Joseph: Tested By The Vision

“Until what he had said came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.”—Psalm 105:19 ESV   

There is a pattern in the Bible that I have noticed. I call it “Promise, Delay, and Fulfillment.” It goes like this: God makes a promise, but it does not come to pass immediately. There is a delay between the promise and the fulfillment. The delay is always longer than people expect it to be. In fact, there is usually a delay so long that the person waiting on the promise to be fulfilled has plenty of time to fall into unbelief and question whether it’s going to happen, or to try to manipulate the situation and make it happen themselves, or to give up hope that it will ever happen. Meanwhile, something is being formed within that person. What is being formed? If you could sum it up in one word it would be this: character. When you know the ways of the Lord, you know that this is the way God does things. From the Bible and from personal experience, people who have walked with God are familiar with this unfolding of events — promise, delay, and fulfillment. God uses the delay time to work his process of sanctification, maturity, and spiritual growth in our lives.

Joseph had a dream of being exalted when he was young. The funny thing about this dream is that it was actually going to happen — although it would be God who exalted Joseph, not Joseph who exalted himself. And the Joseph that was finally raised to power in the end was a winner! He started his life as a spoiled, favored child, which actually got him betrayed by his brothers. He ended life as a humble, patient, forgiving, accepting, trusting man of God. From the pit to the prison to the palace, Joseph was on his way to his God-given dream, by way of a God-given delay, which resulted in a God-given devotion to his own character. He was being tested the whole time (Psalm 105:19). The word that God gives you will test you. Trust him as he makes you into the person who can handle the fulfillment of the promise.

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This blog is an excerpt from Robert Presson’s devotional book, “People Of His Presence,” available on Amazon: Click here to purchase on Amazon.  Alternatively, the book is available for free when you give a donation of any amount to City Revival Ministries at cityrevivalnola.com/give. Please indicate that you would like the book when you give.