The Most Fundamental of All Human Motives

The Study of Values, a personality inventory I used to administer at the Career and Personal Counseling Center of Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia, suggests that the love of power is the most fundamental of all human motives. The longer I live, the more I believe this may be true.

People who are high in political values love power, and the power they have can be used in beneficial or detrimental ways. It has been aptly stated that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and we see evidence of this all over the world, particularly in dictatorships and other political venues.

The power that we should be seeking is God's power--the Bible calls it dunamis, which is the Greek word for words like "dynamo," "dynamic," and "dynamite." There is dynamite power available to all who will avail themselves of it.

At least three of our Pure Gold Classics teach us about this kind of spiritual power. The paragraphs that follow give some insights about power from Moody, Finney, and Wesley.

"May the Spirit of Elijah, beloved reader, be upon us. If we seek for it we will have it. Oh, may the God of Elijah answer by fire, and consume the spirit of worldliness in the churches, burn up the dross, and make us whole-hearted Christians. May that Spirit come upon us' let that be our prayer in our family altars and in our closets. Let us cry mightily to God that we may have double portion of the Holy Spirit, and that we may not rest satisfied with this worldly state of living, but let us, like Sampson, shake ourselves and come out from the world, that we may have the POWER OF GOD" ( From Secret Power by Dwight L. Moody).

"If any one secret of Mr. Finney's power be emphatic, it is this: he gave his whole soul to God. . . . Give yourself, with such supblime simplicity of aim, to God and His service; empty yourself as completely of worldly and selfish ambition; seek as devoutly to be filled and moved by the Spirit; and God will be as willing to use you as a chosen vessel for His glory!" (From Power, Passion and Prayer by Charles G. Finney).

"The expression 'by the grace of God' is sometimes understood to be the love of God, the free unmerited mercy by which any sinner, throught the merits of Jesus, is reconciled to God. Here it means that the power of God, the Holy Spirit, who works in us, both to will and to do His pleasure. As soon as God's grace in the former sense of pardoning love is manifested to us, His grace in the latter sense is given. The power of the Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to perform, through grace, what was impossible to man. Now we can order our conversation correctly. We can do all things in the light and power of that love through Christ who strengthens us. We now have the testimony of our conscience which we could never have by fleshly wisdom. Now 'in simplicity and godly sincerity we have our conversation in the world'" (From The Holy Spirit and Power by John Wesley).

Remember this: All power [authority] in Heaven and Earth was given to Jesus Christ, and He lives within you!