Fulfilling Your Kingdom Purpose | Are You Ready for a Spiritual Promotion?

In this season between Passover and Shavuot, God is preparing you to further advance into your Kingdom purpose. Climbing to new heights with God calls for faith, endurance, humility, and surrender. This is the path we’re called to as we’re transformed into the likeness of Jesus.

The enemy always opposes our growth and maturity–as God calls us forward, there are our roadblocks and traps we must be aware of. Let’s look at three major barriers to spiritual promotion and how to overcome them.

Barrier 1 | Fear of Man

Are you most eager to please God or man?

We all fall into the trap of man-pleasing, often out of fear of failure, exposure, or abandonment. We give people power over us that they were never meant to have, and it can crush our calling. 

When we’re consumed with what we think others want from us or maintaining a certain image, we aren’t giving God His rightful authority in our hearts and lives. Fear of man will prove to be a snare (Proverbs 29:25), but reverential fear of God brings life and freedom!

The blood of Jesus has covered your shortcomings, failures, and sins. You’re a new creation in Him, going from glory to glory! You don’t have to worry about pleasing people because the Creator Himself clothed you in righteousness and gave you an inheritance when you were born again. 

• “For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ.” —Galatians 1:10

That word bondservant means that you are completely sold out to Jesus. You were once a slave without an inheritance, and now you are considered a coheir with Christ, having the riches of God because you are considered His son or daughter.

Pray to cancel man-pleasing in your mind, will, and emotions.

“Father God, in the name of Jesus, if there is any part of me that values man’s view over Your view, reveal this to me. Reveal where its source is in my past, so that I may cut off those soul ties. You accept me; therefore, I have no fear of man. I decree and declare today that I am enough, and You are for me not against me!”

Barrier 2 | Living in the Past

Seeking comfort in the things of yesterday,  instead of embracing the change God wants to make in you for tomorrow, hinders spiritual promotion. The battles we face with our inner man deal with our flesh fighting against our new identity. 

God is releasing great promotion within the Body of Messiah as we carry out our Kingdom purpose. We are entering a season when our past needs to be buried by the blood of Jesus. Whether it is romanticized nostalgia or deep places of shame and wounding, we must release our past to God, inviting Him into our memories. Decree and declare the future and hope that God promises you:

• “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” —Jeremiah 29:11

When you hear the accuser of the brethren reminding you of your past failures, tell him—and yourself—that you can do all things with Jesus Messiah. Remind yourself daily that His blood expunged your past. 

• “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” —Galatians 2:20

Pray to trust in Him for your identity, inheritance, and the Holy Spirit’s power.

“Father God, in Jesus’ name, I pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to remind me daily of my inheritance in you. Your words say my debt has been canceled, and I am free and equipped to do all the things you have called me to do according to your purpose. You have made me a new creation and have a purpose for me that is ordained by you in the books of heaven. I decree and declare your purpose is set into motion this day, that I may enter into spiritual promotion tomorrow.” 

Barrier 3 | The Spirit of Pride

As you enter into your spiritual promotion, pride is on your tail, nipping at your heels, so you turn to it instead of the Lord. Each of us must embrace daily that our worth, purpose, or even ministry is not in what we do. 

When we begin to have success in the level of faith for which we have advanced, our feeling of importance rises. Remember these wise words… 

• “When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom.” —Proverbs 11:2
• “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” —Proverbs 16:18
• “…God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.” —James 4:6

You must protect your promotion. Embrace it… but remember it’s not the gift that makes way for you into God’s throne room—but the gift of His Son. We are told to go boldly into His presence, but we cannot enter in and expect spiritual promotion if we forget we have nothing apart from Jesus. 

• “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.” —Galatians 3:27
  

Pray for alignment and protection.

“Father God, in the name of Jesus, align my identity and purpose this day with who I am in You. Holy Spirit, remind me daily of the reason I may boldly approach the throne of God. I decree and declare the promise of protection over Your purpose. If there is any pride within me, reveal it so that it is cut off and my destiny is fulfilled for Your Kingdom. I want You more than I want a spiritual promotion!”

Glory to Glory | New Heights with God

Galatians 5:5 says, “For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.” (emphasis added)

Remember that your promotion is in God’s perfect timing. He wants you to surrender to Him fully, clear out the walls that block your blessing of spiritual promotion, and continue to stay close and seek Him. You’re on a journey of transformation, as Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 3:18,

• “But we all, with unveiled faces, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” –2 Corinthians 3:18 (emphasis added)

Spiritual promotion calls for faith, endurance, humility, and surrender. This is the path we’re called to as we’re transformed into the likeness of Jesus. Watch as God starts to bring you over the mountains and onto new heights as you walk by the Spirit!