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God was working to a plan! Many years beforehand, He made a covenant with Abraham that he and Sarah would have an heir. God is not a liar. Neither is He bound by time. If He said it, what He said is truth and it will happen.
The issue is not if but when and this is where you and I can get into trouble.

25 years after making that promise, when it seemed totally impossible, Abraham and Sarah (not Abraham and Hagar) had that son.

The promise was fulfilled.

This was around 1897 years before Christ.

Abraham’s heir, Jacob, was on the receiving end of that same promise and it applies to us also today.
148 years after God made that promise to Abraham, Joseph was born and we fuss and fret about time, even if only for a few years?

His birth was not under pleasant circumstances.
There was a lot of contention going on between Leah (she was the ugly cross-eyed one with the front tooth missing and a big wart on the end of her nose. Just joking folks) and the one Jacob really loved...Rachel

Sometimes the thing we really love, does not, or perhaps I should say cannot arrive immediately.
There could be other matters that take precedence...things that have to be done or things that must stop happening before that dream arrives.
One thing we can learn from this story is that despite the promise, it can be influenced by human activity. The human will (or won’t) is the issue here. We can have all the promises in the world but might have to deal with other people who can influence the outcome.

The other person can fail in fulfilling their part, do it differently, or only partially fulfill it. This is but one reason to keep quiet and be careful in what we share—how much we share—to whom we share and when, as we talk about our hopes, dreams and expectations and in particular, our ministry vision.

There are two good reasons for being quiet and it is not because we are being secretive. The first one is that we just might not yet see the full picture and acting prematurely can actually wreck God’s plan.

We could get sidetracked and go off onto a tangent that, although it seems great, is not going to get us to the right destination at the right time.
This is how Ismael was born and I am learning now more and more after 50 years with the Lord that there are far too many “Ishmael’s” in the church. There are people doing things that the Lord never asked them to do; churches that exist that He did not ordain and the like. We are rapidly coming to the day when people will tell Him, “We did this for you. We prophesied. We healed the sick. We started orphanages. We preached great sermons” and the like and He will tell them to get out of His sight. It sounds hard, but it is true. Jesus said so (see Luke 13:27).

We talk of the sorting of the sheep from the goats. That’s coming later. Right now, the Lord is sorting sheep from sheep!

I am often asked to visit churches in other countries and, although I would like to do so more than I do at present and the Lord says that I will do so, I do not know the timing. In essence, God has not yet given permission, but when I get the green light...I’m off and running, but until then we all must chafe at the bit and learn something everyone hates...exercise patience. If not, then we will do what He never asked us to do...yet.
As an example, when we visited Liberia, we did so only when the Lord said we could go. I had made all travel bookings, had my tickets, passport and visa. When we arrived at the Brisbane airport we were refused permission by the airline duty manager to board the aircraft! She asked us to wait as she telephoned her counterpart at Sydney and we watched our flight take off without us! We changed our schedule and departed from Sydney a few days later and the duty manager there gave us royal treatment and off we went.

At first such delays and disappointments will hit us all. The issue is how we handle such things. Sometimes we might not know why our plans do not seem to be working, or working as fast as we would like, but there is always a good reason. Father knows best! We later found out that if we had gone when we originally planned, we would have been killed in an Arab country and perhaps our bodies dumped in the desert, never to be found!

This is one reason why we need to exercise patience and listen to the voice of the Lord!

Another reason for keeping quiet is that we can telegraph our moves to the enemy. In WW2, many different kinds of posters like “Walls have ears” abounded. It helped prevent spies from finding out the Allies plans and setting traps.
On D-Day, the Allies went to great lengths to confuse the Nazis about the actual place on the invasion. Bombers flew at precise heights, on carefully planned courses, changing course on precise timetables as they dropped “window” that was strips of aluminum foil. The idea was to make it look like an invasion fleet appearing on German radar sailing to a totally different destination to the actual place—Normandy.

Similar things can happen in the realm of the spirit also. This stuff is real. It is no spiritual fantasy. Marjorie and I are constantly told to be silent about many of our plans. In my own exuberant, almost childish excitement, I am prone to blab too much, telling just about everyone what we are going to do and got hurt in the process, because of the negative treatment and opposition often received—by Christians. We sometimes get better treatment by non-believers.

