God tends to hide His chosen ones away until it is time to bring them out. He will keep them out of the spotlight for a season and let them mature like a bottle of fine aged wine. The bottle may be dusty and sitting on a shelf  a long time before the day comes for it to be shared. He did this with Joseph, Moses, David, Esther, John the Baptist, Jesus, others, and He still does today.

It can be deeply confusing when you're the one on the shelf. For example, I went through seminary and got ordained, graduated and then found every door in ministry closed. So I ended up working on computers for twenty years. Yet, there is no way I could do what we do here today if I had not first done that. While working on computer networks and coding websites, I thought it was a backup plan. Turns out it was the prerequisite for what I would be doing in ministry. It was the same with music. I needed to learn those skills for today.

When Joseph was a young boy, the Lord gave him dreams that one day he would be raised up above his brothers. They were already jealous of Joseph because he was his Dad's favorite son, and when He shared his dream with his older brothers, they hated him even more (Genesis 37:5). One day when his brothers were grazing sheep near Shechem, his father sent Joseph out to check on them. They plotted on how to get rid of him and decided to sell Joseph to some traveling merchants as a slave, and fake his death. They took Joseph's robe of many colors, dipped it in goat blood, and took it to his father Jacob, which led him to believe that Joseph was dead. Meanwhile, Joseph was taken to Egypt as a slave, yet God went along with him.

(Genesis 39:1-3 NKJV) Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD made all he did to prosper in his hand.

It is interesting to note that the Lord was with Joseph, and considered him to be a "successful" man, though at the time Joseph was a slave. God defines success very differently than we do, but He made sure that all Joseph did prospered. Eventually Potiphar's wife took a fancy to young Joseph, and literally tried to drag him into her bed. When he refused and ran out of the house, she changed her story and accused him of trying to rape her. So Joseph went to prison for some years, even though he was falsely accused.

Joseph found that he had a gift for dream interpretation, which he began to exercise. He was given jobs at the prison and he did them well. Even though he was just an imprisoned slave, he was soon in charge of the other prisoners there. 

Eventually Pharaoh had a dream which none of his diviners could interpret for him. The chief butler remembered that Joseph had once interpreted a dream for him, so he told Pharaoh about Joseph. Pharaoh summoned Joseph to the palace, and Joseph interpreted his dream which went like this: In Egypt there would be seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of severe famine. Joseph's interpretation was so anointed and detailed that Pharaoh instantly recognized that Joseph carried the Spirit of God within him, and he promoted Joseph to oversee all of Egypt.

(Genesis 41:46 NKJV) Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Joseph was hidden away until it was time for him to be revealed and save his people. He did it flawlessly. The time Joseph spent in slavery and in prison merely refined him, built his character, made him stronger, and more humble.

Moses was born as an Egyptian slave, but was raised by Pharaoh's daughter in the royal palace. He was educated and trained in military tactics. When he was around forty years old, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrews and he got into a confrontation with him. Moses ended up killing the Egyptian and hid his body in the sand. When Pharaoh found out, he sought to kill Moses but Moses fled to the land of Midian.

Soon after Moses arrived in Midian, he was sitting by a well while some sisters drew water for their father's flock. When they had filled the water troughs, some bully shepherds came to the well intending to drive the women away and take their water. They picked a bad day to do that, for Moses in his royal Egyptian garments intervened, and he protected the women. Moses later married one of the sisters, Zipporah, and started a family.

In Egypt Moses had learned to be somebody, but in Midian Moses learned how to be nobody. Moses had lived a pretty comfortable life in Pharaoh's house in Egypt, but now he learned to work hard, to be a servant, and to look after others. Moses spent the next forty years tending sheep in the wilderness of Midian before the Lord appeared to him in a burning bush and sent him back to Egypt to deliver His people. Moses had begun as a fiery young man with a temper, but God hid him away for forty years as a shepherd in the wilderness, until he became the most humble man on the Earth (Numbers 12:3). When God sent him back to deliver His people, Moses got the job done.

Esther was another who was hidden away until the right time came. The king of Persia was searching for a new wife, so Esther was selected and brought into the palace. She spent a full year being prepared before she ever stood before the king. And she kept her identity hidden ; Mordecai had told her to reveal nothing about her people or her nationality (Esther 2:10).

When she finally went to the king, he was blown away. He put a crown on her head and made her Queen of Persia. She had no idea why any of this was happening. Then Haman the Agagite plotted to wipe out every Jew in the kingdom, and didn't know the queen was one of them. When Mordecai found out, he sent word to Esther to speak to the king:

(Esther 4:13-14 AMP) Then Mordecai told them to return this answer to Esther, Do not flatter yourself that you shall escape in the king's palace any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance shall arise for the Jews from elsewhere, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows but that you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this and for this very occasion?

God had placed Esther there before the threat existed. Everything she needed — the position, the access, the favor — was already in place. When the moment came, the enemy had no idea what he was walking into.

The LORD spends that hidden season building character, grinding off the rough edges, and teaching His servants things they could not learn any other way. Joseph learned patience in a pit and a prison. Moses learned humility in forty years of tending sheep in the Midian wilderness — a man who had been trained in the royal courts of Egypt, reduced to watching somebody else's flock in the back of the desert. Numbers 12:3 says he became the most humble man on the earth. That did not happen in Pharaoh's palace. It happened out where nobody could see him.

When God finally brings a person out, they are ready. Not polished and soft, but tested and solid. When David walked out to face Goliath, he had already killed a lion and a bear with his hands. That was not luck. That was preparation. The LORD had been working on him long before anyone knew his name. He does the same thing with us. The season you are in right now - the quiet one, the frustrating one, the one where nothing seems to be happening - may be the most important one of your life. Don't despise the quiet season. That is where He does His best work.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, I pray that you give me a clear vision of what I should be focusing on today. Please speak to me in a way that I understand, fill me with Your Holy Spirit, help me make the right decisions, fulfill Your will in my life. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen!