The word influencer has been used in the English language since the mid 1600s.
This pivotal term has changed over the centuries, evolving from the movement of
heavenly spheres to the movement of human speculation. And in the past few
years, the term is virtually unavoidable. Yet before TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, or
Twitter, Jesus influenced 12 men who turned the world upside down from a
grassroots movement. In this episode, we hit the table to ignite the influencer in
you and hear from the author of created for influence, Will Ford.
Hey everybody, welcome to Keep It 100 podcast. This is Sean and Christa Smith.
Hey. We are so amped about this episode. We're like a shook up can of monster energy drink.
Yeah, you are. You're excited. I love it. I'm excited too. This is great. I'm super
excited. Hey, something really unique just happened. Christa and I both were on
separate ministry trips, which is kind of rare for us. We usually only try to be
away from each other once a month, but she was in Chicago and I was in Baltimore
and she did and spoke to some leaders and then she did an outdoor meeting and
then she spoke in a church. I did a mince conference that was completely
outdoors and then the church service itself was outside due to the social
distancing laws and the things that are going on in Maryland right now. So it's
very interesting that we both were in outdoor meetings. I know and what I loved
is that I think it brings us back to our roots. I mean, remember the 10th revivals
of the 40s and the 50s and it just kind of felt like we're back outside. We're
connecting with God through His creation and I just think it's such a cool
opportunity for people that would normally be more intimidated to maybe
come inside a church or maybe more open to come to an outdoor gathering. I think
it's actually really cool. I personally really have been enjoying it. And you know
the history of great revivals, Krista, is obviously book of acts. All their things
were outside for the most part, aside from meeting from house to house. The
Cain Ridge revival that spilled into the second grade awakening, it was outside.
Even up to the Jesus people movement that largely had all of these outdoor
Jesus festivals culminating in Expo 72 where Billy Graham took tens upon tens
of thousands of, at that point in time, Jesus Freaks is what they would call them.
Right, right. That they packed out but it was an outdoor event. So we've got great
history there. You know, funny story to say that because I really feel like during
this time there's another unique thing that's happening is we're experiencing
more outdoor meetings because of the current crisis. The other thing is I
really sense an interseason. God is marking the body of Christ with an
Isacar anointing and have given us an Isacar mandate. For those of you don't
know the tribe of Isacar, they were one of the 12 tribes and particularly in the
book of Chronicles, David was needing to build up his army and so each of the
tribes brought something. But it's interesting about the tribe of Isacar.
They were the only tribe that didn't bring something that was overtly
militaristic to the army but it says of the sons of Isacar that they discerned
the times and knew what it is we're all to do. So it was another way of saying
they were deeply intuitive, highly intelligent and profoundly influential.
When you think about influence and you think about what it is they brought, no
wonder that this was such an important crucial aspect that they brought to
David's army. I mean when you think about what they possessed and we're
talking today about influence because it is such a needed conversation and such a
pertinent topic. So many people want to be influencers but they're not
understanding the significance nor the responsibility that comes with what it
is to be an influencer. Alright I have a question for you Krista. Okay, alright.
Outside of your parents, who are some of the major influencers in your life?
That is a great question and my parents are amazing so they would
definitely be in that but besides them, I would really say a man by the name of
Herb Marks. He has been such a spiritual father and a mentor in my life. He's the
one that really called out the prophetic in my life, helped develop that gift
within me, taught me what it is to really keep my heart clean before the Lord,
really what it is to walk in integrity, just a different level when you have a
prophetic voice. I would say someone else is Cindy Jacobs actually. I have
gotten to know her personally through you because she's a spiritual mom but for
years I would go to her meetings and she was just such a strong female and
moving in the prophetic unapologetically. She'd just be like this battering ram in
the spirit that would just cut through and bring the presence of God and the
word of the Lord and it really marked me and I feel like also gave me permission
to really move in the prophetic in my life and then I think this might surprise
some people but Benny Hinn actually super influenced me in my 20s. I would watch
all of his meetings and I was just mesmerized by the power of God moving
through him, people's lives being impacted. I read his books. I was very, of
course, I have never met him personally but from afar I felt really like
mentored by him but also inspired and challenged and lastly, Catherine Coleman.
I studied her life again, watched all her stuff that anything I get my hands on,
read her books and again just someone that was really surrendered to use
mildly by Holy Spirit. Those are the people that really marked me and I
believe helped shape in addition to many others that I haven't mentioned of who I
am. That's so cool. I could see that and those influences in your life. Really? I love that.
