Have you ever read the job description and qualifications for your dream job? Honestly, have you ever taken the time to look through what is required to do the jobs you want to do?
Lets say you wanted to be an astronaut...
Education:
A bachelor's degree in engineering, biological science, physical science or mathematics.
Experience:
Three years of related professional experience is also necessary. An advanced degree can be substituted for experience. Teaching experience, at any level, qualifies.
Pilots:
Pilot candidates must have logged at least 1,000 hours in command of jet aircraft.
Physical Requirements:
Applicants must pass the NASA long-duration space-flight physical. This requires visual acuity, correctable to 20/20; blood pressure no higher than 140/90; and height, between 5 feet, 2 inches and 6 feet, 3 inches.
Selection Process:
A week of interviews, orientation and a complete medical evaluation precede selection. Background investigations of successful candidates are conducted.
How about a Neurosurgeon...
Education:
The training to be a neurosurgeon takes at least 14 years: four years as an undergraduate, four years in medical school and six years in residency. In addition, many neurosurgeons spend time conducting research before they begin practicing.
Maybe you dream of being president...
According to the Constitution, all candidates for president must be at least 35, and be natural born citizens and residents of the Unites States for at least 14 years.
No matter what you want to be or do with your life, there is a process of becoming. You don’t just wake up and walk into your destiny. You go through this process called life and as God directs you, he uses every situation in your life to shape you.
This can be hard to understand. We often want skip to the end of processes. But when we do, we short circuit what God is doing in our hearts.
We fail to realize that we must become who we are called to be before we can do what we are called to do.
In Genesis 37, 39-41 we have the story of Joseph. Remember Joseph and his audacious, God-given dreams? Well, they didn’t exactly come true the way Joseph thought they would.
In Genesis 37, he is attacked by his brothers. First they plan to kill him. Then they decided to throw him in a well. Then they decide to sell him into slavery.
Skip to Genesis 39, Joseph is a now a slave in a man named Potiphar’s house in Egypt. Did Joseph sulk and complain? Did he give up? Not that we see in scripture. He served right were God placed him faithfully. So faithfully, that Potiphar put Joseph in charge of everything in his house. Well, unfortunately, Potiphar’s wife had a thing for young Jewish boys.
Now to keep from offending anyone with cultural euphemisms, let me quote directly from scripture.
Genesis 39:6-15
So he left in Joseph's care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, "Come to bed with me!" But he refused. "With me in charge," he told her, "my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her. One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. She caught him by his cloak and said, "Come to bed with me!" But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, she called her household servants. "Look," she said to them, "this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house."
So when Potiphar comes home, what do you think happens. He throws Joseph in prison. He’s got all these grand dreams and visions from God for his life but he seems nowhere near achieving them. Instead he is trapped in prison with a baker and waiter.
While in prison, he is interpreting dreams and watching his new friends leave prison or die. But he makes the best of it. While in prsion, he serves so faithfully that he is put in charge of the whole prison by the warden.
Then Pharoh has a dream. And his friend the waiter, tells Pharoah, I know a guy who can interpret dreams. Joseph is brought in front of Pharoah and God uses him to interrpret Pharoah’s dreams. Not only does Joseph interpret the Pharoah's dreams, he gives him a plan for of action.
Lets pick up the story in Genesis 41:37-43:
The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials. So Pharaoh asked them, "Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God ?" Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you." So Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt." Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph's finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and men shouted before him, "Make way !" Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt.
Do you see what has just happend?
This once spoiled, tattling, arrogant, kid has now become the man that God saw that he could be all along. It didn’t happen just because he dreamed. It didn’t happen because of who he was. It had notihing to do with who he was. It had everyithng to do with who God was shaping him to be.
God used the threat of death, being trapped in a well, slavery and prison to change who Joseph was and then he launched Joseph into his destiny.
Let me say it again, we must become WHO we are called to be before we can do WHAT we are called to do.
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