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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 020. The Awe of Power
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The Awe of Power
Now it will help us greatly to recognize and resist the devil, if we know a bit more about him. Knowledge here will be a real help to power. I want to talk with you just now about his ambition and his aim. If we understand what it is he is aiming at, and what motive is controlling him, it will help us greatly in recognizing him when he approaches us under cover.
It helps to note the difference between aim and ambition. The aim is the purpose of one's life; the ambition is the passion burning underneath. The aim is the thing you are driving at; ambition is the thing you are driving with, or the thing that drives you toward the aim. The aim is the goal; the ambition the motive power. The aim is the driving point; the ambition is the driving power.
What are Satan's aim and ambition—the purpose and passion that control him? I think we can get the answer quicker, and clearer, and better, if we take a moment to note the effect produced by the possession of power.
Power always has a peculiar effect upon those who have it. That effect may be either good or bad. Power either awes, or it itches. It produces a sense of reverence and of responsibility, or it causes a sort of self-itch. That word "itch" may not seem just a nice word to use, but it is so accurate and graphic that I think it helps to use it, that we may better understand.
Each of us has power of some sort, and in some degree, some more, some less. It may be the power that comes through the possesion of physical beauty. Beauty gives power over others. It may be power through a keen mind, a well-stored and well-trained mind; power of personal presence and touch, of wisdom, of leadership among men in the action of life; power through what one can do; power through the possession of money which is so enormous, or power by reason of position official or otherwise. Now whatever sort of power it may be, and in whatever degree it be possessed, it has one of two effects upon us.
There is the good effect, the true effect that it should have—it should awe. It all comes from God. It is given us by Him. It is not a thing that we possess of ourselves, simply. It is a gift. That should awe and humble us, to think that God has given us such a gift.
Then it is a trust. God entrusts it to us. We are responsible to Him. We are trustees. No matter what the power, it is something given us by God in trust. As we realize this it makes us yet more humble and prayerful, that we may be true to the trust, and make the best use of the gift for God.
And then it may be used among men. That is the purpose in its being given to us. It is for others. We are to use it for men's sake, in God's name, to His glory. So God intended. That is the threefold fact about any power that you and I possess. And to realize this at all makes one very thoughtful and prayerful that it be used wholly as intended. The possession of power awes—that is the true, the good effect.