Thanks baby. Okay, back at you. Same question. Who has been some of the key
influencers in your life? Well, I got saved at a university with a ministry
called Kaiafa. Shout out to the Kaiafa Nation and my original campus pastor was
Donnie Moore and he was so bold. He just was spiritually fierce. He had no fear
of man and I really feel that boldness really impacted me. Right after that,
Mario Marillo who is still a spiritual mentor of mine today, that he is a
revivalist, moved in words of knowledge, consistent with healing and always had a
cutting-edge relevant message. He really impacted me and still does. Another is a
guy who's a dad to me today, Gaylord Inns, a pastor in the Chico area. Really a man
of wisdom, a man of humility, a man that really walks in the fruits of the
spirit and then someone else both by their writings and the fact that I spent a
weekend with this man, Leonard Ray Mill, author of many books including
Wide Revival Terries. I spent a weekend with he and Martha in Lindell, Texas.
Mildly marked my life. What a gift to get a weekend with Leonard Ravenhill. Life
changing. That is life-changing. You know, talking about what it is to be an
influencer, there's this incredible quote by a man by the name of Philip Brooks
and he said, no man has come to true greatness who has not felt in some degree
that his life belonged to his race and that what God gives him, he gives for
mankind. Philip Brooks is very interesting because he was around in the 1800s. He was
part of the North in the Civil War so he fought against slavery and was very
vocal being against slavery. The man wrote, O little town of Bethlehem, that
Christmas song and when he says that no one has come to true greatness and that
his life to some degree belongs to his race, obviously speaking of the human
race, but I love the latter part of that quote you just gave, Christa, it says that
what God gives him, he gives for mankind. That is the definition of being a biblical
influencer. I love that. It really is a profound statement. Another definition,
and if we just look technically, what is the definition of influencer, which I
think is important for the Keep It 100 tribe to really understand what we're
basing this on. An influencer is used to refer to someone with the power to
alter beliefs of individuals as a result, it impacts the course of events. I love
that definition because it's about altering beliefs, not just getting
people to like you. I think so many people today think an influencer just
gets a lot of likes, a lot of hearts, a lot of follows, but I love that you're
altering beliefs. You're changing culture. You know the history of early
influencers from a marketing perspective because obviously if you're talking
about early influencers you got to go to the Old Testament, the New Testament, the
Bible, but the original early influencers from marketing perspective
were kings. Very often the King of England would be asked to lend his
endorsement to a certain play that was out. A playwright would approach him, so
many people in England would go see that play or there were poets that asked
the kings to lend endorsement. And so early on these guys were influencing and
then the Queen of England jumped in the game and she was used to endorse medicine
for the benefit of common people. And here's another really cool person we're
talking about, historical people used for marketing. The Davis Milling Company
was the first to introduce an influencer into the marketing arena, a woman by the
name of Nancy Green. She was an African-American who became the face of
the popular pancake mix, Aunt Jemima. Right? And so in 1890, in a time of
segregation, slavery, they're using the face of an African-American woman until
her death in 1923. Isn't that incredible? Oh, it's super incredible. And to this day, her
face is still on the box of Aunt Jemima pancake mix. Unbelievable. What a bold move
by that company. Right? We used to play this thing called the dozens in the hood.
That's where you talk about each other's mama. We could only do that to each other.
One of the lines we would say is, Aunt Jemima on a pancake box is if to say
isn't your mother on a pancake box. But now I recognize when they said that, that
was a compliment. She was an amazing woman. That's right. Now, a more modern face of
marketing influencers is Kanye West. Obviously, and Yeezy, sneakers, Adidas is
making a lot of money. But before there was Kanye and Yeezy's, back in the day,
there was a point in time where Adidas profits and market share was at the
bottom and they weren't doing very good. And all of a sudden, kind of the proverbial
three brothers with three stripes, Run DMC, came through in 1986 with me and
Maya Adidas. And when they did that, all of a sudden, it began this kind of
modern, as we know now, entertainers that will lend their name to certain
marketing brands. And so now, when we think of influencers, we have bloggers, we
have fashionistas, we have gamers pushing certain headphones, we've got certain
people on Instagram giving a shout out. And so now we see that there's this whole
social media influencer game that has opened up to a lot of people. What's
really crazy is that when we were researching this out, we discovered that
by 2022, the influencer marketing world is estimated to be worth $10 billion. I
mean, isn't that incredible? And if you actually Google the word influencer, over
263 million results come up. That's how profound and how, in a sense, is the
pulse of current culture today. And you know, it's funny because in 2014, it
wouldn't have been that big. Right. I charted and saw that from 2014, the term
influencer began to pick up as far as when you would Google it. Now, what is an
influencer? The word literally comes from a Latin word, which means inflow and
flow into. But Jesus was the head of the game in John 737 when he said,
if anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink and out of their innermost
being shall flow rivers of living water. And influencer is a person that drinks
of Jesus and allows that drink to become a flow to the world around them.
