The Spiritual Journey of MankindSample

Day Five

Influencer in the Flesh

Gabe Lives it Out

“Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:18 (ESV)

It is important to connect the process of successful discipleship with a person who shows what a disciple of Jesus looks like. In my book, Gabe is such a person. Who is Gabe? In my allegory he is an old farmer who lived in a remote valley. He had ploughed, tilled, and worked the soil of his eighty-acre farm most of his life, while raising his family. Through hard work, sacrifice, and overcoming challenges he learned to lean on God and grow in character and faith. Gabe was one of the few Black residents in the Valley and this alone created some unique challenges for him. However, there were other challenges that all hardworking subsistence farmers must deal with. In many ways it was a hard life chosen for him. Even so, he found contentment and joy where God had placed him. But there was so much more to Gabe that would not be defined by his color and culture, or the perceived limitations of his livelihood. He was indeed a man of great influence. But not in a traditional way. Not in the way the world would define it.

When asked to describe what a person of great influence looks like, the world would leave Gabe out. He wouldn’t meet the criteria that most of us identify as “successful.” However Gabe walked with Jesus, and it was this intimate connection that he had with God that defined Gabe, and then created a godly influence on his world that caused people to hunger for his God. There is a special appeal with a person who lives a life that allows God’s Spirit to flow through him. What do I mean by flow? Jesus described Himself as Living Water. He used this term in contrast to the other sources of water in the region. There was well water, water collected and stored in a cistern, and then spring water. Spring water was also known as living water. Of the three sources, living water was the best, and still is. That is what Jesus said about Himself. He is the best and what we deeply long for. Then He said this about those who believe in Him:

“Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” John 7:38 (ESV)

What we see in this verse is the influence of Jesus on us, and then Him becoming the influence through us. This would describe an Influencer, as seen in the Refugee Camp in my book. He or she would be able to influence their world toward God’s kingdom not because of what they can do as extra-ordinary persons, but rather, what Holy Spirit can do through them as ordinary humans. This kind of influence rewrites the criteria for qualifications for being a person of influence who Jesus creates. This kind of influence is not incomplete or has limited impact like the influence our world creates. Jesus’ influence through us, does not stop with our death or is limited by our obscurity. It is carried along by Holy Spirit because it is originated by Him, and therefore it is sustained by Him through other people that He will use. We are qualified by Jesus as we abide in Him, and like the organism the Church is, what He has done through us will reproduce to other people who we influence.

Gabe is an obscure retired farmer. He’s an old man at eighty years old. Some would think that he is out of touch with modern society. Some would say that his isolation would keep him away from people and unable to influence them. But God will never allow such a person to be wasted, for He has carefully formed them for His purpose. If necessary, He will bring the people to this person, and God will orchestrate the connection. Because Gabe lived seamlessly and dependent on God in an abiding relationship with Him, when someone knocked on his door in the middle of a snowstorm there was no doubt in his mind that God had orchestrated it and he welcomed it.

In my allegory we see this divine orchestration revealed, as the Narrator discovers the Influencer in his vision. His life’s journey had been harrowing to this point and it led to a rural cabin occupied by a man called Gabe. It was here that the experienced mentoring of the old man became God’s voice and love to him, and another Influencer would be formed.

TO GET A COPY OF THE BOOK, JOURNEY TO THE INNER CHAMBER, CLICK HERE.