Today, I felt something God had been telling me I was going to receive for a couple of months: influence.
A New Lesson
I didn’t know influence was a type of spiritual power that Christians could wield until about a month ago, when God began speaking to me about it. “In this season, you will not be using the power of healing, but of influence,” God told me. “Uh, sure?” I replied.
All I really understood from that word was that I shouldn’t expect many people to be healed directly by my prayers in this season. I used to get upset when a spiritual gift, anointing, or grace that I used to wield all of a sudden reduced or disappeared, but no longer. I have learned that God does this to keep me focused on the season of growth God wants for me today. Otherwise, I will get stuck doing ministry God no longer wants me to do.
“Wait, what do you mean ‘power of influence’?” I asked God. “The ability to change minds and hearts unto your favor,” God replied. Ah… that sounds useful, I guess.
Influence In Action
Today, I got my first taste of what God meant when I watched the spiritual power of influence in action. There I was, at a meeting with one of my church pastors. I was telling her what I have seen and what I know about the value of family ministry, one in which moms and dads are equipped to disciple their own children, not outsource discipleship to children’s ministers. I asked if the church was open to establishing such a ministry here, and the pastor said, “Yes!”
I guess it’s cool to when people agree with you easily, but this was more than that. In fact, I was slightly shaking the whole time because I was feeling spiritual power coursing out from my core into the room while we were speaking. It felt like I was praying in power, but I wasn’t (at least, not that I know of). I was just having a conversation with someone, and this spiritual power started flooding the room. As a result, I got agreement about a new idea I proposed.
Influence. Who knew?
Leave a Reply