February Theme: True Leadership Superpowers

Kim Levings
Feb 4
5 min read

Leadership can be a slippery slope when focus turns to acquiring power – however it represents itself in your sphere of influence. If the word "power" bothers you, let's reframe it. This could represent a desire for influence, a pursuit of higher authority and prestige, the pursuit of better and bigger, or the innate desire for acceptance and recognition. Power comes with a plethora of possible representations and disguises—just as fear can masquerade as control.

Kingdom-aligned leaders understand that true power flows from a counterintuitive, and often counter-cultural source. We serve a God with infinite power and omnipresence.

This month's theme will explore four powers that culture dismisses but Christ exemplified: surrender, stillness, stewardship, and redemption. We start today with surrender.

The Power of Surrender

Illusion of Control

Picture yourself gripping a steering wheel, white-knuckled, navigating your business through traffic you can't control, weather you didn't forecast, and road conditions that shift without warning. You're holding on so tightly because you've convinced yourself that if you just maintain your grip, everything will turn out exactly as planned.

This is how many of us lead. We clench our fists around our strategies, our timelines, our vision of success. We pray, "God, bless this business I'm building. Bless this show I'm running. Bless these plans I've made." We've got it backwards.

We're asking God to co-sign our agenda rather than aligning ourselves with His.

The truth is most of what we think we're controlling is an illusion. Market forces shift. People make unexpected choices. Circumstances change overnight. And there we sit, exhausted from the effort of trying to force outcomes that were never ours to control in the first place.

We also fall into the trap of doubting God because our prayers (demands?) are not being met. Our constant pursuit of performance and results causes us to get out of step with His plan for our lives, our businesses, our relationships.

The Surrender Shift

Here's where the counterintuitive power begins: surrender isn't about abandoning the car. It's about getting comfortable riding shotgun.

I recently heard someone describe being equally yoked with Christ not as the absence of work, but as the alignment of work. That image resonates deeply. Surrender doesn't mean passivity, resignation, or checking out of your responsibilities. It means yielding the ultimate outcomes to God while staying fully engaged in the work He's called you to do.

This is the critical distinction many leaders miss. Surrender isn't abdication. It's not throwing up your hands and saying, "Well, whatever happens, happens." It's the active, intentional choice to release your grip on control while remaining deeply committed to faithful action.

Think of it this way: you're still showing up. Still making decisions. Still pouring energy and excellence into your work. The difference is that you're no longer operating under the crushing weight of believing that everything depends on you getting it exactly right.

You're partnering with God rather than asking Him to partner with you.

What Culture Says vs. What the Kingdom Says

Our culture sends clear messages about power, which the Kingdom flips entirely.

Here's the paradox that culture overlooks or doesn't comprehend:

you gain power by giving it up.

Jesus told the rich man to sell all he owned, and the man was deeply troubled. Jesus had asked him to give up what he controlled – what he put higher value on that anything else. (Mark 10:21-23) What is He asking you to let go of?

Our sense of control is also tied to idolatry. What we value highly, we hold tightly onto, and it soon entraps us.

When you surrender control, you stop wasting energy on things that were never yours to control. You acknowledge that nothing should get between you and God. You stop the exhausting work of playing God in your own life and business. You create space for actual divine power to work through you rather than relying solely on your limited human strength and wisdom.

What You Actually Gain

Surrender isn't about loss. It's about exchange. You trade your white-knuckled anxiety for something far more valuable:

Clarity. When you're no longer obsessed with forcing specific outcomes, you can see opportunities you would have otherwise missed. Your vision clears because you're not clouding it with your own agenda.
Peace. The crushing weight of "it all depends on me" lifts. You can breathe. You sleep better. You're free from the relentless anxiety that comes with trying to control an uncontrollable world.
God's power working through you. This is where the real transformation happens. When you create space by releasing control, God's power can flow freely. Your work becomes infused with something beyond your natural abilities.
Creative freedom. Ironically, when you stop forcing your vision to fit your current reality, new creative thinking takes center stage. Innovation requires space, and surrender creates it.

You're no longer strangled by the fear of getting it wrong because you've acknowledged a fundamental truth: it was never all up to you in the first place.

Surrender in Practice

So, what does this look like this week? Not in theory, but in your actual day-to-day leadership?

Ask yourself:

What decisions am I white-knuckling right now?
What outcomes am I trying to force into existence through sheer willpower?
What fears am I gripping so tightly that I can't even consider an alternative path?
What vision am I trying to cram into my current reality instead of allowing God to expand my reality to fit His vision?

Surrender starts small and specific. It might look like:

Releasing your timeline for a project and trusting God's timing
Letting go of needing a particular person to respond a certain way
Surrendering the outcome of a pitch, presentation, or proposal
Yielding your reputation and how you're perceived
Releasing control over how your team members approach their work

Pick one thing this week. Just one. Practice loosening your grip and saying, "Not my will, but Yours."

The Ultimate Example

In the Garden of Gethsemane, facing the cross, Jesus prayed, "Not my will, but yours be done."

Jesus—who had all power and authority—chose surrender.

He didn't surrender because He was weak. He surrendered because He trusted the Father completely. He submitted to a plan that looked like absolute defeat but was the ultimate victory.

This is the pattern for Kingdom-aligned leaders. Jesus always submitted to the Father. In that submission, in that surrender, there was power.

Not the power to force outcomes. Not the power to control people. Not the power to avoid suffering or difficulty.

The power to participate in something far greater than what we could orchestrate on our own.

Your Turn

This week, I challenge you to identify one area where you're white-knuckling control. Just one. Practice the power of surrender. Not as weakness, but as the ultimate power move.

Release your grip.

Trust the One who never lets go.

And watch what happens when you finally get comfortable in the passenger seat.

This is part one of our February series on Finding the Right Power. Next week, we'll explore the power of stillness.

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