From a Dream to a Destiny, Part 2

I’m going to repeat the follow paragraph at the beginning of every blog in the series, “From a Dream to a Destiny.”  Here’s why:  Robert Morris is the pastor of Gateway Church in Dallas, TX.  I really respect him and appreciate him as a man with a heart for God.  He wrote a book that changed me!  It is entitled “From Dream to Destiny.”  If you wish, you can pick it up at a bookstore, go online to Robert Morris’ website, or order it at Amazon, as a Kindle Book.

The contents of this book impacted me in a way that’s hard to describe.  Suffice it to say, I was wrecked for good!   So … I want to share with you, my friend, that much of the content of this blog series will be directly from Morris’ book, and I want to honor the copyright laws.  That said, I give Robert Morris full credit for every element of my writing except the personal illustrations.  Those are mine.

Here goes:

In Genesis 37 we’re continuing to study the life of Joseph, and in this part of his story he finds himself in a pit. He didn’t walk into it.  He was thrown into it … and motivated or not, Joseph couldn’t get out. 

Text:  Genesis 37:12-14, 18-20

12 Soon after this, Joseph’s brothers went to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem. 13 When they had been gone for some time, Jacob said to Joseph, “Your brothers are pasturing the sheep at Shechem. Get ready, and I will send you to them.”

“I’m ready to go,” Joseph replied.

14 “Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are getting along,” Jacob said. “Then come back and bring me a report.”

18 When Joseph’s brothers saw him coming, they recognized him in the distance. As he approached, they made plans to kill him. 19 “Here comes the dreamer!” they said. 20 “Come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. We can tell our father, ‘A wild animal has eaten him.’ Then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams!”

On January 9^th, my dear friend, Bishop Darryl Husbands, the pastor of Mt. Olivet Baptist Church located on Church Hill in Richmond, Virginia, sent me (and a bunch of his other friends) a text.  He was really troubled.  I’m going to paraphrase some of what he said:

“I was talking to one of my friends who teaches school.  He told me he asked one of his classes the question, “When you look around the room, who do you see becoming an attorney, clergyman, physician, politician or the like, and making a significant impact in the future?”

“Their answer was breath-taking.  They responded, “Nobody!”

“The teacher was stunned, so he asked the class if it bothered them that they didn’t see anyone in their class (not even themselves) with that kinmd of potential?  They replied, “Not really!”

“Well, it didn’t bother them, but it bothered both he and I.   My first response was, “We’re in trouble!”    Are they the microcosm of an aimless generation?  Weak in self esteem, apathetically meandering through a critical stages of their life without a dream or hope.”

Martin Luther King, the man our country celebrates this year on January 21, gave a speech that has become known as the “I Have a Dream Speech.”    Close to the end he tells the crowd and all of America,

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.  I have a dream…”

Do you have a dream?

When Joseph was 17, God gave him two dreams that described his destiny.  In the first part of Genesis 37 we read about Joseph’s two dreams – and both of them described a wonderful future.  God promised Joseph that eventually his brothers, mother and father would kneel before him.

But Joseph did something really, really foolish with that information … and we wrote about it last blog.  He couldn’t keep his mouth closed.  He bragged about his destiny.  He pridefully told everybody about his dreams!  He didn’t have the sense … OR THE HUMILITY … to just keep God’s promises quiet.  He had to tell everybody.

Pride has to speak!  Pride is compelled to speak!  Joseph miserably failed his first test – the pride test.

Now, God may have given YOU a dream that will eventually lead to your destiny, but before you fulfill your destiny, your purpose, God is going to work on your character.  You will have to go through some significant tests that will adjust your character.  A pride test most likely will be the first one.

Why?  Because your destiny is all about fulfilling GOD’S purpose for your life and that purpose – that destiny – will involve GLORIFYING GOD, not you.

But failing the Pride Test didn’t seem to affect Joseph’s character.  That’s why God continued the process of refining Joseph’s character IN A PIT.

READING: GENESIS 37:21

21 But when Reuben heard of their scheme, he came to Joseph’s rescue. “Let’s not kill him,” he said.  22 “Why should we shed any blood?  Let’s just throw him into this empty cistern here in the wilderness.  Then he’ll die without our laying a hand on him.”  Reuben was secretly planning to rescue Joseph and return him to his father.

23 So when Joseph arrived, his brothers ripped off the beautiful robe he was wearing.  24 Then they grabbed him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.  25 Then, just as they were sitting down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them.  It was a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a load of gum, balm, and aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt.

