Focus: Prevention of Spiritual Poverty

Text: Gen.45:10-11.

"And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be NEAR UNTO ME, thou, and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast: And there will I nourish thee; for yet there are five years of famine; LEST thou, and thy household, and all that thou hast, COME TO POVERTY."

Joseph says it as it is - point blank. He is straightforward about the reality of the situation. The famine is not ending today or tomorrow, and poverty is sure to come upon you if you live far from me.

In Abraham's day there was a heavy, severe, and grievous famine - Gen.12:10. In Isaac's day there was again another famine - Gen.26:1. And now in Jacob's own day, we read that "...the famine was OVER ALL the face of the earth...and the famine WAXED SORE in the land of EGYPT...the famine was so SORE in ALL LANDS... for the famine was in the land of CANAAN" - Gen.41:56,57; 42:5. The famine was equally "GRIEVOUS," according to Gen.41:31, and in Gen.42:33 we read of the "famine of your household," and in 43:1, "the famine was SORE in the land." In Gen.47:4,13,20, we also read, "For the famine is SORE in the land of Canaan... And there was NO BREAD in ALL the land; for the famine was VERY SORE, so that the land of Egypt and ALL the land of Canaan FAINTED by reason of the famine.... the famine PREVAILED over them." That is the world in which we live - famine everywhere. The world has no spiritual food for the soul. To prevent this deep poverty and spiritual starvation we need to close the gaps existing between us and our greater Joseph - Jesus Christ. The distance must be closed. Jesus says to you, 'Be near me, lest... Let me take care of you. Let me nourish you. Let me open up the storehouses for you. You can't afford to be far from me, and there's certainly no way you can be poor, being near me. You can feed fat from the storehouse of the Spirit. The milk and meat of the gospel are available in Christ.' Amen.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter