How can influence be helpful and empower others?

Are you alright to be unseen and in the background?

The world would say that the way to be first and get ahead is through self-protection and self-promotion. However, we serve in an upside-down kingdom where “the first shall be last and the last first.“

Those who will have the greatest power and impact in the Kingdom of God are those who can truly say that it is only God's kingdom that matters and so are genuinely happy to be unseen.

There is great release when I listen more and talk less. When I ask good questions and help people find their own answers. When I ”give it all away” -the advice, funding, connections- to not only my own local team or my organization but to others as well. When I can sit quietly in meetings and say a few things, then follow up and help fill the gaps later.

When, as the founder, I am comfortable to become a “nobody”, then I can be assured that God knows my contribution and that will be enough.

I glimpse this upside-down kingdom when my influence helps people trust me with connections, with resolving conflicts, or raising money for a different organization, and in feeling no threat when I am in the room.

Scripture to ponder –

John 12:24

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels - a plentiful harvest of new lives.”

Key Lesson:

The more you die to your own glory, the more influence you have for God’s.