Joseph had a Dream

By: Aimee Colbert

When I began earnestly seeking out a place in ministry it had to be one of the worst experiences of my life. One thing I learned much to my surprise is that becoming a minister and fulfilling the call of God is very discouraging. My husband and were young and wanting to fully embrace an anointing we both believed we had for teaching teens. The hard part was convincing others. We had done some teaching and coordinating in the past and were trying to find a place in a new church. We were very open to suggestions and loved the advice of seasoned ministers so we were always seeking more and more guidance. Much to our dismay we found out that there were a lot of people who didn’t see it our way.

Joseph, 17, was the youngest of his father Jacob also known as Israel. Jacobs’s job was to report the business of the sheep tending to his father. At seventeen years old you can imagine with a family full of brothers what kind of a life Joseph had. But on top of that his father made it known that Joseph was his favorite. This didn’t make his brothers so happy. But never the less Joseph was Israel’s favorite. So much so that he had a him a beautiful coat made. After that Joseph began to dream.

It became every frustrating after sometime. It seemed like no one would give us a chance and I just couldn't understand why. Now at our church, we have an emphasis on excellence and when you walk in, excellence is all that you see. We wanted people to take us seriously but there was something that got in our way but it wasn't too long before we knew. It was our clothes.

In order to become the person that you want to be you have to see yourself as that person. The easiest way to visualize mentally is to visualize naturally. If you dress in a big holey t-shirt every day with the same old stained pair of jeans you will start to feel the way that you look because that is your picture of you. But if you decide to dress up more often during the week you will find yourself feeling more confident and more aware of your own needs and desires. There hasn't been a study on this that I know of but we've seen it happen so that's exactly what we decided to do. We threw out or casual and young looking clothes and traded them for suits. Most people believe that you have to work from the inside out. But we worked the outside in and the suits we wore started to be worn on the inside. We started to think more professionally, speak more intelligently and walk more confidently. It’s something about what you wear. Besides the fact that it’s the way others judge you. What you wear changes you. Some clothes you wear can make a difference in your frame of mind.

Now if you know the story of Joseph the most evident thing is that he was despised because of his dreams but theres much more to the story than that. Joseph sought out his brothers to tell them his first dream. He was happy about it and even though he knew that his brothers didn't like him he wanted to tell them anyway because he wanted them to be happy with him. They were still family you know. But they didn't want to hear it and the Bible says they hated him. People usually when they hear this story think that it's odd and extreme. But, if they understood what Joseph was telling his brothers and understood the time and culture it is a common response. You see Joseph, outside of being his daddy's baby, was a nobody. And the dreams that he had basically are interpretted as he would rule over his entire family. He had no birth right or blessing to have that position. Position was very important in the family circle at that time so to them it was very offensive.

All of a sudden there was a break through. We got a spot in teaching the youth twice a month and things were going great. With that victory you'd probably think that would be satisfying. Nope. I wanted to go even further and study Christian Counseling. I had the full support of my husband. besides I had the dream of counseling for years and secretly learned as much as I could. I enrolled in school and felt great except, nobody else understood why I would do such a thing. It seemed the more I talked about it, the more people discouraged me and told me it wasn't a good idea. All I wanted was the support of my family and friends but they couldn't imagine how I could counsel anyone being so young and not having a degree. There were a few here and there that cheered me on and that was all I needed. I never was the type to follow the majority anyway.

Joseph had another dream. Why he thought it was a good idea to tell his brothers again I don't know. Since they were just about sick of him, when they heard the second dream they hated him more. Obviously, he wasn't happy with his brothers’ response so he went to the one who loved him the most…his father. But what do you know, his father rebuked him. Now Joseph is not only hated by his brothers but also rebuked by his loving father Israel. It looked like to him his special dreams were getting him into a lot of trouble but it was about to get even worst.

I was like an unquenchable fire. I had all of these goals and dreams just beaming inside of me but nobody cared. They thought it was stupid, impossible or even just a fleeting feeling but I knew that wasn’t true. I was so desperate to follow my call to full time ministry but I had another problem. No minister is a minister if they aren’t ordained right? And ordaining a woman? Please. Now I had a new search, to be ordained. What a ride. Peoples who advice I admired were turning against me and my goals. All of my Pastor friends who were able to do ordainments said they couldn’t help me. I was alone. Completely alone. Left there in a ditch with all of my dreams to go to waste.

Israel sent Joseph to see about his brothers in the field and when he found them they had already had a plot to kill him. But his brother Rueben the eldest and the one with the most influence decided that they shouldn't kill him because even though they hated him, he still was their little brother. So instead they threw him into a cistern. The plan was to leave him there and report to Israel that a ferocious beast had come along and killed Joseph, but how could they prove it? It was the jacket. That beautiful jacket of his. The one that made Joseph feel like he was the man with the plan. They stripped him of it and tore it to shredds. They put goats blood on it to be more convincing and decided that was the end of Joseph and all of his silly dreams. Or was it?

You see everyone has a role to play in your life. Your friends encourage you. Your mate supports you. Your mentors guide you but when it comes to fullfilling your assignment from God on the earth, that sort of shifts things. Usually when you are having a tough time or celebrating your family is there to back you up. But if you ever pursued a dream. I mean a dream not a career or education. I mean the vision in your mind of what could be. Your families role is to remind you of where you come from and who you really are if you get my drift. Your mentors want to see you succeed. Your enemies want to see you destroyed and your family wants to see you humbled. It's that simple.

I started to think that I'd never get a chance to help people. I thought I'd never see my dreams fullfilled. So I let them all go. I stopped planning. I stopped asking and I stopped wondering about what I would become or if I would become anything. I was advised by a young minister from a world renouned preacher that I should just concentrate on obeying God as a wife, mother and friend to others and that I would be fulfilling the will of God that way. So I did and I was fine after that but something happened. My Grandmother died. She had raised me...very well and it changed something in me. After all the time I was patient, all the time I stayed in the presence of God, all the time just listening, my answer had finally come along.

