"The JOSEPH COMPANY"
-by David Wilkerson.
Let me show you the Joseph Company—a body of last-day believers
wholly given to the Lord. They commune with God daily and are led
by the Spirit in every detail of their lives. At this moment they are
coming out of great trials to enter a place of revelation, wisdom and
fruitfulness. God is working in them, giving them his truth and
knowledge, and very soon he is going to call upon them as he did
Joseph!
For the most part, the church today is experiencing widespread
spiritual famine: shallow sermons, dead hearers, "lively" worship
that is not backed up by righteous living.
God has always worked far in advance of every spiritual famine in
his church. In every generation he has moved ahead to prepare a
way out for his people!
The seventy-five members of Jacob's clan would have died in the
great worldwide famine (and the promise of Israel would have been
destroyed) had God not been working ahead of it all. In fact, some
twenty years before the famine hit, God was already setting in
motion a plan to save his people from destruction.
God sent Joseph ahead to Egypt! For twenty years God worked on
this man—isolating him, trying him, preparing him for a place of
authority—because Joseph was to become the life-saver of God's
chosen. He kept Joseph from the limelight in order that he might be
ready for a coming day of chaos and death!
Beloved, just as surely as God isolated Joseph, he has a Joseph
Company today that is hidden from all eyes. These are in the
furnace of affliction, prisons of testing, battlegrounds of trials and
temptations. They are dying to this world, wanting nothing of its
fame, honor, money or pleasure. And they are growing hungry to
become more intimate with Christ, to know his heart and his voice.
You may not understand all the mysterious testings, trials and
troubles in your life. But if your heart is fully set on following Christ,
you can rest assured God has purpose in it all: He wants to bring
you into his Joseph Company!
JOSEPH and GOD’S FAVOR
Does our heavenly Father favor certain of his children? Does the
Bible say God is no respecter of persons? When it comes to
salvation and his wonderful promises, God treats all alike but he
also puts his special favor on those who respond wholeheartedly to
his calling and yield their lives to him entirely!
Job said: "Thou hast granted me life and favour" (Job 10:12). David
said: "For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou
compass him as with a shield" (Psalm 5:12).
Our heavenly Father puts a special garment on those who
completely give him their heart: "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the
garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of
righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10).
Joseph responded to the Spirit's call, surrendering all, and as a
favor from his father he received a robe that set him apart. But that
favor of his father was costly! It cost Joseph relationships and
brought him rejection, misunderstanding and mockery: "All his
brethren . . . hated him" (Genesis 37:4).
Why did Joseph's brothers turn on him? The key is in verse 11:
"His brethren envied him." When they saw the robe Joseph wore,
they knew it spoke of favor, righteousness. And they hated it,
because it reminded them of the Spirit's call they had rejected!
Joseph was a reproach to their halfhearted lifestyle!
You see, Joseph's brothers sat around indulging in petty gossip
and self-centered talk. Their hearts were occupied with lands,
possessions, the future, but Joseph's was elsewhere. He spoke of
the things of God, of supernatural dealings. God had given him
dreams, which in that day was synonymous with hearing the voice
of God.
Lukewarm believers around you will want to talk about their cars,
houses and jobs, but you'd rather talk about eternal things, about
what God is saying to you. Soon you'll become a reproach to their
halfheartedness. They will envy you because you represent the
call of the Holy Ghost they turned down!
Yes, Joseph was of a different cloth and that difference made him
hated and envied among his brothers. And, beloved, the same will
happen to you if you are sold out to Jesus!
