This study is transcribed from our online group study.

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So this is us digging into Joseph’s story. This is a like the study we did on “Focus” in the beginning of the year.

For our new ladies: See “Focus: For The Lady Who Is Called”.

Today’s study  won’t let me rest; it’s been a burden since Tuesday night. Praying it is a word for us all in Jesus name.

² These are the generations of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors.⁴But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.

⁵ Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more.⁶ He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed:⁷Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”⁸ His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.⁹ Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”¹⁰ But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?”¹¹ And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.

Genesis 37:2-11, ESV

 

 

Two parts we are delving into mainly here.

1. The beginning: the Giver of the dream
2. The TIME

 

1: The Beginning

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. In the beginning also was a dream. The dream stemmed from God and the dream is in God. **Note the words ‘in God’ – very important.

You had dreams when you were 5. When you were 16. When you were 20….and then life happened.  First thing I noted in my study and please I want us to pray along as we read….

Joseph dreamt at seventeen.

Some of us had teenage dreams (you know yourself) and now somehow, Lagos traffic and work for salary has beat your dream to submission.

The giver of the dream cannot be separated from the dream. Some of us are not seeing the dreams come to pass because we keep placing Him outside of it.

In the beginning He was – He gave you that dream.

¹⁴ For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it.
¹⁵ In a dream, in a vision of the night,when deep sleep falls on men,while they slumber on their beds.

Job 33:14-15

 

Why are you pushing him out of it?

You have worked in the flesh for too long…no dream can live outside of Him. Some of our fleshy efforts are actually paying off. We are being applauded on social media and living the dream but its outside of Him.

So God looks at it and calls it dust.

Tonight, go back:

I will wait brings me to the second and most important step in the process of birthing a dream…

2: TIME

What is the importance of time in this whole deal?

² These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.

Genesis 37:2, ESV

 

⁴⁶  Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt.

Genesis 41:46, ESV

 

 

¹⁹  Until the time came to fulfill his dreams,the Lord tested Joseph’s character.

Psalm 105:19, NLT

 

This week alone, I had wilderness seasons being said to me three times. God must have been saying something so i went back to study David.

I noticed 1 Samuel 22 down to Nabal’s incident was God testing David’s character. Testing to see what He will do. What He will say. How He will react. Wilderness seasons in the process of fulfilling dreams equals to tests.

We might say: Why was Joseph tested? Wasn’t he a good boy?

But I was studying tonight and saw that Joseph brought a bad report of his brothers to his father. Did he love them as he should when he was 17? Or he was fighting for prominence and being his father’s favorite in a polygamous home?

See when he told them the dream…

He said it at first and their response wasn’t good. Again, he went to tell them the second one. What was he trying to prove? Was that naivety or “I am better than you and will be better than you” at work? If his dreams came through that time, his brothers for chop sand.

Instead, what did God do? He took him through a process to build character. By the time his dream came through, Joseph was humble by force.

¹⁶ It is beyond my power to do this,” Joseph replied. “But God can tell you what it means and set you at ease.”

Genesis 41:16, NLT

 

I have been reading Bro. Gbile Akanni”s book, “What God looks for in a vessel” and he talks about how God might stop a man from getting somewhere not even even of cause of what he can do now but what he has the tendency to do. The scary part is that the man himself doesn’t even know that he has the tendency to do those things. He thinks he is good till those situations crop up.

See our God?

You ask Him….but Lord, why are you resisting me? I’m humble and he says there are weeds in your heart that will grow after you leave this stage. It’s what I see in the future – that is making me resist you.

To me, that’s scary.

 

 

On Tests:

I shared here and on the blog on how I got a big one in Port Harcourt. My heart basically felt like I was being reaped apart but I saw selfishness in my heart like no other.

Ah! if a big measure of success comes, I would have claimed it as mine. Painful to come to terms with your heart but we need to see to be able to change.

Now, wilderness seasons are not always dry.

¹⁶ It is beyond my power to do this,” Joseph replied. “But God can tell you what it means and set you at ease.”

Genesis 41:16, NLT

 

 

² The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. ³ His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. ⁴ So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had.

Genesis 39:2, ESV

 

There is a point where you might actually begin to prosper in the test and time frame. DON’T BE DECEIVED. YOU ARE STILL BEING TESTED.

Be mindful of tests.

He has put you in a job now…you think you are well and good. No, it’s a test. The dream is still hanging. How far away from the dream is determined by the time and the tests. When you pass the tests, sometimes, it may seem like you have been demoted.

¹⁶ It is beyond my power to do this,” Joseph replied. “But God can tell you what it means and set you at ease.”

Genesis 41:16, NLT

 

 

¹² she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house.
¹⁹ As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, “This is the way your servant treated me,” his anger was kindled. ²⁰ And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison.

Genesis 41:12,19-20, NLT

 

How did David feel when he had to let Nabal go after he insulted him? He must have felt stupid and his men must have thought him foolish but he is watching. You see…it is not just the dream that matters here…if stones will carry them.

