The Secret of Success

Guest (Female): What's the secret to success? Here's Dr. Michael Youssef with a biblical perspective from Joseph.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Success God's way does not always look like success. It does not look like success, especially to the world outside. But Joseph's secret for success is the very secret for your success. It will be the very secret for anyone's success God's way. That is if you want to succeed God's way. And that is very simple. That secret is really simple, and it is simply this: discovering the will of God in your life and obeying it. Discovering the will of God for your life and obeying it.
Guest (Female): Thank you for making time for Dr. Michael Youssef and Leading the Way. It sounds so simple, doesn't it? Discover the will of God for your life and obey it. Just that. But what about all those obstacles that get in the way while you're attempting to live in obedience? On this episode of Leading the Way, Dr. Youssef shares a practical message called "The Secret of Success." Join me now in listening to truth from God's word for real life in 2026.
Dr. Michael Youssef: The world's definition of success is summarized in the words of Paul Chance when he said that the one who dies with the most toys wins. But success God's way is very different. God evaluates success very differently from the world's evaluation of success. And so I want you to turn in your Bible: Genesis 39, verse 2. Genesis 39:2. And have it open as I will share with you from God's word success God's way, not man's way. Verse 2 says God was with Joseph and he was successful. Another translation says the Lord was with Joseph and he prospered. When you realize that there are very, very, very few people in world history have ever risen as high in a short period of time as Joseph did, you'll have to sit back and take notice. What is the secret of his success? You have to ask that question: what is this success God's way all about? Joseph began his career at the ripe old age of 17. 17, that's when he started. By the age of 30, he became the second most powerful man in the world that is known at that time. But that did not happen because Joseph was ambitious. That did not happen because Joseph had drive to succeed. That did not happen because Joseph had thirst for power and he did everything possible in order to achieve what his mind conceived. We have a lot of politicians who are doing that. This did not happen because Joseph set his sights on achieving and accomplishing worldly success and being on the top of his world. No, none of that. The Bible said that the secret of his success is that God was with him. Why was God with Joseph? Because Joseph was with God. In fact, Joseph did not know that he was placed on the first rung of the ladder of success. He didn't really know. Success was not something that he sought after or he dreamed about and he wanted to accomplish. It is not something that he was striving for. It was not something that he was taught to step on whomever comes in his way in order to climb up the ladder. No, none of that. In fact, had you asked Joseph whether he was in the pit or he was in the dungeon, in the prison of Pharaoh, and you say, "Joseph, are you successful?" he would have said to you, "I hate to think what failure is all about." Success God's way does not always look like success. It does not look like success, especially to the world outside. But Joseph's secret for success is the very secret for your success. It will be the very secret for anyone's success God's way. That is if you want to succeed God's way. And that is very simple. That secret is really simple, and it is simply this: discovering the will of God in your life and obeying it. Discovering the will of God for your life and obeying it. At a very young age, God revealed His will to Joseph. It wasn't very clear, it was hazy, but He showed it to him in a form of a dream. To fulfill the will of God in his life, he faced deadly obstacles. And let me tell you something: if you want to succeed God's way, you will face deadly obstacles. Make no mistake about it. There are three in number. First, there was the deadly enemy of discouragement. You see, obstacle along the way of success God's way would threaten to derail you every time. The second enemy was detour and distraction from succeeding God's way. And the third enemy was doubt. Doubt is the best dream crusher that I know. Doubt is the biggest enemy to succeeding God's way. Now let us look at those three deadly enemies to success God's way. First one is discouragement. Did you know that discouragement is really one of Satan's most valuable tool in his toolbox? In fact, there's a fable that I read many, many years ago—I don't remember exact details—about Satan was auctioning his tools from his toolbox. But when he came to discouragement, he said, "I would never sell that for all the money in the world because that is his most valuable tool. That's what keeps him in business. This is his powerful tool, and he uses it with impunity against the children of the living God." Remember Joseph was given a dream. He didn't understand everything about it, but he knew that God has a plan for his life, that God is guiding his steps, that God is with him. God chose to reveal His will to Joseph, and the will of God was to preserve a remnant from certain annihilation. Because God in His plan, through the loins of some of them, would be the seed of the birth of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. That was God's vision and His dream for his life. He didn't understand it all at that time. But meanwhile, nothing was going right. I mean, nothing. Nothing was going the way it should go. Nothing indicated that Joseph was even close to achieving God's will and God's vision in his life. Nothing. His brothers were filled with envy and hatred and malice. They