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Devotions > Joseph and Time


1 May 2011

 

Is time running out?   Every day we get a bit closer to the end.   When will the end come?  How far away is it?   We do not know the day or the hour.   Everything is in God’s time.

Joseph is a good study in timing.    When he was seventeen God gave him a dream.   Thirteen or fourteen years later his dream came to pass.   In the Blackaby Study Bible there is a note regarding Joseph’s dream:  Whenever God gives you a dream, there will be those who seek to rob you of it.  At times your God-given dream may seem impossible, yet what God initiates He completes. (p.47)

Most of the ensuing thirteen years or so Joseph spent as either a household slave or in prison.    These were actually key leadership development years and assignments from the hand of God.   From the time Joseph interpreted the dream of the chief butler it was two years before he was summoned before Pharaoh.    God had used him, given him insight in the interpretation of the chief butler’s dream, and as soon as this dream was fulfilled as Joseph had predicted, the chief butler forgot quickly and completely about Joseph.

Of course this forgetfulness was not entirely the fault of the chief butler, but more precisely the forecasting of the plan of God for the fulfillment of Joseph’s character development.   Great victories are wonderful to experience, but not worth a great deal for the enlargement of character.    It was during this time in prison God completed His work in the character and heart of Joseph.

Reflecting on this two year time from the Butler’s dream to Pharaoh’s the Blackaby Study Bible notes:  We can overestimate our capacity to serve God.  We can also misjudge the timing of our service, but God’s timing is always perfect.  Be willing to wait on God until He has prepared you for His purposes. (p.51)

Some of you have been praying for revival to come to this land for years.  As each year goes by I have the clear sense that we are getting closer to the day when revival will be sent down from on High by the God of all heaven and earth.   The day and the hour are in His hands.  Yet, He was very clear about what we should be about until that day.   He has not put most of us in prison as He did Joseph.  He has given us these instructions:   Humble yourselves.   Pray.   Seek My face.   Turn from your wicked ways.   

Are these instructions for His benefit or ours?    Yes, they are primarily for our preparation.   Are you actively preparing yourself for revival?   God used Joseph to save an entire Nation from destruction.  Joseph was not passive; he passionately maintained an intimate relationship with God regardless of what was going on around him.   God wants to use each of us in His revival work: the saving this Nation.   Someone powerful wants to destroy, and he is lying and stealing all he can.  

Soldier, will you fight for this land on your knees?   Will you actively and intentionally humble yourself?

Will you seriously and intently seek His face?     Will you repent from your sin?   Will you regularly pray for Him to send revival?     If not you, who?    If not now, when?

  

Jeff Williams