Discovering Destiny (Part 58): There Is A Reason God Sent You There
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 45:1-8 NLT
"Joseph could stand it no longer. There were many people in the room, and he said to his attendants, 'Out, all of you!' So he was alone with his brothers when he told them who he was. Then he broke down and wept. He wept so loudly the Egyptians could hear him, and word of it quickly carried to Pharaoh's palace. 'I am Joseph!' he said to his brothers. 'Is my father still alive?' But his brothers were speechless! They were stunned to realize that Joseph was standing there in front of them. 'Please, come closer,' he said to them. So they came closer. And he said again, 'I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery in Egypt. But don't be upset, and don't be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. This famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors. So it was God who sent me here, not you! And he is the one who made me an adviser to Pharaoh, the manager of his entire palace, and the governor of all Egypt.'"
Supporting scriptures:
Psalm 105:17 TPT
"But he had already sent a man ahead of his people to Egypt; it was Joseph, who was sold as a slave."
Genesis 50:20 NLT
"You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people."
Acts 7:9-10 NLT
"These patriarchs were jealous of their brother Joseph, and they sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. And God gave him favor before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. God also gave Joseph unusual wisdom, so that Pharaoh appointed him governor over all of Egypt and put him in charge of the palace."
Esther 4:14 NLT
"If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?"
Ephesians 2:10 TPT
"We have become his poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny he has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it!"
Romans 8:28 AMPC
"We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose."
Setting the Stage:
Yesterday, we watched Judah offer himself as a slave so Benjamin could go home to his father. That was the moment Joseph had been waiting on for 22 years. He did not need an apology. He needed evidence. And when the evidence walked up and stood in front of him, the governor of Egypt could not hold it together for one more second.
Look at what he does. He clears the room. "Out, all of you!" The most powerful man in Egypt outside of Pharaoh empties his own throne room, because what is about to happen is family business. Then the Bible says, "he broke down and wept. He wept so loudly the Egyptians could hear him." 22 years of grief came out of that man in one sound. And through the tears he says three words those ten men never expected to hear: "I am Joseph!"
Now picture those ten men. They stood there speechless. The man who held their lives in his hands was the brother they threw in a pit and sold for twenty pieces of silver. The Bible says they were "stunned." And Joseph does not lead with what they did to him. He says, "Please, come closer." And when they inch forward, he tells them the truth about the last two decades: "It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives." He does not say it once. He says it three times in eight verses. "God has sent me ahead of you." And then, "So it was God who sent me here, not you!"
Here is what I want you to see today. Joseph did not say God rescued him from Egypt. He said God sent him to Egypt. That is a completely different way to read your own life. The pit was not a detour from his destiny. The pit was the road. And the whole time he thought he was a victim of his brothers, he was actually a man on assignment, sent ahead of a famine nobody had seen yet, for a family that did not deserve him. Your destiny is not only something God planned for you. It is something God planned through you, for somebody. So wherever you have been, and wherever you are standing right now, hear this: there is a reason God sent you there.
So, what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. God Sent You Ahead Of Somebody.
Read Joseph's words slowly: "God sent me here ahead of you." Ahead of you. That phrase carries the whole message. The famine did not start until Joseph was already in position. Seven years of plenty had already been stored. The storehouses were already full. By the time the hunger reached Canaan, the answer had been in Egypt for years. The psalmist said it this way: "he had already sent a man ahead of his people to Egypt" (Psalm 105:17 TPT). God did not react to the famine. God preceded it. And the way He preceded it was by sending a 17-year-old down a road that boy would never have chosen.
How this applies to you:
-- God is never scrambling, because the answer is already in place before the emergency ever shows up.
-- Joseph was sold at 17 and stood in front of his brothers at 39, and for 22 years he thought he was behind when he was actually early.
-- The psalmist said God "had already sent a man ahead of his people" (Psalm 105:17 TPT). Read that again. God had already done it.
-- Some of what you walked through was not punishment, and it was not an accident; it was God positioning you for the impact you were born to make.
-- I have taught you that purpose predates presence. God planned you before you took a breath, and He planned where you would be standing when somebody needed you.
-- You may be in a place right now that makes no sense to you, doing something that feels beneath you. Ask a different question. Not why am I here, but who is coming that I am here for?
-- God does not waste a route, and there is a reason He sent you where He sent you, and there are people who are going to need the person you are becoming.
-- The blessing comes TO you, so it can flow THROUGH you. People like it when I say that. But they don’t like it when they realize that the very same blessing I am talking about often comes with painful processing. But you must endure the processing in order to experience and release the blessing.
2. Having A Divine Perspective Makes It Easy To Forgive People.
Now, catch what Joseph refuses to do. He does not give his brothers credit for putting him in Egypt and then say God made the best of it. He says, "So it was God who sent me here, not you!" 10 guilty men were standing right there, and Joseph took the pen out of their hands. They were the instrument. God was the Author. Years later, he says it again: "You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good" (Genesis 50:20 NLT). Both things were true at the same time. What they did was evil, and what God did was sovereign.
