Fulfill Your God-Given Destiny: Your Path to Discern & Embrace God’s Vision

For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them (Psalm 139:13–16).

Basically, this is saying all your days were written in the Lord’s book before there was a single one of them.

That means God had a plan for you when you were still in your mother’s womb. It’s not like He just winds you up and lets you go, and then you just do things your own way. God has a plan for each of us.

T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935)—the man commonly known as “Lawrence of Arabia”—said, “All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”

That’s not exactly the way we talk today, but it’s a powerful truth. This is saying that all men dream but not equally. To some people, a dream doesn’t mean anything because they wake up and it’s gone. But then there are others who dream with their eyes open. In other words, this isn’t talking about just something that takes place in your subconscious mind. This is talking about having a vision for your life.

People who have a vision live with a purpose. They aren’t like pinballs who are launched and bounce around, living their lives by reacting to things. People who have a purpose for their lives—who are driven by visions and dreams—are dangerous men. Those are the men who change the course of the world.

If you don’t get up in the morning with some degree of excitement about God’s vision of where your life is going, then you’re missing out on what life is really all about. You need to know God has a purpose for your life. You need to find out what that is and start moving in that direction.

God has a vision for every single one of us. He’s never made a piece of junk or a failure. God never made anybody to just occupy space and then die. God has a plan for your life that is better than anything you could ever imagine. But in order for you to fulfill God’s plan, you need to have some understanding about what He has in store for you. And I believe that’s what the Lord did with Joseph.

These dreams showed Joseph he was going to be promoted above his brothers and that they would bow down to him—and that’s exactly the way they took it! In Genesis 37:8, Joseph’s brothers responded,

Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.

Don’t Stir Up Strife

To understand why Joseph’s brothers reacted the way they did, you have to know more about their family.

These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him (Genesis 37:2–4).

Jacob was Joseph’s father. Earlier in his own life, Jacob wrestled with an angel (Gen. 32:24–32), and the angel changed his name to Israel (Gen. 32:28). So, throughout this story, Joseph’s father is called Jacob and Israel.

Jacob had four wives. He took Rachel to be his wife after Laban deceived him into marrying her sister Leah first (Gen. 29–30). Rachel and Leah each had slaves, Bilhah and Zilpah. So, Jacob wound up with four wives and twelve sons. Joseph was the eleventh of the twelve sons (Gen. 30:24), the firstborn of Rachel, and had one younger brother named Benjamin who would play a significant role in his story (Gen. 35:18, 24).

If you go back to the story of Jacob, Rachel was his favorite wife. She was the one he really loved and wanted to marry (Gen. 29:18–21), but he wound up being tricked by his future father-in-law into marrying Leah, the older sister (Gen. 29:22–27). Jacob didn’t like Leah and, because of this, God shut up the womb of Rachel so she couldn’t have children right away (Gen. 29:31). Leah had four sons (Gen. 29:32–35), so Rachel gave her servant to Jacob so he could have children by her (Gen. 30:3–4).

Eventually, Rachel had two sons of her own, Joseph and Benjamin (Gen. 35:24). Because Joseph was the firstborn of his favorite wife, Jacob loved Joseph above all his other children (Gen. 37:3). Also, Joseph was the son of his old age.

A parent is not supposed to prefer one child over another regardless of whether one child is more beautiful, more talented, or more obedient than another. Again, many people fault Joseph for his brothers’ envy, but instances like this show Jacob was the one at fault. As Genesis 37:4 says, “And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.” It was Israel’s (Jacob’s) preference for Joseph that turned the brothers against Joseph. They didn’t even try to hide their envy and hatred for Joseph. One child should not be favored over his or her siblings like this.

James 3:16 says, “For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” When you are envious of another person, that opens a door to anything the devil wants to do in your life. So, I don’t believe the envy and jealousy these brothers had was caused by Joseph.

Confirming Dreams

Joseph was only seventeen years old when the events of Genesis 37:2–11 took place. There is no indication Joseph shared his dream with his brothers in a way to put them down. I believe it was just the innocence of a seventeen-year-old kid. God gave Joseph this dream, and it was about him being promoted to such a degree that even his brethren would come and bow down to him. I don’t believe he was saying this in a way to rub their noses in it. He was just excited.

The worst anybody can attribute to Joseph in this situation is immaturity. It may be that if he had been more mature, he could have dissipated the special attention and love his father gave him, and he somehow could have mitigated his brothers’ rejection of him. But his father’s preference toward him is what put him in this situation with his brethren, and they hated him because of it.

You can see by the brothers’ reaction that the interpretation of this dream was very clear to them. Joseph was going to prevail above his brothers, and they would someday bow down to him. This dream was repeated in a different way as a confirmation:

And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me (Genesis 37:9).

Similarly, over in Genesis 41:32, Joseph stood before Pharaoh, interpreting his dreams. Joseph said,

And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

Joseph, as he was speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said that when the same point is made by two different dreams it is established and will shortly come to pass. It cannot be changed.

Joseph had two dreams saying he was going to be exalted above his brothers. Because there were two dreams illustrating the same point, that meant the outcome couldn’t be changed—it would happen. Then, Joseph shared the second dream with his father.

[Jacob] rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? (Genesis 37:10b)

It was very clear. Jacob was no stranger to dreams from God (Gen. 28:12 and 31:10–13), and he understood what Joseph’s dream meant. It meant Joseph was going to be promoted over his father and mother (the sun and the moon), and his brothers (the eleven stars) were going to come and bow down to him.

Joseph was given direction by God that he was going to be promoted, and he held on to that. It’s so important you don’t let life’s circumstances and problems derail you. This is one of the things about Joseph that just really inspires me: regardless of what happened to Joseph, he kept the dreams that God had put in his heart in front of him. It became motivation and a dominant force in his life. I don’t believe he ever gave up on what God showed him.

It goes on to say, Joseph’s “brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying” (Gen. 37:11). Even though Jacob rebuked Joseph for it, he observed what he said. Jacob held these things in his heart. This is the same thing that was said about Mary (Luke 2:48) when she rebuked Jesus (Luke 2:46) for being gone three days and speaking to the elders in the temple. Jesus rebuked his mother and said,

How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business? (Luke 2:49b)

And it says that Mary “kept all these sayings” (Luke 2:51). She pondered them in her heart. Mary may not have understood everything about what was going on with Jesus, but she committed to think about it. I think this is the same thing that happened with Jacob when Joseph revealed his dream from God.