Have you ever felt stuck, like you are in a place you don’t feel called to? Is where you currently are a place you can say you feel fulfilled? Today, we will talk about your pathway toward moving to the next level, wherever you are.
Promotion pathway - The purpose of creation.
First, let’s highlight the purpose of our creation. When man was created, he was given the purpose to cultivate and keep the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:15).
In land development, 'cultivate' means to till, plow, dig, and farm. In terms of skill development, it means to pursue, try to develop, work hard at, encourage, and nurture.
The second word in God’s instruction to man is to 'keep' it. To keep is to maintain, upkeep, support, nourish, continue to be, and persist in being. This can apply to many dimensions of our being, such as cultivating ourselves, our skills, our relationships, and maintaining them.
This is what we are created to do, and the moment we stop is the moment we choose to no longer be living (Ecclesiastes 9:10).
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Promotion pathway - The place of work.
Work is the deployment of resources—your time, effort, and skills. We put that work into a venture to produce a valuable outcome, whether a product or a service. When this becomes valuable, it can be called a job or a business.
According to God’s word, we are called to be excellent at what we do. If you seek promotion in any area of your life, you must understand that promotion and valuable work are closely related. It’s not just about completing the task but excelling at it. In the story of Joseph and Pharaoh, we see that Joseph’s promotion was based on the value of his work, which allowed him to be promoted everywhere he went (Genesis 41:37-41)
If you seek promotion in any area of your life, you must understand that promotion and valuable work are closely related.
How can we move into this excellence? How can we be best friends with promotion? We must focus on being diligent with our work—time, skill, and effort. We should examine ourselves, take our skills, and spend time and effort to cultivate them into excellence and maintain that excellence.
Our first step is to cultivate our skills (Genesis 26:19-24). We do not stop until our work is mastered.
Promotion Pathway - Excellence
When we seek to partner with God in moving higher, we can manifest the Spirit of Excellence in us (Exodus 13:1-5), especially for challenges we cannot overcome on our own. The Spirit of Excellence can only partner with us when we ourselves are striving for excellence.
If you owned a company and sought to complete a project to produce a service or product in a timely manner, you would look for a project manager who can help you achieve that. In your hiring process, you would seek someone who can complete the brief in a timely manner while maintaining its quality, budget, and goals. This is someone who provides value, and you are more than willing to compensate them.
The Spirit of Excellence can only partner with us when we ourselves are striving for excellence.
This person has mastered their skill and can achieve more in a shorter time than their counterparts who have not invested the time and effort to develop their skill to a valuable level. The more value you bring to a company, the higher the likelihood of promotion. The more value you bring to a relationship, the greater the chance of moving into marriage. The more time and effort you invest in improving your skills at engaging in uncomfortable conversations, the faster you and your partner can reach an agreement and a place of peace in your relationship. This principle applies to every area of our lives.
Dominion - Promotion by developing others
From Genesis, there is a call to have dominion on earth! Dominion is the ability to raise people and give them the same dominion. This can be achieved through teaching and developing others. This principle can be applied in work, using it for ministry.
Whether it’s at a workplace or through the success of a business, it is possible to develop others into leaders by using the principles of God’s word and encouraging them to do the same for others. This is the path to promotion—walking in God’s instructions, with God, until work is no longer possible.
Work should be viewed as meaningful, obeying God’s word, and using it to develop oneself and those around, rather than as something dreadful. There is a call to be excellent; therefore, excellence should be pursued in everything that is done.
Prayer
“Lord, give me strength in my weaknesses so that I may excel in every area of my life. Help me to persistently work on my skills by taking the time and effort to produce valuable work. May I be a blessing to myself, my family, and to others. Help me to use the fruit of the Spirit, which is long-suffering, to continuously develop my skills until I master them. May I continually keep my eyes on You, because in Your presence anything is possible. Thank you, Lord, because I know Your promise is that I am excellent wherever I go. In Jesus’ name, amen”.