Let's take a time-out for some exercise. Do this exercise only if both hands are available.
Extend one hand so it's out straight. Now, poke your index finger full force into your open palm. Next, instead of poking with your finger, hit that hand full force with your fist. Which one had more power?
In Nehemiah 4 of the Bible, Nehemiah has rallied the Jews to begin rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, which has been down for many years. The gates have been burned, and all kinds of animals and enemies are getting in and out of there. Now that the wall is going up, people who are opposed to the repairs are threatening to attack. Nehemiah 4:12 says, "Wherever you turn, they will attack us."
Here is how Nehemiah fights back. "Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, 'Don't be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.'" It is interesting to see how Nehemiah organizes people to fight when there is a threat. It says here that he posted them by families. They had been working independently, but he got them all together in family groupings and then says, "I want you to fight, not for the city, I want you to fight for your family, for your brothers and sons and daughters" and so on. He is talking about the power of fighting as a unit when there is pressure.
This is like the power of independent fingers. Look at your five fingers right now, stretched apart from each other. Then look at the power of those fingers working as one unit in a fist. The devil knows the power of a church that is a fist, so what do you think he focuses his attack on? He wants to divide God's people.
Maybe you can see it in your church. Don't fall for it. Don't waste any ammunition on each other. Save it all for the real enemy. The devil knows the power of a family that is pulling together in a crisis, so he wants to use the crisis to get you to turn on each other. A crisis in a family, in a church, or in a ministry can either divide us into fingers working alone or unite us into a fist that has knockout power.
Whatever the situation, help people stay together and encourage them to confront their differences. Get people with differences in a room, kneeling together, praying together, and making a covenant with each other to aim all their ammunition at the real enemy—the devil, who is trying to divide us. He knows that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. Be the one who makes the people around you make a fist, and use that fist to knock out the enemy.