Designed to be Fruitful
Part 2
(Genesis 48)

By Iverna Tompkins
Transcribed by Jane Vaughn

In Part 1 of this message, we read the whole chapter from Genesis (48) - the story of Jacob laying his hands on Joseph's two boys to impart the patriarchal blessing.  It seemed to Joseph that Jacob, old and not seeing very well anymore, had made an error by pronouncing the blessing of the firstborn upon Ephraim, the second born son.  It was not an error.  We learned that God has a divine design for each life - including yours and mine.  That design carries with it an amazing truth - God sees us as holy!  And we can be free from the accusations of the enemy to the contrary.  We closed Part 1 with the verse from Galatians 5 that proclaims our liberty, our freedom.

We sing about that freedom.  “I’m free!  I’m free!  Salvation is here!  I’m free!”  Well then – claim that!  When the enemy starts badgering you, in your thoughts, that’s the time to praise the Lord!  No, you don’t feel like it!  What you feel are the accusations of the enemy: “You’re no good!”  “You’ve failed – you had opportunity and you missed it!”  Those are what you feel.  But that stands in contrast to what we know is the Truth and is what is important – “I know in Whom I have believed and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto Him” (2Tim.1:12).  You see – that’s the confidence.  “This is the confidence that we have in Him…” (1Jn.5:14,15).

Now – I break, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that false guilt that so many of you have to deal with.  For those of you who seriously say, “I want to be free,” agree with me now: I break that spirit of guilt!  It is not of God!  Freedom and release from condemnation is of the Lord (Rom.8:1,2).

Joseph knows of the blessing.  Of course he knows the blessing!  He has experienced the lack of it – and he has experienced the blessing as well.  So, he says, “I need to get my Dad to bless my sons before he dies.  Now, I want you to be first, Manasseh.  You are my firstborn and should get the double-portion.  And you can be second, Ephraim, because you were born second.” 

I never get used to that, do you, Pastor?  You look at people that come into your church and they’re going to be committed to the Body of Christ, or become a part of the church, and you think (and evaluate!), “Oh, she’s the…  I want her!  Oh, I’m going to bless her first.”  And then you see another one in the line, “Uh… not him – he’s…”  But who does God bless first?  Him! :-)  God picks the most unlikely persons to succeed.  Have you noticed that?  That’s how we got in! :-)   He says, “I’m going to make you an amazement – to everyone.”

So, that is what we have read.  Jacob (Israel) seems to be confused and his hands are changed – or crossed over.  The old man who isn’t seeing very well anymore seems to make a mistake.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said that to God.  “Yoo-hoo.  You’re lucky You have me.  I’m going to straighten this whole thing out for You.” :-)  And I hope you’re laughing with me.   :-)   We think we know how things should go, but God is Sovereign and has a master plan.  You’re simply not going to get away from the design. 

The old man explains, “I know what I’m doing.  I do know what I’m doing.  I know Ephraim was the second born and I’m blessing him now with my right hand (on purpose!) and I’m putting the firstborn blessing on him.  Of course, you know, I’ll also bless the firstborn as well.”

When we think we have some sort of vote in the matter, I can just hear God: “I’ll bless her and I’ll bless him too, but this one is going to be that and that one’s going to be the other thing.”

Let me interject a little “Mama” advice to you as a church, especially to the young churches.  Listen, for this will help you.  When the Lord starts moving in your church, He’s going to raise up leaders – other than the present staff members.  He probably will not replace these, but God’s going to raise up other leaders from among the congregation and it may not be the ones for whom you vote.  Now, if you dare to leave the church over that, because you didn’t agree with God’s choices, you’ll get a worse leader wherever you go!  Count on it.  If God is Sovereign – then He is sovereign!  And His plan will include stretching you along with the others.

In the Bible, people were named for a couple of things.  One – they were often named for the situation that was prevalent at the moment of their birth.  “This is happening and so if I have a child now, I’m going to name the child after the happening.”  And, even unknown to the parent who did the naming, it often was a prophetic statement.  Parents didn’t always realize what they were doing specifically.  So, when Joseph named his sons, he thought, “I’m naming them based on what’s going on.”  He thought, “Manasseh is my firstborn.”  (The firstborn should have received the double-portion blessing, just for being born first.)  “The reason I named him Manasseh is – it means ‘forgetting.’”  And (this is a quote from Joseph) “God hath made me to forget all my toil and all my father’s house.” (Gen.41:51). 

Now, if you know the story of who it is that is talking here, Joseph, he had a whole lot to forget!  As he grew up, a young lad in his father’s house, he was the favorite son.  He was not the firstborn but his Dad loved his mother more than all the others (see Gen.37:3,4).  Jacob just adored this boy!  More than all his brothers.

God also loved him in a special way and so Joseph began to have spiritual dreams – insightful dreams (Gen37:5ff).  In the dream, he saw himself standing out in a field and his brothers were all bowing down to him.  Now, if you have a dream like that from the Lord, one that is that wonderful – shut up! :-)   That is not a dream to be shared!  But he’s just a kid – and he doesn’t know any better.  He believes it is a message from God and he believes it’s true – so he goes straight to his brothers!  “Guess what God showed me!”  Now he’s the youngest among the ones he shares it with, and they’re already jealous of their father’s special treatment of Joseph, and their attitude is: “Over my dead body!”  And one of them says, “No, over his!” :-)  And you know the story of this boy (Gen.37:8ff).

His Dad (Jacob) gave him this beautiful coat of many colors (Gen.37:3) – which I think represents something permanent that lasted when the coat was long gone – but you’ll have to buy that CD if you want that message :-)  (“Joseph and the Incredible Coat” in print on this website or “What Coat are You Wearing?” available on CD).  His brothers take him out, throw him in a pit, ultimately sell him as a slave to the Midianites who are just passing by.  They take him into Egypt and give him – well, not “give.”  Never would a Midianite give anything!  They sold him to Potiphar, the Captain of the Guard (37:36), to be a household slave (37:28ff).

