Joseph spent thirteen years watching his plans fail. He was seventeen when his brothers sold him into slavery and thirty when Pharaoh put him in charge of Egypt (Genesis 41:39-40). In between came slavery, a false accusation, and a prison sentence nobody hurried to overturn. Then famine hit the region, and the brothers who sold him showed up in Egypt asking for food, with no idea that the official in front of them was the brother they had wronged. Joseph held every card in that room. And what he said is one of the clearest sentences in Genesis: "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives" (Genesis 50:20).
If you're the one who usually ends up in charge, and you're good at it, Joseph is worth studying. He never stopped leading. He ran a nation's food supply through seven years of famine. What set him apart is that he led like a man who knew there was a plan above his plan. Here are three ways to practice that.
Let God Edit the Vision
It's one prayer to ask God to bless a plan you've already settled. It's a different prayer to ask him to change it. Most of us who lead only ever pray the first one. Lord, make the launch go well. Lord, give me the words in tomorrow's meeting. The vision itself stays off the table, because we decided it before we started praying.
So put it on the table. Before your next plan is final, pray something like this: if this is the wrong direction, change it, and change my mind about it. Then leave room for an answer. That might mean sitting a week on a decision you could make today. It might mean asking the two or three people who know you best whether the plan serves the people in it, or just the goal at the top of it. Joseph could say "God intended it for good" because he had watched God overrule his intentions for thirteen years and come back with a bigger version than his. A vision held that loosely is still a vision. It's just one God is allowed to rewrite.
Volunteer to Follow
Leading well takes practice, and you've had plenty. Following well takes practice too, and you've probably had almost none, because you rarely have to. Make yourself have to. Find something this week where someone else is clearly in charge, a serve team, a project you didn't design, and follow their lead all the way down. No quiet audit of how you'd run it better. When an improvement occurs to you, and it will, hold it for a day and see whether it was actually needed or just yours.
Then pay attention to how following felt. If it was harder than leading, bring that to God honestly, because every believer is called to follow before anything else, including the ones who run companies. Staying under someone's direction with a good attitude is training for staying under God's. Joseph served Potiphar's house and then a prison warden faithfully, for years, before anyone handed him a nation. The following wasn't the detour on the way to the leading. It was the preparation for it.
Let God Keep the Score
Joseph never made his brothers pay. He had the leverage and he had the justification, and instead of either he had Genesis 50:20. Somewhere in your history there's probably a version of that room. A person who wronged you, overruled you, cost you something you'd worked for. People who lead collect those, because leading puts you in rooms where scores get made.
Take one of them, the specific one you still rehearse, and pray Genesis 50:20 over it by name. Say what was intended against you. Then say what you're trusting God to have intended through it, even if you can't see it yet. And hand him the accounting. You'll know it's handed over when you stop rehearsing the comeback, and that usually takes more than one prayer. Pray it as many mornings as it takes.
What the Drive Is For
Joseph's power ended up feeding the very people who sold him. That's where this wiring is meant to point, strength spent on someone else's good. The church needs people who can carry a vision through seven lean years, so keep making plans and keep driving them through. Joseph did, right up to the end. And the saving of many lives came through a man who had learned, over thirteen years, that God could overrule his intentions and hand him back something bigger. He can be trusted with yours too.