Category Archives: God

The Royal Law

18 Tuesday Jul 2017

Posted by in Faith, God, Love

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James 2:8
If you fulfil the Royal Law according to the Scripture, you shall love your neighbour as yourself, you do well.

All too often in the world today, love and respect are shown to some while rejecting others.  The book of James, in the New Testament teaches us to show love to each other and not show special love to some while dismissing others. Jesus was no respecter of persons, meaning He showed love to everyone in the same way. To the Lord no one is more important than the other. Partiality is a sin and if we respect or love someone who is rich, dresses well has a certain status and hate someone who is poor and not dressed well or treat them any less than the other person, we are guilty of committing that sin.

James tells us to fulfil the ‘Royal Law’ which is to love each other as ourselves and if we do that we are definitely obeying God’s commandments. We know we cannot keep the ten commandments by our own self efforts; we need the Holy Spirit to help us and God’s grace to keep us. So, putting that aside let us look at the only two commandments we need to concentrate on… because all the other commandments hang on these two!

Matthew 22:37-40
Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Once we begin to practice and understand the fullness of ‘Love,’ and how important it is to God, it will begin to flow in our lives. Everything God did for us was out of Love otherwise we would not be here. We in turn must love each other and showing partiality and being dismissive of each other is not showing love. If this very important segment of fruit is not hanging from your tree… the other segments won’t be their either. Yes I am speaking of the Fruit of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22-26
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

How often do we say; “I don’t like that person,” or “I can’t stand that person,” or treat others with respect while ignoring others. How often do we scowl when someone walks into a room or avoiding sitting at the table with them. Pretending we don’t see someone by holding our heads straight… all acts of partiality and a definite lack of love. I see these actions in everyday life and definitely in the Body of Christ. We think we can treat each other like this and say we love God, but God is saying no you can’t! As Christians, God does not tolerate this type of behaviour and if we think He does, we are fooling ourselves. The following scripture confirms this:

1 John 4:20-21
If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

If we are to live by the First law which is to Love God, followed by the Royal law, to love each other; then everything else will slowly but surely fit into place in our lives.

Love activates and sustains all Godliness in the Christian.

Going through Trials

17 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by in Faith, God, God's Process, Inspiration

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Whether you are a Christian or not, you WILL go through trials. The moment we rejected God and chose Satan in the Garden of Eden; we signed up for trials and misfortunes. There is no getting out of it nor avoiding or sidestepping it: Satan makes sure of that. We are faced with these struggles whether we are directly responsible through our actions or not. The book of James in the New Testament tells us how to deal with these trials:

  • Embrace your trials because God will bless you if you don’t give up, and endure to the end
  • The crown of life is eternal life with God after this life is over
  • All those who continue to love God through their trials and do not give up will receive this gift of life

When we go through struggles and challenges in life we like to blame someone for this even when it is directly our own fault. More often than not the world likes to blame God. James tells us here to stop blaming God for our shortcomings and for the bad things that happen to us.

James 1:13
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man:

I have heard Christians say that because they didn’t pay their tithes, God made something bad happen to them and they had to pay all their money to fix the problem, so God was punishing them for not paying their tithes! Or God made them get sick as a punishment for something they had done wrong. Or when marriages fail; if God didn’t want them to get married He should have stopped them…the list of accusations go on and on! Somehow, we manage very well to shift blame onto God. But the book of James tells us that we of our own free will, lust after things. We have a great desire to have what we want regardless of the cost which is sin; and when conceived in our hearts it brings forth sin!

God is life, He does not sin and is not sin, so He cannot give us the fruits of sin. Sin is from darkness (Satan), and God is the “Father of Lights,” so His gifts are always good and perfect. God gives life! He will never stop being who He is, to consult Satan for some inspiration on how to punish us and make our lives a misery; then after He has inflicted pain on us He goes back to being a loving God! He will never do that. God never changes and never deviates from being who He is, and James confirms this in the following verse:

James 1:17
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

There are no shades, shadows, darkness or variations in God, He remains the same always. The Book of Malachi in the Old Testament 3:6 confirms this: For I am the Lord, I change not;

When we follow our desires, and fall foul of life, the Lord does not interfere in our choices. He has given us free will. If He didn’t step in to prevent Adam and Eve from disobeying Him, He won’t step in now to force us to do His will. You cannot tell someone they love you, they have to tell you themselves and they have to show it through their actions. No one who values the love of another will try to force that person to love them, it has to be freely given or it means nothing. So, God will not make bad things happen to us so that we will chose Him, He allows us to make our own choices.

