Are you led by your ego or by God?

Do you know so many of us to miss our breakthroughs because we are led by our egos and our emotions? When you closely look at the story of Joseph, whom many of us know because of the stories of his dreams and his multi-colored coat, you see a story of suffering, grated there is triumph at the end of the day but before that there is so much pain, suffering, and betrayal.

Now, when we go to the beginning we see that Joseph is his father’s favorite son. And when he has a dream, he comes and shares it with his brothers, but their reaction is “Oh, this Joseph thinks he is better than us, he is so full of himself” and they were inspired to sell him into slavery.

P.S: Inspiration can be either good or evil. Inspiration happens in the realm of emotion. So, when you allow yourself to sit in a place of negative emotion you are inspired to do something negative. This is why you have to guard your heart and your thoughts.

So, the brothers were inspired to sell him into slavery - they actually wanted to kill him - but Reuben, I believe, said “No, let us sell him into slavery”. Now, if you have felt betrayed by anyone you love then you must know exactly how Joseph might have felt. You will definitely relate to the heartbreak. He was taken from his home and sold by his own blood; I can only imagine the heartbreak that he felt as the caravan that he was placed in made its way to Egypt. He was placed in Potiphar’s house but let me tell you something about Joseph, ‘He was a man that was led by God as opposed to his ego and his feelings!’

And do not think that the Bible does not talk about feelings because it does. In the book of Psalms, we see King David being in a place of despair and he is talking about how he is beaten and broken down before he goes on to encourage himself. However, with Joseph, we do not hear of his feelings but more about his actions and how/why he did anything he did. He was sold into slavery and I mean he could have despaired and said “You do not know how terrible my story is” and begin to see himself as the victim, but he did not.

We all know of Narcissism but many do not know of Covert Narcissism which refers to a state where people choose to stay in a place of constantly spotlighting their problems. It comes from a place of ego when you constantly project a “my own problem is the worst” trait. Have you ever met someone who would always seem to one-up you whenever you tried to share your problems? That is what Covert Narcissism looks like.

Now, I do not say these things to condemn anyone because we are all on a journey of growth. I have been toxic before, I have been a victim before, I have blocked my blessings and breakthrough before, and that is why I am sharing about that today. Because I know there is a pathway to healing. Joseph did not carry his pain and brokenness on his head and decided in Potiphar’s house to just continue working for God. This is a boy that went from favorite son to slave; however, it is said that “Potiphar’s house prospered because of Joseph”, he did not let his ego control the narrative. He allowed God to use him and this is why Portiphar prospered: because God was with Joseph.

A quote I remember says “EGO means Edging God Out”, and Joseph’s scenario clearly paints what happens when ego leaves the narrative.

However, despite his current blessings, it was not enough and he was accused of rape by Potiphar’s wife because he refused to give in to her advances. And Potiphar, who he had been good to, sent him to prison, this was the second betrayal. Joseph could have totally been in his feelings and being like “God has failed me, God has forsaken me” but he was resilient and this is why I encourage people to be resilient.

Of course, we have to ensure we do not fall into the trap of being “so resilient” we do not need anyone else. You can be strong and need help, at the same time. You can be emotionally centered and emotionally resilient and still be able to cry from time to time. It is important for you to manage yourself so you can do what God has called you to do. As you acknowledge your trauma, you do not want to run the risk of worshipping your trauma, you do not want to run the risk of becoming identified with only your trauma because you would never get to enjoy the triumph.

Joseph did not worship his trauma, he did not identify with it. When he spoke, he spoke about God. So, in spite of the betrayals and all he had been through, he kept moving through! So, when he goes to prison - this is the important part.

Now, even in prison, he is serving others and this is what is regarded as him being favored. Now he could have complained about that, but he did not, instead, he went ahead to serve the cupbearer and the baker. And on the day they had those dreams, he came to see them and he inquired about their facial expressions.

Now, let us come to ourselves. For many of us, we become storytellers when we see our friends being downcast. Especially when we expected them to behave in a certain way as our “friends”. We say “Oh, I asked her how she was doing and she gave me a sharp answer” but why don’t we pause to see if something more could be the problem? We make assumptions, we tell ourselves stories, we do not give them a chance and we do not come from a place of concern. However, for Joseph he came from a place of concern, he did not centralize his trauma and instead chose to understand the trauma of those around him. Do you do that?

He not only asks “Why are you downcast?” He also waits for a response and it is NOW that we get to see Joseph’s gifting in action! Now we have seen his work ethic, his emotional control, and even his faithfulness to God, but we have not seen him translate dreams before. Now, this is his gift making room for him! So many of us ask God to let our gifts make room for us but we have not understood how our gifts make room for us. We have such grand dreams, we do not see the opportunities around us to use our gifts. We allow our ego to stand in our way and do not allow God to do exactly what we have been asking him to do.

So, today ask yourself. Is your ego the reason you are yet to receive the breakthrough you pray for? Do you allow yourself to worship your trauma so much that you do not remember your triumph?

To know about how our egos stand in our way, then watch full video here