(Gen 42:9 ERV) Then Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed about his brothers. Joseph said to his brothers, “You have not come to buy food! You are spies. You came to learn where we are weak.”
This morning we continue our series, “Grace that is Simply Amazing” by continuing with our mini-series entitled, “Grace Based Success (Prosperity)”, by continuing in the story of Joseph. We left off yesterday with Joseph’s 10 older brothers, the same brothers who ruthlessly betrayed him and sold him as a slave, in Joseph’s presence in Egypt. Since Joseph was the Prime Minister (the sultan), the brothers bowed down before him with their faces to the ground. It was at this moment, while the brothers were bowing down and Joseph was standing above them, that Joseph’s memory was triggered and he recalled his God-given dreams. Our text says that Joseph “remembered the dreams that he had dreamed about his brothers”. The scene before him was a completion of the first dream. In the dream Joseph was out in a field with these 10 brothers gathering bundles of wheat when, all of a sudden, Joseph’s bundle stood straight up and their bundles circled around his and bowed down (Gen 37:7). When Joseph told his brothers about the dream they thought he was attempting to exalt himself and they hated him for it.
20 years later, Joseph was looking down at the men who betrayed him, men who were supposed to love and protect him, men who threw him in a pit and sold him as a slave. Joseph looked down at the back of their heads, as they faced the ground, and he remembered his dream. Tomorrow I will discuss the ‘long goose chase’ that Joseph sends his brothers on after this, but for today I want to focus on the fact that Joseph remembered his God-given dream.
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. God’s dream for your life should become your dream for your life. God made plans for you before the world began. If you open your heart to God He will reveal those plans to you. God revealed part of His plan to Joseph in a dream. As Joseph stood above his brothers in Egypt he had lived more than half his life between the time he received the dream and the time it was finally playing out before him. But Joseph still remembered the dream. 20 years later, he remembered. After enduring slavery and imprisonment, he remembered. After being separated from his father and little brother who both loved him dearly, he remembered. Joseph held on to his God-given dream and after 20 years it came to pass. God’s dream became his dream and in the fulness of God’s timing the dream was fulfilled. So make God’s dream your dream and never give up on what God has promised!
2. Never give up on your dream. Are you a dreamer? Do you have a God-given dream? What dream has yet to come to pass in your life? No matter how long it takes between the promise and the performance, never give up on your dream. I grew up in a neighborhood full of broken homes and broken dreams. Many talked of greatness, but most gave up on their dreams and buckled under the pressure of the harsh environment. Joseph too had been through a great deal. You would think that he would have been a candidate for giving up on his dream. You would have thought that the pit and the prison would have made him abort his destiny, but true men and women of God embrace the grace to keep going when the pressure is on to quit and abort the dream.
3. Refuse to abort your God-given dream. If you attempt to maintain your hope on your own, eventually your power will burn out as the pressures of this world weighs on you to quit. But if you surrender to God, if you die to self, if you yield to God’s power, then His grace can empower you to keep believing until you see in your HANDS what you have already seen in your HEART. God can give you the grace to refuse to quit and as you refuse to give up on God, God will refuse to give up on you. No matter how long it takes, hold on to your dream. Keep it before God in prayer. Keep believing that it’s already done in God’s sight and that it is only a matter of time before it manifests in the earth. One day you will have an experience like Joseph had, you will look at a situation and realize that your dream is being manifested right before your eyes. Let this be your hope. Let this be your expectation! Keep the dream alive!
Closing Confession: Father, I thank You for teaching me about Your grace and my requirement to live by faith. You made plans for me before the world began. You prepared for my arrival and my success. So I realize that my success in life cannot be attained by accomplishing anything that does not line up with Your plan for me. Therefore, I die to self and I allow Your dream for me to become my dream for me. Your dream for my life is my life’s passion. Your dream is the fuel in my fire. Your dream is what gives me a spring in my step, a song in my heart and a smile on my face every day. I refuse to abort Your dream for my life. You have given me the grace to endure the all the challenges I must face on the road to my destiny. I will never face something that You have not already given me the grace to overcome. And since You empowered me for it, and You trust me with it, I declare that I will win every battle and overcome every challenge. Not because I am so good, but because You are; only because of Your grace. So Father, I remind You of my dream this morning and by reminding You, I remind myself that it is only a matter of time before it comes to pass. I dream big dreams and I put the action/faith behind them to bring them to pass, by Your grace. I keep the dream alive and You bring the dream to pass in the fullness of Your timing. I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
