The Key to Promotion: God’s Way

Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. (1 Peter 5:5)

God loves us regardless of whether we’re doing things right, but God cannot promote pride.

And the more like God I get, the more grace I give to people who humble themselves. Those who are self-serving and insecure, who manipulate circumstances and blame others to exalt self, those people I resist. That doesn’t mean I treat them badly. But like God, I can’t promote that. I need faithful witnesses.

Years ago, I had an employee named Milton Ooley. He ran my IT department. As the ministry began to grow, Milton needed help. We posted the job opportunity and got an application from a man in Phoenix, Arizona. I had a meeting down there, so Milton and I traveled to Phoenix together. The plan was for Milton to interview the applicant, Stan Priest, while I was at the meeting and then find a computer to check his proficiency levels. When I got back after the service, I asked Milton about it.

“The man is a genius,” he said. “I never did give him a test. After talking with him for a few minutes, I figured he had forgotten more about computers than I would ever know!”

Needless to say, we hired Stan. He started working for us in the data entry department. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was a huge step down for him. He had been running the entire IT department at Food for the Hungry. After we hired Stan, his old boss came to town and took me out to eat. “I came to try to hire Stan back,” he said. “We need him. We had to hire a recruiter to find someone to fill his position. And even then, we only found two people in the whole country who are qualified to do what he was doing.”

Stan has been a tremendous blessing to the ministry. He and his wife, Donna, have been with us for over thirty years now. Shortly after we hired Stan, Milton quit his job and moved back to Texas. “Stan is so much better at this than I am,” he said. “He can take you places I can’t.”

Milton was not out to promote himself. He wasn’t seeking his own glory. He wanted what was best for the ministry, and when someone else came along more qualified than he was, Milton willingly stepped aside. That is a godly attitude. Yet many people would not have the character to do something like that. If they saw someone more qualified in an organization, they would feel threatened. They would do anything to hide that person’s talents or push them out of the way. They would misrepresent things to make the other person look bad. They might even steal their ideas. You can call that a lot of different things. Some might even call it job security. But it’s really just pride. A person like that is out to glorify self.

Jesus could say His judgment was just because He didn’t seek His own glory (John 5:30). He lived to bring glory to God. This is the attitude God promotes.

Gary Luecke ran Charis Colorado for years before being promoted to manage Charis worldwide. He later stepped down to follow the Lord’s leading, but for years he told us, “Whatever you want me to do, however the ministry can use me, I’m willing.” When he first came to work for us, he took a huge cut in pay. But he wasn’t in it for the money. He came because he felt like that was what God called him to do.

Greg Mohr is now our Charis director. I’ve known Greg and Janice for decades. I used to minister in their church. But when Greg came to Charis, he didn’t ask for a specific position. Even though he had pastored for twenty-seven years, he didn’t ask for authority. He just said, “I am here to serve and be a blessing to this ministry. I’ll do whatever you need me to do.” So, we used him to fill an open position.

A few years later, Greg approached me and said, “I believe God is leading me into more of a leadership role at Charis. But I’m here to serve. If you want me to stay in my current position, I’ll do it, and I’ll do it with a good attitude. But I feel this is what God has gifted me in.” That was humility. Greg wasn’t out to promote himself. He was willing to serve wherever, but when he felt God nudging his heart, he responded. (He told me later that while he was a student at Rhema, God had spoken to him and told him that one day he would run a Bible college. At the time, he thought maybe God meant Rhema. But decades later, he realized God was talking about Charis.) Now, Greg didn’t come to me playing the God card. He wasn’t trying to manipulate me into promoting him by saying “God said.” He spent several years just serving, letting us see his heart and character. He really worked his way into a position of leadership.

Barry Bennett, who is now our Dean of Instructors at CBC, has been a successful missionary in Chile and headed a Spanish-speaking Bible school in Texas. He is a very qualified minister and one of the most favorite teachers we have. But he didn’t come to work for me tooting his own horn and telling us we need to use him in the college. He worked in our communication services department for two years answering my emails.

In conversation some of my employees found out his background and asked him to take a chapel service in CBC. The students loved it. They gave him a standing ovation and then bought more of his CDs than anyone we had speak up to that point.

Once during a transition period, I asked Barry if he was interested in taking the directorship of Charis. He said he didn’t feel that was his gifting. He turned down an increase in salary and authority because he wanted only what the Lord had for him. That’s a faithful man.

I could go down the list of our Charis leadership team and talk about this attitude in each one on the team. Paul Milligan, the man who used to run our ministry, recently told me, “If you’re ever finished with me, if you ever feel like someone else could do these things, I’m free to go. You’ll not hurt my feelings. I’m just here to serve.” That’s humility. All these people are serving a greater purpose than themselves. They’re not out to build their own kingdom. They are just doing what they believe is right. They are serving God and are faithful to whomever God puts in authority over them. And that’s what makes a faithful witness.

If we would get this attitude, serving heartily as unto the Lord—even for the ungodly—God would reward us (Eph. 6:8). The psalmist said:

For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another. (Psalm 75:6–7)

Promotion comes from God. Whether or not a boss sees and promotes humility, God does. He causes the humble to receive favor with their current boss, find a better job, or build their own business. For some people, the very reason they haven’t been promoted is this issue of humility. They’ve not been a faithful witness. They’re only out to glorify and promote themselves. They manipulate facts. They’re envious of their coworkers and can’t speak peaceably about anyone. They won’t do what is right if it means they could lose.

I remember a fundraising company coming to me years ago and promising a return of $1 million if I would let them write a fundraising letter for me. The ministry was only making probably $200,000 a year at that point, so I asked, “How are you going to do that?” They explained their process to me (and they had it down to a science), but everything they wanted to write in the letter was dishonest and manipulative.

“None of that is true,” I said.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s true,” they told me. “You’re doing great things here. Let us get you the money so you can do even more. The end justifies the means.”

“No, it doesn’t!” I said as I kicked them out. “I don’t need money that badly.”

Brothers and sisters, the end does not justify the means! We need to do what is right. We need to do things with humility, which is submission to and dependence on Him.

I once knew a man, a very godly man who loved the Lord, who struggled with lying. When he was very young, his father beat him over the smallest infraction, so he learned to lie to save his hide—literally. He would do whatever it took to please his father and avoid a beating. And without realizing it, he carried that childhood survival tactic into adulthood. As a grown man, he would say the stupidest things. He would lie at the drop of a hat. He would exaggerate and misrepresent things just to impress people. No one could trust what he said, and it eventually cost him his job.

People call that a spirit of lying, but it’s really a spirit of pride. It’s being insecure and afraid of people’s rejection. It’s trying to avoid pain. A person like that is afraid the truth won’t benefit them, so they only present a portion of it. When they do that, they’re bearing false witness (Ex. 20:16), and that’s pride. They’re not working “as to the Lord” (Eph. 6:7). They’re working for self. And they wonder why things aren’t working out. Grace—favor and promotion—can only flow through humility (James 4:6).

Andrew Wommack