But God’s grace is so amazing that when we make the wrong choices and get ourselves tangled up in the thicket or when life throws us a curve ball; we can always go to Him and ask Him to help us out of it. Unfortunately we are so impatient that if He doesn’t respond as quickly as we would like, we go off and get ourselves caught up even deeper in the thicket.

The message from James, is to not blame God for the situations we find ourselves in, but instead to go to Him in prayer and tell Him all about it. Ask Him to help and guide you out of the situation. Definitely do not give up when you are going through trials and don’t get so desperate that you do things to make the situation worse. Once God is in that situation with you He will bring you out of it while using it to strengthen you; ready for the next one… yes it’s a lifelong cycle!

Filling the Void

23 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in Faith, God, God's Blessings, Inspiration, Jesus, Religion, Seeking God

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Filling the voidWith all the thousands of religions in the world today; each with its’ own unique and differing belief system; it would be careless of us not to at the very least consider why this situation has evolved in the way that it has.

From the dawn of time, humankind has been searching for something, searching to fill a void that it would seem on the surface anyway, cannot be filled. But what is that void and why are we so desperate to fill it? Purpose, meaning, hope, are just some of the concepts in life we try to understand. Learning how to apply them to our lives on a personal level, a constant challenge! But what is the yearning we have, to fill our lives with something we don’t have; forever seeking something we don’t seem able to find?

New religions and cults continue to emerge, each seeking to find something new that gives meaning to life. Something for the believer to hold on to and to get them through this life; and on to the next. For me there is only one explanation, and that is the one that was there from the very beginning, has endured, remaining constant amid the birth and death of so many religions and theories.

To work out what we are searching for, we need to understand who we are and why we are here. Yes, those questions just keep on popping up, but the answers remain elusive to many. The book of Genesis gives us the simplest and yet the only true answer to these questions.

Genesis 1:26-28
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.

We were created to look like God and to be like Him; in His image and in His likeness! We know we were created to have power over the earth, to look after all things in it and to subdue it. We were created to live in a position of power and not weakness. We received the blessings of God in our lives, as He told us to be fruitful and to multiply… and He gave us the earth. To a certain extent we do those things; though not very well!

So, what then is missing from our lives why does the world keep trying to worship anything and everything. People are creating gods to worship for their finances, their happiness, the weather, the sun god, the moon god; you name it and it exists. Animals have been idolised and turned into gods over the very beings that God created to have power over them. Some of the most heinous, outrageous and evil acts in society were carried out to appease a god, or an idol or the belief that it would secure someone’s place in heaven.

What is the world searching for? Well, God created us as His children, to be in a parent child relationship with us. That is why He says He is our Father; because He is! He loves us and wants us to love Him, in much the same way a parent loves a child and wants that child to love them. He wants us to communicate with Him and share our lives with Him.

In the world, when there is a breakdown in that most important relationship that shapes the rest of our lives, it has a de-stabilising effect not only in the immediate family but also in the broader society.  Its’ impact is far reaching. Children need to be taught, nurtured and guided by a parent and without it the child grows up feeling unloved, and seeking for that love in one form or another. The place in the heart where that love should have resided was left empty, void, and cries out to be filled… with something!

In this way too, a breakdown in our relationship with our Father leaves a void which cannot be filled by anyone or anything else. His love is unparalleled and once you experience that love, you will not be satisfied with a substitute; as all else pales in comparison. If you have never experienced that love then there will be an inner urge to go searching for it, although you don’t really know what ‘IT’ is… and that is the position the world is in. Constantly searching for the Father’s love in all the wrong places and substituting it with whatever they find that seems to makes sense to them.

