When we set out on a journey, especially one of some distance, we are not surprised when we encounter such things as road blocks, detours and other holdups. This is normal, it doesn’t really surprise us. But when we have a dream and circumstances conspire to keep us from fulfilling that dream, we give up too easily. The following story illustrates the fact that if you hold on to your dream you can go from ‘pit to palace’.

The Story of Joseph

Most of us are familiar with the story of Joseph (Genesis, Chapters 37 – 43) and his coat of many colors. Joseph, whose father was Jacob, was the youngest of twelve brothers. He was his father’s favorite, a situation which did not endear Joseph to the rest of the family. To make matters worse, his father did not attempt to hide his affection for Joseph when he presented Joseph with a special coat. Now, in that culture, what you wore signified to everyone your status and position so this went against the position of authority or, as we would say the ‘pecking order’ of the family structure.

Now Joseph had a dream, one in which he saw himself in a position of authority over his brothers as they bowed down before him. Nothing wrong with having a dream but you should be careful who you tell it to. Even if it’s family you don’t have to tell them everything. Joseph did not have this wisdom and with the impetuosity of youth, told all. This did not sit well with the brothers and we see their attitude towards Joseph rapidly changing from jealousy to outright hatred.

One day the brothers set off on a journey to tend to their father’s sheep. Shortly thereafter, Jacob asked Joseph to go and find his brothers and see if they were well. This Joseph did and when the brothers saw him approaching they decided that this was the opportunity they had been waiting for. Taking hold of Joseph, they would have killed him but for the intervention of his elder brother, Reuben. Rather than killing Joseph,  the brothers were persuaded to put him in a pit. At this time, a group of travelling traders came by and it was decided that Joseph would be sold to them. In order to cover up their conspiracy, they killed an animal and spread its blood on Joseph’s coat.

So, the group of traders continued on their way with Joseph in tow, and eventually ended up in Egypt. Here they unloaded Joseph for a price, into the home of a high ranking official by the name of Potifer. During the years that followed, Joseph excelled in his duties until he found himself in a position of chief of staff in Potifer’s household. This was quite a prestigious position and I’m sure when Joseph thought about his dream he must have thought everything was on track. There was, however, an impending derailment of that dream in the form of Potifer’s wife.

Potifer’s wife had taken a ‘bit of a shine’ to Joseph but when her feelings were not reciprocated she was less than pleased. In a fit of spite, she went to her husband and accused Joseph of attempted rape. The result of this accusation was, that Joseph lost his position as chief of staff and ended up in prison.

You could have forgiven Joseph for wondering at this stage, what on earth is happening to this great dream. The pit was a bit of a setback to say the least, but things seemed to be ‘on the up’ since then and now look what’s happened, he’s ended up in prison. Surely, when you have such a strong dream it’s supposed to go a lot smoother than this.

It would appear from the record that Joseph spent a few years in prison, and it was not until his proficiency at interpreting dreams was brought to the attention of Pharaoh, that he got another break. Pharaoh himself had had a dream, and none of his wise men could tell him what it meant, so when he heard about Joseph’s ability he sent for him. When Joseph was brought into the presence of Pharaoh and heard the dream, he was able to tell Pharaoh exactly what it meant, and Pharaoh was so impressed, Joseph ended up in a position equivalent to Prime Minister.

Now Pharaoh’s dream concerned an impending famine coming upon the land, and as Joseph’s interpretation gave the Egyptians the solution on how to avoid catastrophe, Joseph was put in charge of the whole project.

As Pharaoh’s dream came true, and the famine took hold, they were well prepared for it, but other parts of the country did not fare so well. This included the part of the country where Joseph’s father and brothers lived. As they ran out of food, their only recourse was to travel into Egypt and buy grain. When they did this they ended up in the presence of Joseph. Not recognizing Joseph, but only seeing this important person in front of them, they did what was required of them and bowed before him.

Thus we see Joseph’s dream being fulfilled in its entirety.

So what does this tell us about dreams?

