noble (1 Tim 3:1). In Christendom today, we are tending to make two types of errors in relation to this whole matter of ambitions. Either we lack ambition, or when we have it, we do not use it in the service of God’s Kingdom. There are believers who are not driven by any objectives related to fulfilling the great commission. They are like the disciples in John 4 whose imaginations were blinded to the “ripe fields” (Jn 4:35). Like the disciples, these believers busy themselves with self–preservation and fail to see God’s hand at work in their circumstances.
Yet, the imagination is so important if believers are to flourish as God’s change agents. Indeed, faith thrives on the imagination. It is when we keep imagining and seeing with our inner eye, the promises that we hear from God’s Word that our faith flourishes. So Paul prayed for the Ephesians, that “the eyes of your heart may be enlightened” in order to know God’s hope (Eph 1:18–19). If Christians of today are to transform the places where God has inserted them, they also need the same “enlightenment of the eye of the heart”. Believers fail the Lord Jesus when they sit on their hands and keep saying, “it is not possible, it has never been done this way before, it is much too difficult and it is not yet time”. And so their churches, families and communities continue to fall apart.
Thankfully, Joseph had an ambition that did not accept the disorder in his family. What Joseph lacked however, was the constraining power of God’s Spirit to channel his ambitions properly. This is the aspect of the dreams that Joseph, his father and his brothers failed to understand. Instead of carefully seeking God’s direction and the guidance of trusted people, Joseph went about bragging about his dreams to his brothers. He never pondered how his brothers would feel about the dreams. Joseph had not learnt that dream sharing is an occasion for humility, and not for gloating.
Joseph’s problem was not lack of ambitions. His problem was an ambition that was not humbled and constrained by love and consideration for others. His ambitions were not shaped by the fruit of the Spirit. Like him believers need to appreciate that their ambitions must be constrained by humility and consideration for others. Christian disciples should not trample on others, wipe their noses in the mud and manipulate them to achieve “noble” ambitions. Not even the excuse of a dream or a revelation from God justifies having to manipulate and harm the egos of others.
Joseph’s subsequent experience taught him how to let the Spirit of God constrain his ambitions. From this point on, God took over this young man’s ambitions, pruned him and made him fit for His service. Every Christian needs this pruning process.
Pruned by Suffering
If Joseph expected that the dreams would be immediately fulfilled without much tears, he was in for a big disappointment. Instead of his family rejoicing with him, his brothers hated him more. They then sold him to be a slave in a foreign land. The prince of Jacob with big ambitions of domination, turned into the slave of Potiphar, right at the bottom of the pile in a strange land. Joseph learnt that though vision is important, it was only the beginning of the hard work of fulfillment. Jesus promised that every believer who bears fruit, “God prunes so that he will be even more fruitful” (Jn 15:2). And so Joseph learnt how God prunes His servants through the suffering he experienced.
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