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.