Influence -
The capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone.
If even one person is willing to listen to you, and you can effect their character, development or behavior, then you have influence over their life.
God doesn’t just ask us to have relationship with Him, he also asks us to influence others to do the same.
Matthew 28:19-20
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations … teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you
Proverbs 27:17
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
2 Timothy 2:24
24 And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful.
Abraham
Genesis 11:31
31 Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.
The totality of what we know about Abraham at this point is that he has a wife, she can’t have a baby, and his extended family set out to Canaan, but they ended up stopping in Harran.
Genesis 12:1-5
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.
2
“I will make you into a great nation,
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3
I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
4 So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Harran. 5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Harran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there.
So, Abraham, a previously nondescript, regular part of the family was given this audible, where God calls him to a place of influence!
Genesis 22:16-18
“I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, 18 and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”
God called an audible in his life, specifically to give him influence to invest his characteristics in the largest number of people. Influence was not a byproduct of God’s move, influence WAS God’s move.
Jesus
Luke 5:1-3
1 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, the people were crowding around him and listening to the word of God. 2 He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
Jesus was using his influence, preaching to large crowd by the lake of Gennesaret (which is just another name for the see of Galilee) and he was preaching to the people, telling them the word of God. There were too many people, so Jesus got into a boat, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore.
Jesus saw an issue, made a calculated plan, called an audible, and moved locations to increase His influence.
That’s the goal.
Let God expand your family like Abraham, to create generation after generation of people who follow Jesus. Or, notice the boats in your life, where you can get in, and represent Jesus to a larger audience, so that He is glorified and set high!
We should be building influence to be able to speak into the lives of more people, not for our own good, but to represent Jesus.
