Joseph and Daniel: A spirit of Excellence

  The past few weeks, God has been really speaking to my spirit about how I needed to take this season in my life much more seriously as a time of preparation for the future of my life and my calling in Ministry. As many of you probably know, when going through a season of waiting, you pretty much want to do just that-wait. Think about it, When you're waiting for something, whether it's waiting for your food at the drive through or waiting to have your name called in the Doctor's office, there's not a whole lot else your doing or focusing on in that moment; you're just...waiting.

  God has shown me though, That when we go through a season where we are waiting for him to bring about a promise in our life or take us to the next season of our lives, often times he is the one who is waiting on us. God showed me a while back that he doesn't make people wait simply on principle. In other words, we all know that God rarely does things fast, normally it is a process over a period of time or it's a sudden change preceded by a substantial amount of time where nothing seemed as if it was going to change. That being said, he showed me that he just doesn't do this because that's how he does things and that's always how he has done things. God is not a God of methods. He is God, he IS the method. God makes people wait because he is preparing them for that next season in their life that he has told them he is going to bring them into.

  That being said, he's shown me in the last couple of days that he is waiting on me to develop a Spirit of Excellence before he can bring me into what he has for me. As I've thought about this the last few days god has shown me that, as a child of his and someone who has been called to be a leader in Ministry- I must have a spirit of Excellence that directs all of my actions and interactions. More importantly though, it's about having a spirit of excellence during this time of transition in my life where everyday is a struggle and life doesn't have many positives aside from my faith and family. It's there and only there that people can really develop a spirit of excellence.

  So what exactly is a spirit of excellence?

  Well, you know how when life isn't exactly being a "box of chocolates" for us, we kind of have this tendency to do just enough or even cut corners when it comes to what we do and how we act and interact. I mean let's be honest, it's easy to be and do everything to the highest standard when life is treating us good but look how we tend to start treating people, treating ourselves and treating our responsibilities when our circumstances aren't what we'd like them to be.

  A spirit of excellence is still being the person that God has called you to be in every area of your life, not cutting corners and still going the extra mile even when there is seemingly no reason to. Even when life is not at all going the way you want it to.

As I thought about what God's word says about a spirit of excellence, God brought two people to my mind that are an example of this if there ever was one. They are Joseph and Daniel.

  If you look at both of their lives, the similarities are many. Both Daniel and Joseph are ripped away from their homeland, their families and everything they know. Both are taken to a foreign land to be servants to a foreign people. Yet, both of these men excel in everything they do and rise to places of prominence. When I say places of prominence, I mean that both of these men started out as servants and slaves and ended up being masters. Not just masters of other slaves though, I mean masters over the entire Kingdom!

Daniel 6:3 says "Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom." 

  And when it comes to Joseph, Genesis 41:39-41 says " Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.” And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”

  Both of these men were servants, foreigners, and they were very young to be ruling over anything but both of them had a spirit of excellence that saturated who they were and everything they did. Notice that in both of these verses, the men were being promoted because they had set themselves apart from the crowd.

That's exactly what God asks us as Christians to do everyday, not just in a spiritual way, but also by being excellent in all we do and how we act.

   As we set ourselves apart more and more, God will promote us in his Kingdom and trust us and give us more influence and more resources to advance his kingdom just as he did with Joseph and Daniel. Don't get it wrong, it was ultimately God who caused Joseph and Daniel to be promoted. 

Psalm 75:6-7 says " For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south,but God is the Judge: He putteth down one, and setteth up another."

  They had an excellent spirit even when they were in a terrible season of their life and God promoted them time and time again for it and blessed them with great resources and great influence. God wants to do the same with each of us!  The sad truth is though,

  

  

   Many of us want to have an excellent life but very few of us are willing to be excellent people.

I believe what God has told me, he is trying to telling many others - "Be a person of excellence and I'll bring you into your season of excellence.

