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This morning my wife is sick and my children are snotty so I put on the old Disney movie about Joseph to keep them occupied while I cleaned and made breakfast. Although the movie is not an exact word for word  recreation of the story in the book of Genesis, it does a great deal of good in helping remember the story (along with a whole bunch of singing!). The story of Joseph is always a powerful story to remember for those of us who are in the middle of transition.

For the last two years, KC and I have been in transition. The last six years have been spent working with the Joseph Company (now Joseph International) in Kansas City. It was about two years ago that the Lord spoke to us about transitioning out into a new season and we have spent until now in limbo waiting for whatever that transition will become.

This is where the story of Joseph comes in. I am pretty sure that when Joseph was bought by Potiphar, he thought he was onto a good thing. He learned much about Egyptian culture and life through managing Potiphar’s household. During the time he served at Potiphar’s house, he gained respect, approval and security. The problem was that Joseph was never meant to be just a keeper of Potiphar’s household. And so the Lord set up the circumstances to have him “move on”.

I am sure that at the time, it did not feel like a move forward. It felt like what it was – prison.

But if Joseph had not gone to prison, he would not have been in the strategic place necessary to gain access to the highest authority in the land. His prison became his vehicle for promotion.

For my family, the last two years have been difficult. It has not been prison, but at times we have felt trapped and confused about the future. But watching the story of Joseph reminded me that transition in the kingdom of God is always a promotion and not a demotion (even if it feels like it at the time).

So if you feel like you are in a season of transition but you are frustrated by the delay, just remember that it only takes a moment to go from the dungeon to the palace and the best way to go through it is with a heart of thankfulness. This was my reading this morning,

“Oh, that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness,
And for His wonderful works to the children of men! For He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness.” (Psalm 107:8, 9 NKJV)

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Jesus, I come today to declare your nature again. I come to stare into the truth of who you are and by staring into you I know that I will become more like you every day.

Thank you Jesus for the truth that you declared about yourself in John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live.” You are the Truth that was spoken of by all the Old Testament prophets, you are the Seed that was foretold to come through Abrahams lineage and you are the fulfillment of all of history, the consummation of all perfection! All of history has looked for the perfect redeemer and you are that Redeemer! What an amazing promise you have given to me when you declared that I shall live even if I die. When I think about all the times that I have thought about death and how much fear I have had in the past about death, I know that I can laugh about it now! You give me great courage to stand and know that You have already conquered death and the grave. I can stand in confidence knowing that because You are the resurrection, I will be resurrected even if I die!

Jesus, you are the life. I declare you today to be my life and my hope. I declare over my family that you are the life of my family. I declare over my future that you are the source of life for my future. I declare over every aspect of my existence that you are the source of every good thing and as such, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal 2:20) Every breath, every sound, every beating of my heart is the result of your life flowing through me. I no longer live for myself, I live because you are my life. I declare that your resurrection power is at work in me even today as I go about my life and that power is enabling me to accomplish all that you have for me to do in this life. You have not given me a task to fulfill and then not given me the power to do it. “As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,” (2 Peter 1:3) I can be confident in knowing that the life of Jesus flows through me in everything that I do, even if I do not feel adequate to complete the task at hand. My life is Your life and even the breath I breathe is a result of your life flowing through me and giving me the power to breathe. I thank you for that life giving power today and declare you over my life as “The Life”.

Jesus, I declare you to be the way, the truth and the life. I declare over my life that I “shall know the truth, and the truth shall make [me] free.” (John 8:32) Jesus, as I stare into you as “The Life”, you will cause me to walk in the truth. By the power of the Holy Spirit that lives in me, you are enabling me to see Jesus for who He truly is and empowering me to walk in freedom as a result of the truth. I realize now, that I no longer have to strive to walk in freedom by attaining to a list of rules and regulations that I could never fulfill. All I have to do is repent and turn toward the truth, and realize that the truth is not found in an idea, but in a person named Jesus!  Jesus, I declare you today to be the Truth and the only way that I can ever hope to see the Father is by coming to you. Today I come to you, I bow before you and I declare that you are the Way, the Truth and the Life!

