Tag: manipulation and control

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LEADERSHIP, PROPHETIC WORDS, AND POWER 

My morning devotions have been in 1 & 2 Kings. I came to an interesting story in 2 Kings 8:7-15, about three people who were leaders. Here’s my meditation… speaking to leadership, prophetic words, and power. Read the story to get the full picture.  

Briefly, pagan king of Aram (Ben-Hadad) was sick. He heard Israel’s prophet (Elisha) was in town (Damascus). So, he sent a court official (Hazael) with a huge gift, asking Elisha, “Will I recover from this illness?” The answer was, “yes… but he will die” (not from his illness). Then Elisha stared at Hazael and began to weep. When asked why he was weeping, Elisha said he spiritually saw how Hazael would attack Israel’s towns and massacre people. Hazael was surprised: how could he do that – he wasn’t the king of Aram? Elisha then gave him a personal prophetic word, “The Lord has shown me you will become king”. Hazael returned to the king saying, “you will certainly recover”. But the next day he took a thick cloth, soaked it in water and covered the king’s face, so that he suffocated and died. Then Hazael became king.

Israel had true and false prophets who exercised (prophetic) leadership that influenced the king and the nation, for good or bad, depending on their truth or falsity. Elisha was a true prophet in the character and gifting of his mentor, Elijah. Pagan kings knew of him, having heard how God used him (2 Kings 8:4). They often wanted an ‘oracle’ from ‘the man of God’, e.g., “Will I recover from this illness?” Note, ‘the man of God’, like ‘prophet’ was a description, not a title as is used in some contemporary prophetic circles.  

Kings in the ancient world knew the reality and power of the spiritual realm in personal and national affairs, unlike governmental leaders today, who generally dismiss it. But some are aware of spiritual power and how it can work in/through leaders, for good or bad. And they use it to wield political power for their purposes. For example, coopting religious leaders to legitimize and empower their rule. Spiritual leaders who allow that to happen to themselves are portrayed as false prophets in the Bible.

King Ben-Hadad recognized and sought the help of true (prophetic) leadership, evident in God’s authority working through Elisha. Hence, spiritual leadership that operates in the integrity of God’s Spirit will be seen and known, even by pagan presidents.

Power works by favours and gifts. Though this was the custom (Proverbs 18:16), Ben-Hadad ingratiated himself to Elisha through extravagant gifts, “forty camel-loads of all the finest wares of Damascus” (2 Kings 8:9). The temptation of material reward for a favourable oracle. This is reinforced by Hazael’s opening words, “Your son Ben-Hadad, king of Aram, has sent me to ask…” For the king to call himself the son of the prophet could be, at best, acknowledging Elisha’s superiority – thinking in terms of power. Or it is self-humiliation, with false flattery, for favourable outcomes. The temptation of pride and power, a test of Elisha’s character. But Elisha simply answered the king’s question, ignoring the gifts, the power hierarchy, and the flattery.

Worldly leadership is power play, making deals and currying favour with those they perceive can influence outcomes. True leadership, in contrast, cannot be manipulated and controlled, because materialism, pride, and power have no hold on them.

Elisha said the king will recover, but disclosed to Hazael that the Lord had shown him the king would indeed die (in another way – implied). This revelation was a test of Hazael’s character. His name means, “one who sees God” or “God has seen”. What went through his mind? Did he see God in this? God certainly saw his heart. Our response in thoughts and feelings, to what God reveals, is a test of character.  

What followed revealed Hazael’s heart. Elisha stared at him and wept. “Why is my lord weeping?” Hazael, on hearing what Elisha saw (he would butcher the Israelites, “dash their little children to the ground, rip open their pregnant women”), responded, “How could I accomplish such a feat?” He wasn’t the king with the power (power thinking), just a servant, “a dog” (self-humiliation). He had no sense of repulsion at the extreme acts of violence, nor empathy for Elisha’s tears for his people. Rather, Hazael saw no possibility to gain the power needed to do these acts. Leaders who lead by power have little or no empathy for others, for those in pain, especially perceived enemies. Leaders who have no empathy are dangerous – it’s a sign of psychopathic narcissism.  

“The Lord has shown me you will become king”, was the final test of Hazael’s character. He returned to the king saying, “you will certainly recover”, but then promptly murdered him to fulfil the prophecy. “The Lord says I will be king! Activate it! Make it happen!” Elisha’s prophetic word implied that Hazael was not the legitimate successor. Indeed, an Assyrian inscription designated Hazael as “a son of nobody” – a commoner “dog” who usurped the throne. Leadership is not taken, it is given.

