The Clash of Power and Authority: Why the Pursuit of Authority Instead of Power Normally Leads to Transformational Change

By Troy Sanon

The Clash of Power and Authority seeks to answer a simple question: Why have so many people of humble backgrounds touched so many lives while many people of power have not made a positive impact? This reflection is crafted through my observation of people of power and experience working with people of authority. My thoughts have led to the emergence of the notion that there is a constant battle between power and authority.

This book is a testimony of my experience with such contrast at a young age while working with Jack Wall, a person of authority, who has dedicated his life to serving the poor. I have learned from Jack Wall that one can have a life of impact through the search for purpose. The principles urged by this book are offered as advice and can be applied by people of all ranks of life. Whether you are a young student or a professional, and whether you are building a family, a business, a ministry or a community, the driving force behind your action comes from how you respond to your call to serve.

This book challenges several standards of success assumptions, including the view that one can have an impact on society only if he or she has power, money and is well connected. I redefine success as the degree of our response to our calling and our commitment to that calling. The challenge that awaits everyone who wants to make an impact on society is to know how to obtain authority.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984570703

Troy Sanon

Troy Sanon is a consultant in social business, strategic management and leadership development. He has worked on a broad range of issues within the field of social and economic development. He supports the development of local leadership, results-based management and the application of a market systems approach to development. Troy has practical understanding and considerable knowledge in global development, cooperatives and enterprises. He has designed projects that obtained the support of various governmental and international organizations, development financial institutions and international NGO’s. His work is focused on transformational development, small and medium-size businesses, public policy, public sector reform and trade. His formal training is in Business Administration with a concentration in community assets and cultural capital development. Troy firmly believes that all actions must be inspired by a vision to make the world better by answering the calling to foster real and transformational change.

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Copyright © 2018 by Troy Sanon.

Library of Congress Control Number:     2018914403

ISBN:         Hardcover                    978-1-9845-7072-7

                   Softcover                       978-1-9845-7071-0

                   eBook                             978-1-9845-7070-3

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without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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Rev. date: 03/17/2020

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CONTENTS

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Foreword

PART I

Introduction

A Definition of Authority

A Definition of Power

PART II

The Origin of Authority and How It Operates

The Origin of Power and How It Operates

PART III

A life of Commitment

A Network

A Culture of Patience and Persistence

A Life of Ethical Commitment

PART IV

What if a Person of Power Changes and Begins to Seek Authority?

The Pursuit of Happiness

The Importance of Trying to Be Nonjudgmental

PART V

The End of the Clash of Power and Authority

Conclusion

FOREWORD

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On my birthday, I gave thanks to the Creator for the gift of life. I regularly fast on my birthday to spend time in prayer. I don’t deserve any credit for my birth. I give credit to the Creator. In lieu of festivity, I take the day to thank Him.

I see people organize big parties on their birthday and celebrate it as if it was an accomplishment. I choose that day to reflect and renew my reconnection with the Creator. Every time I fast on my birthday, I reinforce my connection with the Creator. The last time, He stressed my responsibility to write about my experience with people of authority. He ordered me to share my understanding of authority with as many people as possible. A better understanding of authority will help young people to be efficient by looking for their calling. It will help the not so young people to live in peace and look for authority instead of power. The Creator showed me how to seek more humility and wisdom. No task is as delightful to me as writing and advising my fellow human beings. This book will change your life. The change may be gradual or rapid. It may be barely noticeable or monumental. But when you begin your journey trying to understand the Clash of Power and Authority, I am certain you will be wiser.

Authority and power are not coequal. Whoever has power has the privilege to make decisions, rule and give orders. But power is short-lived. Authority is the legitimate permission to change the world by participating in the Creator’s ministry. Authority has nothing to envy from power. The notion of Power and Authority is being used here as a concept, as the most appropriate term to describe the forces of power and the forces of authority.

My belief in the Creator is based on my personal experience with Him. I believe He exists because He has been constantly present in my life. Human intelligence is not advanced enough yet to rationally prove His existence. But those of us who have been at His mercy daily, should be capable to easily feel His presence in our lives. I believe the Creator is the source of life and all existence. The simple fact that the universe exists, is proof that it has a source and its source is the Creator. The Creator is eternal, intelligent and blissful. He is formless, all powerful, omniscient, just, merciful, endless, unchangeable, faultless and unequalled. He is the maker of all, the master of all, omnipresent, omnipotent, immortal, fearless and holy. He will never become imperfect. He can’t cease to be Himself.

His is all powerful as He alone can conceptualize the universe. He cannot go against His nature. He has endless compassion and will forgive us for our offences and mistakes. But just because He forgives, does not mean He will not let us pay the consequences of our misdeeds. Undo the consequences of our misdeeds because of forgiveness would be unjust and contrary to His character and nature. He can do everything; but it would make no sense for Him to create us, give us intelligence and do everything for us. Otherwise, we always would wait for Him to do everything for us, even those things we can do for ourselves, build our skills, run our business and transform our community.