One problem is that we think that most other people “think like us”. They don’t! They might not have had the same revelation. They might get a huge dose of spiritual jealousy and if they don’t have what you have, do not want you to have it too. Dream-killers are around! Sadly, many of them are fellow believers. Spiritual jealousy does exist.
A remedy for those of us in ministry is to be careful in who we appoint, avoid novices and not give them too much responsibility prematurely and so on. Paul told Timothy many things about qualifications for ministry, one of which was appointing novices to office. He said that someone who wanted to be in a responsible leadership role, such as a pastor, should “prove” themselves. No one with half a brain would give an infant a hand grenade to play with, but sometimes spiritual babies are playing with dynamite.

A pastor has a serious and accountable position, caring for the Lord’s sheep. We use the term “my church” or  “my ministry” and understand why, but in reality they are the Lord’s sheep...not ours. It is His Church, not mine. When the Lord took me to hell for a 45 minute visit, I saw pastors there! I am fully aware that what I say and do has to thus be “right” before the Lord. He told Timothy to lay hands suddenly on no one. This relates to doing it too soon.

Never be in a hurry about appointing a church leader. Do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. 1 Timothy 5:22

Returning now to our main message, the passage of interest is-
And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her, and opened her womb.
And she conceived, and bare a son; and said, God hath taken away my reproach:
And she called his name Joseph; and said, The LORD shall add to me another son. Genesis 30:22-24

It is not that God “forgets”. He never does that, but He has an appointed time for things and when that time arrives, it then happens and so it seems that He then “remembers”. I hope you see it.

Come now to Genesis 37. It is approximately 17 years later and  Jacob showed partiality to Joseph. I know we can have “favorites”, but we really shouldn’t. Our love and affection should be impartial and equal to all. Although the firstborn was supposed to have the inheritance, Jacob did not treat all his children equally and it created the environment whereby the other children started to resent Joseph. I know what it is like to be on the receiving end of sibling rivalry. As the last child of my own parents, I was sometimes treated like a boy, even after leaving my parents’ home when I got married. Those of you who are parents need to “do it right” or risk problems in the family environment. One thing to avoid is doting on anyone.

Jacob doted on Joseph so much that he made him a “coat of many colors” and this really got up the others’ noses.

This coat of many colors, was more of a multi-layered shirt-like tunic and the reference to colors is not really what you think. It may have been multi colored, but the real significance is that it represented abundance or plenty and at times indicated that the wearer was to be the heir! Little wonder they got mad. They got so mad at Joseph (but Jacob was the culprit) that they started slandering him. That was their evil report.

Pastors and Christian workers, never get jealous over someone else’s calling and anointing. Do not slander anyone. What is sad is that it often has bad consequences, to the point that the person can become bitter and negative, continually looking for faults in others and the blessing can cease! Their life can dry up.
It happens!

It can get so bad that the perpetrators are actually doing the devil’s work, because he is the accuser of the brethren. I know that because I have been on the receiving end of such devilish junk. It got so bad once that I thought of taking legal action until the Lord told me to drop it, forget it, get on with my job and let Him handle it. He did! Please do not touch the anointing and please do not gossip.

Such things engender strife and contention and Joseph’s own brothers started hating him, simmering on it, hating him more, simmering on it more and more and the cycle goes on. Sad to say, sometimes fellow believers do this.

As usual, I ask questions. God wants us to know, not to hide things from us. We can come to Him and ask Him how things happened, why they happened and so on. My own prayer life has radically changed because we tend to get into a “give me” approach in prayer and come with a shopping list. That’s OK, but He know what we are like and what is happening before we cry out. We do not need to yell out. He is not deaf. Although Jesus spoke on persistence in prayer, He also told us that the Father Always heard Him and always means just that. If we know that God hears us, we can receive the answers, so praying the way God wants and how Jesus prayed is the key. See 1 John 5:14-15.

If God dwells In us, we do not have to “bring Him down” and seek, seek, seek seek. He is not a billion miles up in deep space but closer than you think. If we learn how to pray like Jesus, our prayer life would radically change...and our prayers would really be answered. Isaiah said that God hears us before we ask and whilst we are speaking, He will hear. Isaiah 65:24.