So good. Then Jesus, he referred to his followers as light of the world and salt
of the earth. And when he did it, he was addressing your influence. And the obvious
thing is that the decisions we make impact those around us. Here's what's
really important. And these are just a few principles of influence that we wanted
to pass along to the Keep It 100 tribe. First and foremost, we all have to
understand you as a listener, myself included, every one of us has influence.
Do you know that on an average, we discovered that each of us have an
average of 10,000 people in our lifetime that we're going to influence? And that
influence isn't necessarily because of our position or based on fame or wealth
because there could be some of our listeners like, I don't have a lot of
followers. I don't have a lot of money. I don't have a lot of connections. But
guess what? You still have influence. You and I have influenced by the way we live.
And if we actually believe that we are in fact the light of the world and the
salt of the earth that Jesus declares over us, which again, like Sean just said,
is addressing the influence in us, Jesus calls it out. That's what he created us
with. We have to understand we're going to live different when we know we have
influence. That is such an empowering belief to understand everybody has
influence. Second principle of influence is influence is like a muscle. We all
know if you don't use a muscle, it atrophies, it diminishes, it gets weaker.
So you got to use what you got to get more stronger. And so whatever
influence you have, even if it's just a little bit of influence, a little bit of
followers, a little bit of likes, use that influence. And the more you use it,
the more that muscle will grow. And you also have to understand if you're not
influencing the world, then the world is influencing you. You've got to get on the
right end of that equation. So it's time to step up your influence game, keeping
100 tribe. You know, and we have to be reminded you and I are accountable to God
on how we use our influence. And the truth is, I'm reminded of the parable of
the talents. And there was three people that the master gave talents to. Two of
them multiplied their talents and they steward them. And then one actually
buried his talent because he was afraid of the harsh master. And I'm so reminded,
if we don't believe who we are for insecure, for afraid, for intimidated, we
will bury what God's given us, our talent, quote, unquote, our gift. And let's
actually translate that to what we're talking about today. Our influence, if we
don't understand who we are, what we carry, we bury it, we sabotage it, we don't
utilize it, we don't maximize it. But if we actually believe that we have a
valuable, not only message, but that we carry a light of Jesus that can pierce
darkness all around us in a world that is aching for an encounter, if we really
believe we can change things and bring an influence, we're going to live
different. I love that because we must see ourselves as accountable. Right. Because
if we use it, then we will wield that influence wisely. Well said. I'm so
excited to keep it 100 tribe. We're introducing a new segment in our Keep
it 100 podcast called the discipleship discussion. And for our discipleship
discussion on this episode, we have a great friend of ours, Will Ford. Will
Ford is an educator. Will Ford is a marketplace advisor. He is also an
author. He travels the globe. He has been called to speak in terms of the racial
inequities in our nation. And so right now, I want you to get super excited as we
have this discipleship discussion with Will Ford. Will, Will, what's going on?
I got to keep it 100. This is one of my closest friends on the planet.
Author three books, his most recent book is called the dream King. Right. We're
actually going to talk about second book you wrote. Yes. Second. I did another
addition to it. So created for influence, transforming culture from where you
are. Awesome, man. Well, I'm super excited about this because back in the day,
when you talked about influencers, you talked about coaches, you talked about
teachers, you talked about upright people in the community. Now it's a
fashion blogger that name drops. Right. It's a gamer that tells you headphones
he's wearing is his playing. All right, right. Amongst millennials and Gen Zs,
they say that 86% want to be influencers and the majority of them want
to be paid to give their little shot on Instagram. So get it 86% want to be
influencers, but only 12% believe they are influencers. Wow. 74% of the
emerging generation, they want to be, but they don't feel they are. And so
this is maybe a great place to begin with you. Well, yeah, what does being an
influencer mean to you? Yeah, well, I want to speak to that 74%. And I want to
tell you, believe it or not, you are an influencer. What do you like it or not?
You are an influencer, especially as a believer, you're an influencer. In
other words, I believe God has created everybody for leadership. And that's
what influence balls down to. And you're either a good leader or a bad
leader, but you're a leader and people are going to follow you. Everybody has
their own sphere of influence with your creative for influence matter of fact.
