Welcome to Unleashing the Champion within. Today, I am sharing a message called People of Influence, which I gave at a Women on the Frontline Conference.
I felt like the topic was so important, I had it transcribed for both my Podcast and Blog. I know this word will help you realize how much influence you really have!
Good Morning. I just want to pray over this word. So Father, we just thank You for Your word. Your word is alive, it’s going to seep into us and it’s going to explode out of us. We’re so excited to be with you, God and You giving Your very best to us. So thank You. And in our hearts, Lord, prepare us to receive it all.
I’m very, very excited. I cannot wait to share this with you. And I wanted to mention, you know Patricia talked about our names last night and how important the meaning of our names are to us.
When I was married, I dropped my last name and I just kept my middle name, because my last name had a lot of pain attached to it. So I just got rid of it and I just thought I’m going to go Cynthia Diane Stewart.
About 20+ years ago, God said you need to take your last name back, because you’re missing the anointing that it carries. You’re missing the heritage that I have for you through that name. And so I did. I went to the DMV, I got my license changed to reflect my maiden name. Well, I never looked at what my maiden name meant.
Last night, I look up my name and it’s so funny. It said, you’re honest, benevolent, brilliant and often inventive. It said, you do well in positions of authority and prosper in professional fields, which is what my dad trained us up to be and you have an eventful and exciting life.
And I thought all those years I pushed my name aside. Since then, I realized the name didn’t bring the pain, it was the events around the name that brought the pain. And I did feel like there’s some people here and maybe some people watching online that have had that happen to them where they’ve either hated their name or they haven’t really grabbed a hold of the full meaning of their name. In fact, I’m just going to ask you to stand and we’re just going to restore and we’re going to ask God to renew and replenish the anointing that you have on your name. So if you’ll stand real quick, that’ll be great because God has your name on purpose and he didn’t create the pain around your name. He wants to give you your name back, so that you can live the fullness that he has for you.
So, Father, I just thank you that you’ve given us vision for this and for every event that is attached to the pain. We just release and give to you and we call forth an agreement with the anointing and the mantle and the meaning of our name that you have given to us. And we just declare restoration. We declare renewal and we declare an open door of agreement of where our names are going to take us. We thank you for healing us and really giving us revelation that we need so we’re able to get the fullness that you have for us. In Jesus’ name, amen.
That’s good, isn’t it? And it’s interesting. You know, sometimes we throw out the baby with the bathwater because we don’t know that the baby’s the critical thing. It’s the bathwater that can be changed. And we throw out our name because we’ve had the bath water, the dirty bath water with it and we forget that we can be cleansed and renewed through our names. So that’s good.
So today we’re gonna talk a little bit on influencing. Now I want to know, and hopefully you still have some paper. I want to know how many of you feel like you’re an influencer? That’s good, that’s good. And what I’m going to ask you to do is real quick, just write as many areas and names down that are in your sphere of influence.
Now go ahead and write down the people and areas you influence, because there’s something about getting it out of our mind and onto a piece of paper that brings life, that brings power to it.
Where do you have your influence?
Are there people that you are an influencer for, that when you say something, it makes a difference? It makes an impact. Because we all know that words carry power. And we all know that when we say something, whether it’s good or whether it’s bad, it affects the environment around us.
It affects the atmosphere. And we trust that we say good things, and that when we say things that are not so good, that quickly, the Holy Spirit reminds us that there’s power in our words and we’re able to clean that up really, really quick.
When you write something down and it becomes part of your vision, part of what you see, it expands suddenly. And part of it is because you don’t recognize what you’re doing until you start writing it down, and then when you start writing it down, all of a sudden you realize that you’re doing a lot more than you realize you’ve been doing. Most of the time we don’t even realize the level of influence that we have and we have great influence. No matter where we are, no matter what we do. We are people of influence.
We carry the power to change the outcome for the kingdom. That was the word the Lord gave me for this year, that we are called to change the outcome on his behalf. And it doesn’t matter whether the person is saved or not saved. Our job is to be an influencer.
Our job is to make that one little nugget of investment, or seed or word, whatever it is, to change the outcome, to make sure that the kingdom is the direction it goes. And we know in work we’ve been faced, I know I’ve been faced with different things, where it wasn’t really the heart of God, what they were doing, and sometimes it just takes a little bit of influence that changes the heart of men. Right?
Turn to 2 Kings 5. And there is one person in our story, a young girl that made all the difference. She was the domino effect for changing the outcome. I want to be a domino effecter.
And when you think about it, we all are. We may not see the end of the domino, but when we start it, it goes on and on and on. There are outcomes that we have no idea that have happened, because God used us and we obeyed what he said.
