Bill Winston - Developing Godly Leadership
Hello, I'm Bill Winston, and welcome to the Believers Walk of Faith, where we walk by faith, and not by sight. Well, we have a special teaching for you today. God has really placed on my heart a topic of leadership. As you can look around, you can see a lot of places there's a leadership void. Something is happening with leadership, and no matter where in life you go, or what profession you're in, or what vocation you're working in, or just where you are in life, whether you are a Fortune 500 company executive, or whether you're a teacher, whether you're a stay at home mom or dad, leadership is needed.
Leadership is not something that just comes automatic, meaning that you need to be developed in leadership, or we need to be developed in leadership. It's most important, I think, that I teach on leadership, and give some leadership development so that the people of God can rise up to the positions that God strategically has planned for them, and be able to lead our nations or our cities, and lead people back to God. That's the bottom line of all godly leadership, is to turn the nations back to God.
All right, first scripture. Let's open up to Romans, and it's Romans Chapter 8. This scripture, I mean, as we read it, it doesn't look like it applies to leadership, but it really does. He said in Romans Chapter 8 in Verse 19, he said, "For the earnest expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of God". Now, that sons of God there is really not talking about a gender, it's talking about a maturity, so a sons of God versus a baby, which is immature, and then a mature son, which is mature. God wants that to happen in our lives, so he wants us to grow up to be mature.
Paul many times began to talk to the church. He said over in 1st Corinthians in Chapter 3, Paul writes this to the church at Corinth. He says this, "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as a spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you are not able to bear it, neither yet now are you able, for you are yet carnal, but where there is among you envying, and strive, and divisions, are you not carnal and walk as men"? One of the translations says, "walk as mere men", so it's kind of interesting here that God has planned for the church to grow, grow up.
Now what are we growing up for? Well, we have to grow up really to receive the promises of God, and you'll find that also over in Galatians, in Galatians, Chapter 4, and I'll start reading here. Starting here at Verse 1, "Now the heir as long as he's a child, differs nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all". So he's saying that when a person comes into Christ and refuses to grow, he is saying... another translation says, "he's nothing more than a slave", meaning that that person can't receive the inheritance that God has for them. God has planned for this particular person to run the whole estate, and so when a person refuses to grow up spiritually, they can't run the estate.
Well, let's call the estate the earth. God wants us to run the earth. Well, why isn't the church doing that? I think what I've come up with is that the church has not really grown up and matured in The Word, and the whole world is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God, meaning that they've got problems they can't solve, or they've got issues that they don't know how to deal with. Now, I'm saying that the church is the one that God has sent to deal with those problems. Well, this is about taking the lead. This is about the church getting what it takes to provide the leadership for the world, so that we cannot only change the nations, but turn the nations back to God. That's what it's all about.
Well, let's talk about leaders first. What is a leader? Now, I've got some different characteristics of a leader here, and through that we can kind of summarize as to what a leader is. One of the characteristics of a leader is one who posses character, and inspires confidence. Possesses character and inspires confidence. This character thing in these last days is something that is very, very important. Ethics, if you might call it, being honest with people, being able to buy something at the store and it work, you know what I mean? Be able to get what you paid for. But character, and it's amazing. The bible talks about it.
The bible says, "Keep your word, even if it hurts". That's what it says, that's a translation of it. That's found over in Psalms, Chapter 15. He says in Verse 4, "In whose eyes a vile person is contempt, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changes not". We call it integrity. A person who gives The Word, their word and keeps it.
You remember years ago when... well, you might not remember, but some of the older saints might remember. I mean, you could shake your hand on a deal. You'd shake your hand on a deal, and a handshake was a covenant. You could walk away, come back in a year, and that covenant is kept, they'll keep their word. That's why on businesses sometimes they have, "Been in business since 1888", you know what I mean? They're trying to say that we're honest people. We're staying in business, so forth and so on. So a leader is one who has character, will keep The Word that they give to you. And why? Because that's the way God is. He says, "I am the Lord, and I change not".
