WE ALL HAVE INFLUENCE
A couple weeks ago I was
asked to try a new paint that I was told was “environmentally safe” and would
give us the results we wanted. The fact that it was a two-part system made it
suspect. The Lord influenced me to read the Material Safety Data sheets to find
out just how toxic it really was. What I found was, though it’s not bad for the
ozone, which is way up there, it’ll kill the guy next to you. There is no
respirator, besides a full body suit, that will block one of the chemicals in
the paint, and it has negative effects on male reproductive organs as well as
causing cancer and pulmonary disorders. It’s so flammable, the vapors will crawl
along the floor away from the can and can catch on fire easily.
I was pretty squawky about
this to my fellow painters, but I toned it down somewhat when I told my boss I
didn’t think he really wanted us to use that paint. He totally understood and
it looks like we won’t be buying this product. I had a positive influence and
if things go the way they should, many of my painter friends will be out of harm’s
way on the job.
All of us have a realm of
influence. No matter how small it may seem, it’s big to God. We are super important
to the Lord in the things we do to “love our neighbor as ourselves” (Mark
12:31). To love our neighbors as ourselves is the second part of the one great
commandment given by God in the Old Testament and given again by Jesus in the
New Testament to those of us who follow Him.
This morning the Lord gave
my best friend Jane and I a new realm of influence: A Big one. He inspired us
to pray for the shaking up of the judges in the United States. It’s the judges who
interpret the laws. They have tremendous power and influence, but there is corruption
in the midst. Jesus spoke to the religious Pharisees, the interpreters of the
law in His day: “O
generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh [is speaking]. A good man out of the good
treasure of the heart bringeth [is bringing] forth good things: and an evil man
out of the evil treasure bringeth [is bringing] forth evil things” (Matt. 12: 34).
I’m not
saying that every judge is speaking evil judgements, but there are enough who
have been under the influence of wrong thinking. Their hearts treasure pride in
their own opinions and they have strayed from the truth that they are to interpret the laws, especially of the Constitution, as
it was intended, according to the righteous laws of the Lord God of Heaven. The Lord told Jane and me to pray that their tongues be stopped and
their minds scrambled. If appointed, they’ll get fired; if elected, something
else will happen in their lives to either turn them around or block their
influence.
So, why
did the Lord give Jane and me this prayer job? We certainly don’t see ourselves
as any huge significance, and yet we are, and so are you! We’re doing our best
to do His will and we’re bold enough to just believe what He shows us, and just
do it. We may think we are mere shepherds, but we all have a warrior on the
inside!
The shepherd boy David’s only job was to take
care of his flock of sheep. In his small realm of influence, he had to fight
off a bear and a lion who came after his sheep, and he did it. This small boy
was called by God later, to defeat the giant Goliath, who threatened Israel’s
whole existence, and he did it. (See 1 Sam. 17).
Samson was just a regular guy. Before the
incident with Delilah, he had married a Philistine woman. One day he went off
and the wife’s father thought he abandoned her. The Philistine father kidnapped
her and gave her to another guy to marry. Samson went after her and burned up
fields of corn and vineyards as a retribution for the evil they had done. They
came after him, arrested him, bound him up and then God worked in this regular
guy to do something amazing.
“And the
Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily, and the ropes on his arms were
like flax (linen) that had been burned, and his bonds dropped off his hands. He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey,
so he reached out his hand and took it and killed a thousand men with it. Then
Samson said, ‘With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone
of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men’” (Judges 15:14-16).
One person who believed in
our God wiped out a thousand men with only the jawbone of a donkey. That’s
miraculous, but no more miraculous than what our Lord is asking us to do in
these times.
You and I are the Davids
and the Samsons of our day. We may think we only have influence over a few, but
those few are highly important to God. And he is asking us to step it up a notch.
God inspired me to expose the toxic nature of the new “environmentally safe”
paint, so that many could be spared its negative influence. Today the Lord expected
me to take on the toxic judges in prayer. To both I said yes.
Second Corinthians 10:4
tells us: “The
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling
down of strong holds.” “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of
this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12).
Let’s expect the
Lord to expand our spiritual realms of influence and be ready to say yes to
whatever He asks. It’s a little scary, but more than that, it’s exciting, wonderful
and such an awesome privilege! The Lord is thrilled to have us.
Love, Carolyn
This weekend thru
Tuesday: FREE Part 2 of WINGS: A JOURNEY IN FAITH.
Get it on Kindle
or get a free PDF cjmolica@hotmail.com
Great chapters,
including:
HISTORY IN THE HEAVENS
THE MISSING MANUAL
PRAYING AND SINGING IN TONGUES
POWER-PACKED BLESSINGS
PREACH YOURSELF HAPPY
CALLING THE DOG
THE ADVENTURE OF PLANTING SEEDS
FIXING EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS
THE QUEEN OF SHEBA HAS ARRIVED
PRAYING AND SINGING IN TONGUES
POWER-PACKED BLESSINGS
PREACH YOURSELF HAPPY
CALLING THE DOG
THE ADVENTURE OF PLANTING SEEDS
FIXING EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS
THE QUEEN OF SHEBA HAS ARRIVED
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