God will usually give you a promise before the possession but before you can receive the possession, you must first go through some things. When God gives you a promise, the enemy will try everything in his power to stop it from coming to pass. He will use any tactic, anything, or anyone to prevent it from happening. This is known as the process. It is during the processing season where your faith will be tested because of all of the trials and circumstances you will have to face, but after the process comes to the possession.
Genesis 37; 39-47 revolves around a man named Joseph. Out of all of the children Jacob had, Joseph was his favorite. To show how much he loved his son, Jacob made Joseph a richly, colorful robe to wear. When Joseph’s brothers saw him wearing the robe, they had hatred in their hearts for him. As if seeing Joseph wear a robe their father only made for him wasn’t enough, Joseph proceeds to tell his brothers about two different prophets, and symbolic dreams that he had, but the meaning of the dreams was the same. The interpretation of the dreams revealed that all of Joseph’s brothers were going to bow down to him because he was going to be ruler over them one day. Hearing their younger, teenage brother say these things caused them to become even more envious of Joseph. You have to be careful who you tell your dreams to because not everyone will rejoice the same way you do. They could turn on you, get angry with you, become jealous/envious of you, try to talk you out of it, or try to stop it from happening. The things that Joseph told his brothers angered them so much, that they ended up taking his robe off him, throwing him into a waterless pit, and selling him into slavery, and from there, Joseph ended up in Egypt. Joseph’s brothers then took his robe, dipped it in goat’s blood, and took it back to their father where Jacob assumed that a wild animal killed Joseph. Although his sons knew the truth, they kept it from their father.
When he arrived in Egypt, one of Pharaoh’s officials- an Egyptian named Potiphar-purchased Joseph. Even while Joseph lived in Potiphar’s house as a slave, God still gave him a favor and prospered him. When Potiphar noticed that God’s hand was on Joseph, he too gave him a favor and put him in charge of everything in his house, and when this happened, Potiphar prospered in his house, family, and property because he was connected to Joseph. Even as a slave, Joseph was obviously receiving better treatment than the Egyptian servants who were there long before he had arrived. Everything was going great for Joseph until Potiphar’s wife made a false accusation against him. Because Joseph was an attractive young man, Potiphar’s wife tried to pressure him to sleep with her on a daily basis, but Joseph refused all of her advances and after her last attempt, Joseph was thrown into prison because Potiphar’s wife lied and said Joseph had raped her. From the way it appeared, things were not looking good for Joseph. Even in the midst of the worst situations, you could ever find yourself in, God can still allow His favor to be on you, and that was the case with Joseph.
While in prison, the Lord moved the heart of the warden and appointed Joseph to be in charge of the other prisoners and everything else that went on in the prison. Joseph remained in prison for two years until a former prisoner (Pharaoh’s cupbearer) remembered him and mentioned his name to Pharaoh because of a dream that Joseph was able to interpret for him. Just like Joseph was able to interpret the cupbearer’s dream, he was able to interpret both of Pharaoh’s dreams, which resulted in Joseph being released from prison and Pharaoh promoting him to the governor of Egypt. Because of Joseph’s ability to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams, Egypt was able to prosper when all of the other surrounding nations suffered because of a severe famine (that Joseph prophesied to Pharaoh about) and had to come to Egypt for food. And just like that, Joseph went from being thrown in a pit, to becoming second-in-command to Pharaoh in a palace. God has a way of turning the tables, and Joseph’s brother was about to find this out firsthand.
During the earlier part of the famine, Joseph’s brothers ended up leaving Canaan and going to Egypt to buy some food, but before they could speak to the governor (not knowing that it was their brother Joseph), they had to bow down to him out of respect for his authority. They bowed down to Joseph just like he had prophesied they would years prior. After a few tests, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers. Joseph had forgiven his brothers for selling him into slavery, and he also told them not to blame themselves for what they had done because it wasn’t his brothers who sent him to Egypt, it was God who sent him to save the ones who had to come. Not only was everything reconciled between Joseph and his brothers, but he also ended up being reunited with his father, Jacob. Joseph was able to have his father, his brothers, their families, and their livestock move closer to him, and he remained governor over Egypt.
There will be some serious twists and turns that will take place in your life so that not only the Father can get you to where you need to be, but also so that He can get the glory out of it. When God gives you a promise, it will lead you to the possession but before you can receive the possession, you must first go through the process. So many people want to go from the promise straight to the possession and skip the process altogether. The reason is that the process is painful. It stings. It doesn’t feel good having to suffer or to go through things. But what most fail to realize is that you need the process in order to appreciate the possession. If God allowed us to skip the process and just immediately receive what He has promised us, the possession (whether it be money, a job, ministry, business, marriage, promotion, etc.,) could be misused, abused, squandered, rejected, unappreciated, or something worst.
God gave Joseph a promise, but during the process, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers and served time in prison before he could possess the promise that was given to him. If you want to go from the promise to the possession, you have to go through the process and there is no getting around that.
When God promises you something, it will not be a perfect, straight road that leads you to wherever you need to go to receive it. You may have some bumps in the road, a few detours, and maybe some unexpected accidents but if you can trust God when the reality isn’t lining up with the revelation, I will assure you that just like Joseph, you too shall go from the pit to the palace make it to the final destination of receiving your possession. Your process may be different than my process, and that’s ok because our processes are tailored and custom fit just for us. How God is using you to get you through may be completely different from how He is using me to get through, but the end result we always are the same receiving our promises.
My prayer is that you will trust the Father along this process of life now more than ever before. That the revelation will exceed that which you see because we are instructed to walk by faith and not by sight. That even during the process, what you are going through is not to hurt you, but it is to help someone else, and if you hold on, and do not give up, you too shall receive the promises that the Father has made to you and wants to give to you in Jesus’ Name, Amen.
