Power in Unity, Part 2

In our last meditation we wrote about the power of unity as it pertains to persons working together such as families, churches, companies, athletic teams, armies, etc. Today I wish to apply this principle to individuals.

In order for us to perform effectively, we need to be united within ourselves. The following passage makes this point quite clear:

James 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

True to form, let’s define a couple of key terms in this passage.

Waver – Of persons, their sentiments, etc.: To exhibit doubt or indecision; to change or vary; to fluctuate or vacillate (between); to falter in resolution or allegiance; to show signs of giving way.

Double-minded - Having two minds; undecided or wavering in mind.

The thoughts of a double-minded man bounce around from thing to thing. He lacks focus. He has trouble making up his mind and settling on a course of action. He is not united within himself. Instead of controlling his thoughts, he allows circumstances and impulses to toss his mind to and fro like the wind tosses a wave of the sea. His mind is always moving in first one direction and then in another. And having such a wavering mind, he is unstable in all his ways. Unstable things and people lack strength. They cannot be relied on. You see, there is power in unity. When one is not united within himself, he lacks personal power; he is unstable. And this instability effects all his ways, as James said.

In order to be effective in accomplishing a task, we need to be focused on that task. Distractions interfere with accomplishment. This brings us back to what I preached about last Sunday with respect to growing in knowledge. In order to acquire knowledge, we need to concentrate on what we are trying to learn. Note the definition of concentrate.

Concentrate – To bring to or towards a common centre; to collect or gather as at a centre; to cause to converge or meet at one point or place.

When we concentrate with our minds we cause our thoughts to focus on one thing. We are uniting our thoughts around one task. If we are concentrating when we pray to God, read the Bible, or listen to a sermon, we are focusing our mind on that activity alone and we are not allowing our thoughts to wander from it. We are not concentrating if we are distracted by noise, emotions, or impulses. Such distractions must be eliminated or at least ignored if we are to concentrate. The uniting of our thoughts gives us the power to accomplish the task before us. It is the power of unity in action.

Let me again give you a quote I cited once before in a meditation I did on listening. This quote comes from an article entitled Improving Your Memory: Tips and Techniques for Memory Enhancement. This article can be found by going to www.helpguide.org and typing in the title. Here’s the quote:

New information enters your brain along pathways between neurons in the appropriate area of the brain. The key to encoding information into your memory is concentration; unless you focus on information intently, it goes “in one ear and out the other.” This is why teachers are always nagging students to pay attention! If you’ve concentrated well enough to encode new information in your brain, the hippocampus sends a signal to store the information as long-term memory.

While a double-minded man is unstable, the man who is not double-minded is effective. An excellent example of such a man is found in the following passage:

1 Chronicles 12:33 Of Zebulun, such as went forth to battle, expert in war, with all instruments of war, fifty thousand, which could keep rank: they were not of double heart.

These warriors from the tribe of Zebulun were expert at what they did. An army of expert soldiers is a powerful force to be reckoned with. And critical to their expertise was the fact that they were “not of double heart.” Their thoughts and intents were focused on the task at hand. Each warrior was united within himself and focused upon his task. And together they were all focused on the same objective. This is the power of unity.

So unity of heart is essential to being effective in performing any task. It gives us personal power for performance. But nowhere is this more essential than in the task of serving God. You cannot serve God effectively without being united within yourself. Your thoughts and intents must all be focused on one end and that is to become what God wants you to be and so to glorify Him in all things. This being so, we can better appreciate the following prayer found in the Psalms:

Psalms 86:11 Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.

Was the apostle Paul a powerful man? Consider how powerfully his life and ministry impact us even to this day. But Paul was also a man unified within himself as his own testimony bears out:

Philippians 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus..

“This one thing I do.” How is that for being focused? That is why Paul was so effective.

