IT IS NOT IN ME!

He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: Whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: Until the time that his word came: the word of the Lord tried him. The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. —Psalms 105:17-20

The Lord had sown into Joseph at an early age a sure word of promise, “And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more” (Genesis 37:5). As with every seed of promise, this seed had to leave the hand of Joseph and die. You can see clearly the “greenness” of this seed when it first came: “He told it to his brethren.” This promise was very much alive in Joseph: “Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed.” He couldn't wait to tell his dream in detailed account as to what it meant. When the emphasis is on “I have dreamed” you can be sure of this: The Holy Ghost is plowing the ground and “laying off the row” into which your dream will die, even as you so confidently speak forth all that the Lord is going to do with you. Every word the Lord gives you is destined to fall into the ground and die just as a man “buries” seed in a garden. In Josephs’ case it was an especially painful planting: “And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it.”

Now there are some of us that do not pass the test the Lord gives us the first time through. We have to take the ACT Test--The answer is Always Christ in every Test,over and over. Joseph had to learn that it was the word of the Lord that was sown into him and it was only the word of God living in him that could fulfill the promise. Only God can do his work; it is never in us! It is only when we have truly died to making it happen in our own strength will the promise come. What God sows is what God reaps. He sowed the word and it was the Word of the Lord that came to Joseph and fulfilled the dream: “Until the time that his word came.”

You can see clearly the work of the Lord in Josephs’ life in his response to Pharaohs’ dream when Pharaoh had sent for him in order to receive the interpretation: “Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace” (40:12). Remember that when Joseph was in Potiphar’s prison, that two other prisoners had dreamed a dream. Josephs’ response was, “This is the interpretation of it.” He still had not learned to say “it is not in me.” But after years of suffering his soul had “entered into the iron.” He had been broken of all self assurance and knew that the promise was never meant to happen in his time; his strength; and his way, but it came to pass when the Lord himself showed up on the scene! “The King sent and loosed him and let him go free!!”

For all who have gotten your mail for years at this address, “Josephs’ Pit” I have a good word for you: “As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water. Turn you to the strong hold, ye prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee” (Zechariah 9:11-12). Your new address will be "IT IS NOT IN ME!!