Toxic Power or Servant Leadership

“May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!”

In leadership, especially spiritual leadership, but also business, political, and community leadership, power can be toxic. It is most toxic when that power is desired for the sake of having it or getting wealthy or more powerful from it.

How we get power and what we do with it are equally important issues.

Great leaders are servants and have the mindset of servants. They lead in order to serve and serve in order to lead.

“Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” — Simon the Sorcerer

Like Simon the Sorcerer, we can become addicted to power and wealth and see the realm of the genuine Spirit of God and grace as either threat or opportunity to gain more power and wealth of ourselves.

Peter names the addiction as “the gall of bitterness and the bond in the bond of iniquity.”

Ponder that.

It is a bond that binds and a poison that toxifies the soul.

Yet, the possibility of repentance and forgiveness is held out, even for such a malignant evil.

Imagine how deeply Simon had to humble his heart to ask someone else to pray for him.

But, he did.

“Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, “‘Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.’”

“But Peter said to him, ‘May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.’”

“And Simon answered, “Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.’” — Acts 8:14–24 (ESV)

Contrast this to the lifestyle of one who had all the power and chose not to use it for himself.

“When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.”

He needed none to make him king.

He knew that those who make you king can take you down. His was another kingdom, a permanent kingdom, not of this world. No one can dethrone such a king.

To settle for an earthly kingdom would be stepping down.

To grab power for ourselves is also stepping down from the potential we have and the place we already have in God’s kingdom of joy and peace.