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

and they may indeed have deserved some correction. But this verse reveals that Joseph thought of
himself
as someone qualified to make that type of judgment about them. He even took it upon himself to see that they were corrected, although they were older and more experienced. Any time we pass judgment on the behavior of others, it reveals a prideful attitude on our part. And it seems that Joseph had a prideful attitude.
    God knew that Joseph was prideful—yet God still gave him the dream. Certainly Joseph’s destiny is evidence of the biblical principle which assures us “The gifts and callings of God are without repentance.” God had a big destiny in mind for Joseph—and He knew that prideful attitude would have to go, if Joseph were to succeed.
    You may wonder why God would give such a huge dream to such a young man—especially when He knew that Joseph already had pride inhis heart. Why not wait until he was a little older, a little wiser, a little more humble, perhaps? The answer is really quite simple. God planned for Joseph to step into the dream at the age of 30—and He knew that could never happen until Joseph had dealt with that pride. So God allowed Joseph to see the big dream at 17, so the pride in his heart could be exposed and dealt with.
    Joseph failed the first test, yes—but God knew that he would fail it. Remember, although we may fail, we never actually flunk a test with God—we just keep taking it over and over again until we pass it. In giving Joseph the dream, God was helping him to take the first necessary steps toward his destiny. How? By revealing the pride in Joseph’s heart and by allowing Joseph to start working on passing that test.
    Every one of us deals with pride, and every one of us must pass the Pride Test some day. We may have to go lower and lower before we finally pass it—but God will see to it that we pass this test somehow. Never forget the truth of the promise found in Philippians 1:6: “Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
    God has big dreams for all of us—and He will persevere as He seeks to get rid of anything that stands in the way.
    God has big dreams for all of us, just as He did for Joseph—and He will persevere as He seeks to get rid of anything that stands in the way.
    God may have given you a big dream and revealed a big destiny He has planned for you. But if you become prideful about it, you won’t beable to step into that destiny. Remember, if you can’t handle the dream, you will never be able to handle the destiny. And God will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength.
    So if you seem to be stuck between your dream and your destiny, allow God to work in your heart. He may have given you a big dream now in order to reveal an issue that was already there—so that you can deal with it and move on. He wants to get you to the place where He can lead you into your destiny.
    Dealing with Pride
    It shouldn’t surprise us that pride is often the first and most frequent test we face. After all, pride is the ultimate “original sin.” It is the sin that caused Lucifer to fall (Isaiah 14:12-13). And it was an appeal to pride that Satan used to tempt Adam and Eve to fall as well (see Gen. 3:5). Obviously, pride and falling are closely linked (see Prov. 16:18).
    If we’re honest, we will all admit to having dealt with pride at some time or another. Even if we’ve passed the Pride Test several times already, we will probably continue to take this test as long as we live, just at different levels. It’s a little bit like a foundational subject in school, such as math. We may pass it at the third-grade level, but then we need to pass it at the fourth-grade level. Once we have passed it at the fourth-grade level, we need to pass at the fifth-grade level, and so on.
    The good news is that each time we pass a test with God, we will receive a new level of responsibility in