Discovering Destiny (Part 57): How God Proves You Have Changed
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 44:30-34 NLT
"And now, my lord, I cannot go back to my father without the boy. Our father's life is bound up in the boy's life. If he sees that the boy is not with us, our father will die. We, your servants, will indeed be responsible for sending that grieving, white-haired man to his grave. My lord, I guaranteed to my father that I would take care of the boy. I told him, 'If I don't bring him back to you, I will bear the blame forever.' So please, my lord, let me stay here as a slave instead of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. For how can I return to my father if the boy is not with me? I couldn't bear to see the anguish this would cause my father!"
Supporting scriptures:
Genesis 37:26-27 NLT
"Judah said to his brothers, 'What will we gain by killing our brother? We'd have to cover up the crime. Instead of hurting him, let's sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood!' And his brothers agreed."
Genesis 43:8-9 NLT
"Judah said to his father, 'Send the boy with me, and we will be on our way. Otherwise we will all die of starvation, and not only we, but you and our little ones. I personally guarantee his safety. You may hold me responsible if I don't bring him back to you. Then let me bear the blame forever.'"
1 Peter 1:7 NLT
"These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold, though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world."
2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT
"This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!"
Luke 22:31-32 NLT
"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers."
John 15:13 NLT
"There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends."
Genesis 49:8-10 TPT
"O Judah, your brothers will praise you. You will conquer your foes in battle, And your father's sons will bow down before you. Judah, my son, you are like a young lion who has devoured its prey and departed. Like a lion, he crouches and lies down, and like a lioness, who dares to awaken him? The scepter of rulership will not be taken from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from his descendants, until the Shiloh comes and takes what is due him, for the obedience of nations belongs to him."
Hebrews 7:14 NLT
"What I mean is, our Lord came from the tribe of Judah, and Moses never mentioned priests coming from that tribe."
Setting the Stage:
On Friday, we saw ten guilty men bow in a grain line in front of the brother they sold, with no idea who he was. Joseph sent them home with grain, kept Simeon in prison, and told them not to come back without Benjamin. When the food ran out, Jacob had no choice. Judah stood in front of his father and said, "I personally guarantee his safety." So the brothers went back to Egypt with Benjamin, and Joseph fed them at his own table and sent them home loaded down with food. It looked like they were going to get away clean. But Joseph had one final test. He had his servant hide his silver cup in Benjamin's sack, let the brothers get down the road, and sent his men after them.
Now picture the brothers standing in Joseph's house with the cup on the table. Joseph says, "Only the one who had the cup will be my slave. The rest of you are free to go home to your father." Do you see it? This is the same test from 22 years ago. Ten brothers, one of Rachel's sons in trouble, an old father at home, and a wide-open door to walk away and let the boy take the fall. The last time they stood in this spot, they sold their brother for silver and went home with a bloody coat and a lie.
And then Judah steps forward. Judah, the same man who said, "Let's sell him to those Ishmaelite traders," 22 years earlier. He does not argue. He does not make excuses. He tells the governor about an old man whose life is bound up in this boy, about a promise he made to bring him home, and then he says the words that change everything: "Let me stay here as a slave instead of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers." The man who sold his brother into slavery just offered to become a slave so his brother could go free. And Joseph, listening to every word, cannot hold it together any longer. In the next chapter, he reveals himself.
Here is what I want you to see today. Joseph did not need to hear his brothers say they were sorry. He needed to see if they had changed. God does the same thing with you. He does not prove your change by your words. He proves it by what you do when the old test shows up again. And that proof is tied to your destiny.
So, what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. God Will Bring The Same Test Back Around.
Look at how carefully God (and Joseph), set this up. The brothers were not tested with some random hardship. They were tested with the exact situation they failed 22 years earlier. A favored younger son. A father who would not survive losing him. A chance to walk away with the silver and let the boy pay the price. I have taught you this for years: if you fail a test, God will give you a chance to pass it again. He is a God of progression, and He will not promote you past a level you have not passed. Unlike the world, which pushes you forward just because you got older, God keeps bringing the same test back until you show Him you are not the same person who failed it.
How this applies to you:
-- If you failed a test years ago, God has not forgotten it, and He has not given up on you either.
-- The brothers did not get a new test. They got the old test with new names. Same setup, same temptation, same open door to walk away.
-- God is not trying to embarrass you with the retake. He is trying to promote you, and the retake is how He knows you are ready. And in the process, you will learn something about yourself.
-- Think back five, ten, or twenty years and ask whether you would pass that same test today. If the answer is yes, that is growth. If the answer is no, God will keep making you take the test.
-- God planned your destiny before you were born, and He also planned the tests that would qualify you for it.
-- The world promotes you because you got older. God promotes you because you got better.
-- Stop running from the retake and start passing it.
