How God Uses “Ordinary People” to Change the World Sample

One Critical Node

As I worked with highly valued volunteers in ministry, I knew we needed to narrow the goal in order to widen the impact. If complexity can kill a movement, then simplicity can spark a movement.

How does Satan seek to destroy God’s work? He employs classic military strategy: first, identify the center of gravity; next, cut off or disrupt communication with the center of gravity; and finally, invade. We need to fight back with this in mind.

Over the years I’ve had the unique opportunity to talk with some of the world’s experts on leading high-performing small teams and engaging overwhelming odds resulting in victory. I’ve recently had a chance to interact with some of the best—U.S. Navy Seals.

They convinced me that we were applying a strategy that not only worked but was a threat to our ancient enemy. One of them sent me this email:

Seal teams are small in size but large on disruption...that is to say, we never engage a target blindly without information and intelligence. We never engage armored vehicles/positions without the proper firepower, whether with us or on call. And we never take out a whole system—meaning we attack “critical nodes” such as a single point of failure in a system which causes a cascade effect for shutting down the objective and surrounding infrastructure. Find the “critical nodes” and you will succeed. —Navy Seal Command Master Chief

The principal verified the strategy of targeting and taking out a critical node, which will cause the whole system to fail. This was the opposite of a complex, multilayered, and coordinated attack. 

I believe the Word of God is a critical node. What is a primary way each one of us can connect with God at any time to know who He is and how we are to live? The Bible.

What did Jesus quote to defeat Satan when He was tempted? The Bible.

It wasn’t a devotional. In fact, if He wanted to just come up with His own new quotes, He could have done that, and it would have been the same as quoting the Bible. He was the Word of God in the flesh. Every word He uttered was divine! But He didn’t do that. He modeled for us the power of the divine words of God captured in the written form of the Scriptures.

The Bible contains the words of God that change lives, families, communities, cultures, and countries. If it has that much impact, it is indeed a critical node, one that affects everything in our lives. It will be targeted by our enemy as a single point of failure in order to bring down a life, a marriage, a community, a culture, and a country. Strengthen the critical node of daily bible engagement; it has an incredible impact. Start today!