Manasseh and Ephraim Part 2

Until a person makes peace with his past, it is impossible to properly proceed to you future. We can escape the place where we were born, the people who mistreated us, the school mates who teased us and the church members who maligned us. It is possible to move to a new city, obtain a new job, secure a new family and create new memories but until you properly deal with your past, it will impede your future and cloud your present.

God is such a good God that he gave Joseph this chance by giving him a Manasseh Miracle. He caused him to forget the pain of his past. This blessing allows you to remember the event without the effects of the experience. The things you used to cry about when you remembered them, God can help you cry no more. The memories upon reflection that made you cringe now don't bother you as much because has eased the sting and removed the weight.

This blessing is enough that we have reason to shout just on this; however, God gave Joseph a second blessing. Hod gave Joseph an Ephraim Experience. Ephraim means fruitful, twice fruitful, double blessed; he has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.

I must admit this blessing confused me. It seemed like an oxymoron. Like Jumbo Shrimp! A huge guy name Tiny! Fruitful and affliction shouldn't be in the same sentence, in fact it shouldn't be in the same thought process.

The testimony of the Ephraim experience is God made Joseph fruitful IN THE LAND of my affliction, my sorrow, my rouble, my grief. Whatever translation you pull, it still lends to the same tension of the text. God did not bless him outside his affliction, He blessed Joseph IN IT.

Many times we spend a lot of our prayer time asking God to remove the things we do not understand. We ask God to change this, fix this, solve this. If we have uncooperative co-workers, we ask God to move them or get us another job. If the area we live in no longer seems like the place for us, we ask God to find us another place. We pray for the Favor of God to move on our behalf and remove the pains that we deem unnecessary, the problems we think are are unneeded and the people we believe to be

God in his infinite wisdom teaches us He doesn't have to change our surroundings in order to bless us. He can bless us in it. God can give you more money in you check without a raise. He can give you a new car experience within the confines of the same vehicle you were driving.

Therefore, the Ephraim experience seems to suggest that our blessing comes not running from our afflictions but rather it comes when we become planted in God while going through our afflictions. He blesses us not when we get out or before we go in But God is so powerful he can bless us right IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR SITUATIONS.

The wonderful wisdom of God's Word is the fact He gives us witnesses to teach us how He works. Whether it's Daniel in the lion's den, the three Hebrew Boys in the fiery furnace, the Disciples on the ship in the middle of a storm or Paul and Silas in jail, clearly we learn that God is not limited by our circumstances. He can bless us where ever and however he chooses to do so.

Even in our desert experiences, God can give us an oasis. With limited funds, God can still allow us to sit at the Kings table. We can be promote to Prime Minister of the Palace even though we started out in the Pit and Prison.

God can give us an Ephraim Experience and make us fruitful in the land of our afflictions.

Manasseh and Ephraim Part 1

Happy New Year to all of you I haven't talked to in this forum. I pray God's best for you in 2012. I am looking forward to what God has in store for the Macedonia Church in 2012. I pray this week as I settle back into the office routine that I will share with you some things about vision casting and teamwork but for today I want to revisit where the Lord led me to share for Watch Night and New Year's Day service.

I shared with the Macedonia Church from Genesis 41: 51-52. English Standard Version (ESV)51 Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. “For,” he said, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house.” 52 The name of the second he called Ephraim, “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

Manasseh means "he who causes to forget"; however this forgetfulness was not amnesia. Joseph still remembered the incidents but what God helped ease was the Pain from the procedure. Many times we replay events over and over in our minds, reliving the pain, replaying the problems, rehearsing each part until we injure ourselves all over again.

We pick the scab off wounds that are trying to heal causing our bodies to become infected all over again. Joseph had thirteen (13) years of hardship in Egypt to forget: the jealousy of brothers, the selling into slavery, Potiphar's wife and time in the jail. Lots of time to review and replay, to relive and reexamine and if you are not careful maybe even re injure yourselves.

God gave him a Manasseh Miracle. He took the pain away. There are some events in life we will NEVER get over but by the grace of God we can get THROUGH IT. By taking the pain away from the incident, it goes from being a trial to a testimony, a burden to a blessing, a problem into a provision, a dilemma into a deliverance.

Many of you are praying this 2012 will be a better year for you Spiritually, financially, mentally but be sure you are not carrying excess weight in from the previous years. 13 years of hardship, 13 years of mistreatment, 13 years of lies and deceit, 13 years of unrealized dreams and frustrating treatment, 13 years of seemingly being stuck in a dead-end job, 13 years of a frustrating family! For you, God has a MANASSEH MIRACLE. He can cause you to forget.

It allows you to give the Benediction to your Foes.---Somethings, Some People, Some Problems, Some burdens you have to say goodbye to. I have carried you long enough, we have traveled together too long, we have spent too much time together, It;s time to say goodbye. Goodbye to the pain of the hurtful family member, the disappointing church member.

It is impossible to move into your future or even adequately deal with your past until you confront your past. Some baggage can't go with you into your new blessing. God will give you a MANASSEH MIRACLE.

MANASSEH is also the Beginning of forgetfulness. It doesn't happen overnight. It took time to conceive. It took time to develop, it took time to shape in the womb of your life but when the fullness of time has come, Forgetfulness will be birthed into your beginnings. You wake up and you no longer see today in the tint of yesterday's failures. You no longer look at all men as the last man or all women as the last woman or all churches as the last church. TODAY IS A NEW DAY.

You start to see how God allowed people not to destroy you but develop you. You begin to Praise God because you recognize the vehicle that transported me to this place is the same vehicle that now allows me to RIDE IN THE SECOND CHARIOT.

In this forum, I have written too much about Manasseh so I will write about Ephraim separately but just know that Ephraim is the Blessing of Fruitfulness. Manasseh takes away the pain from you past but Ephraim makes you fruitful in your Present Position. I missed the chance in the delivery to share what I wanted to because I became way too involved in the delivery of the sermon; however i wanted to say:

I've had many tears and sorrows,I've had questions for tomorrow,there's been times I didn't know right from wrong.But in every situation,God gave me blessed consolation,that my trials come to only make me strong.

Through it all,through it all,I've learned to trust in Jesus,I've learned to trust in God.Through it all,through it all,I've learned to depend upon His Word.

I've been to lots of places,I've seen a lot of faces,there's been times I felt so all alone.But in my lonely hours,yes, those precious lonely hours,Jesus lets me know that I was His own

I thank God for the mountains,and I thank Him for the valleys,I thank Him for the storms He brought me through.For if I'd never had a problem,I wouldn't know God could solve them,I'd never know what faith in God could do.