2. Real Change Shows Up Under Pressure, Not In Words.
Notice what Judah did not do. He did not say, "Sir, we are different men now." He did not give a speech about how much they had grown. He walked up to the most powerful man in Egypt and said, Lett me stay here as a slave instead of the boy." That is not a promise. That is a payment. Peter said, "These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold" (1 Peter 1:7 NLT). Fire does not ask the gold if it is pure. Fire proves it. Judah proved it when his own freedom was on the line. That is why Joseph broke down. He was not moved by words. He was moved by evidence.
How this applies to you:
-- Change is not what you say about yourself; it is what you do when it costs you something.
-- Judah did not tell Joseph he had changed. He showed him. Twenty-two years earlier, he sold his brother to save himself; now he offered himself to save his brother.
-- Peter said trials "show that your faith is genuine" (1 Peter 1:7 NLT). The pressure is not there to break you. It is there to prove you.
-- Anybody can talk about growth when nothing is on the line, but pressure is how true change is validated.
-- Joseph needed evidence, not an apology. God works the same way. He will believe your growth when He sees it under weight.
-- The test that reveals your change is part of the destiny God planned for you, because God cannot trust you with the next level until this one is proven.
-- Let your life do the talking; say less and prove more.
3. God Will Finish The Work He Started In You.
Judah did not become this man overnight. In Genesis 37, he is the one selling his brother. In Genesis 38, he is the one running from his own family. But in Genesis 43, he stands in front of his father and says, "I personally guarantee his safety" (Genesis 43:8-9 NLT). And in Genesis 44, he puts his own life on the line. What happened? God worked on him for 22 years. Paul said, "He who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ, developing that good work and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you" (Philippians 1:6 AMPC). Jesus told Peter the night before Peter denied Him, “When you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers" (Luke 22:31-32 NLT). God already saw the bounce-back before Peter ever fell. He saw Judah's bounce-back too. And He sees yours.
How this applies to you:
-- The person you were at your worst is not the person you will be when God is through with you.
-- Judah's story took 22 years to turn. God is patient with the process, because He is committed to the finish.
-- Paul said God is "developing that good work and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you" (Philippians 1:6 AMPC). What He started, He will complete.
-- Jesus told Peter about his restoration before he fell. God already knows how your story ends.
-- Paul said, “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person" (2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT). Judah became a new man. So can you.
-- You are not done, but God is not done with you either.
-- Part of walking out your destiny is realizing, in your lowest moments, that God is not through with you. You are still destined.
4. Your Worst Chapter Does Not Cancel Your Destiny.
Here is the part that should give everyone hope. Judah is the one who said, "Let's sell him to those Ishmaelite traders." Judah is the one with the worst chapter in the whole family. And yet, when Jacob blesses his sons at the end of his life, he says, "The scepter of rulership will not be taken from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from his descendants, until the Shiloh comes" (Genesis 49:8-10 TPT). Kings would come from Judah. And not just kings. The writer of Hebrews said, "our Lord came from the tribe of Judah" (Hebrews 7:14 NLT). The man who sold his brother into slavery became the ancestor of the Savior who laid down His life for the world. Look at what Judah did in Egypt. He offered his life for his brother, and Jesus said, "There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13 NLT). Judah's worst moment did not cancel his destiny.
How this applies to you:
-- Your worst chapter is not your last chapter, and it does not cancel what God planned for you before you were born.
-- Judah went from the man who sold his brother to the tribe that produced the King of kings. God is not intimidated by your past, and he is not holding it against you either.
-- The scepter went to Judah, not to Reuben the firstborn and not to Joseph the favorite. God chose the man who turned.
-- Jesus said, "There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:13 NLT). Judah lived that in Egypt, and God wrote it into his lineage.
-- If God can build the line of the Messiah through a man like Judah, He can build a destiny through you.
-- Stop letting your worst moment tell you what God can do with your best one.
-- Judah was the fourth son, behind Reuben, Simeon, and Levi (Genesis 29:35), and he did not talk his way to the front of that line. God knew everything Judah would do, the selling of his brother and the mess in Genesis 38, before Judah ever did it, and the scepter was still Judah's. His change did not purchase the promise. The promise came first, and grace is what produced the change. That is how God deals with you. He did not look down the annals of time, see you finally get it together, and then decide you were worth a destiny. He planned your destiny before the foundation of the world, and then went to work on the inside of you to bring you to what was already yours.
-- The devil reminds you of Genesis 37. But God has already seen Genesis 49.
That's enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, You planned my destiny before I was born, and You planned the tests that would qualify me for it!
When the old test comes back around, I will pass it!
I am not the person who failed back then!
My change shows up under pressure, not just in my words!
You are proving my faith like fire proves gold!
You began a good work in me, and You will finish it!
I am a new creation, and the old life is gone!
My worst chapter does not cancel my destiny!
You are not intimidated by my past, and neither am I!
You are writing my Genesis 49!
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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