“Life’s about the people that surround you. The people you help.” Unknown

Prophet Jim Reilly recently said, “I might have chosen speaking to thousands of people at a time, but God didn’t call me to that.” 

Instead of multitudes all at once, Jim travels around the Southeast and prophesies to groups of anywhere from 15 to 100 people. I’m encouraged by how God’s used him to impact my life and the lives of friends. Jim is proof that our ministries and audiences don’t have to be large to be life changing. 

I remember stumbling onto a viral blog post about marriage by a fellow writer. I’m usually happy for people’s success and I was for him too, but also a bit envious. Sometimes I’d write with that end in mind, to have the post read by thousands. For a while, the number of readers and commenters took priority over my message.  

Numbers seldom cross my mind anymore. In fact, most times I think how overwhelmed I’d be if I received hundreds of likes and comments. I’m happy to write because it’s what I believe God’s called me to do. I appreciate loyal readers who say they’re happy to read it.  

Jim does some teaching prior to prophesying. One of the points he brings up often is who God has given us to reach out to. God may ask you to influence millions. If He does, He makes a way. More often, though, He wants us to influence our sphere of people who we already know. They include family, friends, and coworkers as well as people at the gym and coffee shop. Our regular waitress. The grumpy guy at the gas station. Whoever is right in front of us, these are our people. 

We may be called to work as missionaries overseas, but some of our most important mission fields are around our kitchen tables, our local churches, and our communities. We can’t assume that everyone we know knows Jesus.  

Who is right in front of you that needs to know Him? Let’s work together to influence people closest to us. 

In the next blog post, I’m focusing on a comment from a friend about showing off Jesus without showing ourselves – being preachy-preachy, intrusive, and judgmental. See you tomorrow. 

In This Together, 
Kim