26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother?  We’d have to cover up the crime.   27 Instead of hurting him, let’s sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he is our brother — our own flesh and blood!”  And his brothers agreed.  28 So when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for twenty pieces of silver.  And the traders took him to Egypt.

Maybe we should be asking ourselves, “Why am I in a pit?”

Many times you and I find ourselves in a pit, and it seems like we had very little, if anything, to do with how we got there.

Several years ago I found myself in a pit of despair … a pit of depression … a pit of death.  I just wanted to die.  I went to some lengths to plan my own death.  I would make it look like an accident so my family (my grandchildren especially) and friends wouldn’t know.  No note would be left.  I was looking for a big tree on the side of the road.

And here’s how I got there:  I had come to believe some lies.

You do know, don’t you, that Satan wants to kill you and have you end up in “the bottomless pit” that God created for him?

The lies that had the most profound impact on my life had to do with my purpose.  I kept hearing, “You’re 63 and you’re done.  Toast.  Your life is over.  No one wants to hear what you have to say.  You were a lousy pastor to begin with.  No church is going to risk taking you in.  You’re too imperfect … flawed.  Nobody cares for you.  You’ve burned too many bridges.  Who would want to be your friend.”

I was isolated by my own choice.  Satan told me that everyone was against me, that I had no future, that I had no hope, and that I couldn’t get out of my pit!   All lies … but I was deceived!  I could go on, but I’ve made my point.  All I heard was constant condemnation.  Constant accusations.  Sadly, I believed every cruel lie.  I was so deceived.

Satan has a pitiful future.  He is going down, and he is trying to take everyone with him.  He hates God and anyone God loves!  That’s you.  That’s me.

I knew Jesus had said that Satan is a liar and the father of ALL lies.  I could take you to the text.  I had preached it many times, and I believed what the Lord said about His enemy and mine.  But knowing Satan is a liar doesn’t inoculate us from his lies.

Here’s what Jesus said in JOHN 8:44.  Christ was speaking to religious leaders.

For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does.  He was a murderer from the beginning.  He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him.  When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies.

If you’re in a pit you must FIRST, LOOK OUTWARDLY.   When the lies come you have to take every thought captive.  You’ve got to intentionally detect, discern and dissect every thought.  This is a battle of life and death!  You’ve got to look under every rock.  To do that you need to speak what you’re thinking out load.  That’s my strong advice to you.  Speak your thoughts.  Bring them into the light.  You can do that with a therapist.  That’s what they want you do do.  But whether or not you get help from someone trustworthy, you’ve got to do some heavy lifting.  Being in the pit isn’t time to get lazy.

I’m in totally agreement with Robert Morris.  Your mind is where the battle is!  Satan tells lies and then reinforces them through peer pressure, advertising, family conflict, hate-filled arguments, sarcasm, bullying, fear of failure, unrealistic expectations, other people’s expectations, performance living … etc.  Satan is a master at lying.  It’s constant!

Let me be clear.  If you believe his lies, you could end up staying in that pit indefinitely.   Or dying.  But if you resist Satan’s lies with God’s TRUTH, you’re going to get out of the pit, your feet will be back on solid ground, and you’ll be on your way again to fulfilling the dreams and destiny God intends for you to enjoy!

The first step out of your pit involves finding out what God thinks about you and your circumstances.  Dig!  Stop listening to the lies and hear the Other voice.  God has a voice.  Stop preferring Satan’s voice over God’s.

SECOND, LOOK INWARDLY.  When we do, we usually find out that we had some part in getting ourselves into the pit.

To be honest, it’s much easier to blame others than to take a good, honest, hard look at ourselves and our own behavior.  We seldom admit to having character problems.  We’ve lied too long we don’t remember the truth.  We’ve stolen stuff so often it’s like trying to kick an opioid habit.  We have murder in our hearts.  Our sarcasm is second nature.   We’ve learned to stealthfully engage our lust, our adulterous heart, and our wandering eyes.

There’s never a shortage of people we can blame!  It’s become very popular in our society to adopt a “victim mentality” – in other words, to blame all our problems on other people.

Don’t blame Satan for your character issue(s).  He can tempt you, but he can’t make you do anything.  You choose, right?

Have you ever heard someone say, or say yourself, “People are just jealous of me!  I’m not the one with the problem!  It’s not the way I act, or the way that I talk that’s the problem! It’s not the way I present myself!  Everyone else has the problem!!”