So the way I stumbled into this whole understanding of it was it wasn't
through looking what's happened with social media. And those things were
just kind of coming on the scenes in 2004. But I began to realize though, even
before all this stuff happened, that influence first and foremost is something
that comes over your life. And it's the favor of God given to you for a specific
mandate. In other words, favor is not about status. It's about purpose. That's
what I've learned over the years. At the end of the day, when you get like
uncanny, ridiculous favor in your life, when you get that kind of favor on your
life, at the end of the day, it's not about you. Come on, man. Say that. It's
about all the other people who are hanging on the other side of your
obedience. In other words, favor opens doors, but it's influence that changes
nations. Because at the end of the day, you'll have to trade favor with man for
influence for God. And so there's this place where you have to make that
shift. You'll see in everybody's life, you see it with Nehemiah. Nehemiah
there in Nehemiah 2, he's working for a wicked king at the time and you could
not come into presence of the king with a sad countenance. So Nehemiah's
heart is broken over the condition of his nation, Israel. He's broken over the
walls of the torn down. And so he comes before the king with a sad countenance
and he's like, so what is this? And so he tells the king about what's happened
in his nation. And then God gives him favor in that moment. He releases
influence. He transitions from favor to influence. And he gets the influence to
go back and rebuild the broken walls of the nation. And then Nehemiah says that
the good hand of God was on me. It's the interesting word he uses there. The word
hand. It's the Hebrew word Yod which sometimes translators translate as the
word influence. And so he got turned the heart of the king and that king gave
Nehemiah what he needed to go ahead and restore the nation of Israel. So anyway,
the way I dove into it was a dream. I had a dream. Come on, please share that.
Yeah. And then this dream, spiritual pops to me. Dutch, she says to me, you know,
God's teaching me a lot of this story about a hit the fel. I can't remember a
hit the fel in the Bible just right off hand right now. Well, it was a little while
later, I go on a fast, my Bible falls open to second, semi chapter 15. And I see
the name of hit the fel and I freak out. And I was like, oh, this is a real person.
So I read the stories. This amazing story about King David, the most anointed,
got the greatest approval ratings of any king ever after that time period. But the
whole nation, the sentiment of the whole nation shifts against the most anointed
King ever. And they turn against him so radically that David has to leave because
his son, Absalom, has turned against him. Right. So turn against him. And the Bible
says that Absalom was a real handsome dude had the long hair and he shifted the
influence of the whole nation by hanging out at the city gates, stealing the hearts
of the people one by one. That's what second, semi 15 talks about. And so David
has to flee for his life. But the person who helped engineer this whole thing was
a guy named the hit the fel. So you study it out, you find out that David and the
hit the fel were best friends. So how is it that this man who is this consultant
for King David, how could this person turn against the Lord's anointed and
really his counsel sound like that some come from the demonic realm, because he
actually is the person who tells Absalom to go into all the Davis concubines on
top of the palace roof. Now, the prophet, Nathan actually prophesied that was
going to happen to him, but it happens to David through his son. But a hit the
fel is a person who gives that counsel. He told him he needed to make himself
totally odious to David because the nation had turned so horribly against
King David, he had to separate himself from him to show people that, Hey, I'm
not in a line with my dad at all. Matter of fact, I'm gonna sleep with all his
wives on top of the palace rooms with this horrible that advice comes from a
hit the fel. So like, why was like, God, why would he turn like that? And most
scholars believe that hit the fel is the person who engineered that whole cool
attempt. Wow. This whole scenario was all about the influence that this man was
able to wield against the most anointed King ever in Israel. Now mind you, they
did this without Twitter, Facebook, say that, you know, the whole time with their
error spring thing, you know, you had Mubarak and all these other kings in
Egypt, yeah, Gaddafi and others there in Libya, they were all taken down, you
know, because of social media influence, the mob start showing up, taking them
out, taking them down. Several nations were shifted in that summer. Listen, this
happened with King David, no Twitter, no Facebook, no social media, just the
influence of human beings and the influence of what's going on in the
unseen realm demonically. Wow. And so I was reading that story. And the Lord said
to me, William, we you will not understand this story without understanding
the power of influence. So I thought I knew what influence is or was but first
of all, I didn't know the influence and addiction, it's not a verb. It's a noun.
I always thought of in some sense that you do, but first of all, an addiction is
it's a substance and the original definition for influence rock my world.
So here it is 1918, Mary Webster dictionary says it's about influence
influence in ethereal fluid, which flows from the stars and affects the actions
that behaviors a mankind ethereal could mean being said could be said from the
heavens could be said a heavenly fluid which flows from the stars and affects
the actions and behaviors of mankind. Now that's that's crazy. So think about it.
Here you have theory of fluid flows from the stars with fixed actions and
behaviors of mankind. So they believe back during that time that the stars
had influence on people's destinies. So anything that was catastrophic, they
felt like it came from the stars. So it turns out the word influence and
influenza are cousin words. Wow. They use a word like pandemic or epidemic
back during that day when they had something that was a viral outbreak.
They use the word influenza. Interesting. So as the etymology of it and the words
kind of grow over time, what happens is that the word influence gets birthed out
of the word influenza. Any person that favor with the stars with epidemic
popularity or epidemic fame was said to have influence. Right. And the part B
definition that's in Mary Webster's dictionary today for influence says this
influence an occult power held to derive from the stars. Wow. Now today the word
influence means spiritual force or moral force which normally or unknowingly
affects the actions and behaviors of others consciously or unconsciously. So
it's not if you're being influenced this what is influencing you.