God is so much fun. And to think, we get to be fun with him. We get to look back and say, “Wow, that really made a difference.”
Naaman’s the commander of the army. We’re going to start in verse two, but you know, he has leprosy and that’s never a good thing. Right? And it says, the Armenians, the Syrians had gone out in a band, verse two, as raiders and taken captive a little girl from the land of Israel. And she waited on Naaman’s wife as a servant. When they say little girl, she was probably between the age of 10 and 12.
And so she’s been taken captive. She says to her mistress, “I wish that my master Naaman were with the prophet who is in Samaria, then he would heal him of his leprosy.” Naaman went in and told his master the king, “The girl who is from the land of Israel said such and such.”
Now think about this. Here’s this young girl. She’s probably between 10 and 12 and she knows God enough to know that if her master’s husband (she serves his wife) can go and see the prophet in Samaria, he will be healed. She didn’t say he might be healed. She didn’t say, we’ll see what happens, because she had been raised hearing the word of God.
In Deuteronomy 6 says, “Love the Lord with all your heart and teach it to your children. Talk about it day and night.”
That was the environment she grew up in. And think about it, she was very young when she was taken captive, but she knew enough to know that all he had to do was encounter the prophet of God and he would be healed. There started the domino. There started that influence, and she had enough favor with the mistress to be able to speak that to her. So imagine what brought that kind of favor.
Now, if you’re taken captive at 10 or 12, you would think you’re not going to be very happy about that. But obviously she served and she served well to be able to have an ear, to be able to share that with the mistress. Think about serving and serving well, especially when we’re in situations that may not be our favorite, even the line at the grocery store. Serving and serving well who God puts in front of us.
And so she started the domino. And so he goes to his master, the king, and it’s interesting to think he’s saying, “Well, the girl from Israel, the young girl says that I can get healed.” So he uses his king’s influence to get him in the door before the king of Israel. And you see that domino. It just keeps falling, where he’s able to get entry into the king of Israel.
Think about your influence. And think about how much effect you have on the people around you and how would with one word of who God is or even a word that God gives you in wisdom to solve a problem for your neighbor or at your business or at the school your kids go to.
You know, you get that word about healing for someone. That one word creates a whole domino effect that will go on and on for the kingdom. That is you influencing the Kingdom of God, that the outcome will look like him. What a great honor it is to be able to do that.
Let’s look at verse 10. It says, “Elisha sent a messenger to Naaman saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times and your flesh will be restored to you and you’ll be clean.” Now you would think if you had leprosy, you would be jumping up and down with excitement.
No. Naaman was furious and went away and said, “Indeed, I thought he would at least come out and see me and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and wave his hands.”
You know, sometimes we just want God to perform the way we want Him to perform. We’re like, “We just want you, God to show up and if you’ll do this, then it’ll be the way I want it and I’ll be able to receive what you have for me.”
But God’s saying, “Well, if you’ll do this, then you’ll have even better than what you wanted, because My best is better than anything you can imagine. So if you will do what I say, I’ll do even better than what you need.”
But of course Naaman didn’t know God. He might have heard stories about God, but he didn’t really know Him. But we know Him and we are obedient lovers of God we are able to create such a domino for the kingdom and influence happens. Then minds of kings are turned and they don’t even know what happened to them.
Because the presence of God we carry, because the wisdom we carry, and we know can make a difference in their life. We have our spirit, our soul, and our body. And when you believe that God will do it for the person next to you, but won’t do it for you, then there’s division in your mind. There’s division in receiving what He has for you.
Back to Naaman — He is in a rage! He doesn’t know what to do and he says, “Can’t you pick any good rivers for me? I’ll do it if you send me to a good river.” But listen. It’s so funny. You know he wants it his way and we all do. How many want it their way, but how many know that we’ve given our way to God so he can give us his best way?
In verse 13, he said, “Then his servants approached him and said to him, ‘My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you have not done it? Wouldn’t you have done that? How much more than when he has said, you wash and be clean, how much more?'” So he went down, plunged himself. Can you imagine what that was like? I’m sure the whole way he’s thinking, “Really, you know, I am a great man and I’m about to get into some water that I don’t want to get into.”
And he plunged himself into the Jordan seven times, just as the man of God had said and his flesh was restored like that of a little child and he was clean. Now that’s not the end of the story, because the influence of this little girl didn’t stop there.
Let’s go over to verse 15. He said, “Then Naaman returned to the man of God. He and all the people in this group and stood before him and he said, ‘Behold, I know there is no God in all the earth except in Israel, so now accept a blessing and a gift from your servant.'”