Joseph had the PERFECT opportunity to develop a victim mentality.  After all, he was just obeying his dad when his brothers decided to throw him in the pit. And Joseph could have properly reasoned that his brothers were jealous.

It is true that Joseph’s brothers had an evil attitude … and even murder in their hearts … but what about Joseph’s attitudes and behaviors?  Did his attitude contribute to the bad situation?  Did his pride produce some of the strain in the horrible relationship he had with his brothers?

• Why wasn’t he out in the wilderness with his brothers, tending the family herds, in the first place?  What’s an able-bodied 17 year old son-of-a-shepherd doing back in the tents?
• Did he avoid work because it was beneath him?
• Or did his dad shield him from the hot sun and not make him do family chores?

Ponder this:  why do you think Joseph stayed home?  Do you have any similar behavior?

Let’s go on.  Genesis 37:18 tells us that Joseph’s brothers saw him coming from a long way off.  Do you think they saw the coat?  Absolutely!

Why would Joseph be wearing his “prestige coat” out in the wilderness?  (He might have worn it everywhere he went.)

Joseph was very proud of the gift his father, Jacob, had given him.  He may have started to find his identity in the gift that identified him as his father’s favorite.

But he lost “the gift,” and you and I can lose our Father’s gifts, too, if we get caught up in the gift and ignore the Giver. We could lose the gifts of God if we let pride overtake our hearts.  And usually we lose our gifts in a pit.

I’ve known “men and women of God” who have lost their gifts because of pride.  I’ve heard many stories of preachers that were nationally known, who felt their giftedness would shield them from the consequences of secret sin.  But they fell hard into a pit of their own making.  They dug their own pit and stumbled into it.

Be assured of this: anytime you fall into a pit … one of your own making or one that is there because we live on a fallen planet … Satan will be right there!  I’m goin to keep beating that drum.  Like I said before, he will quickly begin to lie.  He will accuse you.  And he will fabricate evidence to keep you in the pit!

Think about these two statements and then read the texts.

Satan accuses us.  God does not!  (Look at Rev. 12:10-11)

Satan will fabricate evidence!  (Look at Gen. 37:31-33)

Joseph’s brothers misled their father, Jacob, and kept the lie about Joseph’s death going for 20 years!  They manufactured evidence, that Joseph was gone forever by bringing their father the coat of many colors covered with blood!

Satan will fabricate “evidence” so that he can defeat you and foil the destiny God has in store for you!

BUT WAKE UP TO THIS FACT!!   Being in a pit is not the end of your story.  It wasn’t the end for Joseph, and it won’t be for you … IF … you learn from your sin and failures, and get a solid, strong grip on your thoughts, fantasies and ideas.

EVENTUALLY  … Joseph got back something a lot more important that a coat.  He GOT HIS DESTINY BACK!  Eventually he fulfilled God’s purpose for his life!  And so will you.  Whatever you’ve lost, God can replace it if you will repent, and walk in humility.  To get out of our pits we must humbly cry out to Him.  James 4:10 says, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

When you read the Bible, you will quickly see that God’s Word is entirely about RESTORATION, redemption, and realized dreams!  The Bible is filled with stories of people who messed up, and messed up badly … and ended up in pits.  But they didn’t stay in the pit.   Joseph’s story is one such story … of coming out of a pit and into God’s destiny.  So are the stories of Moses, David, Jonah, Solomon, Peter, Paul … and so many more.  Read the Bible and you’ll discover stories of victory snatched from defeat!

BELIEVE THIS:  Your story of victory can be added to theirs.  Your story is your testimony.  It’s your story and no one can tell it like you.  And if God wants you to tell your story, don’t sugar-coat it or camouflage your failures.  Don’t dwell on them, either.  The people around you will listen as you describe how you got into your pit, but their ears will really perk up when you share God’s remedy, redemption, and revelations.  Why?  Because they are looking for ways to get out of their own pits.

Conclusion:  We all need to pass the PRIDE TEST.  (See the January 19 entry.)  But if we don’t, God loves us and He will work on our character in order for us to rediscover our purpose and fulfill our destinies.

And one more thing:  if you don’t pass your tests in proper order, God’s so good.  He lets us RETAKE the test we failed until we pass.   Ha!    God desires for you and me to live full and abundant lives while we fulfill our purpose.

Thanks for reading.

From a Dream to Your Destiny, Part 1

Robert Morris is the pastor of Gateway Church in Dallas, TX.  I really respect him and appreciate him as a man with a heart for God.  He wrote a book that was life-changing for me!  It is entitled “From Dream to Destiny.”  If you wish, you can pick it up at a bookstore, go online to Robert Morris’ website, or order it at Amazon, as a Kindle Book.

