Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us for today’s installment of Power Walk. "Broken, Not Defeated," that’s our current series here on Power Walk, taught by Reverend Paul Cannings. You might be in a place where you feel like God is not answering your prayers, even when you believe you’ve walked faithfully in his service.

So, what do we do? Encouraging us to be committed in our trust to God and re-establish our trust with people, here’s Pastor Paul Cannings with the message "The Testing of Our Faith."

Dr. Paul Cannings: Obviously, the person who would impress me the most, and hopefully you the most, in relationships is Christ. You see his love for Peter and the disciples, and you would see his love for Mary and Martha and Lazarus. You see these things take place in scripture that shows us that Jesus Christ had affinity because that’s all he knows. God is love, so that’s what they do all day. They are God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, they operate and function together all the time. So when he comes on Earth, guess what? He has a relationship.

You see this powerfully manifested when Peter denies him and he comes to Peter. He doesn’t say, "Peter, are you going to preach for me or are you going to just keep walking away after I did all this with you?" No, he doesn’t do that. He comes to him and he goes, "Peter, let's focus on you first, not ministry first. Peter, do you love me?" This is Jesus, folks. This is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. He’s the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and he’s talking to Peter: "Do you love me?"

What you find that helps heal relationships is the level of humility and the level of trust that is re-established. And that’s what we see here in the story of Joseph. Many people believe that Joseph is a type of Christ, so we will see models of that in the book of Genesis dealing with Joseph. There's a lot of truth to that and we could see the comparison as we finish up today in Genesis chapter 42.

Yes, Joseph sees his brothers. They don’t recognize him. Joseph is dressed up as an Egyptian and he was a young boy when they put him in the well. They were grown men, so he would recognize them, but they wouldn’t recognize him, especially the way he’s dressed and especially not expecting him to be alive. Matter of fact, in this passage we look at today, they’re going to say we had a younger brother but he’s dead. They literally expected him to be dead.

So they’re not going to be looking for Joseph. They’re not going to say, "Joseph is alive, maybe he’s up in here somewhere." So when they come to Joseph, we have these things taking place that are modeled by Jesus Christ. Joseph has to come, and he could say, "Take them, kill them immediately." Joseph doesn’t do that. At the end of the day, Joseph recognizes his brothers. That’s what it says in verse seven when he looks at them. All the way through to verse nine, Joseph recognizes his brothers.

Not his enemies, not the people who hurt him. He first looks at them as his brothers. We are connected, and that connection will last forever. A person may get married, but there’s no giving in marriage in Heaven. There’s a brother, there’s a sister, there’s a father, there’s a mother. These things continue forever. So when we come to this, Joseph is telling us, "These are my brothers and no matter what’s going on with these hundreds of people before me."

The rest of the Earth is starving, most likely people are being driven to Egypt because of the dream that God gave to Pharaoh that Joseph interprets. God is able to preserve Egypt. The food is well-stored based on how Joseph organized everything, so lots of people are coming here. But Joseph, by the providence of God, is in that particular place at this particular time. God in His providence allows it that Joseph’s brothers are in the same place that Joseph is.

Joseph, in the midst of all these people, recognizes his brothers. Who does he give attention to right away? His brothers. Does he come as second in command to Pharaoh? No, he comes as a brother. Joseph is functioning as a second in command to Pharaoh. I could just see him riding in a chariot, gold rims, soldiers around him and horses going down the place as Joseph moves around. He’s got a signet ring on. But when Joseph comes, like Jesus was with Peter: "Those are my brothers."

"I tried to forget them by naming my son Manasseh, but apparently God got a different plan. I now understand it," he would say later on in chapter 45. So at the end of the day, the plan of God is important and my brothers are my brothers. Sometimes we are given trials that are fiery trials. First Peter chapter 1, Peter talks about how this trial was fiery. It was intense. These trials sometimes are just painful.

But trials are here to do these different things for us. Trials are going to either perfect us, that’s what the Bible would teach in James chapter 1, and there’s a crown for that. Trials will either correct us as we would see in the trial of Jonah. Trial will either discipline us as we would see in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 7. Or trials will purify us. But the person who organizes the trials is Christ. He is creating the classroom to expose to us where our heart is, like he did to the people in Israel.

He says this in Deuteronomy chapter 8: "I only put you out here to test your heart so you could see it. When I don’t take you to the Promised Land, you can’t say that it was because of me." Sometimes God wants us to be exposed to this faith that we say we have. Because we say we got faith to do this and faith to do that, but faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Faith isn’t just pulled out the sky and whatever I feel inside and whatever conviction I feel inside. No, faith is what the Bible says and what God is going to call truth through the ministry of the Holy Spirit to drive us into what God wants us to do. So many times we call and we say we have faith, but when He chooses to test us, we then learn the level of our faith. Joseph remembers the dream. The Bible says that. He remembers the dream in verse 7 through verse 9.

Joseph in verse 9 remembers the dream which he dreamed of them. What is that saying? I remember what God said. I’m seeing the brothers, I’m feeling my pain. I remember everything they did to me and everything I’ve suffered because of what they did to me. But I had a dream. He’s back to faith, his walk with God. That is what is the first and most essential thing in doing what the Bible says.

