*WISDOM FOR TODAY.*
*THE POWER OF INFLUENCE (2)*
*Scripture Treasure.*
1 Cor 11:1 *Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.*
*Insight and Highlight.*
Who is your role model?
*Scripture Commentaries.*
Yesterday, we looked at Saul of Tarsus an influencer of many persecutors.
Today, we will look at how God can loosen us from the bad effects of negative influencers and how Saul, though judged unsuitable for change, was eventually loosed as a negative influencer.
First, God showed us that a negative influencer can experience the power of change. Saul's story teaches us how the power of influence can be subdued by the power of change
It is a powerful illustration of how a negative influencer (an adversary) can be made a positive influencer (an advocate of God.
Second, his story corrects our mindset that often judges that the most criminally minded can not receive pardon.
The influence from a misguided person is often judged to be unsuitable for change.
Many influenced followers often boast that they are so deep in their atrocities that change is just unthinkable and unachievable.
God proved this wrong by teaching us from the encounter with Saul that it is a human error to limit what is practically unlimited to God.
No matter how bad an influencer may be God can use him/her by converting him/her to a powerful influencer of the word.
God teaches us that if Saul, who became Paul, could influence uprising against the earlier Church, he could powerfully influence followers into the Kingdom.
If people like Saul, on top of bad things, could influence a lot of people to follow him, his change could also influence as many people to follow him in his newly changed status.
No wonder, Saul, a persecutor of the church, once converted, became a center of notable scripts that commanded quite many converts, followers, then and till today, and to eternity.
He could boldly say *...follow me...*,,1 Cor 11:1. The persuasive power he had as Saul of Tarsus was now at a much greater power as Paul.
In Acts 9:13-15, Ananais considered Saul unsuitable for change. Christ directed him to the changed Saul, but he told God how much evil Saul had done to the saints in Jerusalem, and the authority granted Saul to bring all that call on the name of Jesus.
However, as far as Christ was concerned, He said the newly converted Paul (formerly Saul) was *'.....a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:*
What Ananais considered as a limit was practically unlimited to God.
Third, the story teaches us how we should be careful about or how we choose who influences us.
While Saul remained converted as Paul, it is believed that what he started as a persecutor and waster of the church still persisted in some of his then followers and even became stronger in people like the Herodian dynasty.
While he became a believer of Christ, there remained persecutors whom Jesus said in Luke 19:27 *But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.*
It is also noteworthy and a wake-up call to followers of negative influencers that while the negative influencer experienced the power of change, his/her followers may not.
Today, many who had been influenced negatively have lost their lives or imprisoned while their influencers lived.
Whether the negative influencer is dead or alive, the lives of many followers who have been wrongly persuaded may never be what God intended for them.
However, the same grace made available, through the power of change, to the evil influencer is also available to the miserable follower!
Either of them can be loosed from the stronghold of bad influence.
Who is your influencer?
Who is your role model?
*Remorse corner.*
While it remains that God can change a negative influencer into a positive one, it still remains that many that he influences negatively may have lost their lives to his bad influence.
*Call to Word action.*
Rom 8:14 *For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.*
*The Christian clarion duty.*
At conversion, Paul confered not with flesh and blood. The most dangerous lead is the flesh.
We must never be persuaded by how many people follow an influencer but how well the lives of the people who follow are.
*Prayer.*
Lord, let every bad influencer and recipients both receive the power of change, in Jesus name.
Good morning all and have a blessed day today.
God bless you.
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