On Destiny: a Joseph Story

As a Christian, the Bible has always been a rich repertoire for instruction, information, and pretty much everything one would need to walk with God. To every other person, the Bible is nothing but a religious canonical text, or, succinctly put, literature, whether it is sacrosanct or not depends on perspective. However, for Christians, who have been gifted the consciousness to see the Bible as what it is--truth, the incontrovertible word of God, there is an understanding. An understanding that there are still so many untapped and unknown lessons within the scripture, mysteries that are locked and hidden within those words, and that we would need the Holy Spirit to unlock them for us if we are to key into God's word and will for our lives.

This morning, during my devotion, the Holy Spirit unlocked a treatise on destiny through the story of Joseph in Genesis 41: 1-57, and I couldn't wait to share.

It's a common story--that passage. It's the moment Joseph's life changed forever. It's informative, entertaining even; there may even be a few lessons to pick from it, as in the manner of most stories. But this is the beauty of the Holy Spirit--His ability to make known to you hidden truths. With the Spirit of God, you can go through Bible stories you grew up with as a child and receive deep revelational parcels for your life.

So, please follow me, and receive parcels for yours.

Time will not permit me to dissect everything there is in Genesis 41. It's a lengthy chapter, but it is familiar, so I can share what the Holy Spirit shared with me in the hopes that you can keep up with the rest of the narrative.

One thing has been prevalent and interesting in Joseph's life as shown in the chapters leading up to 41, and that is process. In my last post, I talked about process using the life of Rachel. This time around, it is the vicissitudes of Joseph's life that draws us to the concept of process.

Genesis 41, vs 1 and 2 says:

After two whole years, Pharoah dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, and behold, there came up and out of the Nile seven cows sleek and fat, and they fed in the reed grass.

This was two whole years since Joseph interpreted the dreams that freed Pharoah's butler and hung the baker. The freed butler had forgotten about Joseph as soon as he was reinstated until two years later, remembering his kind, talented friend in prison only because Pharoah had strange dreams that troubled him. Now, the butler's forgetfulness of someone who did him such kindness is a topic for another day. It was two more years in prison for innocent Joseph, until Pharoah had his dreams, and because of the butler's experience, there was need for Joseph, the only man with the skill to demystify strange, troubling dreams.

Note that Joseph would not have been ideal for this job if he hadn't, first and foremost, taken good care of the butler and baker who were put in his charge (by the reason of being warden, all but in name), and discerned their state of mind through the relationship he had grown with them. It was through his relationship with them that he was able to get the account of their strange dreams out of their mouths before displaying his talent. So, if there are introverts reading this, take this as a call to foster meaningful relationships with people. Meaningful relationships are connections. You never know which of them might be ladders propelling you to greatness.

Let's leave introverts alone for now, and focus on them some other time.

By showing himself excellent in the execution of his talent, Joseph was brought before Pharoah by recommendation or referral, to come and do what Pharoah's magicians could not...

And he did, becoming the prime minister of all Egypt by the end of his service.

What did that show me?

Do not joke with process. The process time is preparation time. You may not know it now, but what you go through during the process, the skills you learn and talents you use or harness, are the same ones you use at the point of the fulfillment of your destiny. The only difference is that at the threshold of destiny, you'll be called upon to do those things on a large scale. While you were performing them discretely in the years before then, at that moment you'll be required to do it before all eyes, and because you had been faithful to the process, you will handle it.

Look at Joseph; everything seemed to have been preparing him for that moment. There are three keywords we need to take cognizance of in Joseph's process. Diligence, management, and overseeing. These were the same skills and characters he exhibited his first time in Egypt as a slave in Potiphar's house, and then in the prison before coming to Pharoah and given the opportunity to play out these same characters on a larger scale. As a matter of fact, Joseph didn't start dealing with these characters in Potiphar's house. The Bible records in Genesis 37:2-3 that a seventeen-year old Joseph was shepherding the flock with his brothers, and brought an ill report of them to his father. You know what that was? Diligence and management! The young boy was helping his father (the real owner of the business mind you) keep tabs on his venture!

