Our Church, in a bid to follow biblical standards in choosing new leaders, gave the Senior Ministers the names of prominent men, who God used in the Bible, so that they would speak on them. I was given Joseph, my namesake. Most of the Josephs in the Bible were great men. One of them, a carpenter, married to Aunty Mary, fostered the Lord Jesus. Joseph from Arimathaea, a rich man, buried Him in the tomb he had dug for himself. The third Joseph, the son of Jacob, was the one I chose for the deliberation.
Daniel loved God. His declaration to Nebuchadnezzar, a Babylonian ungodly king, about God in Dan. 2:28, seems to summarize the lifestyle and belief of Joseph: ‘But there is a God in Heaven’. It was his spiritual sensitivity at the young age of 17 and diligence that made him to notice the misdeeds of his elder brothers, when they were in the field shepherding their father’s flock. He could have joined them or kept quiet. He did not. He reported their evil deeds to Jacob, their dad. To curry favour or because of fear, some people conceal things they would have blown the whistle. They rather speak behind the scene. Such people are of no use to their family or to any organization they belong.
The implication of the informing he gave to their dad about his brothers, as would be expected, earned him their hatred. They planned to kill him but later changed their mind and sold him to Ishmeelites slave merchants, who sold him to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s Chief Security Officer. His brothers did what they did because they did not know that: ‘There is a God in Heaven’. Persecution is not strange to a child of God, so longer as the suffering is not because of sin. Potiphar’s wife lusted after him and wanted him to sleep with her but he refused, and told her that it was a sin against God and her husband. When she could no longer tolerate his preaching against her wanton desire, she changed her tactics, no more talking but rather forcing him to it. She held him. That was a bad temptation for the youth. It is only a few men, who can survive it, when sex is copiously initiated by a lady. He might have weighed the options: pleasing her, which would attract better welfare from her as well as projecting him before her husband. On the other hand, would he please God, Whose reward though it has eternal perspective, but it may tarry? He stood his ground, to please God.
Like Abraham, who looked for a city, which had foundations, Whose builder and maker was God, he ‘picked’ race, leaving his garment. You may call it weakness but it did not bother him, so long as he succeeded in pleasing the God, Who is in Heaven. Aunty raised an alarm that he wanted to rape her, supporting her well-crafted accusation, displaying his garment. Joseph was jailed but even there, he was still a lover of God and also of His people for a crime he did not commit. He accosted two new inmates he saw in deep sorrow. Should a prisoner really be happy? It is only a happy man that can notice an unhappy fellow. A child of God rejoices in boom and in gloom. When he became Pharaoh’s Prime Minister, he could have amassed wealth but he did not.
Joseph had a unique Asset: ‘And the Lord was with him’.
That was his saving grace in the hands of his brothers. It was also the reason Potiphar did not use him in burying his dead father or for making pepper soup for dinner. After all, a slave could be killed at will by the owner. Potiphar confirmed that the Lord was with him. The Lord’s presence impacted his business positively. In Prison, it was confirmed by the warder, who then committed all the prisoners into his care. Imagine: a new inmate! It was also evidenced by the prosperity of all things put into his care.
Joseph was conscious that it was God, not him, that brought about the successes that witnessed his leadership and therefore, he gave Him the glory. In prison, before he interpreted the dreams of the Chief Butler and the Chief Baker, he pointed his fingers to God as the Person, Who interprets dreams. When he was brought to Pharaoh, he assured him that God would give him an answer of peace. A Leader should not thrive by people’s praises, nor be discouraged by their negative comments. Such people may do so for personal gain or to humiliate you. Never accept that you are the reason people attend your Church or that you are the best preacher or best anything among the ministers. Jesus must be the reason we do what we do.
After ministering in a Revival Service in Dallas from August 5-7, 2011, time restrained me from ministering on the Rapture. Praise God that during the last day, August 7, I was told to minister again on August 14. I used the opportunity to minister on the Rapture. A lady told me that Rapture was no longer a popular message in the US. My response was brief. I told her that I do not preach popular messages. Jesus did not. During my last Sunday, which was in November, a lady asked me who would then be preaching to them. That was a trap! ‘The person doing that before I came,’ I told her.
Joseph was a man of vision. You can guess how far a leader will go by reviewing his Budget, especially, his Long Term Budget. If he has none, ask him what somebody will expect, if he visits the Church after ten years. He may tell you that God will be faithfully providing them resources for paying their rent and that they will paint the building. Another leader may say, ’You will not see any of us here because we would have located to the eight plots of land we shall buy, four plots for our school and four for the Church. We would have built great edifice there and established our branches all over the country and also outside the country.
Nobody is taller than his vision. I asked one of the people we were interviewing for the office of the General Manager in SUPB Ltd, how he would cope since the two cars our former General Manager was using were no longer fit for long journeys. He told us that he would produce the fund. We gave him the job. Not long after, true to his word, he fulfilled his promise. Vision! One day, he called me, requesting to buy a jeep. I asked him whether he would buy a jeep at that time the fortune of the company was still slim. Four days later, I changed my mind and obliged him. He bought a humble car but later, the jeep. The radio, the television, the handset, et cetera, we use, are the products of people’s vision.
For further comment, Please contact: Osondu Anyalechi: 0802 3002-471;anyalechiosondu@yahoo,com