Three Dreams to Promotion

Three Dreams to Promotion

In the heart of every healthy person is a desire for promotion. It is normal to desire advancement, progress, upgrade, or elevation to a higher level.  That desire provides the motive force that produces learning, growth and creativity for betterment of life. The Bible teaches that promotion neither comes from the east nor the west but from the Lord (Psalm 75:6-7). The story of Joseph is an excellent example of how amazingly God can promote a person. Joseph rose from the pit to being a governor of Egypt (Genesis 41:15-41). As in his case, your promotion will involve handling three kinds of dreams. It happens through three dreams, your personal dreams, the dreams of people around you, and the dreams of leaders in your life.

1) Your personal dreams. Joseph's promotional journey began with a personal dream (Genesis 37, 39-40). Promotion is meaningful where there is a dream or vision. The dream is a picture of better days beyond the status quo. A long term preferred picture of oneself.  What a promotional step contributes to progress towards the overall dream a person has tells the significance of the step.  Factors that include passion, talents, societal needs of concern and revelation influence the form and nature of the dream.  Joseph walked intimately with God through the influence from his up bringing. He was a highly favored child of Jacob one of the patriarchs in the faith of Israel.  God revealed to Joseph in a literal dream major promotion that was coming. It would be so great that his parents and siblings would bow to him. He received a backlash instead of applause from his brothers when he talked about the dream. The brothers resented the thought of bowing to Joseph and had already developed an attitude against Joseph because he was their father’s favorite child.  They saw Joseph as someone bragging about his favored position in the family and now he dreams of ruling over them. The backlash was so strong that when Joseph brought them food supplies while they were herding their father’s flock, they discussed killing him. He survived but landed in a pit despite his pleas for mercy. In a chain of events, from the pit they sold him to some Ishmaelites who in turn sold him to a top official of Pharaoh of Egypt. All went well for him at this house until Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him of molestation. As a result, he was sent to prison. Joseph’s preoccupation with his dream therefore took him to a dungeon via a pit.  Mere preoccupation with your personal dream does not result in its fulfillment. In fact announcing a dream can land the dreamer into serious trouble. The Civil Rights ‘I have a dream’ icon, Martin Luther King and many others can testify.

The dream however can live on. Joseph was able to protect his dream by protecting his relationship with the dream’s source, Jehovah. The Lord was with him and granted him favor wherever he found himself (Genesis 39:21).

>>He nurtured a strong heart by patiently waiting on God (Psalm 27:14). Man looks at the outward but God promotes based on what he sees in the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). Courage and patient are essential ingredients to God’s promotion process (Hebrews 6:12). Waiting is not easy but he waited patiently.

>> He kept his faith. His trust in God was unyielding despite the trying circumstances he went through. As his situation spiraled downward, his faith was soaring upward. Whenever this converse relationship is at play, inevitably at some point faith lifts the situation from any dungeon or pit to its level (2 Corinthians 4:23).

>>He maintained his integrity. Joseph showed fear of God by remaining faithful to his word. At college to progress to the next level, you have to pass tests. Joseph passed the moral tests he faced.  One such test was at Potiphar’s house. He refused to let Mrs. Potiphar seduce him. Instead, he ran away from her like someone fleeing from mortal danger (Genesis 39:12).  He also passed the test of becoming bitter despite having been rejected, mistreated, misunderstood, and falsely accused. He maintained a godly attitude. He did not accumulate wounds, self-pity and anger inside.

>> He humbled himself and was lifted up in due course (James 4:10). Humility is a precondition for promotion. He humbled himself to serve diligently, competently and faithfully in Potiphar’s house and in the prison even though he had a very big dream of what he should become. He humbled himself before God even though he did not fully understand what was going on and how the preferred end would happen.

2) Your neighbors’ dreams. Joseph’s difficult experiences shifted him from self-promotion to concern about what was troubling those around him. When that shift was complete, something good was bound to happen.  He realized people around him also had dreams but could not interpret them. He moved from talking about his personal dream to interpreting the dreams of fellow prisoners. Helping fellow people understand their dreams opened doors for him. It gained him a contact in the place of his divine appointment. He interpreted the dreams of the baker and butler when they were in prison. His personal dream took him to the dungeon. Interpreting dreams of others set him up for leaving the dungeon.

Joseph refused to settle in his status quo. Joseph asked the Butler to remember him so he could leave the dungeon (Genesis 40:14). He still had hope of promotion. The best of dreams can be destroyed by diversion to some other dreams from people, good as they may be. He refused the prison best of being in charge of all the prisoners (Genesis 39:22-23). Joseph’s dream conceived when he was in Canaan was constrained. It was not enough to be chief among prisoners. When you reach the ceiling of what is possible at a level, its time for promotion or boredom and frustration will soon set in. God had to bring him out. A giant tree in a pot will only grow to as much as governed by the pot size. Determine satisfaction with a promotion by the standard of your God given dream. Something can be right but not enough, and necessary but insufficient.

3) Your leaders’ dreams.  Joseph through the Butler he helped had an opportunity to interpret the King’s dream. He grabbed the opportunity to interpret the dream of the leader linked to his dream role. Some unstoppable dynamic sets in when you get concerned about what is troubling the leaders. When you make yourself available to serve and make them successful. When you get out of your way to help leaders solve their problems, achieve their goals and dreams.  Being able to help solve the problems leaders face is the key to promotion. The level to which you can be promoted depends on that of the leader whose dreams you interpret. For Joseph, preoccupation with his personal dream and rights took him to the dungeon. Interpreting dreams of leaders brought him out of the dungeon. Joseph gave God the credit for his ability to interpret the dreams of others (Genesis 41:16).

More specifically, Joseph was not promoted to governor of Egypt because he interpreted the King’s dream. Interpretation alone could have left the King more perplexed and quick to send Joseph to prison.   Instead of leaving the leader, depressed with the meaning of his dream Joseph inspired hope with his words, ‘Now therefore let Pharaoh take [the following action]’ Genesis 41:33). Joseph turned a dream problem to a dream solution. As for you, refuse to specialize in reporting problems. Suggest solutions for problems everyone else is only complaining talking. Behind every problem, there is an opportunity to provide a solution. The world has enough questions and analysts but few answers.  Start interpreting dreams and more so, start recommending solutions. The king appointed Joseph as the governor not for his gift to dream and interpret dreams but for offering wise advice. ‘But if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally... (James 1:5)’

Because of attending to the dreams of others, Joseph’s dream was fulfilled. God not only interprets dreams but also fulfills dreams. Pharaoh ordered that Joseph be brought from prison and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon (Genesis 41:14). As a pregnancy that is due, when God’s time is ripe and right your promotion will be unstoppable. It will come speedily and often irrationally in eyes of people. Even though Joseph fulfilled leadership roles as a slave and prisoner and credit should go to his parents who did a sterling work to shape his character and godliness, he hardly qualified for the job. He was almost forgotten in the dungeon but ascended to lead the nation. He moved from a position of obscurity into prominence, from a nobody to a somebody, from a have-not to abundance, from disadvantage to privilege, from the pit to the palace. He showed that it is not so much about knowing the right people and holding the right papers as it is about serving the right God right. You are rising up. God is breaking the rules that constrain you, shattering the boundaries that limit you, blistering the ceilings that have been set over you to keep you under. It is time. Jesus has positioned you in the heavenly places.

Message by Dr. Kurai Chitima.

Faith Ministries – Johannesburg Faith Life Center.

Ground and First Floors Sunset Bay Building,

204B Bram Fischer drive,

Randburg, Johannesburg, South Africa 

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