He said, I know. Now he didn’t serve the God of Israel, but that encounter with God, which started with the influence of a little girl, changed his heart toward who God is. He was able to declare before Elisha, “I know.” We declare. I know that Jesus lives. I know that there is no God but him. He is the only one and Elisha says to him, “As the Lord lives and before whom I stand, I will accept nothing.”
In verse 17, he says, “Well, then please let your servant be given a load of earth for a team of mules, for from this day on your servant will no longer offer burnt offerings nor sacrifice to other gods, but only to the Lord, the God of Israel.” And then he goes on to say, “And when I go with my master and my master bows down to his idols, I have to bow because I’m serving him, but my heart will not bow to him.”
He is a new, clean, changed man. This domino of influence that starts with the little girl, goes to his king, to the king of Israel, to his servants, and then back to Elisha, changed his heart and he saw who the living God was to him. And that’s the kind of influence we have. We may not, like the little girl, she wasn’t going on the whole journey with him. She didn’t see step by step how God changed his heart from the rage to thankfulness.
Often times, we don’t see step by step, but we can influence based on our part, and then God uses whomever he’s going to use to keep that domino going. Because God uses each one of us, and I believe that God is raising up women, who are people of influence.
We’ve raised up children. Some of us have raised up grandchildren and we influenced them. I believe in this hour, God is raising us up as women who are aware of our influence. And we see the revelation ahead of time, so we’re prepared for what God has for us at the time the influence needs to be released.
We all have such a power of influence right now and we’re raising up a generation that is going to take over the world for God. We may not see in our lifetime, but we’re raising up a generation that’s going to raise up a generation, that’s going to continue this domino effect for God. They’re going to be powerful women in this coming generation who are raised up. And they’re going to be husbands and wives that work together in unity. Not one better than the other. Just different from the other. I’m not like my husband and he’s not like me.
We’re different for a reason. We’re different, because I need his wisdom to speak into me. He needs my wisdom. We need our agreement. So God is raising up families and we know that there’s been brokenness over the families, but God is saying, “No more. We are stopping that.”
Husbands and wives want to stay married. Children want parents. It’s built inside of us to want that. And what God is doing, is he’s raising up a company of people, a company of women that can help facilitate healing in marriages. That can help facilitate parenting in the homes. That can help facilitate grandparents to not just be spoilers, but anointers and releasers.
We have kids in our church, that don’t think twice about coming up and praying as we pray, because it’s part of their DNA. We are raising up a generation with a DNA that has identity in it, identity in God, not an identity in whatever the world’s saying. We’re raising up a generation that’s going to be able to say, “I see what’s going on,” but just as Elisha said to Naaman, if you encounter my God, everything will change.
And that’s what we want. We want those kids that can release the encounter of God, so everything can change for the people that they engage with.
We are raising kids that know who is in them, know how to maneuver what’s coming toward them, and they don’t have to worry about whether they’re politically correct. All they have to worry about is releasing Jesus. They’re our domino generation, they’re the knocker-overs, and we’re the ones who are influencing that arena. So give yourself a big clap that God’s using you for the kids.
I’m going to talk about one other place of influence and it’s your influence to God. How you influence his heart. And we are influencers of his heart. So I want to talk about that. Turn to Isaiah 38.
You know God loves for us to talk to him. God loves for us to say, “Hey, what about this, papa? What do you think about this? How do you want to take care of that? What should we do about this?”
And He doesn’t even mind it when we say, “Are you sure?” Because, He knows that we need a little bit more revelation about it. We need a little bit more understanding.
So we’re gonna talk a little bit about Hezekiah and I love this story in Isaiah 38.
Verse 1, “In those days, Hezekiah became sick and was at the point of death. And Isaiah, the prophet came and said to him, ‘For the Lord says this, set your house in order and prepare a will, for you shall die. You will not live.'”
Now that’s quite a message. I mean, think about it.
“Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and he prayed to the Lord.” He didn’t say, “Okay, whatever works for God’s gonna work for me.” He turned his face toward the wall and he prayed and he said, “Please, oh Lord, please.”
“Please, oh Lord, please, just remember how I have walked before you in faithfulness and truth, with a whole heart absolutely devoted to you, and have done what is good in your sight,” And Hezekiah wept greatly.
And verse five says, “Go and say to Hezekiah,” … He’s talking to Isaiah … “For the Lord, the God of David, your father, says ‘I have heard your prayer.'” God can’t hear his prayer if he never asks. He can’t hear our prayer if we never ask.
God wants us to ask. He wants us to ask for a change in the prognosis. He wants us to ask for a change in the life of our children. He wants us to ask for a change in our jobs, in our marriages, all for him. He wants us to ask. He’s like, “Be bold. Ask me.”
