It is likely that you are reading this because the person that God has asked you to intercede for is someone who is very close to you. Maybe a child who has wandered away into the desires of this world. Or it could be someone who left a relationship, seemingly without any reason. Maybe it is a spouse who has betrayed the vows that they spoke to you. More than likely, this person is someone who has hurt you deeply through their actions, and this betrayal trauma will be confronted over and over again during the season of this assignment.

Joseph was given a dream by God when he was a teenager, and his brother hated him for it. They threw him into a pit, then sold him to slave traders and told their father that he had been killed by wild animals. He was then bought by a wealthy man in Egypt and became a servant in the rich man’s household. But the home owners wife told a lie about Joseph which caused him to be thrown into prison as an innocent man. He made friends with another prisoner, and even brought encouragement when that man needed it the most. But when the fellow prisoner was released and had the power to put in a good word for Joseph, he neglected to and caused Joseph to remain incarcerated.

But eventually, Joseph was not only released from prison, but was made the Prime Minister over all of Egypt. And the dream that God had given him began to manifest in his life exactly as he had seen many years before. After being hurt and betrayed by the ones closest to him, he was now in a position to take revenge on all of them, starting with his brothers for altering the course of his entire life.

In an ironic change of events, his brothers came to him first because they desperately needed assistance. Not recognizing him after all these years, they were starving and vulnerable, and Joseph was the man in charge of all of the food in that region of the world. But God had silently been working inside of the character of Joseph, and he began to realize that it had all happened to bring him into a position of leadership so he could help his brothers at this critical time. Joseph could have ended all of their lives, but he decided instead to forgive them and submit to the assignment God had given him.

I know they have hurt you. You have every reason to feel the way that you feel towards them, even to the point of not wanting to talk to God about them, much less talk to them yourself or pray for their well-being. In the alternative, you have the option to lift your eyes above this moment, realize how Holy Spirit is working inside you also, and see this as a major test of your character. Can you obey what God has asked you to do even while you may still be hurt? Right now, your enemy and your flesh will use every hurtful memory to convince you not to pray for them. Your prayers are working! The enemy knows he is losing ground in your loved one’s heart, and these thought and images he is dropping into your mind are dangerous because they are real, hurtful things that really happened. But this person is not your enemy. In those moments you have to push back those thoughts with forgiveness, remembering all the things that you have been forgiven for, and silence the accuser who is attempting to lock your loved one away in a prison of your own unforgiveness. Stop right now and thank God for the work He is doing in both of you. You are winning a major victory, and there is nothing that can stop you when you release them to the One that can bring them back home.