Joseph escaped his brothers plans but was still sold into eygpt by a passing Midianite. He was bought by one of the pharaoh's officials named Potiphar. The Bible says that the Lord was with Joseph and he blessed every thing he did in Potiphar's house. But another problem arised. Joseph is described in the Bible as well-built and hansome. Potiphar's wife took notice of that and tried continuously to get Joseph to sleep with her but he never gave in. Not because she was ugly either. Joseph may had forgotten about his dreams but he hadn't forgotten about the God of his fathers. He was a man of integrity, dignity, honor and most of all loyalty. But because bad things happen to good people. Potiphar's wife made up a story about Joseph trying to rape her and got him thrown into jail. Now Joseph is in prison for a crime he didn't commit but little did he know that he was on the edge of sucess and in arms reach of all of his dreams.

It was really tough dealing with my grandmothers death but it seemed that her death had something to do with my birth. What I mean is my birth in the spirit. Just after the funeral God spoke to my heart about a group for girls about wisdom. Wisdom pearls to be exact. I wrote and wrote and wrote some more until I wrote out my dream. The vision I always had in my heart that only I could see was there on paper. But how could it go from paper to real life? Was this just another one of my big ideas or was God with me? Besides being a stay at home mom of three, how could I ever afford it. It looked like I found one answer but created another problem.

Being in prison you would think that Joseph's faith in God would have weaned. After all he didn't even deserve it. Why did God let him go to prison anyway? Why didn't God let Potiphar find out the truth? I learned something over time waiting on God to move in certain situations. God's plan may require you to be in a place or situation where you don't know why he has put you there. You may be in an undesirable situation and don't understand why you being a child of God have to endure such things in life. You may think because of where God has you currently, you can never fulfill what it is you believe he wants you to do. It's true though that alot of times where we want to be is not where God needs us to be. If you are at the point where you are in a place that you don't belong and you're miserable, just hold on. God is about to

I was on the phone every day. Asking favors and making flyers. I was grasping for anything that I could hold on to. If you could imagine a person wading in the ocean, trying to make it to shore but getting tired. That is where I was...getting tired but a glimmer of hope came. A door opened. Then another and another. Then the rest flew open and when I walked through the doors of that local High School I was looking for my girls because I knew God was with me.

In prison God was still with Joseph. So much so that the gaurds let him have control of the prison when they weren't around. They trusted Joseph because Joseph could be trusted. And while he was there he met a baker and an assistant to the Pharaoh who had been sent there for making the king angry. That night they both had dreams and when they woke they were so perplexed by them and told them to Joseph. Joseph told them that with the spirit of the Lord he could interpret their dreams and he did. The bakers dream meant that he was going to be killed and the assistant would be put back in his position beside the king. In time the prophesy of the dreams came true but before the assistant left, Joseph asked him to remember him and he gave his word that he would. But he didn't because he forgot and Joseph was left there in jail by himself waiting for help.

Well I had my girls but it wasn't easy. I had asked all of my friends to help me. Half said no, the other half said that they wanted to help but they never made the time in their schedules to do it. I was doing the whole thing alone. Every now and then a minister friend of mine would come over and speak but it was hardly enough. But Some how I was able to finish the school year and with the little help I had, we finished it out pretty well. So I saw my dream realized...right?

One day Pharaoh was awakened by a disturbing dream. He called all of his wisemen to decifer it but they could not determine what it meant until the assistant remembered Joseph and told the Pharaoh all about him. Pharaoh summond Joseph out of the prison and told him his dream. Joseph being the wise and humbele man of God that he was, answered as the Spirit of God gave him the ability. The dream told the prophesy of 7 years of harvest but also horrible famine lasting 7 years. When Pharaoh heard this he was greatly afraid but he trusted in Joseph's word and percieved him to be the wisest prophet he had ever heard. Pharaoh being so pleased with him put a robe on his shoulders, a ring on his finger and showed him to the people. Pharaoh named him second to rule and commanded all the people in the land of Eygpt to serve the God of Joseph. Joseph dream finally came true. But that wasn't the end of it.

You see, Alot of people believe that they are supposed to do one thing in life and once they get there they believe that's it. But the problem with that is just because you reach a dream doesn't mean you stop dreaming. Also a dream is not limited to what we expected it to be. God made everything to increase and that means your success. We shouldn't be solely driven on our own advancement. What I've learned is that you don't have to look for advancement. Only work dilligently and God will provide for you a point of promotion from season to season.

So I'm getting ready for the next school year. I have the plan, I've got my disciples and most of all I have the Lord walking right beside me. Everything that I hoped I would be. I have become. I have a loving husband, beautiful healthy children and my own ministry. I saught earnestly to work closely with great men and women of God and now others seek earnestly to work with me. But you know what? I know my dream isn't over. I have books to write. Confrences to preach. Traveling for missions and any other thing God leads me to do.

Joseph ran the country very well and made wise decisions through out the years of plenty and famine. Finally, he was reunited with his brothers and father who had mourned his loss for so long. He embraced his brothers and wasn't angry with them because he knew that it was the will of the Lord for things to happen that way. Because of a dream God gave him many years ago, he was able to save his entire family from starvation and live out the blessing of obedience to the voice of God.

If you have a dream of what could be that no one else can understand. If people put you down and won't offer their help to you, always remember this: If you pursue his presence, his wisdom and his voice, it is impossible for you not to achieve his purpose for your life. Your dreams can be achieved but you have to seek the guidance of the Lord. Many people will tell you what to do and how to do it but it can not touch the voice of the Spirit.

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