Do you want the coat or the favor?

"Favor AIN'T fair"- Bishop TD Jakes

When I realized holding on no longer served me I broke FREE!

Lately, I have been thinking about what i'm going to do doing next. I know you have too because we all just really want to grow. We have the need to do better and achieve. Well since y'all are my friends and i can be honest with you. I'll be real and say that iv'e been feeling like Joseph lately. You see he was a dreamer. He was apart of a big family and he was favored. One part of his story more then anything touched my heart. He wanted people to be happy for him when he told his dreams! - Sound familiar? Well for me it did - almost too familiar.

Now, just to clarify i love my family and all my siblings and no they are not trying to kill me or sell me off into slavery and send me to prison. (oh, lord that's just so sad) But i can relate to his story in some smaller ways.

Alright, let's look at what it means to be favored. Beginning with Genesis 37 " Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line.

Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate[a] robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

Point 1: Joseph was very young. (Keep this in mind)

Have you ever tried to do the right thing and it was no taken in the right way?

You ever feel like you meant well but people thought that you meant evil?

I could imagine that Joseph wasn't feeling like he had done anything wrong really but told the truth. But as you can see snitches get stitches back then too!

The Coat: The coat was given to him because he was favored by his father for being conceived at such a old age. And this coat now stood as a distinction between him and the others. Imagine if i gave you the best coat from GUCCI and the remainder of your siblings got CHILDREN'S PLACE. This is what it felt like for the brothers. But instead of them looking through the lens of perspective at the favor that God was placing on their own brothers life they perceived it as him being better and they didn't care that the favor he carried would one day save them.

Moving along . . .

"Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

We are now passing, Martin Luther King day- so I know you can see his dream now! But what about when he told us? Did we believe him? Could they see what he saw? Did they think that he was just a man who thought he was favored by God to be blessed with such a dream? Do you have a dream just like this that would be unbelievable? Do people hate you for what you've been seeing?

Martin Luther King, stood for equality and a dream not "YET" seen. His faith in the fact that God gave it to him reminds me of Joseph. For your own brothers to want to sit you down because you dared to receive what God showed you.

“A man who won’t die for something is not fit to live.” -Martin Luther King

---

Perspective Moment: "Before you begin seeing you must receive it in your heart and spirit"- Capri

When you look at what you have received in your heart you can now see it. You received a better job, you received a healthy marriage, you received a nice car and NOW you see it. Continue doing that while you wait for the other blessings you need from God and watch him fulfill on those promises like he did Martin and Joseph they had to first believe their dream in order to share it with others. Do you even believe what God is showing you right now? Do you believe that God has given you the ability to interpret your dreams like these two men? DO YOU BELIEVE THAT GOD SHOWED YOU THE DREAM FOR A REASON? Do you even believe that you are chosen for the next shift in your life and your family's life?

You will need to answer these questions to move on to the next level because what happened next was a shift for both Martin and Joseph. Let's take a deeper look at Joseph.

" His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind"

My Big Question: What will you do when even the closest people to you do not believe in your dream?

Okay, this is were i am being ministered to because i know everybody will not be down with what God wants to do in my life. But as a human sometimes you just want a little bit of excitement for the dream you see coming on the other side. You want people not to look at how they will fit in the plan. You want them to see it for the blessing that it is. But, you find yourself wondering well. . . what was the purpose of this dream if nobody else but me understands it. Well look I am here to tell you that they WONT!

---

Your dreams aren't meant for the world to get it! I mean let's be real if you wanted to you could just not say anything but what do you think was the significance of him telling his dream instead of keeping it to himself?

We often hear keep your dreams (movements) on the low. Make silent moves. YES do this but only if it is required. Because you are required to give and account of what God lends to you with others. If he is lending wisdom share it. If he is lending opportunity share it. Do not become selfish yet instead become "HUMBLE" in my definition it means being one who is not eager to self gratification.

There are many dreaming entrepreneurs, actors, doctors, preachers, etc. . .. They all have a responsibility to share what they have learned along there journey to becoming there fully expressed selves.

So this is why people give testimony's and advice for various subjects in the world because they have learned that the dream will still come true even if we share our accomplishments with others. Somebody else may need the encouragement to start there non-profit or lifestyle blog. It's ultimately up to you to "HUMBLE YOURSELF". If it's a dream that God gave you it cant return to him after he said it.

SO DO YOU RATHER HAVE THE FAVOR ( DREAM) OR THE COAT (NOTORIETY)?

We will talk about ways to discern who to tell your goals and dreams to on our next lunch in. I love creating with you guys of course you know what i'm going to say!

Keep creating, creators.