A surgical instrument comprises a body assembly and an end effector. The body assembly includes a control module, an orientation sensor communicatively coupled to the control module, and an energy component. The energy component is operable to activate the end effector at a plurality of energy settings. A storage device is communicatively coupled to the control module and includes a plurality of gesture profiles and corresponding energy settings. The control module is configured to set the energy setting of the energy component to a corresponding energy setting in response to a correlation between the output of the orientation sensor and a gesture profile. In some versions, the control module modifies the energy setting based upon output from a force sensor that measures the force on the end effector. The control module may also decrease the energy setting in response to an anomalous acceleration or deceleration detected by an accelerometer.