Thank you Jesus that because of your resurrection, I now have life. Thank you that because of your mercy, I now have freedom and hope for the future. Thank you Jesus!

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There is an interesting place in the earth’s atmosphere above 200 miles high, where gravity is just strong enough to keep satellites from floating off into deep space, but it is not strong enough to pull them back to earth (eg. the ISS orbits between 320 to 350 kms above the earth). Although we realize that the goal of our faith is to know God, most of our Christian lives are spent at this kind of spiritual altitude, far off and at a great distance from the true knowledge of God. We have faith in God enough to believe for salvation and to understand His nature as a Savior but that is a far as we go. This pulls us into orbit around the kingdom of God, but we never allow ourselves to come any closer. We stand at a distance when it comes to truly believing God is a Healer, a Provider, a Father because we don’t want to get too close just in case God fails us and we are left burnt by unrealized expectations. It is true that re-entry into this spiritual atmosphere could very well burn us up and we could possibly lose everything. It will certainly burn up the excess things that you think you have need of but do not, it will burn up your expectations and false ideas of who God is and it will burn up your pride and self preservation. But as you begin to grow in faith, which is the gravity of heaven, you will end up landing in far greener pastures than you could have ever imagined, seeing cities made by the hand of God.

For us to walk in what Paul called the “fullness of God”, our faith must move beyond a cursory examination of the attributes of God to an experiential knowledge of who He is. The gravity of heaven must pull us out of orbit so that we can be those who are filled with the fullness of God. The re-entry point is described by the wisest man who ever lived,

“For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7

What a man thinks in his heart will always lead him in the way he lives. The story of “the little engine that could” gives a picture of this reality. It was not the capacity of the engine that was important, it was the confidence that came as he approached the obstacle. What we believe in our heart about who we are and who God is will determine the way we live, move and have our being in this life. If we believe that God is impatient with us and quick to judge, then you will respond a certain way in response to that perception of God. If we believe that God is a good Father who has our future in the palm of his hands, then you will live a very different way in response to that understanding. The way a man thinks about God is the key to understanding how he believes and how his worldview is defined. Breaking through the lies and understanding the truth is the first step to entering through the atmosphere of the kingdom and beginning the descent to the intimate knowledge of God.

When I first moved to the USA, I assumed that every American girl wore too much makeup and that all Americans were loud. Where did I get this perception from? I had watched too many American TV shows and been around more than a few loud American tourists. They had formed my understanding of the American culture and without knowing it I had prejudiced myself against Americans. I was not aware of the girls who did not wear makeup and the quiet, peaceful Americans I have grown to love in the years since. My perception had become reality and I looked through a broken lens without even knowing it. If you own a friendly, placid dog as a child, it would be very easy think that all dogs are friendly and placid until you meet a wild dog one day that proves that not all perception equates to reality! Most of us have perceptions of God that have been created by our families, our culture or our own unique history. These very real and very strong ideas of God are hard to uproot.

Unfortunately, most of these ideas are not created by the truth, but by an enemy who has worked very hard to get humanity to believe a lie about who God is. We have to realize that in the spirit world, we have an enemy that is singular in his purpose toward us. His goal is to steal, kill and destroy. We have, however, a distinct advantage that works in our favor. The advantage we have is the victory that was won over the enemy’s camp as a result of Jesus’ death and resurrection. In fact, it was for this purpose that Jesus came, to destroy the works of the devil. Jesus’ victory has given us the confidence to know that we now have an enemy who lost the majority of his firepower against us and is now a defeated foe. The one weapon he has left, however, he uses with devastating effect.

STAY TUNED…

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Ben Woodward :: Worship Leader

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