Love is Power… the Only Real Power in Heaven or on Earth
Love as true power
Somewhere along the way we accepted a quiet lie.
Love is flowers, romance, and sentiment.
Power is domination, force, control, intimidation, titles, armies, and influence.
After experiencing heaven as a child, I have never been able to see it that way.
The deepest power I have ever known wasn't force.
It was love.
Not the version of love our culture markets every February, a love so complete, so alive, so immeasurably present that darkness simply cannot exist within it.
Evil doesn't overcome that kind of love.
It dissolves in its presence.
I think that's why I was always fascinated with stories of extraordinary power growing up—fantasy worlds, anime, comics, impossible heroes whose strength surpassed entire armies.
I was searching for something I had already encountered.
The only true reference point for power I had was heaven.
And heaven is love.
We spend our lives mistaking force for strength.
The loudest voice.
The biggest platform.
The strongest army.
The highest title.
The person who can make everyone else comply.
Force isn’t power.
Force is often fear trying to protect itself.
Love needs no protection.
Jesus called Himself gentle.
Think about that.
The Creator of the universe—the One through whom all things were made—chose gentleness as one of the defining descriptions of His own nature.
Not because He lacked power.
Because He understood what power actually is.
There's another subtle lie woven into our culture that deserves to be questioned.
We've been taught that to be of masculine energy means to control, conquer, dominate, outwork, outcompete, and never soften.
We've placed people into rigid boxes and then wonder why so many feel disconnected from themselves.
Heaven doesn't fit inside our categories.
The infinite love of God exists outside every box humanity has created.
Perhaps that's why it feels so unfamiliar.
True power possesses such a presence it doesn't need to prove itself.
Society expected the Messiah to arrive armored up.
Religion anticipated a military commander who would overthrow kingdoms by force.
Instead, God entrusted Himself to humanity as a baby.
The One who could calm storms entered the world unable to speak.
The One who could command legions of angels chose to wash dusty feet.
The One who needed no armor arrived without it because love itself was His strength.
Perhaps the greatest misunderstanding isn't that we've underestimated Jesus.
It's that we've underestimated gentleness.
The most powerful expression of humanity isn't domination at all.
It’s becoming so rooted in love that proving becomes unnecessary.
Because love isn't one expression of power.
Love is power itself.
One of my favorite moments in Scripture is when a crowd intends to throw Jesus from a cliff.
He simply walks through them.
No intimidation.
No retaliation.
No performance.
No need to prove Himself.
Just quiet authority.
Love moving through fear.
The strongest person in the story isn't the one making threats.
It's the One who remains fully Himself.
That is power.
My wife and I joke about this, we sometimes say having experienced heaven changed my reference point for power forever.
No athlete.
No celebrity.
No empire.
No historical figure.
No military force.
None of them represent ultimate power to me.
I've seen something greater.
The only thing that ever appeared weak was fear pretending to be strong in attempted intimidation.
The only thing that appeared truly powerful was love.
The same misunderstanding follows us into leadership.
We believe authority comes from control.
From metrics.
From pressure.
From making people comply.
Every person you lead can feel the difference between being managed and being loved.
They know when they're a number.
They know when they're being manipulated.
They know when an organization says it cares while quietly extracting everything it can.
People may not always have language for it.
But their bodies know.
Your body knows.
Love creates safety.
Safety creates trust.
Trust creates creativity.
Creativity creates flourishing.
Force may produce compliance.
Only love creates wholehearted participation.
I've led in healthcare, military environments, wellness, performance, and executive spaces.
The most transformational leaders I encountered weren't the loudest.
They weren't the most intimidating.
They weren't obsessed with proving themselves.
They made people feel seen.
Safe.
Valued.
Capable.
They believed in people until people began believing in themselves.
That is leadership grounded in heaven.
If love is the greatest power in existence, then leadership isn't about becoming more dominant.
It’s about becoming more aligned.
The greatest influence you'll ever have won't come from controlling outcomes but from creating environments where people remember who they are.
And maybe that's true for your own body too.
The body rarely flourishes under domination.
It flourishes when it is listened to.
Honored.
Partnered with.
Loved.
From dominance to divine partnership.
That's not becoming less powerful.
It's discovering what power has always been.
Five Gentle Invitations
- Notice where you equate force with effectiveness.
Where have you mistaken pressure for power? - Practice presence instead of proving.
Enter one conversation today with no need to convince anyone. Simply be fully there. - Ask your body, “What would love do today?”
Listen for rest, nourishment, movement, boundaries, or stillness before pushing harder. - Redefine leadership through love.
Instead of asking, “How do I get more from people?” ask, “How do I help them feel more fully alive?” - Remember that heaven has a different definition of strength.
The strongest person in the room may be the one who no longer needs armor.
I bless you to discover that the power you've been searching for was never found in domination.
It has always been within you.
Infinite love and blessings,
Nicholas