God's Plan through Prison

We all go through things in life.  We all face difficulties.  Things are not always easy:  There’s persecution, hardships, things happen that are undeserved.  So, where’s God’s purpose in our lives?  Shouldn’t it be easy?  After all, we believe God.  We have faith, so why do bad things happen to us?  We’re good people, right?

God does have a plan for our lives.  So, if God has a plan then why are bad things happening?  In this post, I want to examine that, from this portion of scripture:

Genesis 39:19-20 (NKJV)
^39:19 So it was, when his master heard the words which his wife spoke to him, saying, "Your servant did to me after this manner," that his anger was aroused. ²⁰ Then Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were confined. And he was there in the prison.

God’s Plan for Joseph

We know the story of Joseph.  He spent time as a slave.  He spent time in prison.  After that he became the Prime minister of Egypt.  God had a plan for Joseph.  God spoke to him and showed him his destiny.

Genesis 37:5-7 (NKJV)
^37:5 Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more. ⁶ So he said to them, "Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: ⁷ There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf."

God is speaking to Joseph, here.  God is revealing something to him.  God is showing him there is a plan and a destiny for his life.  Eventually, it did happen.  He rose to a position of preeminence.  His brothers did bow to him.  It did come out according to God’s plan, but it wasn’t an easy road to destiny. 

Often there are what look like pitfalls on the road to God’s plan.  Sometimes it even looks as if the opposite of God’s plan is happening.  We can’t see how God’s plan could possibly work out.  Have you ever felt that?  You look at your circumstances and you can’t see any possibility.  We need to remember that it’s God’s plan; that God is in charge.

I’ll tell you a story.  In Riverside, we had a neighbor who was a good Christian.  In fact, she was a Christian counselor.  She helped people through their problems, using Biblical tools to bring counsel.  On the day that Barak Obama was elected president of the United States, she told me she couldn’t go to work.  She was too upset; she couldn’t see any possibility for America.  I had to ask her the question, “Is God still on the throne?”

We’re like that lady – We know that God has a plan.  We know that God is in charge of the universe, but in our limited vision, we can’t see how God’s plan could possibly happen.  So what happens?  We get depressed.  We even get angry at God, sometimes we even leave God.

Joseph had a clear vision of God’s plan for his life.  In fact, God showed him more than once.  He had two dreams:  God was going to elevate Joseph above the others in his family.  Joseph was destined to be a leader.

I wonder if God has spoken to you.  Has God begun to reveal his plan for your life?  Are you seeing God’s purposes for your life?  Can you look at your life right now, and see how God’s plan can happen for you, or are you bogged down by your circumstances.

I want you to know that Joseph went through a number of things before he saw God’s promise.  It must have looked impossible for him.  He may have thought that God’s plans might not happen.  In all that, though Joseph had faith – He believed God.

We’re all going to face adversity in life, even though we have God’s promise of destiny.  Look at what Job said to his wife:

Job 2:9-10 (NKJV)
^2:9 Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!" ¹⁰ But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Job and his wife had just lost all of their children, all of their flocks, all of their wealth and Job’s health.  Job knows that adversity also comes in God’s plan.

The Unfolding of God’s Plan

God has spoken to Joseph and laid out the end result of His plan for Joseph’s life, but He didn’t tell Joseph what to expect.  Joseph shares the plan with his brothers.  His brothers are upset – They’re jealous because God has told Joseph that he would be above them.  So, look at what they did:

Genesis 37:25-28 (NKJV)
^37:25 And they sat down to eat a meal. Then they lifted their eyes and looked, and there was a company of Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead with their camels, bearing spices, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry them down to Egypt. ²⁶ So Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? ²⁷ Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh." And his brothers listened. ²⁸ Then Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.

The brothers wanted to kill him.  They plotted against him.  They made a decision to sell him into slavery, but wait a minute, where is God’s plan in this?  This isn’t a blessing, is it?  He’s going to be a slave – This isn’t what God had told him his destiny was.  Is the plan of God derailed in his life? 

God has a plan for us, too, but sometimes it doesn’t seem as if it’s working out.  In fact, it seems as if the exact opposite is happening.  “God has a good plan for me, doesn’t he?  So where’s the blessing?  How come I’m being sold into slavery?  Is this really God’s plan for me?” 

God told Joseph everyone would bow down to him, but right now it doesn’t look as if the brothers are going to be doing that.  It seems like they have the upper hand.

The devil does that to us, too.  Sometimes it seems like the devil is winning.  Sometimes it seems as if the devil has the upper hand – and sometimes it seems like it gets even worse. 