I rarely pray now (in the traditional way of thinking). I tend to have a family discussion with the Lord, sometimes with Marjorie and the Lord together and we discuss matters.
I focus much now on asking Him what He wants; what would He like me to do; what we are going to do together and where are we going today? It is a two-way thing. Often times our “prayers are little other than blab, blab, blab and He rarely gets to talk because we are doing all the speaking! Think of it.

Anyhow, I’m getting sidetracked, (but am I really?). It seems to me that Joseph would have been better off seeking God in preference to shooting his mouth off to family, but God knew he would anyhow. Perhaps that was the only way God could get His plan to work.

The point I want to make is that, despite our weaknesses and frailties, immaturity and foolishness, God can turn things around, so if you have had a legitimate vision or dream from God in some manner, have enough common sense to sit on it and wait to see what comes next. Sometimes the things we are going through and the things that we really dislike and want to escape from, are the very things God wants to use to get the blessing to us; to get His plan to work.

Sometimes the dramas we face, are in a sense, self-inflicted. Job’s were. We focus on his problems, but they only lasted for 49 days. God never “allowed” the devil to inflict those things on him as we have been wrongly taught, but have to concede a legal truth as in a court of law in a court case and His hands were tied. Job finished up with twice what he lost!

Do you see what I am getting at? God could ask us to do a certain thing and we refuse to do it. He may ask us to stop doing a certain thing, but we continue in it. He could want us to go to a particular place, but we will not go there...or He may tell us not to go there, but we go anyhow and then, when the bottom falls out of everything, we start crying and complaining.

Is it remotely possible that God really wanted Joseph to simply move to Egypt voluntarily?

I really do not know, but he had to get there one way or another and probably had no intention of going anyhow. If so, then God may have had to “force the issue”. Never think that He will not take radical steps. He does. It is not all grace, grace, grace you know. We are still dealing with an unchanging God whose word never alters. Neither does His demands for holiness, righteousness, holiness, honesty, intregity and purity etc.

Jesus plainly told us that if we are not prepared to pay any price, including leaving your own home and family (if that is clearly what He wants), we are not worthy of being His true disciples. He did not say that He came only to bring peace. He said that He would also bring a sword.
Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
For I have come to part asunder a man from his father, and a daughter from her mother, and a newly married wife from her mother-in-law— And a man’s foes will be they of his own household.
He who loves [and takes more pleasure in] father or mother more than [in] Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves [and takes more pleasure in] son or daughter more than [in] Me is not worthy of Me;
And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conforming wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also] is not worthy of Me. Matthew 10:34-38. See also Matthew 19:29; Psalm 55:12-14

Marjorie and I have experienced the traumas of having our own family turn against us, so we know what Jesus said is very real, but we also know that He is faithful and brings peace to the soul.
Is holding onto something, no matter what it is, so worth it that we will go to hell as a result?

The issue is, “who” and “what” comes first? This is radical perhaps, but it is true and it is often seen in the bible.

One key word that is very unpopular is Obedience. 1 Samuel 15:22 is a classic example. I did a quick search on obedience and got more than 200 references, but what has this to do with Joseph?

Although The Law had not yet been given, is may be possible that Joseph had “broken” this commandment-
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. Exodus 20:12

There is a spiritual principle at stake. Sure that (written) Law was not yet given, but in his immaturity and rashness, had he inadvertently broken it by talking too much? Let us see the full account of his dreams.
One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever.
“Listen to this dream,” he said.
“We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!”
His brothers responded, “So you think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you will reign over us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them.
Soon Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it. “Listen, I have had another dream,” he said. “The sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me!”
This time he told the dream to his father as well as to his brothers, but his father scolded him. “What kind of dream is that?” he asked. “Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you?” But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered what the dreams meant. Genesis 37:5-11 (emphasis mine)

What happened and what did he do wrong?

