A Leader Uses The Principle Of Concentration Of Forces

Remember that concentration is the key to great achievements. Do you consider yourself a leader? Then you must learn the art of concentration. Concentrate on your vision. Concentrate on your church. Concentrate on your work and you will have great results.

…THIS ONE THING I DO, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, Philippians 3:13

Many people do not concentrate on what they are doing. When I was in school, I joined one group and stuck to it. Many Christians belong to many things and therefore do not make an impact anywhere. Every war is won by concentrating on one thing at a time until it is conquered. A leader knows he is in a battle to achieve success.

The British army teaches how 'concentration of forces involves the decisive, synchronized application of superior fighting power to realize intended effects'. The Russian Armed Forces simply describes this as the decisive concentration of the essential force at the needed moment and in the most important direction to achieve the main mission.

The principle of concentration in war can be applied in many spheres of life. Concentrating your love on one person can give you a life-long relationship of happiness.

Concentrating your forces on your marital problems and applying all efforts can make your marriage work out and help you avoid a divorce. Concentrating on church growth can make your church grow into a mega church.

Most pastors do not concentrate on conquering the mystery of church growth.

Concentrating on ministry as a job can lead to it becoming something great and important for you.

Concentrating on the ministry as a career can bring you into full time ministry.

At the end of 1991, the Holy Spirit spoke to me to give myself wholly to the ministry. This was simply an instruction to concentrate. It was God's command to me to wage war with the principle of concentration.

D-Day and The concentration of forces
To overcome a strong enemy, you will have to concentrate your forces on a single target until it is well and truly overcome. This is exactly what the British and Americans did to remove the German tyrant, Adolf Hitler. They concentrated all their forces on one purpose: to enter the main land of Europe and get to Germany with enough military force to remove Hitler from his place of power. Hitler was no ordinary enemy. He had an iron grip on the European nations because he had spent many years building up the German army. The only way to remove the strong man from Europe was to concentrate all forces on that objective. This is what led to what is known as 'D-day'. D-day was the day that all the enemies of Germany concentrated their efforts at crossing the sea and placing a huge army in France that could march into Germany.

Remember that it is not easy to swim across the sea. Neither is it a small feat to have a boat that can take a hundred people across the sea. So imagine the number of boats and ships that are needed to carry thousands and thousands of soldiers across the sea. These soldiers needed to go across the sea with all their equipment, their food and their clothes. They also needed to go across the sea with cars, jeeps, buses, armoured tanks, heavy guns, fuel tankers and many other things.

D-day was the day all the forces were concentrated to make an actual landing in Normandy, France. First of all, 24,000 British, American, Canadian and French troops were parachuted into the area at midnight. Early in the morning, 5,000 heavily loaded ship sailed in bringing troops and armoured divisions to France. Over 160,000 soldiers landed on 6 June 1944 comprising 73,000 Americans, 61,715 British and 21,400 Canadians. The principle of concentration was fully deployed as this invasion involved the use of air power and naval support for the transportation of soldiers and material from the United Kingdom.

This invasion of Europe marked the beginning of the end of Adolf Hitler's reign in Germany. As the British army was following the principle of concentration, Adolf Hitler was doing the opposite by dividing his forces into two major fronts. Half of his army was busy invading Russia whilst the other half had to face the concentrated forces of the British, Americans and Canadians. When you face an intractable enemy, don't give up hope. When you face a wicked enemy, concentrate your forces and overcome him! There is a price to pay for victory and perhaps the price you have to pay is to concentrate on one thing. May we continue to pray for our leaders to have the ability concentrate their forces on the issues that need to be dealt with!

By Dag Heward-Mills
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