And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: for, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves came round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, 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.
And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed yet a dream; and, behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren; and his father 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? And his brethren envied him; but his father kept the saying in mind. Genesis 37:5–11.
Joseph, a man hated for his dreams and for his words, is one of the greatest types of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament, as well as a beautiful pattern for the end-time ministries. The ministry of Joseph was twofold: he had to prepare the people of God for the days of judgment, and in the days of fullness he had to organize the preparation for the coming days of need.
Psalm 105:17–22 says of Joseph: He sent a man before them; Joseph was sold for a servant: his feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in chains of iron, until the time that his word came to pass, the word of Jehovah tried him. The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of peoples, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance; to bind his princes at his pleasure, and teach his elders wisdom. Like Joseph, are you willing to pay the price? When God gives you a Word, you will suffer because of that Word.
As the seals are taken off the Book in the end time, there will be so much revelation that if you were to write a book of theology, it would be obsolete before the ink was dry. A remnant will walk with God and know wisdom. As His oracles, they will proclaim the Word of the Lord to the ends of the earth.
Already the famine is in the land—a famine for hearing the words of the Lord. In a day when the Word of the Lord has been taken away or made ineffective by traditions and deadness, God is bringing something fresh in the pure words of the Lord. People who have a Word from God today have a tremendous stewardship responsibility to which they must become dedicated. They will be persecuted for it and go through trials over it. Until the day that it comes to pass, the Word of the Lord will try them as it did Joseph, who was down in Egypt in prison, seemingly forgotten.
When they were but a few men in number, yea, very few, and sojourners in it. And they went about from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people. He suffered no man to do them wrong; yea, he reproved kings for their sakes, saying, Touch not mine anointed ones, and do my prophets no harm. Psalm 105:12–15.
That is a picture of the remnant coming forth today. They are few in number and like sojourners. Some have gone from church to church, trying to find a place with the pure Word of the Lord. Some grew sick of the old way of doing things, yet they had almost despaired of ever finding anything else. They comprise only a little remnant, and that is what they will remain. Yet great things are being set before them. They are not building another denomination or another tower of Babel. God is saying, “Speak the Word of the Lord. Speak it to the ends of the earth. Proclaim to Zion that her King cometh. Proclaim His Word! Speak it! Write it! Print it! Send it!” The remnant raised up by God in this hour has no other commission except to be that Body of people proclaiming the Word.
God is no respecter of persons. He gives a man a Word, and then He tries him by that Word as He did Joseph. Some people would rather not get a Word that will try them. They prefer a Word that blesses and inspires them like a “shot in the arm” to help them along a bit and make them feel important. If you walk with God, He will make you important, but you will never feel important. You will be hated because of your visions and dreams and because of your words.
The living Word is a great treasure. It makes the Body of Christ adhere together, and it makes each member responsible as an oracle of God’s Word. Nothing else is worthwhile. Why build anything for yourself when the Kingdom is coming and everything else is coming down anyway? The only thing that will count will be the words that are written in the hearts of men. Give your all. If there ever was a time to lay everything before the Lord, it is now. Anything that has value now will soon be worthless. Everything is going to change. The time and the seasons will change. The country is changing rapidly. Who can understand the change in America during the past twenty years? You can hardly recognize your own country anymore.
What will happen next? More changes. How do we know? If God’s remnant prophesies them, they will come to pass. What else will happen? Judgment. What about the old solid denominations? They are coming down. The Word of the Lord has said, “Come out of her, My people” (Revelation 18:4). Dare to voice it! They are coming out—in streams. Many are tired of hanging on the fringe of a denomination, and in God’s timing they will come, looking for a Word from the Lord. It takes some people a while to learn, but the day finally comes when they are so sick of their own selfish ambitions and denominational tendencies that they turn and say, “All right, Lord, I’ll walk with You. Give me a Word.” And then it opens up to them.
When you dream a dream or receive a Word from God, your brethren will hate you. Like Joseph, you will be “framed” in circumstances that are not your fault, by conspiracies of every demon and man in the world who hates the Word and the dream you have. There you will be until the day God says, “You have run backwards far enough. Now you are ready for the fulfillment of the Word. I have brought you down so small that now I can be great in you. Now I will put you up at the top, right beside Pharaoh. You will bind his princes and teach his elders wisdom. Your word will have the authority.”
Reaching that position is not popular, however. Who wants to be left in jail, forgotten and hated by his brethren? Consequently, no one gets too excited about this kind of teaching. Yet some come and say, “I want a Word from the Lord.” When they do, they will receive it; and until the day that Word comes to pass, it will try them; they will have trouble with the Word God has given them. They may struggle month after month to be dedicated to the means by which God is going to accomplish His purpose in their lives. It is easy to be dedicated to the objective God has in mind, but not to the path He has chosen for you to reach that objective.
What about the means He used in Joseph’s life? It seems unfair that Potiphar’s wife was allowed to trick Joseph and have him thrown in prison. Why did God let that happen when He knew that one day Joseph would be the ruler over all the land, and then he would have to live down that scandal? Does God use wisdom in the situations He permits to happen? It may not look like it, but just let God lead you the way He wants to lead you. Let Him give you a Word and bring it to pass the way He wants to. You will die on that Word. It will try you. And then one day it will be fulfilled.