1. His brothers already hated him and were slandering him before he had his dreams. In a family circle like that, surely  such simmering resentment and outspoken words would have been evident even if only in part. Did he deliberately add fuel to the fire? Was this an attempt to “get even”? Perhaps he would have been wiser in asking his father what it was all about first.
2. When he told his brothers about the first dream, their hatred increased
3. He dreamed another dream and this time, he again told it to his brethren. They had already told him their opinion, but he ignored it and told them about this one. “Hey! Listen to this!”
   Jacob did at least ponder over them but his brothers had been provoked so much that they lost self control
   This time he told this dream to his father also and Jacob scolded him for it. I agree with Jacob. He was the head of the family and the head of the tribe. He was “the elder”, so protocol should have dictated that he come before his father and ask his counsel. “Dad. I dreamed a dream and this is what I saw. What do you think it means?” His father had dreams also, so must have realized God was saying something

God had a plan and was trying to tell Joseph about it, but Joseph let the cat out of the bag and it’s hard to get the cat back in afterward. Let us bring this into our own lives now and see how it applies to us. When God has a plan and wants you to get involved, He can tell you in different ways such as-

1. In a dream or vision
2. A revelation in His word when He speaks to you and that thing seems to jump out of the page at you and you know that you know it is God talking
3. A word of prophecy. Please remember that a prophecy should confirm what you already know or suspect
4. A combination of the above

Check it out. Get confirmation to affirm that it is indeed God speaking.
Ask Him to show you a passage of scripture that applies, but do not go searching out in your favorite scriptures as many do for one that you like or suits what you want. Make sure it is “yours” and that you are not mimicking someone else and that often happens with sad consequences.
Make sure of the timing. Habakkuk spoke of a vision having “the appointed time”.
[OH, I know, I have been rash to talk out plainly this way to God!] I will [in my thinking] stand upon my post of observation and station myself on the tower or fortress, and will watch to see what He will say within me and what answer I will make [as His mouthpiece] to the perplexities of my complaint against Him.
And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision and engrave it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may [be able to] read [it easily and quickly] as he hastens by.
For the vision is yet for an appointed time and it hastens to the end [fulfillment]; it will not deceive or disappoint. Though it tarry, wait [earnestly] for it, because it will surely come; it will not be behindhand on its appointed day. Habakkuk 2:1-3. See also Genesis 18:14; Exodus 9:5, 23:15; Joshua 8:14; Job 7:1; Psalm 81:3: Jeremiah 8:7

God’s plan included Joseph, but the boy got into all kinds of problems and they all started off when he could not shut up and tried to make things happen. You know the story. His brothers wanted to kill him, but we forget that the literal act is no different to the attitude of the heart.

Jesus said-
“You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’
But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.
“So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God. Matthew 5:21-24

The outcome was that Joseph was sent to Egypt, but God knew what was going on and the lad had to get there somehow. We need to exercise wisdom, discretion and patience in the dealings of God in our lives.

I believe in healing. I’ve seen enough in 50 years to know that the healing ministry of Jesus is real and that He wants us to heal the sick too, but I never discount the sovereignty of God.

Just before my last visit to India, a lump came up on the back of my left wrist close to the thumb joint. It was huge and I went to the doctor who told me it was a sebaceous cyst and he operated. I watched him pull stuff like cheese out, leaving a hole a little larger than the size of a pea. To avoid possible problems he placed a wick in it and bandaged it. That was late Tuesday. I was departing on Friday and told him the reason, testifying about the Lord. He told me I was not going anywhere, but to come back on Thursday to check. He gave me some kind of bandages with strict instruction about hygiene, reluctantly saying I could travel.
Going to that part of India could expose me to massive infections, but off I went and that hole closed up by Sunday morning! That was a supernatural healing—the Lord did it!

Sometime later, a sore on my left forearm developed and it would not go away. I laid hands on myself and prayed for myself. Marjorie did likewise. I spoke to that thing; cursed it; quoted bible verses about it until I turned blue; stood on my head; swung off chandeliers and did just about everything I could, but that sore would not go away.

One day, I saw an ad from a skincare surgery and called the number. The doctor answered and when I told him I had a sore that would not go away, he told me to immediately come in and I watched him cut out a Basal Cell Carcinoma (skin cancer) from my arm. As soon as I hung up on that call, the Lord spoke very clearly, “I’m glad you did that.” I asked Him why He did not heal me and He told me that He wanted me to meet that doctor and talk to him.

The point I am trying to make is that we can be “correct doctrinally” and act “super-spiritual” but miss out on what God wants to do, forgetting His sovereign rule and dominion. We really need to listen to the Holy Spirit’s voice.