The carrier of the dream is the crux of the matter. And why?

He has to be conformed to the image of God at the end of it all. No conforming to Jesus being done. He would have just been a jackie for God with no benefit.

Contrary to public thought, the benefit of carrying and birthing a dream isn’t fame and money, it’s being conformed to the image of God. And that’s what time and tests do to you.

Last Stage: BROUGHT TO THE PLACE OF ONLY GOD CAN DO….ONLY GOD YOU SEE.
GOD BECOMES YOUR DREAM. YOUR DREAM BECOMES YOUR GOD.

Joseph tried to work it out on his own…

¹³ In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer.¹⁴ Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house.¹⁵ For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.”
²³ Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.

Genesis 40:13-23, NLT

 

Haha. Clap for our Father.

The Chief of ‘causing people to forget when it is not time’. No one can take his glory in this matter of dreams. If birthing dreams, no one will take His glory. Your uncle will not take His glory. Your fleshy works will not take His glory. Your earthly father will not take His glory. The dream must be birthed in a way that all can see that it is God alone and no other else it won’t be birthed at all.

For those called to business, this is for you too.

That conglomerate can only be built in a way that will show that it is God else it won’t be built at all. Contractors will forget you…friends and collaborators will drop off the radar. Till you go back and say “Lord, you gave me this him…now help me birth it. You alone – no options anymore”.

Your dream become Him and if He doesn’t move, you don’t move.

See why dreams need time? No one can get to this kind of place unaided. It’s only wilderness seasons that bring a man here. Maybe it is cause we have ‘independent’ blood flowing in us. Whatever it is….God is in His mercy has made us to see that only time can break us this way.

I keep hearing time….

Some fall away during time.

Maybe you had your dream at 10 or 15. You have all but buried it. Time has dug a hole and covered it up. You couldn’t survive the test of time.

GO BACK. Dream Again.

You guys know my story from last year. On my way to TWTW meet Warri in January, I was tired…broken. I told God “if you say do nothing for 2017, I will”. My dream became Him. “Only let me be with you and let my faith in Jesus be intact”.

I had no grand goals. I almost still don’t.

It was such a surprise to hear Him say “I have work for you to do still”.

It took me one year for my dreams to die (dreams that He gave me by the way) and for Him to become my dream.

For people who are driven:

I am too. My personality is driven. People ask me, “how do you stay passionate about what you do?” Part of my personality is a go-getter. But God has shown me that He has to be the One driving me…not even the dream. And when He becomes the dream…I can be better directed in a way that will please Him.

Same question I threw to us at the March meet. What drives you? Him or your dream? His purpose for you or Him? Thin line. Very thin.

But that’s what time reveals. Time and tests.

Our dreams are valid, yes!…Oh but there are so many things in the process of birthing dreams. It is an upside down process.

In the beginning was the giver of the dream. The receiver ran with it. The giver called her back and showed her to do it in Him and with Him and it actually works reverse side up. She has to put Him first to see the dreams come to pass.

Except a corn of wheat falls to the groud and dies….it abides alone.

Death.

Some of us are in the stage of dying. Not death from fear…but fear from ambition and want. But He doesn’t kill a dream; He only resurrects it at the right time and place. In the right way.

 

Wrap up:

A lot has been pointed out. Believing at each stage that that which applies to us individually shall be taken. Because we are all at different stages.

First: dream again if the dream has died. A God-given dream died…Ask Him to resurrect it again.

You have the God-given dreams? Be mindful of the process of making it come to pass.

• Test and time
• Character
• He has to make it reverse side up. He has to be your dream. He has to be the One driving you.
• When he says die, die. He will resurrect it at the right time and place.

Different stages above. What belongs to you – take it.

Final Stage: Fulfillment or dream? Conforming to ‘His person’ – built in character. Humble. Able to give glory to Him. Let the process not scare you and keep you dreaming again.

⁷ But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

Genesis 45:7, NIV

 

Joseph’s dream wasn’t for Himself…it was for the world. Millions would have died if the dream didn’t come to pass. So it is never about us.

 

What if I fail?

Remember I stated earlier that in the wilderness season, it may look like you have failed when you actually haven’t. Joseph was demoted to prisoner at a time…physically he must have failed…spiritually, it was in His plan.

I held a seminar for authors at Ekiti in December and no one showed up. But I purposed in my heart that I will read my Bible and worship God for that same amount of time. I listened to Myles Monroe as I worshiped and told God I would stay faithful. He reiterated the vision and the dream to me. I cried and recommitted to following His plan regardless of what I see. People or no people. Man or no man. Money or no money.

To the human eyes, I failed. No one showed up.

In God’s eyes, I passed. It was a test. I stayed faithful. So we must see through His lens for it to make sense.

The process of birthing the dream to pass…it’s all about Him. Not about us and if we for one minute lose sight of His ways of doing things…we might lose track of things.

May God help us all in Jesus name!

Posted on: April 3, 2017, by : 4thewomenatthewell@gmail.com