…Joseph
(Joseph:) Hey there. I hear you're having some
trouble with your brethren. I hear you're even feeling a little bit
like in exile, and that partly due to - just like in my case - some
older brethren's failings. Well, you can look at it whichever way, but
the fact remains that both, your sufferings and mine, were ordained by
the hand of the Lord, and in the end, it couldn't have happened any
better way.
The time in Egypt resulted in making Israel a
greater and richer nation, a force to be reckoned with, of truly
called-out ones from the System of their day, carrying with them
valuable experiences from their servitude in Egypt. Things would have
never been the same without these experiences. And so it is with you.
If you would be taking with you many great
spoils & material riches from your personal time in Egypt (which
isn't quite over yet, as it seems), you would easily see the Lord's
hand in it. But look at it with the eyes of faith: You have gained
spiritual riches, and nourishment, from the storehouses of which you've
got plenty to share with your brethren now, and many are feeding from
it and are basking in the sunshine and the warmth of the fire, made
from the wood you gathered, and you're helping them through this cold,
spiritual winter, and a time of famine.
So, don't be offended or surprised if they mock
you or don't know what to make of you and your coat of many colors,
your strange & odd little ways... Accept the fact that they're
going to have to take you for what you are, and likewise, stretch your
own muscles of tolerance when it comes to your brethren.
It's not enough to just be different. It's
important to make a difference, to strive to be different in an
uplifting way, a positive way that takes the initiative to make a
positive difference. I was tempted to just resign while in prison and
passively sink into the abyss of self-pity. But thankfully, the Lord
quickly had me snap out of that, because He had given me a job to do.
Now, I could not see what that was, but that's
faith. How could I possibly ever imagine while I was in prison that one
day I'd be Pharaoh's 2nd hand, & practically the most powerful man
in the empire that ruled the World? Always keep in mind and focus the
job the Lord has for you, that's greater than anything you could
imagine right now, and that He's preparing You for right now, through
all you're going through right now, to do a better job at ruling the
World some day.
You will be righteous and fair rulers because
you will have gone through sufferings yourselves that will have shown
you the other side, that will enable you to relate to those that might
also suffer and be plagued by doubts, or hurt by others. Blessed are
the peacemakers. How do you make peace? By forgiving and taking a step
towards the others, trying to understand, and trusting the Lord for the
rest, the part you can't understand. He made all of you. He must have
known what He was doing, didn't He?
Haven't you learned that He does all things
well? So, even in creating you and those others with all your flaws,
and putting you in this situation where you'd have to learn to get
along, He must have known what He was doing, right?
And don't worry, Heaven is full of oddballs!
Guys like you will really feel at Home here, because the place is just
buzzin' with oddballs & seeming nutcases like yourself, the
nutcases that really made the differences in the World that brought
about God's perfect plan. The wild & wooly dreamers that saw the
things no one else dared to see, that were even ridiculed by their own
brethren...
If you avail yourself more of our help, you
will have more faith & courage to be that bold, to tell them your
fancy dreams in spite of what they might say. Maybe I wasn't always the
wisest or discrete in choosing who I was going to share my far out
visions & dreams with, I wasn't the most cautious, but the Lord
used that boldness later in order to get me where He wanted me: right
beside the throne that ruled the World, and that's where you're going
to wind up too, some day, along with those brothers & sisters who
never would have dreamed that you would ever make it there, along with
them, just like you may be having a hard time picturing them as that
which they're supposed to be, and, by the grace of God, they're going
to be.
In fact, a lot might depend on you, as to
whether they're going to make it or not. In my case, the Lord used me
in order to ensure My entire family's survival. Be sure you don't miss
any golden opportunities for ways in which the Lord might want to use
you in order to ensure your family's survival! Never think that because
you're locked up in some dungeon or prison cell, along with criminals
and the scum of the World, that God isn't going to be able to use you
there. You never know where you might end up next, if you seize the
opportunity, stay open to His limitless possibilities & just keep
trusting that He knows what He's doing!
It pays to have crazy faith and to not limit the Lord in any way when it comes to His plans for you.
(Jesus:) I allow the lean years to draw people
back to Me, to cause sinners to repent & make things right, as I
caused the sons of Israel to return to their brother Joseph in humility
and repentance.
Remember that the greatest need & hunger is
for the spiritual riches, and be wise - like Joseph - to store up
spiritual wealth to share with the world during its leanest years it
will have ever seen. The greatest famine I want you to prepare for is
the spiritual famine.