Hezekiah asked. And God said, “I have heard you. I have heard you.” God added 15 years to Hezekiah’s life. God hears everything, but He wants us to ask.
Hezekiah begins to praise the Lord. He tells his story in praise. Here are two the verses.
Verse 15, he says, “What shall I say, for He has spoken to me, and He Himself has done it.”
How many need God to do that for you, for God to release what He has for you over you now?
Hezekiah continues saying, “Oh, Lord, by these things men live, and in these things is the life of my spirit. Restore me to health and let me live.”
It’s interesting about those words that he said to him. “Restore to health” is to make him healthy and strong. So he is asking the Lord, “Make me healthy and strong again. Restore my health completely.”
The word live means to have life, live prosperously, live forever, be quickened, be alive, and restored to health. So he says, “Lord, make me healthy again.” God, just do what you do for me because of who you are — it is so amazing.
And I’m just going to bring up another scripture. We won’t turn there, but, you know, Romans 8:11 says, “But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies, through His Spirit that dwells in you.” That word “life” is the same as the word “life” that Hezekiah said. He said to produce life, to restore life, to give increase of life and of spirit.
Hezekiah said, “I want to live,” and the word he used for that life isn’t just make it another day or two. He meant live in health. Live with a prosperous soul. Live in the fullness restored to completeness. I want the fullness that you have, and God said, “Okay. You asked, and I’m going to give that to you.”
Actually, the Lord showed me this a couple days ago.
Our spirit is submitted to the Holy Spirit. When we become saved, we’re saying that our spirit is with you, Holy Spirit. We’re giving it all.
Then our soul; our emotions, our mind, our will, and our intellect also has to follow our spirit, which follows the Holy Spirit. And when our soul doesn’t, then we need a little work. We may need healing of our emotions or we may need to confess to come back into alignment.
We want our mind, we want our will, we want our intellect to be infused with the Holy Spirit, so they are aligned with God. That is submission. It is aligning ourself with what is true, and what is right, and what God says.
Next our bodies need to come into alignment. I need my body. I need my body to process my food right. I need my body to go for a run. I need my body to travel, and to pick up my grandkids. I mean, we all need our bodies!
We need our body submitted to the word of God. We need our body, our soul, which includes our mind, our emotions, our spirit to be aligned with the word of God.
And when I was reading about Hezekiah along with Romans, I was like, when God spoke to him and said, “Okay, you’re going to live 15 more years,” his body didn’t say, “No, I’m not.” His body said, “I’ve submitted to the word of God that’s just been spoken over me.” Hezekiah’s body came into alignment with what the word of God said.
We have the word of God that says God is our healer. Our body must align with the word of God.
And I want us to press into that process, of aligning our body with the word of God. I have been healed of all kinds of things. Since I was a teenager, when I would bend over at times, my back would lock and I wouldn’t be able to stand up for a couple days until it unlocked. When I was in my thirties, someone was praying, and they said, “I think somebody’s back hurts.” My back hurt so bad. And he said, “Back be healed and pain be gone,” and my back said, “Yes, sir,” at the word of God. I never had my back lock up again.
I had migraines forever, and probably over the last ten years with weather fluctuation we have in Florida, they were terrible. I had to take painkillers, and migraine medicine. When it would start, I would spend 24 to 48 hours in bed. And I had prayer, and I had prayer, and I had prayer, and I wrestled with God. Then one day, I’m flying to Africa, and I’m getting a migraine. I said, “God, this is just not going to work for me.” He healed them and I haven’t had them since.
And I just felt like today, that God’s just going to do miracles this weekend. He’s going to heal. He’s going to resurrect our bodies to align with his word. The promise He has given us, the living word He has given us and Christ in us. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us.
I will share one more quick story of my healing. I’d been having trouble with my knee for about 6 weeks after I played this pretty crushing tennis match with three other guys. You know, when you play with other guys, you play maybe a little bit harder than you normally would. Maybe a little bit tougher. And, by the way — I won! And my knee kept swelling, and it hurt really bad.
I flew to Denver and met with Brandi Belt. She was telling me about how they have such a high level of healing. I said, “So, tell me what’s the key. I want the secret. I want the recipe.” I mean, I know Jesus is the recipe. She said, “I just believe.” And I’m like, “Of course. I just believe.” And I went to bed that night, and said, I just believe my knee will be healed. I woke up that morning, and my knee was not hurting anymore!
I just believed!
What do you need to believe for in your healing?
I will believe with you. Send me a message, I would love to hear from you.
Leave your comment on my Facebook page by clicking here: CindyStewart or send me an email at cindy@Cindy-Stewart.com
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