Discovering Destiny (Part 46): Waiting Time Is Never Wasted Time
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 41:1 TPT
"After two full years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile,"
Genesis 41:8-9 NLT
"The next morning Pharaoh was very disturbed by the dreams. So he called for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. When Pharaoh told them his dreams, not one of them could tell him what they meant. Finally, the king's chief butler spoke up. 'Today I have been reminded of my failure,' he told Pharaoh."
Genesis 41:12-14 AMPC
"And there was there with us a young man, a Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard and chief executioner; and we told him our dreams, and he interpreted them to us, to each man according to the significance of his dream. And as he interpreted to us, so it came to pass; I was restored to my office [as chief butler], and the baker was hanged. Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon. But Joseph [first] shaved himself, changed his clothes, and made himself presentable; then he came into Pharaoh's presence."
Supporting scriptures:
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 [to his cruel brothers] came true, until the word of the Lord tried and tested him."
Isaiah 49:15-16 TPT
"Yahweh responds, 'But how could a loving mother forget her nursing child and not deeply love the one she bore? Even if there is a mother who forgets her child, I could never, no never, forget you. Can't you see? I have carved your name on the palms of my hands! Your walls are always my concern.'"
Ecclesiastes 3:1 ERV
"There is a right time for everything, and everything on earth will happen at the right time."
Habakkuk 2:3 TPT
"The vision still awaits an appointed time; it speaks of the end and will not prove to be false. When the appointed time comes, it will happen with breathless haste. Although it may seem slow, just be patient and wait. For it will surely come right on time."
Galatians 6:9 AMPC
"And let us not lose heart and grow weary and faint in acting nobly and doing right, for in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint."
Psalm 27:14 TPT
"Here's what I've learned through it all: Don't give up; don't be impatient; be entwined as one with the Lord. Be brave and courageous, and never lose hope. Yes, keep on waiting, for he will never disappoint you!"
James 1:4 TPT
"And then as your endurance grows even stronger, it will release perfection into every part of your being until there is nothing missing and nothing lacking."
Setting the Stage:
Yesterday, we watched the butler walk out of the prison and forget the man who had interpreted his dream. Today, the next chapter with four words that carry a world of weight: "After two full years." Not two weeks. Not two months. Two full years. Picture Joseph the morning after the butler left. He is up early, making his rounds, and every time the outer door opens, his head turns. Is that the guard coming to say Pharaoh wants to see me? It never is. Days become weeks. Weeks become months. The dream he received at 17 is now more than a decade old, and the one man on the outside who knew his story has gone silent. Nothing in the text says God spoke to Joseph during those two years. No angel. No new dream. No word of encouragement. Just chains, routine, and a door that stayed shut.
Before we get to the palace, I want you to think about Joseph's heart for a minute, because this was the loneliest stretch of his life. When the butler walked out, Joseph did not hedge his bets. He knew the man was getting his job back, because God had shown him, so he opened his heart all the way. He got his hopes up. He let himself picture the guard coming down the hall with his name on his lips. I can see him looking out of that cell, day after day, hoping to see some kind of cavalry coming. The cavalry never came. Now add up everything that came before this. He was 17 when his brothers sold him, and I believe he still longed for home: the father who loved him, the mother he lost too young, and even the brothers who hated him, because they were still his brothers. He spent years in Potiphar's house, learned the language, learned the culture, learned how to run an estate, and then Potiphar's wife lied and erased all of it in an afternoon. Now he is in a dungeon, learning how the royal system works, and the one man who could speak for him has forgotten his name. Nobody is coming. There is no rescue on the way. Somewhere in those two years, Joseph learned the lesson every dreamer has to learn: the God who gave the dream is the only source of the dream. Not his father. Not Potiphar. Not the butler. God, and God alone.
Then one night, in a palace Joseph had never seen, Pharaoh dreamed. He was standing by the Nile when seven fat, healthy cows came up out of the river, followed by seven skinny, ugly cows that ate the fat ones. He woke up, fell back asleep, and dreamed again. Seven full heads of grain on one stalk, swallowed by seven thin heads scorched by the east wind. When morning came, the king of the most powerful nation on earth was "very disturbed" and sent for every magician and wise man in Egypt. They came. They listened. And "not one of them could tell him what they meant." The most educated men in the world stood in front of a dream and had nothing.
Then a man in the back of the room cleared his throat. The butler. Two years late, he said, "Today I have been reminded of my failure." He told Pharaoh about the Hebrew prisoner who interpreted two dreams, and how "everything happened just as he had predicted." Pharaoh did not wait. He sent for Joseph at once, and the guards "brought him hastily out of the dungeon." Here is the detail I love. With the king waiting, Joseph did not run. The Amplified says, "Joseph [first] shaved himself, changed his clothes, and made himself presentable; then he came into Pharaoh's presence." 13 years after the dream, the door finally opened, and the man who walked through it was ready.
So, what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. The Word Is Working On You While You Wait.
Two full years with no word from God is a long time. If you have ever been there, you know the questions: Did I miss it? Did I do something wrong? Has God moved on? Look at what Psalm 105 says was really happening in that dungeon. Joseph was in chains "until his word came true, until the word of the Lord tried and tested him" (Psalm 105:19 AMPC). I have said this for years: while Joseph was waiting on the word, the word was working on Joseph. God was not ignoring him. He was finishing him, building the man who could run a nation through seven years of famine in a room with no windows. Part of that finishing was the loneliness. With no family, no Potiphar, and no butler, Joseph had nowhere to put his trust except in God, and that is exactly where God wanted it.
How this applies to you:
-- Silence from God is not absence from God.
-- Some of you have not heard anything from heaven in a while, and you have started to read the silence as rejection. Joseph heard nothing for two years. Here is a lesson: sometimes God does His deepest work IN you when He is saying the least TO you. He allows circumstances to process you.
