Dharius Daniels - That Took Longer Than I Thought

Well, I’m excited about the Word of God, and I want to read one scripture from the book of Genesis, chapter 41, verse 46. It says, «Joseph was 30 years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.» Joseph went out from Pharaoh’s presence and traveled throughout Egypt. I’ll read it again: «Joseph was 30 years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, ” and he went out from Pharaoh’s presence and traveled throughout Egypt. I want to talk from this subject during our time together: „That took longer than I thought!“ I want to inform some and remind others, as you have frequently or may regularly have heard me say, your presence on this planet has purpose. You are not the result of a relational accident; you are not the consequence of a cosmic coincidence. You have been strategically and intentionally placed on this planet by God. Listen to me: you were not born and then chosen. Look at me; you were born because you were chosen. I’ll say that one more time: you were not born and then chosen; you were born—watch this—you were born because you are chosen. God told Jeremiah, „Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you.“ Watch this: not only did I know you, I ordained you. I set you apart specifically as a prophet to the nations. Your parents did not just come together because they needed physical intimacy, teach Daniels; your parents came together because I needed a prophet. Y’all missed it! I knew the right DNA mixture I needed to concoct to create a person that would carry out the purpose for which I had in the earth. You are born not to be chosen; you are born because you are chosen. And you hit a space and a season in your life where God unveils, reveals, and exposes to you that plan, that purpose, and that dream. However, there’s something that this story regarding Joseph teaches us that I need to share with every dream chaser: this dream, this vision, this purpose may take longer than you thought. If we eavesdrop on a conversation that Habakkuk has had in the book of Habakkuk, the Bible is very clear when Habakkuk says, „I set myself up on a rampart to watch and see what He will say to me.“ When I set myself there, the Lord answered me and said, „Write the vision; make it plain upon the tablets so that he that reads it can run with it. For though the vision is for an appointed time—an appointed time—it didn’t tell us what time it’s appointed, but it did tell us it’s an appointed time, so God knows when the appointment time is; we don’t.“ I just want to tell you it may be longer than you think. This might be why Habakkuk says, „Though the vision tarries, lingers, wait for it. For in the end, ” what is the end? Not the end of your life, but the end of that preparation season, „It will speak and not lie.“ Then it says, „It will not tarry.“ Wait a minute! You say, „Though it tarries, wait for it, ” but then you say, „In the end, it will speak and it will not lie, and it will not tarry.“ Which one is it? It can’t be that it won’t tarry and will tarry at the same time. Maybe God is saying, from your perspective, it is tarrying, but from My perspective, it’s not tarrying. Don’t miss this! Yeah, so from your perspective, it’s lingering, but from My perspective, it’s right on time. From your perspective, it’s taking a long time, but from His perspective, it’s the right time. From your perspective, it’s wasting time. From God’s perspective, I’m going to redeem time, and what I’m going to do with the time you have left is going to make up for all the time you wasted. I don’t know who I’m talking to, but just because—look at me—write this down: just because it seems long doesn’t mean it’s going wrong. Just because it seems long doesn’t mean it’s going wrong because God knows how to strategically move the chess pieces of your life in strategic ways and in strategic places to get you to the right place at the right time, even considering—watching—considering your assignment. Let me see if I can get a shouter here. Your imperfections—I’m going to say that one more time—that when God is making chess moves for your life, He’s not just considering your assignment, He’s also considering your imperfections. He knows how your imperfections are going to contribute to some divine delays. So, yeah, when He strategically sets things in place for your life, He calculates the damage that’s going to be done by some of the decisions that we make to make sure that our decisions don’t damage our destiny to the degree that we don’t step into the fullness of God’s best for our life. Y’all better come get me because I feel like preaching this. We can look at the prodigal son and see that when he left home he thought he had all the father’s goods; he had everything the father had for him. But when he came back to the father’s house, the father gave him a robe, the father gave him a ring, and the father gave him some shoes, which means that the father has enough in store to cover you twice. When you think you blew it, when you think all that is yours has been depleted, God’s like, „You thought I gave you everything, but I knew you were going to have to go through a silly season, so I kept some things in store until you got silly out of you, and then once you got silly out of you…“