Divine Collaboration encourages parties to assess their needs, interests, and intentions, while keeping God’s interests in mind.
Divine Collaboration encourages parties to align their personal wills with the Will of God.
Typically, at the outset, party intentions aim in a variety of directions. “Vectors of intention” are not uniformly aligned; rather, they’re random.
In fact, collisions of misaligned “vectors of intention” are a primary cause of conflict.
A good analogy is a carnival attraction — a bumper car ride.
The bumper cars glance off one another as they circle the track.
Occasionally, they spin and collide head-on.
They become stuck and go nowhere.
This is a good analogy for conflict impasse — those times when opposing intentions generate barriers.
The carnival ride attendant, like a mediator, alters the path of the cars to get them moving once again. The attendant aims the drivers in roughly the same direction.
In Divine Collaboration a mediator takes a similar action: he realigns clashing intentions with a common baseline intention: the Will of God.
Once party intentions align with the baseline Will of God — and thus aim in a common direction — conflict resolves.
However, a special type of intention deserves further reflection: A “intention vector” aiming directly opposite the Will of God can be called an evil intention. If we assume God intends good, that which directly opposes that good can be considered evil.
For example, if God intends for us to love one another, but a party’s intention is to create division and hate among men, we can consider his intention to be an evil intention.
The Paradox
Divine Collaboration thus gives rise to paradox. When a person realigns their personal will with the Will of God they naturally transition into direct opposition to evil or evil intentions.
It is axiomatic that the more we align with the Will of God, the more we’re opposed to evil. A clash is inevitable.
Thus a mediation approach designed to lessen interpersonal conflict and increase peace — Divine Collaboration — may lead to more intense conflict we call spiritual warfare.
This automatic transition from reconciling personal relationships to battling evil forces comes as a surprise to most people.
There is good news. Realignment with the Will of God delivers an infusion of grace. New peacemaking tools emerge. Skills needed to more easily overcome challenges arrive as spiritual gifts.
Peacemakers transition into the role of spiritual warriors. As they bend evil intentions (intentions opposed to God’s Will) into alignment with the Will of God, the results are miraculous conversions.
These spiritual battles may be prolonged. Initially, a disputant may have expected mediation would lead to an idyllic life. While mediation will deliver increased serenity, the party will often discover a more expansive battlefield. They will be drawn to engage in spiritual warfare that ultimately brings the Peace of Christ to this world.
