Discovering Destiny (Part 39): Why God Hides The Details Of Your Future

God Hides On Purpose

https://youtu.be/x7ILgR97G0I

Today, we continue our focus on THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, as we learn to maintain our posture of faith after God has revealed His plans for our future.

Key scriptures for this year:

2 Peter 3:18 GNT"But continue to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ. To Him be glory now and forever."

Luke 10:20 Mirror"It's time for you to rediscover who you are from Heaven's perspective."

1 John 3:10 Mirror"There is a very visible and vast difference between living one's life from your God identity or from a fallen man's mindset."

Proverbs 25:2 NKJV"It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter."

Jeremiah 29:13 NIV"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."

Scripture(s) we will study today:

Genesis 37:5-11 TPT"One night Joseph had a dream, and when he shared it with his brothers, they hated him even more! 'Listen to this dream I had,' he told them. 'There we were, binding sheaves of grain in the field. Suddenly, my sheaf rose up and stood upright. Then your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to mine!' His brothers asked him, 'Oh, so you think you're going to be our king? Do you actually think you're destined to rule over us?' So, the dream that he told them about made them hate him even more. Then another night he had a dream, and he shared it with his brothers, saying, 'Listen, I had another dream. This time, the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.' When his father and brothers heard it, his father scolded him, 'What kind of dream is that? Do you really think that I, and your mother, and your brothers are going to come and bow to the ground before you?' So his brothers grew more jealous of him, but his father kept pondering Joseph's dream."

Supporting scriptures:

Genesis 41:32 AMPC"That the dream was sent twice to Pharaoh and in two forms indicates that this thing which God will very soon bring to pass is fully prepared and established by God."

Hebrews 11:8 TPT"Faith motivated Abraham to obey God's call and leave the familiar to discover the territory he was destined to inherit from God. So he left with only a promise and without even knowing ahead of time where he was going, Abraham stepped out in faith."

Proverbs 20:24 TPT"It is the Lord who directs your life, for each step you take is ordained by God to bring you closer to your destiny. So much of your life, then, remains a mystery!"

Psalm 105:17-19 AMPC"He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold as a servant. His feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in chains of iron and his soul entered into the iron, until his word came true, until the word of the Lord tried and tested him."

2 Corinthians 5:7 ERV"We live by what we believe will happen, not by what we can see."

Genesis 42:6 ERV"Joseph was the governor of Egypt at the time. He was the one who checked the sale of grain to people who came to Egypt to buy it. Joseph's brothers came to him and bowed before him."

Genesis 45:7 NLT"God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors."

Setting the Stage:

Yesterday, we met Joseph at 17, favored before he had accomplished anything, wearing a robe he did not earn. Today, God speaks. Joseph has a dream about sheaves of grain bowing to his sheaf, and then another one about the sun, the moon, and eleven stars. Two dreams back to back, and both of them say the same thing: you are going to rule.

Now look at what God did not give him. No timeline. No directions. No warning. It would have been nice if God had warned him about the betrayal, the pit, the caravan, the false accusation, and/or the prison cell. God gave him a picture (of the end), not a plan or timeline on how to get there. Here is what I want you to see, because it will change how you handle your own waiting season. God did that on purpose.

So, what does this mean for you today? A few things.

1. God Will Show You The End, But He Will Not Show You The Path Or The Pain.

Joseph saw the finish line at 17. After 13 years of terrible situations, he finally got some relief at 30 (when he became the Prime Minister of Egypt). Later, at 39, the full manifestation of the dream played out before His eyes. In between, however, he lost his family, his freedom, and his reputation. Guess What? Not one frame of that showed up in the dream. Hebrews 11:8 TPT says Abraham "left with only a promise and without even knowing ahead of time where he was going." That is the pattern all through Scripture. God gives you the destination without the directions. He gives you the what without the how, and the what without the when. That is not God being mysterious. That is God being wise, because if He handed you the whole map today, you would either try to control the process or run from it.

How this applies to you:

-- A picture is not a plan! God will reveal a picture, and He wants you to believe it. But seeing a picture does not mean you know the path to take or the plan to execute. This is what it means to walk and live by faith. 

-- God gave Joseph an image of a field full of bowing sheaves. But God conveniently left out the pit, the slave block, the lie, and the prison. If God had revealed it ALL to him at 17, he never would have kept his heart OPEN to the dream.

-- Part of Joseph’s expectation and HOPE was tied to his ignorance of the process. In many ways, this ignorance protects us so we can keep believing. For example, I told you that I've been waiting on something for 13 years. If God had revealed that to me up front, I might have been motivated to make different decisions. I may have decided up front that I didn't want to wait that long, and I didn't want to go through what I've gone through in these 13 years. 

-- God is not hiding it from you; He is hiding it for you. God knows that you can’t handle all the details, especially the painful ones.

-- Proverbs 20:24 TPT says, "Each step you take is ordained by God to bring you closer to your destiny. So much of your life, then, remains a mystery!" The mystery is not a malfunction; it is the design. This mystery is actually required in the life of faith. 

-- In order to walk with God and live by faith, you must get comfortable with a certain level of mystery and a certain level of discomfort. 

-- You do not need the details to trust God. You just need a Word from God. If God gave you a Word, then you must trust that He will reveal what He needs you to know when He needs you to know it. And also trust that if He has not revealed the details, it’s either because: a) you don’t need them, or b) knowing them will become a hindrance to your walk of faith. 

