People thrive on community. We need each other. Whether it’s for companionship, encouragement, or just plain fun - we enjoy doing things together.

That reality is what makes God’s brand all the more important and essential. See, God has a brand as well. He has an established identity, logo, and value system that set Him, and His people, apart from all others. God’s brand has been developed in such a way that those who are associated with Him, believers in the body of Christ, are to manifest it in what they do and say, so there is no question about who they are and what they represent.

Now, God’s brand isn’t people carrying the Bible underneath their arms. Neither is it the use of Christianese… language designed to make someone sound holier or more spiritual than others. It isn’t even showing up for church services on Sundays or Wednesdays. God’s brand is more innately ingrained in the very fabric of life than that.

To know God’s brand is to know His heart and His character. To reflect His brand is to reflect Christ Himself. Jesus told us what God’s brand is - the overarching, dominating trait we are to be known for - when He gathered His disciples together in an upper room to give them His final message prior to His death, resurrection, and ascension. In that room, He told them the identifying factor of belonging to Him as His follower.

We read about this in John 13, where Jesus emphasizes the great command to love. Three times in this chapter, Jesus tells us we are to love others. Three times He takes us to this all-important principle, truth, and brand. In fact, He literally comes out and says that if we love one another, all men will know that we are reflecting Him as His disciples. We are being the horizontal Jesus to one another.

The way God created life to work is that what you wanted or needed to get, you had to give first in the form of the seed you planted. You would have to take the seed from what you had in order to replicate it.

What was a principle of creation, Jesus broadened into a principle of life in Luke 6:38, “Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure - pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”

The thing you give, whatever “it” is, is the thing you get back because God responds to your faith in giving whatever it is that you also need.

To put it another way, if you have a need, make sure you sow a seed in the lives of others in the same area as your own personal need. Don’t just ask God to meet your need without making sure you plant the seed. The foundational seed upon which all seeds must first rest… is love. Do all things in love and watch God open doors for you that you never even knew could be opened.

More from The Alternative View:

Testimony Time

“God bless you, Dr. Tony Evans, for demonstrating God's unconditional love, mercy, and grace. I found your The Alternative program in the early '90s when traveling to school and work and have been a fan since then. Thank you for the healing and enlightenment that WILL be harvested from the seeds you are sowing in Oklahoma.”   

“Dr. Evans: I really enjoy listening to you every chance I get! I'm an over the road trucker and try to listen as much as possible, but I'm not always where I can hear you. However, the messages I've heard have really touched me. Thank you for being such a straight talker and tellin' it like it is!”   

“I love Tony Evans! He is awesome! I love listening to him in the car. We need people like him!”