah, the Apostle Paul, Ester and coming on scene are increasing numbers of men, women, boys and girls in The Three Generations of the Last Days.
This morning we will look at just such a person of destiny. Denied the free course of life and personal pursuits, Joseph, the son of Israel, was refined for use in the fires of adversity. His peace and joy seemed to endure as he kept his perspective.
Peace and joy endure as we keep our focus on the promise and not on the problem.
Some difficult things which we may encounter are not punishment for our past but positioning for our future.
It is not what we are going through but what we are going to that counts.
The Story of Joseph Genesis 37 - 45
Joseph was favored by his father
Coat of many colors
Joseph was a dreamer
Joseph’s brothers were jealous and envious
Joseph’s brothers put him in a pit in the wilderness
They sold him into slavery to traveling nomads
Joseph was resold in Egypt as a house servant
He became chief steward of the household
Joseph was tempted to commit adultery by a seductress
He refused the temptation over and over again
She was finally insulted and accused him of molestation
Joseph was put into prison
He became chief steward of the whole prison
He kept his focus on the God of his father, Jehovah
He interpreted dreams for two jailed servants of Pharaoh
Joseph was forgotten for two years more
In God’s time …
Joseph was remembered
Joseph was right where Pharaoh could find him
Joseph was delivered and exalted in one moment’s time
From the pit to the prison to the palace
Joseph meets his brothers for the first time in over 20 yrs
They are afraid he will repay them their evil
Instead, he cries, embraces them and saves them
After all those years in slavery, disallowed the free course of life, robbed of personal pursuits and wrongfully accused, imprisoned and mistreated, Joseph reveals how he made it through it all. Joseph gives us insight into the perspective of a child of destiny:
Scripture Reading: Genesis 45:1-8
1 ¶ Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.
2 And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.
3 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence.
4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
Joseph came out of all of the years of his troubles in only one moment … suddenly!
God is a God of suddenly (Mal 3:1 … come to His temple …)
What does it take to be delivered into destiny?
We don’t always know
It could be as simple as The Timing of God or preparation
1 Peter 3:20 God waited while the ark was preparing
There is a difference between having a problem and being a problem
If you are the problem … get help, make some tough decisions, do the right thing and change … begin the process immediately!
If money will fix it, time will fix it or it’s just a tough decision that needs to be made, you may not have a problem, you may be involved in a process … most likely a process that has the potential to leave you better off and not worse off.
If you have a problem you cannot fix:
You can give it to God and trust Him to fix it.
What do I do in the mean time?
#1 Endure
He who endures to the end will be saved
Job had to endure, he could not change things
Joseph had to endure unreasonable pressures
Endure hardships as a good soldier … 2 Timothy 2:3
#2 Focus on the promise, not the problem
This light affliction is but for a moment, while we look not
(2 Corinthians 4:17 & 18)
#3 Be fruitful - blossom where you are planted
Paul and Silas worshipped and praised in the jail at midnight
Stephen knelt down, prayed & had a vision at his own stoning
Joseph worked hard, proved himself and helped his captors succeed in their ventures. In making things better instead of worse, he made his own time spent in captivity productive and more comfortable while he kept the dream of God alive in his heart.
Joseph could not have gotten himself into the great and lasting position that his trouble ushered him in to.
Your current problem may be your greatest opportunity and highest promotion.
Thank God for the pruning, the cultivating, the fertilizing and the harvesting of our lives with such tender grace so as never to allow more on us than we are able to bear up under.
Exodus 1:12 The more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew …
