What God Is Doing in This Season of Your Life

But Joseph is showing us a new way forward because Joseph recognized that God can use the prison as a training ground to strengthen the very gifts that he's placed in us. He's not isolating us alone in the prison. He is with us and wants to use us to strengthen us. Right? He wants to meet us in our moment to strengthen us and heal us so that we can move forward. So that when the prison hits, we can see the opportunity to get stronger as we experience God's strength coursing through us. [00:34:25] (35 seconds)  #StrengthInPrison

Guys, what we learned from Joseph's kind of long and winding story is that God's presence is not only with us in the prison. God is also active in the prison. Like, doesn't just come in and fix us. He wants to actually work in us to mature us. He wants to refine us, to make us more like him, to make us look and sound more like him, all as he empowers us to do the work alongside of him in the prison. [00:28:35] (36 seconds)  #GodAtWorkInPrison

Because he understands that through every challenge as he humbles his spirit, he understands that it is God himself who enters his story in every situation, who lifts him up and moves him towards his final redemption even if he didn't know what the redemption was all the time. Right? Because in the messiness of the prison, right, when Joseph is just there doing his thing, he doesn't know what the final redemption is gonna be. He doesn't know that the palace is waiting for him. [00:32:05] (29 seconds)  #FaithInTheMess

Because the thing here's the thing. God isn't waiting for you and I to get out of the prison to do something new in you. Right? He's not waiting till the end. He's not waiting to get out of prison to say, now this is what I'm gonna put it in you. Now this is when I'm gonna do something amazing in you. He's wanting to unlock in you right now the very things that he's already placed in you. He says you were knit together in your mother's womb. That means that all the gifts, all the abilities, all talents that God has placed in you, that he wants for you, that's already in you. He just wants to unlock it [00:26:00] (34 seconds)  #UnlockGodPlacedGifts

Guys, your your gifts, they're they're not there by accident. You didn't wake up one day and and just suddenly have the ability to lead or the ability to serve or the ability to sing or do whatever it is that God has done placed inside of you. God placed them there. Right? They're not an accident. God placed them there. And because of that, you can use those gifts in confidence that you won't burn out with them, [00:41:06] (26 seconds)  #GiftsByDesign

But I believe through Joseph's story and so many others, but I believe that what God is trying to teach us is that he's actually the most active in our gifting. Right? So serving him is often the path forward with him. Oftentimes, he's the most active in our lives when we are serving him. Right? And so maybe that is the path forward to get out of the prison that you're in today. [00:38:22] (26 seconds)  #ServeAndGrow

Guys, when the prison hits, man, whether it's anxiety, loss, betrayal, it can leave us often feeling kinda sidelined. Right? And we lose sight of the palace that awaits us in the future. And I just wanna pause and say this very clearly to you, actually. Like, there are seasons where rest is actually necessary. Right? If you've experienced church hurt, trauma, burnout, like so many of us have, like I have, like, sometimes the most faithful thing that we can do is just sit in the presence of the Lord and be healed, be restored. Right? Like, that's not weakness. That's actually wisdom at times. [00:33:01] (41 seconds)  #RestIsWisdom

He just trusts that the redemption is the final destination and that the prison is the place to prepare. In other words, the prison grew what the palace would eventually require. It's in the prison that he grew in his gifting, grew in his service, grew in his relationship even that God would've eventually used in the palace to save a whole nation, quite frankly. [00:32:34] (27 seconds)  #PrisonPreparesThePalace

when Joseph is just there doing his thing, he doesn't know what the final redemption is gonna be. He doesn't know that the palace is waiting for him. He just trusts that the redemption is the final destination and that the prison is the place to prepare. In other words, the prison grew what the palace would eventually require. It's in the prison that he grew in his gifting, grew in his service, grew in his relationship even that God would've eventually used in the palace to save a whole nation, quite frankly. [00:32:25] (35 seconds)