How should we respond to prophetic words? Test them with trusted leaders. Surrender them to God. Prayerfully wait in trust of God to fulfil them in his time and way. All ‘words’ are a test of character. How we respond to true and/or false prophecies will reveal pride, ego needs, psycho-emotional wounds, inferiority, superiority, ambition, material greed … I can go on. Prophetic ‘words’ are spiritual encounters by Holy Spirit or evil spirit that expose any of the above mentioned “holds” or “handles” that evil uses to lead through you. “The prince of this world” came to Jesus and found no “hold/handle” in him, to shake him and damage others through him (John 14:30). May we be like Jesus.

Leaders who grasp for power reveal the spirit that has formed them, driving them to use any means, even violence, to attain it. They image Lucifer, who grasped for power to be God, but was “cast down”, imparting death to humanity (Isaiah 14:12-15). The opposite is Jesus, “who did not consider equality with God something to be grasped”, but let go and emptied himself in powerlessness, in suffering service of others (Philippians 2:5-11). This is the Spirit of all true leadership that imparts God’s life to humanity.

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Living the Life God Intended – Talk 10 – Manipulation & Truth Telling

Oaths, Swearing and Truthfulness, Matt 5:33-37

To hear the audio teaching of these notes, click on
http://followingjesus.org.za/sermons/living-the-life-god-intended-talk-10-manipulation-truth-in-communication/

In this text Jesus says that healthy community, good communication in life, is not about making vows and keeping sworn oaths, as in Num 30:2, Deut 23:21-23, but simply telling the truth! Jews swore by all sorts of things other than God in the belief that, if they didn’t keep their word, they were then not using God’s name in vain (i.e. breaking the 2nd Commandment).

The practice of swearing, making vows, taking an oath, was to persuade with power communication, to ‘vouch’ for your promise, to ‘prove’ the truth of what you said, even to get your own way! It amounted to manipulation and control in conversation. So Jesus, in this text, addresses speech and truth-telling, and the (mis)use of God’s name.

Depending on your culture, you may say, “I swear on my mother’s grave that…”, to make others believe you’re telling the truth. In the Judaeo-Christian judicial system people have to put their hand on the Bible and swear under oath, “I will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God!” The idea is to call on a higher authority, represented in a sacred symbol, which binds the conscience to tell the truth and/or to fulfil a promise. And thus to be held accountable – punished or vindicated – by that higher authority, i.e. God (see 1Kgs 8:31-32).

The rabbis in Jesus’ day debated which oaths were binding or not, as seen in the hierarchical list that Jesus referred to in Matt 5:34-36, and also Matt 23:16-22. His central point is that whatever you swear by is ultimately God’s, whether it be heaven, earth, Jerusalem, the Temple, the altar, or your head (even the hairs of one’s head are under God’s sway and ownership!) Swearing by any of these ‘things’ is still swearing by God – though indirectly! So Jesus’ answer to this, his way of being authentically human as God’s image, is simply not to swear at all and keep your word and tell the truth.

Be truth-full. Don’t lie. Not even white lies! Never make promises you can’t keep. If you make a promise, keep it! Don’t try to impress, exaggerate, manipulate or control others by your words, pressurising them to believe what you’re saying, by resorting to swearing, making vowing, invoking God as your authority.

For example, some Christians use “God told me…” when it’s evidently not the case for various (discerning) reasons. People who live the life God intended, those in his new covenant rule and reign (Kingdom), are as good as their word. They mean what they say and say what they mean. Their ‘yes’ is ‘yes’, their ‘no’ is ‘no’; “anything beyond this comes from the evil one” (Matt 5:37).

Strong words from Jesus! The devil was a liar from the beginning, the father of lies, the ultimate manipulator and deceiver. Don’t live out his evil nature (John 8:44), a hypocrite who acts out one thing while being another behind the mask! Jesus’ way of being human is to be a “WYSIWYG” person: what-you-see-is-what-you-get! Being real. Be honest. No pretence, no games-play, no pressurising others, no getting your own way.

In short, Jesus intensifies the letter of the law (Deut 23:22-23, Eccl 5:5) by upholding the spirit – the original intention and direction – of the law, especially the 2nd commandment not to take God’s name in vain (Ex 20:7).

This is very relevant and applicable to our world of politics, power-language, spin-doctors, motivational-talk, manipulation and control – a world of misinformation, half-truths, fake-news and deceit. The Oxford Dictionary is updated annually. They choose one new word that has come into usage that best captures the spirit of the year. In 2016 they chose ‘post-truth’.

We live in an ‘after-truth’ world where blatant lies are shamelessly presented as the truth, modelled by political, civic, business, national and global leaders. People swear in all sorts of ways to make their point and get their way, often using foul expletives to intimidate others. We no longer easily believe or trust people. We listen with a skeptical ear and cynical heart. This is NOT the life, nor community, God intended – it “comes from the evil one”.

Christ-followers are salt and light: we stick to our word, fulfil our promises, are consistently truthful. We don’t (have to) resort to manipulative words, or abusive swearing, or use God’s name in vain to impress others, or to get our way.