From Dream to Destiny: The Ten Tests You Must Go Through to Fulfill God's Purpose for Your Life (3 page)

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 in
his 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, 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 be
able 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 His kingdom. But with each new level of responsibility, we will face a new level of testing in the area of pride.

The Problem Is Your Tongue

Here’s a simple guideline for everyone who wants to pass the Pride Test: When you get the dream—don’t brag about it! Joseph made that mistake when he told his brothers his dreams. The Scriptures say that his brothers hated him “for his dreams
and for his words”
(Gen. 37:8, emphasis added). It wasn’t just Joseph’s dreams that offended his brothers—it was the way he talked about his dreams, the way he talked about himself. In other words, Joseph was bragging.

Now, bragging is a sign of immaturity, but we have to give Joseph a little bit of a break here. After all, he was only 17. But 17-year-olds aren’t the only ones who brag. Unfortunately, many 35-year-olds, 50-year-olds and 60-year-olds brag as well. It seems that every person is susceptible to boasting and self-promotion, just as every person is susceptible to pride and insecurity.

If we want to move toward our destinies, we’re going to have to learn to control our tongues. Why? Because in the Bible James tells us that whoever can control his or her tongue is a perfect person (see Jas. 3:2)—able to control the rest of his or her body as well. So if you want to deal with the pride in your life, you’re going to have to control your tongue. If you can’t control your words, you’ll never reach God’s destiny for you.

This doesn’t apply to words of vanity only. It also applies to words of anger, criticism or any other words that are contrary to God’s words and ways. But the area of bragging is certainly a good place to start! So don’t about the call of God on your life. Don’t brag about the gifts you have. Don’t brag about the things you’ve done for God or the things you’re going to do for Him.

I’ve noticed that as soon as we start talking about all that God has done through us, it seems that He immediately stops doing things through us. God will not share His glory with another. So when we begin to take the glory that is meant for God and bask in it ourselves, the anointing of the Holy Spirit leaves us. Let’s keep the conversation on God and all that He has done, not on us. When the focus is on us, or even on what God has done through us, we are taking a stroll down the slippery slope of pride.

Unfortunately, in order for some of us to get a handle on our bragging, we simply need to stop talking for a while—because when we talk, we brag! When we talk, we talk about ourselves. If that sounds rather harsh, let me say that I speak from experience. I feel like an expert, because I’ve failed at this subject so many times!

Years ago, I asked my wife, Debbie, to help me in this area. I was beginning to wonder if perhaps I had a tendency to talk too much—especially about myself. So I begged her to be honest with me about it. At
first she was reluctant to give me an answer. But after a lot of coaxing, she confirmed my suspicions—and then some.

In her kind and loving way, she let me know I was on the right track. So I enlisted her help in changing my behavior pattern. I said to her, “When we’re out to eat with people, will you nudge me if I’m talking too much? If I start talking about myself, give me a little kick under the table.”

My legs were black and blue for months! (Sadly, I usually didn’t respond to the first two or three kicks!) But I really did want help so that I could grow in this area. I needed to control my tongue, and I’m so grateful Debbie was willing to help me.

The
Real
Problem Is in Your Heart

It is a good thing to get control of the tongue, but there is another important element we need to understand. If we have a problem with bragging, it is not a mouth problem only. The problem may seem to be mouth centered, but it really begins in the heart.

This is precisely the point Jesus made in Matthew 12:34 when He said, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” And in Matthew 15:18 He says, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man.”

The Bible makes it clear that if you have a problem with what is coming out of your mouth, you need to take a good look inside your heart—
because whatever is in your heart will eventually come out of your mouth.

Have you ever noticed that pride always has to be heard? Pride has to give its opinion every time, whether or not an opinion has been asked for. Pride has to have a voice. Pride has to tell everybody who he is, what he’s done and all the things he is going to do for God. Pride can never just be quiet.

It is good to bridle the tongue, and we all need discipline in that area. But if pride is in your heart, it will eventually find its way out of your mouth, no matter how much self-discipline you apply (or how many kicks under the table you receive).

What really needs to happen is for God to do a work in your heart. Because when God gets inside your heart, He can start to deal with the roots of pride.

The Root of Pride

One reason pride has a tendency to keep cropping up is that we often try to deal with the “fruit” of it rather than getting to the “root” of it. When we see the fruit of pride in our lives, we like to get out our pruning shears and snip away at the leaves—perhaps even lop off a few branches here and there. But if we don’t deal with the root of pride, it will just keep sprouting up in our lives, prolonging our testing and delaying our destiny.

There is a root of pride that must be removed, or we will continue to struggle in this area. That root is insecurity.

If you know a prideful person, you know a person who is actually insecure. He or she may be trying to mask that insecurity with big, pompous-sounding words (which certainly look and sound like pride)—but it is actually insecurity.

To put it another way, the fruit, pride, is what the world sees—because of what comes out of our mouths. But what they don’t see is the insecurity in our hearts—this insecurity is the cause of the problem. This is why we will never be able to successfully deal with pride until we deal with our insecurity. Our own sense of insecurity and the accompanying feelings of inferiority fuel our prideful behavior.

Insecurity makes us feel that we have to let everyone know who we are and all we’ve accomplished. That’s one reason pride so often manifests itself in bragging. Bragging is really a way of trying to achieve a sense of security and acceptance by making sure that everyone knows exactly how “special” we really are.

If we take a closer look, we can see something lying behind this sense of insecurity. It is fear—fear that people won’t accept us or value us unless they know how great we are. So we talk about ourselves in the hopes of being considered worthy of acceptance by others.