“God has no desire to bless idolatrous hearts. It's a kind father who withholds harmful success.”
— Jon Tyson
“If you find yourself in prison then polish the bars.”
— Todd Wagner
PURIFYING AMBITION
Last week’s newsletter on ambition seemed to really hit a nerve for many. Many of you replied with stories, questions, and encouragement around the very tension I’ve been processing on how we are to discern between selfish ambition and holy ambition?
This year I am reading through the bible chronologically again, which means about a week ago I wrapped up reading about one of the most compelling characters in all of the bible. The life of Joseph. A man whose life is a masterclass in how God tests and purifies ambition. It’s one of my favorite stories in all of scripture, because it shows that a life with Christ is not clean and easy, but often is both raw and refining.
Joseph’s life is proof that God will use your story to expose your motives, test your heart, and shape your ambition for His glory.
THE JOURNEY
What I love about Joseph’s story is that it starts with his raw potential. At 17, he has a vivid dream that proves to be a God-given vision of influence, leadership, and legacy. But his youthful arrogance gets in the way. Instead of quietly treasuring the dream and seeking God's timing, he chooses to broadcast it to his brothers who don’t take the idea of bowing down to their little brother too kindly.
If you’ve read the story then you know that his brothers hate him for it. So much so that they throw him into a pit and sell him into slavery. Unbeknownst to them, they were facilitating the beginning of bringing that vision to reality. This was the beginning of Joseph’s refinement.
His story unfolded over an extended period of time. He didn’t land in Egypt and immediately find himself ascending the ladder of influence. If anything, he probably wrestled at times with the validity of the vision he had had, wondering if it was something he had conjured up on his own.
Many of us get frustrated if we can’t see the hand of God after a week of our own perceived faithfulness. We grow tempted to take back the reigns of our own life and story, but in the life of Joseph we see that his path to the vision God gave him played out over the course of 13 years.
From the pit to Potiphar’s house. From the false accusation to the prison. From being forgotten to finally standing before Pharoah in his court. 13 years. From 17 years old to 30 we see that God tests Joseph’s heart again and again and again.
Before God is to use him he tests the desires of his heart and the purity of his ambition through four main arenas: Trials, obscurity, servanthood, and delays.
These acted as four distinct ambition tests. And if we look at our own life soberly, they are likely the very tests that God is taking each of us through right now:
1. TRIALS
Joseph was sold out, abandoned, slandered, and unjustly imprisoned. He had every reason to grow bitter, to quit, to throw in the towel and give up on what he thought was God’s call on his life.
If this was really where God has called him shouldn’t it be easier? Shouldn’t he be finding more success?
But trials are not signs of God’s absence. They are often signs of God’s nearness. He is drawing near and turning up the heat to burn away all that is impure. All that is not submitted to him. All of your ambition that is aimed at self-glorification.
If your ambition fails in the trial, it likely needs to be reaimed before it will ever aid in carrying your calling.
2. OBSCURITY
Joseph spends years in the shadows. After a vision that would make any of us believe that we were on the fast track to be venerated, he finds himself with no audience, no applause, and no platform in a foreign land. But he doesn’t chalk it all up as a loss and throw in the towel.
He shows faithful in obscurity. I’ve heard it said that God will often hide those He wants to use. Deep work is done in hidden places. David was alone in a field before he was known as a king. Jesus spent 90% of his years on Earth in complete obscurity. Joseph was forgotten in a cell before he stood in the palace. But his faithfulness never waivered.
3. SERVANTHOOD
Wherever Joseph landed, slave, prisoner, or manager, he served. He gave his best in small things. He didn’t wait for a throne to be excellent.
This is often the inflection point of ambition. Where it will either die or be transformed. If you can’t serve when no one’s watching, you’re not ready to lead when everyone is. If service is beneath you then leadership is beyond you.
4. DELAY
I believe this is the one many of us struggle with most. From the dream to the throne: 13 years.
Not a passive 13 years either. These were long, grueling seasons filled with injustice, disappointment, and delay. But we never see Joseph scheming. We never see him working to force a door open. His heart and his effort was aimed at faithfulness. He trusted in the timeline of the father.
And when that moment came, God elevated him overnight. From the prison to the palace in a single day. God doesn’t need our 10-step strategy or our 5-part plan to get us where He is taking us.
What He needs from us is a surrendered heart. A posture willing to be diligent in the absence of worldly recognition, for the good of others and the glory of God.
THE HEART OF THE FATHER
Friends, God is not threatened by your ambition. His desire is to purify it. To ensure it’s aimed at His glory, not just your gain. To root out the need for recognition. To detach your identity from performance. To use your drive for kingdom impact, not personal validation.
As Jon Tyson said, God has no desire to bless idolatrous hearts. His heart is not to break you. It’s to trust you with all that He has for you as you learn to trust Him. So in His kindness he will prune you.
A FINAL CHARGE
If you feel like you’re in the fire, if it feels slow, hidden, or painful, maybe you are exactly where God wants you.
Maybe you’re in a season of trial. Maybe obscurity. Maybe servanthood. Maybe delay.
Whatever season you find yourself in, don’t waste the fire. Let God refine your ambition into something eternal. The dream isn’t dead, but your heart must be ready, purified, and surrendered.
Ask God to search you. Try you. Purify you. And when the time comes, use you.
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