When we walked away from God’s love and chose a different path, we impacted our world so much so, that we could not and still cannot fix it.  We turned it upside down, back to front and inside out creating a huge void; where God used to be. But when God reached out to us and gave us a second chance through His Son Jesus Christ; we were able to fill that void with His love once again. However for those who still do not know God’s love; their search continues.

Be Blessed!

 

 

 

 

The Default Position

09 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in Christianity, Faith, God, God's Plan, Heaven, Jesus

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Default positionThere is so much confusion in the world today, with Christianity right up there at the top of the list. Many people don’t realise they are in a certain position in life and that they need to make a choice to get out of it. I call it the ‘default position.’

In the day that Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, they inherited the knowledge and all that it had to offer, they lost the will to do the right thing and this became inherent in mankind.  They had the Knowledge but not through experience of that knowledge.  The curse of sin, not individual sin, but the sin of the world was that we, ‘man-kind’ gave away our birth-right and the right to all that God had for us.

Our birth-right was to have dominion over all the earth and the life in it from a position of holiness because we knew no sin.  Holiness was our default position.  When we gave up our birth-right to that holiness we also turned the natural order upside down and the world also ‘fell,’ it was no longer a perfect world.   An imperfect ruler cannot rule over a perfect world; one way or another they will corrupt it.  So our default position was now a sinful one in a fallen world and no longer holiness in a perfect world.  For this reason, Jesus had to come to give us our birth-right back.

Our peaceful, beautiful world became beset with one disaster after another. Jesus did not come to fix this world or to patch us up to continue living in it, He came to make all things new, a new people and a new world, as told to us in the following scripture.

Revelation 21:5
And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.  And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

In this world as we know it, there are only two forces, the force of ‘Good’ (God) and the force of ‘Evil’ (the Devil).  When Adam and Eve gave away our birth-right we did not have a choice in the matter, but now we do have a choice in our destiny and our final destination.  Jesus came to give us back our choice so now we have power over our own destiny and not someone else.  Now we have a choice and can choose to be with God or to be with the devil.  In choosing one the other will be rejected and most people find this easy enough to understand.

However, if you do not make a choice, you are in the default position which is sin, Satan’s domain and there is no middle ground and no grey areas.  If you do not chose God, by default you have chosen the devil, because you will remain in your sin and sin is of the devil.

The default position is inherited, we are all born in it so we must make a conscious decision to get out of it, this is the choice Jesus gave back to us.  As stated earlier, the human race came under it when mankind fell and it is the worse position we could be in which is why God gave us a way out.  Many however, do not realise that they are in the default position, so they do not think they have to make a choice to get out of it.  To get to heaven, you must choose Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, He is the only way, it has been ordained by God from the beginning of time.  Jesus confirms this in the following scripture when He is talking to Thomas one of His disciples:

John 14:6
Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me.

There is no other way to get to the Father or to get into heaven.  No matter how much we challenge this, criticise it, reason against it, it is what it is.  Any doctrine or teachings that sidestep Jesus are redundant.

Stay blessed!

Broken Wing!

08 Monday May 2017

Posted by in Faith, God, Inspirational Poetry, Seeking God

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Seek God Blog2

I came upon a bird, more beautiful and perfect than ever I’d seen
Who tried to fly away to pastures green
He fought and struggled and wore himself down
And wondered why he couldn’t get off the ground
He gazed at the other birds, and praised them for their beauty and grace
Then completely excluded himself from the race.

His mind confused he sought to hide
While searching for answers far and wide
I came upon him again one day
And felt his pain as he walked my way
“Little bird” I said, “why walk when you have wings?”
“Birds were made to fly and sing
It is a most unnatural thing you do
This is not the life for you.”

I sat him down and asked him to sing
He spoke and said, “I seem to fail at everything
I cannot fly, no matter how hard I try.”
“Little bird,” I said, “you are a clever thing
But even you cannot fly with a broken wing
You must seek and you will find
The answers await you, in front, not behind
So fly little bird fly.”

He continued to look downhearted
“My heart is so heavy,” he said, “I don’t know what to do.”
“To love someone else,” I replied, “you must first love you
Little bird with the broken wing
Divine loves come from within
Love God first, and all things will be revealed
Then slowly, but surely your wing will be healed.”

 

God is Here

02 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in Faith, God, Inspiration, Inspirational Poetry, Poem

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God is hereI love to write poetry so thought I’d share some with you. Hope it inspires and blesses you!

In the beginning we were created
Perfect in all our ways, innocent as new born babes
But deceit, deception and dangerous liaisons
Brought about such a cataclysmic reaction
One thing leading to another
Pain and estrangement from our Father
The world turned upside down
And into turmoil we were thrown.

Expelled in shame and disgrace
That was the punishment to the human race
Out of the presence of God our Father
Distance growing ever farther
The ‘knowledge’ of good and evil we desired
Became but a curse as it transpired
To be like God, in our vain pursuit
Snatched from His Glory and left destitute.

But His Love knew no bound
And Mercy in His sight we found
His one and only Son He sent
To tell us our sentence was spent
For He countered the attack on our race
Bringing us back under Grace
So now we have Hope in Christ
For no one else could pay that price.

Our aim, to be one again with God
But to be with our Father, we must go through His Son
The journey is long with challenges along the way
Now there is nothing for us to pay
Revealing all through His Holy Spirit
Protection from Satan who dropped us in it!
Many kick against the prick and jeer
But I’m so glad GOD that You are here.

Be Blessed!

Disbelief in the things of God

13 Thursday Apr 2017

Posted by in Faith, God, Jesus

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Dove

I understand when the world does not believe in the things of God, but I don’t understand when Christians, God’s babies… don’t truly believe in Him.

I have met many Christians from various denominations who categorically DO NOT believe in ‘tongues’ or the workings of the Holy Spirit: and I do not understand why! I do believe that there are many things in the Bible which are not easy to understand and without spending time with God studying the Bible, we will never truly understand them. This however, is not one of them. The New Testament teaches us about the gift of tongues and the gifts of the Spirit again and again. Christianity could only be birthed after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the arrival of the Holy Spirit in the earth. Jesus taught us about Him, why He had to come, what He would do, why the Apostles had to WAIT for Him to be empowered to go and preach and teach the Gospel. So, why do we have Christians saying that we are ‘pretending,’ or ‘acting,’ when we speak in tongues or ‘fall out in the Spirit?’  The following scriptures confirm the Holy Spirit and tongues are not a figment of our imagination.

Acts 1:8

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. 

Acts 2:1-4

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

 So, in just a few verses of scripture we have confirmation that the Holy Spirit exists; empowered the Apostles and that they spoke in tongues: yet many Christians say they don’t believe in tongues! Throughout the New Testament we have Jesus and later the Apostles constantly casting out demons who were possessing human beings. Yet many Christians don’t believe this happens either? Are we saying as Christians we do not believe in what Jesus did? Or what the Apostles did in His name? Or that when the power of God comes on us; feeble physical human beings; we will continue to stand in His presence?

There seems to be so many things that Christians don’t believe in which is clearly stated in the Bible as truth that I have to wonder how this is possible? If we have been taught incorrectly or have grown up believing in something, God has given us direct access to Him so we can ask Him questions and He will teach us so that we are not lead astray. 

Both the New and Old Testament write often of men falling to the ground when in the presence of God. Saul who later became Paul, fell to the ground when He was in the presence of Jesus.

Acts 9:3-4

And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

He wasn’t acting, the glory of Jesus was around him. He was not a frightened or feeble man, he was going around killing Christians. But now, he was in God’s presence. When the Holy Spirit begins to work with your spirit to clean you up from the world, to fill you to overflow, to bless you with gifts, you will find that there are times when you cannot stand in His presence, His power is so great!  Our body and spirit are not used to this pure, holy power now residing in us.  You will experience many things that your mind will try to comprehend.  There are many scriptures in the bible that tells us when the power of God came upon someone they could not stand, they lost all the strength in their bodies.  We often refer to this as ‘falling out in the spirit.’  This is not something to fear, it is a good thing and we are not ‘slain out’ or hurt, actually we are more refreshed and alive following the experience. 