2. When God Says It Twice, He Is Telling You It Is Settled.

Two dreams on two nights. The first one is on the ground with sheaves in a field; the second one is in the sky with the sun, the moon, and eleven stars. Why say it twice? Joseph answers that question himself 13 years later, standing in front of Pharaoh. Genesis 41:32 AMPC says a dream "sent twice to Pharaoh and in two forms indicates that this thing which God will very soon bring to pass is fully prepared and established by God." Meditate on that for a minute. Joseph was explaining another man's double dream while he was still carrying his own. By ministering to Pharaoh, he was ministering to himself. Sometimes when you're preaching to others, you're actually preaching to yourself. 

How this applies to you:

-- Do not miss HOW Joseph finally understood his own double dream. He was interpreting Pharaoh's. Sometimes God explains what you are carrying while you are busy serving somebody else. In other words, while God is using you to make something happen for somebody else, that process actually ministers to you.

-- When God says it twice, write it down and consider it done, because the repeat is your receipt. God is confirming His promise.

-- The first dream was on the ground, and the second one was in the sky. Same message, but on two levels. What God is going to do on earth was already decided in heaven. On earth, as it is in heaven.

-- Please don't think that it's been too long or that you messed up along the way. What God established before you were born cannot be canceled by what happened to you after you got here.

-- God does not repeat Himself to convince you. He repeats Himself to tell you the matter is closed. Believe Him!

-- Genesis 41:32 AMPC says the double dream means the thing is "fully prepared and established by God." Prepared means God already stored up the blessing; established means the decision is final. Your job is not to make your destiny happen. Your job is to believe it while you wait for it in faith.

3. What God Said Will Outlive Everybody's Opinion Of It.

Watch the three reactions in this passage. Ten brothers heard the dream and hated him even more. His father heard it and scolded him out loud in front of everybody. Then Moses adds one line that changes the whole scene: "But his father kept pondering Joseph's dream." Jacob corrected him in public and considered him in private. Now watch Joseph. He never argued, never defended the dream, and never softened it to make the room comfortable. He said what he saw and let God handle the schedule, and 22 years later, every one of them bowed.

How this applies to you:

-- If the Word came from God, it does not need your defense.

-- Do not write somebody off because their first reaction was not applause. Jacob scolded his son and then pondered what his son said in the same conversation. In other words, people may come around after their initial reaction. 

-- Correction is not always opposition, and silence is not always support. Don't get caught up in the initial reaction, because after people have had time to consider it, they may change.

-- The brothers were jealous, and the father was skeptical, and God's Word was still true. It’s great when God uses others to CONFIRM His Word, but even when you don’t get the confirmation, if you know the Word came from God, do NOT allow yourself to be moved by people’s opinions. 

-- Their reaction tells you something about them; it does not declare a verdict over you.

-- 2 Corinthians 5:7 ERV says, "We live by what we believe will happen, not by what we can see." What Joseph could see was ten angry brothers, and what he believed was a field of bowing sheaves. He walked out of that tent holding the invisible thing in his heart. This is how we walk by faith. The unseen must become more real to us than the seen (2 Cor 4:18).

-- Do not go looking for people to validate what God already established. Their applause could not have added one thing to it, and their silence did not subtract one thing from it. If God said it, He will perform it, period. Your confidence must be in God and not in man. 

4. What God Showed You Is About Who You Are Called To Minister To.

Go back and look at where God set that first dream. Joseph is standing in a field at harvest time, tying up bundles of grain. Ask yourself why God put the dream in a field of food. Genesis 42:6 ERV tells you why: "He was the one who checked the sale of grain to people who came to Egypt to buy it. Joseph's brothers came to him and bowed before him." They did not travel to Egypt to honor him. They came because they were starving. At 17, Joseph looked at that dream and saw rank. But 22 years later, after Joseph matured, he realized the dream was not about a rank; it was about a rescue. And the cool part about all of this is that God revealed it to him 22 years before it happened, and 20 years before the famine even started.

How this applies to you:

-- The bowing (I am over you) was never the point; feeding them (I am here to help you) was. It was not about Joseph's position over them. It was about the anointing that he had to save them. 

-- The setting of God’s dream was “a harvest time” two decades before there was a famine. Look hard at the details of what God showed you, because the setting of the dream is part of the message.

-- Genesis 45:7 NLT says, "God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors." That is Joseph's own summary of the dream, and there is not one word in it about position or rank.

-- What God reveals to you is always bigger than your part in it.

-- Ask a better question about the promise you are carrying: Who eats when this comes to pass? In other words, if you want the blessing and you believe that God promised it to you, is the image in your head of the blessing all about you? Is it about you getting a bigger house, another car, another purse, or another gift? Or is the blessing about how God will elevate you and position you to be a blessing to other people? Unfortunately, far too many Christians are caught up in the accumulation of things. The way Isabella said it when she was preaching: "Far too many Christians are collectors, while God is looking for carriers.” God is more interested in what you carry (what he put on you) than in what you collect (which is storing up). 

-- In THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, meditate on the picture God gave you about the future. There are levels of revelation in that picture! 

Meditate on this message. This is why God hides the details of your future!

That's enough for today.

Declaration of Faith:

Father, thank You for showing me the end before I could see the road!

What You showed me is settled, and I will not doubt it!

I do not need the details to trust You!

When You say it twice, I write it down and hold on!

A delay is not a denial, and my vision has an appointed time!

I live by what I believe, not by what I can see!

Nobody's opinion can cancel what You said about my life!

While I wait on Your Word, Your Word is working on me!

What You showed me will feed and bless somebody besides me!

In THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, GREATER IS COMING FOR ME!

I declare this by faith. In Jesus' name. Amen!

This is Today's Word. Apply it and prosper!