Joseph's Blessings - Genesis 39:2 by: William R. Nabaza of www.Nabaza.com
Who among here that are chased by blessings? I remember Deuteronomy 28:2 as it said "And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 28:2, ESV)" This is what Joseph's blessings is all about. Our text is Genesis 39:2
The Lord was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master.
We all know that this book was co-authored by Moses as he writes everything as dictated by GOD not in dreams or visions like it said in Exodus 33:11, "The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent." Genesis is the book of beginnings or origins, showing from the beginning that GOD so loved us that He already promised us a redeemer from the beginning, as it was written in Genesis 3:15 - And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He will bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.
Father-heart GOD, I pray that you Oh Father-heart GOD will stick with me and stay as I stick with you and stay, I seek the Blessor, for You Oh, Father-Heart GOD is the Source of all our blessings, In Jesus' Name and In the Power of the Spirit, I pray, Amen and Amen!!
Let's praise and worship GOD for He is our Blessor, His Name is Jehovah Jireh!!
Let's investigate and observe the blessings of Joseph that He got from GOD. The characteristics of Joseph's blessings are:
THE LORD WAS WITH JOSEPH.
If you are with GOD and GOD is with you, you enjoy everything He has to offer for He's the Source of everything here on earth and heaven. His very name is Jehovah Jireh, Our LORD, the Provider. Genesis 22:14: Abraham named the place Yahweh-Yireh (which means “the Lord will provide”). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” Whether you are located in the mountains or in the plains, or you set your house in the middle of the sea, GOD is there and He can reach out to you with all His blessings. So if you're in the Philippines or United States, GOD can reach out to you with His blessings, no need to move out or migrate since the GOD of the Universe, who owns a thousand cattles on a thousand hills is the GOD of the United States of America and the GOD of the Philippines as well. (Psalms 50:10 - For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills.)
GOD have also promised to us that He will be with us until the end of this world or age. (Matthew 28:20 - ..And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”) As long as we're doing what He wants us to do, like make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19 - Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.) His Presence will go with us wherever we go carrying His Gospel of Peace.
He is among us, if we study, pray and worship together, Matthew 18:20 - For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them. It's a great privelege to be with the LORD, but while we're still alive, His Presence is here with us to stay. Isaiah 43:2- When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you. In the midst of all our trials, persecutions and huge problems, even bigger than us, He's always with us to comfort, save and support us. Exodus 33:14 - The Lord replied, “I will personally go with you, Moses, and I will give you rest—everything will be fine for you.” Leviticus 26:12 - I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people. People that are restless and don't ever go to the House of God, the church, are easy to possessed by the enemy, why? Because they don't have rest. People that work even on Sundays and rather worship and serve the Creator, but are serving the creature (their bosses) will finally tired down, get stressed down and even die for lack of rest. His Presence gives rest. (Romans 1:25 - They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.)
Matthew 12:43-45
43 “When an evil spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none.
44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order.
45 Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before. That will be the experience of this evil generation.”
A person filled with GOD's Presence can never be possessed, he might get oppressed but not possessed since his human spirit is at rest with GOD's Holy Spirit, and there's no vacancy for the enemy to come in, not even a backdoor. The enemy and his cohorts are restless until now because they are ex-communicated or fallen from GOD's Presence to worship night and day, since they lack this rest, they try to possess a person (who's created in the image of GOD) to find rest, but of course for not so long, that demon-possessed person will also be influenced by the restlessness of that demon inside of him. So demons goes to church to find rest but will not find any. The desert place could be the church, since it's full of people who failed, sinners, those who are sick. Remember GOD came to seek and save that which is lost, the demon is interested on all of that, but to avoid it, we need to be filled with GOD's Holy Spirit everyday of our lives, (James 4:7 - So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.) Desire GOD's Presence even more as long as you do it, you will enjoy His blessings and protection too. (Genesis 15:1 - “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”)
Matthew 11:28-30
28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
GOD will never leave us, He will be with us. (Genesis 28:15- What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”)
JOSEPH IS THE RIGHT PERSON IN THE WRONG PLACE.
Genesis 37:5-7
5 One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever.
6 “Listen to this dream,” he said.
7 “We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!”
The dream of Joseph is to be a king someday but he ended up a head slave or a majordomo. He could fall into tantrums and beat himself out in the head or roll over the floor, and ask God why and what happened to his royal career, but he never did it, but instead He seek GOD in his current position, the head-slave.
He has the spirit of Zechariah who will never despise small beginnnings, (Zechariah 4:9 - For who has despised the day of small things?) GOD will test us, we might end up as an encoder in a not-so-known printing press, the way I started my career in the computer field, but still if we seek the salary or the boss about our income or salary that we can receive for that day, we're searching the creature not the Creator. (Romans 1:25 - They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.) In all things or positions that we have in the office, no matter how small or humiliating or humble it is, seek GOD in all of these things and He will provide all our needs according to His riches in glory. (Philippians 4:19 - 19 And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.) I need to emphasize this, that He will supply our needs not according to how high your current salary is, or how high you receive from your business but according to his riches in glory, according to Heaven's economy not in the earth's failing economy. So don't despise or look down with humiliation on the current position you have in the office, it might be just a clerk but from now and then, you do photocopies, it's irrelevant to GOD, because He will still and can provide for your needs. Not only that He can also take care of our wants. (1 Timothy 6:17 - Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.) Remember, He gives us all we need for our enjoyment. If you think you enjoy riding a BMW, then GOD gives it to us.
(Genesis 1:11 Then God said, “Let the land sprout with vegetation—every sort of seed-bearing plant, and trees that grow seed-bearing fruit. These seeds will then produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came.” And that is what happened.) Everything in this world, from the beginning, started with a seed. That's why we need to give our seed to the LORD so He can bless us. (2 Corinthians 9:10 - Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.) Our CHRISTian walk is always = Seed To Sow + Bread for food. GOD in HIS Sovereign Power have already calculated that He can give us both, seed to sow in the church, and our bread for food, it's always been like that from the beginning. Everything in our lives, started out little then GOD blesses it to become huge. Remember the time when our LORD JESUS CHRIST fed the 5,000? (Matthew 14:15-21) It all started out with (“But we have only five loaves of bread and two fish!” they answered.) 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes, how can those feed the 5,000 men excluding women and children? But once given to GOD, it increases, our hands are so tiny and microscopic, almost nothing or even more than nothing but when it's placed in GOD's hands, it becomes huge, enough to feed these 5000 men plus more than the 12 apostles can carry.
I challenge everyone who can read this devotionals, it's in denying ourselves and claiming that we are nothing, weak and poor, that GOD will start making His Grace more clear to us.
2 Corinthians 12:9
Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.