Daniel the prophet was praying to God to know what the fate of the Hebrew people would be in the future and God sent an angel with the answer.  The angels escort the glory of God so they come with great power.  When he came to Daniel, Daniel could not stand in his presence.  The scripture below give us some idea of what the angels look like and we get an insight into how Daniel felt when he was ‘on his face’ in his presence.

Daniel 10:4-9

And on the twenty fourth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, which is Hiddekel; then I lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.  And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.  Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness (attractiveness, charm) was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.  Yet heard I the voice of his words: and when I heard the voice of his words, then was I in a deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground. 

Many Christians say we should never fall out when the power of the Holy Spirit comes upon us, I say you have not experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in your life.  The scripture above is very clear and there are more throughout the bible.  Daniel was in a ‘deep sleep on his face.’   

As Christians, how can we believe in some parts of the Bible and ignore, or deny others?

Recommended Reading
The Book of Acts

Trained by the BEST

06 Thursday Apr 2017

Posted by in Faith, God, Spiritual Training

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prisonWhen we are called into the Kingdom of God, we have to be trained for our life ahead. If we truly listen to God, allow ourselves to be guided by Him and allow His perfect will to flourish in our lives; this will involve a lifetime of training. Jesus was born into mankind as a little baby boy. He too had to be prepared for His ministry. He went through a great deal of training with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit before He was ready to start His ministry at the age of thirty years.  This training did not happen in the foreground under constant glare of the masses. He was trained in the background in a natural way.

Jesus had to understand humanity, our feelings and emotions; He had to understand how to be a human being, a man as well as being God! He was representing a race, so He had to learn their ways and how they functioned and He did this through real life experiences, He lived it. He wasn’t told about it, He didn’t read about it, He didn’t do a seminar on it and He didn’t just appear on earth at the age of thirty in all His glory, because of who He is; the Son of God. He completed His training and when He was fully prepared and ready, He started His ministry. He did not bypass God’s process, was not given a privileged VIP pass and He waited on the Lord.

But how do we know when God is training us? How do we know when we are ready to start our ministry? The greater the calling, the more work God has to do with us; the harder the training will be, so don’t try to rush Him because He will not give you tasks that you are not ready or prepared to do. Without God’s training you will fail. God will use seemingly natural and unexpected tools to train us, people in our work places, family and friends, life experiences, leaders and members of our church, strangers, bad decisions, injustices, your strengths and weaknesses, you name it and He will use it.  And He will use His Holy Spirit to perfect us and bring us out of this time of training. Remember the Apostles were ‘unlearned’ fishermen. They had not studied at Universities or the equivalent establishments of their time; not that there is anything wrong with studying at Universities or other educational establishments!

Unfortunately, all too often in the life of a Christian they refuse to seek the Lord and wait on Him, refuse to be trained by Him and have little trust and real faith in Him.  If we refuse to do these things, we may never truly find out what we have been called to do.  We make life difficult for ourselves and make it impossible for God to work with us.  God never changes and no amount of tantrums, cursing, anger or pleading will convince the Lord to switch up His plans for your life or for mankind.   

Many will know the story of Joseph and his coat of many colours, but this man of God was the personification of ‘waiting on the Lord and allowing God to train him.’  And the truth of it is that Joseph didn’t really get a chance to enjoy his beautiful coat which was the ‘straw that broke the camel’s back;’ with the breakdown in the relationship with his brothers.  His brothers were so jealous when Israel, their father gave Joseph the coat, that they plotted to kill him but later sold him into slavery. 

Joseph started having dreams when he was seventeen, and he was the favourite child of his father because he was born when his father was old.  Joseph was excited with this dreams and shared them with his brothers and father.  His brothers became jealous and envious of him and his father was even annoyed with him at one point.  So Joseph’s journey began, a young man born free and happy in a family that was greatly blessed by the Lord, wanted for nothing, was suddenly thrown into slavery for doing absolutely nothing.  Christians will always suffer injustice and often from the hands of their own!