God wanted Joseph in Egypt to be appointed as the most powerful man in the known world, second only to the king, but it seems that the only way to get him there was through all kinds of problems.
He was thrown into a pit; dragged out and sold in slavery; falsely accused of  attacking his master’s wife and thrown into prison—where he interpreted dreams others had. He was then forgotten until another man, the king, dreamed a dream and he was the only man who could interpret it.

God’s plan was put into effect, but Joseph went through hell on earth first to implement it.
As if overnight, after all those horrible years, Joseph was promoted to rulership position.
When his brethren came during that disastrous drought, he eventually saved their lives and the lives of his father and whole nation of people and in the process, revealed himself.

He told his brethren, “I’m Joseph, your brother”—the title of this message.

The lesson we can learn about this is that sometimes life just sucks! Let’s be honest about it.
 

1. We can put on a Church face on Sundays in front of fellow believers, but be living in a totally different way Monday to Saturday. We can say a resounding “Amen. Preach it brother” when the pastor preaches something that tickles our ears, but are only talking the talk instead of walking the walk
2. We can find fault, criticize or condemn others if they are doing it differently to us, little knowing that they just might be doing precisely what God wants in their own lives
3. We can be on the receiving end of all kinds of opposition, mostly at the hands of other people, including friends, family and fellow believers who cannot see Gods hand on you at the time. They can “kill you” with their words, mostly in criticism and judgment because you are not doing things the way they do and so on
4. You could be the vehicle God wants to use to bless others but to be a blessing you must first be blessed yourself and of course be capable of handling this blessing. How do you know if you are not put to the test?
   How do you know for example how to handle money, or use the anointing if you do not have it to start with
   You might have to “pass the exam”

These are a few things that come to mind, but there may be more you could think of.

God is in the business of preparing people around the world for what is coming.
He is preparing end time preachers for what is to come and I am not only talking of  “end time prophecies” alone. One thing that is definitely happening at present is a shaking of all that can be shaken and as I said earlier we think of the separation of the wheat from the tares and the sheep from the goats. It might not be what you once thought.
Tares are in the middle of the church today as are sheep and goats together, but there are different “sheep” too. Jesus said so.
Getting to heaven is not an automatic thing, even if you repeated the sinner’s prayer in a meeting.

This might challenge your way of thinking as it did ours when the Lord got us doing a lot more research into who is “in” and who is “out”. I will not elaborate more at this time, but this is perfectly acceptable scripturally and we’ve got to dig deep in the word to find out.

As one example, I once taught and preached on Revelation 3:20 as a salvation message. It could be so, but I was wrong. It is a message to the church. It is about Jesus asking churches in particular and Christians to let Him in which means that He is not there! It reminds me of the story of the devil sitting outside a church crying and the Lord asking him what was wrong. The devil said, “They won’t let me in” and the Lord replied, “They won’t let me in also.” This is the account-
Listen! I am standing at the door and knocking! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into his home and share a meal with him, and he with me.
I will grant the one who conquers permission to sit with me on my throne, just as I too conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne.
The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” Revelation 3:20-22

God is raising up men and women who will have a John the Baptist or a Joseph ministry. Let’s stick with Joseph.

He was raised by God to help his brethren, despite all the opposition and hardships he had to endure to get there. He was lied on, hit on by a conniving woman, enslaved, thrown in a pit, treated unfairly, forgotten and all this time, kept his dignity and righteous stand before God. Was it easy? No! Could you or I have done it? I wonder.

If you are a Joseph, then God is going to refine you. Be assured of that.
It is not just about money (which we all need) but about having the ability to handle God’s provision rightly both in the giving and the receiving and the disbursement of it. It is however about teaching other people how to learn to tap into and make proper use of everything that God can provide for them... where they are.

Changes are coming, even in your own countries where corruption, lack and shortage exist and God wants to raise up people like Joseph not only here where I live but where You live! He might not let you “escape” it, but raise you up “in” it to become another Joseph.

If you are going through dramas and problems in your own life, be it illness and you need money to pay for treatment, a job where there are no jobs, food when food is scarce, opposition of all kinds including violence, or plain old fashioned jealousy and envy leveled at you by others...including Christians, do not panic, become fearful and worry. God could be doing to you and for you what He did for Joseph.
I am not talking theological theory here but telling you it works because God did it for me.

By the way... Joseph never remained in Egypt—he was buried in the Promised Land! Think about it.

You do have a promised land.

I’m Robert...