And that is that we, as we read yesterday in Romans chapter 14, verse 17, we must do whatever it takes to work towards peace. Many times we want to control results. Can’t control results. Results are in the hands of God. Nobody controls results. We only control the will to decide whether or not we will do what God tell us to do. In Second Timothy chapter 6, he says: "Timothy, the only fight you have is the fight of faith. That’s it."

Are you going to keep the Word of God when things are intense, where there's fiery trials, where it's a trial of correction, a trial of perfection, or a trial of discipline? Are we going to keep the faith or are we going to walk away and decide with our own understanding how we would operate when the Bible is telling us: "Do not lean to your own understanding. To lean to our own understanding is sinful." So there’s only one course to take, and that course is to do what God says, no matter if it puts me in a lion’s den.

That’s why Joseph, the first thing in refreshing relationships so that we experience the power of God in healing the pain that we experienced, is to first decide that I will do what God call me to do. Joseph says later on, "I’m doing this because I fear God." Look at verse 18. He says: "And Joseph said unto them on the third day, 'This do and live, for I fear God.'" Joseph is functioning by faith. That drives humility.

That makes Jesus Christ wash the disciples' feet. That makes Jesus Christ say, "Peter, do you love me? Let’s talk to you, Thomas, because I must give you the agenda of God to tell it to the rest of the world." So let’s get this thing refocused. You guys did deny me, didn't want to stand with me. Okay, that happened, that’s past, that’s done, but we have the agenda of God at heart and we got to get it done.

And that’s why you see the second thing that Joseph did. Joseph says we have to rebuild trust. What does Joseph do to rebuild the trust? The very thing that broke it. What Joseph did is to take one of the brothers and keep them. He keeps Simeon. If you would come back and your father would let you bring Benjamin back when you lost me. If my father trust you after you let me be in the point of death, and let him come for the worst of the worst, then you must be men that can be trusted.

So that’s what Joseph sets up here when he puts them in prison. He expects them to break down and say, "Okay man, listen, yeah, we come up in here trying to do this right now." But they didn’t break down. They didn’t come out going, "Yeah, this is what we really doing," or try to lie or try to cheat and work their way out of the deal or try to bribe him. None of that happened. They stayed in prison together. They didn’t forsake one another.

Joseph is setting this up. In verse 13 they said, "Thy servants are twelve brethren, the son of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not." He’s dead. They’re looking at Joseph saying that. Joseph said unto them, "That is it that I spake unto you saying 'Ye are spies!'" Joseph’s pressing this. This is a full-court press. "Hereby ye shall be proved: by the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go from thence except your youngest brother come hither."

Joseph put them in jail. Joseph tested them and they come out still saying the same story. If we came from a family, it’s about food. If we came from a king, it’s about spying. We did not come to spy. Okay, let’s test that. Joseph needs to establish trust and he’s going about it the way it was lost. In relationships, when there’s broken situations, I always tell the person, start off with a commitment to Christ.

Demonstrate a heart of humility. And when you’re willing to do that, you are rebuilding and you giving the person a chance to rebuild. But the person on the other side must do whatever it takes to create peace. Joseph is working. They are responding. And that’s what leads to relationship slowly healing over time because both people are putting in the energy as they function with a commitment to accountability that leads to productivity. Stay focused.

Guest (Male): Thank you for that, Pastor Cannings. Friends, even when we’re being tested and faced with trials in life, we’re never alone. So let’s also stay committed to God.

Dr. Paul Cannings: This conference has been life-changing. I’ve shared tears, I’ve shared prayer requests, and I’ve shared meaningful moments. People were able to talk about a myriad of topics related to apologetics, even through sexual ethic issues, and of course we’re going to discuss some youth items to help them grow their ministries. The importance and the impact that fathers have in the home to their children.

This was a transformative time even for me as the speaker because it challenged me to consider things even outside of my perspective. And trust me, it was a memorable moment that I will never forget. Well, you should come because we never stop learning. So a conference such as this one would just impact you so much that you will grow.

I am so excited about the conference coming up April the 23rd through the 25th. I really am ecstatic about it. Pastors have come together on a committee to help with the process moving forward. Excited about our first conference last year, but this conference this year is going to be greater. There’s like about 40 classes here.

Let me give you a taste: the pastor and deacon’s functioning under the leadership of Christ, a biblical approach to resolving conflict in the church, traits of successful biblical leaders, cultivating a healthy and productive team environment, overcoming the stagnation in the church, discipling leaders, dealing with how do we grow people and do evangelism at the same time.

Despite all the difficulties churches are facing, we can find a powerful, effective way forward. A lot of teachers are coming to teach. They’re well-trained, well-educated, practicing these principles within their church. Come be a part of April the 23rd through the 25th. Go to powerwalkministries.org so that we could move forward together for God’s glory. Look forward to seeing you. You will not be in any way disappointed at this conference.

Guest (Male): Our web address is powerwalkministries.org. You can also visit us online at powerwalkministries.org. We’d love to hear from you. And if you live in the Houston area or you’re planning a visit, please join Reverend Cannings at Living Word Fellowship Church this Sunday. For church location and service times, visit lwfellowshipchurch.org. And now remember, let's make God's agenda the most important. That will make trusting Him that much easier throughout the day.