“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

I am not a naturally take-charge person. If someone else wants to lead, I’m more than fine with that. Which is perhaps why the Holy Spirit has, at times, had to sneak up on me with His opportunities.

We were new in the neighborhood. A new friend had asked me to co-lead a start-up Bible study there. Then, while we were away for Christmas, she left a note in my mailbox. Her husband had been transferred to Singapore—(Singapore!) —and they were on their way to the airport.  Basically she was saying, “Surprise—it’s all yours!” (See what I mean by “sneak up on”?!)

If I had thought my friend was going to do the influencing, now I knew better. It was the Holy Spirit who took up the influencing from there. The Holy Spirit got me through the initial four week programmed study with a diverse group of my new neighbors. Then came that Holy Spirit knowing that as we continued, I was to prepare the studies myself.

What followed was a challenging, invigorating, satisfying five years of fellowship with women who influenced me as much as I influenced them. All the while the Holy Spirit was meeting each of us where we were and drawing us closer to Jesus.

Here are things I learned about influence from those five years:

1. Being influenced by the Holy Spirit precedes being an influencer alongside Him. Had that group not been the Holy Spirit’s idea, and had He not continued to influence me, I wouldn’t have hung in there. Nor would the group have jelled the way it did.
2. Numbers don’t mean much. God was doing His work on the days there were two of us as much as when there were eight.
3. The leader is not the only influencer in a group. Each person has that function.
4. We will never truly know what influence the Holy Spirit is having through us. And it’s better not to try to know. The greatest freedom is to lean on the Holy Spirit, do what He puts on our hearts, and anticipate.
5. The Holy Spirit likes spontaneity, planning, and all degrees of approach in between. It is wise to hold plans lightly, though, in case He has a surprise in store, or someone has a deep need.

I wish space allowed me to tell you the influence each of my friends have had on Jesus’ behalf since those days in New Jersey. Yep, New Jersey—which, turns out, is part of “the ends of the earth” Jesus spoke of in Acts 1:8!  As is North Carolina, y’all.

Ponder the wonder of Jesus thinking of us here at the ends of the earth when He spoke to the disciples that day of His Ascension.