-- When nobody is coming FOR you, God is already WITH you.
-- Some of you are in a season where you have done the math, and the answer you got is: nobody is coming. No call is coming, no rescue is coming, and no cavalry is riding in. Joseph lived there for two years, and it did not break him, because that is where he learned that God was his source. Loneliness is where you find out that God is enough.
-- While you are waiting on the word, the word is working on you.
-- Your destiny was written before you were born, and so was the preparation it would require. God knew the two years were coming when He gave Joseph the dream at 17. Nothing about your wait has caught Him by surprise, because the silence was written into the plan.
-- James said endurance works until "And then as your endurance grows even stronger, it will release perfection into every part of your being until there is nothing missing and nothing lacking" (James 1:4 TPT).
2. The Delay Was Not A Denial.
Here is the question that will set you free today. What if the butler had remembered Joseph the day he got his job back? He goes to Pharaoh, "There is a Hebrew who interprets dreams." Pharaoh has not had a dream. He waves him off, and Joseph's one advocate has already spent his favor. The butler's forgetfulness looked like a failure, but God folded it into perfect timing. Two years later, Pharaoh had a dream nobody could interpret, and Joseph's name was not a favor anymore. It was the answer to a national crisis. Solomon wrote, "There is a right time for everything, and everything on earth will happen at the right time" (Ecclesiastes 3:1 ERV). Joseph did not need the door to open early. He needed it to open on time. A denial says no. A delay says not yet, and for a reason.
How this applies to you:
-- A delay is not a denial. It is a realization that God's timing is perfect.
-- If the door had opened two years earlier, it would have opened into nothing, because there was no dream yet and no need for what Joseph carried. God does not open doors before the room on the other side is ready. He is not late; He is arranging the room.
-- God's timing is tied to what is happening in rooms you cannot see.
-- Joseph could not see Pharaoh's bedroom from his cell, and he had no idea a dream was coming that only he could interpret. Some of you are frustrated by a wait that only makes sense from the other side of it. Trust the God who can see both sides.
-- What people call a setback, God calls a setup.
-- The butler's failure did not change Joseph's destiny by one day, because God had already scheduled the dream, the crisis, and the summons.
-- Habakkuk 2:3 TPT promises that when the appointed time comes, "it will happen with breathless haste." In other words, when the time is right, things are going to happen so fast that your head is going to spin, and people will think you're an overnight success. What they failed to see was the 10, 20, or 30 years before that.
3. Nobody's Forgetting Cancels What God Remembered.
Look at what the butler said when he finally spoke up: "Today I have been reminded of my failure." Reminded by whom? Pharaoh's dream did not mention Joseph. The magicians did not mention Joseph. But something stirred in the butler's memory at the exact moment it needed to, and I know who did the stirring. God reached into the memory of a man who had forgotten and pulled Joseph's name back out.
Now let me say something that is hard to hear. People will forget about you. Some will forget because people are unreliable; they get their life back and move on, and you are not on their mind anymore. But sometimes God allows a person to forget you, on purpose, because the forgetting is part of your processing.
How this applies to you:
-- People forget. God remembers. Always!
-- Somebody promised to make a call for you and never made it, or said they would come back for you and did not. Joseph knows exactly how that feels. When the time is right, God will stir the memory of the very person who forgot you if they are part of your destiny.
-- People will forget you, and sometimes God lets them.
-- People are unreliable, and that is not always the devil. Sometimes it is the process. If God has allowed someone to forget you, He is not punishing you. He is processing you.
-- The person who failed you may be the same person God uses to bless you.
-- God wrote your destiny before you were born, and He does not delegate the remembering of it to other people. Solomon said, "The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives" (Psalm 37:23 NLT).
4. Be Ready When The Door Opens.
The summons from the king came fast. Pharaoh sent for Joseph "at once," and the guards "brought him hastily out of the dungeon." After 13 years of waiting, the whole thing turned in a morning. Notice this: with the king waiting, Joseph "[first] shaved himself, changed his clothes, and made himself presentable." He did not walk into Pharaoh's court looking like a prisoner. He walked in looking like a man who had been expecting this. He did not know when the door would open, but he knew it would, and when it did, he was ready to walk through it. Paul told the Galatians, "in due time and at the appointed season we shall reap, if we do not loosen and relax our courage and faint" (Galatians 6:9 AMPC).
How this applies to you:
-- Stay ready, because your moment can come in a morning.
-- When the time comes, you don't have to look like what you've been through. Step into the opportunity dressed for your destiny!
-- Some people think they have had a bad week. Well, 13 years is 678 weeks. Some people think they have had a bad day. Well, 13 years is 4,746 days. Joseph waited through every one of them and still shaved when the guard came. No matter how long the wait, you need to be ready when your time comes
-- With God, the door does not open slowly; it opens suddenly.
-- Some of you have let the wait change how you carry yourself, and you have started to look like your situation instead of your destiny. Joseph refused. Change your clothes and open your heart. Greater is coming!
-- David said, "Yes, keep on waiting, for he will never disappoint you!" (Psalm 27:14 TPT).
That's enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, thank You that Your silence is never Your absence!
While I wait on Your word, Your word is working on me!
The silence I am in is on the plan!
When nobody is coming for me, You are already with me!
You are my source, and I rely on You alone!
A delay is not a denial!
You are arranging the room on the other side of my door!
My destiny is not running late; it is on Your clock!
People may forget me, but You have carved my name on Your hands!
If You let someone forget me, it is part of my processing, not my punishment!
Nobody's forgetting cancels what You remembered about me!
I will stay ready, because my moment can come in a morning!
I am dressed for my destiny before the door opens!
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!
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