Joseph means ‘May God Add,’ and God certainly added to Joseph’s life.  He was the eleventh son of Jacob, who later became Israel when God changed his name.  Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelites also known as Midianite traders as a slave by his brothers and was later bought by Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officers in Egypt.  The Lord was with Joseph and blessed him in such a way that he became greatly successful in everything he did.  Potiphar acknowledged that God was with Joseph and gave him control over all his household because he too prospered as a result of this.

But there was so much more that Joseph had to endure and I don’t imagine that he thought life could get any worse, but it did.  Yet Joseph did not turn against the Lord.  Potiphar’s wife set her sights on him because he was good looking in stature and features.  She tried to sleep with him and when he refused again and again, she lied to her husband claiming that he had tried to force himself on her, another injustice in the life of Joseph.  So the comfort he was used to in Potiphar’s house came to an abrupt end as this was not God’s perfect will for his life.  His journey was to take yet another turn.

Joseph was sent to prison and there again he was extremely prosperous and prospered so much so that the prison governor allowed him to do anything he wanted.  One lesson to learn here is that when God blesses you, no one can curse you; God will counteract the curses making them ineffective.  While you continue to prosper they will not. God will intervene when necessary.

In prison, Joseph’s gift of interpreting dreams was in demanded.  First he interpreted the dreams of two of Pharaoh’s officers who were thrown into prison and later summoned to Pharaoh himself to interpret dreams which were troubling to him.  None of the palace advisers, astronomers or wise men could interpret the dreams.  Through it all Joseph gave all the glory and praise to God declaring to Pharaoh that it is God who gives him the interpretations.

God used real life experiences to train Joseph over a period of thirteen years. Through his experiences, he learned:

  • Patience to endure through any situation 
  • Praising through the pain and disappointments – always giving God the praise
  • Great Faith in God
  • Forgiveness for his brothers which can only come from love
  • Using his God given gifts to benefit others
  • Dealing with injustices without becoming bitter or losing hope
  • Developed the characteristics of a true leader
  • Wait on the Lord until He brought him out of the situation

I could list so many more things that Joseph learned on this journey that set Him up for life in his ministry.

Joseph was described by Pharaoh as ‘discerning’ and ‘wise.’  So Pharaoh made him leader over the nation of Egypt second only to Pharaoh himself, and Pharaoh trusted him with ALL things.  So you see Joseph’s journey was about so much more than his coat of many colours. Joseph was seventeen when he was sold into slavery and thirty when he became ruler over Egypt, this was thirteen years.  He served eleven years as a slave and the final two years as a slave in prison.  Let us consider for a moment how many of us could have had the patience to wait on the Lord for this long, praising him through all the injustices, the hurt and the pain and never seeing a way out of our situation. 

The seventeen year old Joseph was not ready to walk fully in his calling until God trained him in a very natural way through his experiences in life and yet in a completely spiritual way with His blessings, intervention and protection.  When he came out of his situation he was ready, stronger than before, older and wiser, experienced in life and in God.  The greater the calling the tougher the training.  If he had not stayed the course, he would not have fulfilled his true destiny.

What would have happened in Joseph’s life if he had given up, felt sorry for himself and the injustices of his life, cursed his situation and even worse, cursed God?  Suppose he was determined to ask God for something else?  What if he prayed and prayed after the first two years begging God to deliver him from his situation and God took him out of it.  The answer to these questions and suppositions is simple, Joseph would never have fulfilled his destiny. He would not have completed his training to become a Godly ruler over Egypt. He could not have learned all the things he needed to learn at home tending his fathers’ sheep. Yet we know that David was trained in this way (tending his father’s sheep) to become a Shepherd over the children of Israel. David too was trained in a natural way by God; but that is discussion for another time.

Recommended Reading
You can read more about Joseph in Genesis 37-50, the first book of the Old Testament. Please don’t hesitate to share and leave me comments on how you feel your spiritual training is going.