Have you heard the story of the battleship and the lighthouse? As the story goes, a battleship was coming into port on the eastern shores of the United States on a foggy night. As it got closer to docking, the Captain noticed a light from another ship that was heading straight for his own ship. Via “semaphore”, a kind of Morse Code, the Captain had the sailor in control spell out, “Adjust your ship ten degrees to the right in order to avoid a collision.” The other “ship” then sent out a similar message, “You adjust your ship ten degrees to the right or else we will collide with one another.” Then the Captain of the battleship, tired and somewhat irritated sent out another urgent message, “Listen, you! I am the Captain of a battleship and I order you to adjust your ship ten degrees to the right in order to avoid a collision!” This time the reply came, “I don’t care who you are, or what you are! Adjust your ship ten degrees to the right immediately so as to avoid a head on collision, I am a Lighthouse!”
In order for you and I to not run into the troubles that we often cause by our own selfishness and selfish desires, we need to allow the Holy Spirit to take full control of our lives so that He can direct our lives into the way in which He wants us to go. Joshua had to learn this before he led the children of Israel to enter into the Promised Land and defeat the city of Jericho, which was the first major conflict that stood in their way. In Joshua 5:13-14, as Joshua was out looking over the land and city they were about to conquer, he encountered a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. As Joshua approached him, he asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” This was an angel of the Lord and in reply he said, “Neither. I have now come as commander of the Lord’s army!” In other words, the angel told Joshua, “I am neither for you or for your enemies, instead, I have come to take over!”
This is exactly what you and I have got to do if we are going to experience any victories in our lives, we have got to let the Holy Spirit take complete control of our lives and direct us into what He wants us to do! We have to move out of the way so that He can move into the way. That means we have to give Him complete control of all that matters in our lives, complete control of whatever we want to do, wherever we want to live, whatever we want to study in school and in our college pursuits, so that He can lead us in the way of victory.