Well being influenced one way or another. It's like the law of glory. I think you
have the law of influence just like you have the law of gravity. We don't see
gravity but we're affected by it. If I was walking and I tripped and I fell
down and fall down because I hit a rock I fell down because the law of gravity
took over and I fell. I believe there's a law of influence too. There are different
tipping points that happen at different times and different windows to different
seasons, different epics and history, hinges of history. But I believe that there
are those that are there and it's incumbent upon people with the right
influence to hit that vacuum, hit that open door before somebody else
feels it or before somebody else tries to close or open it. So that's what I
think is really key right now. So I think there are people being raised up to have
epidemic popularity, epidemic fame on one sense but there's another understanding
this thing where we need to understand the influence that we have to exercise
first in the unseen realm. Wow. Because influence first is initiated from the
unseen realm. Before it affects any human beings on earth it's about who has the
ability to influence things in the heavenlies. So give an example of what I'm
talking about. You think about it, if influence comes from the stars then we
have these stars in Revelation 12. The third of the stars that fell was Satan. Wow.
They occupy that second heaven level realm. Most scholars say we have three
different realms in the heavenlies. We have the stars we see at night which is
the third realm. The third heaven which Paul talked about he went to the third
heaven. So if you went to the third heaven by the Dutch it has to be a second
and a first. That's right. And so most scholars believe that the second heaven
level realm that's what the Prince of Palin is in power, the spiritual host of
witness. That's what they lodge and so you had these Revelation 12 third of the
stars that fell was Satan there and they occupy that second heaven level realm
and they try to chain, bind and grip the hearts and minds of people to sway their
opinions away from the kingdom of light and into the kingdom of darkness by
their influence. A great example of that is Job 3831. We got a speaking of Job and
he says, can't style buying the sweet influences of the three of these?
So he's saying can you buy not just the influence job but the sweet influence.
The word influence there it means to chain, bind or grip when he says sweet
influence. So he's talking about on two different realms. He's talking about how
we, the whole God's majesty, we look at the stars just how it's able to grip us
and we just lay hold of who God is. That's one thing. But on another realm he's
talking about those second heaven level stars, those Prince of Palin's and
powers, the spiritual witness and how places their ability to chain, bind and
grip our hearts and sway our opinions by influence. But, so that's the angelic
falling stars but the beautiful thing is that there's only a third of those.
Come on man. We have at least two thirds according to the math but then beyond
that judges five and twenty talks about it. It's beautiful. There was Deborah and
so Deborah singing her spontaneous prophetic song, this amazing woman
judging Israel. But remember she prophesized to Barak and she says that a woman is
going to, Cicero is going to be overthrown by a woman, right? So she
prophesized that and so what happens? Here comes Cicero, 20 years of Midianite
Depression, this captain of the Midianite Army, Cicero gets into the tent of
J.O. They get in J.O's tent and she takes a tent peg while he's sleeping, knocks
him upside the head, she takes him out and the spellbinding influence of fear
and intimidation that was over the Israelite army is broken. Wow. 20 years of
oppression gets turned into 40 years of peace because of my black
creature. I have to say it like this, they get double for the trouble, right?
Come on now. Come on. But here's the deal. Deborah did an attributive victory to what
happened in the tent, to attribute the victory to what happened in the
heavies. She says this in Judges 5 and 20, she says, from the heavens the stars
fall. From their courses they warred against Cicero. It's like, hold up
Deborah, what are you talking about? I thought Cicero was on the earth. What did
the heavies have to do with his defeat? She's saying, because I had favor with the
bright morning star. He released his influence on my behalf and his angelic
stars warred against Cicero's demonic fallen stars. When I got breakthrough in
the heavies, it was done on earth as it wasn't happened because I had influence
in the right place. Well, that's deep. Because when you stake yourself to God's
promises in your prayer tent, God will use your intercession like a peg to
annihilate the enemy's influence. Oh my goodness. So we have angelic stars that
war on our behalf. You see that in Daniel 10 and Daniel 9 and the
angel Gabriel showing up after 21 days fast that Daniel has. And he says, hey,
we were warned on your behalf. From the day that you started praying for 21
days, we've been warned. In other words, he hit his knees and then
inaugurated a war in the heavenlies. That's the kind of influence I'm
talking about. Shifting things in the unseen realm first so that things start
to manifest on earth. Come on, Will. We're called to be stars too. Not the
Hollywood kind of stars. Not the Madison Avenue kind of stars. Here's
what it is. And so I love the way Daniel says it. Daniel 12, 3 and 4, he says it
like this. The wise men in those days will shine as brightly as all the
expansive heaven and those who lead many to the righteous will shine like the
stars forever and ever. We're supposed to be Philippians, 215 people that
shine like stars in the midst of a dark and cricket perverse generation.