So whatever he spoke, he's going to keep that word, and I thank God for that. Thank God. You know change, I get up one morning, and God has changed his mind. Boy let me tell you, I'd be in trouble. So I have to rely on the fact that God has character, but he wants us to have character. Now, some nations don't even understand character. They, as a matter of fact, bribing is a way of business. Now, I understand God wants the Kingdom to come there. He wants this whole nation to understand character, and honestly, and so forth, and it has to come out of the church. Wherever we are planted, God plans for the Kingdom to come there. So it inspires confidence. People give you encouragement. They say, "Hey, you can do this".
Now, I'm talking about a good leader now, a godly leader. You can do this. Every one of us, I don't know what you've come through and experiences, but I know myself, when I was learning to fly airplanes, and I was in pilot training in the military, the U.S. Air Force, and I was going from one level of airplane to another, from the airplanes with a propeller, to airplanes with a jet engine. I tell you, when my instructor told me, he said, "All right", I'm in jet training now, he said, "Come to a full stop. I'll get out, and you take it around yourself". I mean, I thought I misheard him. I thought he said, "Take it around and kill yourself". You know? I mean, I'm saying, "Whoa". I said, "Wait, wait". I said, "Hold up. Am I ready to take it around"? He said, "You are ready".
Now, this is interesting now. He gave me a few encouraging words. Boom, he closed down the canopy. I took off, came down safely. Praise God. Now, he was pushing me, and I think in basketball, in professional basketball. They encourage them sometimes, and I think sometimes that's even why the crowd is behind you, to kind of encourage you and so forth, because inspiring confidence, confidence in what you can do, and I tell you, God is the same way.
You know, I sometimes preach on Sunday, and then I come back Monday morning, get before prayer, and I said, "Lord, I messed up on that". He's telling me, "I understand it, but you did all right". I mean, really. I mean, I remember him telling me one time, just putting me at ease. He said, "My power is greater than your mistake". I said, "Okay, praise God". He said, "I can fix anything that's broke". I said, "Got it, Lord". So that's number one. A person who has character, posses character, and inspires confidence. Another one is a leader who others want to follow. Not made to follow, want to follow. I want to follow this particular person. I say, "Uh, okay".
Now, I've seen that, because I've seen other people I don't want to follow. I've been again, in the military, and I've seen the folks I didn't want to follow. I just happened to be under their command, and I had to do what was called on me to do, but I tell you, their leadership ability was questionable. Now, I didn't find that often, especially in the flying area. But that. Then I went to... I remember coming with IBM, and I was training in computers and so forth, and there was a leader that they assigned me to who was a manager, but he had kind of a lifestyle that I knew wasn't best for me learning. I knew it wasn't. So what did I do? I requested a new leader.
Now, my boss, I went to my boss's boss, and he said, "Bill, what's wrong"? I said, "Well..." I didn't want to go into it. I said, "I just don't think that is the best environment for me to learn", because you know, sometimes your environment just has a lot to do with it. So he said, "Okay". So three or four days later he came back to me and called me in, and told me who my new manager was. Boom, I just shot up the ranks. I became president of three big classes in New York. I tell you. So I mean, you name it. Why? That leader had the confidence that I need, and inspired the confidence that I need. He was the kind of leader that I felt that I wanted to follow. He was a very smart gentleman, and he had his... I mean, as you say, had your stuff together, and so forth like that. But that was a leader.
Now, I know everybody doesn't have that kind of leadership, but God wants us to have that kind of leadership in us. He wants us to be the kind of people other people want to follow. Not made to follow, want to follow. Now, that's whether you're leading the home, whether you're leading a company, whether you're leading in a church. Wherever you are, he wants you to be the kind of person other people want to follow. The next one is one who leads others to leadership. A good leader, a godly leader, is one who leads others to leadership. I mean, here are some people, and let's say they're training under you, and so forth like that.