Joseph is serving in Potiphar’s house.  Potiphar’s wife decides that she wants him.  Joseph is serving God, though.  He refuses her and the woman lies.  Potiphar has him put in jail thinking that he raped his wife – and Joseph languishes in prison.  Can you imagine what Joseph is thinking?  How distant the destiny of the dreams must seem to him.  He’s separated from family.  He’s in another country in prison.

Think about this.  How often are prisoners elevated in society?  They’re usually considered to be cast-offs from society.  They hardly ever have people bowing down to them.  They’re hardly ever thought of as leaders of society.

In all of this God’s plan is still working, though.  While he’s a slave the Bible says:

Genesis 39:2 (NKJV)
^39:2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.
 Genesis 39:23 (NKJV)
^39:23 The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph's authority, because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.

I wonder if the Joseph felt like the Lord was with him, or did he feel more like Job’s wife.

There were some things that happened in prison that seem unrelated.  He meets a butler and a baker that are also in prison.  They’ve somehow made Pharaoh angry, so he’s sent them to prison.  While in prison, each of them had a dream.  Look at what Joseph says to them:

Genesis 40:7-8 (NKJV)
^40:7 So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in the custody of his lord's house, saying, "Why do you look so sad today?" ⁸ And they said to him, "We each have had a dream, and there is no interpreter of it." So Joseph said to them, "Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, please."

We get a little insight into Joseph’s thinking here, “Do not interpretations belong to God?  Tell them to me.”  Joseph is still having faith.  Even in the middle of all of these things, he still believes God.  He’s still praying.  He’s still got a relationship with God.

A lot of times when things go wrong our relationship with God suffers for it.  We feel distant from God.  We back off in our prayer life.  We allow distance to come between us and God; am I right?  It’s almost like we allow ourselves to think that God betrayed us.

This often the way it is with people who profess not to believe in God.  Often, they’re just angry at God for something that’s happened in their lives.  It’s not so much a disbelief in god as it is a feeling of betrayal, followed by a hatred of God; bitterness.

I don’t get that from Joseph, though.  He correctly interprets their dreams and asks the butler to remember him to Pharaoh.  The butler for his part promptly forgets about Joseph and he spends two more years in prison…until Pharaoh has a dream.

Pharaoh is disturbed by the dream and finally, the butler remembers how Joseph correctly interpreted his dream.  He tells Pharaoh and Pharaoh has Joseph brought to him.  Joseph then correctly interprets Pharaoh’s dream.

Destiny is Realized

This is where Joseph begins to see the plan unfolding.  Pharaoh’s dream had to do with prosperity and drought.  There would be seven years of prosperity and then seven years of drought.  Joseph gave a plan to Pharaoh to use the seven prosperous years to provide for the seven drought years, so Pharaoh lifts Joseph up from prison and makes him Prime Minister over all of Egypt.  They destiny of God is playing out in his life.  Now look at this:

Genesis 50:18 (NKJV)
^50:18 Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, "Behold, we are your servants."

His brothers have bowed down before him.  God’s entire plan has played out in his life.  What you should see here, though is that all of the things that took place in Joseph’s life had to take place, for God’s plan to work.

At Potiphar’s house Joseph learned how to manage the house.  He had to be a slave there or he wouldn’t have gone to prison.  In prison he interpreted the dreams – the thing that was needed by Pharaoh.  That had to happen for him to be recommended to Pharaoh to interpret Pharaoh’s dream.  God put all of those things into place.  Joseph tells us something that we need to know:

Genesis 50:20 (NKJV)
^50:20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.

All along it was the plan of God.  It was meant by the brothers for evil, but God had a plan for good. I know that some people are going through things.  I know that some people can’t understand why things are happening the way they are.  I know that some f you can’t see the promise of God in your circumstances, but there is a plan and what you’re going through now might be necessary to make God’s plan play out in your life.  Don’t lose hope – Don’t break faith.

You don’t always know what God is doing.  You can’t always see His strategy, but God knows what He’s doing.  He has a destiny and a plan for you.

The God of Location

I believe that God put me into the best place for me when he placed me into my home church.  My pastor could relate to me.  He had similar business experiences.  He was able to talk to me on a scientific and on a business level, and he could relate to me as a person.  I had met a lot of other pastors nearby but there was never the same level of relationship.

