Script and Process 2 - Episode 4 (Joseph’s Pattern)

In my first 2 blogs I started off by highlighting the dream Joseph had about his grand future and how 17years later, what began with a divine revelation of his life script, came to pass to the finest detail! God will always begin by revealing to His people the end of His plan from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10) and the details are worked out along the way when faith and obedience are applied to the revealed script. Those who refuse to move with the initial impartation of the script of heaven but would rather linger for the specificity will lose out on the adventurous faith journey, witnessing the power of God altering the natural elements, being appropriated for more, and living out a prolific kingdom life. These folks will eventually manufacture their own script and mediocre, average living would be their portion for life. 

We are not supposed to know everything about the script from the onset. God will give us a glimpse of it from the start and invite us on a faith walk, trusting entirely on Him to bring it about. Remember that God’s script for us will far exceed our comprehension and expectation. It has to be far beyond us so that we resolutely cling to Him for its outworking and give Him the glory for its accomplishment!  But those who are crafting miniscule dreams enough for their own ability to fulfil are not dreaming God’s dream. God’s script always has national and global significance attached to it, whether we are singularly changing the world or affecting and influencing city shakers and world changers. Secular folks like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Richard Branson exude more of the God kind of dream than many Christians today. The reason is because most Christians are in the church bound up by parochial thinking and fearfulness. Sometimes I wonder why they even entered into a covenant relationship with God Almighty the Creator of all things, if they are not willing to believe the impossible and earth shattering power of God?

In this blog, let us look at constant factors that accompanied Joseph’s pursuit of the dream and its dramatic culmination and epic ending!

Though Joseph went through a real natural process necessary for the fulfilment of the dream (pit, slavery, false allegations and accusations, prison), there were also constant ethical values and character traits that were indispensable for his whole journey. The 21^st century Christians must embrace these divine commodities in order to finish our journey(s) also.

1. Gratefulness—in spite of the gruelling and challenging nature of the process, Joseph maintained a high level of gratitude for the multifaceted complex nature of the journey, and especially for the people involved. His heart did not get bitter but better with every scene of the script and he possessed a high tolerance level for the things that stretched and broke him in the journey far above many in the church today. This is the internal capacity necessary for our survival and longevity in the kingdom. It’s the ability to readily forgive and forget and reach forth to apprehend that which Christ has apprehended for us (Philippians 3:12). It’s not getting personal with the process and people within but understanding its facilitative purpose to direct us to where we should go. Many get stuck on this level because they magnify the ‘affects’ rather than the ‘purpose’, it’s ‘pain’ rather than its ‘benefits’. We must not get personal with the process nor amplify its impact but flow with it regardless of its unpleasant nature and the process will work for us and not against us. For gratitude is the attitude that numbs the sting of the process and quickens our arrival at our next pit stop! God is looking for people that rejoice always in the good, bad and the ugly of the journey for it is the sustainable juice of the kingdom.

The following statement reveals the enlarged capacity of Joseph’s heart through the process and his gratefulness in all that he had been through when he revealed himself as the prince of Egypt’s to his brothers who were once bent on killing him...

“And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance” – Genesis 45:7

Joseph is now seeing his brothers bowing to him as in the dream and rather than demanding revenge for the wrongs done unto him, he uttered God’s wisdom and benevolence in the whole ordeal.

2. Forgiving —when Joseph revealed himself to his brothers as the overseer of all the wealth of Egypt, you could probably have heard a pin drop as the reality of what they had done to Joseph dawned on them. They must have felt the sentence of death at Joseph’s revelation because at their last encounter, they had planned to kill him. Again Joseph knew better and had seen the prophetic manifestation of his dream that though his brother’s intention was to harm him, God used it to move him forward in His purpose. Joseph played the forgiving card! 

“Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Please come near to me’, so they came near. Then he said, ‘I am Joseph your brother whom you sold into Egypt. But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life” 
- Genesis 45:4-5 NKJV

Urging his brothers not to be grieved nor be angry with what they had done to him means Joseph had forgiven all grievances and evil intent against him. Embracing forgiveness in the trailing moments of our process will push us further into the fulfilment of our script swiftly. This is the quintessential quality God looks for when we are tested beyond our ability, because it is needed for the administration of His grace in the kingdom. Those who master forgiveness especially toward the most horrendous people in their lives are called overcomers and God will entrust them with rulership authority over multiple spheres in His kingdom.

Jesus like Joseph also experienced the worse betrayal in his life when His very own (the Jews) sentenced Him to death on the cross. In the midst of His agony and pain on the cross, moments before He died, He uttered something so astounding that should have staggered the imagination of those who were witnessing His death and even for Christians today:

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do”
–Luke 23:34 NKJV

It is easy to forgive when all is well around us; but to forgive in the midst of when death is strangulating us administered by people you loved and who are screaming for your blood, requires a higher dimension of God in us. Joseph and Jesus knew the power of forgiveness and its integral part in manifesting God’s purpose in their lives. Can 21^st century believers have the same gutsy attitude and throw off their self pity parties, fluffy and shallow spirituality, murmuring and moaning over minor issues – and carry their cross all the way to Calvary hill so that others might live? The church of Jesus today is full of soft-bodied amoeba Christians that complain, moan and groan about insignificant things, blaming and accusing everyone for their predicaments rather than making a heap of all these issues, standing on top of it and plunge  deeper into the purposes of God!

3. Hope and Trust—hope and trust in God is a must ingredient because of the daunting and colossal nature of His plan for us. God always desires to do BIG things through us although He may start off small like the size of a mustard seed. There is always excitement and ecstasy when we receive His prophetic declaration for our lives, but sooner or later, the rubber will meet the road and that’s when our journey gets roughed up, challenged, rocky and unpleasant. This is where many hearts fail the litmus test of faith and trust, and even the hopes of many are dashed! Hope and trust are much needed when the journey becomes blurry, uncertain, confused and makes no sense, because it certainly will. Christians need to be aware of this and use the torchlight of hope and trust as their navigational tool in such perilous times. In aviation, sometimes pilots navigate toward their destination using visible landmarks and natural contours that the natural eyes can see, but when clouds, storms, thunder, lightning, heavy rain and turbulence affect their visibility, they suspend the natural sight and employ the plane’s electronic apparatus. This is the equivalent of hope and trust to guide us in God when there is so much natural changeability and chaos.  

Reading through the life of Joseph, hope and trust were clearly evident in his pursuit of God’s script. The bible said that the word of God (script container) tested him but his heart failed him not.

“He set a man before them Joseph—who was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with fetters, he was laid in irons. Until the time that his word comes to pass, the word of the Lord tested him”
– Psalms 105:17-19 NKJV

The trials and tribulations in God’s process are divinely designated to grow and build our hope and trust muscles so that we can reach a point of walking entirely by faith and not circumstantially. Christians are called to not walk by sight but by faith, and as long as sight dominates our navigational mechanisms in God, storms will continue until we learn to lean exclusively on the apparatus of the Spirit such as hope and faith. 

  “For we walk by faith, not by sight” – 2 Corinthians 5:7 NKJV

           

4. Fear of God—what kept Joseph from yielding and succumbing to the various temptations in the process was the fear of God. Many claim to love God but still compromise their Christian position at the drop of a hat.  But it is the fear element of love that keeps us from sinning against God, others and ourselves.

Love at times can be an exhilarating sensation that makes us feel good in God, but the fear of God will move us beyond sensationalism to a deep heart commitment that causes us not to hurt God by our sins. This is the fear that Joseph possessed and it’s much needed when we are squeezed to a corner and all our natural support systems are unavailable. Portiphar’s wife picked the right moment to make her advances towards Joseph when no one was in the house. Though Joseph’s back was against the wall, the bible said that the fear of God busted Joseph out of this situation!

“And it came to pass after these things that his master’s wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said ‘Lie with me’.....But he refused and said to his master’s wife....how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”  - Genesis 39:7-9 NKJV

Many Christians when in a tight spot similar to Joseph, would probably welcome this sexual or pleasurable opportunity for they think that grace is sufficient to bail them out afterwards. Sin now and repent later is the common language of the church today and no wonder many potential Josephs are falling by the wayside. They love God but have no clue of the reverential fear of God that can keep them from sinning.

“Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil” –Proverbs 3:7 KJV

Such Christians would never advance far enough in the pursuit of their divine script, because their low tolerance to temptation is galvanising compromise, which is the constituent for average living and spiritual abortion in God.

May the fear of God fall on the church again so that we can escape the fires of temptation unscathed and unburned!

5. Excellent Spirit—one area that we must pay special attention to in the midst of our process, even in the most challenging times, is faithfully executing our responsibilities, whether small or big, to the highest degree of brilliance and distinction! This was an obvious characteristic of Joseph’s life. 

In Potiphar’s house, he was given rulership over the entire estate because he did everything exceptionally well.  And in prison, he continued to prove himself trustworthy with the duty given to him, that the prison keeper eventually put all the prisoners under his care. The church today is in dire need of this characteristic which must be proven in our private lives before we are given public exposure. Many put on the spirit of excellence when the spotlight is on them and they are under the scrutiny of others.  But behind closed doors they are shoddy and sloppy as a hog wallowing in the mud of recklessness. 