Sometimes people who are unsure about themselves hold back things, little secrets of the industry, whatever have you. Why? Because they don't want everybody to know what they know. But you think about Jesus. He not only wanted them to know what he knew, but do what he did. You know why? Because one day he knew he was leaving. See, God is a constant promoter. He wants to constantly promote you, take you from level to the other, whether you're talking about the level of love, or whether you're talking about the level of long suffering, whatever it is, the fruit of the spirit, whether you're talking about your skill level, and so forth. He wants to take you from one level to the other.
Now, of course you have to see him as your source and so forth, but he wants to do. He wants to constantly promote you. Here's what he said over in Genesis. This is Genesis, Chapter 12. He says in Verse 2, "And I will make of thee a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I'll bless those that bless you, curse those that curse you, and in these should all families of the earth be blessed". Now, when he said, "make your name great", I looked it up in Amplified. He had said, "I'll make your name famous and distinguished".
Well, I didn't start out that way in the military. I didn't start out that way in IBM. I didn't start out that way in the ministry. Nobody knew me when I came to Chicago in the ministry. I came with $200, and nobody cared. But notice what God is doing. He said, "I'll do this for you". You don't have to try to run behind some manager, wanting him to see you, or position your desk at the door so he could see you at work. What you don't have to do... or she see you at work. You don't have to do that. What you have to do is please God. Just do what he says, and watch God promote you. Now, what is he doing? He doesn't promote on popularity, he promotes on integrity. He waits on the integrity.
Now, what the world will do, they'll promote on popularity. In other words, let's say you're good at your sport and you have some skills, and people say, "Okay, he's famous", and that. Next thing you know, the news media's blowing that person up, and so forth. Meanwhile, that person's private life or that person's life, they're doing some things that are totally without integrity in their own life. So God waits on that. One of the people that I use in the scriptures constantly is Joseph, and how Joseph actually had that integrity that God would continue to promote him. I'll just say that, because he does wait on your integrity. He really does. Sometimes you think you're ready, and God says, "You are not ready". He puts you up there, and the enemy will use you for target practice.
So what he's saying is, "Let's wait on the Lord. Let's develop not only the skill, and the confidence, and character, but let's develop the integrity that goes along with that so God will promote us". Now why does he want to promote us? He wants to promote us mainly so that we could have influence to turn the world back to God. That takes me to my fourth reason, or definition, or if you will, characterization of what a good leader is. One who guides by influence. One who guides by influence. It is amazing how God desires to influence the world to bring them to him. Here's what he says over in Matthew, Chapter 5. "Let your light so shine among men that they may see your good works and glorify your father". Isn't that something? He doesn't leave off performance.
See, Joseph, for example, remember Joseph, and he had a dream, and his brothers got envious, and sold him as a slave, and he went down the Egypt, and here he was being raised up in Potiphar's house, then falsely accused and thrown in jail, but then now he's being raised up, because Pharaoh has a problem he can't solve, and Joseph has the wisdom of God. So Joseph comes up, starts solving his problem, and now Pharaoh asked about his father. "What about your father"? What is he saying here? When you perform and they see your good works, they're going to ask about your father. They're going to ask, "How do you know all of this? What are you doing to be able to perform like this"?
That's what they did me in IBM. I got saved, and I got ahold of these scriptures that God would promote me, that God would give me an increase, that God would teach me how to do things, and so forth. I use Isaiah 48:17. "I am the Lord thy God, thy redeemer, the holy one of Israel, which teaches thee to profit, lead thee by the way that thou should go". God is going to tell me how to be dominant in this marketing environment, and he did. Top of the ladder in sales downtown in Chicago. So what am I saying? What he did for me do for you, but this is a part of leadership.
Now, what does he want to do? Folks, when he got me there, I was sometimes taking four or five people to church every Sunday. Different people. Why? They didn't notice me while I was down at the bottom, but once I got to the top, they want to know how to do this. Why? Because they want to do it. So just taking people and introducing them to Christ. Well, God is not just interested in ones or twos, he wants a whole nation to come back to him, so he wants people in leadership that can help him lead people back to him, because the world is going away. Why are they following people that may not necessarily be the right people to follow? Why? Because they don't understand true leadership.
What am I saying? I'm saying that now he is saying in the scriptures that the whole world is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. Let's just cover one more thing here while we're here. The different spheres of influence that shape a culture. The different spheres of influence. What am I talking about? This imagined, one man says, "Seven mountains".
Another person characterized it as seven areas of a... main areas of a culture, but here they are. One is religion, that's what we call it, but a faith. That's the thing that mainly shapes a culture, a faith. Another one is family. A family, and a family is key for shaping a culture. Another one is education, and this is the thing that shapes the mind. Another one is the government, makes the laws, so forth and so on. Another one is media, and you know media has tremendous influence on people's lives. Another one is arts and entertainment. That's a category by itself, that people are in sports, are looked at as being under this particular topic. Then there's media... pardon me, there is business. The business side is the economy, and things that helped shape the economy.
Now, putting all these things together, God is looking to raise up his people in each one of those areas. Now, what he looks for is people to come to a church, a local church, and a church teaches them and prepares them to be raised up in these industries. You got what I'm saying? See, if you want to take the mountain, you got to go into the mountain. You can't change a culture outside the culture, you got to go in the culture. He wants the church to raise up leaders that are politicians, leaders that are educators, leaders that... so forth.
Now, as they get into their area of expertise or profession, now they're raised up. God promotes them in those areas. Why? I'm going to cover it next time, but he gives them an anointing that they can know things, and God will raise them up in those areas so they'll perform, and then get them at the top. Now, understand when you start moving to the top, right there, the enemy zeroes in on people. He really does. He tries to stop that rise. Why? Because he's got his people occupying the top, because whoever really is on the top of the mountain pretty much controls the mountain.
So he wants his people to stay on top, and I mean, the Bibles never were supposed to come out of schools, but somehow there was an outcry against it. I think because a lot of God's people didn't know what their role was, in terms of leading a nation, and as a result of that, kind of let it go and so forth. Somebody said, "Well, you know, there were laws that were made on it". Well, there were laws that were made against the three Hebrews that they were supposed to bow down, but did they? No. When they didn't bow down, they threw them in the furnace of fire. Did they burn? No, they didn't burn. Why? Because God protects his people in those systems. How about Daniel? Same thing. They made a law just to trap Daniel. They said, "This law says you cannot pray to any other God, anybody else except the king for these next 30 days".
What did Daniel do? He opened his window and prayed. You see what I'm saying? I'm saying that once you start rising, Satan usually begins to target you for destruction, so you got to be developed. You got to be an inside out person. A person that's an outside in person is always affected by what somebody else thinks. A person that's an inside out person is never affected by what somebody else thinks. They're only affected by what they know, what God speaks to their hearts, so forth and so on. For you to get somewhere in that environment, you're going to have to be an inside out person. Let's look at one more thing in taking the lead. It's a word called potential.
Now, what is potential? It's hidden abilities. It's abilities that are in you that God placed there so that you can do what God has purpose for you to do, before you came into the earth. I mean, God had already made a plan for you. Now, if I have a seed in my hand, inside that seed is a tree. Now, think about it this way. God loaded something in you before you were born. That's potential. Loaded it up. Now, what do you do? You come into the earth, and this potential begins to emerge. The main way the potential comes from the inside out is through work. That's why every Christian needs work.
Now, if somebody is disabled and not able to work, I understand, but that's why you have no retirement in the bible, because you have enough potential for you to last for eternity. I mean, it's going to be coming out from now on. So work is a thing that delivers potential, and usually I characterize work against a job. A job brings a paycheck. A work delivers potential. Now, you can have a job that is work, but sometimes people say, "I just want a job". The bible says, "In all labor there is profit", so you can do that, and get a job, and actually be profitable for that, but the ideal is that you get a job that is in line with your purpose and your potential.
Now you're about to rise, and so that's the key. One of the things that's been epidemic in these last generations is, "What am I supposed to do? What's my purpose in life"? This man wrote a book called A Purpose Driven Life. All right, so what I want to say is this. Let me just go over these real quickly, because I'm out of time. In potential, the key to releasing that potential, I put down some points here. One, is you must be connected to the source, so got to be connected to God. Secondly, must understand how you are designed to function, and we're designed to function by faith.
Number three, you must know your purpose to work out that potential. You've got to know what you've been purposed to do to get full potential out of your life. Number four, you must have a proper environment for that potential to come forth. Then number five, violation of kingdom laws will limit the release of your potential. I realize God put it in you. Watch this? It says, "And it's enough potential in you to last eternally", because God is not just looking at this earth right now where you are, he's looking at eternity.
So there's enough potential there. So what am I saying to you? That you have a purpose in this life. You have potential. Watch this, and you are a leader. The idea is about what is it that God wants me to lead in, because whatever it is, he's going to use your performance to turn people back to Christ. Ah, it's a powerful teaching. Well, praise God. That's all we have for this time. This is Bill Winston saying I'll see you next time, and keep walking by faith.
PART 2
Hello, I'm Bill Winston and welcome to The Believers Walk of Faith where we walk by faith and not by sight. Well, we have a special broadcast for you today, I'm teaching on leadership. I mean this is a topic that is most needed not only in the church but in the world. No matter where you are in life, leadership is for you whether you're a CEO of a fortune 500 company or a teacher or with a stay at home mom, no matter where you are leadership is important and leadership needs to be developed. A lot of people think that they just fall into leadership. You can do it, but you will fall. I mean, leadership takes development and I had to be developed as a leader.
I was brought up in a town called Tuskegee, Alabama, which was at that time, a place where they had some leaders. They had leaders in aviation because that's where the famous Tuskegee Airman were. They were our parents who flew, that was the generation before us and most of my friends in elementary school, their parents were either pilots or something and so forth. I saw leadership there, I saw also leadership in, we had the fifth largest VA hospital at that time in Tuskegee. That was where most of the African American doctors were trained because they didn't have integration at that time, as result of that, they had to come to segregated facilities.
Most of the doctors from Harry and the other medical school would come if they're African American will come to Tuskegee to train. Those students were in our classroom. We had also the educators because Booker T. Washington, as you know in 1881 started a school there called Tuskegee Normal or Tuskegee Institute or now Tuskegee University. The school was a school where a lot of people got educated. He started in 1881 with nothing, nothing but a vision.
The Bible says to us or talks about vision and it says, this is found over in Proverbs, Proverbs 29. I'm going to read Proverbs 29 here, and I'm looking at verse 18, it says, "Where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keeps the law, happy is he". Look it up in some other translation sometimes in the amplified or in the message translation. You'll see a real level of understanding there that you got that normally this particular just reading this verse starting to bring out. This whole idea of revelation from God, and that's what you have to have really, if you're going to lead anybody. You've got to have a vision, you've got to have something from God.
For example, if you look in Nehemiah 2, before Nehemiah went to build back the walls of Jerusalem that had been burned down and so forth, the Bible says, "Nehemiah, God had placed something in his heart". That's a vision, God places a vision in your heart. Over in Acts 26 Paul said, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision". God placed that vision in his heart. If you really going to lead people, you're going to first have to have a vision. You should have a vision for your family, where are they going to go? Even for the next generation, what are they going to do? For your kids.
Bible says, "We have to shoot our kids forward like an arrow". What does it mean by that? We should state big things over them. My kid is going to be one of the best lawyers in Chicago or best lawyers in Nigeria or wherever you're a viewer in the broadcast, whatever it is, you should speak things over them. That's part of a leadership. You got to start leading in the home.
We talked about seven mountains of influence that we want to gain leadership in. One was religious mountain, meaning that these are mountains now that we want to end up at the top of these mountains. Meaning Christianity at the top of the religious mountain, we don't want any other religion to be because whoever is at the top controls that mountain.
