Everything in God is increase, advancement, and promotion. There’s nothing in God that’s in the backward direction. So we shouldn’t be okay if we are not increasing. Things in our life shouldn’t stay the same year after year. There should be increase, because faith in God’s Word will promote us – it won’t leave us where we are at.
It would help us to evaluate the fruit in each arena of our lives to make sure we are advancing. What are the different arenas? Spiritually, mentally, physically, materially, and in our relationships. As a cotton and wheat farmer, my daddy evaluated his crops daily. He knew that his success as a farmer was connected to what his crops produced. What are our lives producing?
Don’t live life on auto-pilot, but press toward your own advancement! Stir yourself up to take hold of the advancement and promotion that God authored for you.
Think Right!
For us to advance and be promoted, our thinking must advance. Right thinking positions us for promotion and increase. We can’t be promoted if we have wrong thinking. Wrong thinking robs from us. Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but he can’t accomplish that on those who think right.
Gideon started with an army of 22,000, but God had him send anyone home who was fearful and didn’t want to fight. He was then left with 10,000 men. God had him take those down to the water to see how they drank of the stream. Those who laid down their weapons were to be sent home – only 300 didn’t lay down their weapons. Only 300 out of the 22,000 were qualified to advance. Those sent home didn’t think right – they were fearful, and they laid down their weapons – wrong thinking.
Joshua & Caleb had faith to advance into the Promised Land, but for 40 years they had lived with an unbelieving, disobedient generation who didn’t think right. Because of their wrong thinking, that generation never arrived; wrong thinking held them out of God’s best. After Moses died, God gave Joshua his instructions so he could lead the people in. In Joshua 1:8 we see what God gave him as his instruction to arrive. “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” Meditating on, speaking, and doing the Word would give him the mindset of success so they could advance and arrive.
One of David’s “mighty men” was surrounded by an army of 800, and he killed them all with the sword – divine ability assisted him. But think of the kind of mentality he possessed to face that without thinking wrong – without running, quitting, or giving up!
Your Mind Is the Gateway to Your Spirit
The mind is the gateway to the spirit – the mind determines what is or is not allowed into the spirit. We couldn’t even be born again until our mind agreed to receive it. Eternal life could not come into our spirit until our mind agreed. Nothing else from God comes into your spirit without your agreement either.
What we believe is a result of our thinking. If we think wrong, we will believe wrong. If our believing is wrong, our confession will be wrong – what we say will be wrong. It all hinges on our thinking! But the Word of God has been given to us to straighten out our thinking!
If we don’t think right, we will have faith problems. A faith problem is a thinking problem. To increase faith, we must bring up our thinking to be in line with the Word. Isaiah 55:8 & 9 reads, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” God’s not just showing us that our thinking is low, but He’s inviting us to come up to His thoughts. The Word of God is the thoughts of God. God offers us His thoughts – let’s take them. Taking higher thoughts can’t help but lift our life into new levels.
Romans 12:2 instructs us, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” The Amplified Classic translation reads, “Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].”
Renewing our minds by feeding and acting on God’s Word will help us to think right and position us for promotion and increase that God has planned for us. It is a life-long occupation and privilege we have to renew our minds with God’s Word.