From our International Director

Posted on 31 May 2009.

A wonderful missions-minded church in Malaysia invited me to speak on Genesis 42-43. These chapters chronicle the part of the Joseph narrative when his brothers come to him in Egypt because they have no food to eat.

How the tables are turned - the last time they met the brothers had Joseph so much in their power that it was a tossup whether they killed him or sold him as a slave (Genesis 37:17-36).

There are three great lessons for us as we pray for China.

1. The Lord is sovereign. He rules over all. In His time, His word (in this case the dreams that Joseph had, Genesis 37:5-11) will come to pass. The church in China was nearly ‘killed' and certainly has known much ‘slavery'. But it has grown and prospered in the land under the sovereign Hand of God.

2. Joseph, even though he walked in the purposes and call of God, still had to accept the dealings of the Lord - very hard times, for years, under Potiphar, prison and the rest of it. It was to prepare his character to the point where in these chapters he would show the grace and discipline of God to fulfil the Lord's purposes for his brothers, and not show the wrath of man (however deserved that might have been!). Look at Genesis 45:5. Churches and individuals today - we need that work of the Spirit to grow His fruit in our lives. Sometimes that means He will allow difficult events into our lives that are hard to understand at the time. But they are the soil of godliness and bring forth the peaceable fruit of righteousness - if we will let them be that.

3. As for Joseph's brothers, they had opposed the plan of God and now that rebellion and the sin that flowed from it was powerfully exposed in their lives. All the things that they had buried began to surface - "Did not I tell you... Now we must give an account... " (42:22). We cannot oppose God and win. He will bring sin and hidden motives into the light. Like the pastor in Day Four who used the church's money for personal gain, God will in His time reveal and expose and shame. Better then to surrender to His plan and purposes.

Pray for those who face opposition that discourages them and tempts them to give up. Ask the Lord to show afresh to them His sovereign plan and purposes for the nation and church of China.

Pray for the Josephs that God is raising up, that they might not ‘lose the plot' in difficult times but understand and press on as they see what the Lord is doing to prepare them for His calling.

Pray for those who like Joseph's brothers oppose the purposes of God in the nation and church of China, that they might have opportunity to repent and turn to the Lord.