Hello Ladies,
How did you enjoy last week’s powerful introductory session? Thank you for our fellowship and refreshing time in the word. One principle which stayed with me was, “The filling and subsequent fruit of the Spirit won’t just change my life. It will change my day.” This week my prayer has been that this study will have a daily impact on all of your lives.
In Day One of this week Beth writes, “The gift of influence … at its bestteaches, nurtures, encourages, exhorts, evangelizes and disciples. At worst, it cripples and kills. The line between influence and manipulation is extremely fine … we need to think before we speak and act.” As women we can wield our influence powerfully, but as Beth notes, “only a Spirit-filled woman can wield that influence effectively.”
In the last few years, I have become more aware of the power of my influence. In an instant, my words can serve to encourage or discourage, to build or tear down. I have learned that one of the only ways to use my influence properly is to surrender to the authority of the Spirit. When I surrender to His influence, His life-giving words speak in and through me.
Now it’s your turn. In what ways do you influence others ? How can you submit to God’s authority this week in order to influence others for an eternal good ?
Be Well Resources 
Good morning, Kathy. You are so right about all of this. I’m facing some really difficult obstacles: 1. trying to protect my marriage 2. I’m dealing with traumas in my own life, working through them one by one to be free of some fears and now 3. getting over the obstacle of “myself” – to let go and let God – Why do we cling so hard to what we should not cling to, and fear to embrace what we know is the true “light” to helping us “live beyond ourselves?” I think it is we cling to what is “familiar.” So perhaps what we need to do is make “God” so “familiar” that we don’t give it a second thought as to giving our “all” to Him. Perhaps the more we know of our Lord through reading His Word, He will become the “familiar,” and to do anything else will be what we should fear and stay away from. God bless.
The biggest way I influence people right now is through my day to day reactions with others. If something bad happens, and I respond like everyone else then I am no different. However, if I react opposite (usually through the power of the Holy Spirit) then others can see that there is a work happening in me, and it’s not me just being”religious” or trying to be a good person.
Last weeks intro – hit home for everything that I was going through – I am praying that I will not just do the lessons, but that the Holy Spirit to provide a way for me to apply that week/day. That’s the hard part, because when God wants to work, Satan and my flesh work even harder. One of the worst thing Satan can do is to destroy my power to influence, or increase my power to manipulate. I just pray that I depend on God to establish that power and not myself.