That's light was made for darkness. So here's the deal. If people can become
stars, biblically, we're called to be stars. Right. He says we're the light of
the world. He's the light of the world. So hold up. We're supposed to be like
these lights in the midst of darkness. These folks in Hollywood, not necessarily
all of them are stars. They could be said they're just celebrities. Right. Who are
favorite with falling stars. They are favorite with falling Prince of Powers
and powers and they've been given influence. But that influence, like the
flu, is making a whole lot of people sick. Preach. Preach, bro. Give an example
what I'm talking about. And it needs to fuck. I'm praying for these folks. But I
remember like back in the day, Calvin Brown, a Snoop Dogg. But years ago, 2004,
he put out a song with a video on it. Said some really derading things about
women, had drug paraphernalia, other stuff in it. And then he talked about how
if anybody crossing the killin and how to in a place where nobody will find
them all that. Well, why is it during that time period, he puts out this
intense gangster rap. Why would Lea Akoka do a commercial with Snoop Dogg in order
to sell Chrysler's during that time period? Wow. Why would during that same
time period you had Cadillac come up with a car called the Snoop DeVille? Why
would you have Orbit want to have the endorsement of a gangster rapper to sell
chewing gum at the same time period from Snoop Dogg? Wow. That's because he had
favorite with falling stars. He had favorite with falling Prince of Powers
and Powers. Same thing, Stephanie Germanata, Lady Gaga. She is the first
person ever in music history to have over one billion views over videos online.
Bigam would it be? Now, she did that in three years, her first three years of
being on the mainstream. Wow. Give it a little perspective. Michael Jackson had a
long career and he became the second person to have a billion views of his
videos online. Wow. And that didn't happen until after he died. My goodness.
And so she at that time, she had the song called Born This Way. And you know,
this is, yeah, in some way we're praying for. I think my people are reaching out to her during
that time period. She went on Good Morning America dressed like a condom.
That's right. I remember that. Yeah. And locked herself up for three days inside
of an egg to have the effect that it did here. Therefore, the gay marriage, she
actually became a priest due to that time period so she performed weddings. But my
thing is this, the influence that was released from that came from a different
source. It came from the other side, not from the kingdom of heaven. So there's a
difference between being a celebrity and a star. But unfortunately, Sean, we have
celebrities in the church too. Come on, speak to that, bro. We have celebrities in
the church too. See, the difference, the thing about a celebrity is that all
celebrities have to be good actors. Right? A certain way from the camera for just
long enough. You have to act a certain way. You know, people just long enough. So
and the word for actor back in Jesus day was the word hypocrite. It sounds kind of
funny. That's right. The hypocrite was an actor before they had the word actor,
they had the word hypocrite. And so the hypocrite, they didn't have a lot of
actors. They just have one or two people who would act, but they would hold up
several masks and play all these different characters. Well, that's the deal
with the church celebrity. They act one way at church and they hold up a mask.
They act another way at work and hold up another mask. They act another way with
their friends and hold up another mask. And here's the deal. If how things look is
what matters most in your life, how things all would never get dealt with.
Wow. That's why you have people right now. You have millions of social media
followers, hundreds of thousands of social media followers, but you're
influenced that run deep because it's coming from a different place. In
other words, it's all about the shallow thing. And we see that sometimes on
some of our leaders right now. I remember Jack, Dave, Jack Haver says something
years ago that was so profound. He says when the church tries to become
contemporary sooner or later, it'll become temporary. Because cultural fads and
trends, they change, but the word of God doesn't. And so we have people now who
want to use the broadest amount of favor, greatest amount of favor for the
broadest amount of people that understand that. But then there's something else
about going deep with God, going deep in your relationships and focusing more
about what you're doing in the unseen, in prayer, fasting, and intimacy with the
Lord, instead of how much time you're spending connecting with people online,
algorithms. I mean, I have to watch it myself. The Lord has dealt with me
about that. So we have to be in it and not of it because everybody's on the
phone. This is where we're going to reach a generation, but the way we're going to
have the kind of influence to bring change, we have to get it from another realm.
Bro, I love what you're saying, Will, because we're talking to influences. This
generation, we read the stat. They have made that the brass ring to be grass. They
want to be that influencer. And I heard it said, if the light is upon you, greater
than the light that is within you, your platform will become your trapdoor.
And I think there's so many people, they have the spotlight that they want on
them. Again, if the light that is upon you is greater than the light that is
within you, your platform becomes your trapdoor. And I think I love what
you're saying, Will, because what you're saying, man, and keep your 100 listeners
got to get this, is that influence comes in the prayer clause. Influence first
comes in terms of the influence we want to wield as kingdom people, as people of
God, is that we want to get along with God. We want to get God on us. And as we do
that, we recognize we're stewarding this influence because the world's way is
that, hey, and it started with the devil who was Lucifer. You know, he had all
these covering stones inside of him. He was beautiful, cherub. But all of a
sudden, it became about him. I'm not just going to lead worship under the Lord.
