Tested by God’s Promise
[God] sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They afflicted his feet with fetters; he himself was laid in irons, until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him,” Psalm 105:17–19 NASB.
The life of Joseph began with great promise. Earlier in his youth, the Lord gave him a dream that showed him that he would be elevated to a position of great authority. He would rule over his brothers. Even his father and mother would come bowing down before him. What happened next? The very opposite of what God had promised. His brothers betrayed him, sold him as a slave into Egypt, and, because he was faithful to his Egyptian master, he eventually ended up in prison. He was in fetters, his soul was in iron.
How did Joseph respond to that situation? Did he say to himself, “Everything’s gone wrong! The Lord’s promise will never come true”? No, I don’t believe that. It says, “Until the time that the promise came, the word of the Lord tested him.” How important it is to see that when the Lord gives us a promise, many times everything that happens next will seem to be the very opposite of what God has promised. It’s so important that at times like that we don’t give up on the promise, we don’t say, “God has forgotten; God has failed.”
You see, that promise that God gave us is testing us. It’s testing our faith and our constancy to see if we’ll hold on in the darkest hour. And when we pass the test, then, like Joseph, the promise will be fulfilled.
~ Derek Prince
To listen to Derek’s original audio, click here. 
Materials used by kind permission of Derek Prince Ministries.
This is an amazing teaching and the timing couldn’t be more profound. I have always enjoyed Derek Prince, but these days I have shied away from teachings that were written in the past. Because I prefer being taught directly from the Lord and in present time. However, I have to admit that this message is amazing.
For more than a few years now, the Lord has been revealing to me destiny promises. But He didn’t do it all at one time. He gave it to me in bits and pieces. In sizes that I could stretch and hold on to. Within the last twenty-four hours the Lord has given me the final piece of the promise. The promise is so vast and so large that my imagination was not able to contain it until now.
But with each promise and each acceptance of the promise — then comes the pressure, the weight of the promise. The pressure has crushed me beyond the place where I can survive it. It is only the Lord Who holds me up right now. Without Him, the weight of the promise would have killed me by now. I believe this is the position that the Lord wants us in; it is the position well past our abilities.
Thanks for posting such a timely word.
God Bless You Dennis,
and may you groe in the Lord.
It is encouraging to hear that the Lord
now rises up His true sons and daughters!