Harmful Influences

"Sons of Bilhah, sons of Zilpah." - Gen 37:2d

The sons of Bilhah and Zilpah were children of Jacob born to him by the nurse maids of his wife. These other brothers represent the worldly friendships that surround people keeping them from serving God. They are hindrances to our dream and stumbling blocks to destiny. As long as we are attached to godless friends, we will never achieve God’s purpose.
When God began to call me, the hardest decision was breaking away from my friends in the world and the lifestyle we shared. We had grown up together experimenting our way into the initiations of young adulthood. These sons of the world had shared with me my first cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs. I belonged to a company of friends with the same sounds, and we allowed our life to become isolated from the values, the friends, and family that had for years been our most stable source of solace. Music of the age first put our minds adrift, and it was not long before actions followed.
Before any young man begins to hear the dreams of the King, these voices of the world and popular culture must be turned off in his mind. Joseph’s life from the very beginning was marked with destiny and promise. He knew he was called to something great; but as long as he remained in the same house with his common brethren, he would never be fully prepared for the purpose for which God had specifically designed him. Many a young man or woman must be called out of their familiar home, out of their comfort, friends, and even family to be ushered into the higher purposes of God.
There is a great fear in leaving the sons of Bilhah, our trusted acquaintances, our familiar job, our local community. They represent safety and security for a generation who has known much rejection and isolation. Gangs running in the street, drug addict friends, a partying crowd are the closest thing to a family many youth of today know. Asking them to forsake their friendships of the world is asking for the same type of separation that Joseph underwent when he left his family. Yet such a separation is crucial if we are going to pursue the dreams of God. It is a pattern of a dreamer.
Joseph’s life could have remained uninterrupted feeding the flock with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, but God had a higher plan. If you are to enlist in God’s army of dreamers, you must be willing to leave behind the mediocre life and surroundings you presently enjoy. As you separate yourself from friends that have no vision and hunger for the things of God, God will open your ears to hear His dreams for your life. Leave all to follow Him; here it begins. This is the awakening to something greater.

Free me from harmful influences,
Let your destiny burn out all the rest.