Brown's Daily Word 1-17-08

Good Morning,
It has been said that we dream every night – we just don’t always remember dreaming. Dreams can be a powerful thing. Many people have made great discoveries in their dreams; Joseph was such a person. He was a shepherd turned slave turned convict turned ruler. Joseph’s story can be divided up into 3 parts: His 17 years at home, his years of captivity in Egypt, and his years of ruling in Egypt. It is a fascinating and intricate story that goes from Genesis 37 to Genesis 46, (5) "And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. (6) And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: (7) for, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves came round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. "
Joseph gave them more reason to hate him. The brothers had enough and they sought to rid themselves of this brother they had become extremely jealous of. They were going to kill him but, instead they sold him as a slave. Joseph was taken to Egypt, while the brothers went home to lie about Joseph’s ‘disappearance.’
Joseph then began a life in Egypt, first as a household servant, where he performed his duties so well that he rose to the top of the servant hierarchy, but he was sexually harassed and then wrongly accused of rape by his master’s wife which causes him to be unjustly thrown into prison.
Then, in prison, God was with him and he also flourished amazingly until he practically ran the prison. Then he met two of Pharaoh’s, servants, the cupbearer and the chief baker, both of whom had dreams and which they shared with Joseph. He correctly interpreted both dreams and asked to be remembered by the men when they were released back to the King. But he was forgotten for two years, until Pharaoh had a couple of dreams that no one could interpret.
At that time the cupbearer remembered Joseph, and Joseph was brought before Pharaoh, where he correctly interpreted Pharaoh's dreams as a forewarning about a coming famine and the need to stockpile food before the famine hit. Joseph became Pharaoh’s number two man in the entire nation and the head of the national Egyptian food bank. Then, when the famine hit,7 years later, Joseph found himself face to face with his brothers, over whom he then had the power to provide food (or not), and therefore he held power of life or death over them. He and his brothers were reconciled and his family was spared starvation.
This was the time in which Joseph’s dreams came true and where God’s purpose for his life came to fruition. It took many years and many trials and tribulations. Joseph’s dreams did not JUST come true; they come true through much persistence. Suffering, faith and tremendous determination and great righteousness and through the supernatural intervention of God.
I think that is the way God-given dreams come true – not instantaneously – not like the winning of the lottery – but there is refining, preparation, submitting, and transformation that precedes it.
Joseph’s dreams shaped him and propelled him. Dreams have a way of adding a special dimension to our lives. We eat, we drink, we work, we play, we sleep. The answer to that fundamental question, “is this all there is?” is NO! God often uses dreams to give us a picture of something we are unable to see, a picture of how God sees us and where God sees us . And so dreams can be like a beautiful prophetic picture that speaks to us from the future in the past and from the past about the future.
In Jesus,
Brown