From Dream to Destiny: The Ten Tests You Must Go Through to Fulfill God's Purpose for Your Life Read Free Page A

our dreams to our destinies. And like Joseph, we will have to pass these tests in order to see the dream fulfilled.
    The Pride Test: Revealing the Pride Within
    Interestingly enough, Joseph’s first test was the same one I found myself facing as a young man that day at the prayer center. It’s what I call the Pride Test and it is a very important one. Joseph experienced it. I experienced it. And I’m convinced every one of us will have to pass this test before we can move from our dreams to our destinies.
    Genesis 37 describes how Joseph first received his dream from God—and how he handled it when the dream came.

    Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him. Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more. So he said to them, “Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf.” And his brothers said to him, “Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me.” So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?” And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind (Gen. 37:2-11).
    First of all, we have to marvel at the fact that Joseph shared his dream so enthusiastically with older, bigger brothers—especially when the Bible tells us that his brothers already “hated him and could not speak peaceably to him” (Gen. 37:4). I guess it’s no surprise that their response was less than enthusiastic. Still, Joseph was pretty excited about the dream that God had given him. Regardless of the consequences, he just had to let everyone know about it!
    Little did he know what lay between him and his dream: Although Joseph was 17 years old when he received his dreams from God, it wasn’t until he was 30 years old that he began to fulfill it (see Gen. 41:46). So we can see that 13 long years went by before Joseph began to walk in the first steps of his destiny. What could explain the long time lag between the dream and its fulfillment?
    After all, it seemed obvious from the dream that Joseph was destined for great power and influence. Indeed, his brothers were envious after hearing the dream—although they had mocked the dream to his face. Joseph’s father didn’t discount the dream entirely either. The Bible says that his father rebuked him about it, but then he “kept the matter in mind” (Gen. 37:11).
    But there was a test on the horizon for Joseph. Something was standing in the way of Joseph’s moving toward that destiny God had shown him. And Joseph was about to have an opportunity to face that obstacle and deal with it. The reason for that test was really quite simple: Joseph had pride in his heart.
    It is important to notice that Joseph had pride in his heart
before
he ever got the dream from God. The Bible says that Joseph was keeping the flock with his brothers, and he “brought a bad report of them to his father” (Gen. 37:2). Never mind what the bad report was about. Perhaps Joseph’s brothers weren’t exactly perfect,