I want you to worship me. People today in the kingdom, if we want to be influencers,
we first have got to get to the point where God marks us.
That's exactly what I'm saying, because there's a difference between being a
celebrity and a star. Say it, you know, I'm talking about a star from a
biblical understanding, a celebrity from a worldly understanding of being an
influencer. So the deal is this, celebrities use people to support their
authority. But stars use their authority to support
people. Celebrities are initiated and humiliated in
order to receive their influence. You think about some of the degrading,
humiliating things that people have done in order to become famous.
But true stars, they're not initiated. They humble themselves
and they're discipled. And at the right time, God raises them up.
Celebrities seek crowds and crowns. Stars seek God and lay down their crowns.
Oh my goodness, bro. Yeah, celebrities build their own kingdom. Stars
build God's kingdom. So the deal is this, you can either be a celebrity
that's bound under the influence of the kingdom of darkness, or you could be a
star that rules and reigns with Christ in heavenly places.
Wow. And that's what I'm talking about, y'all.
Influences, listen up. Yep. And you get to that level of influence
after you go through a couple of things. I don't understand it all. I don't know the
why's of how the kingdom operates. But the people that I know that have been
crushed the most are the people that have the greatest influence and unseeing
realm. And a lot of times that manifests on
earth through their ministries in terms of, you know, when they pray for the sick
or whatever, or even the followings that they have. Sometimes those things do
translate in that way. But I'm talking about lasting influence.
Those who won't quit on God. Those who won't use God like he's just
some backseat date or whatever. He's thumbed with people who want to date them.
He's looking for people on the throne of the ring and going to covenant with them.
He wants people who want to birth his desires in the earth.
He's looking for people who are good or for bad, for bad or worse.
And if you get to that place and lay down love with him, you will go to a whole
new place of influence. I love that well.
Because the thing is, in all the definitions I saw for the word influence,
I kept seeing the word affect, AFFECT, affect, which makes up the word affection.
So influence at its core is all about arresting the affections of someone else
so powerfully they cannot make a decision without you in mind.
That's so good. Will, man, I'm telling you what, you are dropping such nuggets.
What does kingdom influence look like in the marketplace?
It means everything. Believers don't change the marketplace. We cannot change the world.
Wow. And so you guys who are in the marketplace,
you are the key people for shifting the nations of the earth.
You are the, we need people like you with influence from heaven,
sitting down at the marketplace of ideas and reorienting people to the ways of God's kingdom.
So you are key. I would say for the marketplace folks,
this is the greatest time for you to be alive. This is your moment.
I love that. But just to understand that there are places for us to influence
and is that there are believers and people that are in universities,
people that are training right now, people that are starting out in different fields,
that we need you in that education, we need you in that government,
we need you in that entertainment industry, we need you in the marketplace for you to be
who God's called, you be the impact of the world. Will, man, last question. Oh my God,
this is amazing. What is the connection between the discipling of the nations and influence?
The deal is this, we need to make sure that we can disciple the nations and the nations aren't
discipling us. Wow. In other words, we cannot defeat what we embrace and the world is not
looking for people who are compromising. The world is looking for people who are different.
We can't copy the world and call it Christian and say, hey, y'all, y'all, you want to be like us?
And like, I'm already like that. I watch the same stuff on Netflix. You do what? I mean,
I go to the same movies that you do. What does your Christianity have to offer me that's any
different with the peculiar people? Come on. It's biblical. Yeah.
Peculiar people that were peculiar was actually attributed to a precious jewel in a jewelry box.
Wow. But curious jewels were the ones that were taken out. They had their own box. That's who you
are, believer. Listen, you're a peculiar, you're a star. You're not a celebrity. You may, you're cut
from different stuff and you're called to be different, to be an influencer. You're God's
tuning fork to a generation. There are some people that won't respond to anything to Sean
and I would say, but God has set up his own sphere of influence for you because they're part of your
sphere of authority. They're part of your sphere of influence and it will begin to grow as you begin
to cultivate your relationship with the Lord. It'll grow as you begin to care more about people
than your own agenda. But we cannot allow ourselves to get to this place of compromise
where we were chasing likes and hearts and retweets and reposts and we wound up saying what
people want to hear instead of saying what they need to hear, saying what God's telling us to
tell them instead of giving what engineers want to be entertained by. Will, man, I'm telling you
what, bro, you have taken us on a journey. You dropped knowledge. Keep it 100 tribe. Hey, how can
we follow you? How can we support you? Yeah, we can follow us. I post most of my stuff through 818
The Sign on my Facebook page. So go there also to the Careers with Podcast Network. Be The Sign.
