3 Reasons God May Delay Your Promotion

Have you been crying out to God for promotion? Do you want Him to favor you and elevate you–but He hasn’t done it yet, OR He hasn’t promoted you in the way you were hoping that He would?

If so, I believe it will help you to be less discouraged–and to get more firmly on board with what God IS doing in your life–if we look at a few potential reasons why your promotion might not have happened yet.

Reason 1 below is the easy one, but it might not be true in your case.

Reasons 2 and 3 are more hidden, and I suspect that there are a LOT of people who have experienced Reasons 2 and 3 … but they don’t know it, so they think the lack of promotion is their own fault; and they’re beating themselves up, when they shouldn’t be.

Let’s explore three potential reasons why your promotion may be delayed … and be sure to read past Reason 1!

Reason 1 (the easiest reason to discern): Maybe your character isn’t ready yet.

This is the obvious one, and it may be true—but it may not be. The whole purpose of this article is to explore potential reasons that go beyond this first reason. But, we would be remiss if we didn’t pay attention to this one first.

I get emails all the time from people who are angry at God and questioning His existence—even questioning His goodness—because He didn’t give them what they asked Him for. In those instances, it is very obvious that our friends are seeing the following Scripture happen in their lives:

“My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:2-8 NKJV).

The emails I receive as mentioned above are always full of doubt and unbelief. In those occasions, my heart really goes out to each person–but I can’t help them, because it’s their own fault that they haven’t received anything from the Lord.

For those people, they don’t truly believe; they set out with intentions to believe for a moment, but they got mad and pitched a fit, like a small child would, when they didn’t get what they wanted when they wanted it.

And so, their real doubt and unbelief shoots to the surface like an polluted artesian well. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, and their words are full of anger, doubt, and unbelief.

In those situations, a person can only move forward with God by choosing to believe.

Faith is a choice, not a feeling. Believing God is a choice that has to constantly be renewed in every moment, because the enemy is going to tempt you all the time not to believe.

And if you give in to that, sure enough–the enemy’s plot to steal your blessing worked. All he had to do was get you to disbelieve, for he who doubts does not receive anything from the Lord.

How can you combat that? By choosing to believe God in every circumstance, in every situation, and despite every kind of feeling you may experience. Faith is a choice; I can’t emphasize that enough.

But there are other character issues that may prevent people from being promoted, too.

For example, if your life is full of lust, lies, drug use, manipulation, control, insecurity, laziness, self-centeredness, or any other evil thing, God often won’t promote you. And if you climb the ladder in the flesh, you will usually crash and burn.

Your natural charisma and spiritual gifting may get you opportunities, but only godly character can sustain them. And even if it takes 50 years, God will expose what needs to be exposed.

Flesh can climb the ladder, but that’s not real promotion because it doesn’t last. Only God is the real Promoter, as it says in Psalm 75:

“For exaltation comes neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south. But God is the Judge: He puts down one, and exalts another” (Psalm 75:6-7 NKJV).

And when God promotes, only your godly character can help you stay in the place of promotion. If you don’t have godly character, you will go down as if in a flaming ship at some point.

God, have mercy and deliver us all from that.

What’s the best thing to do, then, as you’re waiting to be promoted?

Work on your character. Become like Jesus with everything you’ve got. Give your all to know Jesus, obey Him, and draw close to Him. If you will do that, then you can trust that God will promote you at the right time–and that you will be ready for the promotion He brings.

Reason 2: The environment into which He would have promoted you would not have been healthy for you.

Sometimes, God actually protects us by not promoting us. What do I mean by that? Simply this:

I fully believe that God has kept some people hidden, without apparent outward-facing promotion, because the only available constructs or environments into which He would have promoted you, IF He had promoted you, would not have been healthy or godly for you.

