An alarm pierces the night. Men scramble out of bunks, yank on their clothes and try not to trip over one another as they scurry to battle stations. Officer Mack makes his way toward the control room, adrenaline pumping through his veins. Every soul on the submarine is now in his hands. They have trained for hours just so the next few minutes can go smoothly.
As he steps into the room someone shouts “officer on deck!” With an obligatory salute all soldiers turn their attention to him as he orders, “Set course 180 degrees.”
Immediately the Conning Officer says, “Set course 180 degrees.”
Then the Helmsman calls out, “Set Course 180 degrees.”
As the vessel turns the Helmsman shouts out, ” On course, 180 degrees.”
The Conning Officer responds, “180 degrees, aye.”
To watch a scene like this unfold in a group of battle proven men who are under intense pressure is an amazing experience. It is a picture of uncommon unity. Most successful military operations have similar protocols. Many businesses that are engaged in dangerous endeavors and many emergency responders do the same. They listen for a command and then repeat it, to insure that everyone on the team is in complete unity. It is a beautiful thing when everyone cooperates. Lives are saved. Everyone on the team understands that those who give the orders are only human, but more is accomplished through unity than would be accomplished if everyone was making their own judgment calls.
I wonder what would happen in a local church, or in the body of Christ at large, if we adhered to this method of operation? What if everyone responded to what God said by repeating the same thing? What if every preacher preached what the Bible said instead of their spin on what the Bible said? What if elders in a church accepted direction from their pastor without arguing for their point of view? What if a man could be anointed of the Holy Spirit to preach and the congregation could be anointed to hear, so that when the preacher said something true, the whole congregation would agree and maybe even say, “amen”?
Obviously, the first step toward a world of unity rather than obstruction and internal sabotage, is to come to agreement as to who is in charge. When societies, churches, families or individuals demote God from commanding officer to consultant everything begins to break down. When they begin treating God’s Word like a book of proverbs and myths, the enemy quickly gains the upper hand because confusion rules the day.
Truth be told, we are in a war between good and evil, and God is trying to speak into our lives. It is also true that the enemy is always trying to divide the troops, and that he has the legal right to mess with people that are out of order. For example, Jesus was God in flesh, speaking truth and going in the right direction. Judas was off base, but he convinced himself otherwise and ended up betraying Christ and then committing suicide. In contrast, the rest of the disciples, although afraid and confused, did not rebel, but followed to the best of their ability and eventually “turned the world upside down”. If the eleven did it, we can do it. It all starts with complete trust in God and those He has called to lead, so we can all live in uncommon unity.