But yeah, follow me and follow us. Keep following Sean and Christian. Keep it 100. They may keep
it at 100 for a minute. This man has opened more doors for me than anybody can even realize. So
anyway, thank God for the friendship and the connection and it's been amazing. Wow, Will.
Thank you for that. That was truly incredible. What a profound conversation. I love how you
just broke it down. He challenges each of us to live out the influencer. You and I, our listeners,
we were called to be for God. Wasn't that so good? Awesome. It was amazing. As always to our Keep
it 100 tribe, we want you to take away five qualities of what it is to be an influencer,
because we're calling out the influencer in you. Number one, respectability. We have to understand
that the life we live is so connected to our credibility. And when we live a life of consistency
in our integrity, it not only leads to a positive reputation, it leads to influence. When people
know that they can respect you, when they know you're credible, when they know that you are consistent
with your value and your belief system and you're living for God, not only are you trustworthy,
you're now one that carries the influence that God's given you and you're stewarding what God's
given you through respectability. That is so incredible. The second quality of an influence
is passion. It's proven that people that are passionate influence others and their excitement
is actually infectious. And when I think of passion, I think of a person that truly cares
about the vertical component. That means that first, we are passionate about Jesus and as we're
passionate about Jesus, then when we begin to speak, that passion really carries heaven's touch
upon it. And I really believe for the new emerging influencers that are coming out, values are going
to be central to this group. And the third thing I've actually understood about passion, it's easier
to become an influencer and harder to stay one. So true. They've seen that believers in their first
year of being saved, lead the majority of people that they ever will lead to Christ, they lead in
their first year. And I believe part of it is that that's when we're most passionate. And after a while,
our passion drops off and as our passion drops off, so does our ability to influence others. So
it's important to maintain your passion. That's so good. You know, the third quality of what it is
to be an influencer is authenticity. You and I can all agree and all our listeners will agree with
us. Few things turn us off like people that are inauthentic. You know, the reality is if someone
is inauthentic and they're wearing masks or they're being fake or a poser or if there's someone that
is not true to who they are and you know that they're kind of putting up a front and they're
presenting themselves not accurate to who they really are, that is so inauthentic. And it's so
hard to feel like you can trust them and that they're someone that you go, okay, I'm going to
actually allow you to speak into my life because they're not even being authentic to themselves.
And I think what's so important is when we remove the mask and we're just honest about who we are,
there really is a safety that comes with that where people go, okay, I can trust you. And again,
we're coming back to that place of authenticity of knowing who you say you are, you really are,
as you do that, that opens up and keeps doors of influence open. Fourth quality of an influencer
is visibility. Jesus said in Matthew 515, to do not hide your light underneath a bushel. In other
words, your light must be visible. You have to have visibility. The difference between a
reformer and a refugee is a refugee hides, but a reformer is out in the open. We're not called to
be a subculture, we're called to be a counterculture. So in order to influence people, you cannot just
hide in Christian buildings that are a-frame and stained glass. You've got to get out in the marketplace
and be at the university, be at your workplace, be online, and just be that light. That's so good.
The fifth and last quality of being an influencer is the area of authority. When you walk in authority,
you know who you are in Christ Jesus, that is what is going to be your greatest place of influence.
Marks 1237, it really talks about how Jesus, he was so loved by the common people, by the tax
collector, the prostitute, they would sit and have conversations with them. They would sit and
share meals. Why? Because there was an approachability and a connectability about Jesus. When people
know you're just like them and they know that you're the person next door, you get their struggles,
you get where they've at because you've lived the same things. They're able to not only draw
wisdom from you and encouragement from you, but there is a commonality of, hey, we're going to
walk this together and we're going to get through it together and there is an authority that you
walk in because you walk in the light and the wisdom of God. That is so good. I love that.
Awesome. You know what? Keep it 100 to try. We love doing this with you every week. As always,
we want to thank you for tuning in, for giving us your time because we want you to know we build
this content for you. As always, thanks so much for coming and joining us as always every Tuesday.
We want to thank you for those that have been rating us, giving us five-star reviews. We're
so grateful for your feedback. I tell you what, Sean and I read every single one and we're so
encouraged and it really motivates us to keep doing what we're doing. As always, continue to get the
word out. Continue to, if you haven't already, review us, rate us and share us. We want to get
this podcast out to as many people as possible and that happens because of you guys. Thanks so
much for doing that. Check us out at www.Seanandchristasmith.com during the week anytime and as always,
find us on Facebook at Sean and Chris Smith Ministries. We'd love to continue to hear how this
podcast has impacted you. Hey, Keep It 100 Tribe, you want to join us next week as we're going to hit
the crucial topic of fears, phobias and anxieties. We recognize in the season that we're in that many
people find themselves with fears that they're facing that they've never faced before. We want
to talk to you how to fight down those fears. So until next week, remember, relief may change your
circumstance, but a revelation to change you.