Here’s what I mean by that:

• When God said “not yet” to a promotion you wanted, perhaps the people you would have worked with were actually toxic—but you didn’t know it … until recently.
• When God said “no” to a job you wanted, perhaps that workplace was rife with scandal—but nobody knew it … until recently.
• When God said “no” to advancement that involved networking and relationships, perhaps the “good ol’ boys network” that He would have associated you with was actually full of manipulation, control, gossip, abuse of every kind, or even a spirit of Jezebel … and now that’s being exposed, but you had no idea before.

We humans tend to take things at face value:

• When someone or something looks great, we assume it is.
• When people have a great reputation, we assume there are no skeletons hiding in their closets.
• When people are rich or influential, we assume that God must be affirming them … and that they must be okay to associate with.
• And if your heart is pure, you assume that everyone else’s heart is pure too.

But God sees the things that are hidden to public view.

And even though you wanted to be promoted, I believe that, for some people, God didn’t promote you because He wanted to protect you from what you couldn’t see. The only available environment into which you would have been promoted was actually a toxic environment.

Therefore, by waiting to bring you promotion, He actually kept you safe from associating with those people or constructs. Your name was not sullied by working with them, but your name and reputation would have been sullied if the Lord had given you what you thought you wanted.

I see this happening in the Body of Christ, especially as God is purging and cleansing many wells of filth that nobody knew existed.

As things are being exposed and coming to light, many people ought to thank God with all their hearts that He never allowed them to associate with things and people that they thought they wanted to be tied to.

God is Deliverer and Protector, even when we don’t realize that we need to be delivered and protected. And we all ought to thank Him effusively for sparing us from certain associations, positions, and relationships. By waiting to promote you, He is allowing you to be part of the new, fresh wineskin, or “new guard,” instead of the parts of the “old guard,” or “old wineskin,” that He is casting down.

Reason 3: Your foundation isn’t big enough yet.

Sometimes, God may want people at your next stage of life to think of you a certain way. He wants them to see the magnitude of what He has put in you.

In order for that to happen, you need to have a foundation of a certain depth and size when they meet you. In other words, the Lord doesn’t want those next people to see you as just a baby in training, but rather as a fully grown, mature, and authoritative child of God.

Therefore, sometimes, I believe God delays bringing you into that next level of promotion while you work on your foundation. You may need to go ahead and build your ministry, write that book, compose that song, develop that YouTube channel, et cetera in order to fit into your next space in the Body of Christ.

So, because you will need that big foundation in order to do the next thing well, He delays moving you into that next big thing until your foundation is built.

In these cases, your next promotion is so authoritative that, if He put you in that place without your foundation having already been built to a certain size, you’d never get the promotion He has for you.

These are only three of the many possible reasons your promotion may be delayed.

But, I do see all three of these reasons actively happening in the Body of Christ.

Again, I think most people who are truly qualified for promotion beat themselves up because it hasn’t happened yet, thinking the fault must be their own. However, God is the One Who sees all. And your times are in His hands.

If your promotion hasn’t happened yet, yes: you should continue to seek God with all your heart, putting all your effort into obeying Him and becoming like Him. That way, your character and relationship with God will be able to bear up to the promotion God does bring, when He brings it.

But in the meantime, also consider if Reason 2 or Reason 3 might not apply to your situation.

Do you need to be objectively analyzing the fruit of the place you are in? Could you be in places, or surrounded by people, that are are bearing bad fruit, no matter how great they look to others, or how great they look on the outside? Do you need to realign yourself with people and places that bear good fruit?

Or, do you need to build your foundation? Is God speaking to you about building something–something that will be a vital component of your future promotion?

When God brings you into the place He has for you, it’s going to be awesome.

Proverbs 10:22 tells us that “The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.” You are going to love whatever God has in store for you at the next highest level of promotion in your life.

But, in the meantime, I encourage you to analyze and consider what part God’s current instructions for your life might play in your future promotion. And when you consider that they are one and the same, get started today on whatever He is challenging you to examine or build.

Could any of these reasons that God may delay your promotion apply to you? Leave a comment below!