Power is not only something held by governments, executives, institutions, or people with enormous platforms. Whenever we can influence, create, teach, spend, publish, persuade, encourage, withhold, or choose, we have some degree of power.
In this episode, Brent explores what happens before power becomes visible in the world. Energy receives direction. Direction contributes to coherence. Coherence strengthens agency. Agency becomes expression. And for Christians, love must help shape that movement before our choices produce their effects.
Primary Scriptures
1 Corinthians 8:1 — Knowledge can puff up; love builds up.
1 Corinthians 13 — Gifts, knowledge, faith, generosity, and sacrifice become empty when love is absent.
Exodus 31 — Bezalel receives wisdom, understanding, knowledge, and skill that become faithful workmanship.
1 Peter 4:10 — Gifts are received so they can be used in service to one another.
The Framework
Energy + Direction → Coherence → Agency → Expression
Energy is already present in us: emotional, mental, spiritual, creative, and relational. The important question is what gives that energy direction. As beliefs, values, judgment, emotion, desire, and will become more coherent around Christ, we gain greater room to choose rather than simply react. That agency is then expressed through what we say, create, lead, spend, serve, withhold, or do.
In This Episode
Why power is much closer to everyday life than we usually imagine.
How fear, anger, ambition, compassion, and love can all direct human energy.
Why being correct is not enough: Paul’s challenge to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 8.
The difference between asking, “Am I allowed to do this?” and “What will my choice do to the person beside me?”
A biblical pattern of Gift → Direction → Agency → Building Up.
Why faster technology makes inner coherence more important, not less.
How AI, automation, publishing, and other powerful tools can amplify both mature agency and unformed impulse.
Why pastoral care sometimes reveals restraint, silence, and presence as powerful expressions of love.
Bible by Design: Gift → Direction → Agency → Building Up
Scripture repeatedly shows God giving people ability, opportunity, influence, resources, authority, knowledge, or spiritual gifts. Those gifts create capability, but capability is not the destination. Love gives faithful direction; agency becomes service; and the intended result is the building up of others.
That leads to a better Christian measure of power. The question is not simply whether our reach, output, influence, or productivity is increasing. The deeper question is: What am I building?
The Turn: Just Because I Can…
Technology keeps removing friction between impulse and expression. We can create, publish, research, automate, and respond faster than ever. That can be a gift, but it also means we have less accidental time to reconsider our impulses.
The capability question asks, “How much can I do?” The love question asks, “What will actually help the person on the other side of this?” More content is not automatically more ministry. More capability is not automatically wiser action.
Formation Practice: Follow the Movement
Before acting in a moment when you have the ability to produce an effect, slow the process down and ask:
What energy is active in me right now?
What is giving that energy direction?
Am I coherent, or am I about to react?
What agency do I actually have here?
How should that agency be expressed?
Will this build up?
Carry This With You
Power without formation defaults to impulse. Power shaped by love becomes service.
Next in The Formed Future
TBU 109 — Becoming More Fully Human. As technology becomes more capable, the next question is not merely what machines can do, but what parts of being human we should cultivate more deeply rather than surrender.
The Bible Unplugged • Power Love and Miracles
Scripture quotations in the episode are from the World English Bible.
