In the book of Genesis, Jacob had twelve sons, but his favorite was Joseph. He made Joseph a robe of many colors that set him apart from his brothers. It was not the garment of a working man, but that of a prince. Joseph's brothers grew envious of him. Then, when Joseph was seventeen, God gave him a dream about his destiny.

(Genesis 37:5-8 NKJV) Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more. So he said to them, "Please hear this dream which I have dreamed: There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf." And his brothers said to him, "Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us?" So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

The Lord showed Joseph in a dream that one day, his envious brothers would bow down to him. They already didn't like Joseph, so telling them this dream was like throwing gas on a fire. Then he had a second dream that confirmed the first one and included his parents.

(Genesis 37:9-11 NKJV) Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, "Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me." So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?" And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Notice that the Lord was speaking about Joseph's future. The Lord always speaks about your future. The devil always speaks about your past. When you have repented of something, the Lord will never bring it up again, and the enemy will never let you forget it. He will saddle you up with past baggage and ride you around like a packhorse if you let him.

Dreams are absolutely real and relevant today, but always wait for confirmation. Like Joseph, Sylvia, and I have both had a dream series where one dream builds on the last one. Once, the Lord gave her the first half of a dream and me the second half the same night.

In 2014, the Lord gave me seven sequential dreams over several weeks, with each resuming where the last had stopped. By the end of the series, I knew He was telling me to resign from the ministry I was working for, though that made no sense to me in the natural realm. So, at 47, I resigned on a Friday with no plan and without knowing what we would do next. By Monday, we were building Refreshing Hope, and here we are.

Everything started to come together piece by piece. That Saturday, Sylvia and I sat on the couch together, and while praying, she heard "Refreshing Hope." I checked the domain, and it was available, so we registered it. That Sunday, we went to church, and the assistant pastor met us at the door and asked how we were doing, as he knew what had happened at work. We explained that we were going to start a ministry called "Refreshing Hope." He said, well, you will want to register as a non-profit so you can take donations properly. I can help you with that!

When we decided to start an online church, we sat down on the couch together and used an Excel spreadsheet to calculate the costs. We could repurpose some of the leftover equipment from our computer business, but there are some things we would still need to buy. We calculated that we would need $2,500 to get started.

That would have taken everything we had, but we prayed about it again and felt that was what the Lord wanted, so I pulled an old Dell 2950 server out of the closet, put it on our kitchen table, and began formatting it. Within 30 minutes, someone came to our website and donated exactly $2,500. We had not told a soul about our plans. It's one step at a time, hand in hand.

Joseph's brothers did not believe in his dreams. They hated both him and his dreams. One day, they found Joseph alone in a field, caught him, put him in a pit for a while, then sold him to traveling merchants for twenty pieces of silver. His brothers took his beautiful robe, dipped it in blood, and led his father to believe that a wild animal had eaten him.

(Genesis 37:18-20 NKJV) Now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him. Then they said to one another, "Look, this dreamer is coming! Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, 'Some wild beast has devoured him.' We shall see what will become of his dreams!"

Yes, they would. The merchants took young Joseph to Egypt and sold him as a slave to Potiphar, the captain of the guard. Yet, the Lord was with Joseph and blessed everything he did.

(Genesis 39:2-3 NKJV) The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD made all he did to prosper in his hand.

Eventually, Potiphar's wife cast "longing eyes" at Joseph and eventually invited him to share her bed. When Joseph refused, she grabbed his cloak, and he fled, leaving his cloak with her. Of course, Joseph was innocent, but that is not what she told her husband when he came home, and Joseph was thrown into prison.

(Genesis 39:20-23 NKJV) Then Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were confined. And he was there in the prison. But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph's authority, because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper.

Notice that Joseph was kept in a place "where the king's prisoners were confined." This means that even prison was part of making his dream come to pass. Joseph now had close access to people who worked directly for Pharaoh. When Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker had dreams, Joseph interpreted them, and they came true just as he predicted.

Two years later, Pharaoh had troubling dreams, and no one could interpret them for him. Again, there was a dream confirmation. The first dream involved cows, with seven healthy, beautiful cows followed by seven gaunt, sickly ones. The second dream involved grain, with seven healthy heads of grain followed by seven thin, blighted ones. None of the wisemen in the land could tell Pharaoh what the dreams meant.

The cupbearer remembered a man he had met in prison who had accurately interpreted his dream, and he told Pharaoh about Joseph. So, Pharaoh summoned Joseph to interpret his dreams. Joseph said the dreams foretold seven years of plenty followed by seven years of severe famine. Pharaoh was so blown away by the wisdom of God inside Joseph that he made him second-in-command of Egypt. Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh that day (Genesis 41:46).

(Genesis 41:38-41 NKJV) And Pharaoh said to his servants, "Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?" Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you." And Pharaoh said to Joseph, "See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt."

So, there were seven years of abundance in Egypt, during which Joseph stored up the crops before a severe famine, lasting seven years, began. Eventually, Joseph's brothers came to Egypt looking for food for their families.

(Genesis 42:6 NKJV) Now Joseph was governor over the land; and it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth.

Joseph had a dream from God, but when he shared it with his brothers, they hated him even more. They did not believe in his dream and tried to correct him. They thought selling Joseph into slavery would stop his dream, but it actually helped it come true. Joseph's dream came from God Almighty, the Creator of the universe, and He is always enough.

No one has to believe in your God-given dreams but you, and many times, others will openly oppose them. Sylvia and I disappointed quite a few people to start Refreshing Hope, mainly by the Lord telling us to move on, while they preferred for us to stay where we were. But it is better to obey God than man.

You can pray this with me if you like:=

Prayer: Heavenly Father, please speak to me in a way that I understand and open my mind to Your Scriptures. Help me be in tune with You, and what You are doing on Earth today. Thank You for another day. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen!