I generally start my blogs with a story about me, but today I wanted to start a little bit differently. I want to go straight to a Bible story. There are some really good lessons that I want to pull out! It’s a longer post than usual but you’ll want to read to the end! Grab a cup of coffee or tea and get ready for a good lesson!
In the book of Genesis, there’s the story of a guy named Joseph. If you know the story, stick with me- there are some truths I’d like to pull out of this account. I like Joseph a lot. Joseph was one of 12 brothers, but Joseph was clearly his father’s favorite. Everyone knew it! His father showered Joseph with gifts and I’m sure he gave him extra attention. This made his brothers jealous. (Can’t say that I blame them!) They hated him.
As if favoritism from his father wasn’t enough, Joseph began to get dreams and visions from God. He got dreams about his future, where God was going to take him and the things that God had for him to accomplish. He had dreams that showed him that he would rule over his brothers. According to Jewish law, this was out of the order of things. Joseph was the 11th out of 12 brothers which essentially put him near the bottom of the totem pole. Joseph also had a dream that he would rule over his parents. This was all kinds of backward according to Jewish customs and Jewish law. His brothers thought Joseph was crazy and they hated him. They really hated him. So out of their hatred, they decided to sell Joseph into slavery. Family Drama
People like to watch tv and reality shows for drama, but there’s so much drama and juicy stuff in the Bible! The things that we watch on tv are made up, but the things that happened in the Bible are true and real accounts. These men sold their brother into slavery. There are accounts of people being thrown into lion’s dens, of a prostitute stealing someone else’s baby, liars, and cheaters, and schemers, even an account of someone being chopped up into pieces and sent to someone else. The Bible is an interesting book full of twists and turns BUT it’s always life applicable and opportunities for us to learn and grow.
I digress.
After Joseph was sold into slavery, a bunch of stuff happened to him. He ended up in Potiphar’s house as second in command, but then Potiphar’s wife tried to sleep with Joseph. Joseph politely declined. She then lied on him which caused him to end up in jail. So now at this point in his story, he’s been wrongly sold into slavery and wrongly sentenced to jail. Drama. I told y’all.
While he was in jail, the Lord was with him and caused him to be favored. He ended up in a high rank in the jail. Eventually, he met two men that had come from Pharaoh’s palace. Joseph was able to interpret their dreams and he told them not to forget about him when they got out of jail. They forgot about him. Until 2 years later. Well, one actually got killed, but the other one who was restored forgot then remembered. But it took him 2 whole years.
Go read the story of Joseph. It begins in Genesis 37. It’s probably one of my favorites because so much happened to Joseph that we can learn from. It’s filled with so many lessons!
I’m getting to my point here. When the cupbearer finally remembered Joseph, he sent for Joseph. It wasn’t until THAT time that God had preappointed for Joseph to walk into the fulfillment of the dreams he’d had when he was younger. Joseph had had God-given dreams about his future when he was just a boy. The Bible says he was 17 years old when he initially received the dreams of him ruling and being in command. But what God didn’t do was show him exactly what it would look like. God gave Joseph high-level vision but he didn’t get the details. When Joseph opened his mouth and told his brothers the vision, I believe that Joseph thought what he saw was going to happen right away. It took Joseph years and years and years of processing in order for him to be ready to do the things that God had shown him. And the way that it actually happened wasn’t the way that he had seen in his dreams. His dreams were metaphors for what God was going to do.
As I was thinking about Joseph, God began to reveal myself to me. Joseph had to go through a process in order to see the fulfillment of what God had for Him. It did not happen overnight. 13 years to be exact. From the time he got the dreams to the time he was elevated to second in command. It took all that time for God to process Joseph and to work things out in Joseph and to develop Joseph to be able to handle the position that He was in. Joseph had to learn new customs and a new culture. When he was sold into slavery, he was sold into a completely different culture. He had to learn how to speak like them. He had to learn how not to offend the people. He had to learn how to transact money among the region. And he was able to learn all these things, not at his own expense but while he was in Potiphar’s house. He had the privilege to learn these things under someone else’s watchful hand. When he was in prison, he got to learn how to manage people and to be personable with people. If Joseph had rushed through these things, he wouldn’t have been prepared to be second in command to Pharaoh. He would not have been ready to be second in command over an entire nation. He would not have had the skill or the wisdom needed in order to do the things that God had already shown him he would be able to do.
So what am I trying to say? God is teaching me to love and to embrace this season. I have dreams and vision coming out of both ears. I have vision for days! God has given and shown me so many things, but I have to fight against the desire to move immediately when God shows me something. I have to fight against the pressure to do it right now for fear of missing it. That’s not the case, 90 times out of 10. Yes, 90 out of 10. When God shows us things, He gives us vision and then He prepares us for it.
About a year and a half ago, God gave me the vision for a women’s conference. I don’t know if you attended or if you knew about it, but it was something that God put on my heart to do. In my head, I reasoned that if God said to do it that I just needed to step out on faith and do it. Glory to God, because I can’t take ANY credit, the conference went off without a hitch, BUT one thing that I believe in hindsight is that God wasn’t telling me to do it right then. He was giving me a vision of what He wanted me to do in the future. I should have waited and let God develop me and to develop the vision a whole lot more. Almost a year away from the actual conference date, I can see areas where I should have had more focus, but I wouldn’t have known that then. I know that now because I’ve allowed God to develop and process me. I should have stopped and prayed and sought God’s face.
This topic came to mind because I felt the Holy Spirit give me a vision recently. But instead of me going into “go-mode” I immediately felt the Spirit lead me to pray this prayer:
“Lord, prepare me for what you’re showing me. Help me to have the strategy and the wisdom to know what to do and when to do it and how you want to do it. Don’t let me move outside of your timing.”
This type of prayer comes from a life that’s submitted to God. I’m not tooting my own horn because Lord knows I’ve had to work to get here. It still takes work to make this my first response because I want to just do it! It’s a great idea and I’d love to jump on it. I could come up with 15 million ways to accomplish this one thing. But it doesn’t matter if I have 15 million ways. If it’s not God’s way, all 15 million are wrong. I must stay submitted to God and to His process because if I don’t, I’m going to miss something. Just like if Joseph wasn’t fully processed he would not have been prepared to be second in command to Pharaoh over the entire land. The things that God had shown him wouldn’t have come to pass. It would have been some kind of knock off, bootleg version it and it wouldn’t have been what God had said.
You might be like me. God has given you vision and God is calling you to great things, calling you to walk on water. But if it’s not the time for you, don’t go. I think about Peter. If Peter hadn’t sought the Lord before he walked on the water, he would have drowned. Seriously. The law of gravity says if you put your foot on water, you’ll go under because you’re heavier than water. But because Peter went at the bidding of the Lord, in God’s timing, not on a whim, or on a “Lord that’s a great idea,” Peter was able to walk on water until he took his eyes off of Jesus. That’s a different post for another day.
I know this was a really long post but I pray with you truly understand the value of trusting God in the process. He’s working out something in you that is totally worth it!
How are you dealing with being in the midst of a process? What lessons have you learned? Share below! I’d love to hear from you! My goal is always that we grow together as we grow in Him!
Brittany C. Harris 