Discovering Destiny (Part 48): God Will Do Through You What You Cannot Do

God Can Do It

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 41:15-16 AMPC

"And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it; and I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream and interpret it. Joseph answered Pharaoh, It is not in me; God [not I] will give Pharaoh a [favorable] answer of peace."

Genesis 41:25-28 ERV

"Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, 'Both of these dreams have the same meaning. God is telling you what will happen soon. The seven good cows and the seven good heads of grain are seven good years. And the seven thin, sick-looking cows and the seven thin heads of grain mean that there will be seven years of hunger in this area. These seven bad years will come after the seven good years. God has shown you what will happen soon. He will make these things happen just as I told you.'"

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."

Supporting scriptures:

Genesis 41:38-39 TPT

"He said to them, 'Where can we find anyone else like this one, for he has the Spirit of God in him!' So Pharaoh turned to Joseph and said, 'Since God has divinely revealed this to you, there is no one as wise and full of insight as you.'"

Daniel 2:27-28 NLT

"Daniel replied, 'There are no wise men, enchanters, magicians, or fortune-tellers who can reveal the king's secret. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and he has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the future.'"

2 Corinthians 3:5 TPT

"Yet we don't see ourselves as capable enough to do anything in our own strength, for our true competence flows from God's empowering presence."

Zechariah 4:6 NLT

"Then he said to me, 'This is what the Lord says to Zerubbabel: It is not by force nor by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord of Heaven's Armies.'"

1 John 2:20 TPT

"But the Holy One has anointed you and you all know the truth."

Proverbs 22:29 TPT

"If you are uniquely gifted in your work, you will rise and be promoted. You won't be held back, you'll stand before kings!"

1 Corinthians 2:9-10 NLT

"That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, 'No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.' But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets."

Setting the Stage:

Yesterday, I paused the story to share what Pastor Tony taught us about discovery. On Friday, we left Joseph standing outside Pharaoh's door. Two full years after the butler forgot him, the guards came running, and Joseph took the time to shave, change his clothes, and make himself presentable. Today, he walks in. Picture the room. The most powerful man on earth is on his throne, and the room is still full of the magicians and wise men who had already failed that morning. These were the smartest men in Egypt, the men trained from childhood to read signs and explain dreams, and every one of them had stood in front of Pharaoh's dream with nothing to say. Now a Hebrew slave, fresh out of the dungeon, is standing where they stood.

Pharaoh does not waste words. He says, "I have dreamed a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it; and I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream and interpret it." Think about the pressure in that sentence. The king has just told Joseph that the best minds in the kingdom failed, and that Joseph's reputation is the only reason he is in the room. One wrong answer and he goes back to the chains, or worse. Two years earlier, when the butler and the baker asked him about their dreams, Joseph said interpretations belong to God, and then he asked to hear the dreams. Not this time. Before Pharaoh describes a single cow, Joseph answers, "It is not in me; God [not I] will give Pharaoh a [favorable] answer of peace."

Do not rush past that. Joseph had not heard the dream yet. He did not know if it was about war, weather, or the wealth of Egypt. He knew two things: it was not in him, and God would. Not God might. Not God can. God will. Then Pharaoh told him the dream, the fat cows and the skinny cows, the full heads of grain and the scorched ones, and Joseph walked through it like he was reading a letter. Both dreams are one. "God is telling you what will happen soon." Seven years of plenty, then seven years of famine. And the reason the dream came twice? "This thing which God will very soon bring to pass is fully prepared and established by God." Before that day was over, Pharaoh would turn to his officials and ask, "Where can we find anyone else like this one, for he has the Spirit of God in him!"

Here is what I want you to see today. The wise men had education. Joseph had God’s anointing. The wise men had Egypt's best training. Joseph had 13 years of God's grace, in Potiphar's house, in the prison, with the butler and the baker, and every one of those rooms was preparing him for this one. God did not send Joseph into that throne room to try hard. He sent him in to succeed where everyone else had failed, and He had planned that success before Joseph was born. In THE YEAR OF DISCOVERY, you need to know that the need in front of you is not bigger than the God in you. It’s not about you, and that is the point. 

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

1. Joseph Answered Before He Heard The Dream.

Two years earlier, when the butler and the baker brought him their dreams, Joseph asked a question, "Do not interpretations belong to God?", and then said, "Tell them to me." He stated a truth about God and waited for the details. Now he is standing in front of a king, and the question has become a promise. Before Pharaoh describes a single cow, Joseph says, "It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer of peace." Same gift. Same God. But the man who said it had changed.

13 years of watching God show up in every room had expanded Joseph's capacity to believe, and by Genesis 41 he was no longer a young dreamer. He was a man of faith. I have taught for years that believing is what happens in your heart, but faith is what happens when your belief moves to your lips or your legs. Joseph's belief moved to his lips before Pharaoh's dream ever reached his ears, and Paul explained where that kind of confidence comes from: "Our true competence flows from God's empowering presence" (2 Corinthians 3:5 TPT). 

How this applies to you:

-- Joseph did not care how big the dream was, because he was already convinced of how big his God was.

-- Faith speaks before it sees.

-- Joseph did not need the details to be confident, because his confidence was never in the details. It was in God. You do not need to know everything about the assignment to say yes to it, because the God who is sending you already knows.

