+From Potiphar to Prison?

+From the Pit to Potiphar’s House

From the Pit, you hear the voice of hope, the rope is dropped, and alas, God has heard your prayer, or so it seems!

It’s a place of no control

A place of despair

Status is taken

Royalty becomes internal

Betrayal

Learn to live by faith

+Potiphar's House

+Potiphar’s House - MapThe Place of Service – Full application of self.

The Place of experiential learning – language, culture and management skills

The Place where pride is broken

The Place of Growth – More growth in the dumps than the palaces

The Place of Preparation

A Place to learn to depend on His Presence, God’s plan is bigger than your dream!

The Dream was Received, In the Pit refined, here resized, about to be revealed.

A Place of Character Formation and Testing – temptation.

+Potiphar’s House - MapA Place of Compromise – Local Champion, Successful Slave

A Place of Platform – Fulfilling the Promise to Abraham Gen 12:3 – The becoming of an Asset – Rise in Credibility and Trust.

A Place of Stature – Handsome and in form

A Place of further change of garment – Conflict between internal and external cultures.

A Place of Spiritual Maturity.

The University of Adversity

The School of Patience, alignment with God’s will and confidence in God’s view.

+Temptation

Lie with me!

Daily!

Maturity and Godly Character is saying No!

+Prison – Navigating the trials, valleys and troubles of our lives!

Joseph was not alone in having to go through the Prison experience. Samson, Daniel, Jeremiah, Hosea, John the Baptist, Jesus, John, Peter, Paul and Silas and many more.

There is work that God wants to do in our lives, that requires the prison experience.

No Prison, No Palace!

+PrisonThe Place of Oppression – Unfair

The place of Confinement,

Of Limited Choices,

Loss of Liberty and held against personal will.

The place of trouble (Job 14:1),

A place of comfort in God’s Purpose,

Place of testing (Job 23:10),

A place of comfort in God’s guidance (Ps 23)

+PrisonThe Place of Obscurity – Out of circulation

The place where the dreams are challenged,

Where your experiences seem like God has left you.

It’s a place of doubt!

God however knows where you are. He holds the key to your freedom. You may be obscure, but God will bring you out for his Glory.

You learn to submit to God even when it’s not where you like.

+Prison

The Place of Opportunity - I can still serve

It’s a place of great opportunity to learn.

A place to learn about God’s presence, purpose, providence, and power.

We learn more about God in the prisons of life than in any other way.

We learn that He has a plan, we learn that the prison is not to stop us, but to strengthen us.

A place to learn to ask What, not Why! Rom 8:28

+PrisonThe Place of Obedience: Trust and Obey

It’s not a place to whine, it’s a place to wait

It’s not a place to become a different person, It’s a place to continue to revere and obey God.

It’s a place to learn that obedience isn’t reserved for only good times.

A place of choices and no excuses.

It’s a place of willful surrender to God’s agenda and learning to trust that God is totally in charge!

It’s the place of taking comfort from the fact that nothing happens to us, except God allows it! Faithful service irrespective of location.

+PrisonThe Place of Overcoming – Conquer self, and then the world.

A place of build up to your dreams. Network.

Through his trials, Joseph learned compassion on others, administrative skills, obedience and faithfulness.

A place where we are trained for the higher levels God has in plan for our lives.

A place of further service –assignment, household, Prison and Nation.

+Key LessonsAcceptance – No whining, no regrets or lamentation. Accept the responsibilities and make the most of them. Life is not fair!

Hard Work – If you don’t work hard through your adversity, others may never see your true abilities.

Patience – He held on to his dream, and reached out to the Butler to remember him.

Integrity – Be true to your core values and who you are.

Bless Others: No vengeance, used his gift to bless others.

Forgiveness – Put everything in perspective and let go! He freed himself.

God Dependent Life – God was His Centre! He still witnessed

+ PROACTIVE MODELFreedom

To ChooseStimulus Response

Self-Awareness

Imagination Conscience

IndependentWill

Whatever happens to you, you choose your response

+Heaven's Citizens Christian Centre- Give to God’s Work!

Skye Bank: 1771433001Apapa Branch.

GTBank: 0148495211Ojodu Branch

+Announcements

Community Meeting – Friday 6pm

Sunday – Where are You Series. If you don’t know where you are, you can’t move to where you want to be.

Thursday Series – Practical Wisdom – Friendship!

+This is who we Are! This is Who I Am!I am Heaven’s Citizen! I am God’s, totally God’s.

I am God’s Representative Here on the Earth! He finds expression through me.

I am the House that God is Building! I am a living stone, fitted together with other believers into the House of God!

I belong to God’s Kingdom! I am a Son of God, A Heir of God, a Joint Heir with Christ.

I have no personal AGENDA! I have no personal AMBITION! God’s Will is my Agenda! God’s Service is my Ambition!

I am Crucified with Christ! The Life I now live is Christ’s! I live by the FAITH of the SON of God who Loved me, and Gave himself for ME!

Jesus is my Lord! He is the VINE, I am a BRANCH! I bear fruit when I abide in Him. I ABIDE in JESUS!