A teaching by Rev. Barbara Williams, President of the Ministry of the Watchman International
Week of September 12-16, 2022
MONDAY
A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men.
Proverbs 18:16
And the seven thin heads devoured the seven plump and full heads. So Pharaoh awoke, and indeed, it was a dream.
Genesis 41:7
Do you believe that God knows what He is doing with us? Do you believe that He has gifted each one of us and has not made a mistake? Do you believe that any good thing can come from your small abilities? Do you believe that small abilities will bring you in the presence of great people? You must believe it, for that is what God says here. God has not made a mistake in giving you the gift or gifts that you possess. Do you even believe that you have a God-given gift? If you have never thought on these things, do consider them. This knowledge is key to your success in life and with God.
The developed basketball player knows what his gift is. How many kids play basketball on an outdoor court, and how many turn out to become developed professional players? A small minority becomes professional. Why is this? They have a sense that their gift will make room for them. How many get talked out of using and developing their gift when faced with the statistic I just mentioned? Many of them. Only those who know and value their gift will press on to allow that gift to do all that God purposed it to do. God can exalt your gift as high as you will allow Him to. You must believe that it will make room for you.
Why does God exalt some gifts and not others? It can be a fulfillment of personal prophecy, but sometimes it is God’s sovereign will. As we came into the era of the civil rights movement, we saw racism and sexism being challenged. Suddenly minority persons and women began to see their gifts exalted in the earth. If God has to change laws to exalt your gift, He will do it. He did it with Joseph.
If you are in need of healing, there is good news! Proverbs 4:20-22 SAYS:
My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.
So there is life and health in God’s word. Since God’s word is medicine, we must take it like we would a prescription. I suggest three times a day, like you would your food. Remember, healing is the children’s bread. Consider this your “dose” for today. Remember, read, and meditate three times a day the following:
Rx: Psalm 147:3 ~ God heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds.
“Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
2 Timothy 2:15
If you’ve never studied the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, we invite you to join us as we read through the Bible in a year. Read and meditate on these chapters this week:
September 12: 2 Samuel 7, 2 Corinthians 1, Ezekiel 15, Psalms 56-57
September 13: 2 Samuel 8-9, 2 Corinthians 2, Ezekiel 16, Psalms 58-59
September 14: 2 Samuel 10, 2 Corinthians 3, Ezekiel 17, Psalms 60-61
September 15: 2 Samuel 11, 2 Corinthians 4, Ezekiel 18, Psalms 62-63
September 16: 2 Samuel 12, 2 Corinthians 5, Ezekiel 19, Psalms 64-65
September 17: 2 Samuel 13, 2 Corinthians 6, Ezekiel 20, Psalms 66-67
September 18: 2 Samuel 14, 2 Corinthians 7, Ezekiel 21, Psalms 68
TUESDAY
He slept and dreamed a second time; and suddenly seven heads of grain came up on one stalk, plump and good. Then behold, seven thin heads, blighted by the east wind, sprang up after them. And the seven thin heads devoured the seven plump and full heads. So Pharaoh awoke, and indeed, it was a dream. Now it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them for Pharaoh.
Then the chief butler spoke to Pharaoh, saying: “I remember my faults this day. When Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, both me and the chief baker, we each had a dream in one night, he and I. Each of us dreamed according to the interpretation of his own dream. Now there was a young Hebrew man with us there, a servant of the captain of the guard. And we told him, and he interpreted our dreams for us; to each man he interpreted according to his own dream. And it came to pass, just as he interpreted for us, so it happened. He restored me to my office, and he hanged him.”
Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon; and he shaved, changed his clothing, and came to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream, to interpret it.”
Genesis 41:5-15
Joseph has been faithful to use his gift. When he interprets a dream for Pharaoh’s butler and baker, the word of God comes to pass just as he has said. He then tells the butler to put in a good word for him with Pharaoh. Two years pass before God opens the door for his gift in high places. Why the wait?
Perhaps there was too much self-interest in the heart of Joseph. Perhaps he envisioned himself interpreting dreams in exchange for money here and there. Perhaps he saw himself working alongside the magicians in Pharaoh’s court, interpreting dreams for minor situations. He knows he has a gift of God, but he perhaps wants to control it himself. He wants himself to make room for his gift. That is not what the scripture says. It says that your gift will make room for you – by itself.
This gift, if totally yielded to the Holy Spirit will make room for you without your help. All God wants is a walk of obedience and you will find yourself in the right place at the right time to have your gift exalted. Joseph was exactly where God wanted him to be. If he had not been in prison, perhaps God never would have found him. God knows where we all are at all times. If we are obedient to Him, He will see to it that our gift is in the right place at the appointed time.
WEDNESDAY
So Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.”
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph: “Behold, in my dream I stood on the bank of the river. Suddenly seven cows came up out of the river, fine looking and fat; and they fed in the meadow. Then behold, seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and gaunt, such ugliness as I have never seen in all the land of Egypt. And the gaunt and ugly cows ate up the first seven, the fat cows. When they had eaten them up, no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were just as ugly as at the beginning. So I awoke. Also I saw in my dream, and suddenly seven heads came up on one stalk, full and good. Then behold, seven heads, withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprang up after them. And the thin heads devoured the seven good heads. So I told this to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.”
Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do: The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads are seven years; the dreams are one. And the seven thin and ugly cows which came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty heads blighted by the east wind are seven years of famine. This is the thing which I have spoken to Pharaoh. God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do. Indeed seven years of great plenty will come throughout all the land of Egypt; but after them seven years of famine will arise, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine will deplete the land. So the plenty will not be known in the land because of the famine following, for it will be very severe. And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.
“Now therefore, let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, to collect one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven plentiful years. And let them gather all the food of those good years that are coming, and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities. Then that food shall be as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which shall be in the land of Egypt, that the land may not perish during the famine.”
So the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants.
Genesis 41:16-37
Joseph’s gift is exercised in the presence of great men. Mind you, he just came up out of the dungeon. He is probably listed as a sex offender. You know, one of those persons that people want to be warned about when they are released from prison. How would you like to know that someone you love could be so exonerated by God that he goes directly from prison to a cabinet post in the White House? This is exactly what happened here. Joseph is able to interpret Pharaoh’s dream even though he has just come out of prison.
Think of the things that are going through his mind. “Are these people going to listen to me? Who am I to stand here and talk to the king of the land? What do I say if they ask me about….?” These things will plague your thought life until you have total confidence in one thing, and that is that your gift has brought you here, not your record, abilities, or faults. They have all been forgotten. The only important thing here is your gift. Your gift has a specific purpose and operation in the spirit that only God knows. God has to form the words and the thoughts that come before the words. We must trust his timing in all things that pertain to our gifts.
There is a season for ripening of the gift. There is a readiness for the gift that only God is aware of. We should not attempt to promote ourselves because we are always premature. When God releases our gift it is because we have ceased self-promotion and only want to give glory to Him. This is something that Joseph perhaps did not know two years prior to this event. When Joseph tells Pharaoh that God will give him an answer of peace, this is very important, because he now knows that the gift is not under his control, but under God’s. Once Joseph understands this, God is able to trust him at the highest level.
THURSDAY
And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?”
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you.” And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”
Then Pharaoh took his signet ring off his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand; and he clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. And he had him ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried out before him, “Bow the knee!” So he set him over all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh also said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no man may lift his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.”
Genesis 41:38-44
The gift is now promoted to its proper place. Joseph could never do this under his own power. This is true of any gift that is only manipulated by mere human hands. Our gifts will never reach their full potential until our hearts are yielded totally to God. God will place His very nature and character in us so that we are able to allow the full growth and expression of the gift that He has placed within each of us. He then puts us in His school of the Word and the Spirit.
When we graduate, He places us in a position where the gift will be received at that particular level of maturity. How sad it is when we see well-meaning saints going about “their ministry” when they have never enrolled in God’s school. They are unripened fruit, and need to be kept in a “cool, dry place” (like Joseph’s dungeon, right?) until they are matured. Maturity of your gift will allow God’s expression, and His expression alone, to come forth when the gift is exercised.
Maturity will give God the glory when the gift is exercised. Maturity will also recognize that it is important to remain connected to God in the right way in order that the gift make total room for us in the earth. God’s power upon the gift makes all the difference in how much room this gift will make for you.
FRIDAY
And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphnath-Paaneah. And he gave him as a wife Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On. So Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.
Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt. Now in the seven plentiful years the ground brought forth abundantly. So he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities; he laid up in every city the food of the fields which surrounded them. Joseph gathered very much grain, as the sand of the sea, until he stopped counting, for it was immeasurable.
And to Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, whom Asenath, the daughter of Poti-Pherah priest of On, bore to him. Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: “For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house.” And the name of the second he called Ephraim: “For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
Then the seven years of plenty which were in the land of Egypt ended, and the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said. The famine was in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. So when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Then Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph; whatever he says to you, do.” The famine was over all the face of the earth, and Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians. And the famine became severe in the land of Egypt. So all countries came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine was severe in all lands.
Genesis 41:45-57
The final outcome of the gift of God is always much greater than we could ask, think, dream or imagine. This is the way God is. He uses us as He would His Son, because we are sons. He used His son Jesus in such magnificent ways that John says that if we wrote down all the things that Jesus had done, all the books in the world could not contain them all. We must be willing to allow the gift to dictate the reward we receive.
For Joseph it was recovery in one day all that had been stolen from him, with interest. For you and me, it may mean having our heart’s desire in a strange land, just as Joseph did. When we are rewarded by God, we are able to receive the fullness of the fruit of our gift.
Let’s ask again, how do we feel about even our smallest ability? Can we ever really say that our gift is too small or insignificant to make room for us in the earth? Do we ever really want to put a judgment upon ourselves to limit our gift to being insignificant or too small to make a living for us? God forbid. Let us trust in the God who knows all things and makes no mistakes. Let us give Him glory by giving all that we have to Him.
We will never regret having given God complete control over our gift. It will make as much room for us as our God is big. We serve a great big God… way too big!