-- Every room you have already walked through has helped you build the faith you need for the room you are walking into.

-- Belief lives in your heart, but faith lives on your lips and in your legs.

-- Your destiny was settled before you were born, and so was the faith it would take to walk it out. God has been growing that faith in you room by room, exactly like He did with Joseph. Nothing you have been through was random; it was all preparation for where you are right now. This is how your destiny unfolds right before your very eyes.

2. It Is Not In You, And That Is The Point.

Look at the first five words out of Joseph's mouth: "It is not in me." In the most important interview of his life, with his freedom on the line, Joseph opened by telling the king he could not do it. That sounds like a terrible strategy until you hear the rest of the sentence. "God [not I] will." Joseph was not being modest; he was being accurate. He knew the interpretation was not going to come from his intellect, and he refused to let Pharaoh think it would. This is the essence of grace. Grace is God doing the work through you, and the only requirement on your side is to believe Him, get out of the way, and give Him the glory. 

How this applies to you:

-- Where human ability runs out, grace kicks in. If you can do it, acknowledge that God has graced you to do it. If you cannot, believe God to do it through you, by His grace, for His glory. Either way, it’s ALL ABOUT HIM!

-- "It is not in me" is not a statement of weakness, but rather the doorway to grace.

-- Some of you have been disqualifying yourselves because the need in front of you is bigger than what is in you. Joseph would tell you that it is the whole point. God specializes in assignments beyond your ability because those are the ones that bring Him the most glory.

-- God wants you to succeed, advance, and get promoted; He just wants the glory when it happens. For years, you have heard me say: He gets the glory; we get the benefits! 

-- Give God the glory before the breakthrough, and you will not have to fight yourself for it after. When the accolades come, accept the promotion and deflect the glory.

-- Never take credit for something God did through you.

-- The destiny God wrote for you before you were born was never sized to your ability; it was sized to His grace. 

-- Paul said we do not see ourselves as "capable enough to do anything in our own strength" (2 Corinthians 3:5 TPT), and he did more than any of us.

3. You Are Anointed To Succeed Where Others Have Failed.

Pharaoh had access to every wise man in Egypt, and he gave all of them a chance. They failed. Then Joseph walked in and, by God's grace, succeeded where the experts could not. Watch the pattern in Joseph's life, because it is a pattern of escalating anointings. God graced him to run Potiphar's house, then to run the king's prison, then to interpret two dreams for two prisoners, and now to interpret the dream of the most powerful man on earth. Each assignment was bigger than the last, and the grace grew with the assignment. 

How this applies to you:

-- Somebody else's failure may be your assignment.

-- The magicians were not stupid. They were the best Egypt had, and they still could not do what a slave with the Spirit of God did in one conversation. Education can take you far, but the anointing takes you where education cannot.

-- Daniel stood in the same kind of room generations later and said, "There are no wise men, enchanters, magicians, or fortune-tellers who can reveal the king's secret. But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets" (Daniel 2:27-28 NLT). I call this being anointed to succeed. 

-- When the grace of God is on you, you will do hard things in a way that looks easy (this is my testimony, by the way), because you will not be the one doing it. It will be the grace of God through you.

-- God can anoint you for whatever the need is.

-- Joseph's anointing grew from a house, to a prison, to two prisoners, to a king. Another way to say it is that God released the grace as He needed it, and since the circumstances were increasing, the grace was increasing. You will never be in a situation or circumstance where God's grace does not abound beyond the need. 

-- The room where others failed is the room you are graced to succeed in. You are anointed for certain rooms.

-- Solomon said the uniquely gifted "will rise and be promoted" and "stand before kings" (Proverbs 22:29 TPT).

4. God Shows You What He Is About To Do.

Listen to how Joseph described the dream: "God is telling you what will happen soon." Then again: "God has shown you what will happen soon." Joseph did not just decode symbols; he told Pharaoh the dream was a revelation of what God had already decided. And why did it come twice? "This thing which God will very soon bring to pass is fully prepared and established by God." Before one head of grain had grown or one cow had gone hungry, the next 14 years of Egypt were already settled in heaven. That is how God works. Amos said it plainly: "Indeed, the Sovereign Lord never does anything until he reveals his plans to his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7 NLT). 

How this applies to you:

-- God does not react to the future; He reveals it.

-- The Bible teaches that God never does anything until He reveals it first. If He is about to move in your life, get close enough to be one of the people He tells.

-- What God has established cannot be canceled by circumstances.

-- The famine was coming whether Egypt was ready or not, and God showed it in advance so a prepared man could save a nation. Some of the things God has been showing you are not for you alone. He is getting you ready to be the answer in somebody else's crisis.

-- Your destiny was fully prepared and established by God before you were born. You are not building your future from scratch; you are discovering a plan that was finished before you arrived. Live like the plan is already done, because it is.

That's enough for today.

Declaration of Faith:

Father, it is not in me, but You will!

My confidence is not in my ability; it is in Your grace!

I speak by faith before I see the details!

Where my ability runs out, Your grace kicks in!

I give You the glory before the breakthrough comes!

I am anointed to succeed where others have failed!

The room where others failed is a room You planned for me!

You show me what You are about to do, and I walk in it!

What You have established cannot be canceled by my circumstances!

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!