took him and they threw him in a pit at the age of 17. That was not enough. They took his coat of many colors. They killed an animal. They dipped that coat in that blood. And they took that coat and they lied to their father and they said, "Your son is dead." And his father lived for many years in total sorrow and broken heart thinking his son is dead and devoured by wild animals. But that was not enough for them. They actually sold him to Arab traders in a caravan who were crossing that part of the world. And these caravan traders would take Joseph and put him on the auction block in Cairo's Square to sell him as a slave. He gets purchased by the head of secret service for Pharaoh's palace. Let me tell you about this guy, Potiphar. I mean, he's the kind of guy if you look him the wrong way, he would lop your head off. And Joseph ends up being a slave in his house. What kind of a success is that? Nothing was going right. Have you been there? And if you haven't, you will be when you face a time of discouragement, when you find yourself where Joseph was at this point in his life. Remember what I'm telling you from this guy who has been there many times. The first thing you want to do when you're discouraged—you already got it. You know what it is. Give up. Give up. Give up. Job feared discouragement and it came upon him. Elijah's discouragement caused him to think of death as better than life. The older brother in the prodigal story allowed discouragement to turn him into a bitter and angry and resentful man. Moses fumed and fussed about his discouragement. Jonah wanted to flee out of discouragement. Oh, but Joseph faced his discouragement by being more faithful to the Lord. He said, "I trust in the Lord. I trust in the sovereign God. I trust Him not only that He works behind the scenes, but He moves all of the scenes that He works behind." "Clean the floor, Joseph." "Yes, sir. I have a dream." "Carry out the bedpans, Joseph." "Yes, sir. I have a dream." "Wash the sheets, Joseph." "Yes, ma'am." "Feed the flock, Joseph." "With pleasure." "Joseph, are you discouraged?" "Of course, but God gave me a dream." "Joseph, are you resentful toward your brothers?" "What good would that do?" Students, I want you to remember this when a teacher and a professor mocks your faith. Remember this when a fellow student resents you because of your righteousness. Remember this when the programs are designed to actually cause you to fall. Remember when the pressure makes it so unbearable for you that keeps on tempting you in order to compromise and fall. Remember Joseph. Genesis 39:3, the Lord was with him. He gave him success in everything he did. Verse 5, God even blessed the Egyptian house because of Joseph. You know, I want to be honest with you. I thought about this. If I were Joseph, I'd say, "Don't bless him! Why should he get blessed because of me? Just bless me." Discouragement can either cause you to quit or become a gateway to succeeding God's way. Amen? Second enemy of success God's way is detours and distractions. In Joseph's life, when things really began to just get on an even keel—I mean, they've been rough for a long time and just now he got promoted and became the chief slave, so he's calling the shots. When just things getting a little bit better, having overcome the enemy of discouragement, here comes Mrs. Potiphar. And this, folks, was a biggie. I mean, this is big. This is big. Mrs. Potiphar began to seduce Joseph. Not once, not twice, but day after day after day. In other words, she was nagging him. Let me tell you something: pornography, illicit sex, alcohol, drugs, any chemical substance, everything you can think of, all these things that are designed to derail you, all these things that are designed to give you a detour from succeeding God's way are going to dog you. Talk about evil days. Somebody was telling me the other day that their 13-year-old daughter was doing a project, a school project on the internet, and pop comes up the pornographic site. These are evil days we live in. Genesis 39:8, the Bible said Joseph refused. Underline that in your Bible, please. Just underline it because if you read through the Bible quickly and you say, "Well, you know, isn't that nice? He refused." No, no, no, no. You've got to understand: this is a big deal. It sounds simple, well, he just refused. No, this is powerful in this context. Joseph understood that a fire that engulfs a house doesn't just happen. Sexually and immorally, things don't just happen. There is first a slow leak, and then a slow leak, and then you get used to the smell of the leak. Somebody comes from the outside and he says, "What's that smell? You got some gas." "No, no, that's okay, don't worry about it. I'm taking care of it. Everything is fine." You got used to the smell. They don't happen suddenly. It's when you strike a match to light the stove and the house goes up in flames. And then you find yourself weeping bitter tears. That's how sexual temptation works. It works a diversion, a detour from success God's way. In fact, if you look at Eve, Mrs. Potiphar, or David, or Samson, or if you look at the examples of the Bible for those who did not stop the leak when it was slow, there are four steps every time. It works like a charm. You know, I'm convinced Satan is not a very smart fellow. He is really not very smart. He just keeps repeating the same strategy. He really does. Four steps. Eve, Mrs. Potiphar, four steps. First, she cast lustful eye, verse 7 of Genesis 39. Second, she nagged him on every side, verse 10. Third, she took. Isn't that what Eve did? She looked, she lusted, she took, and then she hid. That's the fourth step. She took, verse 12. Then she hid, covering up her sin by false accusation, verse 14. When Joseph ran away with his coat in her hand, that was the second time he lost his coat. Did you know that? But he kept his integrity. It's