If you’re a part of my congregation you’ve heard me say this a million times:  God has a plan your life.  One thing that you may not realize, though, is that God’s plan includes a location.  Where you are is as important as what you do in God’s plan. Location is important to God.  If you study your Bible you can find a number of places where God has brought things back to one location.

In this post I want to examine the importance of location to God.  God is a God of Location.  In order to do that I want to use the following scripture as a “jumping off’ point.

Genesis 22:2 (NKJV)
^22:2 Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."

God Uses Places

This is the moment when God is testing Abraham’s faith.  He sends him to Mount Moriah to offer his son Isaac as a burnt offering.  He’s looking for Abraham’s faith. 

Later in Israel’s history David numbers the people of Israel and God judges that and sends the Angel of Death.  David builds an altar on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. 

1 Chronicles 21:26-28 (NKJV)
^21:26 And David built there an altar to the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on the Lord; and He answered him from heaven by fire on the altar of burnt offering. ²⁷ So the Lord commanded the angel, and he returned his sword to its sheath. ²⁸ At that time, when David saw that the Lord had answered him on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite, he sacrificed there.

God heard from David on the threshing floor and stopped the judgment, but look at this:

2 Chronicles 3:1 (NKJV)
^3:1 Now Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

Look at where the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite was, it was on Mount Moriah; The same place that God sent Abraham to offer Isaac.  God called Abraham and provided a ram at this place.  He answered David’s prayer at this same place.  Finally, He had Solomon build the temple on the same mountain.

This is not the only time that God did this:

Exodus 3:1 (NKJV)
^3:1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

God called on Moses to deliver His people, you know the story.  Moses was out tending sheep and God called him to the burning bush.  The scriptures tell us that that the place where the burning bush was located was called Horeb, the Mountain of God.  After Moses delivers the people they come to Mount Sinai.  Mount Sinai and Mount Horeb are the same place.  God meets again with Moses on that same place. 

Exodus 3:4-6 (NKJV)
^3:4 So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." ⁵ Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground." ⁶ Moreover He said, "I am the God of your father--the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

This is the same place where God met with Moses and gave him the law.  It is also the place where God passed by and revealed Himself to Moses. 

Later, Elijah has just destroyed the priests of Baal and he’s hiding from Jezebel in the wilderness and God sends an Angel and tells him to go to a place:

1 Kings 19:8 (NKJV)
^19:8 So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.

So, here are two places that keep recurring in God’s history:  Mount Moriah and Mount Horeb (Sinai).  God has used these two locations.  At Mount Moriah he responded to needs.  He met Abraham’s need for a substitute offering for Isaac, and he met David’s need for an end to the plague judgment.  At Mount Horeb, he revealed Himself to both Moses and Elijah. 

There were other places as well.  There’s Bethel where God promised Abraham a land for his descendants.  Later, he reiterated that promise to Jacob, also at Bethel.  There’s something about location that’s important to God. 

He had a specific place in mind for His people.  There was “Promised Land.”  The Promised land was a specific piece of real estate.  God even went so far as to outline the specific borders of the land. 

Prophecies were often specific with regard to a location where something would take place.  It was prophesied that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem, specifically. The prophets named a location.

God has plans for our lives.  He has a plan for each of us, and our locations are a part of His plan.  There have been a number of times that evangelists have come to preach here and they’ve called out my daughters and told them, “being in Taiwan is tied to your destiny.”  In other words, God sent them here for a reason.  It is a part of His plan for their lives.

A plan is like a blueprint for a building.  A blueprint for a building is designed around the place where the building will be built.  The location is of prime importance when you’re developing a plan for a building.  I believe the same is the when designing a plan for our lives.  The place where God brought you to salvation is the location for God’s plan to be developed in your life.

When we were first pioneering the church I pastored in Riverside, a woman came to the church service.  This was very early in the church’s history.  So early, in fact, that my family were the only people there.  At first, she was very uncomfortable and told me that she was there by accident.  I told her that I believe that there are no accidents; God brought here to that place as the beginning of His plan for her.  God brought you to your church as well; it is the beginning of His plan for you.

Where We are is as Important as What We Do

Psalms 37:23 (NKJV)
^37:23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way.

George Mueller once said, “The steps of a good man are ordered and the stops as well.”

What does that mean; the steps of a man are ordered?  That means that God has planned the steps of His will for you.  God has a plan and a purpose and He has set you in motion and guided you along the path that leads to His will.  The PLACE where He draws you to serve Him is part of His plan for you.  It’s part of His ordering your steps.