How this applies to you:
-- The people who hurt you were never powerful enough to write your destiny.
-- Joseph did not deny what they did. He said it out loud: "whom you sold into slavery in Egypt." Then he told them God was the one who sent him.
-- What they meant for harm and what God meant for good happened inside the same event.
-- Paul said all things "work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good" (Romans 8:28 AMPC). Not all things are good. All things are woven.
-- Joseph forgave men who never said they were sorry, because he had already settled who was really running his life.
-- When you know God is moving pieces around on the chessboard of your life, then the attacks against you don’t seem as bad. You see them as moves from the enemy. Sometimes the enemy manipulates people to do things to you, and they don’t even know why they are doing it. So when you have a divine perspective, it is easier to forgive them, because you recognize the force behind the scenes. This is how Jesus was able to look at Peter and say, "Get thee behind me, Satan." Jesus was not upset with Peter; he was rebuking Satan.
-- Jesus was able to look into a crowd and see faces who were saying, “Crucify Him!” Many of those faces cried out “Hosanna!” just a few days earlier. But since Jesus had a divine perspective, He said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t even know what they are doing.” (Rick Pina Version).
-- If you are still waiting on somebody to admit what they did before you can move, you missed the point of the chess game. It’s bigger than them. God is moving, and satan is moving, and just as long as you keep your eyes fixed on God, you will not be moved by the people satan manipulates to get in your way.
-- Say it out loud today. God sent me. It was never about them!
3. Your Destiny Has Names Attached To It.
Here is the part people miss. Joseph did not say God sent him to Egypt to make him great (which is what so many people focus on today). He said, "God sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives." The destiny had faces on it. Jacob. Benjamin. 10 brothers. Their wives, their children, their grandchildren. People who would walk into Goshen as a family and come out a nation. Joseph's promotion was never really about Joseph. Mordecai told Esther the same thing: "Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14 NLT). Paul said we are God's poetry, and "even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it" (Ephesians 2:10 TPT). Good works are always done for somebody.
How this applies to you:
-- Your destiny is not about a title; it is about impacting the people God has called you to, and some of them you have not met yet.
-- Joseph ran all of Egypt, but Genesis 45 says what the position was really for: "to keep you and your families alive."
-- Stop asking what you are supposed to be and start asking who you are supposed to bless and impact.
-- The famine was seven years long, and that family would have starved in year three. Joseph was the difference between his family becoming a nation and them going to the graveyard.
-- Esther's crown was not a reward. It was a position for a moment she did not know was coming, and yours is too.
-- The people who hurt you may be the same people you are called to bless. In the world, they call that irony. In God's kingdom, we call it grace.
-- Carry this question into your week: who is God keeping alive through me? Whose life is being impacted through mine?
4. God Prepared You Before The Moment Ever Came.
Look at the timeline one more time, because this is where faith gets built. Two years of famine had already passed when the brothers showed up, and Joseph told them there were five more years coming, with "neither plowing nor harvesting." He could speak about the end of a famine that still had five years left in it, because God had shown him the whole thing in Pharaoh's dream before he even started. The plenty came first. The storehouses came first. The man came first. That is how God has always worked. He told Jeremiah He knew him before He formed him in the womb. God does not develop you in the moment. He develops you before the moment.
How this applies to you:
-- God does not build the ark during the flood. He builds it before the rain.
-- The years that felt like waiting were actually manufacturing. God was preparing you for what He prepared for you.
-- Potiphar's house, the prison, and the butler who forgot him were all building the man who could stand in front of Pharaoh and run a nation.
-- If God has you in a season of preparation, do not despise it and do not rush it, because you are being made ready ahead of a need you cannot see yet.
-- The greater the assignment, the longer and the more intense the preparation.
-- The season of preparation is not a test you have to pass to earn your destiny. Joseph did not earn Egypt by doing a good job in Potiphar's house or by being a model prisoner. God gave him the dream first, and grace carried him through every year until it came to pass.
-- Preparation is not probation. Your season of preparation is tied to your destiny. You're not working for it. You're being developed so that you can deploy into it.
-- Paul said God planned our destiny and our good works "even before we were born" (Ephesians 2:10 TPT). The plan is older than you are.
-- When the moment finally comes, you will not have to scramble. You will already be standing in the right place, with the right wisdom, holding the right keys. God has you right where you are for such a time as this.
That's enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, You sent me, so I am not a victim of my past!
I am on assignment, and my assignment has names attached to it!
What others meant for harm, You meant for good!
You are the Author of my story, and no person gets to write it!
There is a reason You sent me where You sent me, and You sent me ahead of a need I could not see!
Nothing I walked through was wasted, because You do not waste a route!
You planned my destiny and my good works before I was born!
I am positioned, I am prepared, and I am right on time!
I forgive freely, because I know who really sent me!
You are keeping people alive through 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!
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