The Creator has chosen to leave our world uncomfortable, so it could be our responsibility to live and be happy. He left the world with great opportunities and potentials, but it’s up to us to take initiatives, create, grow, develop and flourish under His grace. As the Creator’s image bearers, we are called to master the rest of the creation around us. He made it logical for us and the rest of His creation, along with the cultural and social organizations that we create, to live in harmony with or in resentment against the creational norms of life.

The Creator always existed and is the only God that is eternal. God is not limited in any way. God is a team made up of three persons who are called Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Long ago, God created the world and saw that what was created had great value. He created human beings and gave them a special place in the world. They were created to care for the earth under His direction. God showed them how to be productive and happy. God loved and valued human beings very much.

Satan is an angel created by God. Satan became resentful of God. He was unhappy to be limited and not having God’s level of authority. He wanted to be as great as God. But that was not possible. Today, Satan is still resentful of God. In his bitterness he tries to destroy God’s good creation. That is why Satan is God’s enemy.

This is how Satan damaged God’s creation. He came to our first parents, Adam and Eve. Satan wanted them to be envious of God, like he was. He told them: You can become great, like God. You don’t have to stay under God’s direction, you don’t have to be limited by God. God doesn’t want you to become great like He is, without limits. So, don’t believe what God is telling you! If you go beyond God’s limits, you’ll see. You’ll become great like God!

We suffer when we decide not to respond to His call. His wonderful creation was damaged because of those of us who chose not to answer their calling. Sickness, suffering, cruelty and death come into God’s wonderful creation. God was sad to see His world suffer. But God didn’t abandon the world. The world was damaged; but God still valued it. God still loved the world and promised to repair it. Long after Adam and Eve, God sent Jesus to the world to conquer Satan. When Jesus came back to life after his death, he showed that he was stronger than Satan. Then Jesus returned to Heaven to be by the Creator. In heaven, Jesus continues to combat Satan and the forces of evil through his word and through the Holy Spirit.

This combat begins in the heart of Jesus’ disciples. Romans 12:2 describes this combat. We must be different from those around us! Leave our old ways of thinking and acting and develop new attitudes.

The search for authority gives us a new attitude of the heart. As we seek authority, we begin to understand the ministry of Christ and cultivate it in us through the authority of the Spirit. Through our new attitudes, God blesses us and blesses those around us.

We need His guidance in everything we do; but it is our job to do what we are called to do. He constantly seeks to point us to the right direction; but we must still choose our own path. The set of values that guides our life, should not be a secret. We should express it, write about it, bond with it, act like it and do everything with it. But we must reject the idea that our religion is better than anybody else’s religion. We are all created in the Creator’s image. Besides disciplining people, religion has not produced transformational changes and will never do. But no great change is possible without spirituality. Without connection with the Creator we are like a house that has a great electrical installation. All the lights and electric devices are connected, but the house has no electrical energy.

There is a great spiritual battle being fought for the hearts and minds of people. A great battle for control and influence. The fight creates great confusions. It causes us to be in a permanent struggle between the truth and the belief systems of this world.

The search for authority is the way one finds real success and happiness. I know many people who are successful because they have responded to their calling. I have worked for a person who had authority. I have been continually amazed and inspired by Jack Wall’s life. Due to this admiration, I’ve always wanted to write a book about authority. I think authority is invisible and its results are visible. This book is about a life experience. It’s about reality and fact. It is a chain of observations and thoughts resulted from fact, life stories and commitments. I wish I had known them when I was younger. I wish I had known them when I was looking all over the world to make a living.

I suspect that my passionate belief in the Creator could be viewed as a weakness by some thinkers. Because it has become attractive when thinkers and intellectuals question the existence of the Creator. When they want to get the attention that they need to become famous. They attack God, easy target. God is not here to defend Himself. When we look at the amazing piece of art and science that we are and the environment that we live in and how it supports our existence. We must surmise we are not an accident.

The Creator has no interest in interfering in our lives, except for the purpose of helping us. In many cases, He would rather that we helped ourselves. He helps those who ask for help. He also establishes principles and natural laws for us to learn about and follow. I am confident in my strong sense of rationality and I strongly believe in the Creator. I detest blind belief and I will continue to. I believe in the Clash of Power and Authority. I believe the Creator’s existence has been revealed to me by deeds. The most unethical thing a person can do is to try to ignore facts and personal experience.

I believe that the Creator, as an efficient entrepreneur, created the world. He gave us enough knowledge to be as independent as we could be. His goal, I would say, is to gradually disengage from our physical life. He wants His creation to be autonomous and self-sufficient, so it could be physically independent from Him. As the world grows; it becomes more intelligent and mature. The Creator becomes less involved in our lives to the extent that those who do not seek direct experience with Him tend to believe in His in-existence. He reveals Himself to whom He wants to but offers His word to all of us. Those who are humble enough to respond to His call are blessed with the gift of being eternally linked to Him.

