Promise
Gen 35:5 “Joseph had a dream…”. Let me start by saying that dreams are not just imaginary thoughts we have while sleeping…not just wishful thinking of things we would love to do some day….the are a guide God uses to direct our paths to where He destines us to be. I have always been a dreamer, which is why I love the Joseph story. I dream of doing great things, and God has given me dreams in my sleep that have happened in my reality. It’s a special mode of communication He uses with people that have ears/eyes to receive them.
I need to say that, God did not intend for us to wonder blindly until we stumble onto our dream…missing the wonderful journey He has for us. I believe that a dream is not just a destination, but includes that journey. Along the way, God has people and places He wants us to see, things He wants us to get done. Ok….now to the between….
Pit/Prison
“"Here comes that dreamer!" they said to each other. +Come now, let's kill him... Then we'll see what comes of his dreams." Gen 37:19. Yep! You will have HATERS! Now. We could argue over whether Joseph was wrong to share his dream with people who could not understand it (dreams are a foreign language for non-dreamers). I could do a whole blog on that. Or, we could argue that even Joseph telling his story, leading to his peril (wow, there’s another ‘p’ lol),
There is also another kind of pit….a spiritual pit. I imagine the hole they put Joseph in to be pretty small, but deep…..no way out, not even to see out…I have been there. Depression is a pit. It’s a feeling of hopelessness, a feeling that I can’t get back out of this, that I must have heard wrong when God gave me the dream.
Elijah found himself in a spiritual pit. “But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.” 1 Kings 19:4. Rev Herbert Miller preached a sermon that shaked my foundation “I Can’t Take it No More”, coming from this scripture. In the midst of the great triumphs God allowed him to have, he still thought he was not getting it done. I know now that those thoughts are the enemy. The enemy that comes to try to keep me from getting to the last ”P”.
Where are you God? I thought you said… Why is it taking so long? I know you made a promise, but how can I even survive all this to get to the provision? You told me what I would gain, but I keep losing stuff. Just by Joseph speaking his dream, he started a “series of unfortunate events” that no one would choose to go through.
Do you trust God?
"But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.
They will soar high on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not faint."
My wonderful Aunt Pastor Essie McCullough (New Direction Movement Cathedral – Winston-Salem) always gives me the perfect gifts. A couple years ago she gave me a sailboat that sits on my desk to this day, with Is 40:31on it. I looked the above scripture up in the New Living translation and saw that they chose to replace “wait” with “trust”. The difference I see is that you can wait on something without any confidence of whether it will actually come….but when you TRUST, you have already written the check because you know the money is already in the bank.
The enemy would desire us to lose hope. It is natural to happen after waiting a long time for something. One thing I have to remind myself of, is that God’s time is not our time. God has a divine purpose and timing. When we learn to fully trust Him, we lose track of the time.
Provision
I was so happy to hear my friend Candice Marie Benbow testify the official “birth” of Birthright Publishing…the baby God planted in her and allowed her to birth. I heard her speak it, before it had come to pass…and now have seen God make provision for her. She has also shared all the “p”’s she had to go through in order to give birth. How fitting that the name of her company suggests that there are things that belong to us, regardless of what we go through…because of who our Daddy is! Glory to God!
Bishop Freddie Marshall (Great Church of Deliverance – Winston-Salem, NC http://www.greaterchurchofdeliverance.com/) just spoke a word to his congregation that brought into clarity where I am right now. He said “I am here on PURPOSE”. He went on to explain that some of us survived, because we had purpose on us. It was no accident…we HAD to survive to fulfill our purpose. There was a situation in my life that had me to a point of wanting to give up. It was the purpose I knew I had in my life that told me I could not….not just for Ben Coleman Jr., but for all those He assigned to my charge.
There’s a dream inside of YOU. God spoke it into your spirit…through a prophet, a dream, or just a whisper…but He spoke it! Like Tonex sang, God has not forgot. He knows what He said. He is now asking…”Do you trust me?” “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” Numbers 23:19. No! If He spoke it, you best get ready to see it happen!
What dream has the enemy tried to kill in you. As a confession of faith, as God leads, leave a comment of what God spoke in your life….so you can see and others can see it now. And then, remember this post…come back to it, when your testimony is “I made it to provision”!