It was these same traits that he tested and tried in his journey, a cruel one by surface value, to the prime ministerial position. It was the words that Joseph said, the solution he proffered to Pharoah that sealed his appointment, but those were not words born from a vacuum, they came from a compendium of prior experience as an administrative ruler. Let's see those words in vs 33-36:

Now therefore let Pharoah select a man discreet and wise. and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharoah proceed to appoint overseers over the land, and take the fifth part of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plenteous years. And let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming, and lay up grain under the authority of Pharoah for food in the cities, and let them keep it. That food shall be a reserve in the land against the seven years of famine which are to befall the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish through the famine.

As soon as the position of prime minister was conferred on him, Joseph revealed the significance of the process he went through. With the same diligence and consciousness of his roles and duties within his offices, the boundaries and excesses, he set out immediately gathering grain for the whole seven years until the Bible describes what he gathered as innumerable. And it brought to mind Luke 16: 10 where Jesus says, "one who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much".

Was there any difference between what Joseph was doing  as prime minister and what he'd done as a child in his father's house, as a slave, or prisoner? No. It was still management, diligence, and overseeing. He took care of households, their masters inclusive, managing everything. He had their trust and he never destroyed it. Now, he was doing those same things for all Egypt and in extension, the whole earth, because vs 57 says:

Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth.

It was at this point that the Holy Spirit dropped thoughts in my heart. It was for such a time as this that Joseph had been prepared for, and then He dropped another. Being a prime minister and overseeing Egypt in other to secure grain for the worldwide seven-year famine...that was Joseph's destiny. You can even say it was his calling. He was called to be an administrator.

Then, the Holy Spirit began to uncover a lot more.

The path to destiny lies in being faithful over little, in sticking with the Lord through the process.

Imagine if Joseph had caved in to the advances of Mrs. Potiphar. Please, picture it, after all, if there is anything the world has shown us much of, it is that administrators or rulers are some of the juiciest positions anyone can go for. They open you up for lavish, arrogant living, and aligns you with that persistent, encouraging thought that you can do whatever you want. 

Joseph could have let his administrative role in Potiphar's house get into his head, and acquiesced to Mrs. Potiphar's lascivious approach. No doubt, they would've kept it within them. It is even possible that through some means, Joseph would've still become prime minister. He was already doing a commendable job in Potiphar's household, and because God's gifts and callings are without repentance (Romans 11:29), he would still be in  control of his gift and ascend the ministerial throne. But this is the difference. Because he had taken his eye away from the process, and away from God, who as our Maker can guide us accordingly, giving himself to worldly definitions of the administration, he may have spent most of his time exploring his newfound wealth and power in lavish, self-aggrandizing ways. If he could get drunk on power in Potiphar's house and lose himself, what are the chances that he would do better after Pharoah's dreams? Slim to none. Power over a whole country would have spun his mind out of focus and launched him into a perpetual routine of procrastination and avarice until the seven years of abundance were gone. In the end, he, the Egyptians, and most of the earth would suffer when the famine came.

Thank God, Joseph chose the right path--to stick with God. Through the process, he answered his calling and fulfilled his destiny. The range of Joseph's journey, the peculiarity of what was being forged through his experience as evidenced by the role he ultimately assumed, enabling him to fulfill his destiny, led me to another piece of insight.

Your destiny is God's solution to a problem "He who sees the end from the beginning" has already foreseen. Hence the necessity of process. You need to be adequately equipped to be that solution. Solutions aren't half measures. They are determinate in the way they fix issues. In math, a formula is a solution to problems, not arbitrarily, but because it was worked out, tested and proven adequately. You are a formula here on earth.

Do you want to know another interesting thing Joseph's story points out about destiny?

The young man's talent was the interpretation of dreams, but that is not what was being cooked and forged during his process. Is it not interesting that Joseph's destiny had nothing to do with interpreting dreams, but everything to do with administration?

Please, stay with me.

Proverbs 18:16 says, "A man's gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men".

It is therefore worthy of note that Joseph did not become chief of dreams in the palace's department of magicians. No. his gift, instead, made way for him to be appointed prime minister.

Brother, sister, your talent or gift is not your destiny. It is a crucial ingredient; this goes without doubt. But it is not your destiny. It maketh way for you to step into your destiny. And we have read earlier what destiny is.

It was the same role Joseph occupied, albeit in minute forms, that he eventually worked on in full glare to solve the problem of the famine that had been foreseen to devastate the world. So, it is safe to say that because of Joseph, Egypt and the rest of the world did not die to famine.

