Psalm 143:10 NIV

Teach me to do your will, for you are my God; may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

How Are You Aligned?

In England, it used to be called an “electric torch”, in the US it is known as a flashlight. The elderly woman who owns the home we are renting was taken to live in a nursing home and among the thousands of items she left behind that we have had to clear out of the house were half a dozen flashlights. She had them all stacked in the front room which would have been convenient I guess if someone were breaking into the home at night and wanted to know what to steal without turning on the lights. However, the only problem was that only one of the six flashlights worked. The batteries had all corroded and so I took them out, wiped down the battery compartments and bought new batteries for the three flashlights not ruined. Here was the catch. You have to align the batteries properly for the flashlights to work. No joke, the positive end of each battery must touch the correct terminal for it to work. Because these flashlights required two batteries, every battery had to be aligned correctly for them to each work.

Of course it is silly to waste time on this but what is important is how you are aligned. How are you aligned with regard to your internet browsing, your relationship with your husband or wife, the way you respond to difficult people? How are you aligned in your use of money, your expression of anger or the types of words you choose in conversations? How are you aligned with the people at work or school, with the movies you choose or the TV shows you watch? How are you aligned with the troubles you face and the trials you are encountering? How are you aligned in regard to what you say about others when they aren’t with you? What is your alignment with the Bible, with the Church, with God?

Alignment is always a matter of the will. Each of us has a will, it is what determines how we decide and what we decide. The Bible makes two assumptions with regard to the will. Human beings all have a will. Each of us is free to make choices…important choices and trivial choices and we are accountable for the choices we make. The second assumption with regard to the will is that our will is either aligned with God or with Satan at any given moment. This is made clear throughout the Bible. The will mostly operates in micro decisions that seem trivial and inconsequential. But if your will is aligned with God, even the micro decisions are done through Him. If though your will is aligned with Satan, what may seem to be insignificant decisions might have macro ramifications depending where your will was aligned. For example, the micro decision to argue with your husband about his work schedule may be reasonable but was your will aligned with God in it? If not, how could it affect each of you? You might make the micro decision to go out with your friends and not study for your test but was that decision aligned with God or Satan? It is your will that makes these decisions and if your will is aligned with God, every decision you make will turn out for your good but if your will is aligned with Satan, then it is never for your good even if the decision seems to work out for you at the moment! Whatever decision you make that is aligned with the will of Satan is sin and the wages of sin is always death.

When King David made the decision to count all the fighting men in Israel, it seemed reasonable to him. We find in 1 Chronicles 21 that David had aligned his will with Satan not realizing perhaps that was the case. Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, "Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are." (1 Chronicles 21:1-2 NIV) David was not a puppet of Satan. He made the choice freely to call for the census but his will was aligned with that of Satan which explains his decision. Even the deceitful and murderous Joab, his general, could see that David was acting badly in this but David could not be dissuaded. But Joab replied, "May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord's subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?" The king's word, however, overruled Joab… (1 Chronicles 21:3-4 NIV) Of course, to David, this was a wise and proper decision to count the fighting men. It was reasonable to him to know just how many soldiers he could count on having if he went to war. He probably was not even aware that he had aligned his will with that of Satan’s and you would have had a very tough time making him see it. It was only later that he realized the ramifications of what he had done in siding with Satan. This command was also evil in the sight of God; so he punished Israel. Then David said to God, "I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing." (1 Chronicles 21:7-8 NIV)

A second example should be considered; that of the king before David, Saul, who went against the will of God and offered a sacrifice to the Lord anyway. The Lord through the prophet Samuel gave Saul clear instructions in his fight with the Amalekites. “This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy everything that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.'" (1 Samuel 15:2-3 NIV) Saul though was afraid of what his soldiers would think if he did this; they wanted the best of the cattle and sheep spared. Saul also, in a piece of convoluted logic, believed that if he sacrificed some of the cattle and sheep to God, the Lord would be proud of his piety. Saul was greatly mistaken. God’s response to Saul through the prophet Samuel was fierce. “Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king." (1 Samuel 15:23 NIV)

Perhaps Saul really believed that he was doing what was best when he decided to save the choice cattle and sheep from slaughter but in making this choice, he was aligning his will with the will of Satan. Logical choices can be Satanic choices and decisions aligned with the will of God do not always make sense. Just consider the decision of King Jehoshaphat to send his small band of soldiers up against the vast army of the Ammonites, Moabites and Edomites. Rather than sue for peace, he aligned himself with the will of God. The Lord told him through the prophet Jahziel, “You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you." (2 Chronicles 20:17 NIV) It was not logical for Jehoshaphat’s little army to go to battle with the invading foreign hosts but they did because Jehoshaphat and the rest of the people of Judah aligned themselves with the will of God and trusted Him with the outcome.

When Jesus Christ faced the terrors of the Cross, He made a solemn commitment to the Father while praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." (Luke 22:42 NIV) It was the Father’s will for Christ to die on the Cross so that He might destroy the Sin of the world. To follow that will of the Father, Jesus had to be beaten, His flesh torn by whips and then take the Cross as His way of death. Nothing could argue for such a choice except only this. He believed the will of the Father to be good. Satan argued otherwise. Satan’s will was that Jesus could take another way to bring the world to Him…an easier way, a more comfortable way. Satan seemed wise and sensible but in the end our Lord’s decision was clear and certain. The Father’s will was good and it would be the Father’s will that would be done. Jesus’ alignment to the very end was with the Father. Do you believe the will of Christ to be good? Have you made that decision, that regardless of how things seem, the will of Christ is good? Are you clear in this that the will of Satan is wicked regardless of how good it seems?

Suppose you had been put in a Nazi Concentration Camp and one of the guards was more brutal than all the others. He made you and others strip down just so he could stare at you, he beat prisoners out of cruelty, he insulted and ridiculed you and was rumored to have raped several women in the camp. He was particularly cruel to your sister who died while there. After the war, you come face to face with this guard. He has just become a Christian and stretches out his hand to greet you. You look long and hard into the eyes of this man. You must at this moment decide where your loyalty lies. Whose will shall you choose? Will it be that of Satan or of God? The scripture has come to your mind and you cannot just discard the memory of it. "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven… (Matthew 5: 43-45 NIV) The temptation of Satan is to renounce your absolute loyalty to the Father and walk away from this man without touching him. But the will of Christ is clear. How do you respond? Whose will shall rule over you as you fix your eyes upon the guard who wants to shake your hand?

How is your will aligned right now? Is it aligned with the easy and comfortable will of Satan who smiles warmly as you and I decide what to do? Is it aligned with the sometimes difficult and perhaps even painful will of Jesus who waits silently for you to decide? How will you align yourself as you choose the kingdom that has your supreme loyalty? How will your will be aligned this week? Align it one way and it brings light to the world. The other way only offers darkness. How will you align yourself today?