The humans are free beings. They, themselves, determine what is beneficial to them and what is harmful, and, on that basis, they decide what they should do. Our judgement plays an important role in our choices. It is impossible that a person should choose to do a thing which, according to his or her judgement, is rather harmful to him or her than beneficial. A sensible person, interested in his life would never set himself on fire, nor would shoot himself in the head, but would take care of himself.

Understanding power and authority is not just about linking to the Creator. It is also about a better understanding of the phenomena, rules and natural systems that deal with human movements for existence and co-existence. We can simply say that the desire to observe those rules is the beginning of true intelligence. Our paramount responsibility should be to seek a mind that is determined to reject the untruth and accept the truth. The Creator encourages us to promote the good of all rather than limiting ourselves in promoting His good only. Bottom line, the only way we can show respect and love for Him is by loving people, both friends and enemies. We can’t efficiently live our lives without those rules and principles. Without love for friends and enemies, we would do exactly the things that we want to do, without thinking of their effect on others. We might abuse people and the environment, overeat or overindulge in sex. We might possess more than we should. We must have principles and rules by which to guide our lives. Restrain ourselves without an understanding of why we do so, is insane. Because, it brings an unnecessary stress in our life. The observation of restraints and controls without a clear understanding of the basic reasons for them is not wisdom.

The observation of rules and principles within the context of the overall systems and phenomena makes a better sense. The observation of rules with the idea of gain, security, comfort is more attractive, but not necessary. The person who is living his or her life without the expectation of advantages or the risk of loss, has significant wisdom. Anyone who tries to live and understand each life’s experience, will maintain principles and rules in his or her life. He or she also has the responsibility to share that experience with all of us.

When your thought is free, it becomes in harmony with the Creator. At the end, you become eternal like the Creator. If you try to control your thought, to direct it, because you have established a goal, that’s great. Because your thought is your reality. Only you can control your thought. When you know your calling, your mind is busy thinking about it.

Individuals vary based on their viewpoint. They vary based on the strength of their character. They vary based on the consequences of their actions but are all equal before the Creator. The only difference between the most trained person and the most undereducated one is a bunch of information. The education systems of the world make a compilation of information, sell them to us so we can be accepted as smart people, but it doesn’t make us either intelligent or smart. Education should never be for sale. It is just a compilation of information which we all have a natural right to receive and have access to. All it does for us is accelerating our information gathering process. The actions we do with our education determine the level of our smartness, intelligence and wisdom.

We don’t need the Creator to restrain us from committing sin, nor is there any need for that. We need to make choices. Avoiding a sin is not rewardable if we are unable to commit it or are kept from committing it by the Creator. If people were unable to commit sin by God, they would be robots. They would be unable to do anything undesired by God. They would have no freedom of action.

Like Adam and Eve and like King David, we tend to hide what we’ve done wrong. We fear the punishment and shame that will come if we are found out. God’s love frees us from this fear and gives us the courage to acknowledge what we’ve done wrong and confess it to Him. When we confess our sins, God forgives us and frees us from our guilt and shame. Then God works in our heart, so we learn to love and forgive others. We learn not to be afraid to acknowledge and confess what we’ve done wrong. We learn to respect and forgive those who do wrong to us.

Authority is different from the power of the spirit, although both can produce the same result. With authority, it is not a question of being perfect, or being religious, it is a question of answering your calling on earth. We receive the authority we need in proportion to the mission we are called for. The Creator gives us authority in many areas, but the goal is always to directly bless others, love Him, love our friends and enemies.

Scriptures teach us there are resource creators and resource receivers. The twelve tribes of Israel had different functions. Eleven tribes were resource creators, and one tribe priest, therefore resource receiver.

Typically, resource receivers include churches, government entities, religious organizations, and humanitarian ministries, etc. God has called most of us to be resource creators. History indicates most resource creators were better stewards of this world’s wealth than resource receivers. Because resource creators place a higher value on small amounts of money than resource receivers.

Answering our calling and giving without expecting anything in return are normal ways to receive authority and are scriptural. The scriptures teach that both resource creators and receivers have giving responsibilities. Leaders must give. Frequently when leaders don’t give, their people follow their example and don’t give.

No one is too poor to give. You can give to a church. You can give to a cause. You can give to anybody in need. Everything you receive must go. You must live by faith, only by faith. God made it a percentage just to help us; but everything must go, at some point. Nothing really belongs to us, it all belongs to Him. Contributing 10% to God’s demonstrates to God that we are absolutely trusting Him with all our finances.

Employees: If one is employed, we recommend giving on the income you receive; this is basically a simple 10% calculation of your wages/income. Business operators: For Business owners giving becomes a more challenging process, as gross profit and net profit are