Once you make the decision to become a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to remain focused on that alone. You need a united heart centered on that goal. Let everything else in your life be arranged around that single purpose. Let there be no looking back or being distracted from that aim. I close with the following passages:

Luke 9:62 And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Deuteronomy 5:32 Ye shall observe to do therefore as the LORD your God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

Power in Unity, Part 1

I have just emerged from a six-week marathon, as I called it, of busyness. I am hoping that things will slow down now and I can return to my more normal activities, one of which is sending you these meditations.

I have been rereading the excellent work by Gail Riplinger entitled In Awe of Thy Word. I was impressed by the following comments she made regarding the power of unity. This quotation is found on pages 488-489 of her book:

The multiplying of languages by God at Babel was the result of sin. There is power in unity. God said, “they have all one language…and now nothing will be restrained from them” (Gen. 11:6). There is unity and power for good when we have one Bible and one final authority. The devil tries to dispel that power by creating numerous conflicting editions. The wicked speak with multiplied “mouths” (i.e. Jer. 44:25, Lam. 3:46. Dan. 6:22, Titus 1:11). The men (plural) of God speak with “one mouth” (singular) (Rom. 15:6). In I Kings 22:13 “the prophets declare…with one mouth.” Luke 1:70 says, “As he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets.” Acts 3:18 repeats, “the mouth of all his prophets.”

To this I will add Paul’s admonition, which Gail Riplinger also cited:

1 Corinthians 1:10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

There is power in unity both for good and for evil. Matthew Henry made the following comment respecting the power in unity:

As in a bundle of rods, they may be of different lengths and different strength; but, when they are tied together by one bond, they are stronger than any, even than the thickest and strongest was of itself.

As I am sure all of you can attest, unity is essential to the effective operation of anything, whether it be a marriage, a family, a company, an athletic team, a kingdom, or an army. Have you ever tried to coach or manage a group of people that did not work together as a team? If you have, then you know what I am talking about. Our Lord Himself taught this principle.

Matthew 12:25 …Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:
26 And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?

Even Satan’s kingdom understands and acts on the principle of power in unity. That is why Satan works overtime to bring division in a church. He knows that by this means he can weaken the church and thus more easily destroy it. Satan’s kingdom also manifests unity in its opposition to the Lord Jesus Christ and His people.

Revelation 17:12 And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

Psalms 83:2 For, lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they that hate thee have lifted up the head.
3 They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:
6 The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre;
8 Assur also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah.

Under other circumstances, these various nations might have been warring against each other. But when it came to opposing God’s Israel, they displayed amazing unity. They united together so as to mount a more powerful campaign against God’s people. Thanks be to God, as in the case of the enterprise at Babel, God intervenes and blocks Satan’s efforts. Otherwise, this world would long since have become the unchallenged domain of Satan in which the cause of God could not survive.

This principle of power in unity explains why church members are constantly called to unity in the New Testament. I could cite numerous such exhortations. A church that is united in the truth of Christ with every member yielding to the single authority of the same Bible is a formidable force for good in this earth. A unified church is effective in prayer, has a bold witness with great power, and great grace is upon it, as the following example demonstrates:

Acts 4:23 And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them.
24 And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is:
25 Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
26 The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ.
27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
29 And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,
30 By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
31 And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.
32 And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.
33 And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.

Observe in this passage that Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were united together against the Lord’s Christ. Their attempt to destroy the Lord’s Christ failed miserably as God by the death of His Christ redeemed His elect and then God raised Him from the dead. And now the forces of evil were uniting against the followers of Christ. Peter and John had just been released from the Jewish court having been threatened and commanded not to teach or preach in the name of Jesus. Undaunted by the threat, Peter and John returned to the disciples, who joined together in one accord to call upon God to bless their witness. God so empowered this body of believers that the effect of their bold witness is felt to this good day. Yes, believers, there is power in unity. I shall have more to say about this in another meditation, God willing. I close today with the words of Paul to the Philippians. Observe that a unified church is powerful. It is “in nothing terrified.”

Philippians 1:27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;
28 And in nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you of salvation, and that of God.