The spirit of excellence is what heaven looks for during our process, because our faithfulness even in the little, sets the platform for our promotion to the much bigger things of God.  When we are in the lowest ebb of our process, we must continue to perform diligently what God requires because heaven seeks faithfulness and excellence, for it is the key to opening the door to the next phase of our destiny.

6. Commitment to the End—a laser- guided missile that locks onto its target first before it is released, will guarantee a bull’s eye all the time. This will ensure to the pilot that the missile will hit and destroy its targets, even the moving ones without fail. Our commitment to the fulfilment of God’s script works the same way. Many times the script will elude us like a moving target. And just when we think we have all things figured out, unexpected intrusions and interruptions strike and throw many into ever ending disorientation, confusion and frustration. Such moments can bring doubt, defeat and thoughts of quitting the mission. However, if we have a laser-guided commitment to our goal of fully manifesting our script, then all contradiction and incongruity to the purpose of God will not dampen the commitment of our spirit to the script. Our Spirit guided spirit has been locked in to the target and no matter how long and challenging the opposition may be, we will smash our target with   bulls-eye accuracy and see the explosion of God’s purpose through us globally!

Again, the life of Joseph exemplified this principle clearly and we would do well to emulate this high level of commitment strongly in the 21^st century.

7. God with Us—the most striking feature in the life of Joseph that constantly manifested through his highs and lows was—God was with him. This is truly amazing! I believe that faithfulness to our life script and endurance will guarantee the constant companionship of God throughout our voyage. We don’t have to feel God to know He is there.  He is always there as long as we stay true to the plan. Sometimes we may feel Him and sometimes we might not, but the eyes of faith will comfort us in knowing God is always with those who stick to the process and are determined in their hearts to fully execute His plan on earth. However, if we abandon His plan, knowingly or not, we are on our own and God is not obligated to follow or support us in our selfish pursuits. His love for all Christians will remain the same but the manifestation of His presence and support hinges on our faithfulness to His will.

“The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian”  - Genesis 39:2 NKJV

“Then Joseph’s master took him and him in the prison....but the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy...” – Genesis 39:20-21 NKJV

So what shall we do to attract God’s presence all the days of our lives? Stick to the script and endure its process and God will always be with us until the end!

Until next time...   Join the OG Revolution       

Script and Process - Joseph's pattern

 The life of Joseph exemplified living a scripted life to the highest degree. Joseph was granted the opportunity to glimpse at his divine script through a dream. And in keeping with His definitive pattern of revealing His plans and purposes to man, God showed Joseph the end of his script from the very beginning, but was silent on the strategy, plans of execution and its ultimate natural actualization.  Joseph deduced from the dream that one day his brothers and mother and father would bow to him but was absolutely clueless on how it would all come about!    

“Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, ‘listen to this dream I had: we were binding sheaves of corn out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it...then he had another dream, and told it to his brothers. ‘Listen he said, I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing to me” –Genesis 37:5-9 NIV

A summation of Joseph’s entire life script was imparted in a moment through the dream. There was great exhilaration and joy  unleashed as he regurgitated the dream to his family, but unbeknown to Joseph, even  though heaven may have revealed the finished plan for his life,   his part in performing and enduring the natural process of manifesting the script on earth was just beginning!  There are four major natural processes that Joseph went through that qualified him for the total manifestation of God’s intention, which is a typical pattern for anyone who strongly desires to live a scripted life like Joseph!       

1.     The Pit

Straight after the high-spirited and animated proclamation of the dream to his family, Joseph now found himself in the bottom of a pit because of the murderous conspiracy his brothers hatched due to envy and jealousy over the young dreamer. The pit typified a season of darkness, emptiness, lack of heaven’s dew (water), confusion and disorientation that many Christians encounter immediately after their most profound encounters with God.  Many would anticipate quitting and still a large number would abandon their pursuit of God altogether because of the vast spiritual, emotional and natural contradictions that take place between the exuberant experience of the dream and the pit. One moment they are on cloud nine telling everyone about what God has promised them.  The next, they are in a pit, dark and empty without water! We need to learn from Joseph that the pit is a normal part of our process. We are not to make permanent dwellings out of our pit moments but see it merely as a means to a greater end, a stepping stone into our glorious future!

“And they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty and there was no water” –Genesis 47:24 NKJV

2.     Sold as a Slave  

From the pit God permitted the next scene of Joseph’s script to come into play by allowing him to be sold as a slave to the Ishmaelites . 

“The Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt”

–Genesis 37:28 NKJV

But before this slave trade deal, his brothers had purposed in their hearts to kill Joseph (Genesis 37:20) but Rueben intervened! An important note to remember is; death cannot touch you no matter how near it may come and how deadly the intention may be if you are in the centre God’s plan. Even in your most confused state in His will, God will protect you from the fowler’s snares!  

So what does being sold as a slave mean? For Joseph it would have been the worst moment of betrayal, rejection and abandonment especially when it was your own relatives trading you for money to foreigners! The Ishmaelites symbolize one of the archenemies of Israel and Joseph was played into their hands by his brothers. But even his foe to whom he was sold, was instrumental in bringing Joseph closer to the place where the dream would fully materialize—Egypt! 

Those who are hungry for the scripted life must not fret when they fall into betrayal, rejection and subjection to the most horrendous accusation by those who are supposedly your trusted kin and allies. These things must come but it’s all part of the sequential process to make us ready for the next phase. And the very evil intent for our harm will only plunge us a step closer to our destiny. Even Jesus was rejected, crucified and left for dead but the enemy’s malicious and wicked plan only propelled Christ to the fulfilment of His earthly mission--purchasing salvation for the entire world through His death.  If we stick to our heavenly script at all times, then this irrefutable law will be true: whatever the enemy intended for evil, God will always turn it around for our good!

3.     False Allegation

The next predicament Joseph found himself in was that he was wrongly accused of rape by Portiphar’s  wife because of her overflowing  frustration at Joseph’s constant rebuttal of her sexual advances. Joseph was not only faithful in all Potiphar’s house but he was also very handsome, a trait Potiphar’s wife found hard to ignore (Genesis 39:6).

But before this allegation, God had given much favour to Joseph that Potiphar made him the overseer of all that belonged to him because he realised that God was with him and made everything prosper in his hands (Genesis 39:3). As if this honour was not enough for Joseph, Portiphar’s wife decided that she should also be within Joseph’s overseeing jurisdiction by attempting viciously to have Joseph lie with her. This evil plot diametrically opposed Joseph’s values and principles and the fear of God caused him to flee the scene every time sexual moves were directed towards him. Eventually Portiphar’s  wife reached the breaking point and fraudulently accused Joseph of sexual harassment. This again landed Joseph in prison but it was really the playing out of the next scene of his script that eventually catapulted him before Pharaoh’s throne! 

Many in God go through seasons of vile and despicable allegations but we must bear in mind that all this comes with the territory! Sometimes it’s hard to comprehend why allegations and false charges are hurled against us especially when everything seems to be going well and God is prospering all things in our hands like Joseph. But be assured saints that Satan vehemently contests our success in God and he will devise plans for your destruction naturally. But the good news is, Satan’s destructive strategy will be used by God to reposition you for your greatest promotion ever! This fool (Satan) and his cohorts (Portiphar’s wife’s club) have no clue that God will use their evil scheme to do His bidding and to thrust those who are living to His script deeper and higher in His purposes. From prison, Joseph was abruptly promoted into the third highest position in Egypt as prime minister. The unrelenting pursuit of Potiphar’s wife only transition Joseph to place of swift and total promotion! This will also be true for us who are pursuing ‘scripted living’!

4.     Prison                 

We now know that prison turned out in Joseph’s favour but nevertheless, we must not trivialise the internal turmoil and confusion he encountered when he was suddenly taken from a place of great favour, prestige and awesome responsibility to the confinement of  prison walls. I am sure that Joseph, being human, had petitioned God about this case and desired to be vindicated by striking down the house of Potiphar with righteous judgment! Sound familiar? 

Well, if any allegations landed us in a confined, restricted and limited space and resources but deep down in our hearts we knew we were innocent of all charges and had done no wrong? Then be of good courage and know that as night will certainly turn into day, God will move you from this predicament surely and hastily into the next phase of your heavenly assignment. The scriptures said that though Joseph was in prison, God was with him and granted him so much favour that not long after his prison induction, Joseph was running the whole prison operation (Genesis 39:21-23)! Sometimes God allows His people to be squeezed so that what’s not necessary for the next phase, including our successes, be removed for the grand stuff ahead. We may not readily accept this type of purging but the branch that beareth fruits will be pruned for more fruits (John 15:2)! 

In conclusion, it is crucial to know that our heavenly script has natural processes attached to it which are necessary for its fulfilment. If we only desire the script and not the process, then that script will never materialise no matter how much you clearly articulate and passionately believe in it. Script and process go hand in hand just like an architectural plan of a house and its building works. Remember, out working the script will not be cruisey nor easy sailing for it has its humps and bumps along the way.  But the scriptwriter, producer and director of your script (the Trinity) will help you make it happen!

Our primary role in this is to stay faithful to the script and endure the process and God will bring it all together at the end.

Till next time.... 

        

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