If Joseph had resisted God’s sovereign work in his life, he would have died a bitter man. He would have taken revenge against his brothers at his earliest opportunity. He would have been like any other self-absorbed human. And, his life would not have saved millions and taught all of us what a man who follows God fully looks like.
But, he let God be God, orchestrating the events of his life and resting in a faith in God's rightness and inherent goodness. And so should we.
The omnipresence of God is a reality (that God is everywhere all the time). “Where can I go from Thy Spirit?” David said (Psalm 139). And, since the coming of Christ and Pentecost, which was the sending of His indwelling Spirit to all who believe, the true follower of Christ is assured that Christ will never leave them nor forsake them personally. Once the Spirit comes to reside in the believing heart, He is there permanently.
But, it is possible to have our head turned by the world, the flesh, and the devil. We can quench and grieve the Spirit who lives within us. We can ignore Him or resist His leadership. If we do so, we will lose the conscious awareness of His presence. We will begin to operate on our own, not walking by the Spirit, and the results are always disastrous. We get what our humanity brings. Like an unseen guest standing in the shadows, He is still present, but not prominent.
Do you desire to be successful in your daily living? Raising your family? Your work? Your whole life? The formula is simple. You don’t need another book beside the Bible. God is waiting to grant success to every man or woman who will look to Him unselfishly and give Him all the glory.
Our faith is not mere head knowledge, but is “walking and talking like what God says is really true” as one of my mentors, Manley Beasley used to say. Real faith is always accompanied by an action verb: Noah prepared an ark; Abraham obeyed God and went out as the Lord instructed; Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; Daniel continued to pray against the world’s commands.
If we will take Him at His word, we will find Him always faithful to His Word. Our faith will grow and the world will see continued demonstrations of the reality of God.