okay to lose your coat. Keep your integrity. These are the four steps that ruined Eve in the garden and caused her and Adam to be thrown out of paradise and lose paradise. It was the same four steps that ruined David's life and caused him to ruin his sterling leadership. Beloved, listen to me, whether you're single or married, listen to me. When it comes to sexual temptation, there is only one way to deal with it. There's only one way to deal with it, and that is put on your running shoes and run. And run! No, don't fight it. Don't negotiate with it. Don't experiment with it. Just run. When Joseph faced the enemy of discouragement, he trusted God. When he faced the enemy of a detour, he ran. Third enemy for success God's way is doubt. Doubt. If you look at the same chapter 39, Genesis 39, look at verses 19 all the way to 23. Now Joseph being falsely accused, he gets thrown into Pharaoh's dungeon. This is not just a prison like our nice prisons. This is a dungeon. It's a miserable place. I want to tell you at the outset: being tempted to doubt is not a sin. Being tempted to doubt is not a sin. Staying in doubt is going to lead you to sin. Continuing in doubt will lead you to sin. You can be sure that Joseph had some doubts, and it comes out in his words in prison. "Lord, is this the reward of my faithfulness?" That's okay. God is not going to fall off His throne when you ask a question like that. It's all right. "Lord, is this how I get paid for my purity? Lord, is this the consequence of my righteousness? Lord, how are You going to fulfill Your vision and Your plan for my life when I'm in this stinking dungeon of Pharaoh?" Question: how did Joseph face this third powerful enemy of success God's way? He became more faithful in the prison, if that's possible. The Lord was with Joseph and He gave him success even in the dungeon, even in Pharaoh's prison. First, Satan attacked Joseph's body and Joseph won. Now he attacks his mind. Here too, ultimately he won. But be very careful. Be very careful when Satan attacks your mind with doubt. Be very, very careful. You know why? Because it is a secret known only to you and God, of course. It takes place between your two ears. Not necessarily anybody else will know about it. Be very careful because doubt happens in secret. But if you allow doubt to succeed, you will end up living a double life. I've heard enough testimonies, particularly people when they testify about their life in college later on and they talk about these days in college and they testify to the fact that they lived a double life. They may go to campus ministries and they may go to a church and they may go here and they may go there, but privately they live a different life. They are a different person. They put on the Christian face when they go to the Christian meetings, but privately they are somebody else. What happened? What happened? See, they have allowed doubt to defeat them. They've allowed doubt to succeed secretly, inwardly. They have allowed doubt to flourish inside of them. They allowed doubt to grow inside of them. Every one of the great men of God were tempted with doubt. Read the Bible. Men, women, all tempted with doubt. As I told you, experiencing the temptation for doubt is not a sin. It is sitting and nursing doubt that's going to get you into trouble. Living with doubt will damage not only your spirit, it's going to damage your psyche. Listen to Joshua's secret of success God's way and defeating doubt in chapter 1, verse 8. Here's what Joshua said: do not let this book of the law depart from your mouth. Do not let that book of the law depart from your shelf. Do not let that book of the law depart from your credenza. Do not let this book of the law depart from your library—from your mouth. Remember I told you about praise, being a praising person? Meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do everything written in it, that you will be prosperous and successful. That's success God's way. This is not prosperity theology. That's success God's way. Praise God. Spurgeon used to say a Bible that is falling apart belongs to a person whose life is not falling apart. Moody used to say sin will keep you from this book, but this book will keep you from sin. Succeed God's way. God wants you to succeed. He wants to be with you and therefore you be successful His way. Discouragement, detour, and doubt going to come. They will come to all of us. But saturating your mind and your heart with the word of God is going to give you victory every time. Every time.
Guest (Female): Dr. Michael Youssef with inspiration and tools to hold discouragement, distraction, and doubt at bay. Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef and this worldwide listening community across six continents for Leading the Way. Now, if discouragement and distraction and doubt have been allowed to occupy space in your life, you need to consider having a Jesus conversation with a Leading the Way pastor or a counselor. And we've made that so easy to do. You can begin that connection by filling out a contact form at ltw.org/jesus. ltw.org/jesus.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Hello, friends. You have seen the wave of extremism on college campus, in conversation with some young people in your life, even in many churches. Two radical ideologies, once enemies, now they're marching together. They shut down debate, excuse violence, and they target biblical truth. That alliance is real and it is deliberate. In *An Unholy Alliance*, I explain what these two radical opposed forces are, why they are working together, and also give you the 1400-year backstory many people are entirely ignorant about that is shaping today's headlines. Get my book, *An Unholy Alliance*. It's going to open your eyes and give you practical ways to make a difference for Christ.
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