Speaking of influencers, who influences you?
Where do you look to find inspiration or direction? When you are faced with a decision, what sources do you engage for information or advice?
In today’s social media world, those who have the largest number of followers are labeled “influencers”. Influencers are users who have established widespread credibility by capitalizing in a specific niche or industry. They successfully utilize their influence to persuade others to act, based on their expert recommendations.
In order to maintain their audience, the social media influencer combines their brand’s expertise with personal touches and consistent posting to draw users in. And there’s the whole issue of authenticity and trust that secures their followers’ loyalty.
Followers can be fickle. One post can cause someone to unfollow, so that influence is lost, loyalty has left, sales decrease. In addition, the one who unfollowed can, with one negative post, influence their own followers to unfollow that influencer. So that one unfollow may result in 100 additional unfollows.
So. Much. Pressure…if you’re a Social Media Influencer.
BUT WHAT IF YOU’RE A REGULAR PERSON?
I realize most of us are not striving to become social media influencers. However, whether we have relationships with two people or two thousand, we each live in a sphere of influence.
Have you identified your sphere? Have you considered, “Where is my sphere of influence and who does it include?” For a deeper look into that question, click here.
Here’s the point: Your sphere is wherever you are. Your sphere of influence is identified in your sphere of activity. Each of us is influential in some way, whether intentional or not. Our words, our actions, even our attitudes project an image that can be followed or rejected.
That can put a lot of pressure on us, yet if you are a Christ-follower, the pressure is relieved. You have the advantage of these 3 Riveting Truths:
- You are Loved by God – He graced you with gifts and strengths
- You are Secure with God – His gifts and calling are irrevocable
- You are Strong in God – His power produces stability in you
You can read more detail about these foundational truths here.
THERE’S ONE THING THAT FREES US
If you follow Christ, then your position with God removes all the pressure of being influential. You definitely live in a sphere of influence, but your influence is simplified by One Thing. It’s not complicated. And believe it or not, this One Thing is not focused around you.
This One Thing is a truth that is typically hard to swallow. I tend to make everything about me, so to hear this One Thing is not about me turns my head and makes my ears perk up.
I’ve been called a “people-pleaser”, a ‘perfectionist”, and one who needs the approval of everyone around me. If you’re into it, you can guess my Enneagram number and understand where I’m coming from.
But after years of doing more, trying to be the best, and burning out, this One Thing has freed me from all that pressure to influence others toward living the Way of Christ.
And isn’t that a noble endeavor? Isn’t it a scriptural expectation laid out by Christ HImself, that we are to point others to Him?
I can show you all kinds of passages in the Bible that instruct us to lead others to Christ. But what has happened is, we humans have complicated our influence. We have laid out expectations of what it looks like to influence others toward God, when in fact, God HImself laid out One Thing for us to focus on.
I read His Word years ago, as a young girl, and committed to point people to Him. Then I went about my way, working to convince them of their need, creatively laying out strategies, hoping to inspire people to follow Him.
Oh, the fallacies…then one day I prayed…
“Lord, what do you want me to do to bring others to you?”
I was blown away by the immediate answer in my spirit: “Nina, I have drawn people to Myself for a good 4000 years without you. I don’t need you to do anything to bring people to Me.”
WHAT???
What about the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20? What about all those other verses that instruct us to “make disciples”? What does all that mean?
Have you ever tried to convince someone to do something they didn’t want to do? You can argue yourself blue in the face, but until that person makes the choice to do the thing, you have no power over them. You’re just not that influential.
It boils down to that individual. Whether you’re dealing with a two-year-old or an eighty-year-old, in the end, they get to choose. So really, how influential are you?
The thing we, as believers in Christ, seem to forget is that the power to influence is placed within us by God HImself (Philippians 2:13). Yes, human beings can influence each other without God. In natural humanity, much of the time influence looks like manipulation or control, because naturally, our human-inspired influences are self-focused.
However, a human who is committed to following the ways of God will see other people through the lens of God’s eyes, overshadowing self-focus, and pursuing the very best for the other person. Rather than influencing through manipulation or control, the God-led influencer will be inspiring and life-giving to others.
Just today I witnessed this in real-life action. I saw a news story covering a lawsuit against a bakery that refused to make a pink and blue cake for a trans-gender reveal party. With a panel of five commentators, the discussion soon turned to how Christians respond to cultural issues with which they disagree.
It’s a sticky wicket. Do you refuse on moral grounds? Do you give grace, hoping to cultivate a relationship? Either way will project an influence.
This was telling. One of the commentators stated, “I used to be a Christian, but this kind of behavior is exactly why I walked away. I didn’t see Christ in the Christians.”
So to her, Christianity doesn’t work, and is no different from any other belief system. She has been influenced by her own observations. And chances are, by some who had no idea how they were influencing. (We could have a whole discussion about her reasoning here, but our focus is on influence. And walking away was how she chose to respond.)
IS THE GREAT COMMISSION CONTRADICTORY TO FREE WILL?
Back to the question: How does influence fit into the Great Commission and all the other scripture instructing us to “make disciples”?
Can we really “make” people choose to follow Christ? That’s a resounding No. In fact, God Himself doesn’t even “make” people follow Him. He loves in ways that attract people to His way, then the person gets to choose their own response.
You see, the original language in Matthew 28:19 translates to the English word “make”, from the Greek word meaning “be disciple, instruct, teach”. We’ll not dive deep into the linguistics, but this instruction is written in the transitive active voice. What this means is, the subject (you) is performing the action (teach), and the teaching has a direct object (another person).
Did you see the big important word in that Greek definition? “Be disciple”…we must be disciples in order to make disciples. So if we want to be an influencer pointing people to God’s way of living, the question becomes, “Who am I being in my heart?”
Basically, that takes the pressure off of us for “making”, or influencing, others.
Now don’t hear me say we have no control over our influence. We make a conscious choice whether we fill ourselves in life-giving ways or with unhealthy thought patterns that influence our actions. We choose how we will think and how we will live life. In this, we choose how we will influence others: toward life or toward destruction.
Let’s emphasize again: others get to choose whether they accept our influence or reject it. But we are responsible for what we lay out in front of them.
Here’s how it boils down: who we are being will spill out around us. What spills out will be our influence, whether life-giving or harmful.
LET’S GET PERSONAL
Here’s where we want to land this plane. Inquire of yourself, asking, When I look at my core, who am I being? What is most important to me in this life? Do my desires for other people match with the desires of God for other people?
What needs to change in order for my influence to match the work God has already begun in my innermost being? When I am with others, do my thoughts, words and actions point them to life Christ’s way?
Being is the One Thing that matters. Doing is the fruit that grows from Being.