Good afternoon DPR, I trust your week was productive? So Here’s a quick one; Pay attention to what you have, there is a whole lot God wants to reveal about Himself through you and what He has given you. By God’s Grace, today we will continue the sub-series on Patience themed “While I Wait (2)”. In the last post we learnt from Joseph how that he processed and interpreted his circumstances from God’s perspective and not from the enemy’s, how that he was Thoughtful and Faithful. What we do while waiting on God’s promise is as important as the fulfilment of the promise itself, put in another way, God is more particular about the journey of the Walk of our Faith, than in the End of our Faith. The end of course is a very important, but God judges the end by its means. I’ll explain. If God told you He would give you a child, and you believe it, you had better wait for His own way of giving you the child than seek to produce a child your own way… If you produce at all, it would be a child and not THE child. His process would probably require the use of Sarah’s barren womb and your dead (impotent) body, so don’t even bother considering Hagar, because the result of that self help might never let your Isaac be for the rest of his life. How Isaac is begotten is just as important as Isaac himself. Joseph will be Priime Minister, but he must needs learn to cooperate with God to lead him there. The Holy Spirit would help him develop Character in order to stay in his call. We see how Joseph in spite of his contradictions, stayed Joyful. That is the third Character Trait we see exemplified in Joseph in his waiting season. How did we know that?
Gen 40:5(KJV) And they dreamed a dream both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison. 6 And Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them, and, behold, they were sad. 7 And he asked Pharaoh’s officers that were with him in the ward of his lord’s house, saying, Wherefore look ye so sadly to day?
Whoever has been to a jail cell knows it’s not a place where anyone is expected to be shining his teeth. It’s a place of sober reflection, where people practically live their days in regret of their actions outisde the cell. Sad people don’t notice sad people, it takes a Joyful man to take note of a fallen countenance. Joseph had so much super imposed his joyful attitude into the jail system that it became really obvious to him when two guys were unusually unhappy. You need to imagine it to appreciate what I’m saying. He had his own issues to think about, he was sold into slavery, unjustly sent to jail, he should have been too overly self absorbed, thinking about how he was mistreated and framed, to take note of some “used to be” politicians who looked gloomy. Who cares if anyone looked gloomy in a jail cell? Well… Joseph did. Joseph was a rare kind of man. He did his work not just faithfully but joyfully, he was able to anchor his internal atmosphere on God and not on his circumstances, that was how he was able to constantly remain joyful. It’s really amazing when you think about it. Simply because Joseph was in the jail and was given leadership of it, the jail cell ceased to be a sad place to be. Prisoners became excited and joyful, right inside the cell… That is really radical. That you’re joyful in a waiting season or in a trying time doesn’t mean you’re saying God is responsible for your predicament, it only means you trust Him in spite of your predicament. Paul and Silas weren’t praising God for throwing them into jail, they praised God in spite of the jail situation. Those are two totally different things.
Deut 28:47(KJV) Because thou servedst not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; 48 Therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies…
We see here how that God isn’t only concerned about you serving Him, but also about HOW you serve Him. Although we have been redeemed from the curse of the law as listed here in Deut 28, the nature of God hasn’t changed, God still desires men and women who would serve Him with Joyfulness and gladness of heart, in spite of their circumstance. Joy gives life to whatever situation you’re going through. If you will be joyful amidst obvious reasons to be otherwise, then God will create a safe haven for you right in that circumstance. Joseph was having fun in the prison, yeah as literal as that. Joseph demonstrated a very rare virtue that is lacking in our age today, which is the ability to live in the balance of contentment and desire. Joseph wasn’t complaining in the prison, he was happy, he made other prisoners happy, he encouraged the sad ones to be happy as well, but he was wise enough to tell the baker and butler to remember him when they got out of the prison. He was content with how far God had brought him and the process God was working out in his life, yet he desired to get to the next level. Every believer must learn to live in this balance by the Joy in the Holy Ghost. His Joy made him take advantage of the beauty of the moment and to hope for the glory of the future. What a man Joseph was!!! So Joseph was THOUGHTFUL, FAITHFUL, JOYFUL and all these virtues affected his capacity to be FRUITFUL. He was reeling out results at every level of trials. He was a good manager and servant under Portiphar, I’m sure Portiphar would have made his first loss after Joseph left him. He was effective as a Jail rep. His trials did not affect his productivity. He was producing results at every level, he got problems solved for people (butler and baker), even if they were not paying him for it at that time, he was exercising his problem solving skills for the big stage. That you’re going through some seasons before the fulfilment of your promise doesn’t mean you cannot be productive and fruitful. Make progress, however little they are. Your destiny is actually not a destination, it’s a journey. Everything that leads up to that final end is all part of the destiny process. Joseph’s capacity to produce results had so much increased by the time he became Prime Minister and we see how EVERYTHING worked together for his good at the end.
James 1:4(KJV) But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be PERFECT AND ENTIRE, WANTING NOTHING.
We can say this of Joseph, that he allowed Patience have its perfect work in his life, and that got him to the zenith of relevance in ancient Egypt. I have learnt so much from Joseph, I hope you have too… I’ll be sharing another principle of patience from the life of Joseph in our next post. That would be the last post on the Patience sub series. Please do well to share with friends. Enjoy your weekend 🙂