Another mountain is family, that we want to have leadership as far as families are concerned. We want when people see your family say, "Wow, look at that family". Now, we know that today families are under attack. Well, you need to know how we're to operate even when Satan has targeted our families for destruction, need to know what to do.
Another one is education, education meaning that teaching and shaping the mind. The mind is an interesting thing because as a man thinks so is he. Whatever you think is what you're going to end up. One of the things God wants us to do is think like him. He said over in Isaiah 55:8, "My thoughts are not your thoughts". That tells me that God plans for me to think on his level. Praise God. Let me tell you what happens a lot is we shrink his thinking down to a level that we think we can handle it. You're much bigger on the inside than you are on the outside. It's big thinking, it's out of you, receive his thoughts.
Another one is government, another mountain that God wants to be at the top of that government mountain. Yes, he wants our Christian brothers and sister to be Supreme Court justices. Oh yeah. Now, the enemy will try to sometimes pigeon hole us and make it just an assistant or whatever have you, but God wants to put us on top. Remember that he wants to put you on the very top. He said over in Deuteronomy 28, he said, "You'll be the head and not the tail. You'll be above only and not beneath". God said this. Well, if God said it, that means he's in the business of raising you up. Now, what we have to do is we have to understand that we have to be in our purpose and we have to understand the word potential of which we talked about a little less time, but let's just keep going.
Another mountain of influence is media, media that could include all kinds of things and news and movies and so forth and so on. The media has a great influence on people's lives today. Well, suppose we could invade that media, suppose we could use the ingenuity that God gives us from the wisdom to make a movie that, "Hey, I'm in trumps all other movies. I mean, it's the academy award winner". Now, you got something to say to people because they're going to look at your performance then they can say, "Oh, okay".
That's why he says in Matthew 5, "Let your light so shine among men, that they may see your good works and glorify your father". People think that once they're coming to church, then they won't have to grow anymore. They don't have to take any classes anymore, they don't study anything anymore, they don't have to learn anymore. No, no, no, you are in a lifelong learning situation. God wants you to keep learning. You come to church every time you come, pastor should have something that, "Wow, I didn't see it that way". Why? He's Giving you knowledge, because my people are destroyed without it.
Another one is arts and entertainment, that includes sports and arts and things like that, and that people who are in those industries should serve God. People know you're a Christian. Oh yeah, they should know it. I mean, your performance is something, just understand that this performance is tied to this.
One of the things about Booker T. Washington is he believed in performance. He believed that these kids should be, have undisputable skills with undeniable value. That's what he kept saying, "Undisputable skills and indispensable value". They should be out bringing value to other people when there're no jobs out there, the skills will make them a job. I recall how he started in the 1881 with nothing, and by 2016, pardon me. By 1916, he ended up with 105 buildings that he had built with his own bricks. Why? Nobody would sell them anything. At that time, didn't want him to build.
When you come into this place where God starts elevating you, you become a target of major destruction of the enemy. Now, I'm not saying that you're supposed to get all scared, so forth, that's not true. But, when you're being raised up that the enemy doesn't like it because when you're getting raised up, that means you're being put in a position of influence. Being put in that position of influence, something is going to have to give. He'll give you to find people that don't want to follow you, and that's interesting. Arts and entertainment.
The last one is business, and we have business schools here at Living Word that we are now planting into different continents of the world. This business school, it's designed to raise up business leaders, who happen to be Christian. Now, what are they doing? They're not only using their business as a profile of how good God is and what God will do with somebody that serves them, but they also use that business to provide revenues, show that the churches and the vision that God has given the pastor of rebuilding a certain community and so forth that that can be done.
The Bible says in these Ezekiel 36, and they'll look at the place and say, "This place that was ruined has become like the garden of Eden". Isn't that wonderful? Praise God. All right, so God is raising us up to actually occupy the top of these mountains. Now, as you being raised up, what he doesn't want you to do is compromise. I think that's a word that people are using the wrong way today, but it compromises because you'll see what you compromise to get, you'll eventually lose or you're going to have to compromise to keep.