First of all, just because you have a dream, doesn’t mean it is suddenly all going to come to pass the next day. Secondly, going by the example above, things may get worse before they get better.

The thing is, when you have a dream you know two things….

You know where you are right now and…..

you know where you are going to be when the dream manifests.

The thing you don’t know is the route you’re going to take from where you are right now to where you’re going. If we knew that piece of information we may decide not to bother with that dream and see if we can come up with another one with a simpler route to the finish line.

The thing we learn very quickly is, when you set out on your ‘dream journey’ the route from start to finish is not a straight line. We can see this process in many areas of our everyday life.

The next time you are standing on a beach, look at the action of the ocean waves. The tide is usually doing one of two things, it is either coming in or going out. But how does it do this? It doesn’t suddenly rush in and you have high tide and then suddenly rush out and you have low tide. Watch the waves, they come up the beach and then recede, then they come up the beach maybe a little bit further and then recede again. This action is repeated until we have high tide and then the opposite motion starts. This is a normal operation of the ocean and we all recognize it as such, in fact, if it happened any different it would be abnormal.

Let’s look at another example. Think about throwing a ball. What direction does it go in before you release it? Backwards, of course! In fact, the further back you can take it, the more impetus you have, and the further forward you can throw it. This is a natural action, it’s just the way it works.

Let’s look at another example from the field of investment and trading.

You can see that the commodity shown in the chart above is in, what we call an uptrend. In other words, the price starts off low at the bottom left and progresses to a higher price at the top right. But look at the path it takes, it doesn’t go in a straight line. It swings up for a period of time, and then we have what is known as a retracement where price comes back and then it rallies again, and extends above where it reached previously. It keeps up this movement until it reaches the top. Can you see the similarity between this and our example of the ocean? This movement is natural, it is just the way everything works.

So, when you have a dream and you start off, everything looks like it is going to plan and then, suddenly you run into a problem that halts your forward motion. We call it a ‘drawback’. This is normal, it happens to everyone who makes the effort to move forward. Let’s face it, if a dream automatically came to pass without any drawbacks, everyone who had a dream would be a success.

So, how do we handle these adverse situations? As we said before, there are two things you know. The first one is where you are right now and the second is where your dream is taking you. The secret to success is not to focus on the problem of the moment but to keep your attention strongly focused on the end result. This way you are always facing in the direction of your success and the seeming failures will work themselves out and, in time, you will walk in the full manifestation of your dream which you will find is even greater than you originally envisioned.

This is normal, this is how it works!

There is a big difference between knowing something as a theory and knowing something as a reality. When we say that we ‘know’ something we usually mean that we have heard the information before. This is a major barrier to learning because if we hear the same information presented in the same way, over and over again, we tend to start ignoring it. We say to ourselves, “Oh, I’ve heard that before, I know that”.

The question then has to be asked, “If you really know it, is it a reality in your life?”

Let’s take some example of scriptural truth in the area of healing. We are all familiar with the verse which tells us that God is Jehovah Rapha – ‘I am the Lord that heals you’ Even though the vast majority of the church that actually believes healing is still available today, would say they knew and accepted that as true, we have to look and see if it is actually demonstrated as a reality.

Many people are familiar with the healing scriptures and accept them as true, yet experience great difficulty in actually manifesting healing in their bodies.

So, why is that? Why the contradiction?
The problem is, that most people accept the truth of healing in their head – we call it mental assent, but it is not a reality on the inside. Just because you hear a truth and accept it, does not mean it will automatically start working in your life. It would be great if it did but, unfortunately, that is not how it works. If it were, a lot more people would be instantly healed.

How do we change this?
We have to take it from the area of head knowledge, to ‘heart’ knowledge, that is – it becomes a revelation. The way we do that is by getting quiet, take hold of one of the healing scriptures and start pondering it over and over again. This takes time and commitment which is why so few people do it. But if you want the results, you have to make the effort.

The reality we walk in, is determined by the reality that lives on the inside of us and not the information we give mental assent to. Mental assent is a beginning but it is Not ‘knowing’. When you really ‘know’ something it changes you.

John 8:32 – You Shall Know The Truth and The Truth Shall Set You Free

We have a lifetime of beliefs on the inside of us which have to be rooted out and replaced with the ‘truth’ that we want to see manifested in our life.

“The life of the Christian without the indwelling power of the Spirit in the heart is a weariness to the flesh. It is an obedience to commandments and an endeavor to walk according to a pattern which you have not power to follow.”
― John G. Lake, The Collected Works of John G. Lake

The power of the Spirit elevates a person into a new level of existence, a place of new possibilities, new vision and new abilities. It is a place where ‘old things have passed away and all things become new’.

It is not as if you have no power at work within you right now because that is what is responsible for your present circumstances. Where life becomes frustrating is when you try to use that same level of power to change conditions for the better.

If you desire a superior life, only a superior power will get you there.

The Bible tells us that the Spirit of God ‘quickens’ or makes ‘alive’ our bodies. It’s like increasing a vibration or a frequency – it raises you up into a completely new realm where it not only can effect your physical body but also gives you a whole new way of thinking.

‘Come Up Here’ is an invitation found more than once in the Scriptures and it is the solution to change a life of struggle and frustration to one of ease and inspiration.

“The secret of spiritual success is a hunger that persists…It is an awful condition to be satisfied with one’s spiritual attainments…God was and is looking for hungry, thirsty people.”
― Smith Wigglesworth

Smith Wigglesworth once stated that he was never without the Bible on his person. It was his only reading material. He read it, studied it, prayed it and talked about it constantly. As he stated above, his secret was his hunger for more of God which led to his total absorption in the Scriptures.

Too many people are content with their degree of spirituality, not realizing that there is NO limit to the level of spiritual growth that can be attained, nor the amount of guidance and wisdom that is lying hidden under the surface. This hidden treasure is only available to the hungry seeker who knows that, no matter the degree of insight that he possesses, the surface has hardly been scratched.

We are complacent in our ‘theological boxes’, unwilling to expand our box and broaden our horizons to discover the hidden riches of the Kingdom of God.

We read in Romans 12:2 ‘Be transformed by the renewing of your mind’ In just a few words we find out what we have to do – be transformed, and how to do it. But what does it mean to be transformed and how do we renew our minds?

Let’s start with transformation.

In the scripture quoted above we find that the word ‘transformed’ comes from the Greek word ‘metamorphoo’. From this we get our English word ‘Metamorphosis’ which is the process by which a caterpillar changes into a butterfly. Now, if we take this example, it tells us exactly what happens in this process.

A caterpillar is very limited in where it can go and the distance it can travel. A butterfly, on the other hand, is practically unlimited in its horizons. For example, the Monarch butterfly flies from the rainforests of Brazil to Nova Scotia in Canada, and then back to Brazil, a distance of over eight thousand miles round trip.

When we are transformed we too are unlimited in our possibilities. No longer are we restricted, earth-bound, but our possibilities are infinite. This is all possible because we have the ability to renew our minds.

But what does it mean to renew our minds?

It means that we are fed up with the limitations imposed by our old way of thinking and set our intention to change the way we think, and the way we feel and ultimately the way we act.
It was Einstein who said, ‘We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them’.

We literally have to change who we are – just like the great character actors of Hollywood who actually became the personality they were portraying. We have to put on the ‘new man’ who is comfortable in the surroundings we wish to create.

This is done by creating a clear picture of what you want, for example – a healthy body, more comfortable surroundings or a better financial situation – and then stepping into the picture. This is accomplished during your time of prayer and meditation.

When you are clear on what you want, ask yourself, what kind of person you would have to become to fit comfortably into your picture – how would they talk? How would they think? How would they feel? How would they act?

Somebody once said, ‘To be a millionaire, you must first act like a millionaire’.

All true change in the physical comes from a change, first of all, on the inside.

Mind renewal is the true key to transforming your life from something restricted and dull to a life filled with endless possibilities and potential.