A Godpreneur’s Guide to Becoming an Authority in Your Niche
I’m always battling this conflict in my mind of wanting to help others but needing to make money for myself. There’s also a battle of wanting to be this big celebrity authority, but still wanting to stay humble.
We Godpreneurs that have a big message to share with the world can sometimes feel this conflict and it may hold us back from pushing forward with our cause.
Many of you know, I read the Bible almost every morning to hear from God on what he wants me to do today and what message he wants for the Godpreneurs.
Today I got a peak into, what I believe to be, the formula for achieving authority and potentially celebrity status in your niche, while doing exactly what we’ve been commanded to do.
Ready? I’m excited!
But wait, to set this up, I have to share something amazing that led to this.
My wife and I attend a marriage growth group (Bible study) where we’re reading Andy Stanley’s book “Staying in Love”. Each week there are devotionals we are to do together at home to prepare for the following week.
The morning of writing this blog, before opening the devotional, I prayed “God, speak to me today on what you want me to do and share.” That’s my routine every morning: coming to my CEO and asking what’s the plan for today.
The devotional had me read Philippians 2:1-11, and that’s where and how I got the revelation I’m sharing with you today.
I’m going to do something different. I’m going to break this down in sections and explain each section from the point of guide to Becoming an authority.
1-4 If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care— then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
If you pause there and give me your attention, there’s some amazing nuggets here.
First, we can’t miss the fact that first, we must be following Christ. He’s the ultimate example how how to rise to authority. I can write a whole new book just on how, first, we must follow Christ in order to receive the true calling from God on what we should be becoming an authority in.
Second, don’t be obsessed with making it to the top. Instead, be obsessed with spreading your message and putting your tribe first. Getting to the top will follow, as we’ll see in the next verses.
5-8 Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.
There’s a powerful message here that I don’t want you to miss. It’s easy to skip over this part.
For some of us, coming to the realization that we have a message to spread to the world can be jolting because it requires us to remove ourselves from the day-to-day business, put others in charge, and set on a new course of learning and growing to becoming the best messenger we can be.
Your identity is going to change, and this process won’t be as easy as you’d think. It was easy for Jesus because he knew he was God and he knew his role and he knew his purpose. Most of us are timidly stepping into our roles as Godpreneurs, sometimes one foot in and one foot out.
9-11 Because of that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on earth—even those long ago dead and buried—will bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the Father.
Here’s the last key, the promise from God that you want to hear: “God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or anything.” I believe that we’re all created in God’s image and asked to follow Christ because God wants to lift us high! That authority you want, that celebrity status you seek…that’s God’s plan. But we can’t see celebrity as the Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Celebrity comes as a result of following the order above. Authority celebrity is your reward for a job well done, your service to God and humanity, your duty of accomplishing what you were born to do.
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