Think of it like this:  You’re going to take a journey and you get out a map and you trace the roads on which you’ll be traveling.  Planning where you will stop each night is an important part of the planning.

God has placed you on a journey called “His will” and He has planned out the road you’ll take.  He’s also planned the place you’ll start from and where you’ll stop along the way.  

God puts you in a place to facilitate His plan for your life.  So making a decision to leave that place must be based on God’s will.  It should be done prayerfully, not in anger, not in saying, “God made a mistake.”   God placed you in your place for a reason. What happens, though, is that as we age in our salvation we begin to think that we understand more about God and His will and we begin to make decisions that WE think are God’s will, but they’re really our OWN thoughts.  I believe that God placed you in that church for His reasons:  That God has a plan for you that includes being in that place.

People will often come to me and tell me, “I’m going to do this,” or, “I’m going to do that.”  They’re not asking me for input, they’ve already made up their mind.  Often, I can see that what they’re doing is outside of God’s will.  I can’t say anything that’s going to change their mind, so they turn around and say, “Pastor gave my decision his blessing.”  It’s not what I think that’s important, it’s what God thinks.  It’s not my plan that’s being frustrated; it’s God’s plan. 

I got saved in Colton, California.  As a person who lived and did business in the area, I had no love for that city.  The city leaders at the time were notoriously corrupt.  There was a lot of gang violence and other things.  I had always said I would never live in that city…but then I got saved there.  I gave myself to God’s plan for my life.  I DECIDED that I would serve God in that place and do whatever it was that God had for me.  I even moved to Colton and lived there for a number of years.  God’s plan moved forward in my life.

Colton was the place where God’s plan for my life unfolded and eventually led me to Taiwan to preach the Gospel.  I’ve been out preaching for almost 15 years, but I’m still connected to that same pastor and congregation, where I got saved.  My ministry is really an extension of my pastor’s.  He is still intimately involved in my life.  That’s how the plan of God is facilitated in my life.  God has led me to Taiwan, but the journey started in Colton.

I often see people going from church to church, visiting here and there, but there isn’t anything that they’re doing for God.  They are looking for something that caters to their needs; their plan.  They aren’t growing; they aren’t grabbing hold of God’s will, because God’s plan is rooted in the place that He put them.  If you are thinking about moving on from your church, you need to think long and hard about it.  You need to carefully pray about it, because God has a plan for you and LOCATION is a part of that plan.

Locking into the Location of God’s Will

I had rather be in the heart of Africa in the will of God than on the throne of England out of the will of God.  David Livingstone

Why do you think God sent you to the place He sent you?  This is an important question, “Why did God choose that church for you to be saved, or to be a part of?”  God has a plan for your church, as well as for your life.  The steps of the church are also ordered by God, and part of God’s plan for the church is YOU.  Look at this scripture:

Romans 12:3-8 (NKJV)
^12:3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. ⁴ For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, ⁵ so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. ⁶ Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; ⁷ or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; ⁸ he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

God knows the needs of the church.  He knows that the pastor doesn’t have all of the abilities that are needed to move His plan forward.  He sets you together so that the pastor can use your strengths and you can use his:  So that your pastor can replace your weaknesses with his strengths and you can replace ypur pastor's weaknesses with your strengths. 

Even more importantly, some people are sitting back and not using their gifts to move God’s will; to move God’s plan forward.  Some people are sitting on their hands saying someone else will do it:  Someone else will fill in the gaps, but that’s not God’s plan.  You are needed to be in your place and participate with your strengths.  God needs you to answer His call on your life.

All of the men I mentioned in the first part of this post were in their place and responded to God’s “steps.”

1. Abraham took Isaac to Mount Moriah.
2. Moses answered the burning bush in the same place.
3. David pleaded with God on Ornan’s threshing floor.
4. Solomon built the temple in that same place.
5. Moses met with God at Mount Sinai.
6. Elijah saw God on the same mountain.

God called them to those places, the men responded and did what was asked of them.  God has that same expectation for us as well.  We’re all busy, but God still has a plan for your life.  The problem is His plan may not be your plan.  If you want God to move in your life; if you want God to respond in your life, you might try responding to what God is calling you to do.  You might try doing what God is laying on your heart in the church that you’re at.

 God has a plan for you and that plan begins in the church where God placed you.  There’s a part that you have to play in the plan of God.  He doesn’t do it all for you.  You have to work to see God’s plan happen in your life.  You have to put energy into doing what you’ve been called to, in the place God called you to do it.  It’s worth it…God’s plan includes blessing you.