I will not bow down

When I started this new position as shift coordinator, I felt obligated (notice I said I felt) as the leader on the production line to treat these people fairly.  I didn’t have a heart to lay into them.  You’ll have to read the last testimony to understand this one.  I used to watch managers oppress people and didn’t want to be that way.  On the other hand I was making much effort to keep from seeking their approval.

Of course there was a lot of resistance as I started to function in this new position and I wasn’t quite as bold as I was before.  I didn’t believe it was right to continue to stand against them as I did before because I was bound by the devil that made me believe you have to please these people when you are the leader over them.

Shortly after I started this new position, Doyle was speaking at church and he said, “when a man’s ways please the Lord he makes his enemies at peace with him”  Often Doyle will speak things out and only the person who he is talking about will know it is for them.  This obviously was for me and there was a change in the spirit at work after that.  Did you ever think about what kind of power and authority God has?  He has power over all flesh.  Also if you didn’t like the way God led me to walk as I shared in the last testimony, it makes no difference to me or at least not as much as it used to.  All that matters is that it pleased God.

The people begin to get along with me a little bit.  Oh there were still people there at work who would throw their little jezebel temper tantrums now and then, like one person who didn’t like what I said to him and he turned around and threw a can of bean dip at the wall as he cursed and walked off.  That is what we made was cans of bean dip, day after day after day.

I asked God if I could drop the complaints that I turned in against the managers there at the plant because I didn’t see any reason to continue to press the issue any longer, since I got this new position and it was awkward working side by side with managers that you have complaints turned in on.  God was the one who led me to write them in the first place and he ministered to me that I could drop the complaints.  God knew I didn’t have enough strength to continue holding those complaints and I believe also his purpose was already accomplished for me writing them.

Even as I am writing this testimony I am looking back and still sorting things out as to what God was doing in my heart as he walked me through this valley of the shadow of death. (The old man was dying)  I know I was having fear exposed, and overcoming it and the desire to please man and have his honor was being laid down.  I didn’t go to anyone to ask them what to do; I just worked it out on my own.  For years God has been bringing me out from under these spirits that have blinded and stupefied me to the point that I couldn’t understand the simplest things at times.  I would say things and a minute later forget what I said.  There is nothing wrong with my mind; it is just spirits that have had me bound. 

I noticed as I started to function in this new position that I was thinking more clearly.  One day God said to me “can’t you see that I am bringing you out” But there was still a war going on.  The devil wanted me to bow down and seek the people’s approval, be a man pleaser.  I continued to resist the devil and he would stir up people against me.  There was some weakness in my heart in dealing with these conflicts and I didn’t know what God wanted and I felt like (notice I said I felt, the devil will deceive you with feeling) I was wrong no matter what I did.  You see the jezebel spirit would condemn me when I obeyed God and I wasn’t sure I was obeying God.

So I decided I will just work hard and mind my own business and try to avoid these conflicts.  I believe now I was pulling back and didn’t realize it, but I believe God begin prospering the business by causing the line to run well and we were hitting our production goals on a regular basis which had rarely ever been done before and of course this caused the managers to like me because they were making money and it took some of the pressure off me.  God was having mercy on me.  You know God is faithful, he will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able to bear, lest he makes a way for you to escape.

Anyway we continued to have good production runs and people I worked with would resist me when I tried to make any improvement in their method of operation or make any modification to their machine at their work station.  Some of them would just blow up in my face and throw an ever living fit if you said anything to them.  The senior manager would hear about it and call me to the front office to talk to me about the disturbance and I would tell him what happened (he’s the one I used to have a complaint turned in against).  He partially liked me, but he thought the way I dealt with people was wrong.

So he begin to coach me(as they would say) on how to talk to people and he would make statements like you need to win the people’s approval, you need to get them to like you, learn how to praise their work and find out what they want to hear and say it.  I mean to tell you this was the devil talking to me.  I knew this was totally the opposite of what God was leading me to do, but I didn’t have the courage to confront this manager, so I didn’t say anything.  I wasn’t going to do what he said, because I feared God more than I did him, but I didn’t yet have the strength to confront him.

One conflict after another continued to arise between me and different people on the production line.  The senior and the production manager were on my case concerning these conflicts and our production numbers begin to drop and they thought the solution was that I improve my people skills, be a flatterer like them.  Slowly I was gaining strength and I remember the day that the manager I worked with, brought me into his office and said, “you are going to have to learn this company’s ways of treating people by praising their work, winning their approval, etc., or you won’t make it as a shift coordinator”  I said to him, “I’m not going to do it”  He tried to flatter me and talk me into it, but I said to him again, “I’m not going to do it”

Shortly thereafter I was sitting in my car praying one day and the Spirit of God pressed me in my spirit to go tell the senior manager that I would not seek the people’s approval, nor would I praise them or flatter them and I didn’t even care whether they liked me at all.  So I did and I told him that Psalm 12 says the Lord shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaketh proud things, and he said, “well we will see about this” and then, he said, “I will talk to you about this later” You know these managers act as if they own you and they probably do own most people, because most people will sell their souls for a dollar bill.

The senior manager called me back to his office about a week or so later and he handed me some of the company’s manuals and begin to read them to me and say, “How do you intend to practice these company manuals?”  You want to know what is amazing, this man had told me in previous conversations that he was a youth pastor at his church and that he knew a lot about the bible and yet when I quoted him a verse out of the bible that clearly states that God is against flattering people he rejected that and then hands me a company manual that has ways that are against God’s word and says obey this (that is blind).  Of course he said he wasn’t asking me to flatter anybody and when I said, “What did you mean when you told me to stroke them and say what they want to hear,” he didn’t remember saying that.  Anyway he said ,”I want you to write on a sheet of paper how you intend to obey the principles in these company manuals and turn it back to me.”

So I wrote down my reply and turned it back to him about a week later.  It was outlined this way (What I agree with and what I don’t agree with).  He read it and flattered me on how well it was written.  I wrote in my reply that basically this manual was flattering manipulation and hypocrisy and I wrote a few other things.  In conclusion I wrote that I want to make it perfectly clear that I will not practice these ungodly principles.  I can’t remember what he said after that, but he never did do anything about it.  I knew that I might get fired for doing this, but I would never come out of bondage if I didn’t obey God.

I must have worked there for maybe three of four more months when God ministered to me that you can leave this company now.  I had worked for that company for more than seventeen years and I was so happy when God started ministering to me that I could go.  I put in a two week notice and took a part time job delivering newspapers.  I already had another part time job delivering pizzas.  A few weeks after I left this company God started ministering to me to start a Landscaping business and it has rapidly become successful.

In conclusion, I want to encourage you to obey God by believing the gospel.  He will not let your foot slip, he will strengthen you and he will help you.  If you will bow down to God and do his will he will take care of all your financial needs and you will not have to bow down to the devil to get your money.

God Bless you!

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