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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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Those who Grasp for Power

Grasping for power divides people, especially leaders.
It reveals character – both bad and good character.

This was the essential message of my morning meditation today, from 1 Kings 1:5-10.

Adonijah was 35 years old when he made himself king.
Why? Because, the text says, he was…
a) “very handsome”,
b) and next in line (King David’s fourth son, 2 Sam 3:4, after Absalom).

What did he do? Promoted himself by…
a) public displays of power (getting chariots and horses, and sending 50 men to run ahead of him),
b) manipulative lobbying with leaders,
c) threw a coronation party, inviting those whom he knew would support him.

BUT some respected leaders did not support him. The two ‘buts’ in v.8 & 10 show that Zadok the chief priest and Nathan the prophet, among other leaders, did not support Adonijah. They sought to confront and undo his wrongdoing.

Adonijah’s ego-driven attitude and actions divided the people, especially the leaders in Israel. This exposed bad character (those who supported him) and good character (those who did not). That’s what happens whenever anyone, especially leaders (spiritual, civil, business, and political), grasp for power. And God allows it to reveal character, exposing people for who they are.

The Hebrew name Adonijah means “my Lord (Master) is Yahweh (God)”. In 35 years of formation, Adonijah had not learnt to submit his will to God, to make Yahweh his real Lord and Master. Adonijah’s father, King David, “never interfered with him by asking, ‘why do you behave the way you do?’” (v.6, sadly, a lack of fathering). By grasping for power he rejected his God-given identity and purpose embodied in his name. His self-serving behaviour showed that he ‘self-identified’ as “my Lord is Me”.

Have you been tempted to power, to make yourself a leader, to be king?

IN GOD’S KINGDOM, power and leadership is always given, never ever taken. One is only and always invited and appointed by others, those above you, by God. There is NO self-promotion, let alone self-appointment, in God’s Kingdom.

Adonijah followed Lucifer, who grasped for ultimate position and power: God’s throne, to be God. All who grasp for power and all who support such leaders reveal the character of Lucifer, whether they know it or not. Such leaders and people do the will of Satan on earth as it is in hell.

The ultimate reversal – undoing of this corrupt and evil way – is through Jesus. Though equal with God, he did not consider equality with God something to grasped or held on to. Rather, he stripped himself of position and power and made himself nothing. Taking on the nature of a slave, he selflessly served, obeying God all his life: “not my will but yours be done”. To the point of death. Even death on a cross. Therefore God highly exalted him, giving him all authority and power in heaven and earth. He is the true Adonijah, “my Lord is (really) God”. All true followers of Jesus do God’s will on earth as it is in heaven.