PUSH BUTTONS
The Path of Glory
Joseph was a child loved by his father who gave him a coat of many colours. He was that guy whose father came back from work and after talking to everyone generally, would call Joseph aside to give him special gifts and then instead of keeping mum about it, Joseph would run outside with the gift and taunt his brothers with it. He was the privileged one, and he wasn’t going to be calm about it.
One would expect that that level of exposure would be sufficient to qualify him as a prime minister. However, in God’s plan that stature wasn’t sufficient to support the weight of Joseph’s destiny. Joseph was destined to save the children of Israel but his path to prime minister was laced with jealousy, betrayal, blackmail, and ingratitude. On the external, it appeared that the environment was crafting different ways to kill and defeat him, but in God’s plan, those same attempts provided a launchpad for God to make him into a man who would save a generation and progress a prophecy.
Psalms 105 tells us the role of Joseph in the scheme of things. He was a template that God wanted the children of Israel to operationalize. Like Joseph, they too were “bene-babies”. In a time of global recession, when the rest of the world was scampering for survival, God created a favour protocol in the person of Joseph that preserved the children of Israel. As foreigners, they got the best of the land; constant light, prime real estate at the time, and I’m sure access into the political circles and arena because they had a man on the inside, who was only second in command by title. Their guy was everyone’s boss. Like Joseph, they were the favoured, and they had too much privilege. God had prepared a promised land for them but in God’s eyes, He wanted them to step into the promised land tried and tested.
When we consider the story of the children of Israel vs the story of Joseph, a few things come to light:
- You are a factor in your journey. For example, what annoyed Joseph’s brothers was probably how he taunted them daily. You are a factor in your growth process. How you interact and respond determines how long your growth process will take.
- As Joseph navigated his journey, he was careful to purge himself of things not consistent with God i.e. pride, a sense of haste, unforgiveness, revenge, and a sense of entitlement. He needed to displace them so he could access his heights in God. However, the children of Israel couldn’t. If you don’t displace it, it will dispose and depose you in the agenda of God and design of God for your destiny.
- You can’t step into the promised land with mixed sound. The older generation of the children of Israel wanted to enter into the promised land with an old wineskin — complaints, and a faulty mix of Christianity and worldliness.
- Joseph adopted selective remembrance. Two things happened in Joseph’s past. All of the sleight of hand I mentioned, but then in the same past, was the vision of the future that God gave to him. Knowing that all of these things were used by God to exalt him to save his nation, he only chose to focus on the dream and forget the sleight.
What you choose to remember reinforces either faulty dysfunctions in your life or launches you into the picture God showed you. Choosing to forget is not denial that those events happened, it is removing the power of those events to determine the future in front of you. You have the power of remembrance. Take away the shame, allow yourself a new lease of life.
Your age or your experience is not an exclusion criterion in your emergence in the scheme of things. Those events didn’t happen to you to disqualify you but actually to prepare you. The enemy intends to make you think your story is your disqualifier but if you look at it from a redemptive lens, you’ll see it as a preparatory pathway for the glorious destiny He has designed for you and the emancipation of others
So if we bring this story home, you are the one He has loved with an everlasting love, His royal priesthood, His holy nation, the one He has called from darkness into His own marvellous light to show forth His glory. But then you look at your current social context; you have been receiving a lot of nos from job applications, you have been betrayed severally by those close to you, you have been walking in a dark tunnel for too long and it looks like you haven’t seen the light yet and you’re about to throw in the towel. If you were being candid, you may want to hastily judge that this year you have received a lot of beating.
I would like to assure and encourage you that this is only a passing phase, glory lies ahead of you. Don’t be like Issachar who because he got temporary respite between two burdens bowed his shoulder and became a band of slaves. Refuse to cower, keep your confession which is what God has spoken concerning you, and refuse to allow bitterness or envy. Hope against hope and you will soon see the salvation of God with you.
Have a blessed week.
For His Glory and Renown,
Olayinka Adebayo
IG/X (Twitter): @Layinkadebayo
Push Buttons is a weekly devotional of The Powerpoint Tribe.