[On December 30, 2018, I felt I should begin a series based on “From Dream to Destiny” and the life story of Joseph that is found in Genesis 37-50.   This is the “sermon” from that Sunday.    Each week hereafter I’ll be adding the sermon notes to this site so if anyone wants to follow along, they can … or if you miss a Sunday at the English service at Emmaus Korean United Methodist Church in Richmond, Virginia, you can stay caught up.  We had a combined service on January 6, 2019, and an ice and snow storm that prevented me from making it to the January 13th service … so, we move right along with.]

In this book Robert Morris writes, “Every person has a dream from God, and every person has a destiny from God.  Sadly, many individuals live ‘WITH’ the dream instead of IN the destiny.”

Maybe you haven’t had your dream yet … but before you do, and before you can fulfill your destiny you have to pass 10 Tests. Before you can live out the purpose God has for your life, you must pass 10 character tests.

Throughout the Bible God used dreams, daydreams, and creative imagina-tions to communicate with His people.
One of those people was Joseph, the son of Jacob. His story is found in Genesis 37-50.

God destined and then designed Joseph to exercise great power. Joseph was destined to be the instrument of God’s deliverance for his family and the nation of Israel, but before he could exercise that power and purpose he had to endure great testing along the way.

At the tender age of 17 Joseph had received a glimpse of that destiny in a dream — but he failed to understand that the journey toward his destiny had only just begun when he received his dream.

Between the dream and his destiny, Joseph had to live out 13 years of hard lessons, testing and preparation. It wasn’t until Joseph was 30 years old that he stepped into the first phase of the extraordinary destiny God had ordained for his life. It was only after Joseph passed 10 tests … 10 character tests … that he was prepared to walk out that destiny and to fulfill the dream to its fullest.

Remember … every one of us has a destiny. Do you have a dream?

Perhaps you, like Joseph, have had some dreams that are yet to be fulfilled.

We all have dreams for our families, dreams for our finances, dreams for our chosen vocations — but right now I want to challenge you to dream a little bigger. Allow God to stir in your heart His dream for you. I promise, His dream for you is better because you and I can’t dream a bigger dream than God can dream! His destiny for you is bigger and better! God’s thoughts for us are higher than our thoughts. His plans for us are better than our plans.

Each person’s dream is unique; but somehow each dream is supernaturally intertwined with the master plan of our loving heavenly Father … to share the Good News about His Son, Jesus, and to bring people into relationship with Himself.

God has assigned a role for each one of us — a destiny that is essential to His plans. There are things He has created you to do that only you can accomplish. The same is true for me. Each one of us has a unique assign-ment from God. And if we don’t do our assignments, they won’t get done!

That is why I believe this message about Joseph is so vital at this hour. I believe a day is coming (and has already begun) when we will see a worldwide harvest of souls. Each of us has a part to play — and our parts will be fulfilled only to the extent that our God-given destinies have been fulfilled.

Every one of us is destined to do great things for God and His kingdom. Like Joseph, we must pass TEN (10) tests to get there. I know that doesn’t thrill you … but that doesn’t matter. God is GOOD … and He knows what He’s doing. Do you trust Him?

I’m so glad God doesn’t “flunk” any of us on our tests. (If He did, He could have written “F” on the pages of my life many times!) No, each time we fail, He graciously writes, “Re-TAKE” on that life-page — and He allows us to keep retaking the test until we pass it. Why? Because it is only when we pass the tests that we will be able to step into the destiny He has planned for us. Many people have had dreams, but they haven’t lived out their destiny because they haven’t passed these tests yet.

The first test we have to pass is THE PRIDE TEST.

GENESIS 37, VERSE 1-11.

So Jacob settled again in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived as a foreigner. This is the account of Jacob and his family. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he often tended his father’s flocks. He worked for his half brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. Joseph was working his half-brothers. Bilhah and Zilpah were handmaid-ens of Leah and Rachel. Leah had six sons, Bilhah had two, Zilpah had two, and Rachel had two. That would explain the Tribes of Israel.

Joseph and his little brother Benjamin were sons of Rachel, Jacob’s favorite wife. Rachel died when Benjamin was born. There are a lot of unique family dynamics going on in the tents of Jacob. That would explain the next few verses.

But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing.

Just notice, before Joseph ever had a dream he was a tattletale. Telling on your brothers isn’t “endearing.”

Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph — a beautiful robe.  But his brothers hated Joseph because their father loved him more than the rest of them. They couldn’t say a kind word to him.  One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever.  

This is what spoiled 17-year-old favorite sons do. When we read about this dream you’re going to be in awe of the “wisdom” of this kid … that he told it to his brothers … even though they hated him!

Maybe this would be a good time to suggest that if you have someone in your life that hates you … it would be best to refrain from sharing your wisdom and insights from God.

“Listen to this dream,” he said.  “We were out in the field, tying up bun-dles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!”

That just brilliant … to tell your older brothers something like this!

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 be-fore you?”  But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered what the dreams meant.

About now in the story you might be asking, “How is God going to use someone so self-focused and immature?

Genesis 41:46 says that when Joseph stood before Pharaoh, he was 30 years old.

Joseph dreamed the dream when he was 17, and 30 when he stepped into his destiny. What happened during those 13 years?

I want to establish at the beginning of this study a first point:

God Has a Dream For You!

Joseph was pretty excited about the dream that God had given him. Re-gardless of the consequences, he just had to let everyone know about it! After all, it seemed obvious from the dream that Joseph was destined for great power and influence.

The dream was from God, but the bragging was all Joseph.

There was a test on the horizon for Joseph. Something was standing in the way of Joseph’s moving toward that destiny God had shown him. The reason for the test was really quite simple: Joseph had pride in his heart.

It is important to notice that Joseph had pride in his heart before he ever got the dream from God. The Bible says that Joseph “brought a bad report of them to his father” (Gen. 37: 2). Never mind what the bad report was about. Perhaps Joseph’s brothers weren’t exactly perfect, and they may indeed have deserved some correction. But this verse reveals that Joseph thought of himself as someone qualified to make that type of judgment about his brothers.

Any time we pass judgment on the behavior of others, it reveals a prideful attitude on our part. And Joseph had a prideful attitude.

Now don’t miss this: God KNEW that Joseph was prideful — yet God still gave him the dream. God had a big destiny in mind for Joseph — and He knew that prideful attitude would have to go if Joseph were to succeed.

You may wonder why God would give such a huge dream to such a young man — especially when He knew that Joseph already had pride in his heart. Why not wait until he was a little older, a little wiser, a little more humble, perhaps?

The answer is really quite simple. God planned for Joseph to step into the dream at the age of 30 — and God knew that could never happen until Joseph had dealt with that pride. So God allowed Joseph to see the big dream at 17, so the pride in his heart could be exposed and dealt with.
Joseph failed the first test, yes — but God knew that he would fail it.

Remember, although we may fail, we never actually flunk a test with God — we just keep taking it over and over again until we pass it.
In giving Joseph the dream, God was helping him to take the first neces-sary steps toward his destiny. How? By revealing the pride in Joseph’s heart and by allowing Joseph to start working on passing that test.

Every one of us deals with pride, and every one of us must pass the Pride Test some day.

• Pride – a sense of superiority and willful boasting.
• Arrogance – condescension, or disdain and contempt for others.
• Conceit – narcissistic self-love, cockiness and unwholesome self-importance.
• Egotism – always talking and thinking about oneself, excessively.
• Vanity – excessive admiration of one’s own appearance or achieve-ments.
• Superiority – dominance, primacy, unwelcome leadership, and a sense of one’s own greatness.

We may have to go lower and lower before we finally pass it — but God will see to it that we pass this test somehow.

Never forget the truth of the promise found in Philippians 1:6, And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

There’s something you should know, and that is … WE can have our own dreams.

• Selfish dreams can confuse us, and crowd out God’s dreams for us.
• And there are some dreams you just need to lay down.

Would you like to know what God’s dream is for you? How can you know the dream God has for you?
Let me give you something directly from God Himself. Let’s not get a man’s opinion. Let’s hear what God says about knowing His dreams for you.

Numbers 12:6-8
Then God said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, make Myself known to him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream.   Not so with My servant Moses; He is faithful in all My house.  I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings

Let me interpret this plainly:
• BELIEVE … GOD HAS A WONDERFUL DREAM FOR YOU.
• AND …. If you want to know God’s dream for your life, GET TO KNOW GOD! GET TO KNOW HIM!
• GET TO KNOW THE GIVER OF THE DREAM.
• GET TO ONE WHO CAN REVEAL IT AND FULFILL IT!

The first step to passing the PRIDE TEST is humbly acknowledging, “My life is NOT my own. God has a dream and destiny for me, and I will have it and live it.”