There is a version of influence that gets chased, engineered, really. Calculated posting schedules, strategic networking, carefully curated personal branding, the constant calculation of what will land well with which audience. Creatives who operate from that place often produce technically correct moves. But something is usually missing. The weight is not there. The resonance is not there. And over time, both the creator and the audience can feel it: there is a hollow quality to influence that is built entirely from the outside in.
Matthew 6:33 offers a different starting point: “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Jesus is not promising fame or platform. He is promising that when your priorities are correctly ordered, when the kingdom is the actual goal and not just the branding, the things you need follow. Including reach. Including influence. Including the kind of creative authority that comes from a life genuinely aligned with something larger than personal success.
Jesus did not chase crowds. He taught, He healed, He served, and crowds followed because His life flowed from the Father’s purpose. His influence was a byproduct of alignment, not a goal He was optimizing toward. When your creative work is genuinely rooted in what God cares about, when your design is actually trying to serve people, your writing is actually trying to communicate truth, your film is actually trying to illuminate something real, that orientation is perceptible. It creates a quality of attention and intentionality that people can sense, even when they cannot name it.
A writer who is primarily writing to grow their platform will make different decisions than a writer who is primarily trying to help the reader think more clearly about something that matters. The second writer might end up with a smaller audience, or they might end up with a larger one. Either way, the work will have a different quality. It will carry the weight that comes from actually meaning it. That weight is what genuine influence is made of.
Align your creative work with God’s kingdom today. Ask what He cares about in what you are making. Let that answer shape your choices. Influence that flows from alignment does not need to be forced. It expands in ways you could never engineer on your own.