Only God

Only God...there is so much power in those two words. Only God is a phrase that should be overly used because only God can do so many things that only God can do. He is so good. Every morning when I wake up and know that it is a new day, filled with God's blessings and mercies I understand that is something that only God can do.

As I was reading my bible this morning I came across a really cool story in Genesis about The Cupbearer and the Baker. I don't know if you have ever heard the story, but I am excited to share it with you the best that I can.

Instead of typing out the passage word for word, I am going to paraphrase it the best that I can.

The cupbearer and the baker

The cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master who was the king of Egypt. The king of Egypt was Pharaoh and he was angry with his two officials. Pharaoh put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, which was the same place where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them.

After the cupbearer and the baker had been in prison for some time, each of them had a dream, and each of their dreams had their own meaning.

Their dreams must have not been very good because the next morning when Joseph attended to them he saw that they were dejected. He asked the two men why they looked so sad. They told Joseph that they had each had a dream but there was no one to interpret them. Jospeh then said to them, "Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams."

They decided to tell Joseph their dreams and he was going to interpret them.

The cupbearer told Joesph that in his dream he saw a vine in front of him and on the vine were three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in his hand and he took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup and put the cup in his hand.

Joseph told him what it meant and said: "The three branches are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer." Joseph told the cupbearer that when this happens that he hopes that the cupbearer remembers him and shows him kindness so that someday Joseph can get out of prison. He went on to finish his conversation with the cupbearer by telling him that he was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and that he had done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon.

When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given a favorable interpretation he then told Jospeh his dream and asked him to interpret it.

The chief baker told Joseph that in his dream, on his head were three baskets of bread. In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket on his head.

Joseph told him what it meant and said: "The three baskets are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and impale your body on a pole. And the birds will eat away your flesh."

The three days passed and it was Pharaoh's birthday and he gave a feast for all of his officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in the presence of his officials: He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, so that he could put the cup into Pharaoh's hand again but he impaled the chief baker, just as Joseph has said to them in his interpretation.

However, the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, he forgot about him.


Why tell you this story? I believe that God puts people into our lives to help interpret the things that he is doing on our lives. It doesn't even have to be dreams, I believe that it can be any situation.

I have told the story before about my teammate who had a dream and approached me about it, and he gave his life to Christ 10 days after that dream.

God put me in his dream for some reason and he didn't have to approach me or tell me about it but he did and look at what happened because of it!

An important part of the story above is how the cupbearer and the baker responded when Jospeh told them that only interpretations belong to God. With no hesitation they told Jospeh their dreams and Joseph wouldn't have been able to intercept without God's power.

I want to encourage you tp be open to what people around you have to say. You might never know why they say the things they say, but God knows and He could be using them to encourage you. God gave us two ears in one mouth for a reason. We need to listen to the people around us.

For example, think about the times where you get so frustrated and you vent to a friend. Usually those friends you vent to give you the feedback that you want to hear, that is why you vent to them. What they say to you might come directly God. Be careful though! You have be careful about some of the people you vent to because not everyone is going to give advice from above. I hope that doesn't over complicate what I just said.

I really like how the story ended. It's unfortunate for Joseph, but the cup bearer forgot to mention Jospeh to Pharaoh. That is such a human thing to do. God's hands were all over this story, he used Jospeh to interpret the dreams to the cup bearer and the baker and they believed him and the cup bearer simply forgot.

I believe that in our lives, God can use someone to be a major encourager or something like that, but maybe we weren't meant to remember it...That is something that only God can do.

Only God...

When you don't get a miracle you can still be a miracle. God can use you as a miracle and you could change somebody's life today.

Be open to what people around you have to say. They could be that miracle.