GOD’S ADVANCE AGENT: Will Joseph’s Story Be Yours?
Like Joseph, God’s Advance Agent will be:
1. MISUNDERSTOOD by those who have no vision (Joseph’s family didn’t understand his dreams, and yours probably won’t, either.) Genesis 37:5-11
2. REJECTED by those whom he will ultimately save. (His brothers, who hated their father’s favourite son; your family and friends, who’ll question why you are so so favoured.) Genesis 37:18-28
3. TESTED by circumstances that seem to conflict with God’s promise. (In his case: envy, false accusation, imprisonment; in your case: time, people, criticism, shortage of money.) Genesis 39:7-20
4. OVERLOOKED by those who are where they are because of his ministry. (The exonerated butler, who forgot that Joseph’s dream set him free; those who don’t or won’t remember that God used you to set them on the road to success). Genesis 40:1-23
5. ELEVATED when the word that tests him finally lifts him. (From a pit and a prison to a palace; from rejection and obscurity to a recognized ministry.) Genesis 41:1-45; Psalm 105:17-21
6. MERCIFUL because of godly insight. (Joseph saw that God had used his brothers’ evil for his and his family’s ultimate good. You too will come to see that it was the Lord, and not “the devil that did it.”) Genesis 45:1-24; 50:15-20
7. LIBERAL in dispensing the things entrusted to him (For Joseph, the grain he controlled as Prime Minister of Egypt; in your case, the authority, wealth and assets God will give you for the benefit of His people.) Genesis 47:1-12
Some will say that you were a visionary, a dreamer, “a man before your time”; but you will know that, by the grace of God, you were simply a man before their time.