Let's go over to Luke's Gospel, in Luke 4, he says, starting at verse 5, "And, the devil take him up to a high mountain, he showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and the devil said to him", talking to Jesus, "all this power will I give you and the glory of them, for that is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will give it. If they will worship me, all shall be done'. Jesus answered and said to him, 'Get behind me Satan'".
Who knows what happened here? Here is Satan coming to Jesus because now Jesus is placed in this earth, and he's now coming in with all this power, this anointing, and he knows he's about to be raised up. What is he trying to get him to do? He tries to get him to compromise, to allow saving him to promote Jesus rather than wait on God to promote him, and that's where some people fall into the trap. A leader trying to promote himself, not in the kingdom, you don't. God does it for you. Look what it says over here in Psalms, Psalms 75, then in Psalms 75 he says this, starting here at verse 6, "For promotion comes neither from the East, from the West or from the South, but God is the judge. He'll put down one and he'll set up another".
Now, God is powerful enough to take care of business, that's all I would say about that. He is powerful enough to promote you. You don't need to try to compromise or shift your position on something or whatever have you to get that. God will take care of it because he is God. He said over here in Daniel, let's go over here in Daniel and look at Daniel 2, and this is found over in verse 20, "Daniel answered and said, blessed be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are his. He and he changes the times and the seasons, he removes the kings and he'll set up kings". Praise God. I tell you he's all powerful so he can remove people and set up new people. What is this based on? This is based on God's people trusting in God.
You see, there's a scripture found here in 1st Timothy 6. It just comes to my mind, verse 6, "But Godliness with contentment is great gain". Godliness with contentment, I'm content where I am. You know how you can get people, you can hire them or something and you come in everyday they're sitting on the edge of their seat waiting for you to promote them. "Hey go on. No, no, no". Just sit back and relax that's what this is saying. It's saying that, you're not going to try to do things in your own string to try to regulate God and make him get you here or make the person who's over you, supervisor to promote you, you don't have to do that.
Here's my definition and here's what I wrote down as a commentary for that scripture. I wrote down this, "You must be satisfied that God cannot and let me add will not mismanage your life". God cannot and will not mismanage your life. The word says, I'm just going to show you something, we talk about leadership now, and this is Genesis. Genesis 40, an interesting scripture here, over in Genesis 40, this is when Joseph has been put in prison. Joseph was put in prison because he was falsely accused, but God knows that the enemy has targeted you if you're going on up the ladder because he doesn't want you to get to the top, but you are going to the top that for you. That's a prophetic word.
What happens is, here he is in Genesis 40, and so what happens, he's now in jail. I mean he's down there in that jail house and I'm sure it is not a good place to be. It says here, "This is after Joseph has now shared with these two people who work for the king who somehow offended the king and they will put in prison, and now they were with Joseph and they had dreams. When they had dreams, Joseph interpreted their dreams and told them what it meant. One of them was going to get his head cut off in three days. The other one was going to get promoted, get his old job back".
Here's what Joseph said to them, verse 14, "But think on me when it shall be well with you and show kindness I pray thee unto me and make mention of me into Pharaoh and bring me out of this house". Everybody wants to be promoted. Martin Luther King said something. He said, "There is a drum major instinct in all of us". Can you imagine that? He was a drum major, he's one in front of the parade carrying the baton, a drum major in all of us. He said, "But first be number one in love". How love acts is found in 1st Corinthians 13, all the characteristics of it. It doesn't try to do things for itself, it does things for others. That's what God is waiting on.
So, with Joseph, here he is, and I understand he's in this prison, but wherever you are, God is with you. The Bible says over in Psalms 139, "If I ever make my bed in hell, behold he's there with me". Poetic God, pokes us powerful stuff. He'll never leave you or forsake you. Look what happened when this particular person got restored to his old job with the Pharaoh yet verse 23, "Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgot him". The Bible here is replacing in Psalms, I think it is, it says, "When all the people forget us, God will lift us up".
