Spiritual Authority (Joseph)

In 1994, Mother Theresa spoke at the President’s prayer breakfast attended by the President, Vice-President, and both of their wives.

At that time, as over the last decades, the abortion debate was raging in American society at large and in the political arena. The sitting President and his administration were committed to the pro-choice position and advocated for legal and accessible abortion across the U.S.

Mother Theresa was very tiny and when introduced, stood as a frail tiny woman at the podium flanked by the most powerful people in the world.

She selected abortion as her theme. In an eloquent message, she articulated the sanctity of life position with eloquence, citing Scripture and the life of Christ Himself.

Throughout her message, she was interrupted with applause. About halfway into her message, she stated the following:

“Please don’t kill the child. I want the child. Please give me the child. I am willing to accept any child who would be aborted and to give that child to a married couple who will love the child and be loved by the child. From our children’s home in Calcutta alone, we have saved over 3,000 children from abortion. These children have brought such love and joy to their adopting parents and have grown up so full of love and joy.”

At that point, applause broke out interrupting her message. To her left sat the “most powerful” man in the world—but in that moment, she had all the authority.

Hers was not an authority of title, power, wealth, education, or physical might. Rather, it was a kind of spiritual authority that trumped the power of the one who sat silently next to her with hands folded.

Effective leaders understand that the primary means of influencing others is spiritual authority. This was a feature of Joseph’s life as a leader.

Joseph's Spiritual Authority

Joseph had gotten cleaned up and appeared before the Pharaoh. In a dramatic moment, God provided the Pharaoh with the interpretation of his dream through Joseph.

We looked at the Word Disciplines earlier and saw how crucial it was to Joseph’s emergence as a leader. After providing the interpretation, Joseph took the bold step of suggesting a course of action in response to God’s revelation.

And now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food. This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine. (Genesis 41:33-36)

Joseph, acting on the God-given insight, suggests a plan to Pharaoh. The plan includes several significant elements including:

• Staffing – appointing qualified leaders to oversee the project
• Economics – taking 20% of the harvest during the abundance
• Budgeting – accumulating foodstuffs to be sold during the coming famine

Joseph had not been invited to submit a plan for the Pharaoh’s consideration. After all, he had just been brought from a prison where he was incarcerated.

He likely sensed that having offered an interpretation of the dream, he had some standing with the Pharaoh. However, there was a degree of risk since the interpretation of the dream had not been proven correct.

Joseph was stepping out onto thin ice which could give way at any moment and lead to his return to prison. However, Pharoah and his ministers approved.

The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials. So Pharaoh asked them, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.“ (Genesis 41:37-40)

Pharaoh’s response to Joseph’s proposed plan contains several key concepts concerning spiritual authority.

First, Pharaoh recognizes Joseph's uniqueness, through a rhetorical question (vs. 38). What makes Joseph unique is clear in the Pharaoh's statement regarding the Spirit of God.

What had transpired, the interpretation of the dream, and to submission of an associated plan caused the Pharaoh to sense that the “Spirit of God” was on Joseph.

It is worth noting that there was no evidence that the interpretation was correct and no idea if Joseph’s plan would be effective.

The author appears to be indicating that Pharoah and his cabinet of ministers “sense” something unique about Joseph. They knew that the interpretation was from God as was the plan.

Pharaoh goes on to ascribe discernment and wisdom (vs. 39) to Joseph. It is easy to gloss over the fact that one is a monarch with enormous power and the other a convict “out on parole” so to speak.

In this context, the Pharaoh’s response is extraordinary. He attributes Joseph’s discernment and wisdom as God-given (vs. 39), exhibiting at least some sort of spiritual insight.

As a result, Joseph is given enormous influence over the entire nation, second only to Pharaoh.

Flowing through this passage are two streams. The first is one emphasizing the work of God that was revealed through Joseph. The second, is the Egyptians recognizing the spiritual authority of Joseph.

Joseph was not granted “Vice Pharoah” status due to his communication skills, planning abilities, vision casting, or social status.

He emerged in his leadership role because of the spiritual authority manifested in his history of interpreting dreams, interpreting the Pharaoh’s dream, and suggesting a wise course of action. 

All of these were spiritual actions, defined as God-inspired. As a result, he was perceived to have spiritual authority which in turn gave him nationwide, if not worldwide, influence.

When leaders think about influence, they frequently do not focus attention on spiritual authority. 

In today’s world, several important factors are believed to give leaders influence. These include communication skills, physical appearance, education, wealth, previous success, social stature, compelling vision casting, innovation, and references, to name the obvious.

It is astonishing to see how Joseph failed in so many of these categories of influence. He was speaking a second language, face shaved, poorly dressed, with no education, penniless, languishing without work, a convict, sharing a vision of future disaster and the only “book jacket” reference could have come from the chief cupbearer, himself an ex-convict.

At face value, these means of influence seem eclipsed by spiritual authority.

When leaders are distracted away from issues of spiritual authority, they focus on qualities that are superficial and vain. That focus can lead to a chasm between what we teach in public and write in books and how we live. That leads to diminished spiritual authority. Eliminating that integrity gap is crucial.

This struggle is evident with children’s ministry leaders. We are rightly concerned with creativity, facilities, security, and making sure that church is fun for children.

However, the primary means of influencing the lives of boys and girls is spiritual authority. Children are influenced towards God’s purposes when they sense God acting in and through us.

This week pray that the children would sense the Spirit of God in our ministry and that God would use that to influence their young lives towards His good kingdom purposes.

Next week we will look at the most influential leader in history, Jesus and observe how He spoke with spiritual authority exercising influence that continue to this day.

My blog will be posted at the same time every week and I hope you can join us next week. The podcast version is available here!