Are you allowing yourself get tried and proved in your process? Are you confused as to what is being tested? Don't be. Joseph didn't even know what his destiny was. He just made sure God was with him. That is what you should do. The key to successfully going through your process is in giving yourself completely to God so He can lead you.

And what is the proof that God is leading you if you let Him take the reins? He is with you at every stage, no matter how rocky it is, and you will be able to see it. By the time you come out at the other side, you would have been adequately cooked to handle the demands of a waiting world.

Furthermore, we should know that destiny is fulfilled in an office, a position, or a calling. Just like in the case of Joseph. Now, that calling might be closely related to your talent, or it might not. But either way, it is your talent that occasions you to step into the apparatus, after several test sessions en route to the big moment of course, which you use to accomplish the demands made upon your destiny.

One of the most important things the Holy Spirit revealed to me is that failed destinies abound because not very many are sensitive to the fact that the concept of destiny is divine, God-given, and as a result is fulfilled according to the pattern and protocol of divinity. Do you know what this means?

It is possible to be famous off your talent and not be fulfilling destiny. A strong reason for this occurrence lies in thinking that the execution of your talent is destiny, and that the moment you start using it on a big scale you are fulfilling your destiny. But that is not it! Because destiny is God's solution to a foreseen problem or an existing problem, you can only define destiny in God, and determine the fulfillment of destiny by answering that problem according to divine design.

In other words, how you translate your talent also matters in the fulfillment of destiny. This is where many famous people or fame-seekers are caught, even people who claim to be believers. Let's look at vs 38 and 39:

And Pharoah said to his servants, "Can we find such a man as this, in whom is the Spirit of God?" So Pharoah said to Joseph, "Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discreet and wise as  you are;"

What this says about Joseph becoming prime minister is that his ability to interpret dreams wasn't enough. Suggesting what to do was not enough. It was having the Spirit of God that made him fit to be the man to oversee the reforms needed to save Egypt and the world. Talents are given, callings are there, but it is the Spirit of God in a man that occasions  him to translate his talents adequately and enter into the calling that makes him fulfill his destiny.

The output of talents can be corrupted, and instead of solving a problem, make one fester. The devil is well aware of the problems you're to solve and fights to corrupt it. When the devil corrupts the output of your talent, you become part of a group, you fall into a set of others like you in the world. In this sense, what you do, there will be others who can do it in the world. You might be famous in the world, but in the eyes of God, whose sight is the only thing that matters, you're making the problem he called you to solve fester. It is by the Spirit of God that talents are translated and make heavy impact.

Think of yourself, of your talent...how many people do you see with the same gift in the world? Now, think of how special you will be translating that talent as the Spirit of God leads? Your talent if translated properly will never put you in the same class as the people of the world, people who execute their talents without the leading of Christ. When you translate your talent properly, you enter into a class of your own, like Joseph. Do you know the impact you can make? Picture it.

The world is full of people who're shaky on who to follow. Do you notice how easy it was for the household of Potiphar, the prison warden, and even Egypt to follow Joseph's instructions? There is a following already waiting for you, for the fulfillment of your destiny, even before you know it. Imagine using your talent for God, and how you would command these people to fit into the kingdom-plan. How easy it'd be for you to win souls. The ways of God and the ways of the world are not the same; there is a wide gulf between them. If you know this, can you now say, as a believer, that executing your talent in the very same manner and with the same intent of the world, that your talent has been informed and translated by the Spirit of God?

If there is no discernible difference between the products of your talent and that of the world, can you say that you are fulfilling destiny? That the works of your hands is solving a problem that is going against the agenda of God on earth?

The things Joseph did was by his gift, but he refused to divorce God from it. The Spirit of God remained within him and, coupled with a Spirit-backed translation of talent, informed the theory he proffered to Pharoah. It was so excellent, how everything all panned out, and Pharoah could not deny that the Spirit of God was the backing for such display of excellence.

When you translate your talent properly, when you fulfill destiny, the level of excellence displayed will be so great that everyone, both those who're not worshipers of God (Pharoah and his household wasn't) will acknowledge the work of God for a fact.

What God has destined for you, you're the only one who can do it the way you do, because you are unique. In this vein, following God keeps you conscious of the divine-mandate over your life, keeps you from straying from the significance of the process, and when you fulfill your destiny, you become one of a kind.

Don't abandon the process, and at the hour of the opportune season, the time you were made for, you will soar with wings like an eagle.