Now – don’t miss this particular sermon. :-)  When the blessing, or as we rather lightly speak it – the anointing of the Lord – is upon and within an individual – it does not leave when they go into captivity.  The anointing makes a way for us – whether you’re selling lumber – or whether you’re traveling in ministry – or whether you’re serving another – it doesn’t matter what you’re doing – that anointing rises in wisdom and power and people say, “WOW!”  That’s why my doctor daughter could get people to take medicine that nobody else could get them to take.  She just went into the situation with the anointing (1Jn.2:27a).

Now, we don’t always realize it!  We don’t always realize – “This is the anointing operating.”  But it does operate everywhere we go – everywhere YOU go!

Joseph in Potiphar’s house…  He just got better and better.  Everything he touched turned to gold for Potiphar and he kept receiving promotions there.  Even Potiphar’s wife noticed him and lusted: “WOW!  I want his body!” :-)  You can read it for yourself.  It honestly is there (Gen.39:7ff).  And she makes an improper pass at him which he refuses: “Hey!  Hold it!  My Master’s been good to me and that’s not where I’m going with this situation” (39:7,8).  She grabs his coat, rips it off of him and yells, “Rape!” (vs.14) at which point the officers come in, take him and throw him into prison – on a false charge!

Now – how do you feel about that?  I mean, I don’t even like being accused when I’m guilty! :-)  But how do you feel when you’ve done your best, your brothers have failed you and sold you off to others – betrayal – and yet you’ve done nothing but serve God faithfully and God’s shown Himself strong in you – and now you find yourself down in – in a prison!  Out of a pit into prison.  And there you are – what do you do? 

It’s choice time!  :-)

Because “the spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet” (1Cor.14:32) – you don’t have to allow the Spirit to flow through you.  Poor Joseph could have thrown a pity-party – or released an anger-streak.  (Don’t ask me how I know about those two options! :-))  He could have gone any direction in the natural and God wouldn’t have killed him.  Why?  He’s in the design.  We just choose how long each step takes.  That’s why I’m so old!   :-) 

But Joseph lets the anointing of God flow through him.  (Good choice!)  Every time anyone has a difficult situation in the jail they can’t handle, someone says, “Do you know, Joseph?”  Upon hearing the situation, he’d reply, “I’ll pray about it.  I’ll ask my God.”  And then he’d have an answer!  One thing he did there was to interpret dreams (Gen.40:8ff).  Now, Joseph had promises from people down there with him in the jail – “When I get out of here, I’ll tell them about you, Joseph!”  But they didn’t – they just forgot (vs.23).  How many have had that kind of betrayal?

Betrayal hurts me, I think, as much as or more than anything you could do to me.  I hate to be betrayed!  Don’t you?  There’s just something about it.  And when I’m in that spot, soon I think of this: “The Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was betrayed…” (1Cor.11:23).  He made a choice!  He took bread and broke it and He served others – that’s just amazing to me!  Judas, who had been so close to Him, had betrayed Him completely!  And He still served him!

Joseph knew about betrayal – over and over again.  But he just kept interpreting dreams until finally he was called for by Pharaoh.  He went up to that audience and interpreted another dream (Gen.41:14ff).  Ultimately, Joseph ended up being promoted to Ruler of all Egypt! (vs.40ff).  But he’s still in Egypt!                                     I’m going to pause here long enough for that to penetrate your entire being!  Joseph was still in Egypt!

You see, you are Ruler over your own spirit.  That’s Kingdom language.  You can choose to rule in the midst of Egypt – this world – this political, social world we live in right now.  Oh, my!  I’m glad I don’t have to try to explain to you what’s happening out there in the political world today because I don’t have a clue!  Every day the news changes and I think, “Well, where’s someone with charts?  This has to fit in somewhere! ” :-)

I can tell you this much about our world today – the truth is –  it’s BAD out there!  :-)  It’s really bad out there!  The hatred is so strong!  If I didn’t have the Word of God to come back to where He actually says, “Yeah, Israel will forsake Me and go their own way – and they’re going to suffer because they’re choosing the most difficult path there is for My order to come into their lives.  They’re choosing it!  They’re choosing the hard way to go!” I’m not sure I would understand anything that is going on over there!

Then I see within my own country: we war over – pardon me – just stupid things!  We spend many, many dollars and many, many sessions in government deciding whether we should keep the Constitution as it was written!  Or should we, you know, interpret it?  I want to say: “DUH!” 

I hate the wickedness that’s all around us.  I’m a very sensitive individual and I sense it everywhere.  Don’t you sense the evil?  There’s just so much! The world is taking such a strong stand against us.  Now, I do know why.  I know why the world hates us – because – they’re smarter than we are.  :-)  They know what’s about to happen.  They know that the lions in the pew – which is you! – are going to rise up to Proverbs 28:1: “The righteous are bold as a lion!” (which just happens to be our ministry motto and why we use the lion as our logo).  But that boldness is coming to you! 

You must have a measure of it before you can go out and knock on someone’s door and say, “We’re from such and such a church here in the neighborhood.  How can we help you?”  It takes a little boldness to do that.  But you see, that’s just a little bit of boldness – and that’s great!  You’ll be successful when you go out to minister to the people – and you will win souls!  Yes.  But then we bring them into the church.  We “bring in the sheaves” and teach them the ways of the Lord so that His design for their lives can be fulfilled!  Does that make sense to you?  It takes the boldness of the Spirit of God to help us go and witness to the world about the wonderful message of Christ (Ac.1:8)