Following the Commander's Intent

The military has principle known as Commander’s Intent.

The gist of the principle is…

Since real life battles contain so many unknowns and involve rapidly changing scenarios, soldiers on the ground need to make decisions based on the intent of their mission as laid out by their commander.

The value of this principle is that it guides soldiers to know what to do when circumstances force a change in plans… as almost always happens.

Jocko Willink illustrates how this works in his book Extreme Ownership.

He describes a situation where the commander’s intent was for a platoon to control who was able to travel down a particular road.

The plan was for the platoon to set up their guns on the rooftop of a designated building.

But when the platoon arrived there they discovered the rooftop had no cover, so the troops would have been vulnerable to attack.

The platoon solved this by setting up in the building’s top floor where they had cover.

And this allowed them to control the roadway and fulfill the commander’s intent.

As I was reading this it occurred to me how this principle applies to soldiers of Christ.

As we face the battles of the day, we never know what we are going to encounter.

But we can know our Commander’s intent is for us to…

Glorify Him and advance His kingdom through faithful obedience in every situation.

This may involve…

… Showing mercy.

… Speaking truth.

… Or taking some loving, sacrificial action.

It all depends on what faithfulness in the situation requires.

May the Word and Spirit guide you today as you seek to follow our Commander’s intent–as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

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