Quotes about Power

The might that made Rome an empire will bow to the might that makes God God and the Lamb the Lamb. Brian Blount sums it up best: Babylons will be "sLambed.

The power of military might is a Babylonian reality, not a new Jerusalem one. The Lamb was slaughtered because he refused to use Babylon's weapons, and the way of the Lamb is to conquer by the "sword from his mouth," not a sword drawn from a scabbard. The Word of God is the weapon of choice for those walking in the way of the Lamb.

Dissidents pause with these words as a motto: "Not so with you!" Power for Jesus was power for the other and not power over the other. The way of the dragon aches for power over, and the wild things wield the dragon's power over and climb their way into high places where they exert power over others.

Our churches have not discipled people in the last forty years in Christoform power but have instead discipled them into playing Babylon's power games. They have decided who might be their next king, only to realize that kings become wild things. Instead of giving more and more power to presidents, to senators, to representatives, to Washington DC and states and cities and villages and towns, we need to search again for Christoform power.

In our local context, the pastors and elders and deacons are disciples of Jesus, called to submit first to him and to nurture others into serving one another as Jesus himself served his disciples. The strangest words in the church ought to be the words "authority" and "power.

Heresy lurks when the pastor appeals to and exerts power and authority, when the pastor sees leadership as imposing his will on the congregation. There is but one Lord and one authority: Jesus, the Lamb, the Lord.

Instead of doing good as witnesses, we grabbed for power. Instead of witnessing to Jesus, we have become known for political allegiances, so much so that our politics are reshaping our witness into a corrupted witness.

No wonder the rulers of this age want to stop the singing, or pollute it with ideology and managed slogans!

All of this leads us to one central question for our own lives today: How much of our faith is tied to our own nation and its power?

Only when we cease to rely on our own strength can we discover that God's strength is always there for us.

He gave our pain and struggles a holy significance, a redemptive power, which makes it a privilege for us to suffer with Christ.

It is for us and our time...to say the right makes might.