Find your passion and you've found your path to greatness

1 Samuel 17:34-37 - But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, ³⁵ I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. ³⁶ Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. ³⁷ The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”  

I like to imagine that a part of David was completely suprised and a little in shock at the words that were coming out of his mouth. After all, Here was David, a young scrawny boy, a Sheep Herder standing among Israelite Soldiers. A group of brawny men who were supposed to be the bravest of the brave. Yet on that day, they were all cowering in fear while David was ready to go toe to toe with Goliath. On this day, David stood the mightiest among a group of man who were called mighty. On this day, David stepped into greatness.

 David was a lowly Shepherd , the last child of eight, and the only vote of confidence given to him was by a prophet named Samuel who told him he was to be King over all of Israel. Can you imagine what David must have felt? Day after day of tending sheep and catering to his older brothers, all the while remembering the day when some guy came out of nowhere and anointed him to be King. King over those sheep, his brothers, and the entire nation. As the days, months and years passed after he had been anointed though, I can only imagine that he had a slight feeling of "my circumstances are not lining up with what I've been told." I think we've all felt that a time or two. Many of us might be feeling that way right now. You know God has spoken promises into your life, he has spoken into your future and has given you a picture of who you would become and what you would do for him but your life looks nothing like that. 

  

As we read the story of David, we can obviously see that he did eventually come into the realization of what was spoken to him. He became the greatest King Israel Israel ever had.

So, How did that happen?

 How did David go from Sheep herder to King? Well, most of us would say it was because he slayed the Giant Goliath and became the hero and successor to the throne. That's not entirely true though. Yes, David slayed the giant. Think about this, though - If slaying the giant was the moment that catapulted David into his destiny, you once again have to ask yourself...

So, how did that happen?

How in the world did David have the courage to stand up to this giant when all of the bigger, stronger and seemingly way more qualified soldiers were trembling in fear? I'll tell you how - 

Passion.

Yes, that's right. It was his passion.

  While all the other Soldiers saw sure defeat and death when they thought about taking on this giant, David's passion allowed him to look past all of that. I imagine you're asking yourself "Passion for what?" "what was David so passionate about that gave him the courage to defeat Goliath?"

  Well, the funny thing about being a Shepherd is that your entire job is risking your life to protect creatures that are completely helpless, vulnerable and a prime target for pretty much any other creature. In other words, Sheep are right there near the bottom of the food chain. In 1 Samuel 17, David tells King Saul " your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. The Lord who rescued me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will rescue me from the hand of this Philistine.”

 You see, I don't think David fully realized until that day that the whole time he was doing the lowly job of Shepherding sheep and wondering when he would be king, God was developing in him the passion that would create the path to the greatness that God had in store for his life.

  Through the job of Shepherding, David developed a strong passion for defending the defenseless and protecting the sheep, who were smaller and helpless, from the "bullies" who looked to take advantage of the smaller and weaker species. So after years of Shepherding, wouldn't you know that God has David walk right into the midst of a situation that was exactly like what he'd seen everyday for the past however many years!

  David's passion for defending the weak allows him to see Goliath not as a mighty Giant whom he should cower in fear from, but instead, as a bully who is taunting the weaker and smaller Israelite soldiers to come and face him one on one. David's passion propels him into action and the smallest man on the field that day took down the biggest. 

  God used David's passion to put him on the path to the greatness that he had for him. The whole while David was tending sheep and being passionate in his care and defense of them-he was on his path to greatness and he didn't even realize it.

  Always remember that God uses your passion, to make a difference in an area, as the path to the greatness that he has for you. So if you know God has told you that you are going to do great things in this world for him, look for the areas in your life where he has planted seeds of passion. If they're aren't any there yet- don't get discouraged. God started whispering to my spirit that I was going to do great things for his Kingdom long before he ever placed the passion for a specific cause in my heart. Remember, David was anointed king while he was still tending sheep. Can you imagine how many times he must of thought, How in the world am I going to end up being King? All David knew was that God had told him that he was destined for greatness one day.

  Many times, after God convinces your heart and mind that he wants to use you in a great way, he will ask you to have patience so that he can grow you, then he will give you your one great passion, and finally, he will give you the plan to put that Passion into action. God's plan for David was defeating Goliath.

                           

                             He has a passion and a plan for you as well, just be patient.