See, you don't have to have a fraternity brother net located in that position or frat sorority sister up there, or a person's a part of your organization or a person who knows your dad or something. You don't have to do that in this, not in this. This is where you count on God because he's going to use your faith to promote you and faith sees not only God is your source, but your only source. I'm telling you, I came to this town nobody knew me and nobody cared, with 200 bucks and no place to stay. A dear sister brought us in, God spoke to her to keep us in her home until we got started in Chicago.
Look, today we're preaching almost a billion people on a weekly basis. What happened? God did it. Not once did a man do it. God did it. Our God can use systems, he can use people. He could use all kinds of things, but basically it's got behind it that does it. Why? He's raising you up for leadership, why? He will not and cannot mismanage your life. That's out of his nature. His nature is to promote you, his to nature is to make your name great. Jesus had no problem with the disciples being popular, there are people that don't want you to be as popular as them, why? They don't think there's enough room at the top. That's a scarcity mentality. That's the same mentality that says, "Oil is running out".
Scientists are finding out that this oil that they say it's running now that oil is still being produced way down under where this carbon is being pressurized and so forth, that oil is still being produced. There's no scarcity of anything, and a scarcity mentality would argue down that there are no jobs. That's a mentality thought, as a person thinks in his heart so is he. That's the way you'll see life. I'm saying as far as leadership is concerned, God wants you to be a Godly leader. That he can raise up, that he can use you to not only influence people but turn nations back to God.
Now, let me just cover a couple of points that I covered the last time, but I want to make sure that these points, that you get. Now, this has to do with your potential because your potential is very, very key. You have so much potential in you. In fact, your potential is unlimited, here's what it says over in Mark 9, he says, "If they can believe all things are possible". Take the cap off of your thinking that thinks that your potential is only limited. Wrong. When God gives you something to do, I going to tell you right now, when he gives you something to do or he gives you a task to perform or whatever have, you going to find that he's going to give you something to do beyond what you can do. Try it, curious why? Because, he wants you to use faith.
There's no limit to the power of faith. Faith can do the... what did they say? I'm looking for the impossible or whatever have you, but faith can do it. It can absolutely do things that you never thought could be done. Now, when we're being led by God, God is leading us to a place where our potential can be released. He's going to lead you into the areas that he wants you, where that potential can be released. I really saw this, when I was at IBM, I came there, I was born again. I had come there just from flying airplanes in the military and I wasn't born again, but I got born again there, and then I saw how this thing work called the Kingdom of God. I saw that, "Wait a minute, this is a sovereign government, this government outside of the government that we're in now naturally, and it's a government that has all the resources we need to do everything that God's called us to do".
This government that he's giving us is not a democracy, but it's a theocracy. It's a one ruler ship, it's got a king his name is Jesus, and in this government, this is where you actually get knowledge from the whatever you can download in this government. I downloaded how to get those sales orders for those computers, one day I rung the bell six times. Now, ringing the bell is when you bring in an order and all of a sudden you ring the bell to signify the whole branch that you brought in some orders.
Now, I'm not bragging on me, please I'm telling you how this works. Next thing I know I'm ringing the bell, then I went back and run it again, then I went back and run it again. This is in succession now, right? That same day. Then I brought in six computer orders, the same day. One of the managers called me and said, "Bill, please come in my office, sit down and tell me how you did that". You see what he's doing? He's going to take you and have you to outperform anybody. Why? You're not competing anymore. You're dominating.
Now, all of this is for you, I'm teaching on some leadership development because God wants you to be in the position of influence where others could ask about your father and you tell them. Well, let's sit down and talk about Jesus, he's the one that led me back to the father, and you can give them knowledge that they never had before and they can be born again and come into the same type of leadership and same potential you have. Did you enjoy that? Praise God. Well, that's all we have for the day. This is Bill Winston saying we love you and keep walking by faith.