How To Increase Your Sphere of Influence
Posted by Scott Johnson
Most people really never think about it. They either take it for granted or at least never think purposely about the subject where it relates to them. Influence is really a gift if used correctly. Influence is something we all have but most of the time we underestimate its true power.
I often refer to a person’s influence as something that you should put some thought into and acted out on with intention and purpose. This is especially true if you are in business for yourself, after all, a Realtor for instance can only grow and build their business to the degree of their influence or size of their Rolodex, right?
Doing this with intention takes forethought and planning. All to often business people initially come on too strong or in the wrong way when they are trying to expand their influence, which in the end results in setting off what I call the “Consumer Radar”.
You might be asking, what does this have to do with a Christian based blog? Well, everything when you think about it. We are all called in one degree or another to be a positive influence on our world and doing that means that we must do it with intention and with a great deal of wisdom. I have thought for a long time that one of the most important things I need to have is a large sphere of influence in order to be successful.
I recently was invited to sit in on a conference call by Larry Benet, commonly referred to as “The Connector”. Larry was interviewing Dave Stech who will be one of Larry’s guest’s and speakers and an upcoming event called Connection Mastery. Dave Stech himself had thought for a long time that the most important thing he had was the size of his database or Rolodex. It wasn’t until he had lost it that it caused him to rethink his postion.
He finally came to the conclusion that he really did not have a close relationship with the majority of his database and that what really mattered were those who he did know personally. He came up with what he calls The Power of Six. The Power of Six caused him to focus in on a handful of carefully chosen relationships in order to bring mutual benefit. Hey, when you think about it, Jesus did not spend the majority of his time with the crowds, instead He carefully chose three and then eventually twelve. I guess we could call this The Power of Three or The Power of Twelve. However you call it, the point is that He was so effective that years later after His death and resurrection these chosen ones literally turned the then known world upside down.
If you would like to learn more about The Power of Six, you can find out more by visiting www.connectionmastery.com.
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Marriage, Codependency And God
Posted by Scott Johnson
Did you realize that the first book of the Bible talks about codependency? I don’t if you realize it or not by now but the Bible has a lot to say regarding human behavior and psychology.
For instance on the issue of codependency, God told Adam and Eve that the results of their decision to move toward a self-reliant life-style would be devastating.
God intended for Adam and Eve, to choose His Spirit (tree of life) as the source of life and wisdom, rather than their own experience of good and evil. Fear, separation, mistrust, blame and a myriad of other emotions and attitudes were now a part of Adam and Eve’s world. They scurried to cover themselves, to hide from the presence of God.
Previous to the Fall both Adam and Eve found their completeness in God alone. He was the source of all that was good!
After the Fall, both Adam and Eve were affected. To the woman, God said, “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for [to] your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Gen. 3:16).
In this passage we find the root of all dysfunctional behavior in women toward men, and where their heart is the most vulnerable to deception. Today we have a new word for it. We call it “codependence.” God identified it at the beginning of time and called it the “desire” of the woman.
Another way of looking at what God was saying would be, “The desire of your heart is turning away from Me to your husband and he will rule over you.”
God was telling Eve that man would rule her as a consequence of her turning away from God to him. It was her choice. Had Eve’s desire remained upon God, He would have ruled her, which is a privilege God wants to retain for Himself for all His children.
What a colossal disappointment when this self-centered dream is not realized, when the woman’s husband is not able to “fill up the grand canyon” inside of her. Ultimately, hurt and disillusionment will set in, followed by anger and then bitterness. A great chasm will develop between them. If one of the partners does not begin to understand God’s plan and viewpoint for marriage, they will both become locked into a death spiral in their relating pattern. This empty marriage, devoid of intimacy, may not result in a legal divorce but the emotional divorce may be just as devastating and destructive to the family. It will take divine surgery to rectify it.
When Satan moved to derail the man and woman, he struck directly at the center of their identity — their maleness and femaleness. It’s noteworthy that before Adam and Eve hid themselves from each other they covered the parts of themselves that identified them as male and female. They became driven by their own wills. Who they were and how they were designed to function now became confused, twisted, deceptive, hidden and self-serving.
What is the answer in all of this?
First, we must face the fact that our self-worth comes from the value placed on us by a loving God through Jesus Christ and what He provided for us.
Secondly, we must understand that the results of our co-dependent ways are a end result of not finding our fulfillment through God’s answer to humanity.
When we return to the true source, we can then love and be loved effectively in our marriage and break out of our codependent ways.
How Many Footprints Are In Your Sand?
Posted by Scott Johnson
Although a beautiful poem of hope in times of despair, “Footprints in the Sand” needs to be written to the non-believer rather then the believer!
Somehow as believers in Christ, we have come to believe that our life’s journey is meant to be lived out of our own strength, to the best of our ability and when we finally become exhausted, tired and weak the Lord finally picks us up and carries us the rest of the way. The truth of the matter is that I was never meant to walk the sand beaches of life with two sets of footprints. There should have been only one set of footprints and those are the prints of His feet in mine.
Jesus Himself told us, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:5-7).
Jesus did not simply say that He was here to show us the way or to reveal the truth and the path to life. The words, “the way, the truth, and the life” were self-descriptive words of declaration about who He was to all humanity.
I am the way
I am truth
I am life
If behavior is the end result of our self-laden attempts to meet our own needs then surely the root of all sin is self-sufficiency. It is when we, out of our own strength say we have no need of God, that we can instead do it on our own.
Keep in mind what Paul told us in Ephesians 2; that our lives were lived this way because we were born into a world which lives out of a corrupt and sensual nature, obeying the impulses of the flesh and the thoughts of the mind. He in essence was saying that the human race drank the bitter waters that life had to offer us out of necessity. We learned to live and act the way we did because there was no other way.
Scott Johnson
GettingFreeLivingFree.org